Chapter 235: Chapter 235: Hard-Luck Woman_1
After coming out of the mine, Qin Feng led Xue Xiaochan up the mountain path toward the mountainside.
Halfway there, Xue Xiaochan felt something was off.
She broke off a small twig from a tree by the roadside.
"Snap!"
She gently hit Qin Feng’s butt with it.
"Ouch!"
Qin Feng yelped in pain.
"What are you doing?"
"Aren’t we supposed to head to the village? The village is to the east, but you’re taking me west, completely the opposite direction. Don’t I deserve to be hit?"
"Do you still remember the taro chicken we ate when we arrived, made by Sheng?"
"I remember! Didn’t you say the chicken was poisoned with some kind of witchcraft?"
"Look over there, halfway up the mountain, there’s a clearing with so many chickens running around. And there are a few tiled houses, obviously where the chicken farmers live."
"Then you should’ve said so earlier."
After she spoke, Xue Xiaochan took the twig and hit Qin Feng again.
"Why are you hitting me again?"
"Hitting for fun, can’t I?"
"If it’s fun to hit, it’ll be fun for me to hit back."
Qin Feng snatched the twig from Xue Xiaochan’s hand, aiming for her butt.
"You wouldn’t dare?"
Xue Xiaochan shouted sternly, scaring the twig out of Qin Feng’s hand.
In reality, Qin Feng wasn’t scared to do it, but a farmer nearby, carrying a hoe, was heading their way.
"Stop messing around, someone is coming. Wait until we get back tonight, I’ll give you a good whipping with my belt!"
"I’ll whip you more like it, you shameless thing! What kind of nonsense is filling your head?"
"Have the nerve to call me shameless? Who was the first to be shameless just now?"
"That was me teaching you, just like educating a son."
"Educating a son? Am I supposed to call you ’Mom’?"
"Try calling me that and see if your old lady responds!"
"Mom." Qin Feng actually called out.
"Ah! What a good son!"
Xue Xiaochan not only responded but also patted Qin Feng’s head.
Feeling like he got the short end of the stick after calling her ’Mom,’ Qin Feng said to Xue Xiaochan with a serious face, "Does that mean you should call me ’Dad’?"
"Get lost! What are you even thinking about all day?"
"Hmph! You may not call me that now, but there will come a time when I’ll make you call me ’Dad’."
"Don’t worry, your old lady will only call you my good son."
Xue Xiaochan gave Qin Feng a light hit and scolded, "Stop spouting nonsense, you indecent fool. Look at what you’re saying. Isn’t it embarrassing?"
Their playful bickering made the farmer nearby shake his head.
He took the tobacco pipe hung at his waist and stuffed the half-smoked tobacco leaf back into it.
After taking a deep drag, he sighed, "These young people from the city really know how to play around. They’ve completely muddled up the generations."
...
Laughing and joking, the two made it to the mountainside.
The chickens on the slope had no enclosures, yet they all stayed within that area, with none wandering off.
Qin Feng estimated there were only about seventy or eighty chickens on the entire slope, and each one’s feathers looked quite shiny.
Whether roosters or hens, they were all a bit larger than the average local chicken.
The most distinctive feature of these chickens was their exceptionally sharp beaks. Qin Feng even saw one chicken peck a stone cleanly into two halves.
"Are these the chickens that Sheng sells?" Xue Xiaochan asked.
"What do you think?"
"Looking at these chickens, they seem much bolder than the ones Sheng keeps caged up.
Especially their beaks, they look like a combination of sharp little knives and tweezers.
That old hen just now, it pecked at a stone and actually split it apart. No matter where the little bugs hide, they can peck them out and eat them up."
As she said this, Xiaochan subconsciously glanced at Qin Feng.
This glance made Qin Feng shiver involuntarily.
"What are you doing? Don’t you go copying that old hen!"
"Get lost! What are you thinking?"
Xiaochan would never use her mouth, and seeing no one around, she stealthily reached out a hand to poke him.
She didn’t know why, but after learning that Qin Feng had gone off to pose as Bingbing’s boyfriend, she started feeling anxious, afraid that the man she had in her grasp would be snatched away by another woman.
So, she began to subconsciously take initiative to close the distance with Qin Feng.
Hence, that unprecedented kiss happened.
After that one time, Xiaochan felt like she had discovered a new continent, suddenly finding men rather amusing.
Before, Xiaochan’s heart only had room for her career, but now she had changed.
What’s the use of just having a career? After success, how dull it is to be alone and lonely?
A beautiful life is one where both career and love are bountiful.
Before, she traveled alone for business, staying in the best hotels, eating the finest foods, yet without a trace of happiness.
This trip with Qin Feng, although staying in worse conditions and eating poorly, made her very happy.
Playing around with Qin Feng from time to time was the happiest moment for her.
Just now, when she joked with Qin Feng and he called her "mom," Xiaochan felt an inexplicable excitement.
It was in that moment she realized that those online jokes were not just made up for fun.
The stuff between men and women really could be quite entertaining.
Just then, a dark-skinned old woman walked out of a small tile-roofed house, holding a winnowing basket filled with grains in her arms.
She called out "cluck cluck cluck" to the chickens while scattering grains on the ground.
The chickens, which had been running around the hillside, swarmed over in a flock.
The old lady was Luo Qiujue, and her husband, Chen Ergou, had died twenty years ago, leaving her to raise their simple-minded son, Chen Youqiang, alone.
They didn’t own any land, just three tiled rooms and this wild hillside.
Luo Qiujue, with her hardworking hands, turned this barren hill into a chicken farm, and raised Youqiang on her own income from the farm.
However, Youqiang’s simplicity seemed incurable despite the many doctors she consulted.
Seeing herself age day by day and her son unable to find a wife because of his simplicity, Luo Qiujue was anxious, yet there was nothing she could do.
After all, which girl would be willing to marry a simpleton?
As soon as Luo Qiujue came out, Qin Feng immediately walked over with a cheerful smile.
"Granny, hello! I’m wondering if you’re selling these chickens?"
"Yes! I can sell the roosters, but not the hens!"
"It’s my first time in Anlong Town. I tried the taro chicken at a place called Sheng’s Taro Chicken, and I found the meat exceptionally delicious.
When I asked Sheng about it, she said her chickens were raised on Qiuniu Mountain, so I guess that would be here.
Therefore, I’d like to take a few chickens back to the city with me to let my relatives and friends have a taste."
"The Sheng you mentioned is Sheng Cuifang. She’s no good, stealing chicken seedlings from my farm and raising them on another hillside.
Although her chickens are the same breed as mine, she feeds them a lot of feed to make a dirty profit. Feeds from the Pei Family, which are not clean!
Anyway, it’s best if you eat less of Sheng Cuifang’s chickens."
