novelleonline Chapter 408 - 406: Someone at the Bottom of the Pit
Chapter 408 - 406: Someone at the Bottom of the Pit
Lin Lan nodded and took Little Douzi’s hand. The group trod on the soft fallen leaves, tapping at the undergrowth with sticks as they followed Wu Shufen toward the forest to the southeast.
The dew in the woods hadn’t evaporated yet. Luckily, they were all wearing rubber shoes, or their feet would have been soaked long ago.
Li Xiangyang spotted something egg-yolk yellow in a bush. He walked over, pushed the branches aside, and saw several trumpet-shaped, yellow mushrooms. "Little Lan, come look. I think these are chanterelles."
Lin Lan came over for a look and nodded. "They are chanterelles. Not bad, you even know what chanterelles are!"
"I was the one who washed them the last time you bought some, remember?" Li Xiangyang said as he crouched down, plucked the mushrooms, broke the dirt off the stems, and placed them in the basket.
Looking at the chanterelles in the basket, Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "Nice. We’ve finally found some decent mushrooms."
Little Douzi also looked on curiously. "Mama, the chanterelles are so pretty."
Li Xiangyang laughed. "These aren’t the pretty ones. The ones we found yesterday were pretty, but your mom said they were death caps. You’d be one hundred percent poisoned if you ate them."
Wu Shufen added, "When you’re foraging for mushrooms, only pick the ones you know. If you eat one you don’t recognize, there’s a good chance you’ll get into trouble."
Li Xiangyang nodded. "I only recognize the few kinds Little Lan likes to buy."
The group continued forward. Lin Lan held Little Douzi’s hand, and he pointed at a dead tree ahead. "Mama, look! So many ears on it!"
Lin Lan looked and laughed. "You silly goose, those are wood ears."
Wild wood ears are a natural brown color, different from the cultivated ones of later generations.
Wood ears from this era were delicious because they grew in a natural forest environment. They were soft, smooth, and springy to the bite, full of the woody fragrance of the forest.
Little Douzi went forward and plucked one off. Wu Shufen quickly took a pair of scissors from her back basket. "Sweetie, you can’t pull wood ears off by hand; you have to cut them with scissors. If we pull off the bark they’re growing on, they won’t grow back there anymore."
Little Douzi looked at her, confused. "Why won’t they grow back?"
Wu Shufen didn’t know either. She just smiled and shook her head. "How would Grandma know? I only know that when you pick mushrooms, you can’t take the soil they grew in, or they won’t grow back."
Little Douzi looked at Lin Lan. "Mama, do you know why?"
Lin Lan smiled and shook her head. "Mama didn’t get much schooling, so I don’t know either. You study hard, and when you find the answer, you can tell Mama and Grandma."
By the time the three of them finished picking the wood ears, Lin Jun and the others had already run ahead. They found a few porcini mushrooms under the dead leaves and kept walking.
Suddenly, Lin Gang’s excited shout came from up ahead. "Auntie, Grandma, come quick! There are a ton of shiitake mushrooms here."
"Mama, hurry! Let’s go see," Little Douzi said, pulling Lin Lan into a run.
When they arrived, they saw Lin Jun and the others standing in front of a dead tree, hands on their hips, looking at them smugly. "Haha, see? We’re the lucky ones. Look, this dead tree is covered in shiitake mushrooms."
Lin Lan saw brown shiitake mushrooms clustered together on the dead tree in groups of three or four, five or six. She gave the four kids a thumbs-up. "Not bad. Our chicken and mushroom hot pot for tonight is sorted."
Lin Jun nodded proudly and said to Li Xiangyang, "Uncle, you pick the ones on top, and we’ll get the ones down below."
They set down their back baskets, pinched the stem of a shiitake, and picked it with a slight half-twist. Even Lin Jun and the other kids knew not to pull up the soil when picking mushrooms and to leave the smaller ones for the next person.
One by one, the dewy brown shiitake mushrooms went into the back baskets, which were half-full in no time.
’Picking mushrooms is as exciting as a treasure hunt,’ Lin Lan thought. ’With every step, you feel like there are more and better mushrooms waiting for you just ahead.’
After they’d picked the dead tree clean, Wu Shufen led them forward for a while longer. They gathered some blewits and a few other miscellaneous mushrooms.
Little Douzi stuck his bottom out and rested his hands on his knees. "Mama, I can’t walk anymore," he said to Lin Lan.
"Come on, Uncle Xiangyang will carry you." Li Xiangyang crouched in front of him. Little Douzi scrambled onto his back, wrapped his arms around his neck, and they continued on.
Lin Jun and the other kids swatted at the undergrowth with their sticks, following Wu Shufen. At last, they reached the spot where the termite mushrooms grew.
Lin Hong and the others, who were running ahead, cried out in disappointment, "They’re gone! Someone already picked them."
Wu Shufen walked over and saw only two small termite mushrooms. The ground was covered in footprints; someone had beaten them to it.
Seeing their dejected faces, Li Xiangyang patted Lin Jun on the shoulder and smiled. "We have enough in our baskets to eat."
Lin Lan held out a hand to Wu Shufen. "Ma, if they’re gone, they’re gone. Let’s head back the way we came. We can pick some more if we find any. If not, we can pick some fig leaves and cut some cypress branches to make fig jelly when we get back."
Wu Shufen nodded, took Lin Lan’s hand, and the group started back the way they came.
On the way back, they found a few thick-stemmed mushrooms and some coral fungi.
Lin Hong even picked some wildflowers and wove them into crowns, placing them on Lin Lan’s and Wu Shufen’s heads. "Grandma, you look so pretty with the flower crown on."
Wu Shufen gave her a playful look. "I’m an old woman. What’s there to look at!"
"Little Lan." Li Xiangyang stopped and looked back at the three of them. "Did you guys hear someone yelling for help?"
The three of them also stopped, listening intently. Just then, Lin Jun came running back. "Grandma, Auntie, someone fell into a pit up ahead! I think it’s Wan Jiao from the brigade leader’s family."
"Where?" Wu Shufen asked urgently.
"Just up ahead. Lin Gang and the others are watching," Lin Jun said, leading them forward at a run.
Lin Lan and the others followed Lin Jun to where Lin Gang and the two other boys were standing. In the tall grass, there was a large, square-shaped pit. A number of mushrooms were scattered in the grass around it.
They stood at the edge of the pit and looked down. A young woman was lying at the bottom, looking up at them.
Li Xiangyang glanced down and said to Lin Lan, "Looks like an old hunting trap. That’s why the grass is so overgrown around it. Good thing the sharpened stakes at the bottom have all rotted away, or whoever fell in would have been in real trouble."
"We’ll have to pull her up with a rope." Lin Lan scanned the area and spotted some vines wrapped around a large tree. "Go cut some of those vines and braid them into a rope to pull her up."
"Okay." Li Xiangyang picked up his machete and walked toward the large tree.
The young woman’s eyes lit up when she saw Wu Shufen. "Aunt Wu, it’s me, Jiaojiao."
"Jiaojiao, it really is you! Are you okay? We’ll get you out," Wu Shufen said anxiously. "How are you here all alone? Where are the others?"
"I came with Yanhong, but she couldn’t pull me out, so she went to get help," Wan Jiao said, choking back sobs. "Auntie, I think I broke my leg. I can’t move it at all."
Wu Shufen soothed her in a gentle voice, "Don’t be scared. Little Lan and Xiangyang went to cut some vines. As soon as we make a rope, we’ll pull you up."
"Okay!" Wan Jiao nodded pitifully.