13
Lu Guoguo soon parted ways with Sun Zhaodi, though not too far apart, within shouting distance, so they could hear each other if needed.
Spring rains were plentiful, and Huatou Mountain was an old forest. People from the production team rarely came here to collect fallen wood because the mountain had many gullies and was much damper than Back Mountain. Wood gathered here needed to be sun-dried for a long time before it could be used, unlike the convenience of Back Mountain.
Gradually, unless firewood was desperately needed, most people chose to cut wood on Back Mountain. Huatou Mountain had more wood ear mushrooms, so it attracted more people picking mushrooms and catching venomous snakes.
But that was during the slack farming season. During the current short break, only people from their own production team came here.
Climbing over a small slope, Lu Guoguo looked up and saw Cuihua’s mother squatting in the grass. Recognizing immediately what she was doing, Lu Guoguo pretended not to have seen her, turned around, and quickly walked in another direction.
She even held her breath as she passed.
Cuihua’s mother also saw Lu Guoguo. Since the younger one didn’t greet her, this elder certainly wouldn’t initiate a greeting.
Just as she was thinking about how the neighbor’s daughter lacked respect for elders, Cuihua’s mother’s stomach began to ache again.
Clenching her teeth and straining, she cursed her daughter Cuihua. “Who knows how long that pickled vegetable has been sitting there, and she still ate it!”
Lu Guoguo was familiar with the environment where wood ear mushrooms grew. She quickly gathered quite a few, and upon receiving the task completion prompt, she stored the fever-reducing tablet in her space. However, she didn’t leave Huatou Mountain. Since she was already here, gathering more stuff was the right thing to do.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. Having climbed until she was tired, Lu Guoguo heard Sun Zhaodi calling her name. She quickly responded and, carrying her bamboo basket, made her way toward Sun Zhaodi’s voice.
“Hurry up! Cuihua’s mother got bitten by a snake on her butt! Goodness, they say her entire backside is swollen! Foaming at the mouth, can’t even speak. No one knows what kind of snake bit her!”
Sun Zhaodi had learned this from Sister-in-law Wen, who came up the mountain later. Sister-in-law Wen had also come to pick wood ear mushrooms. At the mountain’s foot, she saw a group of people discussing how to carry Cuihua’s mother to the town clinic.
Thinking there probably weren’t many mushrooms left on the lower half of the mountain, Sister-in-law Wen climbed straight to the mid-slope area. There, she ran into Sun Zhaodi and the others, who were still unaware of the incident. She told them everything, warning them to watch out for snakes.
Worried about her daughter, and since it was getting late anyway, Sun Zhaodi called for Lu Guoguo.
Seeing Lu Guoguo standing unharmed before her, Sun Zhaodi’s anxious heart finally settled.
After hearing Sun Zhaodi’s story, Lu Guoguo rubbed her nose. “When I ran into Auntie, she was relieving herself in the grass. Could she have been bitten then?”
The two aunties walking down the mountain with them agreed that was likely the case.
“Bitten on the butt? Then she must have been bitten while her pants were down.”
“What was she thinking, taking her pants off in the woods? Everyone knows this place is full of snakes and insects. Couldn’t she have held it in?”
Although Sun Zhaodi didn’t get along with Cuihua’s mother, when it came to matters of life and death, she was still somewhat concerned. “I hope she remembers what the snake looked like. Otherwise, even at the clinic, they won’t know how to treat the venom.”
“Exactly. When luck turns against you, even going to the bathroom can get you bitten by a snake.”
Hearing the auntie say this, Lu Guoguo’s mouth twitched.
This wasn’t just bad luck; it was like the god of misfortune had personally paid a visit!
Mother and daughter returned home and dumped all the wild celery and wood ear mushrooms onto a bamboo winnowing tray. After the incident with Cuihua’s mother, they didn’t bother comparing who picked more mushrooms. Together, they cleaned the wood ear mushrooms, dividing them into two portions: one to be dried into preserved mushrooms, the other to be eaten fresh.
Currently, the most common way to eat fresh wood ear mushrooms was to boil them and mix them with seasonings, or stir-fry them with celery.
For lunch, their family had stir-fried wild celery with wood ear mushrooms, pickled radish strips, and a small bowl of chili paste.
“This year, we’ll exchange for more soybeans. I’ll make a few jars of fermented tofu to store,” Sun Zhaodi said.
“Alright,” Lu Laoba nodded. “If I’d known you were going to Huatou Mountain, I would have gone to find you right away.”
He had heard about Cuihua’s mother on the road. At the time, he didn’t know his wife and daughter were also on Huatou Mountain; he thought they were elsewhere, as they hadn’t headed in that direction when they left home.
“There are many snakes and insects on Huatou Mountain this season. It’s better to go less often,” Lu Zaiyang added.
“We didn’t expect to run into that situation either. I wonder how she’s doing now.”
Sun Zhaodi ate the crisp, tender wood ear mushrooms, feeling somewhat unsettled.
Seeing this, Lu Guoguo comforted her. “We’ll probably get news this afternoon.”
“I hope she’s alright,” Sun Zhaodi said.
Right after finishing the meal and cleaning up, a light rain began to fall. The family sat in the main room, each busy with their own tasks. Lu Zaiyang was still weaving straw sandals. Father and son did heavy work and wore out shoes quickly, so Lu Zaiyang was always making sandals.
Lu Laoba was adjusting his hoe again. The hoe he used always had issues and needed fixing every couple of days.
Lu Guoguo sat with Sun Zhaodi, chatting. Lu Guoguo listened as her mother talked about things that happened when she and her sisters were young.
