Chapter 8 Little Hedgehog

  The next day, Song Wen called in an excavator to dig a mountain road from the foot of the mountain to the front of his bamboo forest, which could accommodate two cars. He also dug out a piece of land near the stream as a parking lot, so that in the future, people wouldn't drive their cars over the stream and mess up the other side of the bamboo forest. After finishing the road, he called in a bulldozer to flatten it, and at the same time, pushed his father's old wooden house down and dug a foundation. After flattening the road, he had dozens of trucks loaded with coarse sand poured on top, and asked people to level and compact it. This road leading to his own bamboo forest was finally opened.

  After repairing the road, he had his father hire people to build a house.

  The house is a two-story courtyard in the style of a traditional Fujian quadrangle. In front, there is a small yard, behind which stands a typical Minnan-style round-eared tile-roofed house with one hall and two rooms, separated by an open-air skywell. Behind this lies a two-story building covered with cement boards, reserved for drying things in the future. Further back, there is a small garden where melons, fruits, and vegetables can be grown.

  After nearly two months of busy work, the house is finally built, and it's just waiting for the smell of interior decoration to dissipate before setting up inside.

  The renovation of the house cost tens of millions, and apart from the tens of millions taken out from home, Song Wen's savings over the years were spent like flowing water. Now he only has one or two million left on him. However, wealth is gone but people are happy and at peace. Looking at the simple house in front of him and the beautiful mountains and rivers, a feeling of returning to simplicity and nature came rushing in. Living here is simply a paradise on earth, and no amount of money can buy it.

  Just as he was savoring everything in the mountains with his eyes closed, a Guqin sound floated out of his pocket, which was his phone's ringtone.

  Song Wen took out his mobile phone and saw that it was a call from Song Hu.

  "Where are you?" Song Hu asked over the phone.

  "Over at the new house."

  "Then come over here and I'll give you something good."

  After finishing speaking, Song Hu hung up the phone.

  Song Wen didn't know what this guy was up to either, he took a glance at the new house and rode off on his motorcycle.

  In the mountains, motorcycles are much more useful than cars. After the road was opened, he went to buy a motorcycle. Although his father also had one, he looked down on that old man's car.

  He arrived at Song Hu's braised noodle shop, and Song Hu mysteriously pulled him inside, taking out a small iron cage from the corner and handing it to him.

  There is a little hedgehog in an iron cage. It looks like it just opened its eyes and hasn't been weaned yet. When it sees people, it chirps non-stop.

  Look at its cute appearance, Song Wen used his fingers to tease it and play with it. He gently touched the quills on the little hedgehog's back, feeling soft and not hard.

  "How's that, not bad, right? The day before yesterday, the short old fellow from the neighboring village went up the mountain and caught two hedgehogs. He took the bigger one to sell, but no one wanted the smaller one, so he gave it to me. You weren't having diarrhea for several days last time, just take it back to supplement."

  "Can this thing be eaten? There's hardly any meat."

  Song Wen looked at the small hedgehog with little meat and had never heard of eating hedgehogs before.

  "How can you not eat and get enough nutrition? Besides, I'm not asking you to eat meat, mainly it's the soup that's good to drink."

  "I think I'll just leave it for your Qiqi to play with."

  "This little brat knows nothing, if you give it to her, she'll stuff it into her mouth when you're not paying attention."

  It's true, this little guy in their family has been restless since he was a child. It is said that when he was young, he would pull his father onto the bed and play with him like mud. I guess he will be a naughty boy when he grows up.

  But this hedgehog is so small, how can it eat? Forget it, taking it back to raise and play with is also good.

  He took the hedgehog and said to Song Hu "Let's go." then turned around to leave.

  Song Hu looked and hastily pulled him back, "What's the hurry?"

  "There's no need to stay, what's there to do here? I still have a lot of things to attend to back home."

