“You’re calling me Sister-in-Law?”
“Yes, that’s right. My surname is also Xiao—we’re from the same clan.” The girl called out to Ye Qing, catching her breath as she warned, “You shouldn’t go any deeper into the mountains. It’s quite dangerous right now. Bears and tigers have been spotted out and about, and the snow up top has started melting, making the paths slippery and hard to walk. None of us go deep inside anymore.”
This little girl certainly had a kind heart.
Ye Qing smiled at her. “All right, I understand. I won’t go deep into the mountains—just wander around the outer edges to look for wild vegetables and fruits. No need to worry.”
Her gaze rested on the soft, fluffy crown of the girl’s head, and before she could stop herself, Ye Qing reached out and gently ruffled her hair.
“What’s your name?”
“Swallow. Xiao Swallow.” The girl looked a little embarrassed when saying her name, and quickly added, “That’s just my childhood nickname. My mother says she’ll give me a proper formal name once I start elementary school.”
“Little Swallow—that’s a lovely name,” Ye Qing said with a smile.
“Very well, I’ll remember your kindness. If I find any wild fruits while I’m up there, I’ll bring you a share when I come back down.”
“Wait—Sister-in-Law!” Little Swallow called out again, but she couldn’t change Ye Qing’s mind. Ye Qing slung her bamboo basket onto her back and headed into the mountains.
The girl stood there watching helplessly as Ye Qing’s figure gradually vanished deeper into the woods. She stamped her foot lightly, not daring to follow, and turned back with a heavy heart to continue cutting grass for the pigs.
Meanwhile, back with Ye Qing…
After entering the mountains and walking just a short distance further in, the trail grew quiet and sparsely populated. She had to walk quite far before spotting another person, and those she did see were also out gathering wild vegetables and fruits.
At first, she lingered around the outer edges of the forest. After circling the area, she found there was hardly anything worthwhile to collect, so she began to venture further inward.
As she walked, she observed the terrain and landscape around her. This mountain looked very similar to the one she had lived on in her past life—likely even located in roughly the same region.
Stepping deeper into the woods, Ye Qing felt as though she had finally come home. Compared to the world down below, she felt far more at ease and free here among the trees.
She walked and explored, all the while collecting small stones of different colors. Any stone with a bright or striking hue went straight into her spatial storage. Every so often, she would pause and stack a few stones into a small, noticeable pile at a clear spot along the path—these would serve as her markers.
Marking the trail was a lesson learned from her previous life. Once you went deep into the mountains, the greatest dangers were not cold or hunger, but losing your way and your sense of direction. Without markers, you could wander in circles forever, never finding your way out.
By marking her path from the moment she entered, she could simply follow the trail of stones back to the foothills on her return.
After walking a bit further, the faint sound of running water reached her ears. Ye Qing stopped, listened carefully again, and pinpointed the direction it was coming from. Then she set off toward the sound in search of a stream.
Deep in the mountains, water was the most essential resource. Where there was flowing water, there was life—both plants and animals gathered along its banks.
About a hundred meters later, Ye Qing’s eyes lit up. She had found it.
A clear, sparkling stream cascaded down from higher up the mountain, its current swift and lively, making a soft, rushing sound. She stepped closer, and her gaze lingered on the transparent water, unable to look away.
Her throat felt dry, and she licked her lips, but she did not bend down to drink. Even though she had drunk from countless such streams in her past life, she now had access to cleaner water sources and was not willing to take unnecessary risks.
She recalled a memory from her previous life: once, she had come across a similar rushing stream downstream, clear and pristine, and had drunk her fill before continuing upward. Only later, further upstream, had she found the half-rotted carcass of a red deer lying in the water. The sight had turned her stomach completely.
Even though her body was now strengthened by special abilities and immune to most parasites and infections, the memory still left a strong impression.
Pulling her thoughts back to the present, she knelt down beside the stream and leaned in to look closely. Swimming swiftly through the water were tiny, translucent shrimp, while mountain crabs clung to the rocks, moving sideways slowly across the riverbed in search of plankton and food.
The shrimp were a pale, translucent blue-green. Ye Qing reached in to grab a handful, but missed, startling the creatures—they vanished instantly, darting into the cracks between stones.
She pulled her hand back with a sigh of disappointment. Looking around again, she noticed there were no fish in this section of the stream.
Wait—no. If there were shrimp, there must be fish too.
Glancing downstream, she guessed the fish had likely been swept away by the current, or perhaps blocked further up. There were probably deeper pools and ponds higher up. She could bring tools next time and try her luck at catching some, she thought.
She lingered by the water for a while, searching the surrounding area. She found nothing edible growing right along the bank, but did manage to harvest a good amount of wild vegetables.
This time of year, mountain greens were just beginning to sprout—tender and crisp, snapping easily when plucked. Hearing that satisfying snap, Ye Qing’s mouth began to water; she could almost taste how fresh and flavorful they would be once cooked.
She could not yet identify every plant and distinguish which were safe and which were toxic, so she only picked the varieties she recognized: spikenard shoots, fiddlehead ferns, and a few patches of dandelion. She harvested only part of each cluster, leaving the rest to grow and spread, so she could return and gather more the following year.
Once she had picked a good supply, she marked the spot by the stream and continued upward along its course.
Her body had mostly recovered by now, and her special abilities were nearly fully restored. Walking through the woods felt effortless.
The melting snow had turned many trails muddy and slippery, but her enhanced body moved with lightness and agility—she bounded through the trees like a deer.
As she followed the stream, stopping occasionally to rest, she drank water from her gourd when thirsty, ate a roasted sweet potato or two when hungry, and snacked on small red wild berries she found along the way. She made steady progress.
