"Yanyan, wait a minute. I'll go grind cornmeal for you. You can have corn porridge tomorrow morning!"
Ershengzi put the bag of corn on his shoulder on the ground and prepared to roll the noodles.
Yan Luo said,
"Let's eat first. We've been tired all day. Don't grind corn anymore."
"Okay, let's eat! After eating, we can go grind corn!"
He is in a very good mood now, and he feels even better after drinking the porridge cooked by Yan Luo.
Shengzi's mother sighed silently in her heart and persuaded him,
"You still have to go to the fields early tomorrow morning. Why are you grinding corn? Go to bed quickly."
Ershengzi retorted nonchalantly,
"Mom, while everyone is resting, I'll go grind the flour. That way we don't have to wait in line. If we wait until everyone has harvested their corn, we'll have to wait in line for several days.
Besides, my physical fitness has improved a lot since I started practicing, so this kind of work is not tiring~"
He wolfed down his meal, and regardless of others' advice, he went to the village entrance carrying a small bag of corn.
There was a millstone there. The poor tribe had only one millstone, which was shared by the whole village.
It's late at night now and everyone is tired after the day, so there is indeed no one using it.
Yan Luo was about to go to bed when he saw Yan Bao standing in the yard, staring at the corn he had picked.
Yan Luo grabbed its ears and dragged it back into the house.
"You don't want to eat corn, do you?"
Yan Bao nodded.
"That's dried corn. You can't eat it directly. It's so hard... uh"
She suddenly remembered that Yan Bao's teeth had a very strong bite force. He could even chew bamboo, let alone a small corn.
"uh-huh?"
Yan Luo grabbed Yan Bao's ears with both hands and clamped his big head with his arms.
"You stole the corn on the mountain, didn't you?"
Yan Bao:...
Oh no, we've been discovered.
When Yan Luo saw that it had no expression and no reaction, he knew that it must have done it.
She patted it hard on the back.
"Little guy, how could you steal? The people here have been waiting for the corn to mature. This is their hard work. What will they do if you steal it?"
Yan Bao blinked.
How does it know that it is of human species?
Besides, it didn't eat much…
"Don't steal things anymore, got it?"
Yan Bao nodded quickly.
If you don't click, Yan Luo will twist its ears.
Yan Luo held his forehead with his hand, not knowing when his space would be opened. When the time came, he would definitely return the food to the villagers.
In the middle of the night, Ershengzi came running back with a bag of cornmeal. He ran too fast and tripped at the door.
He was feeling uneasy, and didn't come to his senses until he entered the house.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"It's so scary…"
Just now, he was grinding corn kernels when suddenly a strange rustling sound came from the big tree above his head.
He was still wondering what could be happening in the middle of the night, so he looked up at the tree.
Just one glance and he was so scared that he took several steps back and wanted to run away, but when he saw the cornmeal on the millstone, he stepped back,
grabbed the cornmeal and ran away.
It was pitch dark, and there was a monster staring at him from a tree, its eyes glowing red, it was so scary!
Er Shengzi put the cornmeal away, crawled into bed, covered his head and went to sleep.
In the morning, Shengzi's mother not only cooked corn porridge, but also made corn cakes with cornmeal.
Corn tortillas are coarse grains that people in big cities eat occasionally for health reasons, but in these remote areas, they have become the staple food.
Yan Luo had been eating wild vegetable cakes and meat porridge for half a month. When he first tasted corn cakes, he thought it was simply the most delicious thing in the world.
Ershengzi saw that Yan Luo actually ate two cakes this time, and he knew that Yan Luo was in a good mood. He smiled and said,
"I said this corn tastes good, Yanyan likes it too! Yanyan, do you want to go to the mountains with us later?"
Shengzi's mother glared at him and said,
"Don't talk nonsense. Yanyan is sick. Uncle Tan will come to give her acupuncture at noon."
"oh"
Ershengzi was a little disappointed. He also wanted Yan Luo to see the bumper corn harvest in their tribe.
People from the poor tribes who were able to work went up the mountain, even children of six or seven years old ran up to help pick corn.
Yan Luo was lying on a wooden board outside doing acupuncture at noon, and when he looked up he could see busy figures on the hillside.
She lazily basked in the sun, feeling warm and languid.
Yan Luo thought that when she had the conditions in the future, she would go to a place with beautiful mountains and rivers, build a small wooden house, and take Yan Bao out to bask in the sun every day.
After the old clan doctor finished his last injection, Yan Luo asked curiously,
"Grandpa clan doctor, your Chinese medicine skills are so advanced, why don't you accept an apprentice?"
What would happen to this small tribe if there was no inheritance?
The old doctor blew his beard, and a rare look of anger appeared on his face.
"I received it. I'm copying books at home!"
"Why?"
"Too lazy. I'll punish him. In our line of work, laziness is not an option."
"That's true. Hmm?"
Yan Luo kept looking at the hillside halfway up the mountain, and saw that there was a commotion among the busy people.
The women and children rushed out of the cornfield, shouting as they ran, as if they were frightened.
Corn stalks more than one meter tall were swaying from side to side.
The old clan doctor and Yan Luo stood up at the same time, especially the old clan doctor, who looked very worried.
"What's going on?"
Yan Luo comforted him,
"It's okay. Even if there are monsters, Shengzi and the others are already at the third level of the Gathering Spirit Realm. With so many people up there, there won't be any problems."
Having said that, the old doctor still frowned tightly.
There was a commotion up there for a while and then it quieted down. Yan Luo smiled and said,
"See, there's no problem. If any of them are injured, they'll come down to find you."
"Yeah, I hope you don't need an old man like me~"
He walked away calmly with his hands behind his back.
Yan Luo put her hand on her heart. Why did she have a familiar feeling? It was strange.
Before it got dark today, the villagers came down carrying corn.
Yan Luo asked curiously,
"Why did you come down early today?"
Ershengzi gulped down a bottle of water before he could catch his breath and explain,
"We encountered a monster on the mountain! Fortunately, we were many in number, and the monster got scared and ran away. Alas, the tribe leader was afraid that our vision would be poor when it got dark, and we would be bullied by the monster, so he asked everyone to come down early."
Yan Luo said "oh". They came down early today and she didn't have time to cook.
Shengzi's mother lit some firewood and cooked corn porridge.
"Luckily, Yanyan, you reminded us that there must be many monsters on the mountain. We were mentally prepared and weren't that scared."
When they went hunting in the mountains before, they found that many prey had become stronger, and they had been injured many times.
It was Yan Luo who explained to them that these animals had become monsters, and only then did they understand.
Ershengzi whispered,
"Yanyan, do you know that I saw the monster at the entrance of the village at midnight yesterday. It was dark at the time and I only saw a big head hanging on the tree. I was scared to death~"