However, she had yet to grasp how to trigger the Heavenly Eye. Moreover, she seemed to have lost all her strength the first time it was triggered, so much so that she fainted.
Furthermore, from the recent events and how she's now feeling exhausted, it seemed that the activation of the Heavenly Eye would consume all her energies.
"Sis, look, we caught a lot of bugs."
Zhou Xiaoyu and Zhou Junjun held a few green grasshoppers in their hands and happily showed them to Zhou Xiaoli. They were not afraid of it at all.
Zhou Xiaoli came back to her senses and couldn't help but smile. "Quickly feed it to the ducklings then."
The two little fellows were obviously very happy as they carried the grasshoppers in their hands and ran into the alley.
Zhou Xiaoli also returned to the kitchen and began to prepare dinner.
As the saying goes, 'A clever housewife can't cook without rice'. The family's current conditions were limited. No matter how superb Zhou Xiaoli's culinary skills were, she could not cook anything delicious with nothing.
Looking at the empty kitchen, Zhou Xiaoli did not know what to do. Just as she was thinking about what to do, a voice suddenly came from the courtyard.
When she came out of the kitchen, she saw Liu Liangcai's youngest son, Liu Fengfeng, at the door and looking into the courtyard.
Zhou Xiaoyu stared at Liu Fengfeng with her round eyes and asked, "Hey, what are you doing?"
As she spoke, she hid her small hands behind her back with a vigilant expression.
Due to Zhou Xiaoli's reputation as a jinx, the children in the village either did not play with them or ganged up to bully them. Therefore, Zhou Xiaoyu subconsciously became vigilant when she saw Liu Fengfeng.
Of course, Liu Fengfeng was also very vigilant. He turned his head and did not speak to Zhou Xiaoyu.
When Zhou Xiaoli started walking towards him, he was startled like a frightened bird. He suddenly rushed over and placed something in Zhou Xiaoli's hand before shouting, "My father gave it to you."
As soon as he finished speaking, he rushed out of the courtyard. Because he was in a hurry, he bumped into a young man who had just walked past the door.
Liu Fengfeng rubbed his head and cried out in pain. When he looked up and saw the young man he knocked into, he suddenly rushed home as if he had seen a ghost.
The young man was not angry, but he twitched his nose suddenly and subconsciously turned to look at Zhou Xiaoli, who was standing at the door.
Zhou Xiaoli happened to look at him coincidentally. When their gazes met, Zhou Xiaoli was stunned and instinctively had goosebumps all over her body.
It was an instinctive fear.
The young man had a pair of amber eyes. They were very beautiful, but they reminded her inexplicably of the cat that squatted by the pond in Immortal Taiyi's residence and had grabbed her with its claws.
While Zhou Xiaoli was in a daze, the young man had already removed his gaze and left.
After she entered this body, many of her memories had automatically set off when she came into contact with humans. However, the original body did not seem to have any memories of this strange young man.
Thinking about it, the original owner of this body was considered to be a jinx and did not interact much with the villagers. It was normal that she did not remember anything about that young man.
Zhou Xiaoli looked away and closed the door. She looked at the thing that Liu Fengfeng had given her. It was a small bag. When she opened it, there was a small handful of coarse salt inside.
"Sis, Sis."
At this moment, Zhou Xiaoyu and Zhou Junjun ran to Zhou Xiaoli's side. They raised their hands and said happily, "Sis, look what Brother and I found."
As Zhou Xiaoyu spoke, she raised the mushrooms in her hand to Zhou Xiaoli.
Zhou Xiaoli instantly recognized the mushrooms as edible!
Her eyes lit up as she asked, "Where did you find them?"
Zhou Xiaoyu pointed at the yard happily. "It's on that broken log. We saw it when we were catching bugs. There are many mushrooms growing on it."
Zhou Xiaoli could not help but praise them. "You guys are awesome."
With coarse salt and mushrooms, she could make mushroom duck soup which was extremely good as well.
Zhou Xiaoli rolled up her sleeves and went into the kitchen. Soon, the fragrance of duck soup wafted out.
The two little fellows stopped catching bugs and leaned against the kitchen door as they sniffed the fragrance in the air.
They couldn't help but say, "Sis, it smells so good."
Zhou Junjun nodded his head like a chick pecking at rice.
Perhaps it was because of her proximity to the fire, but Zhang Lan's pale face turned a little red as well. She smiled at Zhou Xiaoyu and said, "Your sister will be done soon. Go clean up the dining table with Daddy."
The two little fellows responded and jogged out of the kitchen.
—-
Children from poor families grow up quickly.
Zhou Xiaoyu and Zhou Junjun were very sensible at such a young age. Although they craved the meat in the pot, they knew to let their mother have the best.
Zhou Xiaoyu said, "Sis, I'll have the soup only. Let mother have the meat. It's good for your health."
Zhou Junjun nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Zhang Lan immediately understood what Zhou Xiaoyu meant. Her eyes turned red as she shook her head and said, "Mother doesn't like meat. You guys eat it. I'll save my portion for you guys too. You can eat it tomorrow."
Zhou Xiaoyu shook his head. "Mother, eat."
Zhang Lan refused to eat no matter what and insisted on sharing the meat in her bowl with her three children.
Zhou Xiaoli immediately said, "There's still duck meat left. Let's eat it together. Mother, you eat it too. Don't push it around anymore."
"As the saying goes, we can eat wherever we are at. We're at the foot of such a huge mountain and there's the sea in front of us. Why wouldn't we be able to find food?"
"This is our first meal after leaving the Zhou family. We have to eat our fill. It's also a sign of a good start. From now on, we will eat our fill every meal."
"Besides, Mother, don't you know how to weave fish baskets? Father chopped a lot of bamboo today and placed them in the courtyard. You can weave a fish basket tomorrow and we'll take it to the riverside. We will definitely be able to catch a lot of fish."
After hearing Zhou Xiaoli's words, Zhang Lan immediately perked up. "That's right. I can make baskets and sell them for money."
Before she got married, she learned how to weave from her father. When she was in the Zhou family, she had also used this craft to earn a lot of money for the Zhou family.
Naturally, Zhou Xiaoli would not let Zhang Lan make baskets to sell for money. It was fine to make a basket to catch fish, but if she were to make several baskets to sell for money, it would consume too much of her energy. Zhang Lan's body could not take it.
However, after hearing Zhou Xiaoli's words, everyone no longer refused and ate their fill.
This was their first meal after leaving the Zhou family. It was also their first full meal in all these years.
When they were in the Zhou family, it was a rare occurrence for their family to eat their fill, let alone have meat. Their family did not even have the chance to have meat soup.
After dinner, Zhang Lan looked better. Since it was still early, she called Zhou Yu to chop bamboo sticks for her.
Zhou Xiaoyu and Zhou Junjun went to the courtyard to catch worms again. They even said that they wanted to catch a few large earthworms as bait to catch fish.
Zhou Xiaoli was quietly making the talismans needed for the Qi Gathering Formation.
After the sky darkened, the family went to bed early after a busy day. The five of them squeezed together in the single bed in the room. Although the bed was small, it was a warming sight. With the sound of insects outside the window, they quickly entered dreamland.