Chapter 17: Xiao Gou and Du Du's Carefree Days

  After getting off the mountain, Dashan took Lin Chun and her brother back home. Lin Chun packed some fresh mushrooms in a basket and planned to chop them up and mix them into the filling when Cuihua was wrapping a large number of dumplings. Just thinking about it made her mouth water. When they arrived at Cuihua's house, Lin Chun first conducted an experiment under the watchful eyes of Dashan and Cuihua, proving that the mushrooms were not poisonous, only then did Dashan completely believe Lin Chun's words.

  "Uncle Dashan, Aunt Cuihua, apart from the many wood ears on the mountain west of the village, are there also a lot on the mountain north of the village?" Lin Chun planned to pick some more and see if he could sell them at the market.

  "Uh, the trees on the mountain north of the village are quite tall and big. As soon as it rains, the mountain will grow wood ears and mushrooms in large quantities. Although there are more on the western mountain, because the western mountain has more dead trees, which were once set on fire by the villagers and took many years to regrow into what they are now. The original trees were almost all burned down, if it weren't for our village and Chen's village being afraid of the fire spreading to the village, I reckon nobody would have dared to put out the fire, but in the end, it was still left with a completely different appearance."

  "Yes, I've also heard the older generation talk about that big fire. The western part of the village was half burned to ashes and many villagers came running from far away to watch. It even alarmed the county government and they sent officials to investigate, but they didn't catch the arsonist. However, after that, no one dared to set fires on the mountain again. I've heard it's a serious crime!"

  Well, okay, although Lin Chun didn't know why he mentioned the wood ear, but he did bring up the past of burning the mountain. He got the information he wanted and decided that from now on, he would take Da Tou and Er Ya to pick wood ears in the mountains when they had nothing better to do. If they couldn't sell them at the market, they could just keep them for their own family to eat, which wasn't bad either.

  "Uncle, Auntie, there are many ways to eat wood ear mushrooms. We can stir-fry them or have them as a cold dish. Since we're making dumplings for lunch today, we can also chop some up and mix them into the filling. It's absolutely delicious!" Lin Chun said, his mouth watering at the thought, making Cuifeng Auntie cover her mouth and laugh.

  "Alright, alright, let's do it your way, Niang." Cuihua grabbed a handful of mushrooms and followed Linchun's instructions to scald them in hot water, wash them clean, chop them up finely, and mix them into the already prepared dumpling filling. The original filling had meat and cabbage, but with the addition of mushrooms, it looked much more appealing. Cuihua thought to herself that the flavor should be good too. Linchun and Er Ya were learning from her as they wrapped the dumplings together.

  "Sister, sister..." Da Tou pulled Xiao Shan back from outside in a hurry, panting and shouting "Lin Chun".

  "What's wrong, what's wrong?" Lin Chun and Cuihua hastened out of the house, wiping their hands, and saw Dahu with a look of urgency on his face, without knowing what was going on.

  "Sister, Lin Yang's family had four little puppies last month. Uncle Gui wants to take the puppies to the market to sell them off. Just now, a family from Zhaojia village who came to visit relatives bought one away. I was thinking if our family could also buy one? The puppy is especially cute, sister..." Dajitou took a breath and expressed her own little thoughts.

  "Oh, so that's it. I thought something had happened to you and was worried sick along with your wife, making a big fuss over nothing." Lin Chun said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

  "Sister, I know I was wrong, but Big Uncle is going to sell the puppy away, so I got anxious and..." He lowered his head in admission of fault, speaking softly.

  "Great, Mother also thinks it's a good idea to buy a dog. With three kids at home, having a dog can not only guard the house but also keep company with Da Tou and Er Ya. Besides, you've earned quite some money, Mother knows you're planning to build a new house next year, and when the dog grows up, it can protect you all." Cui Hua Mother thinks Da Tou's idea of buying a dog is great.

  "Yes, yes, sister, I also want a dog. The other day, I went to their house with Yuesister to see the puppy, it was so cute! Why don't you just listen to brother's words and buy one, okay sister?" Er Ya also came forward, shaking Lin Chun's arm and acting coquettishly.

  Dà Guì Shū is the second son of the village head, Lín Yáng is his youngest son, the grandson of the village head. There is also a daughter named Lín Yuè who is five years old this year. èr Niáng often plays with her. Tǔ Tǔ is a Chinese rural dog raised by their family, a yellow mixed-breed female dog. Lín Chún thought about what Cuì Huā Dà Niáng said and felt it was right. Looking at Dà Tóu and èr Niáng, he thought that buying one would definitely make both of them want it, so why not just buy two, one for each of them? And also buy another one to give to Xiǎo Shān.

