Chapter 78 Ginger Slices and Stone Nourishment

The two men carried bamboo baskets slung around their waists, filled with seven or eight stone frogs. Autumn was the season for stone frogs to fatten up, and the plump, stone-colored frogs lay sprawled at the bottom of the baskets. These frogs were quite timid, and they would occasionally hop around as the two men moved, but the basket lids always managed to stop them.

Yao Yuan and Lu An both carried a chill; they were somewhat disheveled, their clothes splattered with mud. Zhang Xiaohe quickly went to boil water, while Zhao Xuan skipped over to Lu An's side. Lu An's eyes sparkled as he carefully opened his bamboo basket to show Zhao Xuan the frogs he had caught.

Zhao Xuan squealed and exclaimed how amazing it was.

She asked, "How did you catch it? How did you catch it?"

“They’re hidden deep under the rocks; you have to break the rocks open and reach in to grab them,” Lu An said. “Yuan Ge has good eyesight; he knows where the frogs are.”

He said it casually, but after a whole night of work, the two of them had only caught fourteen. Actually, this number was already considered a good harvest. Yao Yuan said that if you're unlucky, you can stay on the mountain all night and not see a single one. It's fortunate that there has been no human activity in this area in recent years, which has allowed the number of wild animals to increase rapidly. Otherwise, the two novices might not have been able to catch more than a dozen.

The noise woke up the dog. He groggily crawled out of the tent and was devastated to see the two returning. He had been prepared to go into the mountains with them to catch frogs, but his indulgence in the afternoon had caused him to fall into a deep sleep the night before, causing him to miss the entire activity.

By this time, everyone was no longer sleepy, and the temperature had just dropped, so Zhang Xiaohe suggested that they stew some Shi Run (a type of herb) to help everyone get rid of the cold.

The preparation of stone frogs differs somewhat from that of ordinary frogs. When Zhao Xuan and Lu An were wandering, they caught frogs in the wasteland to eat, but they usually didn't use them for soup; instead, they grilled them, adding garlic and chili if possible. Frogs caught in fields, regardless of size, have very firm meat that can even get stuck in your teeth. Stone frogs, however, are different. Their meat is exceptionally tender and falls apart when stir-fried, making them best suited for soup.

Yao Yuan slipped and fell into the water while catching frogs, and was now heading back to his tent to change. Zhao Xuan and Lu An then took bamboo baskets to the stream to kill the frogs.

After processing the frogs, the campfire in the camp was lit up. Zhang Xiaohe set up a pot, took out the ginger slices that had been prepared in advance. These were this year's new ginger, a big, plump piece. After peeling them, she cut off a few large ginger slices, stir-fried them in oil until fragrant, and then filled the pot with boiling water. Then she waited for Lu An to put the cleaned stone frogs into the pot.

Frog meat cooks very quickly. Boil it in water for about 20 minutes, and the soup will turn a light milky white. No other seasonings are needed; just add some salt.

Everyone had stayed up late and was getting hungry. With the night deep and the dew heavy, a bowl of hot soup was just the right amount of food.

The group sat around the roaring campfire, drinking hot soup heartily.

Zhao Xuan had eaten stone frogs before. When she was a child, these frogs were only available in the wild. Because their meat was more tender than bullfrogs and they could only live in extremely clean environments, they weren't cheap, costing two or three hundred yuan per kilogram. She remembered her father would specially order two or three from frog vendors and make a special soup for her, as it was considered cooling and detoxifying. A few years later, these frogs were said to be wild animals and could no longer be caught, so some people started breeding them. In general, stone frogs were considered a nutritional supplement within the province.

Lu An had clearly never eaten stone frog before. He cautiously took a sip of the soup first and found it to be surprisingly sweet and delicious, with a slightly spicy flavor from the ginger slices. The frog meat was so tender that it fell off the bone, without the strange taste he had imagined. It was so soft that it didn't even need to be chewed; the meat melted in his mouth with a gentle rub of his tongue, and he swallowed it without hesitation.

The hot soup made him shiver, and his body warmed up.

The atmosphere at the campsite was pleasant for a while. Despite it being the time when everyone should be most sleepy, everyone was surprisingly awake. They chatted and shared a pot of ginger and stone soup until the first light of dawn appeared in the east. Then, laughing, they crawled into their tents and went to sleep.

Zhao Xuan slept until the sun was high in the sky.

As she climbed out of the tent, she saw Lu An carrying firewood back from the other side of the stream. Zhao Xuan asked where the others were, and Lu An said that Brother Yuan had taken his son and 460 to go crab fishing, and Sister Xiao He seemed to have gone to the woods to find wild vegetables. The temperature had risen and it was a bit hot, so they decided to have lunch and then head back home.

The remaining stone frogs were covered with a net and placed in the cool waterside. When it was time to leave, the two families would come back and divide the remaining frogs.

