Everyone built their own fires and sat chatting.
After eating their fill, people’s eyes brightened, and they had the energy to talk.
The children ran around the camp, and although the adults repeatedly told them not to run around and to conserve their energy, children’s nature was hard to suppress.
The meat eaten tonight was very salty. Those who hadn't eaten salt for a long time felt as if they had been injected with a shot of adrenaline. Everyone inexplicably felt much better, with more strength in their legs.
Seeing the children’s joyful appearance, the adults couldn’t help but sigh and say:
“Children are the most honest. They’re comfortable when they’re comfortable, and uncomfortable when they’re not. Before, they were all weak like overcooked noodles from hunger, but now, they’ve perked up after eating meat.”
The village chief assigned several young and strong men to take turns on guard duty, telling them to keep an eye on the campfires so they wouldn’t go out. Otherwise, if a leopard or wolf were to sneak in during the night, it would be a disaster.
Gu Qingcheng volunteered to take the night watch. Village Chief Gu said:
“You don’t need to. Get a good night’s sleep and build up your energy. If you can hunt more game tomorrow, it’ll be a greater contribution than staying up all night.”
It seemed that Village Chief Gu had high hopes for Qingcheng.
Gu Qingcheng obediently went back to sleep. By the fire, she sneakily took out a moisture-proof mat.
The new cotton quilt was too conspicuous, so Gu Qingcheng came up with a plan: she swapped the quilt cover. She put the new cotton into the old quilt cover, solving the problem of the quilt.
She also found two thermal blankets from the sports equipment stall and had her parents wrap themselves in them.
Before going to sleep, Gu Qingcheng checked the temperature. It was only 8 degrees Celsius. She told her parents this, and they didn’t dare to be careless. They wrapped themselves tightly in the thermal blankets and, holding hot water bottles, squeezed into the same quilt to sleep.
Hu Lanfang, afraid her daughter would catch a chill, pulled Gu Qingcheng into her embrace and then tucked her feet between her own legs.
Instantly, a warm current flowed from her legs. In a short while, Gu Qingcheng felt as if she would sweat even with the hot water bottle. It was so comfortable that she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Waking up the next morning, Gu Qingcheng found that her parents had already gotten up, and she was the only one still snuggled in the quilt.
Unfortunately, her hair was damp with the morning dew, which was a drawback of camping outdoors. She couldn’t put on a plastic hair cap to tie her hair up, so she had to get up and wipe her hair with a cloth, waiting for the natural mountain breeze to dry it.
She put the mat back into the storage cabinet, took off the thermal blanket, and rolled up the quilt, ready to carry it on her back when they set off.
Gu Chaobei and Hu Lanfang each had a backpack containing some spare clothes.
If their family carried nothing but continued to eat heartily, it would arouse suspicion.
The backpacks served as excellent cover. Since the backpacks were tightly packed, no one knew what they were hiding, so they had to carry them to maintain appearances.
Getting up early, Gu Qingcheng noticed the weather was even colder than yesterday. Her breath visibly condensed in the air. Checking the temperature, it was four degrees Celsius, no wonder it was so chilly.
The communal meal prepared by the advance team was the morning meal, so Gu Chaobei went to eat with the group. Hu Lanfang and her daughter, however, discreetly took out two boxes of rice balls sold in the supermarket.
The rice balls had many fillings: seaweed rolls, roe, fish, beef cubes… Each tray contained 6 different flavors.
After eating their fill, Gu Qingcheng produced a cup of hot coffee for her mother. With their hunger and thirst satisfied, the two were in high spirits, ready to set off.
“Last night’s meat broth was amazing! I feel like my legs have more strength today!”
A villager said while packing their belongings.
“It must be because they added a lot of salt to the broth. The village chief was quite generous this time!”
“Exactly. If I hadn’t had salt yesterday, I wouldn’t have eaten any for nearly seven or eight days.”
The villagers all praised Village Chief Gu.
Gu Qingcheng chuckled inwardly.
Since everyone attributed the merit to the village chief, she had no objections. It was for the best.
As she was feeling happy, the system rewarded her with three more satisfaction points, sourced from the joy of selfless dedication!
Well now! The system was quite good at summarizing!
Gu Qingcheng thought that if the system had a past life, it must have been a little secretary to a boss, always fluttering around the boss, counting their good deeds, praising them with all their might, and mastering many noble and righteous terms.
No wonder the system’s summaries were always so accurate, making her feel tickled and very comfortable!
Gu Qingcheng picked up her spear and slung her bow and arrows over her back. She followed her mother along the path cleared by the advance team, continuing their journey.
Along the way, Hu Lanfang, without realizing it, started gossiping with a group of village women of similar age. They were chatting animatedly.
Hu Lanfang’s stated reason was to understand the social conditions and public opinion of Peach Blossom Village.
Hu Lanfang’s original self was socially anxious, timid, and introverted, rarely interacting with the villagers.
But Hu Lanfang was different. As a formidable neighborhood committee member, her silver tongue could make bad people weep and turn themselves in to the authorities. Not to mention dealing with these village women whose horizons and knowledge were far narrower than hers.
Hu Lanfang quickly bonded with the village women and was subtly showing signs of becoming a leader among them.
Seeing her mother striding forward while gossiping with the women, Gu Qingcheng felt that her mother was quite suited to be the head of the Women’s Federation.
Her mother had her own great mission: understanding village conditions, surveying public opinion, and gathering household information…
Gu Qingcheng, on the other hand, focused on looking for potential prey along the roadside.
Whenever she noticed any unusual rustling in the grass by the roadside, Gu Qingcheng would pay attention.
To her surprise, her luck was quite good. In one morning, she caught a porcupine and two pangolins.
The pangolins, likely a pair, were nestled by a small earthen slope. They were first discovered by Gu Chaobei. When the pangolins realized the situation was unfavorable, they quickly burrowed into their hole and disappeared.
Gu Chaobei, along with Gu Qingcheng, dug vigorously downwards, eventually unearthing them.
As before, Gu Qingcheng immediately declared that all these wild game would be handed over to the community.
Before Grandma Gu could even extend her hand to snatch them, Village Chief Gu and his men had already taken away the wild game.
While everyone was still reveling in the joy of catching wild game, some people in the village discovered wild boar droppings in the forest. Following the tracks, they found a group of wild boars.
Gu Qingcheng and Gu Chaobei hurried over to confirm. Indeed, there was a group of wild boars: a male and a female large boar, accompanied by eight piglets.
If they could capture this entire litter, the villagers would have cause to celebrate again today.
Village Chief Gu, upon hearing the news, was very excited. He organized the strong laborers, armed with their own weapons, to surround the wild boar family.
With many hands making light work, and with the assistance of Gu Qingcheng’s divine archery, and Gu Chaobei’s valiant efforts to drive them forward, the wild boar family, outnumbered, eventually fell into the hands of the villagers.
Everyone was overjoyed and praised Village Chief Gu, saying that changing the route had brought even better luck, as they had never hunted game by the riverbank before.
This was not difficult to understand. Wild animals generally would not expose themselves on the bare, flat riverbanks. The forests along the road were dense and gloomy, and the villagers, alone, dared not venture in. Thus, a situation formed where humans and beasts did not interfere with each other. Of course, this also meant the villagers missed many opportunities to eat meat.