The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 065: Blood Splash by the River
After dinner, there was a pattering rain outside. Xia Yue Chu and Qin Zheng put on coir raincoat, took on the lamp and went out with the fish trap basket.
When they were about to reach the river, Qin Zheng vaguely saw a dark shadow flashed in front of the lamp.
Since Cao Lao Liu pretended to be a ghost the last time, he had increased his vigilance and immediately stepped forward in front of Xia Yue Chu.
He raised the light to shine on the front, and looked around vigilantly.
Xia Yue Chu shouted in surprise: "Oh, hashima frog!"
"What?" Qin Zheng looked ahead again but did not see anything at all.
"You hold the lamp and don't move!" Xia Yue Chu had caught frogs before when she was a child and she was familiar with it. She took two wide strides forward, stretched out her hand and grabbed it in the grass shrubs, immediately she gained a fat and plump toad.
When she picked it up and inspected under the light, it was a female with a bulging belly. Through the translucent belly, the blue and purple eggs inside could be vaguely seen, and a pair of hind legs were still pedaling vigorously.
Qin Zheng disliked this kind of slimy and cold things. Seeing Xia Yue Chu holding a toad coming over, he quickly took a step back and frowned, "Sister-in-law, why are you catching this!"
"Of course to eat it!" Xia Yue Chu stuffed the toad into the fish basket and cheered happily, "If I hadn't caught sight of it today, I would have forgotten that it was the season for the toad to come ashore. Let's walk along the river again, maybe we can catch more."
"What?" Qin Zheng felt the goose bumps all over his body, "Sister-in-law, let's forget it, although I am greedy for meat, but what if we eat the toad and get food poisoned, it won't be a light matter!"
"You don't understand, this is a forest frog, and it's very good in nutrients." Xia Yue Chu changed her direction and did not follow the plan to set the fish basket, but walked upstream along the grass by the river.
Forest frogs were also known as snow frogs. In the Qing Dynasty, it was listed as one of the eight treasures of the palace and it was paid as tribute to the palace every year.
Modern ladies who love beauty were even more eager for them.
However, depending on the purpose, catching forest frogs was also divided into seasons.
If you were harvesting for the toad oil, which was also called hasma, then you should be aiming during the autumn season right before the female frogs go into their winter hibernation. But if you are aiming for the meat and eggs, this would the best time.
The forest frog hibernates in the river every winter, and the belly of the female forest frog will harness a belly full of eggs.
When the weather turned a little warmer in spring, every time when it rains lightly, they would leave the river one after another to go ashore and find puddles to mate and lay their eggs.
Right now is the best time and also the easiest time to be catching them.
As long as you walk by the river with a light, the forest frog illuminated by the light would freeze up like magic and it would lost its jump, going forward and grabbing it would do.
When Xia Yue Chu was a child, she often followed the people in the village to catch forest frogs. Although she was small, she had good eyes. When she was lucky, she could catch more than two hundred in one night and sell them to restaurants in the city. She could earn half a month's worth of expense with just one go.
Thus, she was very familiar with this task of catching forest frogs. Although the light was too weak to shine too far at this moment, the multitude of forest frogs in the ancient time were overwhelming. Perhaps it was because no one was catching them, she could even catch them with her eyes closed.
The two of them did not go far and a fish basket was almost full.
Xia Yue Chu caught them enthusiastically, and planned to walk further upstream for a while before returning home.
However, Qin Zheng smelled an unusual scent from the night breeze, suddenly he stretched out his hand to stop Xia Yue Chu, and made a silent gesture at her.
His nose twitched, carefully distinguishing the smell in the air.
The night breeze carried the unique smell of river water, and it was also mixed with an imperceptible smell of blood.
At the bare minimum, Qin Zheng had been rolling around the army fields over certain years, he was extremely keen and familiar with this scent.
He carried the lamp and walked slowly towards the river, and sure enough, he saw blood stains on the grass at his feet.
