Travel to the mountains and make a fortune in silence

Wang Qing'er went to her room to change into clothes that were suitable for hiking, and casually took the two pairs of flower ribbons that she had already placed on the table.

These were gifts she planned to give to the two little girls; they were all brand new items that the original owner hadn't worn yet.

As soon as I stepped out of the room, I saw two little girls swinging in the yard, so I waved to them, "Muqin, Yao'er, come here quickly."

The two little girls quickly stopped the swing and jumped off, calling out, "Sister-in-law!"

"Auntie," Yao'er called out timidly.

Wang Qing'er walked up to them and showed them the hair ornaments. "These were given to you by my sister-in-law and aunt. Do you like them?"

Wow! What a beautiful hair accessory!

"Yao'er, I like it!"

Mu Qin's voice was loud and melodious, while Mu Yao's voice was soft and timid, like a mosquito's buzz.

"Shall I put them on you?"

"it is good."

"it is good."

Wang Qing'er helped them put on the hair ornaments and looked them over carefully. She thought that the two girls would definitely be beauties when they grew up.

Currently, they are all thin and small, possibly due to malnutrition, and their hair is dry and yellow.

Although his coarse cloth clothes had some patches, they were all clean.

Wang Qing'er gently pinched Yao'er's little nose and then touched Muqin's little face. "Hmm, so pretty!"

"I'll go and let Grandma and my mother see it."

“I’ll go and let Grandma, Grandpa, and Daddy see me too.”

The two little girls skipped and hopped to the front yard, one after the other.

"Grandma, Mother, come and see the hair ornament my sister-in-law gave me."

“I have one too, my aunt put one on me.”

The two maids called out from afar, and even went up to Zhou Shi and Wang Cuiying and shook their heads.

Wang Cuiying hugged Yao'er tightly and said with a smile, "Our Yao'er is so beautiful!"

"Mother, am I not pretty?" Muqin also came over and tugged at Wang Cuiying's sleeve, acting coquettishly.

Wang Cuiying looked at her daughter and smiled, saying, "Beautiful, beautiful in every way."

Zhou pulled Wang Qing'er to sit beside her, took her hand and said, "Qing'er, you're so thoughtful."

"Grandma, these are just little trinkets." Wang Qing'er was a little embarrassed.

She hurriedly got up to clear the dishes and take them to the kitchen to wash, but Wang Cuiying came over to stop her, saying, "Qing'er, don't wash them. If you're going up the mountain, hurry up and go. Let Muqin wash the dishes."

As they were talking, Wang Cuiying handed her a cloth bag, a bamboo tube, and a water pouch.

The cloth bag contained several buckwheat buns, steamed in the middle of the night, for Old Man Mu and his son to take on their journey.

The remaining few were kept warm in a large pot, which was just right for them to take to the mountain to eat. The bamboo tubes contained pickled vegetables.

Mu Nan led Wang Qing'er from the back door toward the back mountain. After walking for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the grass on both sides of the mountain path grew taller and taller.

Mu Nan walked ahead and used a sickle to wipe the dew off the roadside grass so as not to get Wang Qing'er's clothes wet.

Wang Qing'er walked along, looking into the bushes to see if she could find any wild vegetables she recognized.

Suddenly, she noticed a clump of mushrooms in the roadside grass. Upon closer inspection, she realized, "Aren't these the pine mushrooms I used to pick when I was a child?"

She wanted to call out to Mu Nan, but swallowed the words back because she didn't know how to address him. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "Um, what should I call you?"

Mu Nan paused for a moment, then said, "Call me whatever you want."

Wang Qing'er thought for a moment and said, "You're so much older than me, so I'll call you Brother Mu Nan."

Upon hearing this, Mu Nan said, "Whatever you say," but in her heart she was thinking, "Does she think I'm too old?"

Wang Qing'er pointed to the mushrooms on the ground and asked, "Brother Mu Nan, have you ever eaten these kinds of mushrooms?"

Mu Nan walked over and took a look. "There are many of these in the mountains, but no one dares to eat them. They say they will get poisoned if they do."

Wang Qing'er thought that the people here didn't dare to eat the mushrooms from the mountains casually; it seemed they only ate three kinds of mushrooms: gray agaric, fire charcoal mushroom, and termite mushroom.

I was worried about getting poisoned from eating the other foods, which made me a little annoyed.

She swallowed hard, remembering the fresh mushrooms her grandmother used to make when she was a child in her previous life.

Suddenly, she had an idea and said, "Brother Mu Nan, I don't know how to eat this kind of mushroom. I often pick and eat this kind of mushroom at my maternal grandparents' house."

Anyway, the original owner's maternal grandparents' home was hundreds of kilometers away, and the transportation here was not developed, so they probably wouldn't meet. There was no need to worry about being exposed, so they made up this excuse.

She did this so that her whole family could have another type of food. She shouldn't be punished by heaven for telling a white lie!

"Brother Mu Nan, let's pick it and take it back."

"Okay." Mu Nan trusted Wang Qing'er completely and readily agreed.

Wang Qing'er took off the bamboo basket from her back, cut some grass with a knife to line the bottom of the basket, and then picked up the mushrooms one by one and put them into the basket.

The two continued climbing the mountain, and along the way, Mu Nan set several homemade animal traps.

Wang Qing'er picked mushrooms all the way, and her basket was almost full.

Mu Nan also had a good harvest today, digging up half a basket of bamboo shoots, which Mu Xiao can take to town to sell tomorrow.

The two of them ate buckwheat buns for lunch, which tasted quite good with pickled vegetables. Wang Qing'er ate with great relish.

Seeing the fine beads of sweat on Wang Qing'er's face, Mu Nan didn't want her to work too hard, so she said, "We dug a lot of bamboo shoots today, let's go back early."

After the two finished eating, Mu Nan found a few more bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest. After digging them up, she took Wang Qing'er and prepared to go down the mountain.

When they arrived at the spot where the trap had been set, Mu Nan told Wang Qing'er to wait by the roadside while he went to check if he had caught anything.

Wang Qing'er wasn't idle either; she took a sickle and searched for mushrooms in the grass, and she actually found a whole patch of them.

Before she had finished picking, Mu Nan returned happily, carrying a bamboo basket and a dead rabbit. "Qing'er, look what I caught!"

"What big rabbits!" I also saw several lively baby rabbits and a plump mother rabbit in the bamboo basket, which looked like she was pregnant.

There were also two adult rabbits, which were quite plump.

She teased the little rabbit with a twig, a happy smile on her face.

And before her eyes appeared a delicious rabbit feast: braised rabbit, stir-fried rabbit pieces, roasted rabbit...

She felt like her mouth was about to water if she thought about it any longer.

It turned out that the dead male rabbit that had come out to forage had been caught in Mu Nan's trap and injured. It carried the trap back to its burrow, collapsed, and never got up again.

Mu Nan followed the bloodstains in the grass to the edge of the cave, where she found several other entrances. She blocked two entrances with stones and withered grass, and covered one entrance with a large bamboo basket.

Then, she lit some dry grass and branches at another hole, and before long, several rabbits ran into Mu Nan's bamboo basket.

Mu Nan pulled the rope tied to the lid, and the lid of the bamboo basket covered the rabbit, preventing it from escaping.

The young couple, having reaped a bountiful harvest, began their descent from the mountain. Wang Qing'er searched for mushrooms as she walked. Perhaps because the weather was still quite cold, the mushrooms hadn't grown much yet. Fortunately, no one dared to eat these mushrooms, so she still managed to fill her basket to the brim.