Chapter 381: Valley Cookout (Part 2)
Chapter 381: Chapter 381: Valley Cookout (Part 2)
As the shadow flew out, Huo Tao and the others heard a THUD up ahead, like something had fallen to the ground.
Xie Lei hurried forward to take a look. A moment later, shocked, he ran back a few steps, holding a wild rabbit by its ears.
"Whoa, was this rabbit knocked out?" Chen Weijun’s eyes widened when he saw the rabbit in Xie Lei’s hands.
"Su Qing, did you... did you hit it?" Xie Lei asked, looking at her.
Su Qing gave a small nod. "I know a little about hunting."
"Oh my god, you call that knowing a little?" another boy named Du Chuan exclaimed. "Su Qing, you’re practically a dead-eye sharpshooter! What did you use to hit the rabbit?"
Su Qing opened her palm. "A stone."
The boys stared at the stone in Su Qing’s hand and gasped. ’Jeez, a stone,’ they thought. ’So that shadow we saw flying through the air was the stone.’
’This has to be that legendary kung fu, right?’
’It has to be, it has to be!’
Instantly, the boys’ gazes were filled with admiration and respect. ’She’s a kung fu master!’
Li Huan was practically bursting with pride. ’She knew it! Her Qingqing was the best!’
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Xie Lei laughed heartily while holding up the rabbit. "Su Qing, with you here, we won’t have to worry about finding game to eat!"
Su Qing smiled. "Happy to help."
For the next half hour, the boys happily trailed behind Su Qing. They watched in awe as she showed off her skills, taking down numerous wild pheasants and rabbits. They were more than happy to act as competent porters, carrying all the game. By the time they headed back, each of the six boys was carrying four or five animals. Besides the pheasants and rabbits, they had also caught two wild ducks near a mountain stream deep in the valley.
"Oh my gosh, you guys caught so much game!" The others were pleasantly surprised to see Su Qing’s group return fully loaded. They had thought that even if Su Qing knew how to hunt, they’d be lucky to get four or five animals. But to their amazement, she had caught over twenty. That was just incredible.
Xie Lei grinned, smugly holding up his haul. "Let me tell you, Su Qing got all of them! My god, she’s amazing. You should have seen it—one little stone flies out, and BAM, the animal just drops."
"Whoa, Su Qing, you know how to use projectile weapons, don’t you?" The others stared wide-eyed at her. Even the two boys who had been fishing by the pond with simple, homemade rods ran over excitedly to see the day’s catch.
"Alright, alright, leave preparing the game to us guys," Huo Tao said with a smile. "I just counted. We got twenty-five animals in total today. There are twenty-four of us, so we definitely can’t eat it all. Let’s prepare eighteen for today, and the rest can go to Su Qing, since she’s the one who caught them all. What do you guys think?"
After all, besides the game, they also had rice and plenty of other dishes, so it was more than enough food. Plus, most of the animals Su Qing caught today were wild rabbits, each weighing at least four or five pounds. It was safe to say they were set for meat today.
"Yeah, that works! No problem," everyone agreed with Huo Tao’s suggestion.
Su Qing smiled. "I don’t need that many. Just leave me one rabbit and one duck. You can take the rest back and ask the cafeteria staff to help cook them. That way, everyone can have another get-together."
’Su Qing didn’t need the game; her dimensional space was already filled with wild pheasants, rabbits, and even boar meat. However, she wanted an excuse to bring some back to the Li family so Mrs. Li and Elder Li could enjoy some wild game.’
Huo Tao and the others felt a little bad, since Su Qing had caught everything, but they accepted with smiles and thanks when they saw she was insistent.
"Oh man, I wonder if I caught any fish," one of the two boys who had been fishing by the pond earlier suddenly remembered, and they both rushed over.
Su Qing went to take a look and saw they hadn’t caught a thing. After a moment of thought, she said, "I have some cornmeal in my bag. We can try sprinkling some in as bait."
"Oh, that’s great!" the two boys replied with happy smiles. "Thanks so much, Su Qing."
Using her backpack as cover, Su Qing took a small handful of cornmeal from her dimensional space and had the two boys sprinkle some into the water.
A short while later, the two boys’ astonished cries came from the pond. "Oh my god, there are so many fish! So many fish!"
Their shouts drew everyone over. Looking into the water, they were stunned. A huge number of fish were scrambling over each other to peck at the cornmeal floating on the surface.
"Whoa, these fish really love cornmeal!" Chen Weijun exclaimed.
Xie Lei laughed and clapped Chen Weijun on the shoulder. "Out here in the mountains, when would these fish ever get to eat cornmeal? To them, it’s a rare delicacy. Of course they’re going to fight over it."
His words made everyone laugh.
"Hey, I’ve got a bite!"
"Me too!"
The two boys fishing felt their simple rods dip. They hurriedly pulled them in, and a moment later, they’d landed a three- or four-pound fish.
"Aw, if we’d known the fish loved cornmeal this much, we should have made a couple more rods," someone said regretfully.
"It’s fine. We have plenty of food today. This is just icing on the cake," Huo Tao said with a smile.
The boys took turns fishing, and within ten-odd minutes, they had caught seven or eight large fish. They were absolutely thrilled; the variety of dishes for their picnic had just increased again.
With so much to prepare, everyone took on a task and worked with bustling energy. A little over an hour later, a series of main courses was ready.
Roasted wild pheasant, roasted wild rabbit, Beggar’s Chicken, grilled fish, stir-fried cured pork with mushrooms and dried green beans, rabbit and potato stew, wild duck stew with glass noodles...
After all that prep, they had a huge number of dishes. They also steamed some rice and made a mushroom soup. Everyone contributed the lunchboxes they’d brought, filling them with the various dishes and piling rice onto the lids. The large pot of mushroom soup was left in the big iron wok.
"Wow, our spread today is so lavish!" Xie Lei said with a booming laugh as he looked at all the food. "It’s way better than the last time I came out for a picnic. You have no idea—last time, all we managed to scrape together were some mushrooms and wild vegetables. We didn’t catch any fish and only got one rabbit. It’s nothing compared to today."
Huo Tao smiled. "We have so much food today all thanks to Su Qing."
"Yeah, it’s all thanks to Su Qing!"
"Thank you, Su Qing!"
...
Chatting and laughing, the group of vibrant young men and women happily finished their magnificent picnic.
After the meal, Huo Tao gathered everyone’s opinions and announced that they would split up for the afternoon. They would meet back at the pond around four o’clock and then head back to school together.