After a few more days of busy work, the vegetable planting in the garden finally came to a phase where it was finished! Now all that's needed is to water the vegetables in the valley every day. As a result, Uncle Fu and Uncle De, upon hearing from the women that the vegetable garden only needed watering, took over this task as well. Their reasoning was, "We have to irrigate the crops every day anyway, so helping you water the vegetable garden is just a small addition."
And so, the men were busy in the valley. Some were working with Brother Xiang Dong and Brother Er Hu to build the light steel keel frame for the houses, some were following Teacher Zhou to set up solar and wind power generator units on the mountain, and yet others were assisting Uncle Fu and Uncle De, who were digging irrigation wells and small water channels, under the guidance of Xiang Xi.
Grandma, along with the women, stabilized the rear. Every day, she led the women in digging wild vegetables and picking mushrooms in the mountain forests. Chen Lan's current job was responsible for hunting. Grandma said, "Xiao Lan, whether everyone can improve their meals and eat meat depends on you!" Chen Lan suddenly felt a great deal of pressure.
After eating wild chicken and wild rabbit for several consecutive days, everyone found it wasn't as tasty as when they first started. Chen Lan herself also felt a bit tired of it and decided to hunt other prey to change everyone's taste.
Of course, they still needed to hunt wild chickens and rabbits. They were so abundant on the mountain that if they didn't hunt some, they feared these wild animals would come down to the valley and ruin the crops.
Grandma had instructed that the hunted wild chickens and rabbits be given to Lin Mai to be cured and air-dried into preserved chicken and preserved rabbit, to be saved for winter when vegetables were scarce. She also asked Chen Lan to purchase a large quantity of salt, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, and red chilies from the system for curing.
Chen Lan complied with all instructions and purchased a large amount of everything, handing it over to Grandma.
One day, Chen Lan, as usual, prepared to go hunting in the mountains after breakfast. Gentle Mother reminded her, "Lan'er, don't go too far hunting today. The weather feels a bit stuffy, and it's already very hot early in the morning. I suspect it might rain today, so remember to bring your raincoat."
Chen Lan quickly nodded and replied, "Thank you, Mother. I understand. I won't go far today. I haven't been to that area before. I'll just look around in the nearby mountain forests for other prey and come back."
After speaking, she quickly used her mind to open the system's search function to check the weather forecast for the next fifteen days. Indeed, it was predicted to rain today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, followed by five sunny days, and then a few more days of rain. It was estimated that it was the rainy season in Changbai Mountain.
Chen Lan bade farewell to Gentle Mother, got into the car with her basket on her back, and headed in the direction she had just told her mother. Along the way, she hunted several wild chickens and rabbits but found no traces of other prey. Chen Lan found it strange. Logically, there should be many species of wild animals in Changbai Mountain. It wasn't like the modern era where many animals were hunted to extinction. This was a primitive forest, undeveloped, so where had all the other animals gone?
The weather was still very hot. As Chen Lan walked, she pondered the matter of prey. Seeing a small stream not far ahead, she put her crossbow into the system storage, carried her basket, and walked towards it. Upon seeing that the stream water was clear and transparent, she prepared to put down her basket and wash her hands and face in the stream to cool off.
As Chen Lan squatted by the stream to wash her hands, she saw something dark crawling under a stone in the stream. At first, it startled her, and she immediately stood up, thinking it was a snake. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a snake. It had a pair of large pincers and a greenish-black color. She reached out and flipped over the stone, and it looked like crayfish. Thinking it was crayfish, she looked again and felt it wasn't quite right. Recalling, she remembered that this creature was a type of crayfish unique to Northeast China. Its scientific name was *la'gu*, a type of river shrimp. Because it had a pair of large, thick claws, it was also called "claw shrimp." Compared to crayfish, *la'gu* has a larger head, a smoother outer surface, and no prominent bumps or spines. *La'gu* can be considered a somewhat fastidious type of shrimp. It has very high demands on the water quality of its habitat, living only in clear, unpolluted streams and rivers. Therefore, in the past, *la'gu* was used as one of the indicators for water quality testing.
Because *la'gu* has high demands on water quality, it basically has no peculiar smell or muddy odor. With simple cooking, it is very delicious, and its meat is even more tender and tastier than crayfish.
A famous dish from Northeast China, "La'gu Tofu," was made from *la'gu*. It wasn't made by boiling *la'gu* with tofu, but rather by removing the shells of *la'gu*, grinding them up, and then cooking them into a delicacy. Perhaps the production process was similar to making tofu! The craftsmanship for "La'gu Tofu" has been passed down to this day, with a history of over a thousand years. "La'gu Tofu" is tender and smooth like tofu, and exceptionally delicious.
*La'gu* is a highly reproductive creature. Chen Lan casually flipped over a few stones, and under each stone, there were one or two *la'gu*, some even with several.
An unknown wise person once said, "The rise and fall of life are predetermined; gains and losses are arbitrary. Traveling through mountains and rivers, one will always encounter unexpected surprises."
This time, Chen Lan became interested. She purchased a few large plastic buckets from the system and took out the rain boots she had worn when catching snow frogs during a previous rain. She put them on and went into the stream, flipping over stones one by one to find *la'gu*. Perhaps no one had ever caught *la'gu* here before, and they had no natural predators, so under stones of all sizes, there were *la'gu*, not only present but in great numbers, practically a disaster. There were simply too many! She could directly scoop them into the bucket. In a short while, she had a bucket full.
Chen Lan thought that if she had discovered so many *la'gu* in her previous life, she would have become rich. This thought reminded Chen Lan that since the system even bought wild vegetables, it would surely buy wild *la'gu* as well.
With this in mind, Chen Lan quickly opened the system's selling function with her mind. The scan indicated that pure wild Changbai Mountain *la'gu* sold for 130 yuan per jin. Chen Lan exclaimed in surprise, "My heavens, is this catching *la'gu*, or is this picking up money!" After her exclamation, she immediately immersed herself in the self-forgetful task of picking *la'gu*. She kept picking and picking, not remembering how many buckets of *la'gu* she had sold to the system. As long as a bucket was full, she sold it to the system, only stopping when her back ached too much to straighten up. Sitting on a rock by the stream, Chen Lan rested for a while. She decided to catch five more large buckets of *la'gu* to take back for everyone to taste. She believed that everyone had never eaten this before, and by catching so many today, she would let everyone have their fill of *la'gu*. With this thought, Chen Lan immediately felt re-energized, her waist no longer sore, and her back no longer painful. She nimbly and quickly gathered five large buckets. Looking at the five large buckets of *la'gu* and the full basket of prey, Chen Lan was stumped. How would she carry all this back? These were live creatures, and Chen Lan dared not put them into the system storage for fear they would die inside.
Chen Lan felt quite vexed. She had already collected them, so should she just throw them back into the stream?
No, she definitely couldn't throw them back into the stream. Chen Lan thought for a moment and suddenly had an idea. She immediately used her mind to open the system and choose to purchase. She bought two large snake skin bags from the system, each capable of holding a hundred jin. She then transferred the *la'gu* from the five buckets into the two snake skin bags. The task was completed in minutes. She also took out a machete from the system storage and cut a dead branch, trimming it into a carrying pole. Carrying the two large bags of *la'gu* on the pole and with the basket on her back, she prepared to walk down the mountain. By then, the sky was gradually darkening, indicating that it was about to rain. Chen Lan quickly hurried down the mountain.