Peach Blossom Land On Longyin Island Chapter 38

Eat hot pot when it snows

Preparing materials, setting bones, shaping embryos, shaping, carving, painting and gilding… The making of clay sculptures is far more complicated than Anle thought. When autumn turned to winter and the first snow fell in Longyin Village, Anle reluctantly made a coquettish mermaid under Anmu’s guidance.He is a mermaid, but it actually has nothing to do with beauty.

Anle’s hands-on ability is average.However, An Xiaoyu said that he did not need to master the details, as long as he knew the production process, the Dragon King statue was made by An Xiaoyu.Therefore, although the mermaid was not beautiful, Anle still happily brought it home, and received sincere praise from An Xiaoyu and merciless ridicule from An Linmian.

An Linmian, Anmai, Anshun and Antu have been out of control since they last tasted An Xiaoyu’s cooking. They often come to Anle’s house to eat and drink together, euphemistically called cultivating relationships.An Le is not used to a few people. If he wants to eat, he has to work first.The number of geese is limited, and six people and one wolf will eat three geese in one meal.Although several people often bring their own geese here, the growth rate of free-range geese is extremely slow, so they obviously cannot eat them often.

Fortunately, after winter came, Anle thought about the hot pot that she had longed for.Because of a heart disease in his previous life, he had to control his diet and not eat too spicy food, but in fact he has always liked spicy food.When we got here, the disease was gone, but neither was the pepper.Anle could only settle for the next best thing and let An Xiaoyu stew beef bones, mutton bones and other bone soup as the base material for hot pot.

Although Longyin Village lacks seasonings and there are not many winter vegetables, it is rich in all kinds of fish and meat.Small chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, etc. are all fed by each household.Large livestock such as cattle, sheep, and deer are raised centrally in the village. Deer, wild boars, etc. that are hunted back by hunting teams are also kept in the village.

There is a place in the village that is responsible for slaughtering livestock, and the slaughtered meat is placed on the table.The villagers call this place a meat farm. If any villager wants to eat meat, they can go to the meat farm to get it. There is no limit to how much they can eat.There are no special restrictions on slaughtering animals in the village. Anyway, there are many, and if anyone wants to eat them, they can kill them.

The meat from the butchery is not only for human consumption, but also for the dogs of the hunting team. An Xiaojin also gets most of his rations from the butchery.And An Xiaojin didn’t just eat and work, he consciously took on the task of patrolling and protecting the village. The weasels who stole chickens, the wolves and foxes that accidentally wandered into the village… none of them could escape An Xiaojin’s wolf eyes and sharp claws.

The villagers also liked An Xiaojin, a wolf that was more ferocious and obedient than dogs. Within two months, they fed An Xiaojin until he became fat. His gray-yellow wolf fur was shiny and shiny, shining with golden light in the sun. When he was not moving, he was majestic and quite like a wolf.

It looks like a wolf, but when it sees people, it turns into a dog again, turning its belly, shaking its head and tail, begging for petting.An Xiaojin is quite talented at pretending to be a dog, especially in front of Anle.

When An Xiaojin lay down on his forelimbs, stuck out his butt, wagging his tail, looking at An Le with bright eyes, and humming in his mouth inviting An Le to play games, An Linmian and the others were busy washing, chopping, burning firewood, and cooking in the kitchen…

An Le set up a recliner in the kitchen, squinted her eyes and drank milk tea, and said softly, “Hey, it’s snowing outside, it’s too cold. Let An Xiaoyu play with you after dinner. Come, lie down here and warm yourself up by the fire, it’s so warm.”

Anle pointed to a large, square doghouse made of mattresses spread on the ground next to the recliner – it was specially placed in the kitchen for An Xiaojin to lie down and warm himself by the fire.An Xiaojin groaned and lay down.

Boom, boom, boom—boom!The sound of bones being dodged suddenly stopped. An Linmian slashed the bones with his knife, strode in front of Anle, pointed his finger at Anle, and said angrily: “What do you mean! Instruct us to work while you are warming yourself here! Who said that those who don’t work will not have food? You are a freeloader!”

An Le raised her eyes and glanced at An Linmian, unmoved, and shrugged: “I’m a stranger. You are here to help me with the meal. Of course you have to work. Is it possible that An Xiaoyu is required to cook for six people by himself? Then don’t be exhausted. Who told you to cook better than An Xiaoyu.”

An Linmian became furious and shouted: “You are so lazy, how on earth can An Xiaoyu tolerate you!”

