newbobooks Chapter 168 Flowers in the Mountains
Chapter 168 Flowers in the Mountains
"This pine mushroom is really different. It has to be dug from the ground!" He pried it up carefully and looked at it happily.
Zhou Mi pursed her lips and looked more carefully, inch by inch.
Zhou Guo carried a basket and a stick, and searched the ground step by step with his head down. Every time he saw the pine needles that were pushed up, he was delighted. He used the stick to push them away, and sure enough, he saw the familiar head, and joy was overwhelming.
It’s like opening a blind box and finding treasures.
She was so engrossed in picking flowers that she picked them up from farther and farther away. When she picked up a flower, she carefully put it into the basket. The empty basket covered with soft moss was filled with more and more.
When the basket was full, she picked up some moss to cover it to prevent it from falling off while walking or being scratched by branches. After covering it, she looked up and found that she had walked to somewhere without realizing it. It was quiet all around, with no other sound except the sound of the wind.
Zhou Mai and Zhou Mi were also missing. She herself was fine, but she was a little panicked when she thought of her two young brothers who had no time to spare. It would be bad if they encountered some wild beasts.
I shouted a few times at the top of my lungs, but there was no response.
She immediately retreated with the basket, shouting as she walked. There was no one there, so she held her breath and rushed in the direction they were going.
After crossing a ridge and walking down for a long distance, I heard Zhou Mai's voice faintly coming from the left front, "Hey, we are here."
Hearing the echo, Zhou Guo's heart, which had been raised to her throat, suddenly fell, and her legs went weak. If she lost her two brothers, how would she explain to her family when she returned?
After resting for a while, she headed over there.
When we found them, they were squatting on the ground, prying out Matsutake mushrooms.
Seeing her coming, Zhou Mai smiled, pointed to the sack in front of him, and said happily: "Guoguo, come and see, we have picked up half a sack, there are so many in this area, we have been picking here for a long time without moving."
Zhou Mi put the pried up matsutake mushroom aside, where there were already five or six, and pointed to several other places not far away, "Here, here, here, and there, all of them. You came just in time, we were all worried that we didn't have enough hands."
Zhou Guo picked up the sack and looked at it. It was exactly half full. He was surprised and said, "Where did you pick up so much? This is enough for my two baskets."
Zhou Mai smiled and said, "This is what the two of us picked up. Of course, we picked up more than you. In fact, we didn't pick up much at the beginning, but then we found this place. We picked up at least more than one basket here. You came at the right time. The three of us picked together much faster than two people. It's no problem to fill this sack."
Zhou Mi nodded, and while he was talking he pried open the few flowers he saw, with extremely skillful, quick and efficient movements.
Zhou Guo was stunned. It only took a short while for her two brothers to pick matsutake mushrooms. She couldn't even compare to them. Their technique looked like they had been prying for seven or eight years.
She looked for a while, then started looking around with the basket. There were so many flowers in this field that she pried open a flower in less than two steps. As soon as she turned around, she found another one at her feet. Her eyes were not idle while she was prying, and she found another one not far away.
"There are so many of them, just like the ones grown in my own fields." She muttered as she pried up the few flowers she saw. She stood up and discovered that on a rock nearby grew a blue-purple flower. It was extremely gorgeous, the size of a copper coin, and swayed from side to side in the wind. She had never seen anything like it before and it was very beautiful.
She wanted to dig it up and take it home, but then she thought, she would have no time to take care of it if she dug it up, and she was afraid it would die in a few days. So she gave up the idea, took a few looks at it, and left.
It is still more practical to pick matsutake mushrooms. They are delicious and may be sold for money.
The three of them walked around the field for who knows how long, and the half sack became a large sack.
Zhou Guo looked at the sky. It was getting late. The most important thing was that his stomach was also protesting. "Second brother, third brother, let's go back. We have already searched this land. Look, there are traces of us prying everywhere. Let's go back and eat first. We will come back in the afternoon and change places then."
The master took away two sacks. I don’t know if he would come back just when we were about to go down the mountain, just like he did yesterday.
Zhou and Mai pried it open with great effort, seeming reluctant to let go.
But after walking around for a long time, they still couldn't find a single one, so they had to agree to go back for the time being.
The three returned to the camp with a great harvest, only to find that everyone was back and was happily cooking. Thick columns of smoke rose from the forest, and the aroma of food wafted through this uninhabited forest.
"Hey, Guoguo, Ermao and Sanmao are back." Seeing them carrying sacks and baskets, he smiled and said, "We picked up so many mushrooms. We picked a lot too. There are so many pine mushrooms in this forest. I heard that it's very cold in the north in winter, and the ground is frozen, so we can't grow vegetables at all. With these mushrooms, we can finally have vegetables to eat in winter."
Zhou Guo smiled and agreed. He glanced around and saw many bulging sacks and full baskets piled up not far away. He was really surprised. "Aunts, you picked up so many? I'm afraid you have picked up all the pine mushrooms in the forest?"
She has been looking for Matsutake mushrooms since yesterday. Even if she saw one, she would not bend down to pick it up. Later, she simply ignored it. It turns out that there are so many Matsutake mushrooms.
The aunts laughed.
"We just have more people. Look at how many there are. They are from several families. Each family doesn't have much. The three of us only picked up two sacks and one basket."
"There are four of us in our family, so there are only four sacks."
Zhou Guo widened his eyes. Four sacks were not enough. The three of them only picked up one sack and a basket.
The three of them put the things in their own storage place. The few trees they had taken a fancy to yesterday had already been sawed down. Now they were trimming the branches. After trimming, they had to saw the trees down, which was another time-consuming and laborious task.
Zhou Guo watched them struggling to saw or chop the branches off, and then several people worked together to move the branches away. Working in this way, it took the effort of several people to remove a tree.
It seems that I have to stay here for the second half of the afternoon.
"Hey, the old man is back, back."
The women shouted with joy. They had cooked the rice and washed the pine mushrooms, and were just waiting for the old man's prey. However, they waited for a long time and no catch came. Seeing that the workers were all hungry, they became anxious and discussed whether they should not wait any longer. It would be delicious to just cook the pine mushrooms directly. After all, it was more important to fill the stomachs of the workers.
Before they could come to an end, the old man came back with two processed rabbits and a pheasant in his hands. The sight of the white meat made people drool.
Zhou Guo turned around and looked at his master, who was striding towards him with a large sack full of food in his left hand and a bunch of processed prey in his right hand. He didn't know why, but he felt guilty.