Ordinary observers in fast time travel

Chapter 1212 Laundry and Bamboo Rats

Shi Jia came to the stream, found a relatively large rock, and began to wash clothes.

This made the person who had been following them frown.

"Do you think she's out of her mind, coming to the mountains to wash clothes? Doesn't she know there's a river out there?" Someone watched for a while, then turned around and prepared to leave.

"Wait, are you leaving already?" Li Xiaomei was somewhat reluctant; she didn't believe that Li Xiaohua had come to do laundry.

"What are we doing here instead of moving? Be careful, or all the wild vegetables on the mountain will be dug up!" Mu Guihua hurriedly followed.

"Hey, wait for me."

Shi Jia glanced up, unconcerned; her recent gains had indeed attracted attention. It was normal for them to follow her.

She had originally planned to go straight home after washing the clothes, but now she doesn't need to.

When Shi Jia ran out of soapberries at home, he would just rub them a couple of times, then beat them vigorously with a wooden stick about ten times before rinsing them in water.

It doesn't matter if it's clean or not, it's been washed anyway.

Hmm, we can check if there are any soapberries on the mountain later.

The wet clothes were heavy, and Shi Jia, thinking that she still needed to pick wild vegetables and mushrooms here, hung the clothes on a leaning pillar to let them dry naturally.

She carried a basket on her back and began picking wild vegetables with a machete. Perhaps it was a case of what she had been thinking about all day finally coming to fruition. Suddenly, a squeaking sound came from the bamboo grove.

Shi Jia was taken aback at first, then burst into surprise: bamboo rats! She immediately stopped picking mushrooms, squatted down, listened carefully, and tried to pinpoint the location of the bamboo rats.

Then she practically vanished in a blur as she dashed away.

"Squeak—" The bamboo rat's cry was sharper than ever before, and the next second, Shi Jia was holding a plump bamboo rat in his hand.

She subconsciously weighed it in her hand. Two pounds!
Suddenly, a gray shadow darted past from the front, and Shi Jia reflexively lunged forward, "Squeak—" and the second bamboo rat was caught.

Two days' worth of protein!

Shi Jia's eyes lit up with joy as she held the bamboo rat in her hands, her eyes scanning her surroundings. Her ears perked up, not missing a single sound.

Suddenly, a bulge appeared on a bamboo leaf five meters away. Shi Jia's eyes lit up, and with a forceful pull, the two bamboo rats in his hands snapped their necks.

She quickly tossed the two bamboo rats to the side of her basket and darted away as nimbly as a rabbit.

"Squeak~" The bamboo leaves were swept up and flew up, and a plump little creature hurriedly ran away. In the blink of an eye, half of its body disappeared into the thick bamboo leaves.

Shi Jia reacted quickly and grabbed the thick tail!
"Squeak~" The bamboo rat struggled desperately, trying to bite her, but Shi Jia wouldn't give it the chance. She grabbed the bamboo rat by the neck with one hand, quickly found the joint and squeezed hard. With a snap, the fat bamboo rat died.

Shi Jia placed the bamboo rat aside, carefully parted the bamboo leaves, revealing a hole about the size of a bowl. There were some bamboo scraps at the entrance of the hole.

Shi Jia's eyes lit up, and he quickly swept away the bamboo leaves around him, soon finding a second hole.

Unsure if the two holes were connected, Shi Jia swept away the surrounding bamboo leaves but found no third hole. After thinking for a moment, she decided to give it a try.

She first stuffed a bunch of bamboo leaves into one of the holes, then lit it with fire, flicked the flames, and the smoke went into the mouse hole.

Soon, she saw smoke coming from another hole. Overjoyed, she immediately squatted down in front of the other hole, waiting for the mouse to come out.

The wait wasn't long. Soon, plump bamboo rats began to flee from their burrows. Shi Jia, quick as a flash, caught one bamboo rat with a stick.

