, Group 3's Benefits

At this moment, Liu Jianguo accompanied Zhao Youzhi over. It turned out that Liu Jianguo had reported to Zhao Youzhi yesterday after work on the progress of the land reclamation and the temporarily changed reclamation plan. After thinking about it, Zhao Youzhi thought the method was good, but since he had never done it this way before, he was still worried and wanted to come and see for himself.

After walking around and looking at the cleanly cut isolation strips and the prepared soil and water, Zhao Youzhi nodded repeatedly.

"Ruiwa, I heard from Jianguo that this was your idea?" Village Chief Zhao asked.

"It's not exactly my own idea; I read it in a book," Zhou Rui said modestly.

"That's because you're smart; you've memorized all the books you've read and can apply them in practice. Look at all those people who go to school, but they don't really learn anything." It seems Zhao Youzhi can't escape this round of praise.

"Can we start the fire now?"

"There's not much wind now, perfect. As we agreed earlier, light the fires simultaneously from eight directions, signaled by the gongs," Zhou Rui said after assessing the surrounding wind.

"Alright, light the torches and let's begin."

There were no gongs, but there were enamel basins. As the sound of banging on the basins carried out, fires broke out all around at the same time.

"Everyone, be careful! If this fire starts, it's no small matter. Stay at your posts and report any fires immediately," Liu Jianguo instructed as he ran around.

Although the village chief also came, the land reclamation work ultimately fell to their third group, and Liu Jianguo was determined to make sure it was done thoroughly.

As the fire blazed, accompanied by thick smoke, people crouched or stood, some even waving sticks nearby. They all wondered if simply watching from the sidelines would count as work. It was damn easy, but also a bit boring.

But everyone quickly grew tired of the fire. Less than five minutes after it started, a snake crawled out of the bushes.

"Ah, snake! Run!"

"Why are you running? It's just a rat snake, it's not poisonous. You coward!" The young man said, sweeping the snake with his stick, knocking it to the ground, and then picking it up. "Oh, it's pretty fat. We'll have meat for lunch."

Then another rabbit darted out, and the group chased after it again. Finally, just as the outer perimeter of the fire was about to be completely closed in, several field mice suddenly ran out, their bodies still wreathed in flames.

"Quickly, quickly, kill it! Don't let the field mouse scurry into other haystacks, or we'll be in trouble."

Just as everyone was surrounding and trying to catch the rat, it finally gave up and lay motionless on the ground.

"What happened? Why is it stopping?"

Someone poked at it with a stick and muttered, "What's wrong with it? It's cooked."

After about ten minutes, nothing else emerged from the wasteland. The fire had been contained, the flames were growing larger, and even the smoke was decreasing.

Zhou Rui retreated further, following the wave of heat. It was fucking hot; it felt like being in a sauna. If there weren't women around, Zhou Rui would have stripped naked and soaked in the stream.

A few curious people, seeing that there wasn't much going on near the river, figured even if there was a fire, it wouldn't spread. Bored, they circled the burning area, and when they returned, they carried the dead rabbit, field mice, and snake, and piled them all on the riverbank.

"Village chief, a total of fifteen field mice, six rabbits, and two rat snakes came out of the fire," Liu Jianguo reported to the village chief after counting.

"Wow! That's great, to have such a harvest after clearing land. Let me see, each of these field mice must weigh over a pound. How much grain did they eat?" Zhao Youzhi was quite surprised.

"I estimate that even more people burned to death inside, but the fire was too intense, and they couldn't escape," Liu Jianguo said with some regret.

Zhao Youzhi pointed at Liu Jianguo with his finger, "You should be content. What more could you want with all this free meat? Consider this a collective harvest for your three groups. You've been guarding this place all day, which is quite hard work. I'll have Liu Kangri bring the village pot over here, and we'll stew it right here by Jiaolong Creek."

"Thank you, village chief, this is wonderful."

"Yes, I initially thought that clearing land would be tough, but I didn't expect that after burning it, I would actually get some meat for free." This was a woman who had participated in clearing land before.

"Village chief, I can run fast. I'll go back to the village and call Uncle Kangri." An eighteen-year-old lad immediately perked up when he heard there was meat to eat, feeling like he had inexhaustible strength.

"Alright, then you go." The village chief was also happy and immediately agreed.

As they were talking, they heard the splashing sound of water coming from the stream behind them. They saw Zhou Rui standing in the shallow water by the stream, his hands still gripping a large turtle. The turtle was struggling so hard that it almost pulled him into the water. Zhou Rui's hands were covered in mud, and he couldn't hold on very well. Seeing this, he quickly pulled and threw the turtle ashore.

"Wow, Rui, what happened to you? In just a short while, you've caught such a big turtle." The village chief was in a good mood and didn't say anything to Zhou Rui. He even used his toe to flip the turtle over. "It's so big, it probably weighs seven or eight pounds. This is another piece of meat."

"Village chief, but this turtle doesn't have much meat, and it doesn't taste good. My husband caught a turtle last year, cooked it at home, and it wasn't tasty at all."

"It's getting too hot, so I went down to the stream to cool off. I had just splashed water on myself when I felt something moving under my foot. I dug it out, mud and all, and this is it," Zhou Rui said casually. But inside, he was bleeding. The things they caught on the job belonged to the collective, and he couldn't bring them home. Besides, others complained that they didn't taste good. A turtle this size would fetch at least 1.5 yuan a pound in the county town.

"If you say it doesn't taste good, it's because you don't know how to cook it. When Liu Kangri comes, tell him to clean it up, and he'll definitely eat it again."

It seems that Liu Kangri, the master chef, has an excellent reputation; at least the villagers trust him.

After catching a turtle, Zhou Rui went ashore, not intending to stay in the water any longer. Everything they caught today belonged to the community, and Zhou Rui had no interest in fishing or shrimping in the river anymore.

Before long, Liu Kangri arrived, followed by the young man who had run to fetch him, carrying his cooking utensils.

"Village chief, are you here to work or to hunt? There's so much stuff. Looks like we can all have a good meal to replenish our strength." Liu Kangri's eyes lit up when he saw the pile of things.

"We were burning the stubble, and while it was burning, these things just came out on their own," Zhao Youzhi explained cheerfully.

"These field mice don't look very big, but they're all plump, good. This rabbit is also good. The rat snake is quite fat too. Oh, and there's a big turtle too, that's nutritious. Perfect for stewing all in one pot." Liu Kangri went through all the ingredients one by one, then turned to Zhao Youzhi and said, "But if we do it this way, I'm afraid Group One and Group Two will cause trouble if they find out later."

"What's there to make a fuss about? We didn't know this would happen beforehand. If there were any complaints, they should have raised them beforehand. None of the three groups complained about how tiring the work was at the beginning; this good fortune is just luck for the three groups."

"Okay, if you say it's okay, then it's okay. I'm just a cook, nothing more to say, let's get started."

By noon, a large pot of stewed meat was ready, along with wild vegetables that the groups had picked from the side of the road during their spare time. Without a word, everyone scooped up a lunchbox full of meat and broth and ate it with their own dry rations. Some people couldn't bear to eat it all, so they just drank some soup, ate some wild vegetables with their multigrain buns, and prepared to take the rest of the meat home for their children.

Zhou Rui took a bite of the meat—it was snake meat, so-so. He drank some soup; it only had a little oil, too bland. It wasn't that Liu Kangri's cooking was bad; with such limited ingredients, even a god couldn't make a delicacy. Oh well, this stuff isn't very tasty; there's no need to bring it to An'an. He'll eat it himself. So he took out some potatoes and started eating them with the big pot of stew.