Chapter One Hundred Departure

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  At night, Miao Huo insisted that everyone try his craftsmanship, but he only cooked a dish of eel meat.

  "Miao's brother has a special skill, his grilled eel is very impressive! Last time we had it at his place, the aftertaste was endless, so let him handle it!" Liu Yang said.

  Everyone can only let him toss around, and there is also some expectation in their hearts. Since it's said to be a unique skill, it definitely won't be bad, right? Chu Jiaqiang was helping with the fire inside.

  In rural areas, many people still burn firewood, coal gas is too precious, and not many people can afford it. Moreover, what rural areas lack the least is firewood, which can be obtained from their own land, mountains, or simply picked up anywhere. Some people may say that this method of burning firewood destroys the environment and pollutes the air. Cutting down trees reduces forest vegetation, and the smoke produced by burning wood also releases carbon dioxide, soot, and other pollutants into the air, causing air pollution.

  This idea is too subjective. Although the environmental awareness of rural people is not strong, they generally rarely cut down trees for firewood, and basically only cut some dead branches or dead trees. The main reason is that this can be ignited as soon as it is tied back, without having to bother drying it in the sun. As for carbon dioxide pollution, it's purely nonsense. In rural areas, there are vast mountains, and as long as they don't set fire to the mountains, the carbon dioxide will not be enough for plants to absorb.

  "It's a pity there's no iron plate. Iron plate grilled eel is also delicious, next time you should prepare more equipment, like a grill and so on, then we'll have many ways to eat." Miao Huo suggested.

  Chu's family nodded slightly, guests have requirements, and naturally they will be more careful in the future.

  The eel segments were not deboned, cut into pieces and then configured with ingredients. What he wanted to do was stir-fry the eel segments, a dish that many people are familiar with. However, Miao Huo's method is slightly different from others, mainly in terms of seasoning and stir-frying techniques.

  It hasn't been burned well yet, a unique fragrance has floated out, and Miao Huo indeed has two skills. Chu Jiaqiang said secretly.

  After all the dishes were ready, everyone started eating. Because there were too many people, the original eight immortals table was not enough, so Chu Jiaqiang hurriedly moved another one out and merged them together.

  He thought to himself, when he has time, he must trouble Mu Tong Gong to make a dining table. The Eight Immortals' table is too high, adults don't mind, but it's a bit of a hassle for small children, and the uneven heights are not safe. Last time at Wan Jia's house, that little loli was eating and felt unsteady, her body swaying back and forth, almost falling over.

  Wen Qiu and others ate after, all praised endlessly, indeed delicious, crispy entrance, fragrance pleasant to people, appetizing.

  "Liu Yang said, 'Miao's craftsmanship has improved again.'"

  He took a sip of the millet wine himself, then shook his head: "It's not that my craftsmanship has improved, but the material. The eel from your family is too good, it's the best I've ever seen. This time when I go back, I'll have to bring some back for my family to try, hmm! This crab isn't bad either."

  Yan Tianzhi smiled and said, "The fish in the big ditch behind our house are all wild, how can they not be good? The reservoir on the other side is actually a bit worse. Maybe it's because this place belongs to an orchard and vegetable field, so there are more insects, making the quality better."

  Got it, even the reason has been analyzed for Chu Jiaqiang, so there's no need for him to explain himself.

  Wen Qiu and others nodded, secretly thinking that it made sense. They also had the same idea in their hearts, which was to bring back more of these original foods for their families to taste this time.

  "Eel meat is still better with oil stew." Yan Tianzhi said again.

  "Stir-fried oil? Stir-fried yellow eel in oil? Never heard of such a cooking method." Miao Huo and the others exclaimed in surprise.

  "I've had it once, right here. Hehe! The flavor is simply amazing. Even the bones inside are tender and don't need to be spat out, with a subtle wine aroma that intoxicates you. And after eating, you can still sleep soundly at night, healthy, beneficial, and delicious! That's the highest level of culinary skills." Yan Tianzhi couldn't help but salivate as he recalled the dishes cooked by Chu Jiaqiang's second uncle a while back.

  "Huh? Huang E can actually be made into this state? I've never heard of it before, who has such high skills?" Miao Huo listened in stunned silence.

