Chapter 32
Picking Mushrooms in the Mountains
After an afternoon of waiting, the water in the basin had turned crystal clear. Xiaoguo drained out the water to reveal a layer of starch that was a finger deep at the base of the basin. She went on to pour out the water in the other two pots. The sediments were then transferred onto bamboo trays and left to air dry.
Zhuang Zhuang poked at the starch curiously—it was soft and firm at the same time. He continued to poke at it in wonder. Xiaoguo found his actions extremely cute. She followed what he did but quickly retracted her hand after poking at it one time.
Based on the current weather conditions, the starch should be completely dry by the next day. Xiaoguo will start preparing the soup base tomorrow. She still had a few catties of pig bones. When the bone broth was done, she would go pick some mushrooms in the mountains and make some mushroom soup. Just thinking about it made Xiaoguo crave for it badly.
Xiaoguo went to bed after dinner that night. She thought about how she had to leave early tomorrow, as there was a lot to find on the mountains. In addition to mushrooms, she wanted to try her luck at finding some spices. The condiments in the ‘other space’ were almost used up, and she planned to make fried chili sauce. Since she didn’t have the spices required, she had to find them in the mountains.
Before falling asleep, she told Zhuang Zhuang that she was going up the mountains the next day and could not bring him along. This time, she was going to try venturing further. She was also not familiar with the area and could encounter danger along the way. If she were alone, it would be easy to keep herself safe, but she could not guarantee his safety if he was with her. She didn’t want Zhuang Zhuang to risk any danger with her.
Zhuang Zhuang did not agree at first. He only reluctantly agreed to the plan after Xiaoguo repeatedly assured and comforted him. In the end, he fell asleep unwillingly with his arms wrapped around Xiaoguo.
Before dawn the next day, Xiaoguo woke up. She quietly got out of bed and walked out the door. She put a sickle and a kitchen knife into the basket and went out. This time, she brought an extra knife. She could use it in case of danger. Even if the kitchen knife was useless, she could still escape using the ring. Xiaoguo locked the door before leaving for the mountains.
When she arrived at the mountains, Xiaoguo first checked the traps for any prey. To her surprise, as soon as she approached, she saw that there were traces of damage in one of the traps. She walked over and saw that there was actually a pheasant inside. Xiaoguo was overjoyed and was about to swing her knife down when her hand paused.
Were those eggs
?
There seemed to be a few eggs under the pheasant. Xiaoguo wanted to pick them up to see if they were eggs. But before her hand could touch them, the pheasant pecked at her hands frantically. Xiaoguo quickly moved away, feeling that these could be hatched into little chicks. In this case those eggs cannot be eaten and she could not kill the hen either.
Xiaoguo found a thick wooden stick and moved the pheasant to the side of the trap. She held it with one hand and carefully took out the eggs. After she removed all the eggs out of the trap, she brought the pheasant to a quiet place and put it down. The pheasant had stopped making a fuss by now. When Xiaoguo loosened her grip on the pheasant, it quickly pounced onto the eggs and sat on them. The pheasant’s eyes remained fixed on Xiaoguo—it continued staring warily at her. Xiaoguo laid down everything and left.
She moved deeper into the mountains. The further she went, the more trees there were. The vegetation around her also seemed much denser. Xiaoguo made markings at every step and proceeded slowly. She did not dare to be careless. Because of the rain two days ago, many mushrooms had sprouted. Xiaoguo carefully tried to distinguish between the edible and poisonous mushrooms. Within a short while, she managed to pick out a lot of termite mushrooms and wild pine mushrooms. Xiaoguo tried to gather as many as she could as these would taste great in a stir-fry.
As she walked, Xiaoguo had almost reached the center of the forest. Uncertain if she was seeing things, she felt that the fog in the forest was getting heavier the further she walked. Her instincts told her not to proceed anymore and she headed sideways instead. Fortunately, she found pepper plants a short distance away and she quickly harvested them. She also found some star anise around the pepper plants. On the way back, she came across a bay laurel tree. She picked a lot of the bay leaves, so that she could dry and preserve them.
The sun shone down through the thick foliage, creating a dance of light and shadows below the canopy. Warm sunlight poured down like a golden veil over the land. Xiaoguo lucked out and saw a magical phenomenon appear before her—a ray of sunlight peeking through the luscious leaves had formed a beautiful halo around a tree. It looked like a group of elves were dancing around it.
Xiaoguo stopped and sighed. If only she had a camera now to capture such beautiful light.