Chapter 4
Little Harvest from the Mountain
Although she didn’t get to eat bird eggs for dinner, Du Xiao Li’s mood was still very good. Today’s matter gave her an idea. Since they can find bird eggs in the mountains, then she might be able to find other things as well. Normally, mountains were filled with all kinds of good things!
While eating, Du Xiu Heng saw that she wasn’t saying anything and thought that she was still upset over the bird eggs getting stolen. “Younger sister, next time when I go into the mountains, I’ll look again to see if there’s more for you. Don’t be sad anymore.”
“Big brother, I’m not sad. I was just thinking, since there’s bird eggs in the mountains, then there should certainly be other things. Next time you go up the mountain, I’ll go together with you.” Du Xiao Li lightly flicked the vegetable porridge in the bowl and said, looking to Du Xiu Heng.
“You can’t. It’s very hard to walk in the mountains. You’re still small, what happens if you fall?” Du Xiu Heng immediately rejected.
“I won’t, just let me go, okay?” Du Xiao Li said, unwilling to give up.
“No. If there’s something, I’ll bring it back for you. You just need to stay at home and wait for me. Be obedient.” Du Xiu Heng was still unwilling to agree.
Alright then, when you go into town tomorrow, I’ll go myself! Du Xiao Li secretly thought to herself. It’s not like she was a real child anyways. When she was ten, she’d stayed in the amazon forest before, would she still be scared to get lost in the mountains now?
Early morning of the next day, Du Xiu Heng got up, had breakfast made, and hastily ate a bit. Seeing Du Xiao Li waking up, he said, “I probably won’t be able to come back until the afternoon. I made quite a bit of breakfast, you can just warm it up at noon to eat. Your body still hasn’t completely recovered, so wait for me at home. Don’t go anywhere, understand?”
Du Xiao looked to the vegetable porridge in the bowl and asked, “Big brother, what are you going to eat at noon?”
“I’ll just eat a bit of something from the streets. I’m going to go now, remember not to go anywhere!” Du Xiu Heng finished saying this and headed down the mountain with the chopped wood from yesterday on his back.
“Ai, clearly still just a child…….” Du Xiao Li came to the doorway, watching Du Xiu Heng’s little figure, and sighed.
She drew some water, and simply rinsed her mouth and washed her face. By the time she finished eating, the sky was already bright. Standing outside the door, she observed the surrounding terrain, discovering that behind this mountain was a range of mountains and in front was a flat plain. The mountain region in the back had a dense forest, and the flat plain in front had fertile soil. Only their little mountain top was barren and could only grow some weeds.
“This here should be a basin edge, or the edge of a mountain range.” After studying it for a while, she came to a conclusion. Using her hand, she rubbed her stomach, “No matter what, making money was the best path right now. First go see if there’s anything that can relieve this desperate situation right now. Eating anymore of that wild vegetable, and I’ll end up turning into a wild monkey!”
Thus off she went. Du Xiao Li picked up a branch before the door and headed towards the back mountain. Very little people ever walked these mountains so there weren’t any ready made roads, only the shadow of a small path walked by Du Xiu Heng when he recently went to chop wood in the mountains.
“Having just rained, don’t know if there will be things like mushrooms growing.” Du Xiao Li muttered to herself while walking. “If there is, then tonight we can drink mushroom soup.”
After walking for about an hour, she finally finished walking through these two little mountains, formally entering the forest in the mountains.
“So tired. This current body gets tired after walking just a little while.” She panted as she sat down on a rock, lightly patting her two legs. “Don’t know what time it is right now either. How did ancient people determine time again? Better quickly look and see if there’s anything.”
But after strolling around in the mountains for quite a while, never mind mushrooms, there wasn’t even an edible piece of land!
“My G.o.d, is there a need to be this poor? Isn’t it said that there’s treasures in the mountains?” After looking around for a good while and not finding anything, she couldn’t help swearing. “Could it be that the place I entered wasn’t right? The good things aren’t…..” here?
