In the mountains, safety always comes first. In addition, the siblings guessed that the so-called "the largest martial arts hall in the county to recruit apprentices" was actually just a scam, so they were no longer in a hurry, and rushed along the mountain stream every morning, and began to look for a suitable camp after noon.

The white flour cakes that my aunt had prepared for them were eaten up in the early morning of the fourth day. In addition, they did not use the other two things in the two small packages - according to Shen Jiumei's plan, the change of clothes in it had to be kept until the county seat to wear them, and the silver money was ...... In the deep mountains and old forests where there are no people, there is no place to spend money.

In addition, during these four days, they added some new "household goods": two flints, two homemade long wooden knives and mountain sticks (a thin stone the size of a palm is tied to a thick branch with a thick bowl), a long wooden harpoon (a stone knife is used to sharpen the ends of a branch), and three bamboo tubes.

Among these things, the most rare are the three bamboo tubes of different sizes - on the second day of entering the mountain, the sister and brother were lucky to find a bamboo forest. The texture of the bamboo is tough, and the sister and brother only have homemade stone knives at hand, and it took a lot of effort to cut down a stout old bamboo. After dragging it back to the camp, Shen Jiumei's main energy was spent on intercepting the bamboo tube, and the matter of lighting a fire and boiling water all fell on Shen Qiubao. The latter has shown a strong ability to learn and adapt, not only fully mastered the relevant skills of making fire and boiling water, but also made self-made stone knives and harpoons to make the elephant look decent, the only deficiency is that the strength is too small, and can only help to fight at present.

The main reason is that the stone knife at hand is too weak, Shen Jiumei used three blood blisters and nearly two hours of hard work to finally get a total of three bamboo tubes, one large and two small.

A large bamboo tube, which functions like a small soup pot. However, the use of "bamboo pots" is different from that of real soup pots. The method used is still the same as the "leaf bowl", that is, the small stones that are burned hot in it. With it, the water and fish soup boiled by the sisters and brothers are less muddy and earthy, but there is more unique fragrance of bamboo, which has been greatly improved in terms of color and fragrance.

The two smaller ones were used by the siblings as water bladders to fetch water and boil mountain streams.

The three bamboo tubes completely solved the problem of eating and drinking for the sisters and brothers, and they had more confidence to only travel for half a day every day.

In this way, the siblings walked along the mountain stream for five days. Then, they came to a waterhole and were pleasantly surprised to see the long-lost crowd - it was noon, and five middle-aged men dressed as hunters were cooking on the edge of the pool.

Shen Jiumei found them first. After repeatedly making sure that they were Orion and not a mountain bandit or something, she led Shen Qiubao and slowly emerged from behind the big rock where he was hiding.

Later, according to the hunters, when they first saw the two children, they almost ran away from the desert without being frightened - legend has it that there are mountain ghosts in the depths of the forest, and mountain ghosts are cannibals. When they meet people, they will eat them first, and then they will suck their souls...... Whether others believe it or not, anyway, they are convinced of this kind of rumors. Moreover, in the deep mountains and old forests, there were two mud babies that appeared silently and coldly from the rocks behind them, was it normal? So, at that time, the first thing that came to their minds was "the mountain ghosts are coming," okay? The second reaction was that there were two mountain ghosts......

Fortunately, as soon as Shen Jiumei appeared, she shouted to them in the way of the people in the mountains: "Roar ho-"

The girl's voice was clear and pleasant. In particular, the tune is very familiar, and it is the usual shouting tune of the mountain people. The Orions instantly regained their souls. The head of Orion is a bearded man. He replied suspiciously: "Whoa-ho-ho!"

In addition to greeting, the function of shouting mountain tunes is to show that you have no malicious intentions. Hearing the response, Shen Jiumei breathed a sigh of relief, and took Shen Qiubao to lean over cautiously - she was unfamiliar with life, and she needed to ask the Orions for directions. Also, ask for some salt.

After the two sides connected, the bearded man stared at the two of them vigilantly, and asked out loud first: "Two dolls, where did you come from?" After hunting in this old mountain for many years, he has never seen or heard of people living in the mountains. However, a half-grown girl walking with a five or six-year-old male doll on a mountain road is unusual no matter how you look at it......

Shen Jiumei heard it, his accent was different.

With the experience of her aunt and cousin, she didn't dare to report "Niutouao Village" in front of people. In the past few days, she pondered repeatedly and made up a set of words with Shen Qiubao: they are from Houshan Village, and their parents died of illness one after another. My cousin said to send them to the county to learn trades. As a result, halfway through, my cousin disappeared, and the two of them walked in the mountains for five days before they came here.

As for the "Houshan Village", it is purely made up.

"Which county?" the bearded man obviously didn't know about the "Houshan Village", and couldn't help but twist his eyebrows, "This area is called Pheasant Ridge, and it is the border place where the three counties meet. He couldn't make out the accents of the two children. But it's normal. In the mountains, there are often ten miles of different sounds. But when you speak slowly, supplemented by hand gestures, the mountain people can still communicate normally.

Shen Qiubao looked at his own sister and was dumbfounded.