  The house was built, but the remaining soil and the small garden in the backyard needed to be tidied up. There were a lot of things to do, and he didn't have the mood to chat with him here.

  "Aren't you going to buy some chickens and ducks to raise in the yard? Tomorrow is the market day, are you going or not?"

  "Go, why don't you go, but tell my mom first, otherwise another day it will also buy chickens and ducks, I can't raise that many in my place."

  "Alright, I'll drive over to pick you up early tomorrow morning, don't stay up too late."

  "Just take care of yourself, I can stay up later than you, kidding."

  Others don't know, but Song Hu is a guy who never gets up before 9 o'clock, and he often oversleeps. However, he doesn't need to laugh at his brothers, except for the recent busy period of building houses, other times are almost the same as him.

  Song Wen took the hedgehog and went home. The new house was not ready yet, so he had to put the hedgehog in his own room, fearing that his little nephew would take it out to play.

  The little hedgehog didn't know if it was hungry or not, and kept chirping in its cage. Song Wen looked at it and became worried, also not knowing what this thing ate.

  After searching online, I just found out that this guy is an omnivore, and insects and their larvae, snails, bird eggs, mushrooms, grass roots, nuts, melons, and small snakes are all its food. Insects and snakes are not worth thinking about, but melons and mushrooms might be possible, it's just that the market has already closed early, where can you find anything to buy?

  He went to the refrigerator and took a look, saw that there was an eggplant inside, thought that eggplant should also be considered as a melon, so he took it out to thaw, used hot water to make it a bit warmer, and then put it in the cage for the little hedgehog to eat. Unexpectedly, the little guy really started eating.

  The next morning, Song Wen was still in a daze when he heard the sound of cars coming from outside, followed by someone knocking on the door. However, he felt lazy and didn't want to get up or respond.

  After pulling his stomach, he felt that his ears were much clearer and his eyes were not only very bright, but also extremely sensitive to hearing, and his reaction was also very fast, but he suffered.

  "Boom boom boom boom..."

  "Awake, Wen, get up."

  Song Hu yelled outside the door, "I let this kid get up early yesterday, how come he's still not getting out of bed until now?"

  Song Wen wasn't woken up by him, but Chen Xiuhui's voice came from behind him, "Ah Hu, speak softly, Xi Xi is still sleeping."

  At this time, it was still dark and everyone was still asleep. Only Chen Xiuhui got up early to cook rice. If she hadn't gotten up to cook, Song Hu wouldn't have been able to enter.

  Song Hu responded with a grunt, and the knocking sound became slightly softer. After a few more knocks, Song Wen finally opened the door wearing slippers, swaying gently as he came out.

  "What's going on? It's so early." Song Wen rubbed his sleepy eyes and yawned, saying impatiently.

  Song Hu was taken aback, his eyes wide with surprise, he didn't expect this guy to have completely forgotten about yesterday's incident.

  "Aren't you going to the market? Get up, or else people will disperse."

  Song Wen then remembered that he had to go to the market, so he hastily put on his clothes, brushed his teeth and washed his face. He said goodbye to his mother and followed Song Hu out of the house.

  Chen Xiuhui looked and called out from behind: "Awen, aren't you going to eat anymore?"

  "I'm going to eat at the gathering." Song Wen replied and left.

  The fair is a free market spontaneously formed by the common people, with fixed days, which are different in each place. There is no fair near Songjiapu, and you have to go to Suizhong Town several kilometers away to find one.

  Song Hu opened a small truck, which was originally intended to be bought for people to pull goods and make money. Unfortunately, in the countryside, there is no cargo to pull, only during the season when fruits or vegetables are abundant, someone will call occasionally, and at other times, it will be left aside to rust.

  They arrived at the fair in a whirlwind, and it was already bustling with people coming and going, so crowded that they couldn't squeeze in. After parking the car, the two of them didn't rush, saw a stall selling small steamed buns by the roadside, and walked in to fill their stomachs first.