Su Yun reorganized her storage grid again. She’d freed up five slots, and out of 17 total slots, 12 were now occupied:
· 「10-yuan banknotes」×13
· 「”Getting Rich in the 70s” (book)」
· 「Pork belly」×1 catty
· 「Small medicine kit」 (thermometer, stethoscope, red flower oil, bottled hemostatic powder, iodine, gauze, cotton bandages, a small bottle of cold medicine, burn ointment, 10 fever reducer tablets, The Barefoot Doctor’s Manual)
· 「Bamboo basket」 (assorted popsicles)
· 「Bamboo basket」 (2 bottles of Moutai, 3 bolts of fabric—2 dacron + 1 blue cotton, and a biscuit tin containing 1 gold bar, 1 watch, 8 catties of grain coupons, 1 leather shoe coupon, and several kerosene and industrial vouchers)
· 「Daily necessities bundle」 (10-catty cotton quilt, flashlight, 2 rolls of toilet paper, 2 packs of sanitary pads)
· 「Boxed meals」×8 (2 braised pork, 1 sour bean stir-fried with pork, 1 braised fish chunks, 4 empty mess tins)
· 「Large bowls of spicy blood curd stew」×3
· 「Tea eggs」×20
· 「Baked sesame cakes」×10
· 「Cotton」×12 catties
After organizing everything, Su Yun’s face glowed with happiness. She lay down beautifully—she hadn’t lied about taking an afternoon nap. It was her one day off, she’d missed out on sleeping in, so a nap was an absolute must! She was still growing, after all—eating more and sleeping more was only natural!
Life in the countryside was tough, but time still flew by. Before she knew it, the monthly rest day was approaching again. Just two more days of work and they’d be able to go to the county for a proper meal.
One afternoon, Su Yun woke from her nap at around 3 p.m. The sun wasn’t as fierce as at noon.
She’d already gathered two baskets of pig feed that morning. After a moment’s thought, she slung her backpack basket on and headed up the mountain.
It had rained a few days ago, so she wanted to check if there were any mushrooms the aunties might have missed. Su Yun loved all kinds of fungi, but she only liked them fresh—dried ones didn’t appeal to her. She planned to store any mushrooms she found in her storage grid so she could enjoy them fresh anytime.
Shangxi Brigade was surrounded by mountains on three sides. The militia would go into the mountains with rifles every year to drive away large wildlife, so the outer ranges were basically safe—that’s where the villagers usually foraged.
No one dared go deeper into the mountains, where tigers, wolves, and wild boars roamed. Sometimes in winter, when snow covered the ground and food was scarce, hungry animals would venture into the outer areas.
But generally, no one wanted to go deep anyway. To reach the inner mountains, you’d have to cross several shorter peaks first. There were no trails—just thick grass and brambles. If you set out before dawn, it would be pitch dark by the time you even got close.
Su Yun valued her life too much to go looking for trouble. She’d watched nature documentaries her whole life and had always held a healthy respect for wild animals. Whenever she read novels where the protagonist fought wild boars and kicked tigers, she just chuckled and moved on. She always stayed carefully in the outer ring.
Recently, Su Yun had been working on the side of the mountain closest to the educated youth site—gathering pig feed, collecting firewood, and occasionally picking tender wild vegetables to bring back. That was an unspoken understanding among the educated youth.
That mountain was the gentlest and flattest in the area, frequently visited by village children and women. The more people walked on it, the better the path became—but naturally, the resources there were much scarcer than elsewhere.
So today, she decided to change locations and head up the mountain accessible from the village entrance. The villagers called it Jiguan Mountain—Rooster Comb Mountain—because its broad base and wavy peak resembled a rooster’s comb.
A couple of days ago, Caini’er had told her there were many wild fruit trees on Jiguan Mountain. During July and August, apricots, grapes, and “dog dates”—small kiwis—would ripen. It was the perfect time to try her luck.
However, Jiguan Mountain was thick with brambles and shrubs, the terrain difficult to navigate, with few wild vegetables or large branches for firewood, so the villagers rarely went up there.
However, there were plenty of small animals like squirrels and rabbits. In the past, hunters had set traps on the mountain, and many deep pits still remained. If a child fell in, it would be hard to climb out, so the villagers generally forbade kids from going up.
Older children weren’t allowed either—too many brambles. It wasn’t worth ruining their clothes for a few wild fruits. In these times, buying fabric in the countryside was already hard enough! The only cloth that was relatively easy to get was the coarse homespun woven by skilled women, which could sometimes be traded for at the market. Better cotton fabric—you’d be lucky to get a few chi in a whole year.
Parents wouldn’t let their children ruin clothes just for fun. Anyone who tore their clothes playing around would get a beating when they got home!
Only the occasional doting parent would climb up during the off-season to pick some wild fruits to bring back as a treat for the kids.
Su Yun made her way up, barely able to see a path beneath her feet. She could only find flat spots to step on and trudge forward bit by bit.
Luckily, she’d come well prepared today: nylon gloves on her hands, nylon long socks on her feet, and her sleeves and pant legs tied tight with cloth strips.
Otherwise, her ankles and calves would have been scratched bloody by the brambles by now!
She wiped the sweat from her forehead. She’d been walking for nearly 40 minutes since the foot of the mountain. Su Yun didn’t plan to go any further—the farther she went, the longer it would take to get back down.
She decided to look around this area for anything good.
The fruits she’d gotten from check-ins were long gone. The supply cooperative didn’t sell any either, and whenever they did get some, the nearby villagers who heard about it first would snap them all up—the educated youth never got a chance. And she’d been used to eating fruit every day since childhood.
Su Yun’s mind wandered, her delicate face looking a bit wistful, her almond eyes lowering slightly.
Even when money was tight in her childhood, her grandmother would go to the wholesale store and buy ugly apples and pears that no one else wanted, a few cents a catty. She’d bring them home, peel and slice them for Su Yun. But when Su Yun told her grandmother to eat some too, she’d always say she didn’t like them. Only when Su Yun grew up did she realize her grandmother just couldn’t bear to eat them herself, saving them all for her.
A summer breeze blew a strand of hair across her face, tickling her back to the present.
She hadn’t had any fruit in a while and felt like something was missing. With nowhere to buy any, she could only come up the mountain and try her luck.
Looking around and observing the area, she took a few steps behind some sturdy pine trees. Her sharp eyes spotted some black fruits partially hidden by leaves not far away.
She thought she was incredibly lucky—finding wild grapes right after coming up the mountain. With excitement, she hurried over for a closer look. But what she found wasn’t grapevines, but a patch of shrubs bearing small black fruits, smaller than grapes, about four or five per cluster, shaped a bit like blueberries.
Su Yun had eaten quite a few different fruits in her past life. With modern internet and shipping, you could find specialty fruits from all over—even various wild berries—on e-commerce sites.
She’d been curious before and had bought quite a few to try. But she’d only ever seen the fruits themselves, never the plants they came from. Maybe the botany book had them, but she’d only read less than a tenth of that thick volume.
She observed carefully. The topmost fruits had been pecked by birds, and the ones closest to the ground showed signs of insect bites. That probably meant they weren’t poisonous.
She picked one and popped it into her mouth. Hmm? The flavor was familiar?
Wasn’t this black nightshade?!
One of her college roommates had brought this fruit back from her hometown for them to try. The taste was sweet and refreshing—she’d really liked it.
Its scientific name was Solanum nigrum, and it was also a medicinal herb, known for clearing heat and detoxifying, treating toothaches, colds, and coughs. Best of all, it was delicious! (＞＜)
What a find!