Zhao Xuan yawned, took out her toothbrush to brush her teeth, filled a bowl with clean water she had brought, and found a clean rock downstream to wash her face by the stream. As she looked up, she noticed a large praying mantis perched on a rock not far from her.

This praying mantis was rather dull, and it happened to make eye contact with Zhao Xuan.

Zhao Xuan saw a black thread, longer than the mantis itself, emerge from the mantis's rear end. The thread was alive, writhing in the air. Zhao Xuan instantly realized that the mantis had been parasitized by a horsehair worm, which was leading it towards a water source. She suddenly felt nauseous, quickly rinsed her mouth, and ran back to the camp.

Zhao Xuan was always very hygienic. Even when she and Lu An lived a precarious life, she always made sure the water she drank was boiled, and she rarely washed fruit that she ate directly in the river. She preferred to wipe it on her clothes before eating it. Later, when they moved to a deserted village, the toilet was located in the house next door. Even though it was inconvenient to use the toilet, she made sure that her living area was far away from it.

All of this was because she had seen some people in the camp who were parasitized by parasites. These people were very thin, but their bellies were ridiculously large. The whites of their eyes were yellow, and their skin was also dark yellow. White, thread-like parasites would crawl out of their anuses. The long ones could even drag on the ground. Some people would simply vomit the worms. When those worms were vomited out, they were still alive and refused to come out of their mouths. They would try to crawl through their throats into their nasal cavities and cochleas.

Zhao Xuan knew that everyone's lifespan would be short after the apocalypse, but he didn't want to die from parasites. While some external injuries were caused by unavoidable accidents, the incidence of parasite infection largely depended on one's lifestyle.

Although Zhao Xuan was so disgusted by the horsehair worm that he lost his appetite, he still had to start cooking.

Lu An had already set up the fire in advance. Zhao Xuan took out potatoes, sweet potatoes and a few eggs from his own bag, intending to put them into the fire first. A soup pot was set up on the fire, and water was boiling inside.

Across the stream, a row of small fish had already been laid out to dry by the dog. Zhao Xuan muttered to herself about how capable the child was as she rolled up her pants and waded across to unload the fish; she still planned to make a pot of fish soup. Lu An had already started dismantling the tent and packing their luggage. By the time they returned to the village after lunch, it would probably be afternoon, so every little bit of time they could save was precious.

While the two were busy, the Yao family of three returned, followed by the leisurely 460. Zhao Xuan stirred the soup and rolled her eyes at 460. She felt that 460 was no longer her dog these past two days.

Yao Yuan and his dog caught some small shrimp and snails. Since they had brought two bamboo baskets with them, they divided the river delicacies in half between them. Zhang Xiaohe washed the wild vegetables she picked and put them directly into the fish soup to cook.

The fish soup was still simmering, but the potatoes and eggs were already cooked. Zhao Xuan pulled out a few gray dumplings from the charcoal fire, blew off the dust, and distributed them to everyone.

While waiting for the fish soup, the Yao family began packing up their tent. The dog was squatting on a rock in the stream, with a bunch of thin vines beside him. He had caught too many small fish yesterday, so he was stringing them together with the vines to take home and continue drying.

The clouds were a bit thick today, and the temperature dropped a little. The dog was used to it; this is how it is in the mountains of the province during the transition from summer to autumn. The weather stays hot without any sign of cooling down. If it does cool down, it's only for a day or two when there's a strong wind: a rain shower and a few gusts of wind, and the temperature drops sharply by several degrees, with no possibility of a gradual transition.

This morning, he and Yao Yuan went upstream to collect snails. Yao Yuan stood on a high point and looked at the sky on the other side of the mountain. He said it seemed like it was raining on the opposite mountain. He estimated that the rain was going to move this way. If they didn't want to get wet, they had to leave quickly in the afternoon.

The dog thought that after this rain, the real autumn should be coming.

As he was thinking, he noticed something unusual about the water flow in his peripheral vision. He looked over in confusion and saw that the clear water had suddenly become stronger, mixed with some twigs and mud. The dog stood up and looked down at the people downstream: his parents were packing things up, while his older siblings were squatting by the water cooking.

A gust of wind blew by, making the branches rustle.

The dog suddenly yelled at them, "Mommy! Run! The flood is coming!"

The adults downstream looked up at the sound, their expressions puzzled.

Zhao Xuan and Lu An huddled together. Lu An was peeling a scalding hot potato for Zhao Xuan, while Zhao Xuan was munching on a salted egg. They were a little confused when they heard the dog barking, then turned to look at Yao Yuan and Zhang Xiaohe.

Just then, the small stream of water carrying mud was flowing right in front of them. Yao Yuan's eyelids twitched, and he shouted loudly to Zhao Xuan and the others, "Come back! The flood is coming! Come back quickly!"

Zhao Xuan and Lu An were completely bewildered. Although they didn't know what had happened, they obediently got up and began to clean up the pots, spoons, and other tableware that were scattered on the ground.

