To the east of the village were a few continuous mountains. Although the mountains were not very high, there were cliffs and waterfalls.
The trees on the mountain were lush and green, like a flawless jade. It was rumored that someone had seen the figure of a dragon in the mountain, and someone had heard the roar of a dragon in the mountain, so the mountain was called Green Dragon Mountain.
In the forest, a ball of water gradually floated up from the pond. The ball of water was wrapped with a two-pound grey mullet. He controlled the ball of water to fall into the bamboo basket, and the ball of water scattered all over the ground.
Summer Without Seeing caught a big fish today, so he packed up the scattered firewood and prepared to start a fire to roast the fish to eat.
He scraped off the fish's scales, removed its internal organs, cut it with a flower knife, sprinkled salt, and marinated it. Then, he put on a branch and barbecued it over the fire.
Although the seasoning was simple, the taste was not bad at all. Smelling the fragrance, Huanhuan, who had run into the forest, came out of nowhere with a wild rabbit in its mouth and placed it in front of Xia Tianwu.
Xia Tianwu flipped the grilled fish in his hand. He looked at Huanhuan, who had not grown much in the past few years. He asked curiously," You've eaten so much of my good food. Why are you still so small?"
Huanhuan's eyes were fixed on the grilled fish, and Xia Tianwu was nowhere to be seen. She replied without even raising her head," Us divine beasts cannot obtain energy from these ordinary foods to grow. Now that the spiritual energy in the world is declining, I want you to collect energy for the Listening Ball. Other than helping your brother, it's also to accumulate nutrients for my growth."
"Alright, so you want me to work to support you. Since you can't absorb nutrition from ordinary food, you still ate so much of my delicious food. These are all the lesser you eat!"
After saying that, he ignored Huanhuan, who was fighting for food on the ground, and started to eat the grilled fish.
Although the Wang Consortium had been treating her better and better in the past four years, their conditions were limited after all. Moreover, with the consumption of her superpower in the summer, her appetite was also larger than that of ordinary people. From time to time, she had to rely on the storage in the space and the hunting of wild animals in the mountains to fill her stomach.
Of course, these things were not eaten for nothing. In the past two years, this body had also grown into a beautiful young lady. She was tall and straight, and she could attract people's attention just by standing there.
After eating the grilled fish, he wiped his mouth, destroyed the evidence, and arranged the firewood that he had cut in advance. Then, he went down the mountain with Huanhuan.
"Aiyo, why did you kill another rabbit? Didn't I tell you not to go into the mountains? Just chop wood at the foot of the mountain."
Madam Wang saw Xia Tianwu coming back with another rabbit. She was smiling widely, yet she still said that.
Because Xia Tianwu often brought back wild rabbits, pheasants, or fish for a meal, Madam Wang was even more satisfied with Xia Tianwu. Xia Tianwu only said that he often saw his grandfather set traps in his hometown, and Madam Wang did not suspect him.
Madam Zhou, who was beside her, was unhappy. She had not been able to get pregnant in the past few years and her mother-in-law was already very dissatisfied with her. On the other hand, Xia Tianwu was getting more and more favored by Madam Wang and was treating her better and better as if she was her own daughter. Madam Zhou could not do anything about it.
At night, Xia Tianwu cooked a dish of Kung Pao Rabbit. Before it was served, Madam Zhou felt disgusted and vomited. Madam Wang rolled her eyes at her and said," You've had enough of your good days. You still want to vomit after smelling meat. If you don't want to eat, get out of here. Don't dirty my eyes!"
Hearing this, Madam Zhou was unhappy. She said aggrievedly," Mother, it's not that I don't want to eat it. It's just that I feel disgusted when I smell this rabbit. Moreover, I've been eating sour things for the past two days. I guess…"
Madam Wang saw Madam Zhou's bashful look and heard her say that she liked to eat sour food recently. She guessed that she might be pregnant.
This time, she didn't eat anymore and brought Madam Zhou to the doctor's house in the village.
When the doctor said that she was pregnant, Madam Zhou was so excited that she almost fainted. After being in the family for so many years, she was finally pregnant. Madam Wang was also very happy. When the doctor told them some things to pay attention to, the two of them returned home in a daze.
Ever since Madam Zhou got pregnant, she started to show off. She did not do any work every day, saying that she wanted to take care of the baby and even pointing fingers at Xia Tianwu.
"When you go up the mountain to cut wood today, pick some wild fruits and bring them back. I especially like to eat sour food recently. Catch some fish and make pickled fish when you come back. Oh right, and…"
Xia Tianwu hurriedly ran out of the door, afraid that he would not be able to hold himself back and beat Madam Zhou up.
What was worse was that she said that she could not come into contact with small animals since she was pregnant and wanted Xia Tianwu to throw Huanhuan out. Huanhuan had obviously avoided her when she saw her, so Xia Tianwu was so angry that he secretly placed a few rats in her room. Madam Zhou, who was sleeping at night, was shocked by the rats that almost climbed into her bed.
After a few months of hard work, when it was time for Madam Zhou to give birth, she finally gave birth to a girl who was as thin as a kitten. Compared to Madam Zhou who had grown 20 pounds during pregnancy, she looked even more pitiful.
Everyone saw that Madam Zhou had been eating sour food for the past few months and had eaten a lot. They thought that she would give birth to a big fat boy. Who knew that she would give birth to a girl. For a moment, everyone stopped talking. The midwife who came to help was shocked. She could only say a few auspicious words such as blooming first and then bearing fruit before hurriedly taking the silver and leaving.
Seeing that something was wrong with everyone, Madam Zhou was so frightened that she came out to help out before she could even finish her confinement. In fact, Madam Wang did not let her come out to work so early, but Madam Zhou was afraid that her mother-in-law would blame her, so she endured the discomfort and came out.
When Madam Wang saw that it was a girl, she was not that dissatisfied. She was not a mother-in-law who favored sons over daughters, but she could not stop Madam Zhou from thinking too much. Usually, Madam Zhou did not like to take care of the child. Madam Wang was the one who took care of her. She even named her tofu pudding.
When the tofu pudding was two years old, the Wang family had been thinking about how the weather had been getting drier and drier recently. It had not rained for several months, and the water level in the river had gradually dropped. Now, they were all carrying water to irrigate the fields. If it did not rain soon, everyone's harvest would be ruined.
Perhaps it was better because their land was close to the river, but it couldn't last so long without rain.
In fact, Xia Tianwu often took advantage of the fact that no one was around to secretly replenish the water in the field at noon. However, he did not dare to water too much, afraid that others would find out.
Moreover, the grain supply for this year was about to run out. However, the taxes for the past two years had been rising steadily. They had already taken away 70% of the harvest, but the remaining 30% was not enough for the villagers to eat for a year. They had no choice but to go to the mountains to find more mountain products to add and make wild vegetable dumplings to eat.
However, he heard that the situation in other places was even worse. At least, this place could survive for a while.
The Hu family was relatively rich in the village, but they only had sticky porridge now. They could eat enough vegetable dumplings.
Xia Tianwu could only eat something good to reward himself and Huanhuan while they were collecting firewood.