The timeline system has gone awry; they insist that steamed buns are a magic pill.

After a hearty meal, Li Qingqiu leaned back by the brazier, carefully applying the Jade Shell Nourishing Essence Oil. The chilblains on his hands had already healed considerably, demonstrating the oil's remarkable effectiveness. "As expected of a cultivation system," he thought, "the upgraded version of this 'Waiwai Oil' is ten times more effective than ordinary Waiwai Oil."

"Yin Yi, I'm going back."

Li Qingqiu put the jade shell nourishing essence back on the storage shelf and stood up. The beef had given him a lot of energy; his body had become increasingly robust lately, and the blood-replenishing pills were working exceptionally well. "Remember to close the doors and windows later."

"The gate to the courtyard has been blocked with stones."

Li Qingqiu looked around and saw that there was nothing else to do. He and Yin Yi had just cleared the snow off the roof, so there was nothing to worry about for the time being.

"Okay, I'll use stones to barricade the door later."

"Close the doors and windows."

Yin Yi wiped her hands as she hurried out of the kitchen. "Be careful on your way, don't slip."

Don't worry.

"So cute!" Li Qingqiu subconsciously wanted to reach out and pat Yin Yi's head. Her round little face and big eyes were really adorable.

"Oh?"

Yin Yi blinked her big eyes at Li Qingqiu's outstretched hand. Li Qingqiu smiled shyly and withdrew his hand. "I'm going back now, it's getting late. Remember what I just said."

"Yes, I've remembered everything, and I'll do it obediently."

Yin Yi was actually a little scared, but she secretly cheered herself up. "Yin Yi, you can do it. You can stay awake and not cry in secret. You're not afraid of the dark. You're the strongest. But why do I wish Li Qingqiu would stay a little longer?"

Li Qingqiu turned and waved goodbye before leaving the courtyard. Yin Yi, with a hint of reluctance, quickly ran to the courtyard gate and leaned against the mud-brick doorframe, watching Li Qingqiu leave until he was out of sight. She then muttered, "Close the gate...close the doors and windows..."

After following Li Qingqiu's instructions step by step, she finally smiled. She felt that she was already very capable. Unlike the past few days when she would hide under the covers and cry secretly, she was now very capable. She would properly close the doors and windows and was no longer afraid of the howling noises outside.

After closing the doors and windows, Yin Yi took out a bowl and a stone pestle, and scooped out some mixed grains, intending to pound them to make them more refined for making mixed grain pancakes tomorrow. She had eaten some of the braised beef, and there was still some left. Li Qingqiu had said that the beef and mixed grain pancakes were delicious last time.

Li Qingqiu opened the cave door and paused. "Mom, why are you sitting in my room so quietly again? It's quite scary."

"Where have you been so late?"

"Educated Youth Settlement".

Li Qingqiu lit a match, lit the kerosene lamp, and sat down. "Let me explain tomorrow's work. Uncle Medicine Basket will stay with the team to treat the villagers. Tomorrow, the treasure hunt team will only have me as the deputy leader."

Shi Lanhua sized up Li Qingqiu, noticing that Li Qingqiu's expression wasn't too unusual. "If one less person goes to the educated youth settlement, people will gossip."

"What gossip?"

"What do you think? There's only one female educated youth in the educated youth settlement. Although she's a bit young, she's still a female educated youth. You know what those gossipy people in the team are like."

"I know, Mom, I'll be careful."

"That's good to know. By the way, did your second brother contact you?"

"He chatted with me for a while, didn't say much, just wanted my younger sister and the others to dig for winter bamboo shoots with Xianle. I think it's a good idea, more people means more manpower." Li Qingqiu didn't care about this little thing. Shi Lanhua looked at her third son. This kid may be unreliable, but he's very perceptive.

"It's good that you understand."

Shi Lanhua stood up, thought for a moment, and then said, "You're the deputy captain of the treasure hunting team. Xiaomei and the others should only dig up a little, not too much. If they take more than the rest of the team, people might gossip."

"Don't worry, Mom, I know what I'm doing. I won't take the team's work points for nothing."

Li Qingqiu thought to himself, "I can still distinguish between the big family and the small family."

Seeing that Li Qingqiu understood, Shi Lanhua didn't say anything more. "Go to sleep early, we have to go into the mountains early in the morning."

"I'll soak my feet and then go to sleep."

Running around in the mountains every day, my feet are always wet and freezing. I have to soak them in hot water at night and apply some Yu Ke Run Yuan Zhi (a type of herbal balm). As for my underwear, I haven't changed it for three days, but I still have to wash it. It's good to be hygienic in a simple environment.

