Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 374: Snake Nest

"When I go back, I’ll bring my mom to see you."

Yi Chichi nodded and agreed. What followed was simple: settle the final payment and bid farewell.

Seeing them come out, Wen’s mother enthusiastically invited them to stay for a meal, but Yu Ritang declined with a smile, "Auntie, my aunt has already prepared food."

The implication was that they were going to her aunt’s house to eat.

There was no reason to insist, especially since the meal was already prepared.

"Then come over and have fun next time."

"Sure, Auntie."

The two sisters laughed and agreed, then bid farewell to Yi Chichi as well as Qin Jiu, who had just returned with rabbit meat and chicken soup, and left happily.

After sending them off, Wen’s mother poured a bowl of chicken soup and handed it over, "Hurry, drink while it’s hot."

Yi Chichi, "...Thank you, Mom."

The family raised six chickens: two were hens from last year, and four were newly brought in this spring.

The plan was to raise four more hens, so they could lay eggs when mature.

But among the four, three turned out to be roosters, and only one was a hen.

Wen’s mother was almost livid, wanting to eat them, but they were too small before, so she tolerated raising them.

Finally, she couldn’t hold back and slaughtered a young rooster.

"Is the soup good?"

With a sip of soup, Wen’s mother raised the question.

Yi Chichi and Qin Jiu exchanged a glance and nodded in agreement, saying it tasted great.

"The meat is delicious too."

Placing a piece of chicken in her bowl, she mumbled, "Why are they all roosters? If this were a hen, it wouldn’t have died so young."

Yi Chichi didn’t dare to speak, Qin Jiu was no different.

Even though he often dug worms and collected snails to crush and feed to the chickens, he didn’t dare speak for the rooster.

After all, it was male.

In Wen’s mother’s heart, which longed for more eggs, a chicken that couldn’t lay eggs was born with original sin.

Luckily, Wen’s mother’s moods came and went quickly.

"Are you going to deliver the public grain tomorrow?"

Yi Chichi’s answer was no. After half a month of autumn harvest, she hadn’t done any sewing, let alone work.

For the rest of the time, she planned to stay home and aim to complete her tasks by the end of the winter.

As for Qin Jiu, "Do you want to go?"

Qin Jiu nodded, "I do."

"Then go with Grandma to the commune tomorrow, browse the supply and marketing library, and then eat at the state-run restaurant."

Yi Chichi made the plans clear for both of them.

Wen’s mother, who had just fished out a chicken wing with a spoon, put it in her bowl after hearing this, "Do you have anything you need brought back?"

Yi Chichi thought for a moment and realized she didn’t lack anything at the moment.

Not in clothing, food, shelter, or transportation.

But—

"Mom, check at the post office tomorrow to see if my salary has arrived. If it has, please pick it up."

"Okay."

This wasn’t Wen’s mother’s first time picking up the money. In September, when the salary arrived, Yi Chichi was too lazy to go, so Wen’s mother picked it up. She had the experience.

So, the next day, when Wen’s mother went along with the main group to deliver the public grain, after arriving at the grain station, she first greeted the team leader and then took Qin Jiu to the post office to pick up the money.

Meanwhile, Yi Chichi set up her dining utensils and smoothly performed a set of hand exercises before getting to work.

The fine silk thread danced between her fingers, disappearing little by little and reappearing on the silk fabric.

After finishing a thread and using up the split silk, to continue embroidering, she needed to split new threads.

Looking at the time and seeing that it wasn’t lunchtime yet, she started to split more threads.

Before she could finish, Liu Lan, Zhou Qiuyu, and Ge Sujuan arrived.

The first question they asked was —

"Chichi, do you have water?"

"Yes."

Yi Chichi pointed to the teapot on the table, "Help yourself."

Before she finished speaking, three figures flashed before her, appearing at the table to pour water and guzzle it down.

"??? What happened to you all?"

They were so thirsty, with sweat and grass clippings all over their heads and faces, looking quite disheveled.

Ge Sujuan, after drinking more than half a cup of water, felt like she was back among the living. She plopped down on a chair, took a few deep breaths, and finally had the energy to answer.

"We planned to go up the mountain, but ended up finding a snake pit in the meadow."

The environment in the meadow was too snake-friendly; there were indeed many snakes.

But a snake pit...

"Are you sure it was a snake pit?"

"Seven or eight grass snakes tangled together. If it’s not a snake pit, what is it?"

After drinking water, Liu Lan and the others nodded emphatically, affirming what she said.

Yi Chichi responded, "So you got scared and ran back?"

"Yeah."

Thinking of the scene of the tangled grass snakes, the three couldn’t help but shudder, their faces going pale.

"It was terrifying."

Seeing snakes was normal; they had encountered snakes before. Whether at the edges of fields, around houses, or in roadside bushes, snakes often appeared.

But those snakes moved alone; seeing two at a time was rare.

But today, they hit the jackpot with so many appearing at once.

Yi Chichi was a bit curious, "If they were all tangled up, how did you know there were seven or eight grass snakes?"

"We saw them."

Zhou Qiuyu, having recovered, wiped the sweat off her face and weakly said, "We didn’t know there were so many at first; we thought of catching them to take home and cook."

Snake meat was indeed edible, and even though grass snakes were poisonous, it didn’t affect the popularity and taste of their meat.

Yi Chichi understood why Zhou Qiuyu and the others had this idea.

She responded, "Then what happened?"

"We approached to catch them, startled the snakes, and seven or eight heads lifted, staring at us. We got scared and ran away."

At this point, Zhou Qiuyu, feeling immensely relieved, patted her chest, "Luckily, those grass snakes were tangled up, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to escape."

That was indeed fortunate.

If they were caught and bitten, it would have been disastrous.

"What were you going up the mountain for?"

Ge Sujuan, "There’s a persimmon tree loaded with fruit in the eastern mountains. We wanted to pick some to make persimmon cakes and met Lanlan on the way. She asked and joined us."

Yi Chichi instantly understood. Liu Lan was probably going stir-crazy at home with the kids, so she jumped at the chance to join in on some excitement.

It’s not that she had a big craving for persimmons; it was more likely that Ge Sujuan and Zhou Qiuyu were genuinely in need of a treat.

They planned to pick some ahead of time to stock up for the Youth Corps Courtyard. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Otherwise, when the team leader organized a crew to collect mountain goods, following the selling and distribution policies, the persimmons they received might barely be enough for everyone to taste.

Alas, it was all due to poverty and scarcity of resources.

"Will you still go?"

"No, no, no..."

The three of them waved their hands in horror; one scare was enough, a second time would be unbearable.

Yi Chichi presented them with squid slices, dried shrimp, and other seafood as a treat.

"Hang in there; once Uncle Team Leader comes back from the mountains, it’ll be time to distribute meat."

This year, the team raised ten pigs, more than ever before, as they usually raised up to six.

However, due to a swine fever outbreak at the farm last year that led to mass pig deaths, a pork shortage occurred throughout Baoshan County and surrounding areas.

The leadership didn’t want a repeat of the pork shortage, so they issued directives for teams to raise pigs and secure the pork supply.