The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

Shen Cao reached out to pick the Boletus luridus in front of her, but the village chief immediately stopped her, "Little girl Shen, you can't pick this mushroom."

"This mushroom is highly poisonous. At best, it can cause possession by a ghost; at worst, it can kill people."

“In previous years, there was a famine and there was really nothing to eat. The villagers had no choice but to eat tree bark, tree roots, and wild vegetables.”

“Some people don’t care at all; they just pick the mushrooms and cook them.”

"Some people died on the spot, while others were like they were possessed by ghosts, crying and laughing like fools."

Shen Cao recalled the first time she ate Boletus luridus, which was in a mushroom hot pot in the southern province.

When the hot pot was served, there were no chopsticks. She had a habit of bringing her own chopsticks, so she took out her own chopsticks and took a bite. The taste was indeed very delicious.

However, she was taken to the emergency room that very evening.

She had mushroom poisoning, and her friend showed her a video. In the video, she was lying in bed talking to a cloud with sharp fangs, wanting the cloud to be her good friend.

They even secretly spoke ill of the dark clouds to the clouds.

She had no recollection of anything after waking up. If it weren't for the video, she wouldn't have known that poisoning could cause such a reaction.

From then on, whenever she made a jianshouqing (a type of savory brocade), she would make sure she was completely proficient before doing it.

She goes to the southern province every September to pick mushrooms, and she is already very skilled at preparing mushrooms.

"Uncle Village Chief, don't worry, as long as these mushrooms are cooked thoroughly, they'll be fine to eat."

"When we get back, I'll make some for you to try."

The village chief didn't try to persuade her anymore. She knew Shen Cao was a good cook, but she said she was a little hesitant to eat it.

He watched with a worried expression as Shen Cao placed the Bodhi seeds one by one into the basket.

You could see that some of the areas that were touched immediately turned blackish-blue. This mushroom was making its intentions so obvious, it was practically saying, "I'm poisonous, don't eat me."

Unlike Shen Cao's excitement, the village chief's face showed worry throughout.

Although Grand Tutor Zhou was quite old, he was very agile, even more so than the young Shen Cao.

Along the way, they saw all sorts of mushrooms and excitedly asked Shen Cao if they were edible.

"Little grass, look at this bright red one I picked, isn't it beautiful? Can I eat it?"

"Yes," she said happily, carefully placing the mushrooms into her basket.

"Grass, look at this bright yellow one I picked, isn't it beautiful? Can I eat it?"

"Yes," she said happily, then carefully placed the mushrooms into her basket.

"Grass,..."

"That's highly poisonous, you can't eat it."

He hurriedly flung the mushroom away and then vigorously wiped his hands with a handkerchief.

As a result, before Grand Tutor Zhou could even ask, Shen Cao, upon hearing his voice, reflexively glanced at him and immediately drew a conclusion.

He would put the edible things into his basket and throw the inedible things far away.

Shen Chen and Ye Shu followed behind Grand Tutor Zhou, and without asking, they already knew which mushrooms were edible and which were not.

Shen Qing and Shen Wan followed behind Shen Cao, picking up whatever Shen Cao picked up.

The village chief and his men only dared to pick some porcini mushrooms.

Suddenly, Shen Cao was shocked by a patch of white fungus in front of her.

She stopped and looked at the half-acre plot of land in front of her, with some shaped like straw hats and others like umbrellas, some tall and some short, some big and some small.

She had seen termite mushrooms before; she used to pick mushrooms in the southern province and occasionally managed to find a few.

But she had never seen so many termite mushrooms before, a whole patch of them.

Her mouth was wide open in a smile.

"Everyone come over here quickly, don't pick anything else, just pick this whole patch, and today's trip will be worth it."

After saying that, she quickly demonstrated how to pick termite mushrooms.

Some of the smaller ones can be pulled out directly, while the larger ones require digging away the soil first to expose the roots before slowly pulling them out.

After everyone else learned it, they were all eager to try it out.

They spent about half an hour picking the termite mushrooms in this area, being very careful because they were afraid of damaging them.

Shen Cao looked at the full basket of termite mushrooms. Just this one basket could make so much termite mushroom oil.

Termitomyces mushrooms are delicious in soup, stir-fried Termitomyces mushrooms...

"Alright, that's enough for today. Let's head home." The main reason was that everyone's baskets were already full; if they picked any more, there wouldn't be any room left.

The journey back slowed considerably; there were simply too many sweet burdens to bear.

Hahaha.

On the way back, we passed the river at the entrance of the village.

Shen Cao and the others placed their baskets on the riverbank. Although it was September, the weather was still very hot.

She tentatively put her feet into the water; the river was cold, but not bone-chilling.

The others followed her example, rolling up their trouser legs and stepping into the river.

As soon as she reached the middle of the river, she spotted a very plump crab. With quick reflexes, she bent down and plunged her hand into the water.

The crab had already run away the moment she hesitated, afraid of being pinched.

Disappointed, she got up, looked around, and walked towards the shore.

She picked up a stick and went back into the water.

Sure enough, there were many crabs in the river, and she found another crab that was even bigger than the one before.

Those two large claws were thicker than her thumb.

She was very careful, afraid of startling the crab, and slowly lowered the stick into the water, gradually approaching the crab.

Then, while the crab is still motionless, quickly use a stick to pin it down.

The crab was pinned down by the stick and could only stretch out its two large claws, trying to remove the stick from its body.

However, it was impossible to reach it.

While it was wildly flapping its large claws, Shen Cao grabbed its shell and pulled it out of the river.

Wow, she thought that such a big crab must be a male crab, but it turned out to be a big female crab.

She remembered that in her previous life, a female crab of this size would cost nearly a hundred.

September is the season when crabs are at their fattest and most delicious, and their swollen bellies prove it.

Seeing the crab's two large pincers, the others didn't dare to act rashly. They all went ashore and, imitating Shen Cao, found a stick and tried to scoop the crab up like Shen Cao did.

However, they all underestimated the crab's fighting power.

Ye Shu saw that Shen Cao had easily caught a crab. Just as he was pressing down a crab with a stick, Ye Shu quickly reached out and grabbed the crab.

It's just that the spot where it grabbed it was a bit too far forward.

"Ah!" Just as he picked up the crab, its two pincers clamped down on his hand.

He was in so much pain that he immediately tried to shake the crab away, but the crab's grip was too tight, and it took him several tries to get it off.

In the end, his hand was pinched and bled by the crab.

He didn't expect the crab to be so strong, and he was so frightened that he never dared to reach out and catch it again.

Seeing that he was injured and bleeding heavily, the others dared not reach out to touch the crab, so the group held the crab down with sticks and hesitated to take the next step.

From a distance, a group of people stood like sticks, completely motionless.

Only Shen Cao was catching crabs.

The village chief on the riverbank never expected Shen Cao to be so bold as to catch crabs with his bare hands.

He watched as the others hesitated to make a move.

"Those of you who dare not arrest, come forward."

After saying that, he walked toward a corner of the riverbank.

He groped around on the riverbank for a while and found a rope.

Then start winding the rope up, one loop at a time.

He pulled something out of the river.

After hearing the village chief's words, the group immediately threw down their sticks and went ashore.

Without the slightest hesitation.

Just as they were thinking they wouldn't get to eat crabs today, the village chief walked up to them with a bag full of crabs.

Ye Shu: [Why didn't you say so earlier? His hand was injured for nothing.]

"Cao'er, come up too, there are enough crabs for us to eat." He waved the crabs in his hand, a whole bag full.