Back To The 80s-Chapter 130 - 129: Barbecue_1

Lu Zhanguo directed Cheng Qijia and Shen Heng to venture into the forest on the mountain to find a few dried pine tree trunks around the thickness of a bowl. Yuan Tan made a circuit before following Shen Heng into the mountains. Li Fengmei and Qin Li took the four children with them to gather firewood.

"What should I do?" Gu Xiaobei figured that this would be a marvelous picnic and asked with curiosity.

"You could go pick up some cow dung," Lu Zhanguo responded, grinning cheekily at Xiaobei’s curious little face.

"Cow dung?" Gu Xiaobei grimaced with disgust. She thought Lu Zhanguo must be teasing her.

Lu Zhanguo didn’t want to force her, so he offered, "Or how about this, when Shen Heng is back, you can go with me to the river bank to cut some branches. Let’s have Chen Gang go pick up cow dung."

"We actually need cow dung?" Gu Xiaobei was curious. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Hmm, you’ll see soon." Saying this, Lu Zhanguo dug two holes about two meters apart on the flat ground with his folding shovel.

Shen Heng and Cheng Qijia carried two pine tree trunks each. Yuan Tan also carried two short trunks reluctantly, following behind them.

Lu Zhanguo planted the trunks into the dug holes, two trunks once finished. Then Cheng Qijia took out a small roll of wire and a plier from his backpack. Shen Heng and Lu Zhanguo then lifted a trunk and placed it horizontally on two upright trunks, a person’s height from the ground. Cheng Qijia quickly fastened them together with the wire.

Watching the three men who were working in such a well-coordinated silence, Gu Xiaobei was impressed.

Cheng Qijia and Shen Heng prepared to go to the river to slaughter a sheep, followed by Yuan Tan. Gu Xiaobei found it strange. Today, Yuan Tan was not sticking to Lu Zhanguo.

Lu Zhanguo brought Xiaobei to the river bank where accordion-like clusters of branches in a purplish-red hue burgeoning with star-like, light purple flowers stand tall. Gu Xiaobei recognized them, known as red willows. In the twenty-first century, grilling meat on red willow branches is a renowned delicacy. It seems that Lu Zhanguo also plans to string the meat through these branches.

Lu Zhanguo took out a military dagger, gave a smaller one to Gu Xiaobei, and instructed her, "I will cut them down, and you will remove the twigs above. Then, you will shave one end of the branch to a point. Be careful not to cut your hand."

Gu Xiaobei was capable of doing this. Their coordination sped up the work, and before long, they had gathered a large bundle.

As she worked, Gu Xiaobei asked, "Are there fish in this river?"

After observing the river for a moment, Lu Zhanguo explained, "There should be fish. At this time of the year, fish are more active in finding food in preparation for the winter ahead. But the big fish usually rest near the shore in the morning and swim back to the depths when the sun comes out."

Gu Xiaobei marveled, "How do you know so much? I’m starting to admire you."

Lu Zhanguo looked at the woman, whose face was blooming with smiles in the autumn warmth, and felt a tug at his heart. He quickly cut some more flexible red willow branches and weaved a flower crown full of little purple flowers.

"For you." After he finished weaving, Lu Zhanguo handed the flower crown to Gu Xiaobei with a stiff arm, his tone somewhat awkward.

Gu Xiaobei held back a laugh, her eyes sparkling with mischief, "You should put it on for me." Once this man stepped outside, he became so serious and put some distance between them.

After making sure nobody was looking, Lu Zhanguo quickly placed the flower crown askew on Gu Xiaobei’s head, quickly withdrawing his hand.

Gu Xiaobei burst into laughter at his awkwardness. Putting a flower crown on his wife’s head wasn’t a big deal, she thought. Then batting her big eyes, she asked on purpose, "Do I look good?"

"Beautiful," Lu Zhanguo answered honestly.

By the time Lu Zhanguo and Xiaobei returned with their arms full of red willow twigs, Shen Heng and Cheng Qijia had already slaughtered the sheep and hung its skinned body on the crossbar.

Li Fengmei and Qin Li had also returned with the children, each carrying a large bundle of dry branches as thick as an arm.

Lu Zhanguo sent the three boys to pick up cow dung and then went to the riverbank to pick up stones himself.

Seeing Cheng Qijia cleaning the sheep offal by the river on his own, Qin Li rushed over to help. She loved eating sheep stomach and intestines the most.

Yuan Tan sat on a large rock, looking inscrutably at the two by the river who were cleaning the sheep’s innards.

Shen Heng glanced at Yuan Tan apparently without any intention, then lowered his head and started dividing the mutton.

Li Fengmei chopped the meat Shen Heng had trimmed into pieces, while Gu Xiaobei took care of skewering the lamb.

Cheng Qijia was delighted to see Qin Li rushing over to help her, and quickly said, "Don’t get your hands dirty, this stuff is very smelly."

"No problem, I actually enjoy eating this." Qin Li replied carelessly, reaching out to help stir the sheep’s intestines.

Cheng Qijia smiled softly, he liked Qin Li’s liveliness and genuine laughter.

"Why do you have such an awkward name like Cheng Qijia?" Qin Li asked casually as she continued to stir the sheep intestines.

"My father named my brothers and me with the principle of ’running a country, organizing a family, and pacifying the world’," Cheng Qijia explained to Qin Li with a warm and gentle smile.

Lu Zhanguo made several trips, carrying back several long stones. On his final trip, he brought back two fish and handed them over to Cheng Qijia to clean.

Gu Xiaobei was surprised, "How did you catch these fish?" Shen Heng, noting Gu Xiaobei’s surprise, explained: "Your man can capture anything he sets his sights on, be it a bird or a beast, once it’s within a hundred meters."

Gu Xiaobei immediately rushed over to Lu Zhanguo with an expression full of admiration. Lu Zhanguo was busy with a few children, making a fire to burn cow dung.

"So, cow dung is used to make a fire." Gu Xiaobei exclaimed, having seen this method of making a fire in Tibet in her past life, but had forgotten about it.

With the cow dung burning, Lu Zhanguo arranged three round stones into a triangle to form a stove. He took out a military pot from the car’s trunk, and together with Shen Heng, fetched a pot of water from the river to put over the stove. They added the large chunks of meat that Shen Heng had carved into the pot to cook.

Lu Zhanguo also arranged several long stones to form a grill. Once the pine logs Shen Heng had lit turned into red-hot coals, they could be used for grilling meat.

Yuan Tan looked around before walking towards Cheng Qijia, "Xiaocheng, let me help you with the fish." Yuan Tan squatted down, really disliking the smell of the sheep’s offal that Qin Li was dealing with.

"No need, I’ve almost finished cleaning them up." Cheng Qijia politely replied.

"It’s okay. I heard that the grill-fried breadfish from E country is delicious, isn’t it?" Yuan Tan shifted the conversation.

"It’s okay, mainly the rosemary flavor is too strong, and I don’t really like it." Cheng Qijia answered in a gentle tone.

"How many years did you spend in E country?" Yuan Tan asked curiously.

"Three years."

"Why did you, with such a high level of education and international experience, get transferred to this small mountain village?" Yuan Tan asked incredulously.

"Work demands." Cheng Qijia replied nonchalantly.

Yuan Tan didn’t speak anymore and started to play with the water plants near the riverbank.

Lu Zhanguo stood by the ignited fire, feeling someone was watching them. He seemingly stared at the fire while his gaze swept towards the mountain waist. After scanning the surroundings, he noticed a brief flash of white light on the left side of the mountain foot, understanding the situation instantly.

Shen Heng came over and stirred the fire with a stick, "Did you find something?" he asked. He noticed Lu Zhanguo standing still by the fire, his back slightly arched. It was the poised state of a cheetah spotting its prey.

"There’s someone behind us, in the eleven o’clock direction, observing us with a telescope for a while now." Lu Zhanguo glanced at Yuan Tan and said.

"Seems like there really is something wrong with Yuan Tan. I told her our barbecue address yesterday." Though Shen Heng had initially suspected Yuan Tan, he still felt uncomfortable confirming the fact today.

"Keep an eye on her. Don’t alert her yet. There might be others behind this." Lu Zhanguo suspected that given Yuan Tan’s intelligence, she wasn’t capable of doing much and might be just a pawn.

"Understood. Okay, let’s prepare for the barbecue. That person might be watching Yuan Tan." Shen Heng said, using two branches to put the glowing charcoal into the stone grill.

When Qin Li finished cleaning the sheep’s innards, she curiously asked Cheng Qijia, "How do we eat these?"

Yuan Tan frowned in disgust, "Can we eat this smelly thing?"