Before long, the bottom of the bamboo basket was covered in a layer of tender green wild vegetables.
“We can add a dish to dinner tonight! Mother will definitely be happy!”
“It’s been a long time since we stumbled upon such fresh and tender wild vegetables. Digging these up will be enough for us to make two meals.”
Xiao Yue smiled so widely her eyes curved into crescents, her excited little mouth chattering away without a pause.
“Maybe another patch of purslane will grow here after some time,” Su He said, half-jokingly. With her wood-element superpower, eating wild vegetables whenever she wanted would never be an issue.
“Really? That would be amazing! Sister-in-law, this place will be our secret spot from now on. We won’t tell anyone!” Hearing her sister-in-law say this, Xiao Yue grew even happier, feeling that it was highly probable. Since a patch of purslane could grow here, it meant there were seeds in this soil. If they left a few roots behind, a new patch would surely grow back before long. As long as the roots weren’t severed, they would have a steady supply of wild vegetables to eat.
“Alright,” Su He replied with a smile, then quietly released a bit more of her wood-element power.
Soon, a few more faint plant auras surfaced in her mind, right over by the nearby thicket.
Once they had dug up most of the purslane, Su He stood up and scanned the area. “Ah Yue, it looks like there are some over there too.”
“Really? Let’s go, let’s go!” Hearing this, Xiao Yue immediately picked up her basket, leaving the remaining tiny seedlings to grow a bit more.
The two walked over to the thicket and, sure enough, discovered another small nest of wild vegetables.
“Wow!”
“Our luck today is just too good!” Xiao Yue was incredibly thrilled. Bringing her sister-in-law up the mountain today was definitely the right call. From now on, she was going to stick with her sister-in-law!
The two searched along the way and, in just a short while, managed to find two more spots with wild vegetables. Consequently, the two bamboo baskets they had brought were soon filled to the brim.
Just as they were preparing to head back, a few different plant auras appeared within Su He’s perception. Following the scent, she located several herbs hidden within a patch of rather withered, yellow grass.
The stalks stood upright, the small leaves were as finely arranged as feathers with a pale fuzz on their undersides, and most noticeably, pale yellow, butterfly-shaped little flowers dangled from the stems.
Su He’s eyes lit up slightly. Medicinal herbs were a great find! While this type of herb wasn’t considered extraordinarily rare or precious at the border, it could still be sold to a pharmacy for money.
“Sister-in-law, what is this?” Seeing her sister-in-law’s delighted expression, Xiao Yue instantly understood that this must be something good.
Su He smiled. “This is wild astragalus. It’s a Chinese medicinal herb that can be sold to pharmacies for money.”
“What? This is a medicinal herb? Can it really be exchanged for money?” Xiao Yue’s eyes widened as she looked incredulously at the few plants that resembled ordinary wild flowers. She really hadn’t expected that the herbs sold in pharmacies grew right out here in the wild. In all her years growing up, this was the first time she had ever come across a medicinal herb on the mountain.
“Yes, astragalus is a great thing. It can replenish qi, combat fatigue, reduce swelling, and help wounds heal,” Su He explained its efficacy while using a wooden stick to dig it out.
“Then can’t it be used for Eldest Brother?” Xiao Yue immediately thought of her injured brother back at home. The household didn’t have any good provisions to help him heal and nourish his body, but with this astragalus, it would certainly aid his recovery.
“Sister-in-law, you’re amazing! You actually know medicinal herbs too!” Xiao Yue looked at Su He with eyes full of admiration, deeply moved. If it weren’t for her sister-in-law, even if she had run into them today, she probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it, let alone bring them home to help heal her brother’s body.
“Yes, I learned to recognize a few while following the physician back in the estate. Hurry and dig, it’s getting late,” Su He brushed past the topic ambiguously.
“Alright!” Xiao Yue immediately squatted down to help her dig up the herbs.
With this final addition, their bamboo baskets were so full they could hold no more. This trip up the mountain could truly be described as a bountiful harvest.
“Let’s go, home!”
By this time, the sun had risen high into the sky, and the wind sweeping across the barren mountain began to carry a hint of heat. As they made their way down, the baskets felt heavy enough to strain their hands.
Xiao Yue laughed the entire way down. “Sister-in-law, our luck today is just too good!”
