Chapter 253 - Melting Snow

Ye Lulu was also carrying a baby. Mother Rong and Second sister-in-law Guan each carried one. The family stood in the crowd and started to get excited.

Not to mention whether they could eat meat, but this kind of food sharing in the entire village was very exciting.

Furthermore, this portion of meat was from wild beasts that had harmed the villagers.

"There's something that we have to specially explain to the entire village in advance." At this moment, Li Yue said, "Based on last night, the greatest hero in our village is the Guan family's sixth son. Therefore, the village should also give him an additional reward. After discussion, we've decided that we'll give Guan Chibei the tiger whip first!"

Ye Lulu was speechless.

Tiger… Tiger whip?

Ye Lulu's expression froze. She was extremely shocked!

She was still carrying her eldest son in her arms. There were question marks over her head. She was still thinking about what the village head had said…

Tiger… whip?

Was it what she was thinking?

Why did the village head reward Guan Chibei with this?

The smile on Ye Lulu's face froze.

The villagers all agreed and were quite happy to do so. Firstly, not many people wanted the tiger whip, and the villagers were not particular about it. Secondly, of course, life was more important. Everyone wanted Guan Chibei to be the guardian angel of the village!

Therefore, no villagers had any objections.

"The rest of the meat is all here." The village head asked someone to move up the bodies of the jackals, leopards, and tiger from last night. He also asked a few experienced men to hold the knives and prepare to split the meat. Just like how families who had conditions during the new year slaughtered pigs, he said to the villagers, "All the families in the village will have an equal share. Last night, those who came out to defend against the wild beasts will be rewarded with three catties of meat. Those who lost someone at home will be given five more catties of meat. In addition, the Guan family can prioritize what meat they want. Does everyone agree? As for the rest, every family will line up to get the meat later."

The fear and sorrow were swept away. This morning, excitement filled Yunwu Village.

This was a lot of powerlessness and uselessness. Many villagers did not have much strength to be sad for long. Being alive was always more important than other things.

This meat came at the right time. Many families who had run out of food had something to eat again!

If the meat soup was stewed a little longer, both the elderly and children could eat it!

"No problem."

"Agreed!"

The villagers all agreed to let the Guan family choose what meat they wanted. It was just a choice, they wouldn't let the Guan family take more meat. They just wanted to show their gratitude to the Guan family.

Whether the Guan family recognized them or not, they were very proud.

Many eyes in the village landed on them with passion.

Not to mention, many villagers looked at them with a little reverence, burning desire, and hope. They were afraid that there would be another accident in the village, so they could only rely on the Guan family's sixth son to protect everyone.

Following that, strong men held their sabers, and experienced women helped out by the side. Villagers from various families went home to get pots and came out to fill them with meat!

The queue was long and bustling.

The Guan family sent Mother Rong as a guide to choose the type of meat to get. They would then send Eldest Brother Guan to move the meat later. The arrangements were very appropriate.

The others watched from the side.

On the other hand, Ye Lulu remembered to call Guan Chibei over and help Old Aunt Xu and Xu Huang bring out a wooden basin to store the meat. The few fierce beasts left behind last night weighed more than a thousand catties of meat. The villagers would definitely get a lot of meat. Old Aunt Xu definitely could not carry them. She wondered if Xu Huang could carry so much meat.

Another family saw the Guan family's help to the Xu family and their eyes flickered.

Ye Lulu happened to be at the scene this time. She hugged the beautiful baby and smiled at the villager. "What's wrong? Do you need our family to help you?"

"Why don't we ask Guan Chibei to take turns to help all the families in the village who need help? The wild beasts have left the mountain. We helped the old aunt in the village and the other villagers also want us to help all the families in the village. Since we're free now, why don't you make a list of the villagers so that Guan Chibei can help them one by one?"

"No need. We shouldn't even let you make a list. Our Guan family should do all the work. The rest of you don't have to do anything. As long as you talk, you can order everyone in our Guan family, right?"

All the villagers who had previously said nasty words about the Guan family revealed extremely ugly expressions.

Ye Lulu was still smiling, but her words and eyes were cold.

She came from the modern era and hated people who took the moral high ground.