Sun Zhaodi wouldn’t share the misfortunes of her childhood with her child, only selecting lighter-hearted stories about her sisters to tell Lu Guoguo. Not only was Lu Guoguo listening, but Lu Zaiyang and his father also listened while working, occasionally chiming in with a comment or two.
“My eldest sister, your eldest aunt… come to think of it, it’s been over twenty years since I last saw her,” Sun Zhaodi finally spoke of her eldest sister, a trace of longing on her face.
“She was married off to a remote mountain area when she was sixteen. I still remember the day she got married. It was no different from a normal day going up the mountain to work. She waved at us sisters, carrying her bamboo basket, and by nightfall, she hadn’t returned. Your third aunt asked me, ‘Why hasn’t Eldest Sister come back yet? Did she fall on the road? Should we go look for her?’…”
Sun Zhaodi’s eyes reddened as she reached this point in her story.
The incident with Cuihua’s mother being bitten by a snake had also reminded Sun Zhaodi of something that happened the year after her eldest sister was married off.
Her eldest sister’s husband had come to their house, begging their parents to lend him some money.
His wife, Sun Zhaodi’s eldest sister had been bitten by a snake and needed intravenous drips and injections. The antivenom was quite expensive, and he was truly out of options, so he sought help from his wife’s natal family.
The outcome… of course, they didn’t lend him the money.
Sun Zhaodi still remembered the image of her brother-in-law kneeling at the entrance of their courtyard all too clearly. In the end, it was Eldest Aunt Sun who, believing a human life was at stake, managed to scrape together ten yuan to lend him. However, Sun Zhaodi’s mother later cursed Eldest Aunt Sun, calling her a hypocrite with a malicious heart, saying she made outsiders think this biological mother was unwilling to spend money to save her own daughter…
Listening to Sun Zhaodi’s story, Lu Guoguo also recalled the description of Eldest Sister Sun, Sun Laidi, from the original novel.
Eldest Sister Sun had been married into the deep mountains. Fortunately, her husband was a man who treated her well. When her leg was bitten by a venomous snake, her husband carried her to the nearest county hospital. After handing over all their money, it still wasn’t enough. With no other choice, he went to the Sun family to borrow money.
To borrow money, he knelt at the entrance of his father-in-law’s courtyard for a whole day because, other than there, he truly had nowhere else to turn.
Understanding the nature of her parents all too well, Eldest Sister Sun knew they wouldn’t lend the money. So, when the doctor informed her the venom was spreading rapidly toward her upper body, she chose to have her leg amputated.
When her husband returned to the hospital with the money borrowed from Eldest Aunt Sun, what he saw was his wife missing a leg.
He knelt beside her hospital bed, weeping uncontrollably. Eldest Sister Sun, however, gently held his hand, forced a smile, and comforted him: being alive was what mattered.
When Lu Guoguo read that part in the original story, she had cried uncontrollably. Now, hearing Sun Zhaodi say they hadn’t seen each other in over twenty years, she remembered that description again.
In truth, it was Eldest Sister Sun who had hidden herself away. When Sun Zhaodi secretly went to the hospital to see her, they had already left.
Later, Eldest Sister Sun asked their production team leader, when he happened to pass through their team, to return the money to Eldest Aunt Sun and also bring a message to Sun Zhaodi and her sisters, saying they had moved away. After that, there was no further contact. Because the message came through their production team leader, Sun Zhaodi and her sisters didn’t doubt it. They questioned the leader several times, but he, having been begged by Eldest Sister Sun not to tell them the truth, only said he also didn’t know where the couple had moved.
Whether out of guilt or because they felt their eldest daughter was as good as gone, Sun Zhaodi’s parents never mentioned her in all these years.
Having read the original novel, Lu Guoguo naturally knew Eldest Sister Sun’s whereabouts, but Sun Zhaodi didn’t.
Sun Zhaodi sighed, then forced a smile. “I wanted to tell you something happy, but I ended up making myself sad.”
Lu Guoguo held her hand. “There will come a time when you see her again.”
“That’s right. After the autumn harvest, we’ll go to the production team where your eldest aunt used to live and ask around,” Lu Laoba said.
“The old team leader should know. Moving away would have required his signature,” Lu Zaiyang added.
It was only when she got older that Sun Zhaodi realized that team leader hadn’t told them the whole truth. Later, she was married off, constantly busy. After her in-laws passed away, she had to raise her children. Leaving her children alone to search for her eldest sister was out of the question. So, for all these years, Sun Zhaodi hadn’t been able to go to her eldest sister’s production team to find out the real situation that led to their move.
“How long would it take to get from here to my aunt’s production team?” Lu Guoguo asked.
“Taking mountain paths the whole way, at least half a day at the quickest,” Sun Zhaodi replied.
That was indeed quite far.
Just as they were talking, they saw Cuihua, wearing a straw raincoat, enter the courtyard. She didn’t come into the main room, standing at the courtyard gate instead and calling out to them, “Uncle, Auntie, my mom is alright! She’s been carried back.”
Since Sun Zhaodi had gone over to ask several times, Cuihua came to inform her.
“That’s good, that’s good,” Sun Zhaodi smiled with relief. After a moment’s thought, she went and fetched two eggs, pressing them into Cuihua’s hands. “Just a small token. Take them back to help your mother regain her strength.”
Cuihua sniffled and nodded. “Thank you, Auntie.”
“It’s good she’s alright,” Lu Laoba also smiled.
After Cuihua left with the eggs, Lu Guoguo looked at the visibly relieved Sun Zhaodi. “Mom, aren’t you going to see her?”
“What’s my relationship with her? I’m not going,” Sun Zhaodi scoffed lightly.
Seeing this, Lu Laoba laughed heartily. “Your mother has a sharp tongue but a soft heart.”
“I think so too,” Lu Guoguo nodded.
**