Along the route, she kept her eyes open and noticed that the area was not entirely untouched. There were clear signs that other people had passed this way before.
As a result, there were fewer animals and fewer wild vegetables to be found—most had already been foraged or scared off.
Two hours into her climb, Ye Qing stopped lingering. She decided to push deeper into the mountains.
This area had clearly been visited and picked over; little remained for her to find.
She kept following the stream upward. After about four more hours of steady walking, she gradually slowed to a halt.
Now she began to feel a faint stinging sensation in her arms and soreness in the soles of her feet. Even with her abilities, her body had not yet fully healed. Raising her arm, she saw fresh scrapes and scratches along her skin.
Ignoring the minor wounds, she looked up at the trees lining the path. They had shed all their leaves in winter and had not yet grown new foliage. Much of their bark had been stripped away in patches, leaving them bare and gnarled.
Leaning closer to examine them, she guessed the damage had been caused by red deer and roe deer.
She was familiar with these animals from her past life in the mountains. During the first couple of years there, the ecosystem had still been largely intact, so she recognized the signs easily.
Seeing traces of wildlife, Ye Qing stopped completely and searched the surrounding ground. Sure enough, she found hoof prints belonging to red deer and roe deer. Further searching revealed tracks and droppings of wild pheasants and rabbits as well. She knew then that she had reached the right place.
She circled the area, marked a clear trail, then sat down on a fallen tree trunk to rest and drink water.
The more she looked around, the happier she felt. This part of the forest remained untouched by human activity—remote, quiet, and rich with resources. In the days ahead, she could live in harmony with the mountains. The woods would be her pantry, and her shelter. She would never again have to worry about going hungry.
Sitting on the broken log, Ye Qing drank water and finished off the last of her cold roasted sweet potatoes. Even after eating, her stomach still felt empty and queasy, and the hunger pangs grew sharper. She reached into her storage space and pulled out a handful of dried corn kernels, tossing one into her mouth and crunching it loudly. Having something solid to chew helped ease the burning ache in her stomach.
Once rested and her breathing returned to normal, Ye Qing brushed the dust off her clothes and stood up to search for more food.
After wandering for a while, she felt slightly disappointed. It seemed the noise she made while walking had frightened most of the animals away, or they had hidden deep in the underbrush.
She circled the area several times, only spotting a few hedgehogs scurrying around on the ground, too slow to escape, and two small squirrels perched high on a branch, watching her with round, shiny black eyes.
When Ye Qing looked back up, the squirrels clutched their pinecones tightly and scurried higher into the canopy, vanishing from sight.
Seeing them run off, Ye Qing felt a twinge of regret. She had only brought a woodcutter’s axe with her and no proper tools—making it impossible to set traps or catch game right away.
She knew for certain there were wild pheasants and rabbits nearby. She had found the entrance to a rabbit burrow and spotted thick bushes where pheasants liked to nest and hide.
Without proper equipment, she would have to rely on making traps herself.
Finding a dense patch of thick shrubs, Ye Qing began to dig a hole in front of them with her axe, working slowly and carefully. She moved gently to avoid striking any hidden stones that could damage the blade.
This made the work slow going—it took her nearly half an hour to dig a hole deep enough to serve as a trap.
Next, she gathered fallen branches from the forest floor, selecting pieces roughly the thickness of two fingers. She sharpened both ends with her axe and drove them firmly into the bottom of the hole. Then she covered the entire opening loosely with dry twigs and leaves to disguise it, and scattered a handful of corn kernels over the top as bait. The trap was set.
Climbing a short distance up a nearby tree for a better view, Ye Qing saw the sun beginning to dip toward the horizon—it was already late afternoon. So far, aside from a few wild vegetables, she had gathered very little.
While waiting for something to fall into her trap, she continued searching the surrounding area. Only a few steps away, she spotted several bushes of wild raspberries—partially eaten already by deer. She had enjoyed these berries in her past life; they resembled small strawberries and grew low to the ground.
The fruit within easy reach had mostly been nibbled away, but the higher branches still bore clusters of plump berries in shades of rose and deep red. Remembering their sweet-tart flavor, Ye Qing walked straight over.
She picked one and popped it into her mouth. It was perfectly ripe—sweet and tangy, with juices bursting across her tongue the moment she pressed it against her palate. There was no bitterness or sourness at all. She confirmed they were exactly the same wild berries she had eaten years before: safe, non-toxic, and good enough to eat both for herself and to bring back for her family.
With that thought, she began to eat and gather at the same time, shoving handfuls into her storage space as quickly as she could. She harvested more than half the berries from the bush, eating her fill until her mouth was full of sweet juice and her hunger was satisfied.
When she finished, Ye Qing turned her attention back to the forest. She still needed to gather more food to last her. Here deep in the mountains, wild vegetables were far more abundant than near the foothills. She stuck to the familiar varieties she knew.
Fiddlehead ferns, dandelion, spikenard shoots, and several other edible plants she recognized but could not name—all went into her basket.
Harvesting the others was easy enough, but gathering spikenard shoots took the most time. Though they grew low to the ground, their stems were covered in sharp thorns. Without gloves, Ye Qing kept pricking her fingers and drawing blood. She had to work slowly and carefully, gripping each shoot firmly before snapping it off.
By the time she finished collecting a good amount, she looked up and realized the sky had grown dim.
Tall trees all around blocked most of the sunlight, making the forest floor fall into shadow much earlier than out in the open.
Ye Qing glanced at the fading light and hesitated. Should she stop now and head back down the mountain?
For a fleeting moment, a wild thought crossed her mind: why not just stay here forever and never return to the village? There was more than enough food and resources to survive comfortably, living freely away from the rules and troubles of the world below. But almost as soon as the idea appeared, Ye Qing shook it off, waking herself from the fantasy.