Don't forget that Guan Chibei's current status was connected to her and the three babies. Previously, she had heard someone say, "The Guan family can afford to provide for the three children and even manage the Xu family. I don't know how capable they are. Therefore, why don't they take care of all the difficult families in the village? Why doesn't the Guan family care about the other families?"

Ye Lulu was furious when she heard this. How could she not mock them when she had the chance?

Guan Chibei stood beside her. When he heard her words, his expression was calm. He glanced at her but did not say anything. It meant that he would let her be.

After the wild beast attack last night, who would dare to be jealous and angry at the Guan family?

It was the Guan family's turn to share the meat. Mother Rong summarized the opinions of the entire family and finally asked for an entire tiger leg.

This was incredible. This entire tiger leg weighed at least fifty to sixty catties!

The Guan family was leaving with it just like that!

The meat was very rich, but it was reasonable. After all, the Guan family had a lot of children. It was reasonable for them to share the meat, right?

It was just that the Guan family had picked the best meat!

The other villagers split the meat equally among different wild beasts. Which family could be like the Guan family and take away an entire tiger leg?!

The villagers looked on enviously, but no one said anything.

After all, the village head had long promised that the special reward to the Guan family was to choose meat.

To put it bluntly, Guan Chibei killed all these wild beasts by himself. It had nothing to do with anyone else. Even if Guan Chibei wanted to take all the meat, no one could say anything about it.

The Guan family only wanted this tiger leg. It was considered little.

However, that was not all. After the meat was distributed, the villagers also shared the remaining bones. However, most families did not take them. It was not that they did not want them—it was just that they could not afford to.

This was because stewing bones required too much firewood. Not every family had as much firewood as the men in the Guan family. Although there was a lot of firewood on the mountain, it was still snowing every day. Not many families were willing to risk the heavy snow to cut firewood.

Therefore, under Ye Lulu's insistence, the Guan family even took away the largest tiger bones. Li Yue, the village head, gave them the tiger's tail as well.

Ye Lulu actually did not know how to stew a tiger's tail… However, it had quite a lot of meat. In this dynasty's mountains, no matter how much money one had, one had to treat meat seriously. Therefore, Ye Lulu thought that she should stew it like a pig's tail and add more ingredients!

In the end, the Guan family returned this morning loaded.

Eldest Brother Guan carried the entire tiger leg home. Ye Lulu was about to bring the children back to the house when Mother Rong suddenly stopped Guan Chibei and looked at the two of them ambiguously.

Then, she smiled and raised something. She said to Guan Chibei, "This is the tiger whip that the village head specially gave to you. Chibei, don't forget to bring it back to the house."

Ye Lulu stopped in her tracks.

Guan Chibei stopped and turned around to look at Mother Rong.

Then, they heard Mother Rong say the last sentence.

"This award is naturally for you alone. Coincidentally, your wife is the best at cooking. I'll get her to cook that for you to nourish your body."

Mother Rong's every gaze and every smile carried an indiscernible hint of instructions. "This is for the two of you alone. Take it back to the house."

Ye Lulu was speechless. She revealed a difficult expression.

Furthermore, she could not help but glance at the item in Mother Rong's hand. Her body trembled. This was the first time she had learned something.

So this was what a tiger whip looked like?

The most awkward thing was that Mother Rong especially stopped them and said 'for the two of you alone'! This was very awkward, alright?!

Especially since Ye Lulu and Guan Chibei had been so ambiguous lately.

Ye Lulu's expression froze when she saw Guan Chibei. Then, she calmly took the tiger whip from Mother Rong and nodded before turning around and entering the house.

They looked at her with ambiguous eyes.

Ye Lulu also entered the house with a complicated expression. "You really… want it?"

This word 'want' seemed to have two meanings. One was literally wanting the tiger whip, while the other was a 'need.'

In the next moment, Guan Chibei's expression and gaze froze.

He looked at her with a deep and meaningful gaze and said, "What do you think?"

Ye Lulu instantly remembered that these three babies were from the same litter.

Her expression immediately changed. Then, she smiled awkwardly and said, "Hehe…"

The atmosphere was ambiguous, awkward, and a little erotic.