Before she could finish speaking, she saw a gray rabbit appear in her line of sight.
“Wild rabbit!” Gray rabbits were usually always hares. She unexpectedly didn’t find any mushrooms, but instead encountered a hare!
She lowered her head and looked around. Not far from her left side were two small rocks. She gently crouched down and picked up a small rock, throwing it at the hare that was currently eating gra.s.s in front.
“Zi zi*!” Sensing there was someone, the hare was just getting ready to run when its front leg was struck by the rock, making it fall entirely on the ground, letting out a sharp cry. Du Xiao Li quickly went forward to catch it, but unexpectedly the hare with an injured leg got up from the ground, and continued to run forward. Although its speed wasn’t as fast as before, it still wasn’t something she could catch up to with her short arms and legs. She quickly picked up another rock from the ground and threw it at it. This time hitting the hare’s head. It swayed in its original spot twice, and then fainted.
(*T/N: Apparently the sounds rabbits make.)
Du Xiao Li ran up and picked up the hare, discovering that it was quite heavy, reckon it was about four or five catty. In order to prevent the hare from continuing to run when it wakes up, she pulled two blades of gra.s.s from the ground and had its front and hind legs separately tied. Afterwards, she finally sat her b.u.t.t on the ground and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “This body really is just too weak. If it was in the past life, the first rock would’ve been able to take its life. Where was there still the need to be this troublesome! However, luckily still caught it. This fat, should be able to eat it for a few days?”
Du Xiao Li rested for awhile. Then, carrying the hare by the back of the neck, she strolled around the mountain for awhile, before seeing a kind of fruit similar to an apple. It was very small, about the size of her little fist.
Seeing something to eat, she finally noticed her own already rumbling stomach. It was probably already long past noon. She threw the hare on the ground, then climbed up the tree to pick a few. Carefully taking a bit, it was so sour that she felt her teeth didn’t belong to her anymore.
“What fruit is this, so sour?! She forcibly swallowed the fruit, and muttered to herself. “Practically a match with hawthorns. If it’s used to make sugar-coated hawthorns, should be pretty good to eat! Aye, after eating this, feel even more hungry now.”
(Sugar Coated Hawthorns)
She slowly returned to the ground and picked up the hare, “Better go back home then, big brother should be coming back.”
She went around quite a distance from the side, and didn’t go back using the path she came from. Afterwards, she headed towards the outside according to the direction she came from. Unexpectedly, near the exit, she actually found some wild mushrooms. On the root of a large tree, one was already completely bloomed, and one had even just popped out from the ground.
“Mushrooms!?” Du Xiao ran over, carefully using a branch to loosen the surrounding dirt, and had the root stem below dug out. Looking at the long root stem below, her face let out a smile. Looks like this mountain does have a lot to eat!
Having found mushrooms and a hare, she felt the things for today were enough already, any more and this little body probably won’t be able to carry. Thus, she picked up her pace and rushed back home.
Originally she thought that Du Xiu Heng wouldn’t return this early, but unexpectedly as soon as she got back, she saw him run out from the courtyard. And after seeing Du Xiao Li directly walking over, did he finally heavily let out a breath. “Didn’t I tell you to stay at home and rest? Where did you go?”
Du Xiao Li brought out the mushrooms and hare in hand before him, saying, “Big brother, look what I found! We’ll have meat to eat tonight!”
Du Xiu Heng originally wanted lecture her, but when he saw the smile on her face, those words were all swallowed back down. Taking a turn, those words turned into words of concern, “Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Nope, let’s go, big brother, we can cook meat soup tonight.” Du Xiao Li shoved the hare into Du Xiu Heng’s hands, and afterwards, pulled him towards the courtyard.
When they got to the courtyard, Du Xiao Li began to worry again. Aside from a pot, there isn’t any other kitchenwares in the house, not even a knife. How are they going to kill the rabbit like this?!