Transmigrated as an Unwanted Ugly Girl

Chapter 458: Chapter 240: Finally Moved In (Part 2)

Zhang Huai didn’t say anything after hearing her words. Instead, he just smiled and ran into the courtyard, where he began stomping on the acorns. He then called out to Qingmu, "Hurry up! Let’s get this cleaned up so we can go eat." Then he shouted to Mrs. Yang, "Auntie, why don’t you go on ahead? You can give my mom a hand."

Juhua saw him stomping away while beaming at her, as if to say, ’I’m doing your work for you, so you have to go eat now, right?’ She couldn’t help but smile, though no one noticed.

She picked up a mallet, and as she crouched on the ground cracking the acorns, she deliberately asked Huai Zi, "What delicacy are you all making? Why so formal?"

Before Zhang Huai could answer, Qingmu chimed in with a laugh, "Juhua, you really have to come eat. Guess what Uncle Zhang managed to get?"

Juhua had assumed it was just a simple dinner invitation. After all, the two families were on good terms and were now neighbors, so a meal together felt like a friendly gathering. She didn’t realize there was more to it. Surprised, she stopped what she was doing, looked up, and asked, "What is it? What’s the special treat?"

’Zhang Dashuan has been busy at home all day. I didn’t see him go out!’

Huai Zi’s eyes filled with mirth as he looked at Juhua and said, "A while back, when my dad was gathering acorns, he set a trap on the other side of the mountain. For days, he didn’t catch anything. We’ve been busy building the house lately, but this afternoon he went up the mountain to gather more acorns and decided to check on it. And what do you know, he caught a deer! The poor thing was still breathing. It’s a good thing Dad went today. Otherwise, it would have died and no one would have found it. Dozens of pounds of meat would’ve been wasted."

A deer was a rare prize; you might not come across one for several years. Ordinarily, his father would have taken it to the market to sell to the rich for a handsome price. However, it was precisely because it was such a rare treat that they thought Qingmu’s family should have a taste. Their family wasn’t wealthy, but they were doing much better than a few years ago, all thanks to the Zheng Family’s help. If they were too stingy to even share a deer, wouldn’t that be terribly ungrateful?

So, Zhang Huai had suggested they not sell any of it at all. Instead, they would divide the venison among Qingmu’s family, Zhao San, and the Liu Family. They would also send some to their maternal uncle’s family and give a small piece to both Li Changming and Shorty Zhou. By the time they were done, there wouldn’t be much left of the deer.

Zhang Dashuan and his wife had readily agreed. They would have gladly given half of it to the Zheng Family, but then they remembered their uncle’s family also needed a share, so they ended up dividing it into even more portions.

Just as he expected, when Zhang Huai finished his story, Juhua’s eyes went wide with astonishment. "There are deer in the mountains?" she asked. "How come I’ve never heard that before?"

Qingmu chuckled. "Of course there are. They just hide deep inside the mountains. You don’t often see them around the outskirts here."

Huai Zi laughed. "It’s not that they’re not common, it’s that you can’t find them at all. I seem to recall hearing that when I was a kid, Huang Dagunzi—Uncle Huang—hunted one. After that, I never heard of it happening again."

Juhua’s eyes sparkled as she listened. Forgetting about the acorns, she simply squatted there, lost in a daze.

Children from mountain villages always tended to wonder about the same things: ’What’s it like beyond the mountains? Are the cities really lively, full of delicious food and fun things to do?’ But Juhua’s thoughts were different: ’Just how deep does Little Qing Mountain go? What’s it like in there? Are there lots of rare animals? How come no one from the village ever goes hunting in the deep mountains?’

Zhang Huai and Qingmu gathered the acorns into a pile and gave them a thorough smashing with the mallets. They brushed away the top layer of empty husks and packed the acorn kernels into a burlap sack, occasionally picking out a stubborn nut that refused to crack and breaking it open separately.

The two of them noticed Juhua’s distracted look and found it a bit odd. Qingmu chuckled, "Juhua, don’t you want to go eat some venison?"

Juhua shot him a look. "Of course I want to eat it! I’m not an idiot. It’s the kind of thing you might not see again for years."

Hearing her response, Zhang Huai and Qingmu burst out laughing together.

Huai Zi asked her curiously, "So what were you thinking about just now?"

Juhua thought for a moment before asking them with a puzzled expression, "Tell me, just how deep does Little Qing Mountain go? There must be plenty of good stuff in there, so how come no one goes deep inside to hunt? When people were starving, they could have hidden in there to find food, and they wouldn’t have had to pay taxes to the government, either. That would be perfect!"

Qingmu and Zhang Huai stared, their mouths agape. They never imagined *that* was what Juhua was thinking about.

Qingmu looked at Juhua, finding her logic baffling. ’My sister is usually so clever,’ he thought. ’Why is she being so naive today?’

He gave her an odd look and said, "Leaving aside the question of whether you could even make it out of the deep mountains alive, even if you did manage to hide in there, would you just stay there for the rest of your life?"

Zhang Huai patiently explained to Juhua, "The mountains don’t just have deer; they have wolves, tigers, and leopards. Of course, there are professional hunters who make a living from it. They’ve mastered their craft and specifically venture into the deep mountains. Our village is on the outskirts where there are fewer animals—just some rabbits, wild pheasants, and the like—so most people here focus on farming. The few who occasionally tried venturing into the deep mountains never had any luck, so eventually, they stopped going. You have to realize, it takes several days to walk from here to the *real* deep mountains. And if you hid in there and never came out, wouldn’t you just become a drifter?"

Although Juhua was still a little fuzzy on the details, she at least understood that it wasn’t as simple as she’d imagined. She decided not to ask any more questions, worried people might think she wasn’t really from Qingnan Village.

And so, the topic of conversation shifted to the deer—or rather, to the venison.

She asked with a smile, "So how is Aunt Zhang cooking the venison?"

Zhang Huai smiled gently at her. "How else would we cook it? Braised, of course! Mm, with some small white radishes. My dad was carving up the meat when I came over. You can take some home later and cook it however you want."

Juhua nodded. The thought of refusing didn’t even cross her mind.

The three of them finished with the acorns and tidied up the courtyard before finally heading over to the Zhang family’s home to eat.

Once they were out of the courtyard, Qingmu noticed the patch of land beside the Zhang family’s house had been tilled. He asked Zhang Huai, "What’d you dig up the side of your house for? Are you going to plant more fruit trees?"

Zhang Huai shook his head. "No, I’m planning to plant bamboo. A patch of bamboo between our two houses will look nice. Look, Changming has already started planting some over there. Think about it: the front has willows and fruit trees, the riverbank has willows and fruit trees... if we add a bamboo grove next to the houses, it’ll make things less monotonous." (To be continued. If you like this work, please consider supporting it with your votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)