Everyone was in the woods now, and to avoid being harmed by ferocious beasts, they had shrunk their living quarters. They were practically living one household next to another, so they couldn't conveniently eat distinctly different foods. They decided to go with the flow and prepare to eat the meat soup.
Gu Qingcheng was one of those who feared the mingling of flavors. She took two bowls and joined the queue.
Since they had separated from the Gu family, they hadn't received anything. These bowls were bought from the Lynx Supermarket by her.
Fortunately, the Lynx Supermarket highly promoted a retro Chinese flavor, so the blue and white porcelain bowls she had bought looked no different from the ones the villagers were holding.
However, if the villagers knew that each bowl cost over 30 yuan, they would surely be astonished.
The chopsticks Gu Qingcheng bought were also the most ordinary bamboo chopsticks, the kind that sold for 8 yuan a pack.
Gu Qingcheng was puzzled when she bought them, wondering why a high-end supermarket like Lynx would sell such cheap bamboo chopsticks.
Later, she figured that perhaps they thought they were pure natural bamboo chopsticks, which perfectly aligned with their green and environmentally friendly company philosophy.
Using such bowls and chopsticks, they didn't appear out of place among the people around them.
The villagers obediently queued up to receive the meat soup.
However, there were some troublemakers. Grandma Gu ran out and yelled at Village Chief Gu, saying that the meat was provided by their granddaughter and that their family should be allowed to queue at the front and receive preferential treatment.
Village Chief Gu wouldn't indulge her. He replied:
"Look at Qingcheng. She's queued up at the back. She hunted the game herself but didn't ask for any special privileges."
Grandma Gu was afraid that if they queued at the back, all the good meat would be gone by the time it was their turn. That's why she had jumped up and started making a scene. She hadn't expected Village Chief Gu to reject her so ruthlessly.
She turned around and saw that her sixth son's family was indeed still as sluggish as ever, standing at the back of the queue with dejected expressions.
Grandma Gu was furious, but the facts were right in front of her, and she couldn't refute them. She had no choice but to sheepishly take her bowl and return to her original spot to continue queuing.
Ever since they knew they could eat meat, Grandma Gu had been having Gu Xiaohua go and reserve their spot to avoid being at the back of the queue.
In reality, their family was already in the front third of the queue, but she was still not satisfied.
The villagers, because she was Gu Qingcheng's grandmother and the game tonight was hunted by Qingcheng, didn't say anything directly. However, their contemptuous glances were undeniable.
Grandma Gu's commotion was to no avail, and Old Man Gu felt quite embarrassed. He coughed and tried to sound dignified and calm as he said:
"Old woman, come back and queue. Everyone is queuing, so we should queue too. Although the game was hunted by our granddaughter, it has already been given to the public. It belongs to the public now."
Old Man Gu used these words to remind everyone that the game was hunted by Gu Qingcheng, his granddaughter, forcibly saving face.
Who in the village didn't know the details of their family separation?
The Gu family had taken 60 jin of meat from Old Man Gu the Sixth and driven him out...
That's right, in the villagers' eyes, the Gu family had driven Old Man Gu the Sixth's family out.
Because they had never seen such a miserable family separation. Not only did they have to give the family 60 jin of meat, but they also received no property when they left – not a single grain of food, not a single bowl.
It was fortunate that Old Man Gu the Sixth's family knew how to hunt, otherwise, they would have starved to death by now, wouldn't they?
Old Man Gu looked embarrassed. Seeing that no one responded to his words, he glared fiercely at Old Man Gu the Sixth behind him.
He didn't know what had gotten into this unfilial wretch. After the family separation, he had completely changed from his usual timid demeanor at home. He had been constantly tripping him up and causing problems, causing his authority at home to be undermined several times.
If not for the constant intimidation and brainwashing of his children over the years, this family might have already been completely divided by now.
Thinking of the family separation, Old Man Gu shivered.
After the family separation, how could he and his wife continue to live?
Some say that children are divided into types: some come to repay kindness, and some come to collect debts.
This fellow was clearly here to collect debts!
Old Man Gu had completely stopped considering Old Man Gu the Sixth as his son. He secretly pondered how much he had owed Old Man Gu the Sixth in his past life to have to repay him so in this life!
The villagers distributing the meat were very fair. Everyone received half meat and half soup. There was no concern about not getting meat and only drinking soup.
There was also no situation where those at the back would only get the lesser parts like heads and feet.
Gu Qingcheng's family received two extra pieces of lamb because of the village chief's words. She even received a wild chicken leg.
Gu Qingcheng was not polite. Carrying her bowl, she sat down on the ground with her parents and ate heartily.
The meat stewed in the big pot was fragrant.
Especially the yellow ram meat. Hu Lanfang had added a lot of ginger, and Gu Qingcheng had added star anise. Not only did it remove the gamey smell, but the meat was tender and melted in the mouth, and it gave a warming feeling to the stomach.
"Wow, I've never eaten such delicious yellow ram meat in my life. It's mainly because there was enough ginger!"
A villager next to them praised.
"This ginger tastes a bit different from what we used to eat. Is it wild ginger?" someone else asked curiously.
"Probably. Otherwise, who could bring ginger this far? It would have been eaten up long ago."
The villagers commented as they ate.
Although the amount of meat each person received was not large, it was still meat. Meat was filling and kept them from getting hungry longer than a bowl of wild vegetable porridge.
After distributing the meat to everyone, there was still some soup left in the pot. Village Chief Gu had someone add water to it, sprinkle in a few handfuls of rice, and then add some picked wild vegetables to cook a pot of wild vegetable porridge. If anyone finished their meat and was still not full, they could continue eating the wild vegetable porridge.
Everyone went to get a bowl of wild vegetable porridge.
Although the porridge only had a few specks, like stars dotting the grassland, with the meat as a base, the wild vegetable porridge didn't taste that bad, especially since it was cooked with meat broth.
"I never thought wild vegetable porridge was delicious before. It seems the ingredients used were wrong!"
A villager chewed on the wild vegetables heartily.
"Haha, boiled in plain water, of course, it wouldn't taste good. You definitely need meat broth!"
"When we go south in the future, we'll cultivate more fields, sell our grain, and then we can cook wild vegetable porridge with bone broth. We can't even think about it now on the road fleeing famine."
Gu Qingcheng's family also went to get half a bowl of wild vegetable porridge.
It wasn't that they were not full, but because they knew the importance of a balanced diet; they couldn't just eat meat without vegetables!
After the meal, Hu Lanfang packed up the bowls and chopsticks to wash them by the spring.
Gu Qingcheng was worried about her mother washing dishes alone and intended to follow her, carrying a spear.
Seeing this, Gu Chaobei insisted on following as well.
Hu Lanfang couldn't help but smile and say:
"With you father and daughter flanking me, it's like I'm a prisoner being escorted by you."
Gu Qingcheng saw that the situation indeed looked like that and couldn't help but smile, saying:
"The animals in the woods come to the spring to drink at night. I'm worried about you being unsafe alone."
"Yes, Qingcheng is right. I found many animal footprints by the spring. It's likely the watering hole for the wild animals in the vicinity. It's better to be cautious."
Gu Chaobei also chimed in.
Fortunately, it was still early, and the wild animals hadn't come out to drink yet. Hu Lanfang successfully washed the bowls and returned to the campsite.