Anle remained unmoved. Without raising his head, he casually pointed at An Xiaoyu, who was making bone soup, and said, “Then go and ask him.”

An Xiaoyu was slowly stirring the thick white bone soup in the pot with a long wooden spoon, and said calmly: “In our house, he doesn’t have to work.”

An Linmian said this sentence without replying. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and said to Anle: “Lazy man! You can actually get a wife like this!”

“Are you envious?” Anle said with a smile, “Then you go get a wife too.” As the only person in the group who is married and has a wife, Anle has found the best weapon for An Linmian.

An Linmian really had nothing to say, and stared at Anle with wide-open eyes.

Anle turned a blind eye and continued to drink milk tea with squinted eyes.

Anmai was rinsing the ice residue on the frozen tofu. Hearing this, he smiled and said, “Mianmian, you go and have a rest. I’ll do the rest.”

So An Linmian went back and chopped up the bones, and threw a piece to An Xiaojin.

Anmai added: “Although Xiaoyu made the rice, the idea was Lele’s. Lele is right. It seems that there are indeed many delicacies in his hometown.”

“Hometown? What hometown?” An Tu added a handful of firewood to the stove and asked in confusion, “Isn’t Brother Lele’s hometown our hometown?”

“Mai Zi is talking about An Xiaoyu’s hometown.” Anshun continued, waving the knife in his hand quickly, and the evenly thin slices of mutton were neatly stacked on the table.

“Oh.” An Tu scratched his head, put it behind him, and said, “To be honest, I want to go to Brother Xiaoyu’s hometown. Brother Anshun, Sister Mianmian, don’t you want to go out? In winter, the hunting team doesn’t go hunting anymore. It’s quite boring to stay in the village all the time.”

An Linmian rolled his eyes at An Tu and said, “How to get out? Can you get through that thick fog? You can’t see anything clearly inside, and you can’t find the direction. Did you forget that you almost didn’t get out last time?”

Hearing this, Anle suddenly sat up straight and said in surprise: “Have you ever been in thick fog?”

Scattered snowflakes were floating in the sky, and the aroma of hot pot cooking meat filled the kitchen.Longyin Village only has earthen stoves, and the stove used by several people to eat hot pot was made by Anle, who imitated the ancient wind stove based on his memory and asked his uncles who made pottery pots in the village to make it.Burn charcoal fire below and cook hot pot above. Although it is not as convenient as modern ones, the taste is not inferior to modern electric pots, and it can also be used for heating.Anle was very satisfied after trying it himself, and quickly promoted the wind stove to the whole village. At the same time, he brought the custom of eating hot pot in winter to 246 households in Longyin Village.

When they were eating enthusiastically, Anle remembered that they had been to the dense fog.He asked before the meal, but An Linmian said to him with a vindictive smile, “If you want to know, work first,” so he didn’t ask and lay back to warm himself by the fire and drink milk tea.

It’s impossible to work.An Xiaoyu said that he didn’t have to work in their house.

Anyway, Anshun belongs to their group.An Linmian didn’t say anything, he just found an opportunity to ask Anshun.However, after eating happily, Anle thought of that incident again, so he asked casually: “Hey, Tutu, how did you get there? What’s in the fog?”

Anle caught the most unsuspecting Antu. Antu was eating happily. Sure enough, he threw away An Linmian’s previous confession of “not telling Anle a word” and replied casually: “Oh, we stole two boats from the hunting team and connected them with ropes. One boat went in and the other boat waited outside.”

This method was the same as what Anle had thought of before, but what he was more concerned about was An Linmian’s words “almost didn’t come back.” There was a boat outside as an anchor, so he shouldn’t be able to come back, right?

“Then why did you say you almost didn’t come back?” Anle asked again, “There was an accident?”

“Yes,” An Tu said, “I don’t know why the rope broke. We ran a long way before we realized something was wrong. When we saw that the rope had already broken in two.”

“How did it break?”

Antu shook his head: “I don’t know. Brother Anshun guessed that it was bitten off by a shark, dolphin or some kind of toothed whale.”

Anle murmured and nodded: “Then you are really unlucky. You have a chance of catching the shark biting the rope.”

“Yes, I was scared to death at the time. I thought I would never come back.” Antu seemed to recall the terrifying scene at that time, and suddenly shuddered and said: “You can’t see anything inside. Even with a torch, you can only see half an arm’s length away. You can’t even see the bow and stern of the ship. I don’t know where such a thick fog came from.”

