The couple collected the Chuanxiong they had dug and walked up the hill. When they passed the large-fruited banyan tree, they saw that only some green fruits were left on the tree, and there was no ripe fruit to be found.

Wangcai didn’t even catch a single rabbit. It seemed that they had been frightened by the waves of people picking mushrooms and had fled deeper into the woods.

Yang Chunyan looked around and saw that there was not even a single mushroom in the forest. "Huaian, let's go see if the rejuvenation grass is still there. Forget about the morels. Even the ones as big as fingernails must have been picked up by others."

"It's okay to pick them up. We've sold the good ones to our family." Zhou Huaian didn't feel bad at all. "Let's go check on those two nests of bees first and harvest the honey first."

The two walked along without noticing anything. Suddenly, Wangcai, who was walking in front, barked at some small shrubs with fine leaves.

"Wangcai may have found pheasant eggs." Zhou Huaian walked over happily and saw three yellow fat mushrooms huddled together to push away the pine needles, revealing their mushroom caps.

He turned around and said to Yang Chunyan happily, "Yan'er, there are some big-foot mushrooms here. Our Wangcai can also find mushrooms now."

As he spoke, he stroked the dog happily and said, "Be good, I'll go to the street to buy you a big bone tomorrow."

Yang Chunyan looked at Wangcai with amusement as he happily wagged his tail, and thought that his smug look was a bit like his master!

Zhou Huaian pushed aside the dead leaves, patted the palm-sized mushroom cap, shook it left and right a few times, and pulled the big-foot mushroom up with a "click". "Look, our Wangcai found a pair of little fat guys."

Yang Chunyan smiled and stroked the dog, "Great! Keep up the good work!"

"Woof woof!" The dog wagged its tail and ran happily forward, sniffing here and there along the way, looking like it was really helping to find mushrooms. I just wonder how many kinds it can recognize?

I walked all the way and passed through the bushes, and arrived at the place where I had cut the elderberry last time. I saw that a large patch of it had grown where it had been cut, and countless little bees were flying over the white flowers.

On the wet dead leaves, there are more than a dozen crystal orchids with white, crystal clear flowers that resemble pea shooters in shape. A little further away, there are a few large chicken mushrooms that have already opened.

Zhou Huaian pulled it up and saw that the stem was infested with worms and could not be eaten.

Wangcai sniffed around and found a few yellow fat mushrooms, but ignored the morels next to them.

Zhou Huaian patted it, picked up a morel and placed it on the tip of its nose, "Silly dog, remember this, this is valuable, three or four yuan a pound!"

"Woof woof!" Wangcai wagged his tail at him.

Yang Chunyan looked at the dog's flattering look and said with a smile: "Huaian, it's good enough that it can recognize one kind, so don't force it."

After hearing this, Zhou Huaian patted its head and said, "Go! Let's go and look for pheasants or rabbits!"

Wangcai wagged his tail and circled around him a few times, then ran away around the comfrey.

Yang Chunyan and the other person followed and walked around. They saw a yellow brush mushroom and several white brush mushrooms growing on the moss. Around a small shrub with moss hanging on its branches, they saw fungus one after another growing on the emerald green moss, just like the fairy tale world in a cartoon.

"Huai'an, look, isn't it beautiful?"

"It looks great. Today I finally got to satisfy my urge to pick mushrooms." Zhou Huaian put down his backpack, patted it a few times, and directly knocked down a pair of mushrooms with open umbrellas.

With a click, I plucked up the pair of slightly old ones, and then there were a few short, chubby little red ones, which were so adorable just by looking at them.

Wangcai was sniffing around in front, while Yang Chunyan and the other person were bending over and picking up things as they walked in. Before they knew it, they found that the basket was almost full. There were brush mushrooms, blue-headed mushrooms, but the most numerous were the green-hand mushrooms and big-foot mushrooms.

When he saw a nest of five yellow mushrooms of different sizes surrounding a large mushroom, Zhou Huaian pulled it out and held it up happily, "Yan'er, do you think it looks like a big one is leading a nest of small ones?"

The two of them kept going forward, and when they saw that Shouqing's basket was almost full, they were about to turn back to the mulberry forest when they saw a field of yellow chanterelles.

Yang Chunyan grinned and said, "This is the first time I have found chanterelles this year. To pick mushrooms, you have to go to places that others have not been to."

Zhou Huaian looked at the already full vegetable basket and said, "Yes, these are at least two or three kilograms."

Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "After we finish picking up the bees here, we'll go to the mulberry forest and check on the two nests of bees, then we can go down the mountain and go home."

"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian was carrying a basket of vegetables, half squatting and moving quickly. The number of chanterelles was visibly decreasing. He stood up and wiped the sweat off his face. A familiar shadow flashed across his peripheral vision.

He stretched out his hand to block the sun, stared blankly at the slope for a long time, rubbed his eyes, and strode over. When he saw the thing on the tree clearly, he picked up the kettle and took a big sip of water to calm himself.

