“Picking… mushrooms?” Li Mai asked in confusion.
Li Qiao did not realize at all that her eldest sister’s question was about what mushrooms were, rather than why they were going to pick them now.
A bright, excited smile spread across her face as she explained,
“It has been raining these past few days, so mushrooms must have sprouted everywhere. Mushrooms can also be added into dough soup, it makes it taste even more delicious. They can also be dried and saved for winter, when we only have radishes and cabbage to eat, so we can change up the taste.”
As soon as Li Mai heard this, she realized that mushrooms were also a kind of food, and one that could be preserved for a long time.
Hearing Li Qiao describe how well mushrooms paired with dough soup, her stomach made an uncontrollable sound.
“Grrr…”
It was the first time Li Mai had experienced such an embarrassing situation. A faint blush appeared on her sallow face.
However, Li Qiao thought of something else entirely. She smacked her forehead in annoyance and exclaimed,
“Oh no! I only remembered the rabbits and forgot to make breakfast. Eldest Sister, I will go cook right now.”
After saying that, without waiting for Li Mai’s response, Li Qiao hurried off with the rabbit cage in hand.
She quickly stuffed the cage into the woodshed. It provided shelter from wind and rain, and it was far from the cave, so there would be no unpleasant smell. It was truly an excellent place to raise rabbits.
Then she rushed to start a fire and prepare breakfast. She still remembered what her eldest sister had said yesterday, so she made the dough soup that Li Mai had specifically asked for.
The tender yellow egg ribbons, the soft dough lumps, and the vibrant green wild vegetables blended together, immediately capturing one’s attention.
The aroma it produced was equally irresistible. Li Mai could barely tear her eyes away, staring fixedly at the delicious food before her.
By the time Li Shu got up and finished washing, she had already finished her first bowl of dough soup.
After eating her fill, Li Qiao did not forget what she had mentioned earlier that morning. She glanced at her eldest sister, then at her second brother, and said,
“Second brother, Eldest Sister and I agreed to go pick mushrooms later. Are you going?”
“Pick mushrooms.”
Hearing this, Li Shu felt a bit surprised. In his impression, Li Mai’s personality did not seem suited to patiently picking mushrooms for a long time. The image simply did not match her bold and overwhelming combat strength.
So when he heard that she had agreed, he could not help but cast a curious glance at her.
His gaze was too direct, clearly revealing his confusion. Li Mai gave a barely noticeable nod.
If Li Shu had not been sharp-eyed, he might not have seen it at all.
With the two girls going into the deep mountains to pick mushrooms, he naturally could not skip going along to protect them.
Li Shu immediately wiped the soup from the corner of his mouth with a determined air and replied,
“I will go too!”
“Yay, yay! The three of us can finally go together.”
After spending the past few days staying behind alone, Li Qiao had truly been worried sick for the two of them. Hearing that they could go together, she showed a rare, childlike excitement.
Thus, after quickly finishing breakfast, the three of them headed up the mountain under the misty drizzle that hung in the air like a thin veil.
Since there was only one basket at home, Li Shu had no choice but to bring along the gauze curtain Li Qiao had brought back from the county, using it as a container.
He tugged at the knot tied in front of his chest and said with a hint of regret,
“If we could find a bamboo grove, that would be great. Maybe we could weave a few baskets and carriers ourselves.”
“We are going to pick mushrooms today anyway, we can look around while we are at it.”
Li Qiao pressed down the wooden planks placed at the cave entrance as a makeshift door, then turned and suggested.
“That works.” Li Shu nodded, sharing the same thought.
Then, the two of them simultaneously turned their gaze toward Li Mai, who had not spoken.
Sensing their attention, Li Mai tightened her grip on the knife in her hand and stepped toward the mountain beside the cave. Today, she would change direction. Perhaps they would find something new.
The real reason was that she had nearly wiped out all the birds on the opposite mountain, so today she would move to another one.
They had only just taken a few steps up the mountain when Li Qiao’s surprised voice suddenly rang out.
“Oh! There are two here.”
As she spoke, she quickly plucked two mushrooms from the ground. Their appearance was nothing special, dull gray and unremarkable, not something that would immediately attract attention.
When Li Mai glanced back, she had initially thought they were fallen leaves.
Remembering that Li Qiao had said this thing tasted very good, she quickly turned back and walked over. Upon closer inspection, she immediately recognized them as mushrooms from the recipe.
She could even smell a distinct fragrance at the tip of her nose, completely at odds with their plain appearance.
In an instant, countless mushroom dishes flashed through her mind. The most vivid was chicken stewed with mushrooms.
Although they did not have chicken, they had pheasants. Combining the two would surely create an extraordinary dish.
At this thought, Li Mai’s heart leaped with excitement.
Having set her target, she immediately took action.
She directly applied her ability to her eyes. In an instant, her vision was greatly enhanced, to the point where she could clearly see the feathers on the wings of birds flying in the sky.
Very quickly, Li Mai spotted mushrooms hidden within the lush grass.
“There!”
Before her words had even fully fallen, she had already dashed forward, landing at the spot she pointed to and pulling five red mushrooms from the ground.
Li Qiao and Li Shu had no time to react. All they saw was her back.
By the time they climbed up and reached Li Mai’s position, they looked at the brightly colored mushrooms in her hand, their expressions stiffening for a moment.
Li Qiao forced out an awkward smile and explained,
“Eldest Sister, brightly colored mushrooms are poisonous and cannot be eaten. Did you forget?”
In Li Mai’s world, color had never been equated with poison.
But since Li Qiao said so, she could not refute it. She quickly threw away the red mushrooms in her hand and brushed her palms clean.
This was the first time since arriving here that she had heard of poisonous organisms.
Li Mai could not help but glance at the discarded red mushrooms, firmly imprinting their appearance in her mind.
Then, Li Qiao took out the mushrooms from her basket, held them in her palms, and showed them while explaining,
“Eldest Sister, look. The mushrooms I picked are all edible. Remember them, and later just pick these kinds.”
Hearing this, Li Mai gave them a casual glance, nodded, and continued climbing upward.
With a clear target and her sharp vision, she soon made progress.
“Snap!”
A crisp sound rang out as the mushroom stem broke cleanly from the underground portion, the edible part landing smoothly in Li Mai’s hand.
Before long, her arms were filled with pale gray mushrooms.
When she realized that the mushrooms in her arms were hindering her movement, Li Mai quickly headed toward Li Qiao and Li Shu.
The sound of her steps brushing through the grass alerted the two of them. When they looked up, they saw Li Mai carrying a large pile of gray-white mushrooms.
Li Qiao’s initially blank eyes immediately lit up with excitement as she exclaimed,
“Eldest Sister, you actually picked so many!”
As she spoke, she quickly ran toward Li Mai, took off the basket on her back, and held it out.
Li Mai glanced down and saw that only a thin layer of mushrooms lay at the bottom of the basket.
She immediately dumped the mushrooms from her arms into it, instantly filling a third of the space.
“Eldest Sister, you are amazing!”
Seeing the abundant harvest, Li Qiao praised excitedly.
But Li Mai’s gaze shifted to Li Shu, because she realized that without a container, her movements would be restricted.
She slowly walked toward him and said,
“Give me a bag.”
What she called a “bag” was actually just a large gauze curtain with its four corners tied together into a makeshift sack, which could easily leak its contents if not handled carefully.
But for now, they had no better tools.
Li Shu quickly untied a piece of gauze from himself, folded it, and tied knots on the two open sides to prevent things from falling out.
Finally, he tied another knot at the opening to reduce its size before handing it to Li Mai.
At the same time, he reminded her,
“This kind of ‘bag’ is not very sturdy. Be careful when moving through bushes or the forest, it could get torn, or the knots might loosen.”
Li Mai nodded, took the bag, and turned to scan the mountain. She quickly spotted more mushrooms hidden nearby.
Carrying the bag, she swiftly moved toward her chosen direction.
Each of her steps was like a swarm of locusts passing through. Wherever she went, she left nothing behind for those following her.
Meanwhile, the mushrooms in her bag accumulated rapidly, soon filling a quarter of it.
Under the pull of gravity, the bag kept sagging downward, its bottom dragging against the grass.
For the sake of protecting the food, Li Mai had no choice but to untie the knot at the opening and instead fasten it around her body.
Thus, from a distance, Li Shu and Li Qiao saw the bag at Li Mai’s waist growing larger and larger.
In the end, it even covered her entire lower body, making it look as though only her upper half was walking through the mountains.
Seeing this, the two of them felt a sense of urgency.
They thought, how could they let their eldest sister work so hard alone?
They quickly sped up their pace and gradually spread out from Li Mai’s search area, otherwise they feared they might not get any harvest at all.
Gradually, the distance between them grew wider. When Li Mai turned back, she could no longer see the other two.
She tugged at the bag at her waist and looked at the mushrooms that were nearly overflowing. Helplessly, she turned around to search for the others.
When she finally found them, she saw the two of them standing blankly at the foot of a slope, staring in astonishment at the forest across from them.
Li Mai instinctively looked in the same direction but did not notice anything unusual. She immediately spoke to interrupt their thoughts,
“My bag is full. Li Shu, switch with me.”
Unexpectedly, Li Shu, immersed in his excitement, did not hear her at all.
This only deepened Li Mai’s confusion. She walked closer and even poked his shoulder with her knife, asking,
“What did you see?”
“A bamboo grove, a huge bamboo grove! Eldest Sister, do you remember what I said when I left the house?”
The surge of joy nearly overwhelmed Li Shu. He had not expected that the bamboo grove he had been thinking about would actually appear before them.
At the thought of the tools they could make from bamboo, he could not contain his excitement.