Fortunately, Guan Chibei's expression darkened and he changed the topic. He said calmly, "The things on the tiger's body are precious ingredients. The tiger skin was taken away by the village head and he was preparing to sell it in spring so that the money would be evenly split. Why would we not want this tiger whip? We can earn a sum of money by selling it in the city."

Ye Lulu was stunned. She had been distracted by the name 'tiger whip' and forgot about this matter. That's right! She could sell it! It would be a waste not to!

"Tiger bones too!" Ye Lulu suddenly remembered and said, "Will the tiger bones we brought back home be stewed?! It's such a waste! Tiger bones are very precious and rare medicinal ingredients. They can be soaked in Tiger Bone Wine and grounded into powder to be used as medicine. They're very expensive!"

Guan Chibei glanced at her.

Knowledge of medicine?

For ordinary rich families, even if the daughters could study, they would only read poems, calligraphy, and the Five Classics. At most, they would study history. They would not be involved in medical skills for no reason.

For example, in the city, even if they did not lack money, they did not know how to use a certain type of medicinal herb. This tiger bone was not considered rare, but ordinary people would not know about making wine and grinding it into powder… Could it be that there was someone in her family who was a doctor?

Where did this soul come from? Could it be from a scholarly family?

Ye Lulu did not know that Guan Chibei had been thinking about her background. She quickly thought of something else.

The related income from the tiger bones and tiger whip could be treated as part of the capital for doing business. The first step after that was to survey the market on the spot and make other plans after receiving feedback…

…

As expected, the wild beasts went down the mountain because the winter was too long. After another half a month, the intimidation from Guan Chibei's archery was still there. The fierce beasts on the mountain hesitated and did not come down again. However, not long after, the weather finally became warmer. The heavy snow stopped and the mountain path started to melt snow and ice.

Spring was getting stronger. After the snow melted, the ground started to turn green.

Most of the villagers in Yunwu Village pounced out like hungry wolves and dug eagerly for new tender seedlings and wild vegetables. Some even picked tender leaves to eat.

There was no choice. After a while, many villagers relied on the shared meat to survive. However, even if there was meat soup to eat, there were no green vegetables. Many villagers were already listless. Furthermore, they couldn't take a dump for many days!

This time, it was warm, and everyone immediately felt like a seal had been lifted.

Of course, Dousu Mountain had its benefits as well. It had stood tall in the world for so many years, so it was already deep and remote. The entire mountain was naturally nourished by the heavens and the earth, so even if the small number of people in Yunwu Village swarmed over, they would still be far from being able to take away all the resources provided by the mountain.

It was as if spring had just started and the villagers were free to use all kinds of green things.

Ye Lulu heard that there were mushrooms on the mountain. As long as one could find them, there was basically no end to them. This was because the mountain was too big. Even if one searched around the periphery, there were many damp and decayed places where mushrooms could be found.

It was spring now, and mushrooms were beginning to grow.

Eldest sister-in-law Guan and Second sister-in-law Guan did not lose out. They carried a large basket and went out to pick fresh mushrooms. Ye Lulu had seen those before. Perhaps it was because of the special terrain that although it was cold in the mountains in winter and the snow was heavy, it warmed up quickly once spring arrived, especially in some places on the mountain.

Looking at this basket of delicious mushrooms, Ye Lulu felt conflicted for a few days. After thinking carefully, she made a decision…

When she went out to do business in spring, the first thing she would sell was Malatang!

The main reason was that there were resources on the mountain. For example, mushrooms, wood ears, and mountain herbs could be obtained steadily from the mountain. There were many villagers who planted vegetables in other vegetable villages, so they could easily obtain them. The only things that required effort were other ingredients.

This was relatively much simpler. Furthermore, it was also very convenient to sell Malatang. Firstly, the bottom of the soup was simmered in advance. Vegetables were cooked on the spot, which was very suitable for setting up a stall. Secondly, although it was most satisfying to eat fresh and tender food in spring, it was still cold at the docks near the Yuan River.. The people coming and going had a rushed schedule, so they would definitely feel comfortable eating a bowl of steaming hot Malatang.