“What are you afraid of?” said Wong Mudan. “If we really picked up some game meat, Pa would be more than glad to see it so why would he scold us? What do you say?”


  Chen Ju was, after all, more cautious than Wong Mudan. “Is it true? Do you guarantee that we can pick any up?”


  Wong Mudan then quoted what Ye Xiaoxian just said. “Of course. Think about it. The typhoon yesterday was so fierce and pheasants in the mountain had no nests or anything. Even if they had nests, they must have been blown away, so that’s why they would be dead in the rain shower, right?”


  Chen Ju gave it some thought and she agreed to what Wong Mudan said, so the two of them simply packed up and made their way to the mountain.

  Xiao Baoshan walked very fast so he came back home before dark.

  When he arrived home Ye Xiaoxian was already done chopping up the hare and got ready to make a pot of hare meat with fresh bamboo shoots.

  In the kitchen, Ye Xiaoxian was cooking and Li Hongmei was taking care of the fire.

  Xiao Baoshan stepped in, passed eight hundred coins to Li Hongmei and said that these were made by selling the hares.

  Except for the coins, Xiao Baoshan gave Li Hongmei something else which turned out to be five or six hair ties.

  “Baoshan, why did you buy these?” asked Li Hongmei. “Is it because you saw little Ye Xiaoxian had tied her hair with grass string this morning?”


  Xiao Baoshan answered plainly, “When I went back from the town I happened to see someone selling this stuff. There were only a few left and he asked me if I needed any, so I bought the rest of them. Ma, you share them with little Ye and Baozhu then.”


  “Aha, you petty man, obviously you bought these for little Ye but still you use us as an excuse. Well I won’t give any to little Ye, so these are all for Baozhu and me, okay?” Li Hongmei teased him.

  Xiao Baoshan did not answer and he knew that Li Hongmei would not do this. As for Ye Xiaoxian, she was holding a great joy in her heart.

  She certainly knew the reason why Xiao Baoshan bought hair ties was that her hair tie broke when they were in the mountain, otherwise why would he buy them?

  The only thing is that this guy is too reticent.

  Or he simply just wanted to buy hair ties for every woman in his family to show that he treated everyone equally.

  Sigh, boring.

  The hare meat was soon cooked and Ye Xiaoxian asked Xiao Baofeng to take a small bowl of it for Old Mr. Xiao.

  When Xiao Baofeng came back he looked tense. “Grandpa was very sulky. He said that no one was cooking for him, as our elder and third aunt had gone out somewhere and had not come home yet. He asked if we can fill a bowl of rice for him?”


  Li Hongmei said, “Sure, hurry up and take one bowl of rice to your grandpa. He scolds others when he is upset and we don’t want him to scold us later.”


  Li Hongmei murmured confusedly, “What are those two sisters-in-law up to today? Don’t they start cooking around this time every day? And it’s already so late now yet they’re still out. Aren’t they afraid of being shouted at?”


  Ye Xiaoxian wondered if they believed what she said and really went up to the mountain to collect game meat?

  Seeing that Ye Xiaoxian looked a bit odd, Li Hongmei then asked her, “Little Ye, do you know where they went?”


  Ye Xiaoxian then told them what happened in the afternoon.

  “Ah? Little Ye Xiaoxian you actually……lord, it’s killing me! Those two morons, they really thought they could just pick up game meat in the mountain. Without our Baoshan they wouldn’t be able to taste a bit of meat. Not even in their wildest dreams!”


  Xiao Baozhu laughed as well.

  Xiao Baoshan looked rather calm. “It’s perilous up in the mountain. It’d be dangerous if they should come across anything.”


  “What……what kind of thing they should come across?”


  Xiao Baoshan said, “I’d better go there and check.”