Chapter 251 A little troublesome
After finding a place to take a short rest at noon, they continued traveling for the whole afternoon. When it was getting dark, Yue Feng and his friends found a small hotel to stay overnight.

In this era, a letter of introduction was required to check into a hotel. Yue Feng had already found out and prepared all these details before leaving. He and his friends booked a large bunk bed, with the four of them sleeping in one room with the dog and the eagle. Although the smell was a bit strong, they were outnumbered and had guns, so they went through the night without any problems.

The next morning, everyone checked out of the hotel at daybreak and continued on their journey. It was not until around four in the afternoon that they arrived at Jianshe Township in Lincheng.

After nearly two days of long journey, the brothers were all exhausted. When they were hungry, they could only eat frozen hard buns. When they were thirsty, they grabbed a handful of snow. They could only drink hot water when they stayed in the hotel to rest at night.

Although the conditions were difficult, none of the four brothers complained.

After arriving at the township seat, they were not far from Yue Feng’s grandmother’s home, Daliushutun, so the brothers simply made a concerted effort and drove the carriage forward.

Around 5:30 in the evening, a dusty carriage carrying four young men entered Daliushu Village.

These days, the mobility of people is very poor, so if a stranger comes to the village, the villagers will soon notice it.

As soon as I entered the village, I was stopped by a middle-aged man in his forties.

“Whose children are you? Why are you coming to our village so late at night?”

“What’s your name, uncle? I’m Meng Fanqiu’s nephew, and my mother’s name is Meng Yulan! I miss my grandma, so I’m going back to her house to visit her!” Yue Feng smiled as he saw the person without waiting for anything to say, and introduced himself while taking out a cigarette from his pocket.

“Children of Xiaolan’s family? You are the eldest?”

“No, I’m the second oldest. My elder brother works as a worker in a coal mine!”

“According to the seniority system in the village, you have to call me uncle! My name is Meng Fancheng, and Fanqiu and I are family members within the fifth degree of mourning!”

“Uncle!” Yue Feng called for help immediately.

“Xiaolan married far away and hasn’t come back much in these years. Do you still remember the way to your grandma’s house?”

“I don’t remember it very clearly. The last time I came back was five or six years ago!”

“Okay, follow me!”

Soon, the man who claimed to be Yue Feng’s uncle led Yue Feng and the others into the village. After turning a few corners, the carriage was led to three adobe houses.

The house of my grandma’s family is a little worse than the one where Yue Feng lives. The eaves are made of straw and the house is also made of mud, but the yard is quite large.

“Fan Qiu, your nephew has brought people to surrender to you!”

Meng Fancheng shouted at the gate of the courtyard, and soon a man who looked to be fifty years younger than him came out of the house.

“Uncle!” Yue Feng recognized his uncle at a glance and greeted him immediately.

“Xiao Feng? Why are you here? Come in! Fan Cheng, don’t leave, let’s have dinner at home tonight!”

“No, I met my nephews at the entrance of the village. I’ll show them the door and then I’ll go back!” Meng Fancheng waved his hand, turned around and left.

Soon, the four brothers Yue Feng were allowed into the house by their uncle.

The yard was quite spacious, and it was not difficult for the carriage to enter the yard. Yue Feng temporarily tied the dogs to the carriage. The dogs were not afraid of being in a strange place. Yue Feng asked them to stay quiet, and the dogs lay down beside the carriage to rest.

After entering the house, Yue Feng soon saw his grandparents and aunt.

The eldest uncle is two years older than Yue Feng’s mother. He is 49 years old this year. There are two children in the family, both girls. The eldest married in a neighboring village, and the second cousin married a little further away, about twenty miles away from Daliushutun by mountain road.

Now, Yue Feng’s grandparents, uncle and aunt live in the old house. Although their life is hard, it is relatively stable.

After all, they are blood relatives, and even though they seldom visit each other on weekdays, Meng Fanqiu is still very enthusiastic when he sees his nephew coming. He immediately arranges for his aunt to kill a chicken and cook to entertain his nephew and his group.

Not to mention Yue Feng’s grandparents, when they saw their grandson, they held Yue Feng’s hand and asked him all kinds of questions, trying to understand the various situations in Yue Feng’s family.

Since Yue Feng entered the door, he has been secretly observing his uncle’s house. There is almost no change from what he remembered last time, except that his uncle’s face has many more wrinkles and he looks a little older.

The furnishings in the house were old and dilapidated, much worse than what Yue Feng’s own home looked like when he was just reborn.

“Grandma, Grandpa, I brought a lot of things for home this time, and they are all loaded in the truck bed! Let’s unload the truck first!” Yue Feng said this after spending enough time with his relatives.

“Life is difficult at home, why are you bringing things here, kid?” Although the uncle grumbled, he still followed Yue Feng to the yard.

Yue Feng lifted the linen covering it, and the supplies underneath were immediately revealed.

A whole leg of wild boar from a two-year-old sow, a leg of a red deer, two 30-jin bags of corn grits, a -jin bag of flour, a -jin barrel of soybean oil, a bag of blue printed cotton cloth that Yue Feng had specially bought in the city, as well as snacks, candies, canned malted milk, filled up a wicker basket.

Originally, Meng Fanqiu thought that his nephew would come and at most bring some mountain products like mushrooms and black fungus that he had dried at home. However, when he saw this half truck of supplies, his eyes widened.

“Second nephew, did you come here to rob the county? Why did you bring so many valuable things?”

Yue Feng grinned and said, “Hehe! Don’t worry, uncle, I paid for all this!
In the fall, I took my hunting team into the mountains to release hawks and hunt wild game, and sold them to the coal mine canteen in the city. We made a lot of money, bought a dog, and a gun, and our family’s life became better!”

While speaking, Yue Feng opened the canvas holster on the other end, revealing a brand new 56 semi-automatic rifle that was polished to a bright shine.

“This is Dashizier?”

Although Meng Fanqiu himself does not hunt, he knows about guns. Guns are rare items. There are at least a dozen hunters in the entire Daliushu Village who use flat-handled rifles and homemade guns. Only the village office’s gun cabinet has this thing.

“Well, we brought three guns this time. This one is ours, this one is from the forest farm, and the last one, a No. 16 gun with a hanging tube, was borrowed from Uncle Zhao in the village when he knew we were going on a long trip!

There are a lot of animals in the mountains here, right? You can take us up the mountain later, and we can hunt more wild boars and roe deer, so that we can eat them until spring!” Yue Feng calmly introduced the three guns he brought with him, but in Meng Fanqiu’s eyes, he was already a little bit overwhelmed.

The last time I saw my nephew, he was taciturn and looked like a dull person. But after only a few years, he seems like a completely different person this time.

After a five-second pause, the uncle finally accepted the reality that his nephew had made it. He swallowed his saliva and asked, “With so many guns, it shouldn’t be difficult to go hunting in the mountains! Is this dog also raised by our family?”

“Well! These four dogs are all capable adult dogs. This one is called Da Huang, and this one is Hei Lang. These two are the head dogs, and they are very capable! The other two are helper dogs. To kill a pig weighing more than 200 kilograms, these four dogs are enough!

We have four half-grown pups at home. We’ll probably be able to take them up the mountain in the spring. The largest one weighs over 70 kilograms now!”

“Eight dogs at home? How big a hunting team would that be?”

“The hunting team isn’t that big, there are only four of us brothers!

These are the children of my uncle Li, our neighbor in front of us. They are Li Mingtao and Xiaotao. These are the children of Zhang’s family in our village. The eldest is Zhang Xiaowen and the second is Zhang Xiaowu! They are all good brothers who went up the mountain together, made money together, and shouldered everything together!

This time we came here, firstly to visit our relatives in our hometown, and secondly, to catch a live sable in Xiatuozi Mountain and Jindingzi. We will need you to lead the way for the details later!”

“You guys want to go into the mountains to hunt big skins?”

Hearing this, the uncle also understood what was going on. His nephew brought people here to visit relatives in his hometown and to hunt on the other hand.

“We’re not looking for big skins, but catching live female minks is useful! In the two places I mentioned, there should have been a lot of sables in the past few years, right? What’s the situation now?” Yue Feng continued to ask.

“Few people go to Xiatuozi Mountain, but there should be quite a few sables. You shouldn’t go to Jindingzi Mountain. There is a cellar dug by the hunters from the neighboring village. Every winter after the snow falls, mountain dogs hide there and try to catch big skins. It’s unlikely that you will get anything if you go there!
I don’t go hunting in the mountains, so I don’t know much about the specific situation. Wait until your second uncle comes and ask him to tell you that every winter, he follows our hunting team into the mountains to do chores and drive sticks. He knows the situation in the mountains better than I do!”

“Okay! Move everything into the house first. I’ve divided everything before you come. The food you brought with you doesn’t count. Divide the things you bought from the city into three portions, one for my grandparents, and one for you and my second uncle’s family!”

“Okay! Not to mention bringing things to visit your grandparents and uncle, even if you come empty-handed, your uncle will provide meals!” Meng Fanqiu was very satisfied with his nephew’s experienced performance, and touched Yue Feng’s head with a smile.

