The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 25p1

Chapter 25: Young Ginger and Rabbit Meat p1

Realizing the importance of earning money, Lin Shuang discussed it with Jiang Huaizhen after returning. They decided to go up the mountain to look for herbs the next morning and then go to the city to sell them in the afternoon.

The next day, they woke up early. For breakfast, they had porridge, a few large steamed buns made from coarse flour, a plate of stir-fried vegetables, and a fried egg for the old woman.

The two young girls ate the steamed buns with the vegetables and porridge, enjoying their meal.

Old Madam Jiang glared at Jiang Huaizhen. “When you go up the mountain, take a stick with you. When you walk, beat the grass. The snakes and insects will be startled and run away. Don’t risk your life fighting with these creatures. They are in the dark, and you are in the light. How can you win against them?”

Jiang Huaizhen hummed in agreement.

In fact, she and Lin Shuang always did this when they went up the mountain. It was just that the snake’s nest that day was under a rock, and they hadn’t specifically hit it. But since the old woman had instructed them, they would just follow her wishes.

After breakfast, the two of them took their baskets and tools and went up the mountain.

This time, Jiang Huaizhen indeed took a thicker and longer stick and walked in front. When she encountered a patch of grass, she would beat it a few times before moving forward.

Today, the two of them went in a different direction. After walking for half an hour, they began to encounter some common herbs, though they were a bit scattered.

Lin Shuang didn’t mind. Every little bit counted.

To find a large patch or rare herbs required great luck. Before that luck arrived, it was better to work diligently and accumulate little by little.

Jiang Huaizhen didn’t show any impatience. She would dig whatever Lin Shuang told her to. She had sharp eyes and a good memory, and when she occasionally came across herbs they had dug a few days ago, she would immediately put them in her basket.

After about an hour, each of them had dug half a basket of medicine.

Lin Shuang looked through it and said, “In total, it should sell for about a dozen copper coins.”

Jiang Huaizhen said, “Ten copper coins a day is also very good.”

For a country person, finding work, a day of physical labor for twenty or thirty copper coins was a normal price. As for less strenuous work, it was about a dozen copper coins a day.

And they had only been out for an hour.

After resting, they continued to search inward.

They occasionally came across some mushrooms, which they also put in their baskets to add to their meals at home.

When they passed by a stream, Lin Shuang saw some thin green water celery growing on the pebbles at the bottom. She sat down on a rock and was about to take off her shoes to go into the shallows, but Jiang Huaizhen stopped her.

“You’ve really forgotten the pain once the wound has healed.” With that, she bent down, took off her own shoes and socks, rolled up her pant legs, and used a long stick to probe the depth of the water before she went in and began to pick the water celery.

Seeing that she had picked a large handful, Lin Shuang told her to come up.

Jiang Huaizhen came ashore, handed her the water celery, and then looked at the handfuls of tender fiddlehead ferns, moss, and other strange plants in her basket. She asked curiously, “Are these also medicinal herbs?”

“No, these are for a cold dish with sauce tonight.” With that, Lin Shuang shook a houttuynia cordata and handed it to her. “Try it. See if you like the taste.”

Jiang Huaizhen took it, put it in her mouth, and chewed. Her two eyebrows instantly furrowed, and she didn’t know whether to swallow or spit it out.

Seeing this, Lin Shuang smiled. “Some people can’t get used to this taste. Spit it out quickly.”

“I won’t put this in the cold dish tonight. Silly, you don’t even like such a delicious thing.”

Jiang Huaizhen turned her back, spat out what was in her mouth, then bent down to scoop up some water to rinse her mouth. She then picked a familiar-looking leaf and chewed on it to clear the strange taste from her mouth.

She turned and saw Lin Shuang squatting on the ground again, picking something from a crack. Seeing her look over, she pushed aside the vines covering it, revealing a few purple plants. “This is perilla. It’s so plump.”

“You just need to pick the tender shoots. It won’t be long before new shoots grow,” she said, showing Jiang Huaizhen a broken stem. “This is delicious when stir-fried with meat.”

After picking two clumps of perilla, the two of them continued to walk until they reached a small slope.

Jiang Huaizhen didn’t know what she had found, but she beat the ground in front of her with her stick. After a while, seeing no movement, she squatted down to look inside.

“This looks like a rabbit hole. There are a few rabbit hairs at the entrance.”

Lin Shuang, who was behind her, heard this, walked over to take a look, and also squatted down. She seemingly unintentionally placed her palm on the ground and soon sensed that there was more to the hole than met the eye.

She walked about twenty paces to the left and said, “There’s another entrance here. There should be rabbits inside. Huaizhen, did you bring a flint?”

Jiang Huaizhen always carried a dagger and a flint with her.

“Are you going to smoke them out with fire?”

“Yes. I’ll start a fire at this end. When they can’t stand the smoke, they’ll run out your end. You just have to catch them.”

Hearing this, Jiang Huaizhen’s interest was instantly piqued. The two of them quickly gathered a large pile of firewood, piled it at the entrance on Lin Shuang’s side, and started a fire. Then she ran back to her side of the hole, emptied the herbs from her basket, and pulled some vines from the side to seal the opening of the basket, making a simple cage, and waited to catch the rabbits.

