Seeing her like this, the four of them breathed a sigh of relief.
After returning home, Bai Jiu counted the money once and put it into her dimension. There was a total of 863 yuan. Elder Wu said it was sent by his grandson over the years he had been sent down to the countryside. It had been six or seven years since he arrived. Eight hundred yuan over six or seven years was quite a lot of money. There were also those ration coupons.
She sighed, thinking that it wasn’t easy for anyone. Since she had taken their money, she would take good care of them for the next two years.
Early the next morning, Bai Jiu boiled the leftover dumplings from yesterday and took the two children up the mountain. The weather was not bad today, and it was no longer snowing outside. Although it was windy, the two children wanted to tag along, and she couldn’t bring herself to say no.
When she read novels in the past, she always noticed that the female protagonists who time-traveled to these special eras could always find good things on the mountains. She also wanted to try her luck. Because of this, she had even searched the internet for pictures and growth habits of precious medicinal herbs like ginseng and Lingzhi.
"Mother, are we going to set traps today?" Zhengyang was most envious of the boys in the village who could follow their fathers up the mountain to set traps. His father wasn’t home, and his mother was exhausted every day, so he didn’t dare ask her to take him up the mountain. But today, his mother brought him and Xiuxiu up the mountain. Overjoyed, he couldn’t help but ask.
"Set traps?" Bai Jiu was a little confused. "What traps?"
"Ah, didn’t you bring me and my sister up the mountain to set traps?" Zhengyang asked, sounding a bit disappointed.
Xiuxiu stepped forward to explain for her brother. "In the past, Brother Gouwa from the village would always follow his father up the mountain to set traps. He could hunt wild pheasants and hares to bring home every time. The furry shoes that he and Sister Li wear were made by their mother using rabbit fur."
Xiuxiu was actually quite envious too. It was just that her family didn’t have any rabbit fur.
Bai Jiu understood. "I see." She really hadn’t thought about this. However, they could give it a try. "Alright then, let’s go set traps over at the shallow ditch today."
Gaocun Village was built right next to the mountain. The mountain behind the village was Qingshan, a continuous mountain range, and no one knew where the other side led, because no one had ever ventured deep into the mountains. Even if someone had, they never returned.
The shallow ditch was a low-lying area where mountain spring water flowed all year round. Even though it had snowed, the running water there hadn’t stopped. Compared to streams and rivers, it was merely a puddle. But because of its characteristics, there were actually more animals here. Not only did she know this, but the villagers knew it too. Over the years, the animals here had become even shrewder than humans. Trying to catch them would be quite difficult.
Of course, Bai Jiu didn’t really come to catch wild pheasants and hares. She knew her own capabilities; she really didn’t have the skills for it. Coming here was just to make the children happy.
"Woohoo! That’s great! I’ll definitely catch a pheasant today." Zhengyang was ecstatic. Perhaps boys just had a special passion for hunting. Xiuxiu was also very excited. Thinking of the pheasants her brother had mentioned, she was full of enthusiasm.
She started setting up traps with her brother. In Bai Jiu’s eyes, their actions were nothing more than child’s play. Those creatures were very shrewd; how could they be so easily caught?
"Take this and put it in the trap later." Seeing that the two children had dug a sizable pit, Bai Jiu took out a piece of pork skin from her dimension. This was the best thing to lure wild animals. She hoped this time there would be some activity.
The shallow ditch area was quite safe. After looking around, Bai Jiu planned to stroll further up the mountain.
"You two hide yourselves. Once you see an animal fall into the pit, then you can run out. I’ll go take a walk further up. Don’t run around, and if anything happens, call out to me loudly, alright?" Since she had already come up the mountain, she naturally wanted to search around. What if she actually found something?
"Okay."
The two little ones were entirely captivated by their trap; they wouldn’t have been willing to move anyway.
Bai Jiu followed the flow of water halfway up the mountain. The snow was quite thick. Perhaps because there was groundwater here, a lot of the surrounding snow had actually melted. It was very muddy to walk on. But even so, it couldn’t dampen Bai Jiu’s enthusiasm for climbing the mountain. It was hard to say whether her trying her luck was a good thing or a bad thing.
She turned her head around every few steps as she walked away. Only after confirming Xiuxiu and Zhengyang’s hiding spot did she begin to look around. Actually, this sort of thing was really uncertain. In the dead of winter, plants also needed to go into dormancy.
Gradually, the muddy path disappeared, leaving only some grassy thickets and snowdrifts. One careless step, and she might sink right in.
Bai Jiu walked very carefully. She planned to climb to the top of the mountain, and if there was nothing, she would just take the children home. She had originally come out just to try her luck and let the children get some fresh air.
About half an hour later, Bai Jiu reached the summit. The mountain wasn’t high; she couldn’t even see the scenery of the village. Looking disappointed, Bai Jiu had failed to find what she was looking for.
However, when she went back down the mountain, she received a huge surprise.
"Mother, look quickly! Brother and I caught this!" Xiuxiu was pressing down hard in the snow, her entire body sprawled flat against the ground.
"What are you doing? It’s freezing to crawl in the snow, hurry up and get up." Seeing Xiuxiu, Bai Jiu immediately stepped forward to help her up.
But Xiuxiu was unwilling. "Mother, I’m pinning down a rabbit! Don’t move me, Brother went to find a rope."
It turned out that a rabbit had fallen into the pit Zhengyang and his sister had dug. But the trap was too shallow, and the rabbit tried to jump out from inside. If Xiuxiu and Zhengyang hadn’t acted fast, the rabbit would have escaped. And so, Xiuxiu threw herself over the pit, pinning the rabbit under her body. She then told her brother to go find a rope to tie it up.
Bai Jiu also saw the rabbit pinned under Xiuxiu, but the poor thing had long since stopped moving.
"I’ve got it, now get up off the ground." Bai Jiu grabbed the rabbit’s exposed hind legs and pulled Xiuxiu up directly. "Look, you’ve completely knocked this rabbit out with your weight," Bai Jiu teased, shaking the rabbit in her hand.
Xiuxiu hadn’t expected to actually squash the rabbit unconscious.
"Mother, I didn’t mean to," Xiuxiu said, feeling a bit embarrassed. She patted the snow and water off her body, then turned side to side. "Mother, I’m not even fat! How did I squish it unconscious?" She just couldn’t figure it out.
This child.
"It’s not that you’re too heavy; it’s that this rabbit is too skinny." Bai Jiu pinched Xiuxiu’s little face. It was freezing, so they needed to head down the mountain. "Where is your brother?"
"Brother went to find a rope. Mother, are we going home?" Xiuxiu didn’t know where her brother went to find a rope, but right now, her attention was completely drawn to the rabbit, her mind fully focused on the catch dangling from her mother’s hand.
"Yes, let’s go home." Bai Jiu wasn’t worried about Zhengyang. This place wasn’t far from their home, and walking back along the path, they would definitely run into him.
Sure enough, halfway down they bumped into Zhengyang, who was coming up the mountain after going back to fetch a rope. Not only that, but he was followed by two other boys. One was Gouwa, and the other was Gao Zhishan’s son, Gao Erzhu.
"There really is a rabbit! Zhengyang, you’re amazing." Gouwa had originally come over to play with Zhengyang. But Zhengyang said he had trapped a rabbit on the mountain, so he followed him up. He hadn’t expected Zhengyang to be telling the truth.