Soon, everything on the car was unloaded.

Yue Feng unharnessed the carriage, then led the chestnut horse to the corner of the warehouse and tied it up.

There is no stable at home, and it is a bit windy here, so we can only place it here temporarily.

While we were busy unloading the car and preparing dinner, my second uncle and his wife, who had heard the news, came over carrying large and small bags.

The second uncle is younger than Yue Feng’s mother Meng Yulan. When he heard that his second nephew was driving over, the second uncle Meng Fanxue also returned to his hometown.

In comparison, my second uncle’s family lived a slightly better life. When he returned to my old house, he was carrying an old hen and a small flour bag filled with about ten pounds of flour. My aunt was carrying a piece of roe deer spine and a bag of dried vegetables.

Farmers who make a living on farming usually don’t live without meat like Yue Feng’s family does now. Yue Feng knows without even looking at the old hen that the family raises for laying eggs.

The money and food are taken from the chicken. In daily life, needles, thread, kerosene, salt, soy sauce and other necessities are exchanged for eggs. If the chicken is slaughtered, the family’s life will be greatly affected.

However, what made Yue Feng very relieved was that the relatives on his mother’s side were not the kind of people who calculated power. His eldest nephew came from more than a hundred kilometers away and arranged whatever conditions the family had. His second uncle and aunt brought all the reserves for the family’s living.

“Second uncle, aunt!!” Yue Feng immediately went up to them after seeing them.

“Xiaofeng, I haven’t seen you for a few years. You’ve grown so tall! Your second uncle went up the mountain to hunt with others and got some roe deer spines. We’ll stew the meat for you tonight!” Auntie grabbed Yue Feng’s hand and looked him up and down.

“Okay, let’s try my aunt’s cooking!

This time we may be staying for a long time, and the food and necessities for people and horses will be high, so I brought some food with me when I came, and I also brought some other things. I just told my eldest uncle about it, and my second uncle, as well as my grandparents, should all have a share!

Your nephew has grown up and is making money! Our family’s life will gradually get better!”

Hearing Yue Feng say this, the second aunt nodded, but she was not in a hurry to see what her nephew brought.

However, after getting close to each other and entering the house, I saw a pile of things placed on the ground in the outer room. My second aunt’s reaction was similar to that of my eldest uncle’s family, and I was still quite surprised.

The nephew brought half a wild boar, so there were naturally more options for cooking that night. At Yue Feng’s request, the family did not kill the laying hens, but only made dinner with roe deer spine, wild boar meat, and venison.

It was almost dark when we got home. We kept busy by the light of the oil lamp until after seven o’clock, when the family finally had a lively dinner.

In the eyes of my family, this meal is probably not even of such high standard as the Chinese New Year meal. White flour buns, braised spareribs, roe deer spine stewed with dried vegetables, scrambled eggs, plus sauerkraut stewed with meat, all of which are hard dishes.

The nephew has made great progress, and the people in his hometown are also happy. When the family was eating around the big table, the second uncle heard that Yue Feng was taking people with guns, dogs, and a big black eagle to go into the mountains to hunt, and he immediately became excited.

“Let me tell you, Xiaofeng. In the past few years, I have followed the hunters in the village and traveled almost all over the surrounding mountains. Now I have guns and dogs. I know at least a few places where there are pigs! I will take you to hunt later!
My second nephew actually got ten of them, and he still has two. With this kind of firepower, even if he encounters a group of pigs on the mountain, he can kill them all!”

“Hehe! Okay, Second Uncle will take us there! Let’s hunt down more wild animals and bring them back so we can have a good New Year!
By the way, Uncle, do you know the terrain of Blind Tuozi Mountain and Jindingzi? I plan to go there to catch a living sable in a couple of days!”

Yue Feng brought the topic back to the main purpose of this visit.

“A living sable? What are you going to use to catch it? The gun you carry can’t be used to shoot a sable!” The second uncle asked after hearing Yue Feng’s words.

“Use hawks! I caught two hawks on the hill behind our house a few days ago. I killed and skinned the male mink, and the female mink had cubs in her belly. I plan to catch more and keep the cubs for breeding after the spring!”

“Oh, yes! I forgot about the falconry skills passed down from your grandfather! If you go up the mountain to hunt roe deer, wild boars, etc., no one will care. But if you want to catch sables, it will be a bit troublesome!”

“A little trouble? What trouble?” Yue Feng was slightly stunned when he heard his second uncle’s words.

4000 words second update, there will be another chapter in the afternoon

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(End of this chapter)