When Jiayin and Fang Zhiyuan heard Fang Youwei calling them, they quickly answered.
They loved going to check the traps and snares. Every time they went, they never came back empty-handed, and this time would surely be the same.
Jiayin looked at Liu Liu, tilted her head in thought, and said to Fang Youwei, “Uncle, let’s bring Liu Liu with us. The grass here isn’t good for him—it makes his stomach bloat and he lets out stinky farts.”
Hearing this, Fang Youwei hesitated. “If we take him into the mountains, won’t he just run away? We’d never catch him.” After all, this was the donkey’s territory.
Jiayin shook her head. “No, he won’t. Liu Liu is very good. He’s sticking with me from now on. Right, Liu Liu?”
Then, as if the wild donkey understood Jiayin’s words, he let out a snort and nodded his head.
Fang Youwei found this incredible. He tried asking, “Liu Liu, are you really not going to run away?”
The donkey shook his head. He really did understand!
“This donkey is truly remarkable,” Old Madam Yang praised from nearby.
Li Shi smiled and said, “Maybe this donkey is the king of the wild donkeys in these mountains. Whatever the animal, the leader always has a special kind of intelligence.”
Hearing Li Shi’s words, the others thought it made sense. Of course, Jiayin didn’t count.
Fang Youwei brushed the dirt off his hands and stood up. “Alright then, let’s bring Liu Liu along.”
“That’s a nice name you gave him—Liu Liu. It sounds smooth and lucky.”
Fang Zhiyuan quickly said, “Jiayin came up with that name. I suggested Stinky and Big Black, but he didn’t like either. As soon as Jiayin said Liu Liu, he happily nodded.”
Fang Youwei laughed heartily. “Seems this donkey really does understand and knows what’s good for him…”
So the two little ones rode on the donkey’s back. Fang Youwei, as usual, carried his basket, bow and arrows, and a machete, and they headed toward the traps.
This time, with Liu Liu, they didn’t have to slow down for the children to walk. In less than half an hour, they arrived.
When they got there, sure enough, there was prey in the pit trap again—this time two rabbits. And in the snare, they had caught a pheasant.
Pit traps usually didn’t catch pheasants because if one fell in, it could fly back out.
Catching a pheasant in a snare was also unusual. Pheasants were harder to snare than rabbits—their legs were too thin, and they could easily pull them out.
Fang Youwei untied the pheasant from the snare, bound it up, then pulled the rabbits out of the pit trap, tied them with straw rope, and placed them in his basket.
By then, the two little ones had already climbed down from the donkey.
Fang Youwei was startled. “The donkey’s so tall—how did you get down? Why didn’t you wait for me to lift you?”
Fang Zhiyuan pointed at Liu Liu. “He lay down, so we climbed off.”
Fang Youwei was amazed again. He glanced at Liu Liu. This donkey was incredibly intelligent—he even knew to lie down so the children could dismount.
Liu Liu had already gone off to eat grass he liked. Fang Zhiyuan and Jiayin ran over and watched which grass he ate. Then they pulled up that same kind.
They wanted to gather more to take back for him.
But as she was pulling grass, Jiayin noticed something strange. Holding a palm-sized root in her hand, she said to Fang Youwei, “Uncle, what kind of grass is this? Why does the root look like this?”
Fang Youwei had been pulling grass nearby. He walked over, took one look, and was startled. This wasn’t deep in the mountains—how could there be ginseng here? This ginseng wasn’t very old, probably only about ten years, and wasn’t even as big as a palm.
But finding ginseng in a place like this was very rare. A bird must have eaten a ginseng berry and then dropped the seed here in its droppings.
After all, while this spot wasn’t exactly crowded, it was still on the outer edge of the mountains. Ginseng usually grew deep in the wilderness.
Jiayin had already pulled it out and damaged the root, but it should still be fine for its medicinal properties once they took it back.
Fang Youwei said to Jiayin, “Jiayin, this is ginseng—a very good medicinal herb. It helps replenish energy. When we get home, we’ll stew this pheasant with the ginseng to make ginseng chicken soup. Everyone can have some to restore their strength.”