Chapter Thirty-Three: The Grape Trellis

  As for how to hunt prey, the hunters' experience is far more than ten times richer than Lin Beifeng's.

  The red fox is the most cunning in the fox family, with a light body, fast speed, and high vigilance. Unless caught at once, it can only be followed from behind to eat dust. Therefore, hunters can only use traps, but generally speaking, fox dens are not easy to find. If you can't find a fox den, you can't set a trap.

  Now there is an opportunity, so the hunters are very calm and cautious, fearing that the red fox will be alert and secretly observe them somewhere. The hunter just took a glance at the entrance of the cave and pretended not to see anything, then pulled the grapevine and left.

  Lin Beichen saw that the hunters were very understanding, and naturally wouldn't say much more. He could kill giant bears, tigers, and even elephants, but when it came to foxes, these short, flat, and fast wild beasts, he didn't have a good method. Lin Beichen ran quickly, but the fox wasn't slow either, and could drill into any place at will. Lin Beichen couldn't do that, this was the gap brought by his body type, and it couldn't be made up for.

  When everyone left Torikai, the hunters' tense faces relaxed.

  "A whole den of red foxes, if sold to a merchant, would probably fetch several thousand pieces of gold?"

  "It's said that the smaller the red fox is, the more valuable it is. Those high-ranking ladies love this kind of thing. It's even said that the emperor's consort also loves to raise them. That's in the imperial palace, where they can casually take out some trinkets worth thousands of gold."

  "But what they want is live ones, and the fur isn't worth much if it's dead. Don't catch a dead one."

  "Go ask Zhang Ershu, didn't he catch a gray fox when he was young? Ask him what kind of trap he used."

  "Right, the trap for catching red foxes is definitely not like those for wild rabbits or pheasants. It seems that it still needs the blood of a large rooster, specifically one that's three years old. Apparently, red foxes love this kind of rooster blood and will become stupid as soon as they smell it, making them easy to catch."

  "If I had several thousand taels of gold, I would buy a big house and then buy a lot of land. I want to be a landlord."

  "Remarrying several wives, huh? With expensive powder on her face, looking so white and pale, haha."

  "Agreed, but I have to marry Guihua first..."

  "Others like osmanthus flowers with big bulls, but not you, Wang Erlang."

  "I'll be rich soon, and Osmanthus will like me..."

  Lin Bei heard this and was delighted in his heart, it's still quite interesting at this age.

  Choi Ah-ran did not participate but nodded at Lin Bei: "Thank you, sir."

  Lin Beiming was inexplicable, Osmanthus fragrans liked him but he didn't like her back, what's the point of thanking him.

  The hunters heard and consistently thanked him, saying "thank you, sir" as if Lin Bei had done something incredible. It wasn't until later that Lin Bei somewhat understood, perhaps they were thanking him for leading them to Bird Valley and letting them see the red fox. After all, the red fox was very valuable, and if they caught it, their lives would immediately change from being poor to becoming wealthy farmers, this was a seed of hope.

  With gratitude and hope, the Hunters and Lin Bei returned to Longtan. Next, Lin Bei had the Hunters dig up the grapevines.

  The hunters themselves were already diligent, and now they worked even harder. Under the command of Lin Bei and with the translation of Cui Shi Alan, grapevines were planted on both sides of Longtan Lake, a few plants at a time.

  "Use stones to gather up the mud around the roots." Lin Bei commanded: "Water it again."

  This way, the grape roots can form a flower pot-like shape around them, which can retain water. Of course, this is only for the initial stage. Once the grape vines grow out new roots and penetrate deep into the ground, they can push these stones open, and by then, the grape vines will also be fixed in place.

  Hutou and Jiulang took five people outside to cut branches, the bigger the better, Lin Bei wanted to make a grape trellis.

  Grapes can't grow well, apart from sunshine and water, space is also very important, they can't be crowded together. The big locust tree above Longtan is a natural grape trellis, but the old grape vines brought back by Lin Bei are all too large for it, so he needs to build a bigger frame once and for all to avoid having to do it again later.

  When Hu Tou and the others returned, Lin Bei personally took action, climbed up the locust tree, and arranged the cut branches on the locust tree according to mechanics. As long as it can bear the weight of the grapevine at first, it will be fine, because in the later stage, the climbing ability of the grapevine will firmly absorb these branches.

  The project wasn't big, but it was a brain twister. In some places, Lin Bei couldn't go out to pull small trees back and put them underneath as supports. They were busy until the sun set in the west, around 8 o'clock at night, when this huge grape rack was finally built.

  Starting from the Chinese scholar tree at Longtan, there are racks all around, and some branches are also set up around the small river downstream, covering a length of about 20 meters. Since the grapevine was pulled back, almost all the grape leaves and fruits were gone, leaving it bare. But that's okay, grapes grow fast, and with sufficient water source and good sunlight here, it won't take a month for the grape leaves to grow out again, and then it will be all green.

  Lin Beisheng first went to the back mountain and caught a few wild chickens, letting Cui Shi Alan do them first, then lay under the grape arbor happily looking at his own labor achievements. This kind of little by little adding bricks and tiles happiness is what Lin Beisheng likes most, for example, in the past when Lin Beisheng observed trees, seeing the trees sprout and slowly grow out leaves, that sense of satisfaction was really great.

  "Sir, you like eating grapes? This wild grape is small and sour, very astringent, not good to eat at all."

  Lin Beichang opened his big mouth, but in the eyes of the hunter, it didn't seem scary at all. It should be a sign of excitement. Lin Bei thought to himself, "You guys don't know this, but grapes aren't just for eating. They can also be made into wine. And the wilder the grape, the better the wine will be." Lin Bei happened to know how to brew wine and wanted to make some for himself to drink. If he didn't find something to do, it would be too boring.

  P.S: I'm writing Chapter 2 now, will upload later.