Gu Yihan and Gu Hao were on winter break. Soon, it was the Little New Year, and the family began preparing goods for the festivities.
Grandma Gu slaughtered a hen that had stopped laying eggs. Gu Yihan saw her grandmother tossing the chicken intestines and feathers together.
Gu Yihan ran over. “Grandma, are you throwing these chicken intestines away?”
“That stuff isn’t edible,” Grandma Gu said as she continued to clean the chicken.
Gu Yihan ran to her grandfather and wheedled, “Grandpa, can you weave a fish cage for me?”
Seeing his little granddaughter rarely ask for anything, Grandpa Gu said, “Alright, I’ll weave a few extra for you.”
Watching her grandfather’s nimble fingers weave the fish baskets, she grabbed a finished fish cage and ran to find Gu Hao. “Big Brother, let’s go fishing.”
Gu Hao looked at his younger cousin and shook his head. “We won’t catch anything. It’s too cold right now, we can’t go into the river to catch fish.”
Gu Yihan showed the fish cage to Gu Hao. “We’ll use this to catch them. Big Brother, put the intestines from the chicken Grandma killed in here, and let’s go catch fish together.”
Unable to resist Gu Yihan’s pestering, Gu Hao could only relent. “Fine, I’ll go with you, but you can’t run off on your own.”
She happily went with her older cousin to the riverbank to place the fish cage in the water.
Gu Yihan said, “Big Brother, let’s not wait here. Let’s go wander around the foot of the mountain. I saw a trap over there the other day, but I don’t know who dug it.”
Gu Hao said in surprise, “There’s a trap?”
Gu Yihan nodded. Could she really admit that she had secretly dug it bit by bit with the small shovel from her Dimension?
She had once run into a wild boar on the mountain, which had scared her terribly. In a panic, she had pulled the boar into her Dimension, then quickly used her consciousness to kill it.
Gu Hao was tempted. “Then let’s go take a look together?”
She quickly chimed in, “Let’s go.”
Gu Hao walked at a leisurely pace. He had no choice; Gu Yihan’s legs were too short, so she couldn’t walk fast. Gu Hao offered to carry her, but she refused.
After walking for a while, just as they were nearing the trap, Gu Yihan quickly used her consciousness to move the wild boar into it.
The two walked up to the side of the trap.
“Look, there’s a wild boar!” Gu Yihan feigned surprise as she looked at Gu Hao.
Gu Hao was also astonished as he looked at the pitifully shallow trap. “There really is a wild boar.”
Gu Hao cautiously poked the boar’s body with a tree branch. Seeing that it didn’t move, he climbed down to touch its body. He found that it was still warm.
He said to Gu Yihan, “Looks like it just died. We really lucked out.”
Gu Yihan secretly rolled her eyes. Of course it was warm. It had just been moved out of the Dimension.
Gu Hao found a lot of dead branches nearby and placed them on top of the trap until the boar was completely hidden. From a distance, it just looked like a tall pile of dead branches.
Gu Hao repeatedly instructed Gu Yihan, “You wait here. I’ll run home and get Dad and Second Uncle. If anyone sees you, just say you’re waiting here for me to come back with the cart to haul firewood, understand?”
Gu Yihan said helplessly, “I know, you’ve said it several times. I remember.”
Gu Hao quickly ran in the direction of home.
When he arrived, he saw his grandmother tidying up the courtyard. “Grandma, are Dad and Second Uncle home?”
Grandma Gu said, “They’re both inside resting. Didn’t Yihan go out with you? How come you’re the only one back?”
Gu Hao said, out of breath, “She’s on the mountain watching a wild boar. Quick, get Dad and Second Uncle to bring the cart to haul it back.”
Grandma Gu thought she had misheard. “What? A wild boar?”
Gu Hao caught his breath and said, “Yes, a dead wild boar.”
Grandma Gu immediately shouted into the courtyard, “Lao Da! Lao Er! Come out, quick!”
Hearing their mother call them, Gu Lao Da and Gu Lao Er came out. “Mom, what’s wrong?”
Grandma Gu was extremely anxious. “Quick, quick, take the flatbed cart to get Yihan.” She was worried sick.
This gave Uncle Gu a fright. “What’s going on? Did something happen to Yihan?”
Gu Hao was speechless. He could only say, “Nothing happened. We found a wild boar that had just died from its injuries. I told Yihan to wait there.”
Gu Lao Da and Gu Lao Er exchanged a look, then quickly prepared to push the flatbed cart up the mountain with Gu Hao.
Seeing that his grandma also wanted to go, Gu Hao quickly pushed her back toward the house. “Grandma, you wait at home. It’s not deep in the mountains, just at the foot. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have dared to leave Yihan there.”
Having no other choice, Grandma Gu could only wait anxiously at home.
As Gu Lao Da and Gu Lao Er pulled the cart out, they were seen by some villagers who asked what they were doing.
Gu Hao said with a smile, “My cousin and I were gathering firewood on the mountain. We gathered so much that she got tired and is flat-out refusing to come down the mountain on her own. She insisted that someone from the family come get her.”
One of the aunties said, “My, your family really dotes on that little girl.”
Gu Hao and the others didn’t want to get into a long chat with the old women, so they just said, “We have to hurry, or the child will get impatient.”
Liu Zhaodi watched the group go. “Pah. Does she really think she’s some young lady from a rich family? She’s still just money-losing goods who’ll be married off.”
Another aunty said, “You think every family is like yours, treating their daughters like they’re not even human? You still expect your daughters to be filial to you in the future?”
Liu Zhaodi looked at this aunty with contempt. “Your parents’ family treated you so well, but I don’t see you being very filial to your own mother. They raised an ungrateful wretch for nothing. If I were your mother, I’d die of anger.”
That aunty directly grabbed Liu Zhaodi’s hair. “I’ll rip your mouth apart!”
Not to be outdone, Liu Zhaodi aimed her fists specifically at the aunty’s chest. The onlookers quickly pulled the two of them apart.