Chapter 67: Hunting (Part 1)
Currently, most of their supplies had been almost emptied out.
Ye Lingyue had tried to go hunting in the nearby area, but the result wasn’t satisfactory. She only found a few rabbits during one night and hadn’t encountered other games.
Even during daylight, they found nothing.
"There are three rabbits, shall we keep them?" Ye Lingrui suggested.
Ye Lingyue nodded. If they could breed rabbits themselves, they would have a lot of livestock in the future.
Although the condition of the environment around their village was undoubtedly better than Magistrate He’s former region—more possible to find water sources and there was still quite a number of green vegetation—it was only slightly better.
And thus, everyone was surprised that the well the first branch had been cleaning for so long finally also had water.
Zheng Huizhen was so proud that she announced it to everyone.
"Cheng’er cleaned the well and turns out it really has water!" She said proudly, giving a side eye to Steward Du.
She cursed him as a rebellious servant under her breath and added, "If you all want water... you better behave, we don’t have that many of it."
It was clear who she was talking to. Steward Du also had a fuming face, looking at her with gritted teeth.
He turned to the servants behind him. "We will clean that well at the corner of the village after this."
After he said that, he frowned. The well was huge, which made it harder to clean thoroughly in a short time. They would also definitely need more people to participate in it.
There weren’t that many male servants... he had to make the female servants willingly go down there.
Of course, he didn’t want to do all the dangerous work himself.
Ye Lingyue sneaked into the first branch’s well at night and found out that the water wasn’t exactly clean. There also wasn’t much water, probably only enough for them to drink it.
She just wasn’t sure if there will be more water in the future, but it would be best if others didn’t disturb their second branch’s water.
When Shen Jingyi and others heard about the well in their small house could bring so much water, they immediately made a plan to rebuild the house and plug the earthen walls with better materials.
"We should rebuild the smaller house first, make it bigger and the ground around it higher," Ye Chengde immediately made a plan.
They divided the work with each other. One person went to find clay soil, the other normal soil to make the foundation around the house higher.
Rain was unlikely to come anytime soon, but they were still going to do it just in case there was a flood. They never knew what was going to happen next.
They almost emptied their food, so Ye Lingyue and Ye Lanxi went to hunt during the day.
"We should make fields for farming," Shen Jingyi laid out another plan for survival. She coughed. "Lan’er happened to have some paddy rice seeds and brought them."
Knowing it was Ye Lanxi who had it, everyone threw him a look of disbelief. He wouldn’t have such a thing for good purpose.
However, the young man was extremely proud. "What? Shouldn’t you all thank me? I am the one contributing with such precious seeds."
Their mouths twitched, and they ignored his smug appearance.
Ye Lingyue, the curious cat, immediately found him to satiate her curiosity. Currently, they were heading to the forest together, this time trying to go a little farther than yesterday.
"Second Brother, what did you plan to do with the paddy rice seeds?"
A look of awkwardness crossed Ye Lanxi’s face, making her curiosity grow.
She immediately accused him. "Admit it, it’s for something bad, isn’t it?!"
Ye Lanxi was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He snapped, "How can it be that bad? I just wanted to take revenge on someone by planting rice all over his lawn, hmph!"
Her eyes went wide, and she laughed loudly at that.
He felt embarrassed, turning around with a huff. "Stop laughing!"
Ye Lingyue held her stomach and gave a thumbs up. She wiped the psychological tears from the corners of her eyes. "It’s actually good, you help them to grow their own food."
He clicked his tongue. "I haven’t done that. Before I knew it, we were exiled just like that. I haven’t had the opportunity to take revenge yet."
"Oh, what did the guy di?" She asked.
Ye Lanxi let out a snort, and he said disdainfully. "He cheated in a horse race, and when I exposed him, he couldn’t take it and wanted to sabotage my horse..."
As they walked through the forest, she could hear faint footsteps following them.
She already knew who they were, so she just ignored them as long as they wouldn’t disturb her and Ye Lanxi’s prey.
"Second Brother, did you hear that?" She whispered in a low voice.
Ye Lanxi nodded and sneered. "Let them be."
They put some traps in some places, and then put some bait inside. Grains might attract wild chickens.
Ye Lingyue’s grains were already dehulled, so they couldn’t be used for seeds. Although Ye Lanxi had a small amount, they were incredibly precious at this moment.
If they could really grow the seeds he had brought, they could use the harvest as seeds again.
The deeper they were into the woods, occasionally they could hear the chirping of birds. Ye Lingyue was ready with her bow and arrows aimed at every edible bird she saw.
She narrowed her eyes, and once the arrow head was directed at the bird perching on the tree above...
Her arrow shot toward it.
The bird fell down and her eyes lit up. "Gotcha!"
There was actually quite a number of prey deeper in the forest.
She ran toward the direction where the bird had fallen, but someone had actually arrived there first. The person picked up her bird.
"Return the bird to me."