In the early morning, the mountains were misty, and a wisp of cooking smoke wafted from the high-walled courtyard in the deep mountains . Lu Gu sat silently in front of the stove to boil water, looking a little tired.
The puppy came in from the outside and rubbed his head against his calf. He stroked the puppy's furry head and pinched his soft ears. Then there was a smile on his face, and he said, "Are you done eating?" When the Dahui come back, if he catchs more rabbits, you will have meat to eat.”
Last night the big dogs were not there, and the puppy didn’t want to sleep alone in the main room, so he barked at the door of his room and scratched the door with his paws. He had no choice but to open the door and bring in the sack, and let the puppy sleep under the bed.
Besides, Lu Gu couldn't sleep alone. The mountains and forests were too quiet at night, and sometimes you could hear the screams of unknown night birds outside. Fortunately, the closed doors and windows were solid. The kind that was propped up outwards was much stronger than a lattice window pasted with paper if it was tightly closed.
Sleeping at night without the tall man next to him, it seemed that something was missing, worry and fear were unavoidable, Lu Gu woke up from a dream, he woke up but couldn't remember what dream he had, only knew that his heart was terrified, and he couldn't bear it and he slept late at night.
The light of the fire reflected on his face, driving away the coldness of the early morning. After the steamed buns were warmed up, Lu Gu sat on the small stool in front of the stove to eat and drink. It was cold, and the fire at the bottom of the stove gradually went out but there was still some heat. There were still a lot of watercress, he picked up a few and ate them.
He was sitting and eating, and although the puppy had eaten, he still stood up, resting his fat front paws on his lap, wanting to smell the watercress in his hand.
"So greedy." Lu Gu said, he pinched a small piece of sour watercress for the puppy to smell. Sure enough, the puppy turned his head after smelling it a few times, and didn't want to eat it. Lu Gu threw it into the bottom of the stove after he smelling it, and elbowed the puppy's paw off his leg.
Shen Xuanqing didn't know if he would come back today, Lu Gu thought so, he didn't delay after eating, and went to work as usual.
He waited for the sun to come out to dry things every day, otherwise the fog and dew were still heavy when he woke up early, and the mushrooms and goji berries that were about to be dried, if they were taken out too early they would become damp again.
Shen Xuanqing said that the dwarf deer also liked to eat mushrooms, but these mushrooms were picked up by Lu Gu from many places, and they were good things for people. He wouldn’t be willing to give them to the dwarf deer, and they had to be dried and kept for stewing soup and vegetables in winter.
The thick trunk at the door was heavy, so he moved it to the left door panel with all his strength, took the sickle and went out to mow the grass, and brought back a large bundle of grass to feed the dwarf deer and pheasants.
Patting some grass and dirt on his body, Lu Gu and the dog let the chickens and ducks out again. The dog ran back and forth, barking at the chickens and ducks from time to time, learning how Lu Gu drove the chickens and ducks, and locked the chickens in a large cage to let them look for food by themself in the fence, then Lu Gu led the ducks to the pond.
The pond was quite big, and every day the ducks were released, he need to ensure not to let them swim to the river. Even the puppy learned to stand by the narrow ditch leading to the river, barking loudly and threatening the ducks to swim back.
The ditch was relatively narrow, and as soon as the ducks swim here, they could meet the dog standing next to it, and when the dog barked, they would hurriedly paddle their palmate feets and swim back.
Today, as soon as the ducks entered the water, the puppy ran to the ditch and squatted, his back looked very reliable.
Lu Gu saw that he was so smart, the puppy could take care of the ducks without Dahui around. He really liked him, so he walked over to pet the puppy who wagging his tail, and said with a slight smile, "Guaizi, you are so good. Then you stay here and watch them, I'll go back and fetch water from the wooden barrel."
Seeing him leaving, Guaizi subconsciously wanted to follow him, but when he turned his head, he saw the ducks were still in the pond, and he stood guard again.
Lu Gu ran back and forth five times, fetching water from a clean place upstream, filling up the water tank, his body warmed up as soon as he moved, and it wasn't so cold anymore. He went to the river again with the fish basket to see the net he had set the day before yesterday. He often watched Shen Xuanqing set the net, and he would try it sometimes, as long as he was diligent, he could learn everything by doing it.
The dense net he set caught some fishes and shrimps. Fortunately, he came to see it now, and there was a big fish flopping inside. Seeing that the fishing net was about to be broken, he quickly squatted by the river to pick them. The pond was not far away, and the puppy also ran over.
He didn't want any fishes or shrimps that were too small, so he threw them into the river again, and pick the big fish out of the net. Out of the water, the big fish slapped its tail on the ground, and the water on its body splashed the puppy that get too close together.
"Wow, woof!" The puppy was so easy to provoke, it immediately barked loudly at the fish, he tried to hold down the big fish with his paws and bite it, but the big fish hadn't exhausted yet, and was thrashing so hard that he failed for a while.
With a smile on his face, Lu Gu also tried to catch the big fish. This fish was so powerful that he could feel the strength of the fish tail hitting the ground when he stretched out his hand. It was not easy to caught, so he first caught five small miscellaneous fish. He put them into the fish basket with the river shrimps, looked at the fishing net again, and he had to mend it later.
Turning his head to look at the ducks, fortunately, they didn't swim into the river, but Lu Gu still walked over, picked up the long bamboo pole that had been placed by the pond and hit the water surface, driving them into the pond.
The big fish had no strength to toss, so Lu Gu put it into the fish basket before the puppy bit, otherwise people wouldn't be able to eat it.
Shen Xuanqing was not here, he couldn't finish the big fish by himself, besides, there were small fish and river prawns, when Shen Xuanqing came back he would make fish soup and stir-fried shrimps, he would eat very well, this big fish, he might as well killed and dried it in the sun, and kept it for winter.
In this case, Lu Gu went back to get the knife and scissors. The puppy was smart, and saw that no one was looking after the ducks after he left, so he went back to squat by the ditch, and looked back at the fish basket, as if he was afraid that someone would steal it.
Lu Gu was very proficient at killing fish, he scraped the scales of the big fish and small fishes, and threw the viscera into the pond for the ducks to eat.