Qin Zheng squatted down and dipped his fingers in the blood, then spreading it out at his fingertips.
The blood stains had not dried up, and in fact it lingered in its original body temperature that had yet to dissipate.
He stopped hesitantly and looked back at Xia Yue Chu.
If he was alone at this time, Qin Zheng would definitely catch up and take a look.
But Xia Yue Chu was still with him, and if there was any danger ahead, he was not sure if he could protect her.
Xia Yue Chu had also saw the blood on the ground, her expression was a little solemn but considerably calm. She thought for a moment and whispered, "This is still within the village range. There shouldn't be any major incidents. Maybe someone was injured on the night road. Let's go over and take a look."
Qin Zheng heard her and handed the lamp to Xia Yue Chu, and drew a dagger from his boot.
He was on guard with a dagger in his right hand before his chest, and his left hand was protecting Xia Yue Chu at his back. The two of them followed the blood stains and finally chased to a big tree by the river.
There was a man dressed in black lying under the tree, motionless, it was so dark like black ink, and they could not see where he was injured.
Qin Zheng carefully confirmed that there were no other dangers around, before he stepped forward to check.
This person was just in a coma and was breathing weakly.
Qin Zheng turned the person over with force, and Xia Yue Chu stepped forward with a lantern to illuminate.
It was an unexpected familiar face which surprised the both of them.
"This... isn't this person the swallow skidding upon water who picked up the stack in the river last time?" Xia Yue Chu asked in a quiet voice.
"Feng Qi!" Qin Zheng was impressed with this person's skills, and said with certainty, "It's him!"
Qin Zheng briefly checked on Feng Qi's injuries and found that there was a wound in his thigh that was eight or nine inches long.
The wound was extremely deep and bloody with the flesh turned outwards, the chilly white bones could be seen vaguely.
Qin Zheng took off the outer layer of his clothes, tightly tied Feng Qi up at the thigh connecting to his hip with the sleeves, and wrapped the remaining fabric around the wound.
Feng Qi let out a muffled snort from his chest, but he did not wake up.
The blood was barely stopped for the time being, and the two of them look at Feng Qi with dilemma. There were many people at home and mouths were mixed (Meaning: news would spread quickly because they would be talking about it), it was inconvenient to take him back to recuperate.
But if they were to leave him here, they estimated that he could meet his death before the sun raised.
Xia Yue Chu thought for a while and said, "I remember that we have a thatched house that has been empty for many years at the foot of the mountain behind our house. No one goes there usually. Let's get him over and treat his wound first."
"That's the only thing we can do now." Qin Zheng carried Feng Qi on his back with the help of Xia Yue Chu.
Taking advantage of the night, the two quickly passed through the village and found the thatched house at the foot of the mountain.
Although the house has been empty for several years, the wood used to build the frame was good materials from the mountains, so even when the four walls were dilapidated now, the entire structure of the house was still holding up well.
The window paper had long rotten away, so the room was well ventilated. Although there was dust everywhere, there was no nasty smell.
Xia Yue Chu found an almost bald broom on the ground and swept the straw mat on the brick bed a few times, then she got Qin Zheng to put Feng Qi on the brick bed.
When they settled Feng Qi down, the two hurried home. Qin Zheng took some water and medicine and went back again.
Xia Yue Chu stuffed an old quilt to him, telling him that she would heat up dinner and bring it over.
Qin Zheng returned to the thatched cottage, tore open Feng Qi's tattered pants, firstly washed the wound with water, and then sprinkled the medicine for sore on his wound.
The medicinal powder stimulated the wound making the muscles around the wound twitched instantly.
Feng Qi made a vague sound with his throat, opened his eyes and grabbed onto Qin Zheng's wrist.
Although he lost too much blood, his eyes were still shining, his eyes were as sharp as a knife, and one wouldn't see a sign of his weakness at all.
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Translator Notes:
Translated by YellowBean.