After Dressing Up As a Stepmother, I Transformed the Whole Family Into Working In the Fields

Chapter 17 Deep in the Mountains

Qin Yao got up before dawn.

 She boiled a full pot of water and packed it in a bamboo tube, and boiled ten taros as big as a child's fist. She put the two in a bag woven with straw rope, and began to prepare her luggage.

Pour out more than half of the salt from the jar and put it in a small bamboo tube, and put the flint in your pocket to carry it with you.

A ten-meter-long bundle of straw rope was rolled up and tied to his side. The bow and arrow were slung on his back. The handle of the short knife was re-wrapped with a rag. He held the knife in one hand and water and food in the other to put out the fire in the stove. .

Everything is ready, and with the white fish belly exposed on the horizon, we walk towards the mountain ranges to the north.

As soon as she left, the door to the side room opened slightly.

Dalang and Erlang held hands with their younger brothers and sisters, watching the gray figure getting further and further away in the thick morning fog. They wanted to chase after it, but they forced themselves to endure it.

The stepmother told them last night that she was going to the mountains to hunt for three to five days at least, and for seven or eight days at most. She told them to take good care of themselves at home, and they would have meat to eat when she came back.

 Sanlang and Siniang were still young. When they heard that there was meat to eat, they only thought about being happy and didn't think about anything else.

But Dalang already knows something. Hunting is not something ordinary people can do. The mountains are deep and full of ferocious beasts. Every winter, people in the village dare not let their children go out because the hungry beasts will come down the mountain to eat people. .

　　It is really cannibalism. Last winter, a family in the village lived in a relatively remote place, and their daughter was snatched away by a wolf. When she was found, there were only a few broken bones.

During the short period of getting along with her in the past few days, Dalang only vaguely knew that the stepmother was stronger than ordinary people, acted vigorously and vigorously, and was very powerful.

 But he didn't know whether the stepmother could handle it when encountering a ferocious beast.

 Actually, Dalang had a darker thought than this.

He always felt that the stepmother wanted to find a reason to leave the four burdens behind and leave alone.

 But looking at the expectant looks in Erlang, Sanlang and Si Niang’s eyes, they couldn’t bear to express this conjecture.

 Perhaps he was overthinking it.

With Qin Yao's instructions, Liu Bai and Liu Zhong dragged the reluctant Liu Fei to the third family's house at dawn, took the remaining wheat seeds, and went to the fields with hoes on their shoulders.

At the same time, Qin Yao has entered the outskirts of Beishan.

She first found a sunny place, sat down to drink water and eat something, rested for a while, and then headed deep into the forest with all her strength.

 Hunting is a job of chance. If you are lucky, you will come back with a full harvest.

 You're not lucky, it's not unusual to come back empty-handed.

 However, for professional hunters, finding traces of wild animals is a basic skill.

Very few people come into this deep mountain. Occasionally, some people want to hunt some meat for tooth sacrifice, but they are only in the outer circle. There is no road in the deeper places, so Qin Yao forced himself to find one inside.

 She does not hide her movements, has a clear goal, and is looking for a stronghold.

 Qin Yao felt like a fish in water after entering the mountains. The environment was similar to the mutated jungle of the apocalypse, allowing her to quickly enter the state of a hunter.

Birds and small animals in the mountain forest would run past Qin Yao from time to time. Qin Yao put the knife on his waist and took off the bow and arrow.

Once again, when a frightened bird flew over the head, the arrow was nocked on the string, and the arrow shot toward the sky with a "whoosh"!

 There was only a scream of a bird, and then a gray shadow struggled to fall from between the trees.

Qin Yao pushed aside the tall weeds in front of her and hurried towards the direction of the fall. A gray bird with an arrow in its wing was struggling and wailing in the fallen leaves.

“You still have to practice for accuracy.” Qin Yao regretfully pulled out the arrow, picked up the fat gray bird that couldn’t fly, tied its wings with a rope, pinned it to her waist and continued moving forward.

