133, dumbfounded, there is meat to eat.

The traps were finished, and the company commander sat with him beneath a tree nearby to wait.

Half an hour later, the two of them went to inspect the traps they had set. The result left Liu Gang stunned and utterly speechless.

Since when had hunting become so crude and simple?!

With traps like these, prey had actually still taken the bait? Were the animals stupid? No—more precisely, they had been knocked unconscious!

Liu Gang did not care whether they were stupid or unconscious. All he knew was that they would have meat to eat.

Of the six traps, only three contained prey. The other three were empty, but the company commander said that was only temporary; by tomorrow morning, they would have something in them.

Hearing that, Liu Gang immediately gave him a thumbs-up.

“My company commander is truly something!”

When Li Dahu recognized who had arrived, he immediately called out, “Gao Shen, you went into the mountains again?”

Seeing how heavily laden the two men were, Li Dahu was also astonished. Had the game in the mountains suddenly become so easy to catch? Gao Shen had gone into the mountains twice, and both times he had returned with a full load. Soldiers really were impressive!

Li Dahu marveled inwardly.

“Yes, we did! We went to add some variety to everyone’s meals. Where are you headed?” Gao Shen asked cheerfully, clearly pleased himself.

“I noticed that your water jar was empty, so I’m going to fetch some water. You two hurry home first!” Li Dahu said in his straightforward, honest manner.

“Then we’ll trouble you, Dahu. We’ll take the game home and clean it first.” Gao Shen approved of Li Dahu’s thoughtfulness. In the past, only he and Qingxin had lived together, so they had used nothing but water from the Lingxi Spring.

But things were different now. With so many more people in the household, that was no longer convenient. It was better to honestly use water from the village well.

“Don’t mention it. I’ll be back in no time!” Li Dahu said with a simple grin, hoisting the shoulder pole and heading toward the well.

***

In the kitchen, Jing Qingxin was stir-frying vegetables when she suddenly heard her godfather’s delighted voice coming from the courtyard. Guessing that Gao Shen had returned, she immediately handed the spatula to Xiaomei and turned to leave.

The moment she stepped out of the kitchen, she saw the figures in the courtyard. She hurried over and asked with concern, “Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine. It went very smoothly,” Gao Shen answered gently.

When Liu Gang heard his sister-in-law ask, he immediately said excitedly, “Oh, sister-in-law, you have no idea! Today I really saw something extraordinary!”

“Oh?” Jing Qingxin looked as though she were all ears, though she was secretly amused. She could more or less guess what Liu Gang wanted to say.

As if he had finally found someone who understood him, Liu Gang launched into an uninterrupted account of the miraculous hunt, enthusiastically praising how brave and capable his company commander had been.

Nearby, Gao Shen was cleaning the pheasants, his face dark with embarrassment. Their capture had gone so smoothly, but it had not been his doing, and he certainly did not dare claim the credit. Yet that fellow Gangzi had run straight to the person who truly deserved the praise, proudly showing off while complimenting him instead. Was that really appropriate?

“Gangzi, aren’t you curious about what I actually did?” Gao Shen suddenly asked. His hands never stopped moving as he deftly plucked the pheasant and cut up the meat.

“Of course! Company commander, what exactly did you do?” Liu Gang’s attention was instantly diverted. He asked with eager curiosity. Since his commander had brought it up himself, he naturally would not waste the opportunity. He was genuinely curious.

“That was your sister-in-law’s doing,” Gao Shen said lightly, still keeping his head down as he worked on the game.

“What?” Liu Gang exclaimed in surprise. He turned toward Jing Qingxin and asked for confirmation, “Sister-in-law, what happened?”

“It was just a little knockout powder,” Jing Qingxin replied with a faint smile. Everyone knew that she understood pharmacology and could make medicines, so there was no need for her to conceal it.

“Knockout powder? No wonder! I knew there had to be something like that!” Liu Gang said, suddenly enlightened.

Jing Qingxin did not linger to chat with them. There were still dishes waiting for her in the kitchen. When she saw that Gao Shen had finished cleaning one of the pheasants, she quickly picked it up and carried it inside.

By evening, a wonderfully abundant meal had been prepared. The three young women gradually brought the dishes to the table. Gao Shen’s family had only one wooden table, which was nowhere near large enough for eleven people.

Uncle Li and his son brought over another wooden table and two long benches from their house. The two tables were nearly the same size and height, so they pushed them together. That way, everyone could sit more comfortably.

The whole group gathered around the tables, gazing at the feast before them and sighing once again in amazement.

There were spicy-and-sour shredded potatoes, braised eggplant, cold eggplant with chopped chili, tiger-skin peppers, cabbage stir-fried with vinegar, cold spicy shredded kelp, stir-fried lettuce with wood ear mushrooms, lettuce braised with chicken pieces, shredded chicken with green peppers, diced chicken with chilies, chicken braised with shiitake mushrooms, and, to top it all off, a wild-vegetable dumpling soup.

Zhang Liangping and his wife could only marvel in silence. How many years had it been since they had eaten such an abundant meal, so pleasing in color, aroma, and taste?

Ever since they had taken in a daughter, their lives had unknowingly improved in so many ways. It seemed that Heaven truly had favored them, sending them a wonderful daughter and giving them the greatest hope and anticipation of their lives.

As for Liu Gang and Auntie Liu, their hearts were filled with nothing but praise.

“What wonderful cooking!”

The four members of the Li family, however, considered everything perfectly normal. Whether Gao Shen and Jing Qingxin did something astonishing or brought out some unusual new item, it all seemed only natural to them. In their eyes, the two of them were extraordinarily capable people, so anything they did was exactly what one would expect.

This novel was first published by Xiaoxiang Academy. Reproduction is prohibited.