  "Okay, you and Xiaoyan go to Qi Shu Gong's house to call back Dashan Bo, let Dashan Bo take you there." "Ah, right, Daitou, how much did the little dog that was bought in Zhao Jia Cun cost earlier?"

  "Thirty big sons and daughters, is our family's money enough?" Da Tou was delighted to see Lin Chun agree to buy a dog, but when he heard Lin Chun ask about the money, he felt a bit uncertain, fearing that Lin Chun would think it was too expensive and change his mind.

  "That's enough! Ten would be more than enough, don't worry about it. Hurry up and call Uncle Dashan back to take the money and go with you." Upon hearing Lin Chun's words, Da Tou's face lit up with a smile, and he turned around to run towards Seventh Uncle's house.

  Dashi returned home, Lin Chun let Cuifang take 90 taels of silver to Dashi and asked him to buy back the three small dogs, one for each of the three children. Dashi thought this was a good arrangement and also saved Dagui from having to bring the dogs to the market again. He immediately took the money and brought Dashou, Er'niang, and Xiaoshan to Dagui's house.

  Lin Chun and Cui Hua went back to the house to continue wrapping dumplings. After a while, several children came back with a small dog in their arms, laughing happily. Lin Chun came out of the house and took a look. Da Tou was holding a black one, Er Ya was holding an earth-colored one that matched her skin tone, and Xiao Shan's was the smallest, with yellow and white fur, and two unusually large ears. "Sister, let's give your little dogs names!" Lin Chun asked the three children playing with their dogs in the yard.

  "Alright, sis, you have to give our puppy a nice name, or I won't accept it." Da Tou said seriously while hugging Xiao Hei Tou.

  "Okay, let's name the puppy Béibei first. The puppy is the smallest, so it's better to call it Béibei, what do you think?" Lin Chun thought of the big-eared character Tútu from a modern cartoon and originally wanted to name it Tútu, but then thought it might not be quite right, so changed it to Béibei.

  "Ah, okay, my dog will be called Beibei then, it sounds great, thank you Big Sister Lin." Xiaoyan was very satisfied and thanked Lin Chun with a happy face.

  Dahou and Er Ya heard the name Lin Chun gave to Xiaoshan's puppy, thought it was great, and immediately stopped what they were doing. They rushed forward with their puppies for Lin Chun to name them. Lin Chun thought for a moment and decided that Dahou's black puppy would be called Guai Guai, which is the same name as Duo Duo's dog in "Where Are We Going, Dad?" It was very fitting. As for Er Ya's puppy, Lin Chun thought for a moment and remembered the half-breed Tibetan Mastiff at his friend's house, whose name was Du Du, which was very cute, so he named Er Ya's puppy Du Du.

  Dahou and Er Ya got the name of their own dog, and together with Xiaoshan in the yard, they held the dog in their arms and kept calling out. Lin Chun looked at them for a while, smiled and went back to the house, continuing to learn how to wrap dumplings from Cuihua's mother.

  At noon, Dashan and Cuifang were eating dumplings filled with wood ear fungus, which they thought was very fresh and delicious. Lin Chun asked them not to tell the villagers that wood ears could be eaten, otherwise everyone would go up the mountain to pick them and soon there wouldn't be any left. Dashan and Cuifang agreed, thinking it made sense. Lin Chun thought that when he took the wood ear fungus to sell at the market, everyone would know about it anyway, but at least he could make some money first, and his family was very poor, eating wood ears was normal, if Dashan's family spread the word, it would be even worse.

  After dinner, Lin Chun took Da Tou and Er Ya and the two small dogs back home. On the way, they met Old Man Lin and Liu Erniang. No one spoke, but Liu Erniang seemed to have said something to Old Man Lin, who looked at the dogs in Da Tou's and Er Ya's arms with shining eyes. Lin Chun thought that Old Man Lin probably wanted to wait for the dogs to grow up and then secretly kill them to take back home to eat.

  Can't help but say, Lin Chun is really something, later on, Old Man Lin even brought Lin Er Lang to beat the dog, only to be bitten by Dudu and Guai Guai, with their buttocks exposed, and ran back home, of course this is a story for later...