Chapter 12: Going Up the Mountain to Catch Rabbits

It turned out that Mengmeng didn’t even want to eat, and had learned to lie through her teeth, all just to go On the Mountain to catch rabbits earlier.

Cao Shujie wouldn’t indulge her bad habit. He gave his wife a look, signaling her to carry Mengmeng inside.

He readjusted the handlebars of the Electric tricycle and slowly drove home.

Wang Yuelan had already prepared dinner, and Cao Jianguo was busy inviting Cao Zhenggang and the other workers to eat.

Seeing her daughter-in-law and granddaughter come in, Wang Yuelan immediately came over: “Linlin, why are you only just back? I was about to go to the orchard to call you.”

“Mom, Shujie just finished his work,” Cheng Xiaolin said.

Mengmeng was held by her mother, still thinking about the little rabbit. She knew her dad insisted on eating first before going, so when she saw Grandmother, she quickly babbled, “Grandmother, I’m hungry.”

“Oh, Mengmeng, hurry down, Grandmother will feed you,” Wang Yuelan said.

But Mengmeng didn’t fall for that. She raised her right hand, her five fingers clenched as if holding something: “No, I’ll eat by myself.”

She could use those special chopsticks, but she wasn’t skilled yet. When eating a bowl of noodles, she’d spill a third of it, and her eating speed wasn’t fast.

Even so, Cheng Xiaolin still wanted her daughter to eat by herself, slowly training her abilities.

After all, no one is a genius, and neither she nor her mother-in-law could feed Mengmeng for a lifetime.

“Mom, you don’t need to feed her, just let her eat by herself,” Cheng Xiaolin told her mother-in-law.

Only then did Wang Yuelan give up the idea of feeding her granddaughter.

Cao Shujie parked the electric bike, scooped two ladles of water from outside. The ice-cold well water made him feel more refreshed.

Cao Zhenggang saw him and called out, “Shujie’s back, have you finished everything over there?”

Cao Shujie ‘hmm’ed, “Grandpa Zhenggang, I’ve taken care of everything in the orchard. My dad said you’re starting to lay the foundation, is it that fast?”

Hearing him say that, Cao Zhenggang replied, “It’s mainly because the equipment is good; otherwise, how could it be so fast just with people?”

“Shujie, come quickly and sit down for a drink.” Cao Zhenggang patted an empty seat beside him, signaling Cao Shujie to sit next to him.

Cao Shujie didn’t stand on ceremony. He went over and sat down, reaching for the wine bottle: “Grandpa Zhenggang, I’ll pour you some wine.”

Before he could pour the wine, little Mengmeng ran over again, looking at him eagerly, and called out, “Daddy, little rabbit.”

“Mengmeng, don’t worry, Daddy remembers everything. I’ll take you On the Mountain to catch rabbits later,” Cao Shujie looked at his daughter, both amused and exasperated.

Cheng Xiaolin was covering her mouth, secretly chuckling.

She hadn’t expected Mengmeng, a two-year-old, to be so clever, even knowing that if Daddy drank too much, he wouldn’t be able to catch rabbits for her, and specifically reminding him.

“You child, you’re going to be the death of me,” Cheng Xiaolin said.

…

Around 1 PM, Cao Zhenggang took the workers to work.

His father, Cao Jianguo, hadn’t done anything else during this period; he had been supervising on-site, sometimes even lending a hand.

Watching his son’s house change day by day, he felt very happy.

After Cao Shujie and his family of three finished eating, Mengmeng couldn’t sit still for a moment. She pulled her father’s arm, trying to drag him outside.

But she didn’t have enough strength and couldn’t pull her father, so she immediately felt wronged.

She plopped down on the ground, opening her mouth, ready to wail.

Cao Shujie got a headache when he saw this and quickly said, “Mengmeng, don’t cry! Daddy will get the tools right now, and we’ll go catch rabbits.”

A bamboo basket with wire mesh, a chopstick, a thin rope about 10 meters long, a small iron cage, and some leafy vegetables.

“Mengmeng, let’s go!” Cao Shujie looked at his daughter, who was waiting eagerly at the door, feeling a little ashamed.

Mengmeng finally got to this moment. She immediately perked up, turned around, clapped her little hands, and ran out: “Mommy, hurry up!”

“Wait, let’s ride the bike over,” Cheng Xiaolin called out to her.

Wang Yuelan looked at her lively granddaughter, feeling very satisfied, and asked, “Linlin, what do you want to eat tonight?”

