Chapter Twelve: Old Man's Good Brother

  "Big Brother," "Big brother, I heard you're back and living here now..." "Big brother, you've come back. We brothers have been thinking about you until we were dead."

  The next day in the afternoon, Yang Heng's family had not eaten yet and were busy cutting trees when a distant shouting sound came.

  "Ah, Erlang, San Ge, Wu Ge, Xiao Ge, how did you all come?" The old man asked in surprise. "How did we come? Didn't your younger brother tell us that the eldest brother had returned and wanted to open up 100 mu of forest land here? Can this be done? Are you not being deceived by your uncle?" They asked the old man with concern.

  "Never mind that, I was going to calm down and go back to see you guys in a few days, didn't expect you guys to come first. Come on, let me introduce you. Ying'er, Heng'er, come here." "Ah, big brother, is this sister-in-law and little nephew? Little nephew has grown so big, it can be seen that your ten or more years abroad have been quite good, but how can you come back?"

  "Come, Ying'er, Heng'er, these are your Second Uncle, Third Uncle, Fifth Uncle, and Youngest Uncle, Second Brother, Third Brother, Fifth Brother, and Youngest Brother. This is your Aunt, and this is your nephew Yang Heng."

  "Hello, uncles." The old lady gave a courtesy to the uncles, "Uncles are good." Yang Heng shouted directly, he really didn't know how to make a bow, just holding his fists with both hands.

  "Sister-in-law is good, nephew is good." "Come on, come on, uncles, all of you come into the courtyard to sit down, don't stand outside anymore." The old mother was happily greeting the uncles, and now that they had arrived at this place, there was something to talk about. Moreover, looking at the relationship between the old father and them, it seemed not bad, so she hurriedly invited them into the courtyard.

  "Big brother, this is your new courtyard, it's really fast. It seems that you've had a lot of opportunities over the years. My brothers can't do these things. If we were to do so much, it would take at least two or three months to finish. It seems like we heard that you just arrived here the day before yesterday!" The uncles were extremely surprised, "If we didn't know better, we'd think you've been back for over a year already!"

  "Haha, no need to mention it, no need to mention it. Have you brothers eaten yet? If not, let your wives cook now and eat, we haven't eaten either." The old man suggested.

  "Eat, eat," it was clear that these uncles were lying, looking at them, it was obvious that they hadn't eaten before coming, especially considering the time. They had agreed to meet and walk together, which would take more than an hour, if they had eaten, that would be three meals' worth of time! If they could eat three meals, their days would be quite good. "Alright, don't be polite, even if you've eaten, just eat some more with us, not eating is not giving me face, Swan, go cook now and stew those few wild chickens we caught today." Old Dad said unequivocally.

  This morning, Yang Hengcai discovered that this forest is indeed a treasure land. Inside, there are flocks of wild chickens, and even rabbits are running around. Occasionally, wild boars appear. Why didn't he discover this yesterday? It's because the commotion was too great yesterday, scaring the wild chickens deep into the forest. After a quiet night, when the three of them got up at dawn, they saw many wild chickens foraging in the distance. This was perfect for practicing their marksmanship. So, simply put, several colorful wild chickens were left behind. Yang Hengcai was greatly relieved, and from now on, he won't have to worry about food.

  Yang Heng also asked his father, "Dad, with so many wild animals around, how can you say that life is not easy?" "Foolish boy, look at us now, we can easily catch wild chickens. You should know that when your uncle was young, he didn't have this skill. I think it's all because of the iron-like skills we've developed over time. Back then, many people would work together to surround and capture a wild chicken, but still couldn't catch one. What could be done? And as for wild boars, don't even mention them. With your uncle's physical strength, do you think they dare to go after wild boars? Even when villagers went out, they had to go in groups of several people; otherwise, it was easy to get attacked by beasts."

  When the uncles arrived today, Yang Heng also understood Lao Die's idea. Looking at these uncles' malnourished appearance and their image that would fall with just a gust of wind, he knew how difficult it was to live in this place. Two meals a day? One meal a day is already a problem. Moreover, Yang Heng discovered that they all had green lights shining from their eyes now. Could it be... Yang Heng followed their gaze and found out that their eyes were fixed on those few wild chickens.

  "Wow, big brother, how did you catch so many wild chickens?" The uncles swallowed their saliva and looked around, trying to figure out how this guy managed to catch so many wild chickens.

  "Don't keep staring, catching wild chickens is a unique skill, I've told you before, but you can't learn it." These uncles seemed to be old friends from Dad's childhood, and as soon as they rolled their eyes, Dad understood what they were thinking. They wanted to figure out what tool Dad used to catch the chicken, and they also wanted to learn how to do it. But this unique skill really isn't something that anyone can learn. Even Dad himself didn't know he had this ability before. At this moment, however, Dad was secretly thanking his mother, who had cultivated his skills with medicine and blacksmithing techniques.

  "Husband, look, our bowls are not enough for use, what to do." When the old mother cooked the wild chicken, only then did she realize that there were seven people eating, but no sufficient bowls.

  "Huh," everyone's gaze suddenly turned to the smallest uncle, and at this time Yang Heng and his mother were somewhat puzzled. What could this little uncle do? Would he conjure up a bowl or something?

  "What are you staring at me for? I don't have a sharp knife in my hand, and I can't carve out a wooden bowl." Oh, so that's the case. This little uncle actually has a skill for carving wood sculptures.

  "Swallow, bring out that sharp knife we had made for us, let little brother use it." The sharp knife, Yang Heng hadn't even seen this before, but there were several knives in the house, which was also very normal.

  "Hey, little uncle, take a look at this." The old lady actually pulled out a sharp knife from the car, "You've never seen one before, have you? This was made for a butcher back in the day, but he never came to pick it up, so I just put it away. If we hadn't been talking about bowls, I wouldn't have remembered it either." The old man explained, looking at Yang Heng's bewildered expression.

  The uncle's craftsmanship was truly impressive, and while waiting for the chicken to cook, his two hands moved as swiftly as flying, the sharp knife in his hand seemed like magic, making people's eyes dazzled, and soon a wooden bowl was carved successfully.

  "Big brother, didn't expect this, little brother's craftsmanship is so good. I'm telling you, all these years, little brother hasn't had such good knives, he can even carve beautiful patterns with just an ordinary cleaver." Second Uncle said boastfully on the side.

  "Second brother, it's not as exaggerated as you said. Eldest brother, don't listen to second brother. These years, there's nothing going on at home, just a little farming work that's not even enough for grandfather to do himself. I'm idle every day, and I'm just passing the time with carving." The younger uncle continued to work with his hands while explaining.

  During this time, Yang Heng also gradually came to understand the situation of these uncles. Together with Old Father, they were considered to be of the same age group in the village. Even the youngest uncle was only two years younger than Old Father. They came from five different families and since they were of the same age group in the village, they had played together since childhood and got along very well. The second uncle Yang Kui, third uncle Yang Shen, fifth uncle Yang Jiang, and youngest uncle Yang Ren all liked wood carvings.