  "In this village, there's an old man's house, his cooking skills are amazing! Those who claim to be masters outside are just mediocre! Although I don't know what the ancient royal chefs were like, that old man's cooking skills should be close to it. Yan Tianzhi highly praised Chu Jiaqiang's second uncle's cooking skills, unfortunately, the old man rarely cooks himself and is not even in charge of cooking at home."

  Miao Huo only then discovered that there are heavens beyond the heavens and people outside of people. A small Chu family village actually has so many formidable individuals.

  "Haha! 'Great masters are among the common people!' This saying isn't unreasonable." Old Wan laughed, in Chu Family Village, this saying was fully embodied.

  After dinner, everyone sat in the hall watching TV and chatting. Chu Jiaqiang took out some dried sweet potatoes, and Wen Qiu and others ate a lot of them. These guys were also planning to bring dried sweet potatoes tomorrow when they entered the mountain, which was convenient and durable to eat.

  Miao Huo secretly asked Chu Jiaqiang again, how much more of these sun-dried sweet potato strips he was going to bring back. Those two little troublemakers would definitely love to eat them. At least they were many times better than junk food, and there was no need to worry about food safety issues. Moreover, sweet potatoes were originally coarse grains with high nutritional value, unlike the trashy snacks outside!

  The sky had just cracked dawn, Chu Jiaqiang got up to exercise, which had become a habit of life, breathing in the fresh air of early morning, feeling refreshed.

  After breakfast, I'll give acupuncture and massage to Wan Lao and others for a while. It may take two or three days.

  Soon, the old village chief came over with a few people, including Old Man Li, Fifth Uncle, Teacher Liu and Chu Jiaxiong.

  Li Lao Tou held a cloth bundle, somewhat like the ancient people's package. It was actually just a piece of cloth, with things placed in the middle and then wrapped up, with pairs of corners tied tightly together, so that the items inside wouldn't fall out, and another pair of corners only tied a knot at the end, which could be slung over the shoulder.

  Li Lao's attire was nothing unusual for the people of Chujiazhuang, as he had arrived in this getup and it was clear at a glance that he came from some place in the north. But to Miao Huo and others, it was a sight to behold.

  He also brought two dogs, one black and one white. The two dogs were rural native dogs, but because they often went into the mountains, they had a strong bloodthirsty nature. Even Liu Yang's large dog stood up on its hind legs, staring at these two extremely bloody native dogs. Miao Huo's Tibetan Mastiff was not too affected, only giving them a slight glance.

  Fifth Uncle brought two things, a musket and an opium pipe. The musket had to be carried, with iron sand and gunpowder fully prepared. He was also someone who couldn't go a day without smoking, so the opium pipe was always by his side.

  Mr. Liu carried an old-fashioned handgun and a military sword, while Chu Jiaxiong was carrying a long knife, which was the first choice for opening roads. As soon as he heard that Chu Jiaqiang had entered the mountain, he immediately ignored his wife's father's opposition and ran to the old village chief to sign up. The old village chief saw that he was tall and strong, and his strength was also famous in the village, so he agreed on the spot.

  Wen Qiu and others looked at their equipment, among them two people carried guns, but they themselves were lagging behind in terms of equipment.

  "These are guns, great stuff!" Miao Huo was a bit excited to see the prey, these things were what men liked, although they had been used for a long time, but they were still powerful!

  "This is just a toy gun, it's not very powerful. His is the real thing. It's strange, these things weren't confiscated by the government before?" said Fifth Uncle.

  "Who dares to confiscate my belongings?"

  These words were extremely arrogant, but from this person's mouth, they became a kind of momentum, a kind of majesty. The violent momentum burst out, and the surroundings instantly fell into a repressive atmosphere. It was hard to imagine that such an ordinary gentle person would be so bloodthirsty, and yet he was still a teacher.

  Ye Qijun and others secretly felt a chill, this Chu family village is not simple at all! Just now, the teacher's body burst out with a strong momentum, an invisible aura that made them feel like they couldn't breathe. Before, I thought that so-called momentum was an intangible thing, but now I've really experienced it personally.

  "How come I have a feeling of being afraid of teachers? What do you think, big brother?" Chu Jiaxiong said with a shrug.

