Riding the wind of rebirth

"Have all the students arrived?" At this moment, two people came in from outside the door, while a spirited black dog remained outside, sticking out its tongue and curiously looking at everyone inside.

"Grandpa, Uncle Tu." Zhou Zhi placed the braised three delicacies on the table: "You're back just in time, we can start our feast now."

After saying that, he introduced everyone: "This is the chief Bimo of the autonomous prefecture, and this is Uncle Tu, whom I often tell you about. He is the national representative. I am very grateful to these two for their help here."

Everyone stood up and greeted the two of them.

"Sit down, everyone!" Old Chi Ri happily invited everyone to sit down: "You're right, Zhou Zi. We've benefited a lot from Zhou Zi here. It's not like we're taking care of him! This morning we brought the horses back for everyone, so it'll be convenient for us to go anywhere from now on."

"Really?" Yan Xiao and Yang Honghui exclaimed excitedly, "Shall we go take a look?"

Yan Xiao glanced at the black dog by the door again, which didn't look like a friendly dog: "Uh, it won't bite us, will it?"

"No, even though Black Dragon is a formidable fighter, he's only doing this to protect us." Mai Xiaomiao had already taken the chicken carcass out of the broth pot, shaken off the boneless meat, and put it in a bowl along with a large piece of chicken skin. She then poured it into the rice bowl that Black Dragon had placed under the eaves pillar: "Black Dragon, we're back."

Black Dragon excitedly jumped around Mai Xiaomiao, rubbing its neck against Mai Xiaomiao's trouser leg. Its previously wary and fierce demeanor instantly transformed into the cute and ingratiating look of a pet dog, leaving Yan Xiao dumbfounded: "Ah... this is too easy to coax!"

“Just because Xiao Miao can do it doesn’t mean others can.” Zhou Zhi laughed. “Don’t try it, I’m afraid it will discourage you. Let’s go, let’s go look at the horses, and while we’re at it, let’s see if A Zi and Auntie can come over for dinner.”

There are eight more horses and four mules in the stable. In terms of size, mules are actually bigger than horses, but in terms of temperament and strength, the difference between mules and horses can be seen at a glance.

The chestnut horse and the big blue horse were what Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao were used to riding, and they were quite excited when they saw the two of them coming.

Zhou Zhi reached out and scratched the big blue horse's neck to calm it down, then stroked its ribs and said to Old Chi Ri with a smile, "It seems it has really gotten fat."

"It's about gaining weight for winter." Old Chi Ri reached out and touched it, then patted it twice: "Like livestock."

"This horse and that chestnut horse are the ones Xiao Miao and I rode in the countryside. You can choose the remaining four," Zhou Zhi introduced to his friends.

"Can I choose a mule?" Yan Xiao thought that mules were big and docile, which seemed like a good choice.

“Mule are for carrying tents, sleeping bags, and other equipment,” Zhou Zhi laughed. “They’re not used to carrying people, so they don’t work well with you.”

“Then we’ll take this one in the same color,” Yan Xiao quickly said. “Hey, matching outfits.”

"What a lousy thing to do." Liang Hong laughed. "Honghui and I will pick the two biggest ones. We're heavier than Xueshan and Yanghe."

The remaining two horses were assigned to Yang He and Feng Xueshan. None of them had ever handled such large livestock before, so they were both curious and slightly afraid, but it felt quite exciting.

"Thank you all, Grandpa Chi Ri, for finding us these mounts." After everyone had looked at the horses, Zhou Zhi said, "Let's go eat first, they'll get cold soon."

There were still people in the teams buying wine and hauling grain, but fortunately, the replacements had arrived after lunch and took over from Azi and Aunt Gillie.

Both of them had a layer of chaff and ash on their heads and shoulders. Since they had to continue working in the afternoon, they didn't change their clothes. They just dusted off the ash and washed their faces at the door.

Aunt Gillie apologized to everyone, saying, "I heard from Zhouzi that everyone likes tofu pudding, but the villagers need to finish milling all the grain before the festival, and the machines are simply not available today. We'll have to do it another day." "It's alright for us. Let's get the villagers busy first," Yang He said. "I also have a rice milling machine at home, so I know what it's like when things get busy."

