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Chapter 309: Chapter 299 Spring Outing (Part 3)
It took over an hour to pick honeysuckles until Taxue appeared with a wild pheasant in her mouth, which was when Shen Yunfang finally stopped.
Looking at her watch, it was already past twelve noon, time for lunch. She placed the filled cloth bag into the basket and went with Li Hongjun to find a water source.
The family of four walked for over ten minutes and arrived at a small stream, a convergence of mountain springs trickling down. The stream water was ice-cold and refreshingly sweet.
The family found a relatively flat spot near the stream to set up camp.
Li Hongjun took out a small knife and headed to the stream to clean the pheasant, while Shen Yunfang spread out a floral cloth on the ground, sat down, and closed her eyes to feel the surroundings, making sure there was no one around. Then, she took out a slightly thicker cotton blanket from her space, laid it over the floral cloth, and took out a bottle of prepared milk for her son to drink.
Somehow, Shen Yunfang’s milk had been getting scarcer since three months after giving birth (not that there was ever much), hardly enough for Pangpang to be satisfied. So now, Pangpang was basically drinking formula, and by nighttime, Shen Yunfang managed to save enough milk throughout the day for Pangpang to have a full meal before sleep.
Pangpang had been so busy following his parents that he hadn’t gotten enough of anything. When he saw something novel, he would yell out in excitement, reaching out his little hands trying to touch. Therefore, he was both exhausted and famished. At this moment, seeing the milk bottle, he used all his limbs to firmly grip it, gulping down the milk with big swallows.
"Son, slow down, no one’s competing with you for it," Shen Yunfang said, feeling peeved by her son’s unmannerly eagerness. She herself was never this protective over her food. Who did he take after?
Taxue lay quietly beside them, watching with envy. Usually, after the little master finished drinking, the female master would rinse the bottle with some water, and the water with a hint of milk flavor would be its treat.
So Taxue had grown into the habit of patiently waiting next to the little master while he drank his milk, as if queuing up.
In a short while, Pangpang emptied the entire bottle of milk and then, with his mother’s gentle patting, closed his heavy eyelids and, breathing the purest air of nature, fell soundly asleep.
Seeing her son asleep, Shen Yunfang stood up, rinsed the milk bottle with warm water, and then stored it away in her space.
Li Hongjun had finished slaughtering the pheasant too, mixed some mud with water at the riverside, and covered the whole bird in it. Then, he dug a pit near the picnic cloth, placed the chicken inside, and ignited a fire over it.
"Hungry, aren’t you? Don’t worry about the fire for now, let’s eat something to tide over," Shen Yunfang said, taking out some food.
She had been busy at home these past days, just preparing for this moment.
A big bowl of vegetable salad, no dressing available, she substituted it with yogurt, and the taste was not bad. However, Li Hongjun was not a fan, so she took out another bowl of homemade cold dishes mixed with cucumber and pig’s head meat. The main dish was meat-stuffed buns, the buns she baked herself using a large iron pan, substituting sesame sauce with peanut butter she ground at home. Lastly, they each had a bowl of meatball soup to complete the meal.
Both of them ate three meat-stuffed buns each and drank a bowl of soup, their stomachs half full, Shen Yunfang cleared away the items back into her space and lay down beside Pangpang for a short nap, planning to leave room for the chicken later.
"You rest for a bit; I’ll wake you when the chicken is ready," Li Hongjun sat next to his wife and child, gently covering his wife’s eyes with a big hand, signaling her to take a break. He was there for them.
Shen Yunfang obediently closed her eyes, and soon the only sound in the area was the crackling of the burning branches.
Suddenly, Taxue’s ears perked up and she became alert, moving back and forth, then suddenly bolted in a specific direction.
Shen Yunfang heard the commotion and opened her eyes only to catch a glimpse of the dog’s tail.
"Yunfang, keep an eye on the child. If anything goes wrong, take him and head down the mountain. I’ll go check it out."
"Okay, be careful." One of them definitely needed to stay back to take care of the child, so she was the best choice for that task.
Although she had the storage space and could throw things at wild beasts from it, she simply couldn’t compare to Li Hongjun when it came to combat skills, so it was more appropriate for Li Hongjun to check things out.
Li Hongjun raced towards the direction where Taxue had vanished.
Shen Yunfang first surveyed her surroundings, seeing no immediate danger, she closed her eyes to feel her environment. Confirming there was no sense of danger, she opened her eyes and began to pack up. Finally, she held the child in her arms and sat by the fire, waiting for Li Hongjun and Taxue.
She could faintly hear Taxue calling out once or twice and Shen Yunfang thought to herself, they say you learn from those around you, and that saying applied even to dogs. Her Taxue had picked up Li Hongjun’s sneaky traits. Earlier, without a sound, it had dashed out, probably not wanting to scare off the prey. Now that it was vocal, it must have caught up with its quarry.
Shen Yunfang glanced at her watch, Li Hongjun had been gone for nearly half an hour, why wasn’t he back yet? Taxue had also stopped barking. What happened? Did the prey escape or were they already on their way back?
Shen Yunfang wasn’t worried, but she felt as though each minute was dragging on like years.
Another ten minutes passed before she finally saw someone approaching in the distance.
Shen Yunfang quickly stood up and ran towards them. She could now see that Li Hongjun was hauling a vine over his shoulder, on the other end of which was a simple stretcher, and on the stretcher lay an animal.
Only when Shen Yunfang drew closer did she dare to confirm, "You actually caught a sika deer."
Indeed, lying on the stretcher was a deer, a male sika deer, its long horns dragging two grooves in the ground.
"Yeah, this guy was so fast, but thanks to Taxue hiding well, we managed to catch up with it," Li Hongjun said as he patted Taxue’s head, rewarding him.
He said that when he followed Taxue’s barks, Taxue might have already struggled with the deer several times. Taxue was sharp, but it was still wary of the stag’s antlers. However, it didn’t want to give up the prey that had come to its mouth (following its mistress’s lead), so the situation was at a stalemate for a while.
Luckily, Li Hongjun was quick to arrive, and with Taxue provoking in the front, he skillfully approached the deer from behind and managed a quick, precise cut to the deer’s throat.
And just like that, Li Hongjun dragged the deer back using the makeshift stretcher.
Li Hongjun pulled the thoroughly dead deer to the stream and began to skin and disjoint it.
The house was small and lacked an enclosed yard, and if the deer were brought back for processing, it could only be done inside the house. However, the strong smell of blood would be too intense and with unusual neighbors in both front and back, he figured the situation could prove difficult to handle. It was better to just take care of it right there.
Every part of the deer was valuable: the antlers, penis, embryo, bones, and blood were all esteemed medicinal materials, with the antlers particularly famous both domestically and internationally as a medical preparation and a premium supplement, earning its title as the king of Chinese medicine.
"We have sika deer on this mountain?" Shen Yunfang went around the deer, quite intrigued.
"What did you think? If you climb over this mountain, you’ll find a primeval forest with all sorts of wild animals," Li Hongjun said, continuing his work while explaining to his wife.
Leading excursions to the primeval forest was routine for them, and inside he had even encountered bears.