  Chu Jiaqiang scolded with a smile: "You kid, you didn't pass the exam once before, and you often got punished by Teacher Liu to copy textbooks and exams. How can you not be afraid of teachers? All along, you've been afraid of teachers."

  Chu Jiaqiang recalled the interesting things in elementary school. This teacher was not like the rumored rural teachers who would physically punish students at every turn, but it was also terrifying to offend him. He made you copy a textbook word for word until you vomited blood. This was even more frightening than punishing students by making them stand in class.

  Mr. Liu smiled faintly. Chu Jiaqiang was the smartest student he had ever taught, but this guy was too loyal and often helped others cheat, which gave him a big headache.

  "Doesn't Teacher Liu need to go to class?" Chu Jiaqiang suddenly asked.

  "Hehe! Today is Saturday, on Monday I will assign some homework for everyone and let them study by themselves in the classroom for a day."

  Chu's family was strong and suddenly realized that the life in the countryside really made people forget about time. Unlike in the city, where every day is spent staring at time, grasping every minute and second, life is like a rush to market.

  "Don't you bring food?" Ye Xiaoshuang found out that these guys didn't even bring a single grain of rice with them.

  "Uncle waved his hand: 'It's suffering to bring food into the mountain at this time, there's enough food in the mountain to not starve. Don't bring those things to eat either, otherwise you'll be lying down before halfway through the journey. Tents are also unnecessary, we have some simple wooden houses built inside the mountain, let's travel light.'"

  Experienced old man Li also nodded in agreement.

  Miao Huo and others saw that they all said so, and hurriedly reorganized their things. In fact, they didn't want to carry a big package either.

  "Brother Chu, aren't you bringing anything?" asked Xu Hao, a disciple of Professor Wen. He saw that Chu Jiaqiang was wearing only a short-sleeved shirt inside and a ventilated long coat outside, with nothing else on him, which made him wonder.

  Chu Jiaqiang opened his coat to let everyone see, inside the coat there were some things, a set of acupuncture needles, a slingshot, and a small wooden crossbow.

  The slingshot is very special, the main body doesn't know what kind of wood it's made of, it's dark red in color, with carvings of strange beasts on it. The pulling rope is a dense white silk thread, also unknown material.

  A small wooden crossbow was only the size of three palms, with various threads complicatedly wrapped around it, paired with a few iron arrows as long as chopsticks and as thick as chopsticks.

  As soon as he saw these three things, Chu Jiaxiong jumped up.

  "Big brother! These three things were all left behind by the old Taoist master, passed down to you? Good stuff! Good treasure! Big brother, can I borrow the slingshot and crossbow for a while?"

  Others didn't understand, and even others in Chujiazhuang didn't know about the old Taoist's slingshot and crossbow, but they often saw him with a needle.

  "Can these two things kill wild beasts?" Ye Xiaoshuang couldn't help but ask.

  Chu Jiaqiang didn't say a word, and handed the crossbow to Chu Jiahao. The crossbow required great strength to pull back, which suited that guy just fine. The structure of the crossbow was complex and slightly fragile, so he was afraid it would be broken by this big oaf.

  Chu Jiaxiong picked up a small stone from the ground, stretched his arm, aimed at a broken red brick not far away, and suddenly released his hand. The small stone instantly hit the red brick and sank into the hard brick, with several cracks spreading around the shooting mouth to the edge of the red brick, shocking people.

  This move made Liu Zhishen slightly narrow his eyes, although it didn't reach the level of a bullet, but still had two-thirds of its power, was that still a slingshot?

  Chu Jiaqiang took out his bow and arrow, installed an iron feather on it, and aimed at a thick branch of the dragon eye tree. The iron feather instantly pierced through the entire branch, leaving only a small transparent hole at both ends.

  Everyone was shocked and amazed, this is a powerful killer, even bullets can't penetrate such thick wood.

  Watching Chu Jiaqiang run far away to pick up the iron feathers, Miao Huo and others looked at their own modern crossbows again, and somehow they all felt like trash.

  "Alright! Now that we're all set, let's get going! The journey is long and arduous, so Qiang and Xiong, you two are strong, take good care of Professor Wen along the way." The old village chief reminded them.

  A figure disappeared into the distance under the gaze of the old village chief, a white speck circling in the sky.