 She walked along the way, using the animals and birds she encountered to find familiar touch. By the time it was evening, her body was already covered with various half-dead small animals. There were pheasants, wild birds, squirrels, and a nest of rabbits.

This nest of rabbits was an accident. She was originally chasing the squirrels running on the tree. Unexpectedly, a rabbit head suddenly appeared on the small mound in front of her. Qin Yao took a look and saw that the prey that came to her door could not be let go. reason?

With lightning speed, he found several rabbit holes nearby, sealed them with stones, leaving only one exit, burned a handful of wet fallen leaves, and smoked them. All seven rabbits in a litter ran out and were captured alive.

This litter of rabbits is quite big, and they can be seen as a family. The two eldest ones are almost as old as a two-year-old child.

 The five little ones are also white and fat, with shiny gray fur.

Qin Yao doesn't like to eat rabbit meat, but she loves rabbit skin. She makes it into clothes, gloves and scarf, which makes it warm in winter.

With this nest of rabbits, Qin Yao could only find a nearby mountain col with leeward wind to stop.

The taro he brought had been eaten, and only one-third of the water was left. There was a trickle of water seeping out of the stone wall of the mountain col. Qin Yao dug a small hole with a stick that could be seen everywhere in the woods. After waiting for a while, the water flow accumulated. It became a small puddle.

It was already dark, so she built a fire, killed the struggling bird, and roasted it for dinner.

Today's physical exertion was very great, and one bird was not enough to replenish the energy. Qin Yao also roasted the pheasant.

 The roasted meat was covered with a layer of fat, and when you took a bite, the aroma was overflowing. Qin Yao, who had not eaten meat for a long time, was so voracious that she devoured a bird and a pheasant in a short time.

 After eating enough, she added a few firewood to the fire, and then Qin Yao took a rest. She wanted to conserve her strength.

There is a big temperature difference between day and night in the mountains, so Qin Yao can only cover her body with dead leaves, so as to keep warm and hide herself from being discovered by large beasts looking for food in the middle of the night.

 Fighting at night is a disadvantage for humans who cannot see at night. If you can avoid it, try to avoid it.

It is not quiet in the mountains. The sounds of wild beasts come from time to time, as if they are nearby or in the distance. Qin Yao's body is very alert by instinct, and she will wake up from time to time.

 In the middle of the night, it started to rain in the sky.

The fire was put out, and a gust of cold wind blew over. Qin Yao was so cold that she suddenly woke up.

　　Seven live rabbits were tied together by their feet. When it rained, they became all kinds of anxious.

Afraid that they would attract large beasts looking for food, Qin Yao had no choice but to kill them all. Break the neck directly and preserve the good fur as much as possible.

Qin Yao no longer cares about whether the meat tastes good or not.

 Take care of the rabbit, the rain is getting heavier, and the mountain col can no longer block the rain.

Since wild beasts don’t like to come out on rainy days, Qin Yao left in the rain and continued to look for the cave.

Finally, when the sky was bright, we found a natural cave hidden in the weeds.

She was already soaked through. Qin Yao was tired and sleepy, but she didn't dare to rest. She put the dead rabbits and sundries in the cave. She immediately went out to find the broken branches that were not so wet hidden under the fallen leaves, and returned to the cave to light a fire.

With the fire, the temperature in the body that had disappeared sharply finally slowly warmed up. Only then did Qin Yao have the time to observe the cave where she was now.

This is a naturally formed cave. The entrance to the cave is low and narrow. You need to bend down to enter. It is very concealed. If you didn't feel the wrong direction of the wind when you walked through, you almost missed it.

The space in the cave is not big, about five or six square meters, but the height is good, and you can barely stand.

And there is no animal excrement here, indicating that this is not the home of some kind of animal.

 Apart from the small space, this is an excellent base. Qin Yao decided to live here for the next few days.

After drying her clothes and hair, Qin Yao covered the tracks at the entrance of the cave and took the time to catch up on her sleep in the cave.

 (End of this chapter)