After washing up, Li Qingqiu lay on the bed and fell asleep in no time. The next morning, after breakfast, he put two cornbread buns in his pocket, and Shi Lanhua specially cut two slices of beef, chopped up a piece of dried tofu and pickled vegetables, mixed them together and put them in a small bamboo tube.

"Mom, tonight, chop some winter bamboo shoots and pickled vegetables, and stir-fry them with dried chili peppers."

Shi Lanhua rolled her eyes at Li Qingqiu. "You're really picky. Winter bamboo shoots are only five cents a pound. Eating them will make you immortal."

"hey-hey."

Seeing that his mother didn't speak, Li Qingqiu smiled awkwardly, greeted his younger sister and the others, and went to the crossroads of the brigade. Li Qinglian, Li Qinglei, Li Qingzhu, and Li Qinglian were already waiting there.

"Have you brought all the tools?"

"Everyone's here, Third Brother."

Li Qingzhu replied that his father had instructed him to work as Li Qingqiu's assistant.

"Alright, let's go."

Li Qingqiu casually picked up a wood-chopping knife and tucked it into his waistband, leading the way. Yin Yi followed closely behind, secretly slipping a multigrain cake wrapped in oiled paper into his hand. "For me?"

"Mmm, here, have some."

"did you eat?"

"have eaten."

"You really ate it?"

Li Qingqiu stared intently at Yin Yi, who lowered her head slightly. "I ate a small piece."

"How can one small piece be enough?"

"I made cornmeal porridge."

"I'll share half with you. I had cornbread for breakfast, so I'm not very hungry."

Li Qingqiu broke off half of a beef and multigrain pancake and handed it to Yin Yi, but this girl probably wouldn't eat it.

"I'll just eat a little."

"You only said half, so why are you being disobedient?"

"Okay, I'll listen to you, don't be angry."

Yin Yi is showing her cowardly side now; she's not going to put on an act in front of me anymore.

"I'm not angry, hurry up and eat." Although the snowstorm had lessened, the snow hadn't melted yet, and the path ahead was easier to walk on.

However, the last stretch of the road not only required wading through the water again, but also involved many bushes, branches, and thorns on the surroundings, and the slope was quite steep, making the journey very difficult.

"Everyone, slow down, be careful not to slip."

Li Qingqiu fell three times along the way, but fortunately the snow was thick enough that the falls didn't hurt.

"It's not far now." This cluster of winter bamboo shoots is located in a mountain valley, where there is no road at all; you can only wade down through the snow step by step.

They cleared away the branches, vines, and tangled bushes little by little. Fortunately, it was only a small section, and the group arrived at the location before 10:30. "I checked this area first; there should be plenty of winter bamboo shoots. Let's clear the snow first."

"Come on."

Li Qingbing and his team worked together and soon cleared a large area of ​​snow. Li Qingqiu asked Yin Yi to cut some branches and vines to make a fire later so they could warm themselves up, as their shoes were getting cold from the snow.

"Thankfully, the soil below hasn't frozen, otherwise we probably wouldn't have finished digging today."

The soil under the snow cover was still relatively soft, so it wasn't too difficult to dig. Li Qingqiu tried it and then handed it over to Li Qingbing and the others. He had only spent two or three hours on the way, and he hadn't even practiced the Lazy Eater Technique for half the time.

There was no other way; no one else knew this path, so I had to lead the way myself. Clearing the way ahead was tiring, so I decided to rest for a while first. I managed to make up the two hours of practice time for the Lazy Eater Technique.

"Found it."

Li Qingzhu was overjoyed, holding up a rather large winter bamboo shoot. "It must weigh more than half a pound."

"It's quite big."

"I found one too."

"Hey, I have some here too."

"Wow, there are quite a few here."

Even Yin Yi was eager to try, as digging for winter bamboo shoots was quite rewarding. Li Qingqiu, warming himself by the fire, casually handed Yin Yi a cornbread and a bamboo tube filled with chopped dried tofu stir-fried with pickled vegetables. "Give me some of your corn porridge later."

"Um."

"Let's each have one steamed bun."

"I'm not hungry."

"That's what I said."

Li Qingqiu waved his hand, not giving Yin Yi a chance to speak. He took off his shoes and dried them, waiting for his lazy eating time to end. Li Qingqiu patted his bottom, stood up, and joined the ranks of digging winter bamboo shoots. One by one, the winter bamboo shoots were dug out, and soon they were piled up in small heaps.

There were quite a few. Li Qingqiu took advantage of everyone's inattention to stuff one into the storage shelf, taking out one out of ten so as not to be discovered. He kept digging until he reached a little past one.