After about the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, there was movement at the entrance of the hole. Several large, fat, black rabbits jumped out one by one.

Jiang Huaizhen had quick eyes and hands, and she caught them almost one in each hand.

Lin Shuang quickly ran over to help, stuffing the rabbits she had caught into the basket.

Eight large ones and six small ones were all caught in one go.

Jiang Huaizhen’s eyes were shining after catching the rabbits, showing the vitality of a seventeen-year-old girl. She said excitedly, “Lin Shuang, there are so many rabbits.”

Lin Shuang glanced at her lively face and smiled. “We’ll take the small ones back to raise.”

Hearing this, the smile on Jiang Huaizhen’s face instantly faded, and she said dejectedly, “It seems that besides chickens, we haven’t been able to raise any other livestock at home. Grandma said it was because Father became an executioner, and the baleful aura on him was too strong, and it scared the pigs and sheep to death…”

Lin Shuang didn’t know about this and comforted her, “Since you can raise chickens, why can’t you raise other livestock? It’s not because of any baleful aura. You also said yesterday that being an executioner is not a sin, it’s just following orders. Why do you still believe in these things?”

Jiang Huaizhen shook her head. “But there’s no other way to explain why we can’t raise other livestock.”

Lin Shuang smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m here. When we sell these herbs and have money, we’ll buy a few piglets to raise. They won’t die.”

“Grandma won’t let us, will she?” Jiang Huaizhen hesitated.

“Great-grandmother has told you not to do many things, but you still did them. She didn’t want to get treated, but she did. She wasn’t happy about us building the kang, but we still built it.”

“Then… let’s raise these little rabbits first. If they can live, then we’ll raise pigs.”

Lin Shuang looked at the troubled Jiang Huaizhen, her eyes filled with gentleness. “They will live.”

With her assurance, Jiang Huaizhen’s confidence returned.

Lin Shuang said, “It’s almost noon. Since we’ve had such a big harvest, let’s call it a day. We still have to go to the city in the afternoon.”

Jiang Huaizhen naturally listened to her. The two of them packed the herbs they had just emptied into Lin Shuang’s basket, which was just enough to fill a small basket.

Each with a basket, they went down the mountain and back home.

When they got home, Old Madam Jiang saw the basket of rabbits and, as expected, grumbled, “You can just eat the big ones. What’s the point of bringing back the small ones? You can’t raise them anyway.”

“How many things have you raised to death since you were little, and you still haven’t learned your lesson?”

Jiang Huaizhen, as expected, didn’t explain anything to her. There were originally a few chicken coops, but because the old woman was sick, they had sold or eaten most of them, leaving two empty. She moved the coops out, washed them clean with water, and put them outside to dry.

Then she went to the fields to get some straw, planning to spread it on the bottom of the coops for the rabbits to nest in.

Lin Shuang was cooking in the kitchen and would occasionally run out to watch her.

Old Madam Jiang came out with her cane and watched for a while. She was tired of scolding and decided to leave her alone, but she couldn’t help but say, “You’re grown up now, and I can’t control you. If you raise them to death, don’t go crying under a tree like you used to. No one will be there to comfort you.”

Hearing this, Lin Shuang turned to look at Jiang Huaizhen.

She found it hard to imagine someone like Jiang Huaizhen being sad and crying because a small animal in the family had died. In her impression, the other had always shown only strength and indifference.

Jiang Huaizhen seemed to feel her gaze and pursed her lips without a word, lowering her head to continue working on the new rabbit cage.

It was only after Lin Shuang returned to the kitchen to watch the fire that she looked up, her two ears bright red.

In the kitchen, Lin Shuang stretched out the rested dough.

Of the ten catties of white flour she had bought last time, there wasn’t much left after making steamed buns and flatbreads twice. So, she kneaded the rest into a dough, pulled it into noodles, and cooked them.

There was still a catty of preserved meat in the oil jar, which had been stored in the oil when she rendered the pork suet and hadn’t been eaten yet.

She took out a piece, sliced it thinly, and stir-fried it with the mushrooms she had just picked from the mountain to make a topping for the noodles.

The topping was a little saltier than usual dishes, so she didn’t need to add extra salt to the noodles.

After the noodles were cooked, she scooped them out and rinsed them in cold water. The old woman ate light, so she made a separate soup noodle for her. She and Jiang Huaizhen just drizzled the topping directly on their noodles and ate them mixed.

Old Madam Jiang looked at the bowl in front of her. The noodles were long and thin, the soup was clear, and a few tender green vegetable leaves floated on top.

A poached egg sat in the center of the noodle bowl, the yolk just set.

She poked it with a spoon, and the golden yolk oozed out, soaking into the noodles, making one’s mouth water.

The mouth that had been nagging Jiang Huaizhen finally stopped, and she picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.

And on Jiang Huaizhen’s bowl, the translucent slices of preserved meat and mushrooms were piled up like a small mountain.

She ate quickly, and in no time, her bowl was scraped clean.

“Like a starving ghost reincarnated!” the old woman cursed.

…