Chapter 67: The House is Built

To save time, An Yinan first stored the wood that could grow wood ear mushrooms into her space, and also collected the wood ear mushrooms that had fallen on the ground. Thinking of stir-fried pork with wood ear mushrooms and winter melon wood ear soup, she "slurped"—just the thought of it was delicious.

An Yinan thought for a moment and tied a red string to a tree to mark the place she had been; mainly, she didn't dare to go any further inside now.

She simply continued walking to the right. As she walked, within an hour, she encountered three groups of rabbits and two groups of pheasants. The final harvest is not even worth mentioning; the main thing was that she couldn't even count them all.

Just as An Yinan was about to head down the mountain, the view suddenly opened up. She saw a large lake between two mountains, and there were more than ten deer drinking water around the lake.

Seeing those little deer, An Yinan didn't feel any reluctance to strike. After calculating the distance and accuracy, she continued to move forward quietly until the range for her pebbles was fifteen meters; only then did she quickly throw ten pebbles.

But the range was too far, and the little deer were too sensitive. In the end, only three little deer were knocked to the ground, while the other little deer all scattered and ran away.

An Yinan observed her surroundings, and after confirming there was no danger, she poked her head out, raised her hand and brought down her knife, slitting the little deer's throats directly.

Afterward, she threw them into her space. Without any hesitation, she quickly headed down the mountain.

Deer blood is very precious, and even those fierce beasts prefer to eat deer. If this bloody scent spread, it would likely attract fierce beasts, so she dared not have any hesitation.

During her rapid descent, An Yinan actually bumped into two silly roe deer. She hadn't intended to chase them, but they heard the sound behind them and instinctively started running forward. An Yinan chased from behind, they ran in front, and the two roe deer didn't even run separately; they just squeezed against each other like that, until one roe deer tripped the other, and An Yinan raised her hand and brought down her knife, ending its ignorant life.

The other roe deer was so frightened it panicked and ran blindly, crashing directly into a tree, and before An Yinan could even use her knife, it was already dead...

"This..." Let's just say, I wasn't the one who started it!

It was already two o'clock in the afternoon when she returned to the Educated Youth Point. An Yinan put four wild rabbits in her basket and then went to the Yijin Yuan to knock on Zhang Qian's door.

Zhang Qian had been writing a mission report for the past few days and needed to mail it back to the Military after finishing. Seeing An Yinan outside the door, he was a bit surprised; after all, An Yinan rarely came over, and every time, she would have Beibei come over to call him.

"Help me clean the wild rabbits; I don't know how to skin them." An Yinan handed the large basket directly to him.

Fine, these two people really are from the same family.

Chen Xun also treated him like a laborer, and his letter specifically instructed him to help take care of her more.

This Educated Youth An is not a polite person either!

Of course, it seemed there was no need to be too polite between them. Through these days of getting along, Zhang Qian had already placed An Yinan on an equal footing, not as a delicate girl who needed protection, but more like a partner—a partner who could fight side-by-side.

"Come get them in half an hour." Zhang Qian didn't waste words either. He dumped the wild rabbits into a basin, saw that each rabbit's head had been blown open, silently wiped the bloodstains from the bottom of the basket, and only then returned the basket to An Yinan.

"Battalion Commander, I really worry about your future life..." Zhang Qian muttered silently in his heart.

Far away at the Northern Camp, Chen Xun sneezed, silently rubbed his nose, and continued training the soldiers under his command.

An Yinan didn't care about the darkness of Zhang Qian's inner thoughts at the moment. She took the basket and returned to her room, then took out eight potatoes, peeled and cut them into chunks, and rinsed them with water.

"Sister, what are we eating tonight?" An Xiangbei had been at the Cowshed all day today and had eaten lunch there.

"Stewed wild rabbit with potatoes. You can take a bowl over to Yun Shen later." She planned to stew three rabbits directly and send the remaining one to Aunt Li to add to everyone's meal tomorrow.

When giving things, sometimes you can't give too much. Giving as much as you have will cultivate people's appetites.

She tried hard to maintain this balance.

"Educated Youth An?" A voice came from outside. As soon as An Yinan heard it, she knew it was Qian Zhao.

"I'm here." An Yinan opened the door and saw Qian Zhao, who was covered in dirt.

"Ershu asked you to come over and take a look; the house in your courtyard is all built." An Yinan looked up at the sky. It wasn't dark yet; counting it up, it had only been three days, right?

"So fast?" An Yinan wiped her hands and hurried out of the room.

Qian Zhao rubbed his mud-covered hands, "Everyone has been gritting their teeth and working these past few days. Although the time was short, we absolutely didn't cut any corners."

"Ershu told everyone to put in extra effort so that the sooner it's finished, the sooner you can move in."

"Everyone put in a lot of effort, starting work as soon as the sky was barely bright, and only finishing when it was pitch black."

Qian Zhao was just there to help; in the past, he didn't even eat lunch there. It was only later, after An Yinan heard about it from Aunt Li, that she specifically asked Aunt Ershu to keep Qian Zhao.

"It has been hard on everyone." After hearing this, An Yinan was silent for a moment, and she had an idea in her heart.

The keys to the small gate and the vegetable garden were both in An Yinan's hands, so she didn't have to go around the Educated Youth Station like Qian Zhao did to enter the courtyard.

She opened the small gate in the passageway, walked through the vegetable garden, and arrived at the place where the house was built.

"Educated Youth An is here. Take a look and see what else needs to be done? Bring it up early, and everyone can put in some effort to get it done," Ershu said with a smile.

Big Brother Li also put down his mud bricks and followed along.

An Yinan smiled and nodded without saying anything. The courtyard didn't have a main gate installed yet, but the mud walls were very high; An Yinan stood on tiptoe and couldn't even see inside the courtyard.

On the left side of the courtyard was a grass shed covered with straw mats—double-layered straw mats at that—with a very dense wooden frame underneath, so even if there was a strong wind, it wouldn't blow over.

On the right side of the courtyard were five vegetable plots, all tidied up, and even the small garden was partitioned off, with the soil dug up to be soft.

Walking along the path and into the house, the stove had already been built; it just needed two pots placed on it, and it would be complete.

The kang inside the room had also been installed, the walls were plastered very smoothly, and mud bricks and straw mats were laid on the roof. Gray tiles were hard to get right now, and for a house she would only live in for a few years, there was no need to be that wasteful.

"You know about this kang; sprinkle a little water on it when you heat it these next few days so it doesn't crack," Ershu said.

An Yinan agreed, "Everyone has worked too hard these past few days."

Ershu looked at the people working hard, "It's nothing. The weather is getting colder and colder. If we don't finish building it quickly, it will freeze later and we won't be able to build it. We've been eating well these past few days, and everyone is gritting their teeth."

An Yinan didn't say anything to refuse. The winter in the Northeast is too cold. Thinking about how everyone was looking forward to moving out quickly, and the villagers were getting a fixed wage, the sooner they finished the work, the sooner they would get paid.