An Linmian laughed and said, “I asked you to wait outside with Maizi and you insisted on going in. Are you afraid now? Let’s see if you dare to go in next time. You are the only one who talks a lot, so eat quickly.” With that, An Linmian took a large piece of cooked mutton and stuffed it into Antu’s bowl.

“Just go. If you go, I will go. I will die with you.” Antu muttered in a low voice, lowered his head and ate the meat silently.

Anle hadn’t heard what he wanted to hear yet, but it looked like Antu didn’t want to tell him anymore, so he changed someone and said to Anmai, “Maizi, how did they get out?”

Anmai smiled and said: “The rope we brought was not long. I counted the time and thought that the rope was almost used up, but I saw that the rope was still loose and collapsed. I felt something was wrong, so I pulled it out and saw that the rope was broken. I was also careless at the time. I tied the rope to the bow of the boat and left it alone. It was only when I picked it up that I realized it was broken. Fortunately, we all carried a bone whistle with us, so I blew the bone whistle to notify them of the danger.”

“Fortunately, we didn’t run too far, and we could still hear the whistle.” An Linmian suddenly said, “We blew the bone whistle in response to Maizi, and followed the whistle while rushing back. Finally, we came back without any danger. Thanks to Maizi waiting outside, Tutu, I am afraid I would have been panicked and didn’t know what to do,” An Linmian said, suddenly laughing, “Maybe he would just rush in with the boat, and it would really be a massacre.”

An Tu defended himself dissatisfied: “I was only thirteen years old at the time, so it’s normal to panic.”

“Thirteen years old…” Anle knew the ages of several people very well. The eldest Anshun was only two years older than Antu, so they dared to steal a boat to explore the mist when they were 14 or 15 years old. Anle couldn’t help but feel shocked.

Seeing An Le’s shocked expression, An Linmian also seemed very proud. He raised his eyebrows and said, “How is it? Aren’t you awesome?”

“Awesome…awesome…” It’s true that a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers.

“But Grandpa Anmu caught us when we came back,” Antu curled his lips, “We were detained for a month. We deliberately chose to go there in the middle of the night. I don’t know why Grandpa Anmu stayed up late at night and wandered along the coast…”

“Just a solitary confinement?” Anle asked hopefully, “Just let you go so simply?”

“They are also punished by copying the village rules a hundred times,” Antu complained. “My hand will be broken if I copy them.”

An Le sighed: “It’s such a simple punishment. You violated the village rules and I didn’t even throw you into the sea to feed the fish.”

Anshun saw what Anle was thinking and said, “We don’t want to leave.”

“Besides, Grandpa Anmu said that next time, he will sink us into the sea to feed the fish!” An Tu said.

Hearing Antu’s words, Anle felt a little more balanced. It seemed that anyone who violated the village rules would be thrown into the sea and fed to fish, and his granddaughter was no exception.If you want to come back, you still have to convince the village chief to abolish the village rules that prohibit you from leaving the island…

With this in mind, Anle picked up the mutton with chopsticks, dipped it in sesame sauce, and stuffed it into his mouth.

“It’s so delicious.” After eating the tender and fragrant mutton, Anle leaned back on his chair and let out a satisfied sigh: “No need to go to school, no need to get up early, no need to do homework. I will be assigned a job directly after graduation. I have food, drink, clothing and a house. No wonder the villagers don’t want to go out. They are already very happy here.”

“Are you uncomfortable?” An Linmian, who was clearing the table, rolled his eyes again when he heard An Le’s words. “Every day is just eating, sleeping and playing. Who can be more comfortable than you? Grandpa hasn’t arranged a job for you yet? You are already married. It’s time to get errands and contribute to the village.”

“Grandpa An said that there is not much work to do in winter. The main task in winter is to eat well and enjoy life. The work will be discussed in the spring next year.”

An Le spoke righteously, and An Linmian had nothing to refute.Although humans do not need to hibernate, Longyin Village has basically entered a semi-hibernation state during winter.

Doing nothing is the main theme of winter in Longyin Village.

Eat, sleep, and bask in the sun.Eat, sleep, and make tea by the fire.Eat, take a nap, eat, sleep…

It’s easy to feel sleepy after eating a full meal. Anle yawned and looked at the group of people finishing up in the kitchen. He waved his hands without any shame and said with a smile: “I’m going to bed.” After saying that, before going out, he turned back and added: “Oh, by the way, we won’t serve dinner today. You can go home as soon as you finish cleaning up. We have to go back to our parents’ house for dinner.”