“I used to spend a whole day on the mountain and still couldn’t necessarily dig up this much.”
She couldn’t help but peek into the baskets again. Seeing them piled high with tender green purslane made her happier the more she looked.
“Mother will definitely be thrilled when she sees this.”
Su He simply smiled, offering no further response.
She knew perfectly well in her heart that this wasn’t luck—it was capability. As long as her wood-element superpower remained, this mountain wouldn’t let her starve.
The moment the two made it down the mountain, a few military wives by the roadside spotted them.
“Oh~ Isn’t that the Xiao family girl? What did you dig up today?”
“Here, look!”
Xiao Yue thrust the basket right toward them to satisfy their curiosity, saving them from whispering blindly behind their backs. This was the Military Household Village, which operated under a certain level of military regulation, so no one would just rashly rob or threaten them.
The military wives leaned in to look and instantly gasped.
“So many wild vegetables?”
“Where did you dig them up?”
“That mountain has been picked nearly bald!”
One of them couldn’t resist reaching in to rummage through. “They’re quite tender.”
“Tsk tsk, enough to make two meals.”
A woman turned her gaze to Su He. “Is this your sister-in-law?”
Xiao Yue nodded immediately, bragging with quite a bit of pride, “Yes! My sister-in-law found every single one of these wild vegetables.”
The military wives’ eyes instantly fixed on Su He.
“The new bride has pretty good luck.”
“Managing to find wild vegetables right after arriving.”
“Just good luck,” Su He replied with a smile, offering no further explanation.
“Alright~ Aunties and sisters, we’re heading back now.”
Xiao Yue grabbed her sister-in-law and hurried home. If they stayed any longer, she worried their wild vegetables wouldn’t be safe.
When the two returned to the small Xiao courtyard, Wang Guixiang was under the eaves mending the clothes her eldest son had just changed out of.
Xiao Yue ran over excitedly at once. “Mother! Come look, we found so many wild vegetables!”
Wang Guixiang looked up, thoroughly surprised. “Oh my word, so many!!”
With that, she immediately set down the clothes, needle, and thread in her hands. “Quick, let me see.”
Xiao Jun came out from the house, looking very astonished. “How did you find them? Is there actually still this much wild vegetation on the mountainside?”
Hearing this, Wang Guixiang’s face instantly dropped. “Yue’er, did you take your sister-in-law into the deep mountains?”
Otherwise, how could two girls dig up two whole baskets of wild vegetables? Unless they had ventured deep into the mountains!
That was a massive taboo in the village.
The mountains at the border were far from comparable to the gentle, elegant, rolling ridges of the Central Plains. The mountains here stretched across tens of thousands of miles, vast and primordial, with no visible end in sight—not to mention the ferocious beasts roaming within the deep ranges. Rumor had it that the beasts here were far more vicious and massive than ordinary wild animals. Even the soldiers in the camp didn’t dare step inside lightly.
“No, no, no! Mother, you think too highly of us. How would we ever dare go into the deep mountains?” Xiao Yue waved her hands frantically in fear. She didn’t have that kind of courage!
“Then these wild vegetables of yours?” Seeing her daughter’s reaction, Wang Guixiang felt slightly reassured, though she remained highly suspicious of the vegetables in the bamboo baskets.
Xiao Yue let out a breath. “This is all thanks to Sister-in-law. She found them all. Sister-in-law really has a knack for finding wild vegetables~”
Xiao Jun gasped. “Are you saying these were all dug up right on the mountainside?”
“Really, we didn’t go into the deep mountains,” Xiao Yue affirmed repeatedly.
Wang Guixiang looked up at Su He, her heart filling with a bit more satisfaction. “Good, good, good! We’ll have wild vegetable coarse grain flatbreads today!”
Now that they had so many wild vegetables to mix with the coarse flour, the volume of food would increase. It would at least allow the family to blend a meal that left them sixty percent full.
“Yue’er, come wash the vegetables!”
“Coming!”
Promptly, the mother and daughter happily busied themselves by the water trough.
Su He originally wanted to help too, but Wang Guixiang waved her off. “Go rest! This little bit of work is enough for the two of us. You’re a new bride who just entered the household, there’s no reason to make you work right away.”
Hearing her say this, Su He had no choice but to step aside.