Chapter Six: Peaceful Dwelling

  "Ah, not bad, little brother knows a lot, this wild vegetable can be eaten too." Dog Dan's father was eating his meal while praising Liu He for knowing a lot. It's clear that in this place, people don't usually eat this kind of wild vegetable, which is slightly bitter. However, when paired with the sweet potato noodles, the bitterness is balanced out quite a bit. And it goes without saying that this dish is also very filling.

  A simple breakfast was eaten like this. "Little brother, you can eat at my house for the next few days. You're considered to have moved into your new home and we've cooked a pot for you. In the future, you can cook for yourself whenever you want."

  "Alright, Uncle Li, I won't be polite anymore." "Little brother, what other wild vegetables can we eat in this yard?" Dog Egg's father took Dog Egg's sister home, but Dog Egg's mother stayed behind to help Liu He clean up the yard.

  "Auntie, let's clean up the yard now. We can leave the edible wild vegetables for later and pick them as we need them." "How can this be? This is a family home, if the yard isn't cleaned up properly, people will laugh at us."

  "It's nothing, Auntie, just let it be. Even if the grass can't be eaten now, we can wait for it to grow and burn it later." "Young man, I don't know what you're thinking, but I think this is unacceptable." Dog Egg's mother muttered and walked out.

  "People in this era don't know what they're thinking. Such a big yard is just idle here, isn't it a waste? It's better to grow some vegetables."

  Planting vegetables, oh yeah, Liu He suddenly remembered something, and at that moment, he turned out all the pockets on his body. "Fortunately, fortunately, there are still a few seeds left, these are all high-yielding seeds." It turned out that in Liu He's pocket, there were more than ten large white cabbage seeds, which was when Liu He casually put the seeds in his clothes pocket when planting white cabbage last year. Since then, he had not worn this set of clothes again until today, and it had been hanging on the clothes rack all along without being taken down, so the seeds were still inside.

  Liu He took a look at the weather, is it a bit early to plant vegetables at this time? Forget it, doesn't matter, this is in the mountains, if it's early then it's early, just right that Dog Egg's mother brought back the hoe is still in the yard.

  Liu He casually cleared a spot in the yard, carefully planted over a dozen seeds, then picked some leaves from the poplar tree at the village entrance to cover them up, and waited for a cloudy day to uncover them.

  "Good, good," Liu He patted his hands together, looking around the yard with satisfaction. Then he remembered something - this gold needed to be hidden well, it couldn't be carried on him.

  On the east side, there was a mouse hole, and on the west side, another mouse hole. Liu He searched around and found several mouse holes in the yard, but these mice had already moved out long ago. No choice, if they were to live here, they would starve to death. A few gold bars were placed into the mouse holes, and then there was nothing worth hiding anymore. The handgun, of course, had to be carried on his person, not in his waist; the watch was worn on his wrist; the phone, still hung at his waist. Who knows when he would travel back again?

  This yard looks uncomfortable no matter how I look at it. What's missing? Liu He looked left and right, ah, got it, there is no gate.

  "Uncle Li, is Uncle Li at home?" "Young brother, what's the matter?" "Uncle Li, I want to cut some thorny branches to make a yard gate. Where do you think I should go to cut them?" "A yard gate? You really need one, but it's quite far away." "Uncle Li, isn't that mountain over there? Why can't we find any on the mountain?" "Not that mountain, young brother. There are thorny branches on that mountain, but it belongs to Mr. Li, he won't let you cut them. Never mind, I'll take you somewhere else. Although it's a bit far, there are plenty of them."

  As they spoke, Dog Egg's father took a carrying pole, two ropes and an axe, and set off with Liu He on the road. This road was indeed far away, heading east all the way, climbing over several mountain ridges, probably more than ten miles or so. Here was a cliff, and at the edge of the cliff grew thick thorny shrubs.

  "Alright, little brother, these are all ownerless places, you can cut them freely. People from our village also come here to cut them. Even when there's no grass left to burn, they still come here to pick."

  As he spoke, Dog Egg Father started to take action, "Li Shu, I'll do it." Liu He snatched the machete from Dog Egg Father's hand and quickly began to cut down the thorny branches. "Ah, looks like someone who knows how to work," said Dog Egg Father as he collected the cut branches with one hand while talking.

  "Uncle Li, is this enough?" "Yeah, that's enough. Just chop a few thick wooden sticks to make the frame and it'll be done."

  To be honest, Liu He is still okay at working, but he can't carry a shoulder pole, so when going down the mountain, Dog Dan's father carried the pole in front, and Liu He carried a few sticks behind him, walking along the way, he looked far away.

  This place is absolutely a good place to play guerrilla warfare, but I don't know which province it is in. However, the accent sounds similar to those from northern Shandong and Hebei as well as Henan. It's slightly different from Liu He's accent, not very much though. This place will definitely be occupied by Japan in the future, just don't know what year it is now.

  "Uncle Li, have you heard of the Japanese devils?" Liu He asked tentatively. "Ah, I know they're terrible, last year they occupied our Northeast, and I also heard that these devils eat humans, saying they catch people and boil them to eat, how can these little devils be so cruel?"

  The invasion of the Northeast, was it thirty-one or thirty-two? Liu He's history is not good, and he really can't remember. Anyway, the devils haven't arrived yet, there's still time to prepare.

  "Hmm..." "Uncle Li, what's that sound?" "You mean that sound? It's a train. On the west side, just past a small hill, there's a railway track, about ten or more miles away from our village." Here, surprisingly, there is a railroad, so this must be an enemy-occupied area. Liu He thought to himself, perhaps I should make some preparations now.

  "Uncle Li, you said I should come and chop it down myself, why bother you to make a trip?"

  "You don't know, young man, that just past this beam there are bandits lurking about. Although they won't come down now, who's to say we won't run into them? If we do, I'll explain things to them, and maybe they'll let you off."

  "There are still bandits here, doesn't the government care?" "The government, they just come down to collect taxes, who cares about these bandits? Look at this mountain, how can you climb up? These bandits only come down once a year to collect a batch of grain, especially from those wealthy landlords. Only those wealthy landlords will go and call the government troops to deal with the bandits, but when the government troops collect grain, they take much more than the bandits."

  From this, Liu He got some information that the bandits were not good or bad, but better than the officials. However, it was rare for bandits to be good people, especially since Liu He had read some books that said there were hardly any good people among the bandits at this time.