Yingbao and her two younger brothers also went to pick ground vegetables, and Yuanbao, Huzi and Wei Zhan followed to join in the fun.
Jiang Jie and Hu Zi Wei Zhan were very impatient and often ran around without doing anything. The two puppies also followed them around and barked, having a great time.
The little deer always followed Yingbao closely, wherever she went.
This mountain forest is densely wooded, with a few fruit trees among them, but unfortunately there are no fruits.
Yingbao was carrying a basket and looking for ground vegetables everywhere, while she was thinking about how to take out the ripe melons from the cave.
In the past few days, the melons have gradually ripened and the fragrance fills the entire cave.
Yingbao was drooling with greed but didn't dare to eat it, for fear that the lingering aroma after she secretly ate it would arouse suspicion.
And she couldn't do the thing of eating alone and leaving her brother and parents aside.
After thinking about it, I decided to just make some when I go out.
I turned around and saw my younger brother Jiang Wu working hard to pick up ground vegetables. His seriousness was really heartbreaking.
Seeing that there was no one else around, Yingbao slipped behind a big tree, pulled out two melon vines from the cave, and quickly buried the roots in the soil.
"Jiang Wu, come here quickly, there are good things here!"
Yingbao pinched her throat and shouted, not daring to be too loud for fear of attracting other children.
Jiang Wu jumped up, ran over, opened his eyes wide and rushed forward in disbelief, shouting, "What is this? It smells so good!"
"Shh!" Yingbao asked him to keep his voice down and started picking the melons one by one and putting them into the bamboo basket.
Although Jiang Wu had never seen a cantaloupe, he knew it was delicious just by smelling it, and he couldn't help but drooling.
"What is it?" he asked again, picking one and putting it in his basket.
Ying Bao said seriously, "It's cantaloupe. I've seen it in the county town. It's delicious."
Actually, no, but my brother doesn’t know.
When Jiang Wu heard that the melon was indeed delicious, he excitedly pulled up the melon vines and stuffed all the melons into the bamboo basket.
There were four large melons on one vine, eight melons on two vines, and two small, unripe ones.
But Yingbao didn't care. In order to eat the melon, it was no big deal to sacrifice two melon seeds.
Yingbao and her brother struggled to carry the basket and started to call for help: "Huzi! Yuanbao! Come here quickly!"
After calling twice, the children finally came running over, followed by two happy puppies.
"Wow! Honeydew melon!" Yuanbao had eaten this kind of green melon before, so he rushed over and picked one up, holding it under his nose and sniffing it, "It smells so good!"
Wei Zhan had also eaten cantaloupes before, and when he saw that Yingbao had so many in her basket, he asked curiously, "Where did you find them? Did you pick them from someone else's melon field?"
Yingbao glanced at him: "Then don't eat it!"
Didn't she realize that the boy was telling her to steal melons from someone else's melon field
Wei Zhan was not angry, and said with a smile: "Anyone who sees it gets a share."
Yuanbao pinched a circle on the melon with his fingernails and hit it hard a few times, and the melon cracked.
He broke off pieces and gave them to Wei Zhan, Hu Zi, Jiang Jie, Jiang Wu, and Ying Bao. He took the biggest piece for himself and took a bite. It was crispy and sweet. He cried out, "Sweet! Delicious!"
Yingbao finally got to eat the melon she had been longing for. She ate it all in a few bites, not even leaving the skin.
Yuanbao, Huzi and the others did the same, eating the skin and seeds completely. Only Wei Zhan chewed off the inside and stuffed the remaining rind to Youyou who came over.
When Dahuang and Xiaohei saw that their little master was eating and ignoring the dog, they barked anxiously, their black almond eyes full of accusations.
Yingbao simply took out another one and shared it with them, then left the pulp for the two dogs.
After eating the cantaloupe, the children stopped picking up vegetables. Yuanbao and Huzi took the initiative to carry the melon basket and go back.
When the basket was handed to Chunniang, she was stunned.
