Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Murder!

At the thought of the girl’s cooking skills, Yin Cheng couldn’t help but swallow.

But he still managed to keep his composure, took a small knife and gently cut off four ginseng seeds, then signaled Yi Meng to come over.

Yi Meng quickly pulled out a handkerchief and walked up, holding it with both hands to receive the four ginseng seeds.

Yin Cheng then said, “You want two seeds, but I’m giving you four. The extra two aren’t for free. If they indeed grow successfully, the old geezer and I want half. Is that alright?”

“Of course, that’s fine.”

Yi Meng had no objections.

She asked for two seeds just to increase the success rate a bit. Four seeds would be even better.

If they grew, it was only right to share them with the two doctors; otherwise, she probably wouldn’t have linked the bitter red fruit to the ginseng.

Sighing at the thought, Yi Meng felt a twinge of melancholy.

Thinking about the novels she used to read, those heroines could make anything from herbs to soap and explosives.

Looking at herself, if it weren’t for the fact that her greatest hobby in her previous life was eating, she probably wouldn’t have even managed to unlock the skill of cooking.

Qin Minglang said nothing.

After learning that the ginseng was discovered by Qi Manman, Qin Minglang didn’t say much more, just pondered how he could acquire the ginseng from the Qi Family.

After all, this thing would only work best in the hands of doctors like them. If given to ordinary villagers, it might end up as a family heirloom, which would be fine, but if it were improperly stored and ruined, that would be a real shame.

As for whether the fourth daughter-in-law of the Qi Family could grow ginseng, Qin Minglang didn’t care in the slightest.

Is ginseng something that can be cultivated?

He had tried before, but what happened?

He wasted more than ten ginseng seeds, and they all ended up rotting in the ground.

However, the fact that she had this idea was commendable, and besides, the ginseng was discovered by their daughter, and most importantly, the little girl had already chewed several pieces, so four seeds were no big loss.

Yi Meng happily received four ginseng seeds, using the motion of putting the handkerchief in her bosom as she actually stored both the seeds and the handkerchief inside her space.

Back at her own home, Yi Meng started helping with dinner.

Whenever Yi Meng had time lately, she would lend a hand during meal preparation.

There was no choice; it didn’t matter how well others ate, but her own daughter really could only eat more when the food was made by her, otherwise, she would rather starve than eat two more bites.

Both today and yesterday, they walked down mountain paths, and although they didn’t find any dead or suffocated wildlife, there were some live small animals in the unburned forests elsewhere.

Not many in the village could hunt, but because Qi Quanjin in the Qi Family was somewhat of a half-baked hunter, they managed to get two wild rabbits and three wild chickens.

They didn’t have time to make jerky for the journey, but thankfully the weather was already cool, so it hadn’t spoiled yet.

Yi Meng remembered her daughter liked spicy stir-fried rabbit, so she cut up a rabbit to make that, then chopped the three wild chickens to stew with radish.

She chose to roast the remaining rabbit.

With her addition of seasonings, the roasted rabbit meat tasted much better than those roasted by others.

There was plenty of meat, but there were more people too.

So Wang Daya and Qu Laodi took the chance while boiling water to reheat some dry biscuits they made previously.

The dry biscuits, steamed quickly by the steam, became less hard, and with chicken soup, even children who hadn’t grown all their teeth could eat easily.

Since Mrs. Qi’s granddaughter had been distressed by the bitterness, she’d felt very sorry, plus the daughters-in-law of the family were sensible, so she didn’t need to keep an eye on the meals all the time and focused on looking after her precious granddaughter instead.

When Qi Manman woke up, the air near the camp was filled with all kinds of aromas.

Some families who hadn’t caught fresh game were eating the jerky they’d saved before.

Mixing a few chunks to boil porridge or make soup, they could at least spread the scent of meat around.

As Er Laizi smelled the aromas, his stomach growled, and his mouth involuntarily watered.

“Erlan, let’s cook some porridge with the jerky tonight!”

Mrs. Lai Sr. was also salivating intensely at the enticing smells.

Er Laizi grunted, “How much meat do we really have at home? Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Mom, you cook the porridge, and I’ll go have a look around.”

With that, Er Laizi walked ahead.

His family didn’t have a wooden cart, but since Mrs. Lai Sr. wasn’t as spry, they were always at the back of the group.

Seeing her son go off to scrounge food again, Mrs. Lai Sr. sighed but didn’t say anything to stop him.

If it weren’t for her son’s mooching over the years, with just their little household output, they wouldn’t have known how many times they could have starved to death.

They hadn’t found any game, but they had brought along two old hens from home, made into jerky.

But two old hens made into jerky wasn’t much, eating a little at a time, it was really hard to eat it every day, every meal!

One by one, each family started to sit around their fire, ready to have dinner.

Sharp-eyed people noticed Er Laizi coming their way and quickly warned their family to hurry up and eat.

Every family used to hard times had the women in charge of meals measure out exactly the right amount of food for each meal.

Half a bowl for the kids, a bowl for the women, and two bowls for the men.

The men had the most meat in their bowls.

In no time, all the meat soup and porridge from the pot were distributed, and the extra was brought down to the men, placed in front of them.

If guarding against others, placing it in front of women seemed okay since people would at least be mindful of the gender difference and not dare to touch.

But Er Laizi was so shameless that he wouldn’t consider such things.

So putting the remaining porridge in front of the women was like offering the food to him and sending their women to him for advantage-taking.

Those who walked at the back of the group were mostly from families with tough conditions.

They either had elderly people who needed constant medication, or they had few family members.

The further ahead, the more people and strong laborers a family had.

Er Laizi knew the situation of each household well, so he skipped the ones similar to his at the back, aiming directly for those in the middle.

“Oh dear auntie, eating now? What’s this you’re having, let me see.”

Er Laizi picked out a family with just a couple, a grandson, and two old people.

As he spoke, he reached out to lift the pot lid, but was instead hit on the back of his hand by the son’s wife with a shovel.

“Ow! Murder!”

A wail rose, suddenly shattering the previously peaceful and harmonious atmosphere of Yongping Village.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep