Transmigrated as a Peasant Baby Who is Pampered by All

Chapter 428: Chapter 265: Mountain Deer

When the mung bean porridge was almost ready, Jiang Yu and Liu Ze returned. Their luck wasn’t great, as they caught only a few small crucian carps.

Since there was already porridge for lunch, they decided to keep the fish for soup in the evening. Luckily, crucian carp are quite hardy and it wouldn’t matter if they waited until the evening.

Once the pancakes were also done, they finally started to show some concern.

”Why haven’t Xiaomi and Wei Ziang come back yet? They’ve been gone for so long. Could something have happened?”

Second Aunt stood at the foot of the mountain, knowing full well she couldn’t see them, but she couldn’t help tiptoeing and gazing into the distance.

The others also had no appetite to eat. The porridge and pancakes were placed on an oilcloth, just waiting for Xiaomi and Wei Ziang to return.

Little Snow’s brows were furrowed tightly: ”Could they have gotten lost? Should we go look for them first?”

After all, it wasn’t the mountain behind their house, and this was the first time they climbed such a mountain. If they truly got lost on the mountain, what then?

”Don’t worry, Xiaomi goes up the mountain almost every day, and Wei Ziang goes up whenever he has time. The two of them won’t easily get lost.”

Liu Ze stood beside Little Snow with reassurances, his fingers twitching but then resting back down.

Jiang Hu looked worried, wanting to climb the mountain but hesitating, fearing he might miss the children if he went up.

After all, he used to confidently say he knew the mountain well, but now that Xiaomi has grown, he dares not say that anymore.

His current trips up the mountain are fewer than Wei Ziang’s school days, let alone Xiaomi, who practically lives on the mountain every day except rainy days.

”Brother Jiang, what’s the matter? Your two kids haven’t come back yet?”

Team Leader Chen walked over with a bowl of coarse grain rice, with only pickled vegetables and wild greens in the bowl.

White rice is expensive, and with so many people around, the County Magistrate did not prepare white rice for everyone. Eating white rice mixed with coarse grains was already better than what most civilians ate.

This is also why scholars from well-off families, even after passing the county exams, still had their servants escort them.

The price of just one meal for these scholars, if replaced with coarse grains, would be enough to fill the stomachs of all the government officials and poor scholars.

That’s why, no matter how poor the family is, they long for any opportunity to study and gain literary acclaim.

However, Team Leader Chen had a good impression of the Jiang family, not just because of the County Magistrate’s instruction, but also because this family was kind-hearted.

The servants of other wealthy families were eager to distance themselves from them and had little to no interaction besides following along in their group.

Whether it was with the government officials or those poor scholars.

But the Jiang family was different; seeing everyone suffer from the heat at noon, they proactively brought out herbs to cool them down, giving them not only to the officials but also to the scholars renting carts to Fu’an Province.

Moreover, they carefully taught everyone how to find, handle, and consume wild vegetables.

Of course, most importantly, all four of the Jiang boys were studying, and according to their peers in the academy, Jiang Yu and Liu Ze were outstanding and highly valued by the teachers, even the dean.

But even so, when it came to cooking during breaks, everyone lit fires and cooked together. Their proficiency was such that it outshone even those who had lived in the wild for years.

It was precisely because of their influence that even those scholars they were protecting and caring for began to rarely help out.

Even if it was just picking up kindling or washing their own dishes, these were things they’d never done before!

These reasons led to Team Leader Chen having a great liking for the Jiang family. Seeing their worried faces now, and noticing two children were missing, he estimated something had happened.

Jiang Hu nodded, his face anxious: ”The two kids went up the mountain, said they’d be back soon, but it’s been more than half an hour now, and they still haven’t returned.”

If it were the mountains near the village, even if two hours passed, he wouldn’t worry. He would at most ask Xiao Hei to go up and have a look.

If Xiao Hei had gone up with them, he could wait until nightfall before getting anxious, but, but this isn’t Fu’an Village, nor is it Xiangmu Village!

Team Leader Chen frowned slightly: ”Don’t worry, I’ll call a few brothers to go up the mountain and have a look. There’s no wildlife around the official road, and they’re just kids, they wouldn’t have gone far.”

Then he turned to leave: ”Brothers, there’s...”

”Dad! Mom, come quickly and help!”

Along with Team Leader Chen’s voice came the crisp, far-reaching shout of Xiaomi.