Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
After she was done, she ate one.
She then started to busy herself with other things, especially the various dried fruits in the mountains. The fruits were nearly half-ripe, so she had to pick them up and store them in the warehouse quickly.
The next day, Gu Chengrui didnât go straight to his clinic. Instead, he brought two pounds of chestnut cake, two pounds of dried wolf meat, and two pounds of dried beef. The couple then went to the manor together.
Zhou Huaiming, who was drinking a gruel made of white sweet potato vines with a disdainful look, saw them coming as his eyes lit up. He approached them and said, âBrother Gu, youâre here. Have you eaten? If you havenât, do you want to eat together?â
âTve eaten. Iâm just here to visit. Please hurry and eat your breakfast.â Gu Chengrui replied. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
However, Zhou Huaiming didnât go back Instead, he stared at the paper bag in his hand.
Gu Chengrui smiled and handed it to him. âThis gift for you and Uncle Liu is for the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Itâs a little shabby, so please donât mind it.â
âHow could that be? Itâs good enough to have meat to eat this year.â Zhou Huaiming smiled as he took it and placed it on the table.
After that, he found the beef jerky and took a bite.
âItâs easy if you want meat. There are plenty of cattle and sheep in this village. If you want to eat them, you can pick one for slaughter any time.â Gu Chengrui replied.
âReally? Iâll have to pick up some cows during the festival later. As for the price, Iâll pay 20 taels of silver per cow.â
âOh right, there are also sheep. How about five taels of silver per head?â
âThereâs no needâ¦â
âDonât refuse. Weâre brothers, but we should settle our accounts clearly. Itâs good enough that youâre letting me eat your livestock.â
âAlright, but tonight Iâll treat you. How about we eat some lamb skewers?â
âSure, Iâve been craving it for a long time, but Iâm just too embarrassed to say it.â Zhou Huaiming laughed.
âOh right, I have wine here; you donât need to bring them,â he added.
âAlright, you can pick a sheep or two this afternoon. Iâll come back early.â Gu Chengrui turned around and left.
Zhou Ying didnât want to run back and forth, so she stayed behind. After exchanging a few polite words with Zhou Huaiming and Manager Liu, she turned around and went to the livestock shed.
Although cattle and sheep breeding was restrained as much as possible because of the lack of grass, many little ones were still being born.
Lastly, she went to the grassland to look at the white sweet potatoes. She found Uncle Nian, who was harvesting the white sweet potato vines, and asked, âUncle Nian, do you think these white sweet potato vines can guarantee the cattleâs and sheepâs survival until next spring?â
âItâs hard to say. The problem is that we need wheat bran as the core ingredient. Otherwise, Iâm afraid these arenât enough for them to eat.â
âHow much wheat bran and soybeans do we have in the warehouse?â
âThey should be able to last until the end of the year.â
âYouâre sure good at being frugal.â
âI had no choice. I saw something wasnât right, so I reduced the feed amount in early summer.â
âAlright, Iâll try my best to get more white potato vines from the village.
âAlso, try not to let them breed, or else we really canât afford to raise them.â
âI understand. Itâs not the time for a last resort, so I wouldnât let them breed.â
âOh, whereâs the water source? Is there enough water here?â
âThe well at the foot of the mountain is enough,â Uncle Nian said. âI heard that the water level of the well in the village has started to drop.â At this point, the old man looked up at the huge sun and continued with a pained expression, âIf this continues, I donât know if the cattle and sheep can be raised.â
âIf thereâs a chance, please sell some out.â
âAlright, Iâll remember this.â Zhou Ying nodded and told him about the lamb slaughter in the afternoon.
However, she didnât say two, but five.
The festival was coming soon, so she had to give some welfare to the other people living in the manor.
After the sheep were slaughtered in the afternoon, Gu Chengrui returned with the restaurantâs oven and iron skewers. After that, Zhou Ying directed everyone to start skewering the meat.
She cleaned up the mutton giblets from the two lambs and made a big pot of mutton soup. She also added some vermicelli, tofu skin, and dried radish..