"Everyone, take a break. Let's grab something to eat first, and then we'll continue later."

"Okay."

"Third Brother, how much have we dug up?"

"That's quite a lot, probably around fifty pounds."

Wow, so many!

The men were engrossed in digging and hadn't paid much attention, but when they heard Li Qingqiu say there were fifty jin (25 kg) of fish, they were all filled with excitement. "This patch looks like there's still quite a bit left, Third Brother, if we dig up the whole nest, it won't weigh over a hundred jin, right?"

"Over a hundred pounds, even at three cents per pound, that's over thirty yuan!"

Now Li Qingbing and Li Qinglian couldn't sit still anymore. Good heavens, if the price were any higher, it would be forty or fifty yuan! This was outrageous. Normally, the whole brigade would only earn forty or fifty yuan a day.

This is only possible in a good year, so it's no wonder they're excited. Li Qingqiu thought to himself that they're short-handed; otherwise, if he found them a few hundred kilograms, they'd be ecstatic. "Alright, bring out the cornbread and steamed buns quickly, bake them, eat them quickly, and keep digging."

"Today, we'll make sure Uncle Fuyuan treats us to a meal when we get back."

Li Qingqiu said with a smile, "After digging so many winter bamboo shoots, I can't just leave without treating you to a meal."

"Yes, I'll treat you to a meal."

During the celebration, Qinglei and Li Qinglian shouted the loudest. Li Qingbing muttered a few words quietly. Li Qingbing shook his head helplessly. After all, Li Fuyuan was his father, but he couldn't stand up and object. Everyone was so happy, digging so many winter bamboo shoots and bringing in tens of yuan for the brigade. What was wrong with shouting a few words? If his father were here, he probably wouldn't care.

At lunchtime, Li Qingqiu brought out his own stir-fried pickled vegetables with shredded dried tofu, which earned him praise from everyone. Although Li Qingqiu is still lazy, he is very generous when it comes to food, showing great responsibility as a team leader.

After dinner, Li Qingqiu and Yin Yi also got to work, digging and digging until after four o'clock, finally finishing digging out most of the material. "It's getting late, everyone hurry up and pack up, let's get out of the mountains quickly."

"Okay."

Four baskets, each carrying more than 20 jin (10 kg), were not too heavy. Li Qingqiu and Yin Yi were in charge of clearing the way. Of course, Li Qingqiu had taken one out of ten, so there were at least ten more jin of winter bamboo shoots on the storage shelf.

"Why aren't they back yet?"

"Could it be that you didn't find any winter bamboo shoots and are embarrassed to come back during the day, so you're trying to sneak away under the cover of darkness?"

Wang Yulan, Big Foot Sister-in-law, and Aunt Liu had been secretly watching the intersection for a while, but they hadn't seen anyone. They had a big class today and would be studying at the elementary school in the evening. Aunt Liu and the others had been whispering among themselves for quite a while.

"You know what, it's actually possible."

Aunt Liu got all excited, and before long the whole classroom knew that Li Qingqiu had led a treasure-hunting team into the mountains on his own for the first time, and hadn't returned by nightfall. She was afraid he hadn't found anything and was embarrassed.

"Han Caihua, I'll tear your stinking mouth apart... so you can stop spouting nonsense."

"Shilanhua, what nonsense am I talking about? Your third son still hasn't come back. Look how late it is, he's probably really hiding in the dark." Aunt Liu has been feeling very frustrated lately, and now that she's finally gotten her revenge, she's quite pleased with herself.

The commune members in the classroom listened to Aunt Liu's words and muttered to themselves, "There seems to be some truth to it. This is the kind of thing Li Laosan would do."

"What's wrong? You're not saying anything now? I knew it! I told you, the previous times you were probably relying on the medicine basket. Now that you don't have the medicine basket anymore, you've been exposed, haven't you?" Han Caihua got more and more excited as she spoke, and her voice rose considerably.

"...I'll tear your mouth apart."

Shi Lanhua was too lazy to waste words and started to act directly. However, the classroom was small and there were several people blocking her way, so it was difficult for Shi Lanhua to tear Liu's mouth apart.

"Look, Third Brother and the others are back."

Li Qingmei was also staring outside when she suddenly saw Li Qingqiu and the others shouting loudly. She believed that her third brother would not have dug up the whole place. After all, according to the distribution map that her third brother had given them, they had dug up more than ten catties of winter bamboo shoots that morning.

"You're back?"

"Hurry up, stop them! Don't let them get away. I want to see if Li Laosan is still so smug after failing to dig anything up...?"