"You must be Yang He, right? And this must be Xue Shan," Aunt Gillie said with a smile. "And there's Xiao Miao's constant chatter about Xiao Shunzi, isn't that right?"

"Hello, Auntie," Feng Xueshan said with a smile.

So Zhou Zhi took this opportunity to introduce his friends to everyone. Upon hearing that Yang Honghui was a Wuying-level athlete, A Zi asked curiously, "What is Wuying-level?"

“The Wuying level is the highest level of martial arts athlete, the kind who has won several national championships.” Zhou Zhi thought for a moment and decided to reinforce A Zi’s impression: “Jet Li is a Wuying level athlete.”

"Wow..." Little hearts started popping into Azi's eyes.

“Oh right, we can have Brother Yang perform tonight,” Zhou Zhi said.

"No, no, I didn't bring any clothes..."

“We’re about the same size,” Zhou Zhi said, not intending to let Yang Honghui off the hook: “I am…”

"Where's the alcohol?" Tsuchiya Yoshishi glanced at the table and discovered a very serious problem.

“They like to drink fruit wine,” Zhou Zhi quickly covered up, “They can’t drink the original corn liquor.”

"Then let's have fruit wine," Old Chi Ri said. "I tried some sour fruit wine a couple of days ago, and it tasted pretty good."

It wasn't that Zhou Zhi betrayed Lan Guiyun, but rather that after bringing the pomegranate wine back, Lao Chi Ri tasted it and thought it was really good. In addition, there were many pomegranate rootstocks at the Agricultural University base that produced sour pomegranates, and since there was no shortage of wine at home, Aunt Ji Lie felt it was a waste to throw away the sour pomegranates, so she tried it with the sour pomegranates and wild grapes from the mountains.

As a result, the secret of pomegranate wine was accidentally revealed: to make wine, you need to use very sour fruits to make it easier to extract the flavor. Then, add rock sugar or honey to make it sweet and sour. In addition, the fruit juice lowers the alcohol content, making it very pleasant to drink.

However, the people of Jiachuan knew how potent this kind of alcohol was, and with Zhou Zhi's repeated warnings, Yang He obediently listened and didn't dare to overdo it. When he saw Zhou Zhi's eyes start to glaze over, he quickly followed suit.

"No, no, I can't take it anymore. The next dishes—phoenix tail pig blood and small intestine soup, shredded pork with green peppers and celery, and stir-fried cauliflower with cured pork—will have to be made by Xue Shan..."

"I'll go," Aunt Gillette said with a smile. "It's rare for the classmates to come, so you should keep them company. Honghui and Yanxiao can hold their liquor pretty well..."

They weren't bad people, they were just too drunk and forgot all about their instructions!
"And the white fungus soup, I almost forgot, it's all in the thermos."

Yan Xiao's tongue was practically slurring: "I was thinking... that Xiao Miao would follow Zhouzi... to the mountains to suffer... but it turns out... Zhouzi... has been hiding here enjoying himself all along! Why didn't he say so earlier! That's... not fair!"

“Hehehe, you see it this way now, but back when Zhouzi first came here two years ago…” Old Chi Ri said, wiping the corner of his eye, “Although Zhouzi didn’t say it, I could tell these past few days that I really didn’t want Zhouzi to leave. We two can chat like old man and old woman.”

“That won’t do,” Tu Liangzhi said. “Both of these kids are capable of great things. They’ve wasted more than two years because of this wretched place of ours. Even if Lianhe Township doesn’t care about this, we can’t let them stay here any longer.”

"Grandpa, Uncle Tu, you're both too kind." Zhou Zhi had to raise his glass again. "Grandpa knew when I first arrived that I wasn't feeling well. I want to thank you both for helping me get back on my feet. I also met Renzhong, Azi, and so many other good friends. I even developed a relationship with Xiaomiao here. There's so much I want to say, and it's all in this drink." (End of Chapter)