Chapter 24: Picking Wild Vegetables
There weren’t many wild mushrooms, but they had just sprouted recently, each one plump and adorable, still fresh and not yet aged.
Huai Yu carefully pinched the stems around the tree trunks and snapped them off. Seeing a new ingredient added to her basket, she couldn’t help but feel increasingly satisfied.
Once she finished picking all the mushrooms, she followed the vine marks she had left last time and, unsurprisingly, arrived at a gentle slope ahead.
There, after a spring rain, fiddlehead ferns had quietly grown, even more abundant than last time! Huai Yu only needed to stretch out her hand, lightly pinch and snap—
“Snap.”
The crisp, subtle sound was so pleasant, and combined with the feeling of a bountiful harvest, Huai Yu couldn’t help but break into a bright smile.
Next, she was ready to go all out!
“Snap!” “Snap!” “Snap!”
The continuous crisp sounds echoed across the slope, and the pile of fiddleheads in her hands grew larger and larger.
Although, in her opinion, these ferns weren’t as tasty as water ferns, she didn’t have the luxury to be picky right now.
Besides, if chives could sell for 12 points per jin (500g), these ferns should at least fetch 8 points per jin when she brought them to Boss Tang!
Her figure darted across the entire hillside, sweeping up all the mature fiddleheads, leaving only the newly sprouted ones behind.
But these things would grow back quickly once the spring wind blew, so there was no need to hold back!
Now her basket was heavy and full. Huai Yu pulled back her hand and noticed a few small spiny date trees. But guessing that picking them wouldn’t even yield two jin, she decided to leave them for now.
There was also a flourishing Chinese toon tree, tall and vibrant, its fresh shoots already poking out. Although it was still early in the season, it would make a good backup.
However, Huai Yu just glanced at it and sighed regretfully:
“It’s so tall… I can’t climb it…”
But that was okay, there were still vast patches of shepherd’s purse at the foot of the mountain!
Thinking about shepherd’s purse, she couldn’t help but think of shepherd’s purse dumplings, and the thought alone made her mouth water.
However, it was already past nine o’clock, and the sky was still overcast. She forced herself to set thoughts of dumplings aside and quickly went to dig up shepherd’s purse.
Well, “dig” wasn’t exactly right, since she hadn’t brought any tools. She could only carefully grasp the roots and pull them out. Luckily, the rain had made the soil moist, so it wasn’t too hard.
Still, compared to fiddleheads, shepherd’s purse was much lighter and didn’t weigh much.
Huai Yu put down her basket, pulled out a big plastic bag, gave it a good shake, and started putting the shepherd’s purse inside.
The patch was huge, and she had brought three plastic bags. She figured she could at least fill one or two.
By the time the broken-down watch pointed to 11:00, all three bags were filled to the brim, tightly packed.
After bending over all morning, Huai Yu could barely stand up straight, her waist and back aching. But she didn’t dare to rest, afraid that if she relaxed now, she wouldn’t have the strength to continue.
She only stretched a few times, then hefted the heavy basket onto her back, grabbed the bags, and hurried home.
Sanqing Mountain was huge. She hadn’t felt it while picking vegetables, but the trip back, winding along the mountain, took nearly an hour. By the time she got home at noon—if it hadn’t started raining yet—she’d need to rush these to Boss Tang.
Otherwise…
Huai Yu grew worried: if it rained, she’d have to find another excuse to give them to the Defense Force instead.
She sighed, looked up at the gloomy sky, pressed her palms together, and muttered quietly:
“Please! Have mercy! Please don’t rain during the day!”
…
After completing her little ritual, she quickly set off again.
When she returned to the treehouse, it was already 12:30. She barely had time to gulp down a bowl of cold, salty-sweet water she had prepared the day before, then rushed out again.
After a few steps, she turned back, covered the basket with a grass mat, and used the jacket she had taken off in the morning to cover the plastic bags.
She looked at the slightly damp grass, gritted her teeth, and changed into the new shoes and pants she had bought the day before. After quickly tidying her hair with her fingers, she set off once more.
But she was unlucky this time. Huai Yu waited at the bus stop for nearly half an hour before the bus finally arrived. Probably because of the impending rain, there were only a few scattered passengers onboard.
No one was chatting. Huai Yu, now much more knowledgeable, didn’t start a conversation either.
However, not long after the bus started moving—since it wasn’t like people could pass the time scrolling through videos or chatting on their phones—someone naturally struck up a conversation.
“The forecast said the heavy rain would come tomorrow, but I feel like it’s going to rain today.”
“Eh, it’s not the first time the forecast’s been wrong. Ever since the mutation, even the satellite images are all messed up. All you see are flowers.”
“If they can’t even get clear images of plants, the weather forecast must be even worse.”
“Exactly! We still have to keep raincoats at home. Otherwise, it’s hard for the kids to get to work. More points spent again.”
“Sigh, my son hasn’t even found a job yet.”
“Tell me about it! Those of us living around here don’t have high initial contribution points, and now employers prefer hiring people with higher points…”
“If I’d known life would be this hard, I wouldn’t have let my son slack off at the base back then…”
“Don’t waste money. Just use a plastic bag if you don’t have a raincoat. I’m more worried about what to eat… Rice, flour, and oil are all so expensive these days. I’m sick of drinking nutrient solutions every day.”
“Someone’s selling old rice at the plaza in our neighborhood. Didn’t you buy any? They’re also selling home-grown wild vegetables.”
“Oh, old rice costs 30 points per jin! That’s just enough for one family meal. Not worth it when there’s no festival.”
“As for those so-called home-grown wild vegetables, they’re just stuff people dig up from parks or roadside bushes. The mutation index is high—none of it’s below 18—and it’s all bitter…”
“My son had a good education and did a lot of work at the base. Now he’s been assigned to work in statistics, and the points there are high—he earns about 180 a month…”
“Wow! My daughter works in the administrative building too, but she didn’t get assigned housing. She has to catch the bus at six every morning to avoid being late…”
“I heard there’s flour for sale at the market. It’s a little old, but still edible. Costs 22 points per jin. You can mix it with nutrient solution and steam it into buns…”
The chatter was messy, but Huai Yu could still pick up on some details.
What startled her was the mention of the monitoring and weather satellites.
Then she quickly relaxed.
If they couldn’t even photograph flowers and plants properly, the rose corridor she was worried about would be even harder to capture. She had been too cautious before.
But still, caution wasn’t a bad thing.
Huai Yu lightly patted the grass mat covering her basket—
Right now, the mountain was her only means of livelihood.
Want more to read? 🎉 Subscribe on my Ko-fi page to unlock bonus chapters for every novel on Red Panda Translations!
Get early access, exclusive updates, and all the novels you love 💖