“Mom, anything is fine,” Cheng Xiaolin really couldn’t think of anything to eat.

Cao Shujie then asked, “Mom, do we still have ribs at home? Stew some.”

“I’ll see if I can catch a big rabbit; if so, we’ll have an extra meal tonight.”

After speaking, he had already chased after them.

Riding the Electric tricycle, he took his wife and daughter all the way to the foot of the mountain, parked the vehicle, and locked it.

“Wife, where did you see the rabbit this morning?” He surveyed the mountain area but saw no movement.

Before Cheng Xiaolin could speak, Mengmeng pointed in a direction: “There, there!”

Cao Shujie was a little surprised, but then he saw his wife also nod: “Honey, it was over there.”

“Let’s go!”

The family of three walked towards that direction.

When they arrived, as Mengmeng looked around, Cheng Xiaolin pointed to a spot and told her husband, “This morning, I saw that little rabbit run from here to that area.”

Cao Shujie scratched his head a bit; this would be hard to find.

But looking back at his daughter’s expectant eyes, he wasn’t discouraged. He told his wife and daughter, “Stay a bit further away, find a place to rest for a while, I’ll set up the ‘trap’.”

The next moment, Cao Shujie walked around the area and indeed found some granular rabbit droppings, and quite a lot of them, which indicated that rabbits frequently came here.

“No matter how cunning you are, you’ll fall into my hands today” Cao Shujie began to set up.

He inverted the basket he brought, propped it up with a chopstick, but found the chopstick was too short. He then found a stick nearby and tied the rope to the bottom of the stick.

He looked around, chose a gentle slope, and slowly extended the rope.

After that, he came back and placed the vegetable leaves under the basket.

“Daddy!” Mengmeng excitedly ran over. She curiously looked at the ‘trap’ her dad made, a wide smile on her little face.

Cheng Xiaolin asked him, “Honey, isn’t this thing too crude? Will it even work?”

“Hey, wife, you haven’t played with this, have you? When we were kids, we relied on this to catch pheasants, sparrows, and rabbits. Just wait and see,” Cao Shujie said with full confidence.

He had his wife and daughter find a relatively clean spot nearby to sit down. The family of three watched the trap while chatting.

Mengmeng couldn’t sit still. After a few sentences, she started yelling loudly. Cao Shujie quickly put his finger to his lips, signaling Mengmeng: “Shhh!”

“Mengmeng, quiet down, you’ll scare the rabbits away if you’re so loud.”

“Mm-hmm!” Mengmeng nodded gently and also put her finger to her lips: “Shhh!”

Even though she was young, her every word and action began to imitate adults’ speech and movements.

Waiting was the hardest part, but with his wife and daughter by his side, Cao Shujie felt very happy and even wished time would pass more slowly.

But there was indeed a rabbit that wasn’t careful. When Cao Shujie peered towards the ‘trap’ again, he saw a gray rabbit wiggling its head and hopping towards the ‘trap’.

“Bunny!” Mengmeng also saw it. She pointed at the rabbit and was about to shout, but luckily Cao Shujie was quick and put his finger to his lips: “Shhh!”

Mengmeng indeed quieted down.

Cao Shujie exhaled and said, “Mengmeng, don’t shout loudly, if you scare the rabbit away, we won’t be able to catch it.”

Cheng Xiaolin watched as the gray rabbit approached the basket, tentatively trying to eat the vegetable leaves inside. She also became nervous, clenching her fists tightly, as if sweating: “Honey, it’s in, it’s in, quick…”

Cao Shujie glanced over. That incredibly stupid gray rabbit had indeed let its guard down and crawled under the basket to eat the vegetable leaves. He suddenly pulled the rope, the basket lost its support and fell directly, trapping the gray rabbit underneath. He then ran over at a hundred-meter sprint speed.

“Daddy, go!” Mengmeng also shouted excitedly.

Without any surprise, they caught their first gray rabbit.

Cheng Xiaolin took a look and stated with certainty, “This isn’t the one from this morning.”

This one was very fat; the one from this morning was a small rabbit.

“Goodness, there’s a rabbit den here! Let me set up again.” Cao Shujie put the gray rabbit into the iron cage in the cart and locked it securely before going to set up the ‘trap’ again.

After catching this rabbit, Mengmeng no longer sat idly with her dad. She pulled her mom to sit on the tricycle, looking at the gray rabbit in the cart, constantly wanting to reach out and touch it.

“Mommy, hehe, silly!” she called out.

No one knew if she was calling her mom silly or the rabbit silly.

(End of this chapter)