The mountain behind Chen Hong's house is not a single mountain, but a mountain range that extends from Laoshan. The mountain is not very high, with the highest point only about 1,100 meters above sea level, but the terrain is steep.

Because the land could not be cleared and human activity was rare, it formed the pristine forests we see today, and few people have ventured into the mountains in recent years. The mountain ecosystem is well-preserved, with many wild animals and abundant vegetation, including many rare medicinal herbs.

According to the village elders, during the production team era, people from nearby villages often went into the mountains to cut timber and also dug up some Chinese medicinal herbs.

Because people back then lived on work points, they didn't have much time to go into the mountains, and most of them had never ventured deep into the forests. It is said that there are some wild fruit trees there.

Chen Hong's main purpose in going into the mountains this time was to pick mushrooms, and she also wanted to look for any fruit trees that she could transplant into her space to try.

As Chen Hong walked up the mountain path, she could hear voices coming from the foot of the mountain. They were probably hardworking aunties and grandmas picking mushrooms nearby.

Chen Hong didn't stop. It was too close to home, and there were too many people to find anything good.

Chen Hong continued walking along the mountain path until it ended, at which point she stopped. Upon closer inspection, she realized that there wasn't no path at all; rather, very few people had made it this far, and the path had been completely obscured by vines and weeds.

Chen Hong took out a machete and hacked his way through the brambles, clearing a path. After walking for about an hour, he found a large rock, climbed up it, and looked back to find that he had already passed the halfway point of the mountain.

Chen Hong decided not to climb any further and instead looked around the neighborhood. She sat on a large rock to rest for a while, took out her water bottle and drank some water. Looking around, she saw a large meadow to her left, covered with wildflowers, butterflies fluttering, and bees busily buzzing – a truly beautiful sight.

At the other end of the meadow was a large shrub forest, and to the right was a large mixed forest of pine and cypress trees, five or six meters tall, some even reaching more than ten meters, which looked like they had been growing for at least twenty or thirty years, or even seventy or eighty years.

Chen Hong took the basket and went into the woods first. Many mushrooms often grow under the pine trees. Chen Hong searched around and found a patch of pine mushrooms.

People from Jiaodong are quite interesting. They don't call mushrooms "mushrooms" here. They usually call them something like "nest". For example, pine mushrooms are not called pine mushrooms, but pine nests.

There are also spicy fried dough sticks, and various other kinds of fried dough. Even now, Chen Hong still can't tell if this fried dough is a mushroom.

Parting the grass, Chen Hong picked up a basket and began picking mushrooms. There were so many mushrooms after the rain! Chen Hong only picked the ones that looked good, and in less than half an hour, she had filled the basket and gently poured them into her backpack.

Chen Hong, carrying her basket, carefully searched further into the pine forest and found a large, fallen tree trunk covered with tender wood ear mushrooms. She quickly picked all the mushrooms and examined them closely; the dead tree trunk appeared to be an elm.

From just this one elm tree, Chen Hong picked half a basket of wood ear mushrooms, which weighed about six or seven pounds. After drying them, they would yield about two pounds of dried mushrooms.

Further on, Chen Hong discovered a large tree that was almost dead. From the roots to the trunk, it was covered with clusters of densely packed oyster mushrooms, which were large and tender and looked delicious.

This is a hibiscus tree, also known as a mimosa tree. Its flowers are very beautiful, like tufts of tiny downy hairs. The flowers on this particular tree are pink, and they are especially beautiful. Unfortunately, it is about to die.

Chen Hong quickly put the basket under the tree, took out a machete, and cut down the clusters of oyster mushrooms along the base. The basket was only one-third full, and there were still two-thirds left on the tree. If all of them were picked, the yield from this one tree would be fifty or sixty jin.

Unfortunately, the basket was already full. *Smack!* Chen Hong slapped her forehead. "How stupid! How stupid!"

Now that I have space, how many things can't I fit in?

Sigh, I'm still not used to it. I just got the space and haven't gotten familiar with it enough to use it skillfully yet. Habitual thinking is a killer; I don't even know how to think things through.

Chen Hong stopped putting the mushrooms into the basket. Holding a knife in one hand and supporting the mushrooms with the other, she cut them off one cluster at a time and stored them directly on the grass in her space.

The mushrooms were harvested from the tree in just over ten minutes. Without them, the trunk looked worn and unsightly.

"Since you've contributed so many mushrooms, I'll water you with some space water. I don't know if this space water will work or if it can save your life. If it does, we can harvest a lot more mushrooms from you next time. One of your trees is worth a whole mushroom house!"

Chen Hong talked to the hibiscus tree while watering it thoroughly. She hoped it would survive and bloom next year, when a vast expanse of pink would surely add a beautiful scene to the mountain forest.

Since she could put the items in her spatial storage and take them back, Chen Hong leisurely strolled around the woods. She discovered a large patch of Solomon's seal, whose leaves resembled bamboo leaves and were relatively easy to identify in the mountains and forests.

This patch of Solomon's seal must be over ten years old. The plants have grown very tall, some reaching three or four meters in height, and the shortest is still over two meters tall.

Chen Hong squatted down and carefully dug away the soil around the roots with a small hoe. The roots of the Solomon's seal were very shallow and easy to dig. They were connected in small pieces, somewhat like ginger. Each small lump should have grown for a year.

After digging up all the Solomon's seal plants, Chen Hong broke off two small bumps from each plant, buried them back in the ground, covered them with soil, and sprinkled leaves on them so they could continue to reproduce.

Chen Hong stored all the harvested Solomon's Seal in her spatial storage. She planned to loosen the soil when she got home, plant it in the space, and save it for later to stew with chicken. This stuff nourishes yin and blood, strengthens the lungs and kidneys, and was known as a divine medicine in ancient times. It is a mild and nourishing medicinal material.