Within ten minutes, eight bamboo rats—three large and five small—were lying in front of me!
"Tsk tsk, that's a month's worth of protein." In times of famine, eating meat once every three days was a luxury! After extinguishing the fire and covering the embers with soil to ensure no fire broke out, the bamboo rats were put into the basket.

She also needs to pick some mushrooms, and after she finishes picking the mushrooms, she will process the bamboo rats together.

For lunch, Shi Jia ate by the stream. She roasted a small animal and ate it with wild vegetables, finding it very delicious.

After lunch, when the sun was at its strongest, Shi Jia, instead of leaving immediately, cut down two bamboo stalks to weave a vegetable basket.

Shi Jia's craftsmanship, honed over several worlds, was already unparalleled. She easily split bamboo strips into suitable bamboo strips. Because green bamboo strips were more durable and less prone to mold, she only used green bamboo strips to weave vegetable baskets.

After weaving the bamboo basket, the sunlight had softened considerably. The clothes, already dry from the sun's intense heat, were quickly folded and placed inside the basket. Then, she wrapped the bamboo rat meat drying nearby in large leaves, put it in her basket, and covered it with wild vegetables.

The basket wasn't heavy today, and Shi Jia easily carried it. He then bent down to pick up the vegetable basket and two bamboo poles.

It was time for the villagers of Xinghua to go to work. After resting for the afternoon, the villagers were now gradually returning to the mountain. This year's drought had resulted in poor crop growth, and although it wasn't harvest time yet, the outcome was already predictable.

So the villagers, who were used to planning ahead, went up the mountain again to look for food.

Sure enough, Shi Jia ran into the same group of people from this morning again.

"Xiaohua, you're home so late? What good stuff did you get?" Li Xiaomei craned her neck to look at Shi Jia's basket.

From Li Xiaohua's fragmented memories, Shi Jia learned that they were just from the same village and didn't usually play together. In fact, Li Xiaohua had almost no friends her own age.

Shi Jia's heart tightened, but she calmly said, "It's nothing, I just dug up some wild vegetables."

"A pretty good harvest." Li Xiaomei's eyes remained fixed on the wild vegetables, as if trying to see through the thick layer to what was inside. Of course, if she could, she would have liked to reach out and pluck them away.

However, Shi Jia wouldn't give her that chance. She quickened her pace and casually replied, "It's alright."

"What are you going to do with these two bamboo poles?" Li Xiaomei asked again.

"Go home and weave some bamboo baskets to carry things." Shi Jia was now seven or eight meters away from them.

Seeing this, Li Xiaomei rolled her eyes and pouted, "Come on, let's hurry up the mountain. I heard that He Shun's family dug up a lot of good stuff this morning."

"How about we go check out the place Li Xiaohua went to this morning?" Li Xiaomei asked Mu Guihua and Zhang Dahua.

"What are we going there for? It's all bare and there's nothing there." Mu Guihua frowned.

"I think Li Xiaohua must have found a lot of good stuff since he walked so fast, otherwise why would he look like he doesn't want to talk to us?" Li Xiaomei analyzed.

"I just smelled blood." Zhang Dahua frowned. She was worried that there was danger in the bamboo forest. She often heard her grandparents say that there was a kind of snake in the bamboo forest called the bamboo viper, which looked the same color as the bamboo. She could easily be bitten by it if she wasn't careful.

"Li Xiaohua is injured?" Li Xiaomei asked in surprise. How come she hadn't noticed?

"I don't know, but I smelled it, and it was very strong," Zhang Dahua said.

"Could it be that she hunted something? Like a wild rabbit?" Mu Guihua asked with great interest.

"Have you ever heard of rabbits living in bamboo forests?" Zhang Dahua was speechless.

"Um, I don't know either."

"Stop discussing it, let's go see what's going on." Li Xiaomei couldn't help but feel jealous when she thought about Li Xiaohua hunting the small animal. No, she had to go see for herself.