Just then, the dog came running back with his string of small fish, followed by the clueless 460.

The dog quickly started helping its parents pack their things, and instead of bothering to pack up things that could be hung on their bodies, it simply hung them on itself, and then ran up to higher places like a monkey.

460 also jumped up, but after a few steps it realized something was wrong. When it looked back, its two proper owners were still cleaning up the dishes by the stream!

Zhao Xuan couldn't bear to part with the pot of freshly cooked fish soup. He wrapped the pot handle with a damp cloth and tried to carry it away, but Yao Yuan turned around, exclaimed "Oh dear!", and turned back. He took the pot from Zhao Xuan's hand and threw it into the stream!

"Hey! That's your pot, Brother Yuan!" Zhao Xuan exclaimed, but Yao Yuan was incredibly strong and pulled Zhao Xuan up high like a chick.

In just a few minutes, the stream, which was originally slightly muddy, rapidly expanded, turning from clear water to murky water. It swept in with pebbles and branches, quickly overflowing the entire surface of the stream and then spreading outwards. The huge current had already washed over the place where they had originally set up camp.

The group of people were dumbfounded.

"Ah!" Zhao Xuan cried out in anguish. Her bowl, and her potatoes and eggs!

"Ah!" The dog's face also looked terrible. He still had a row of small fish drying on the other side. Although they were high in the sun and hadn't been washed away by the water, the stream was too swift, and it was impossible for him to wade across to get his fish.

"Ah!" Yao Yuan slapped his forehead in belated realization. The few stone frogs he had caught all night, and the snails and small crabs he had gathered in the morning, had long been washed away by the water, basket and all!

"Woof!" 460, not understanding why, also barked along with everyone else.

The group reorganized the rescued supplies. Fortunately, they had dismantled the tents beforehand, otherwise they would have had to descend the mountain empty-handed. Zhao Xuan's group was missing several bowls, spoons, and other ordinary tableware, as well as some tools and all the food. Yao Yuan's pants were gone; his dirty pants had been left to dry on a large rock by the stream when the incident occurred. The food and tableware, which had also been placed by the stream, had been washed clean.

Lu An looked up at the sky. It was cloudy, and although the temperature was a bit lower than yesterday, there was still sunshine. It didn't look like it was going to rain.

Yao Yuan noticed his confusion and pointed to the other side of the mountain, saying, "It's raining heavily over there, but we can't see it from here. The water is gathering at the top of the mountain. Although it's calm here, the water will rush down soon."

These kinds of things usually happen at the end of summer, and Yao Yuan thought that by autumn, they wouldn't happen again. When his family lived in the camp before, Yao Yuan worked with other men searching for supplies and trading with outsiders. Fishing was also a common job. However, the camp was located in the north, so the probability of encountering such small flash floods was very low. But the camp had a lot of people, many of whom were from the south. The atmosphere in the camp was very good, and everyone was happy to share their survival experiences. Some people from the southern province had mentioned this situation before. Yao Yuan was thoughtful and had kept these things in mind.

When faced with water that suddenly turns muddy, the only thing to do is run. Because it's uncertain how high the water will come from, many people are not afraid of flowing water, thinking that only large lakes and oceans can kill people. In fact, as long as the water is above the knee, a person can easily be swept away. Once you choke on the water, even shallow water can drown you.

The once clear and gentle stream suddenly turned into a ferocious yellow dragon, submerging even the heads of several large protruding rocks. The water was not going to recede anytime soon, and the floodwaters carried away some of their supplies. The group, carrying their remaining light packs, began to retreat down the mountain.

The mountain road built along the stream was unaffected because of its high elevation, indicating that the person who built this path was experienced, as this was definitely not the first time the stream's water volume had surged.

When they reached the foot of the mountain, they came across the jujube tree with its abundant fruit again, and their tricycle was still tied to the tree.

Zhang Xiaohe glanced up at the fruit scattered on the ground, then put down her backpack and instructed Yao Yuan, "Climb up this tree and shake it, I'll pick some fresh fruit to take back."

Since we're already here, we should at least bring something home.

So the group started picking up dates from the ground.

Undeterred, Zhao Xuan broke off another one and tasted it, only to be so sour that he made a meme-worthy face.

Sour. Disgusted.

But we still have to pick them up.

She gave all the jujubes she had picked to Zhang Xiaohe, saying that she would definitely send some to Zhao Xuan and the others to try after making jujube cakes.

So Zhao Xuan and Lu An returned home easily. Since they didn't have much luggage, Lu An rode the tricycle very fast the whole way.

Although they didn't bring anything home and even lost some supplies, Zhao Xuan comforted Lu An with very inspirational words: "But they brought back happiness!"

Lu An was an optimist by nature, but he knew Zhao Xuan wasn't, so he was happy to hear Zhao Xuan say that.

This mountain range is slowly healing those who were wounded by the apocalypse.