The Life of a Son-in-Law in a Courtyard House

There was practically nothing on the outer edge of the woods, plus it was close to the roadside.

So at this point, Yang Dalin was still walking relatively fast.

Yang Dalin had been to this forest once before. Although he hadn't explored it completely, it was still easy to find out which areas had wild rabbits.

In the dead of winter, all the leaves had fallen from the trees, and many of the fallen leaves on the ground were collected by nearby villagers to be used as firewood.

So when you first go in, stepping on the ground won't make a lot of noise. But as you go deeper, there are still a lot of leaves and withered grass, so you have to slow down, otherwise it will make noise.

The bare woods were not dark.

Therefore, the Qi Yanhua sisters were not afraid.

Yang Dalin quickly found a rabbit hole, listened carefully, and confirmed that there were indeed rabbits inside.

Then Yang Dalin put down his backpack and asked Sister Yan and the other two to go find some dry grass.

He took out a folding entrenching tool from his backpack. It was a gift from the game and didn't have as many functions as it would in later versions.

It wouldn't be a big deal if the two sisters saw it; they would just think he made it himself.

He first blocked two of the three holes he found.

It was completely blocked.

Then they lit the dry grass that Qi Xiaoning and her sister had found, and sprinkled some water on some of the dry grass with a kettle.

We must not let the hay burn out too quickly.

Otherwise, without smoke, how would you smoke the rabbits out?

Yang Dalin also took out a section of bamboo tube that had been hollowed out from his backpack.

This made it easier for him to blow smoke into the cave.

Qi Xiaoning asked, "Brother Dalin, why is there so much in your backpack?"

Yang Dalin smiled and said, "Can I tell you that some of them were taken from my space? This backpack is just for disguise."

However, Yang Dalin still explained to her, "This is my treasure bag. It contains many useful things, including the seasonings for roasting the rabbit later."

Almost every one of our drivers has one, because when driving to distant business trips, you never know what might happen, so everyone carries various items just in case.

I didn't bring much in my backpack today. Some of my colleagues bring a small pot, which is convenient for boiling water and cooking on the road.

Qi Xiaoning said enviously, "Brother Dalin, why don't you get me a backpack like this too?"

I also have a lot of things to put away.

Qi Yanhua tugged at her and said, "What do you need such a big backpack for? It's heavy with dozens of kilograms of stuff, and you won't need it for school."

Do you still want to bring all your snacks to school?

Aren't you afraid someone will steal it?

Qi Yanhua knew that Yang Dalin doted on his younger sister. If she said she wanted one, Dalin would definitely get it for her. But they didn't need to go on business trips and were still in school, so they didn't need it at all.

Making one for her would waste a lot of canvas and fabric coupons.

If Mom finds out, I'll get a beating. Rather than get beaten, I'd rather not do it.

Yang Dalin didn't have time to say anything else because he noticed the wild rabbit was about to come out.

He only said "Hmm," then put down the bamboo tube, picked up the slingshot, and waited for the rabbit to come out.

Seeing Yang Dalin's actions, the two sisters knew that he was about to gain something, so they wisely kept quiet.

Suddenly, a grayish-yellow figure darted out of the rabbit hole and ran quickly towards the entrance.

Yang Dalin had been waiting for it for a long time.

After the rabbit had run several meters away, Yang Dalin's slingshot suddenly fired.

The hare ran several more meters before staggering and collapsing to the ground.

He was still convulsing but not dead. Qi Xiaoning ran over to grab him, shouting, "You hit him! You hit him!"

In just a few meters, Qi Xiaoning grabbed a wild rabbit weighing four or five pounds by the ear and looked at it with delight.

The initial velocity of the slingshot projectile is not high. Sometimes when Yang Dalin uses his slingshot to shoot rabbits, he may only hit the rabbit's leg or just knock it unconscious.

So Yang Dalin was afraid that Qi Xiaoning might not catch the rabbit properly and it would run away again, so he took it directly and twisted its neck.

Then they let her carry it.

There was another large rabbit in the rabbit hole, and Yang Dalin planned to catch it as well.

Otherwise, there might only be one, which wouldn't be enough for three people.

Therefore, Yang Dalin asked Qi Xiaoning to be quiet for a while.

He pointed to the rabbit hole, implying that there was another rabbit inside.

Yang Dalin added more smoke to the fire, and soon another large wild rabbit couldn't stand the smoke and followed in the footsteps of the one before it.

Yang Dalin extinguished the fire with soil, and after a careful inspection, he made sure it wasn't completely extinguished, lest it cause a forest fire.

Then they took the two rabbits to a place out of the sisters' sight and quickly butchered them.

When the bloodied, naked rabbit, freshly skinned, was handed to Qi Xiaoning, the girl hesitated to grab it.

Alright, I guess I'll just have to let Sister Yan take it.

This is not the fairy maiden of later generations, who was ignorant of the five grains and lazy in physical labor.

A starving woman would dare to keep a wolf alive, let alone two skinned rabbits.

Yang Dalin led them deep into the forest, to a sparsely wooded area.

Yang Dalin whittled two wooden sticks and stuck the two rabbits on them.

Then stick it in the ground.

Let the two of them gather some dry firewood, and then I'll go hunt two pheasants.

We were about to start our picnic.

Yang Dalin didn't want to hunt too many wild rabbits and pheasants today, otherwise it would be difficult to hide them in his spatial storage.

That should be enough for a while.

I'll hunt two more pheasants so I can bring one back for Brother Tian later.

We can't forget our good mentor, Brother Tian.

Qi Xiaoning wasn't done playing yet and wanted to continue playing.

Yang Dalin said, "If we go hunting again today, we won't have time to roast the rabbit later."

After all, it takes time to bake them.

If we want to have a good picnic, we need to allow plenty of time.

We don't lack meat at home, so let's hunt less and leave some for the other villagers who hunt rabbits and pheasants. Otherwise, if we hunt too much, it will be harder for them to catch us.

Qi Xiaoning may not have much else, but she does have compassion.

Seeing that Yang Dalin said this, he agreed.

Soon Yang Dalin went for a walk in the woods and caught two pheasants.

He's back; the two sisters haven't finished gathering firewood yet.

Yang Dalin had no choice but to hide to the side, dig a small pit, cut open the pheasant's neck, and let it bleed.

They buried the chicken blood in the soil.

Then, when the two sisters weren't looking, he took a basin of freshly boiled water from his spatial storage and scalded the pheasant, otherwise it would be difficult to pluck its feathers.

A moment later, the two sisters asked themselves how they plucked the chicken feathers.

I had to make up an excuse, like I plucked them by hand or burned the downy feathers with fire.

Presumably, the two sisters don't really care that a little bit of downy hair wasn't completely plucked.

Anyway, we'll be roasting it over a fire later, so there's no way to save it.

Seeing that the roosters had beautiful feathers, Yang Dalin specially kept them to make a shuttlecock for Qi Xiaoning.

Then they buried the chicken intestines and the rest of the chicken feathers.

The pheasant was given a thorough, full-body spa treatment with marinade.

Then skewer the chicken's internal organs with chopped twigs.

The two wild rabbits were also cleaned up.

They dug a small fire pit with an entrenching tool to make it easier to start a fire.

With everything ready, the two sisters returned, each carrying a pile of firewood.

Wow, we've got quite a bit of firewood; we probably won't use it all.