And Shen Jiumei was also blank in her mind. After a long while, she replied weakly: "My cousin only said that it was in the county, and I don't know which county." ”

It doesn't look like a lie. Moreover, the two children were not in good spirits, and the clothes on their bodies were even more torn, and they were so dirty that they could not see the background. At first glance, it looks like I have been mixed in the mountains for many days and have suffered a lot.

The hunters relaxed a little. They look at me, I look at you: "Where is Houshan Village? ”

"The two dolls called their cousin to cheat!"

"It should be. ”

"I have no conscience!"

The people in the mountains have a simple temperament. Guessing that the two children were most likely orphans who had lost their parents and were thrown into the mountains by their relatives to fend for themselves, the hunters were full of sympathy.

"Poor baby, you're hungry!" said the bearded man, beckoning the two children to dine together.

In the mountains, it is common to invite strangers to eat together. Shen Jiumei did not refuse, thanked Shen Qiubao with her, and generously accepted the kindness of the hunters.

Putting down the stone knife and wooden harpoon in their hands, the sisters and brothers also got busy: Shen Qiubao helped to light the fire, and Shen Jiumei was more capable, walked to the edge of the pool, squatted down silently, and helped the bearded man to lay down.

The bearded man is skinning a gray-haired hare. At his feet lay a hare that had been skinned. Shen Jiumei picked up this one, skillfully took out the internal organs, and cleaned it up.

As the saying goes: the layman looks at the liveliness, and the insiders look at the doorway. The bearded man glanced at it twice and nodded approvingly: "The little girl is capable." "The little girl's technique is very sharp, and it is obvious that she is a child from the Orion family in the mountains.

Shen Jiumei grinned at him, lowered her head and continued to work. In a few moments, she was packed.

Seeing that the rabbit meat was cleaned up, the bearded man was very satisfied, and handed her the skinned rabbit: "This one, clean it too." Eat roast rabbit today. ”

"Hey. Shen Jiumei took it with both hands, and then buried herself in her work.

In this way, by the time the wild vegetable porridge in the iron pot was boiled and the rabbit meat was roasted fragrantly, the five hunters had already accepted the sister and brother - there was no falsehood, what the two dolls did was indeed an authentic mountain baby. may be due to the loss of their parents, the two children are very sensible, and they seem to be much more capable than ordinary mountain children.

Such a sensible, well-behaved, and poor child is easily favored by adults. The hunters were visibly enthusiastic, and at the same time, they were talking a lot.

The first thing they did was to ask the siblings their names.

This is to be expected. Shen Jiumei had already set up a good word with Shen Qiubao - the Immortal Mansion also had household registration management for the mountain people. It's different from the town, though. Xianfu only registers men over the age of three in the mountains, and does not record women's names. Therefore, there is no need for Shen Jiumei to change her name, only Shen Qiubao has changed her name to "Shen Yun".

Why is it called "Shen Yun"? Well, the two children thought about it for a long time, but they couldn't come up with any good names. Later, it was Shen Qiubao who happened to see a chubby white cloud floating in the blue sky, like the family's mountain dog Ah Huang, and felt that it was the most kind, so he took it as his name.

The people in the mountains don't have much knowledge. When choosing a name for a doll, most people use the name of familiar things around them, such as mountains, trees, stones, clouds, etc., which are good materials for names. Therefore, Shen Qiubao's new name did not arouse the suspicion of the hunters.

"Ninth sister, Yunwa, where are you going next?" Although it was Pingshui meeting, they were very concerned about the whereabouts of the two children.

Shen Qiubao looked at his own sister. The latter lowered his eyes and grabbed the corner of his clothes: "There is no one at home...... There is not even a place to stay...... There's no going back. I heard that there are many places to employ people in the county, and as long as you are willing to put in the effort, you can find a job. I want to take my younger brother to the county to get a bite to eat. ”

"It's not that easy!" said the bearded man, touching his beard.

The others were silent. The two children are really miserable. But they weren't much better. The life of the people in the mountains is not easy, and everyone is running around all day long for two mouthfuls of food. As it is now, beckoning the two dolls to eat a meal or two is just a matter of adding an extra scoop of water to the pot, but whoever adds two mouths to the house is overwhelmed. They can't afford to accommodate two children.

Shen Jiumei said in a sullen voice: "I have the strength, and I can always find a living in the county." ”

"That's right. The bearded man looked around at his companions, nodded and said, "There are many people in the county, and there are many jobs. In previous years, when there was a famine, life in the mountains could not go on, so we also went to the county to find work and eat a bowl of rice. ”

"yes. The rest of the hunters followed.

It's everyone's due. The bearded man heartily invited: "We are just going to go to the county for a trip and sell mountain goods." Anyway, you don't know which county you're going to, so why don't you go to the county with us to try your luck. "Alas, it's better than letting two poor babies wait for death in the mountains and old forests.

"Thank you, Uncle Uncle!" they have helped far more than expected. Shen Jiumei was very grateful, and hurriedly pulled Shen Qiubao to get up and kowtow to them together.

"Oh, what is this for!" the Orions stopped the two of them with all their hands.

"It's not worth such a great gift from you!" said the bearded man, "who doesn't have a problem in life? In the days to come, you sisters and brothers will have to live on their own. ”