Aren't These Two Rabbits Way Too Fat?

She practiced her internal cultivation technique, and soon felt a current of Qi slowly flow in through the Baihui acupoint at the crown of her head and spread through her limbs and bones.

After quite a while, she opened her eyes and said, "That felt wonderful! I feel like I've recovered a tiny bit."

The process couldn't be rushed, and sure enough, she heard more than a dozen mushrooms singing.

The one in the lead, whose cap had light brown markings, began: "I'm a little mushroom, growing on a stony mountain trail. I drink a little dewdrop in the morning, and listen to the wind speak at night."

The mushrooms beside it hurried to join in, gently tapping their caps against the ground to keep time: "I'm a little mushroom, holding up my little umbrella, unafraid of rain. I don't compete with flowers to look pretty; I just love listening to the trees sing old tunes."

As the wind blew, they swayed more merrily, their slender stems bumping into one another as their song grew livelier: "I'm a little mushroom, rooted in the earth and never moving. The mountain clouds are my friends; how lovely it is to sing an old song."

Zhou Wanwan walked over and slowly put the mushrooms into the back basket. They were all nonpoisonous.

After picking the dozen or so mushrooms, she heard the wild greens beside them talking: "Those two fat rabbits over there will probably come eat us again today. They've plucked my green hair clean off. It hurts so much..."

"Boo-hoo-hoo... My hair's all gone already. Those two rabbits are so awful. They're big bad villains."

No sooner had they finished speaking than two hares came racing toward them.

Zhou Wanwan immediately took out the back basket and dropped it over them. Zhou Qingchen jumped for joy. "Rabbits! Wow! Aren't these two rabbits way too fat? Little sister, you're so fast!"

Zhou Wanwan was naturally fast, because she knew the two rabbits were coming to eat grass. This was truly waiting by the stump for a rabbit.

They tossed the two hares into the back basket, and Zhou Wanwan said, "We can raise these two hares. Hares breed quite well. Once they've grown, we can eat their meat."

They were just about to leave when they heard the wild greens beside them continue:

"These humans are really stupid. The rabbit warren is right next to us, and there are more than a dozen rabbits inside!

"They don't even think to look for it."

"Isn't that right? This little girl is quite pretty, but it's a shame she's not very bright."

The corner of Zhou Wanwan's mouth twitched. She turned around and went straight to the rabbit hole. Sure enough, Zhou Qinghe pulled twelve rabbits out of it. He carefully put them in the back basket and cut a lot of wild grass.

Zhou Wanwan, meanwhile, went back to the wild greens from before. They were all mountain bracken, which grew on the shady slopes of ravines. Its stalks were tender and tinged with purple; after blanching, they could be stir-fried with meat or served cold, crisp, tender and fragrant.

They picked a large basketful before heading down the mountain. When they reached the village, they saw old Madam Wang from next door, who greeted them. "You went up the mountain so early? Looks like you had a good haul today!"

Liu Su'e nodded. "You're up quite early too. We'll be heading home now."

Old Madam Wang looked at the wild greens in the basket. "My, these wild greens are really fresh..."

Liu Su'e smiled slightly and quickly took them home.

Once they were home, she shut the door before saying, "Why do both old Madam Shen and old Madam Wang seem a little off?"

Zhou Wanwan had originally thought it was peaceful here, with only three households in all, but now it looked like the neighbors on both sides were trouble.

Zhou Wanwan shook her head and called, "Dad, we're back."

Zhou Fusheng came out from inside and said:

"You didn't run into anyone else, did you? I was worried sick at home.

"Go take a look. I wiped the room spotless. Wanwan, are you afraid to stay here?

"If you are, you can come stay in our room with us."

Zhou Wanwan shook her head. "I'm not afraid. What's there to be afraid of?"

She really wasn't afraid. Her training in her previous life had been extremely brutal. More than a hundred children had been locked on an island and made to kill one another to awaken the spiritual power within them.

So she had encountered a great deal of it. The dead weren't frightening; what was frightening was figuring out how to stay alive.

When she entered the study, she saw that it had been wiped spotless, and the quilt on the bed had been replaced with a new one.

Zhou Fusheng smiled. "This quilt belongs to your brothers. Two quilts are enough for the three of them, so use this one for now."

Zhou Wanwan smiled brightly. "Mom, shall we have pork rib soup for lunch today? It'll be delicious with some mushrooms in it."

"All right..." Liu Su'e turned and went straight into the kitchen, where she took out the ribs they had bought yesterday. The meat had been picked clean off the ribs, but they were ribs after all, and still had a meaty flavor.

Zhou Wanwan linked arms with her and went to the kitchen, her voice soft and sweet. "Mom, I'll teach you to make a pot of rib soup so delicious it'll make your eyebrows fall off. The steps are simple, and it's no trouble at all!"

She first took some fresh ribs and soaked them in well water in a clay basin, kneading them with her hands from time to time. "Look, Mom. Soak them for half an hour to draw out all the blood, and the soup will be clear and won't smell gamey."

Once they had soaked, she took them out, filled the iron pot with cold water, put in the ribs, then tossed in three slices of ginger and poured in a spoonful of rice wine. "Ginger drives out the cold, and rice wine removes the gamey smell. We can't do without either."

After bringing it to a boil over high heat, she carefully skimmed off the layer of scum that rose to the surface with a wooden spoon. She boiled the ribs a little longer, then took them out and rinsed them clean with warm water.

Next, she put a few slices of ginger in the pot, arranged the ribs on top, and poured in enough warm water to cover them:

"Add enough water all at once. If you add more halfway through, it'll dilute the flavor.

"Don't rush, Mom. It needs to simmer for half an hour to draw all the savory flavor out of the bones."

When it had nearly finished simmering, Zhou Wanwan lifted the lid, sprinkled in fine salt, and tossed in two washed scallion sections for fragrance. "There's no need for other seasonings. Salt, scallions and ginger are enough; that's how it'll be fragrant."

The soup was milky white, and its aroma wafted out of the kitchen. Zhou Wanwan scooped up a spoonful and held it to her mother's lips. "Have a taste. Isn't it savory?"

Liu Su'e took a sip. "It really is quite savory..."

Zhou Wanwan poured in all the mushrooms they had picked in the mountains.

At noon, everyone had a bowl of white rice. Eldest brother Zhou Qingyan held his coarse porcelain bowl and took a sip of soup, his eyes lighting up. "Heavens! This soup is so savory!"

Second brother Zhou Qinghe didn't even look up. He kept shoveling rice into his mouth, nodding repeatedly in agreement:

"That's right! In all my life, I've never eaten anything this delicious! When we were at the Zhou family home, when did we ever get to enjoy food like this?

"Every meal was other people's cold leftovers. Sometimes they'd gone cold and hard, and there was hardly a speck of oil to be seen."

Third brother Zhou Qingchen's cheeks were bulging:

"Second brother is absolutely right! Those people in the Zhou family treated meat like a treasure and ate it themselves. We couldn't even get a scrap.

"I never knew meat tasted this savory. I thought eating it was like chewing firewood!"

Zhou Fusheng slowly took a sip of soup, his voice low:

"Sigh... In the end, I'm not their own flesh and blood. In the Zhou family's eyes, we're outsiders. How could we compare with their own children?

"It was good enough if we didn't go hungry. How could we dare hope for meat?"