"Where do the cantaloupes come from?" Few people in their mountain village grow this thing, and even if they do, they are sold out quickly. Unless you go to the market every day, you may not be able to come across it.
Jiang Wu took the initiative to confess: "We found them behind a big tree! My sister and I pulled them out!"
Chun Niang saw that there were still a few flowers and two melon knots on the vine, and said with a look of regret: "Why did you pull out the vine? Can't you just let them continue to grow?"
Jiang Wu quickly shut his mouth and stopped talking.
The fact that the Jiang family children picked up the melon could not be concealed from anyone, because Chunniang gave one melon to Madam Wen and another to Patriarch Chen.
We have six melons at home, four large and two small, which is more than enough to eat.
Now, many adults and children were running around, trying to find cantaloupe, and the result was predictable.
Xiao Zhenniang divided the melon sent by Chunniang into six portions, one for herself and one for her daughter's wet nurse, and the remaining three were given to the sisters Wen Tian and Wen Jiao.
Lin stood outside the bamboo shed and looked towards the Jiang family. She came back and complained to Xiao Zhenniang with an unhappy face: "Mrs. Jiang San is so rude. I am the husband of her child, but she only sent me a melon."
Xiao Zhenniang ignored her and after eating the melon, she and her daughter sewed the shoe laces.
After walking in the mud these days, the soles of my shoes are stuck with mud and are easy to fall off, so I have to sew two shoelaces on my shoes to make it easier to walk.
Seeing that her fourth brother's wife ignored her, Lin became more and more angry. She suddenly turned back to the bamboo shed and kicked the pottery jar on the ground to the ground.
The pottery jar contained the rice porridge sent by the Jiang family. Half of it was eaten and the other half was left. Xiao Zhenniang originally wanted to save it for the children to eat in the evening, but it was kicked over by Lin, and the jar broke into several pieces.
When Xiao Zhenniang heard the noise, she stretched her head to take a look and said nothing, but she had made up her mind.
Since Lin is so troublesome, there is no need for me to care about her. We should just live our own lives from now on.
It’s a pity that the accommodation is limited, so she and her daughter have to squeeze together with Lin’s mother and daughter, which is really depressing.
When the wet nurse saw that the porridge pot was broken, she was very distressed. She quickly scraped the rice porridge on the ground into the broken pottery pieces and took it outside to feed the horse.
Lin was so angry that she lay down on the grass and dozed off, regretting in her heart that she had come to this damn place.
The experience of being almost caught up by bandits the day before was still vivid in her mind. She was almost scared out of her wits. Her two daughters were also quite frightened and they have not recovered until now. They often have nightmares at night.
When the banditry is over, I will definitely take my daughter back to Yuzhou and never stay in this damn place again.
All those secret remedies and secret medicines, go to hell with them, nothing is more important than your own life.
In the evening, Jiang Sanlang and his elder and second brothers each dragged back a large bundle of bamboo.
Old Man Jiang and his eldest and second grandsons worked together and had already cut a bunch of bamboo arrows.
Chen Zhu and several people who knew how to make bows specially cut tree sticks of special materials, roasted them over fire, bent them, and tied them with twisted hemp ropes to make longbows.
They made more than a dozen longbows that day. Jiang Sanlang tried one and found it very tough.
It’s a pity that there are no iron arrows, otherwise these bows and arrows would definitely be a powerful weapon.
But bamboo arrows are also very lethal. As long as the opponent is not wearing cowhide armor, these sharp bamboo arrows can easily penetrate their chest.
"The meal is ready, let's eat quickly."
Chunniang and her elder and second sisters-in-law had already prepared the food, including a pot of boiled wild vegetables, a basket of flatbreads, a pot of rice porridge, and a plate of sliced melons.
"Huh? Where did the melon come from?" Jiang Erlang asked.
Yan Ru: "Yingbao and the others found it when they were picking ground vegetables."
Jiang Erlang laughed: "I didn't expect there are cantaloupes on this mountain. Could they be from someone's melon field?"
"My sister and I found it in the woods." Jiang Wu said loudly, "It's not from someone else's melon field."