He turned around excitedly and shouted to Yang Chunyan: "Yan'er! Look what good stuff I found?"

"What good stuff?" Yang Chunyan looked up and saw Zhou Huaian standing under a moss-covered mulberry tree, looking at her in surprise. She quickly stood up and strode towards him, "Did you find Coriolus polyphylla?"

"It's the best quality mulberry fungus, it looks like several fans growing on top of each other!" Zhou Huaian pointed at the mulberry fungus on the tree and smiled so hard that his teeth were showing.

Yang Chunyan walked closer and saw a huge piece of Coriolus versicolor growing in the middle of the two tree branches. The large Coriolus versicolor was in the shape of fan-shaped petals with staggered arrangement. The back had regular cracks and clear annual rings. The flesh was bright yellow in color with clear gold edges.

She touched the Coriolus versicolor excitedly and praised it endlessly, "It's top quality, the best of the best! If only I had a camera with me, I could take a picture of it while it's still on the tree and save it as a souvenir."

"Next time we go into the mountains, we should quietly bring the camera with us. Don't let my mom see it. She scolded me the last time I brought it with me. I'm afraid it might break."

Yang Chunyan rolled her eyes at him and said, "Don't show off. How would she know?"

An old man would feel sad for a while even if he broke a bowl, let alone a camera.

"Hehe!" Zhou Huaian smiled awkwardly and patted the tree trunk. "Come, take a closer look and remember how it grows on the tree. I'm going to cut it down!"

"Yeah! Be careful not to damage it. Someone might buy a big mulberry with a nice shape like this one and keep it as a collection."

"Don't worry, I'm more worried than you are." Zhou Huaian stood on the tree stump that was lying on the ground, raised his sickle and carefully cut it, "What's the point of collecting it? Does it look good if you put it in a vase?"

"I don't know, who can tell clearly what rich people like."

"That's right. In the movies, don't people dig up funerary objects from ancient tombs? In my opinion, apart from gold and jewelry, what are those bottles and jars for? I feel uncomfortable using them to store things."

"The bottles and jars dug out from the ancient tombs are all cultural relics. Some of them are definitely more valuable than gold and jewelry." Yang Chunyan looked at him worriedly, "Don't talk, be careful not to cut them."

"I'm trying to distract myself. I'm too nervous and that's why I cut myself badly."

"Oh! Then you can cut them as you like. There's nothing we can do if you really damage them." Yang Chunyan looked at the dog lying beside her and said, "I'll go down to pick up mushrooms. You can just cut them and carry them!"

Zhou Huaian hurriedly said, "Come over and hold it. I'll cut it open later. If it falls and breaks, it won't be worth it."

"Okay!"

Yang Chunyan climbed up the bent stump holding onto the trunk, and reached out to hold up the large Coriolus versicolor until her hands were sore. Then Zhou Huaian cut the base open, shook it back and forth a few times, and the two of them carefully took it down.

"Yan'er, come and hold her. She weighs at least 10 to 20 kilograms." Zhou Huaian said excitedly as he looked at her.

Yang Chunyan took it with both hands, thinking that his estimate should be correct. She changed her mind and said, "It rained heavily this morning, and the humidity of Coriolus versicolor is relatively high. After drying, it will be at least three or four kilograms less."

Zhou Huaian held on to it tightly, "It must be at least three or four pounds, at least sixteen or seventeen pounds. Wang Zhen said that he received one weighing more than ten pounds a few years ago. When I have some free time, I will send it to him to let him see it."

"You don't know, people who collect medicine like to see good medicinal materials the most, especially this kind of good things with large appearance and good quality!"

"That's right!" Yang Chunyan looked around and said, "Let's go back. We'll go up next time."

Zhou Huaian nodded and walked downstairs holding the Coriolus versicolor. "We won't pick mushrooms anymore. Let's go back to the mulberry forest and look at the little bees before we go home."

Yang Chunyan picked up the backpack, and the two of them turned around to collect the mushrooms and put them in a backpack. Zhou Huaian wanted to put the Coriolus versicolor in a urea bag, but it was too big and could not fit in a standing position, so he had to put it in the backpack and then cover it with the urea bag.

"When you get the honey, put it in the urea bag to prevent the beehive from squeezing the mulberry fungus."

"Hanzi, just put the beehive down there and cover it with Coriolus versicolor."

"Oh!" Zhou Huaian patted his head, "I didn't realize it immediately. This is called being smart for a lifetime but stupid for a moment."

Yang Chunyan picked up the backpack and said, "Let's go!"

I was picking mushrooms along the way and didn't realize how far I had walked. When I went back to the mulberry forest to see the mulberry fungus nests left behind, I realized that I had walked quite a distance without realizing it.

After more than half an hour, the two walked to the mulberry forest and searched along the way. They found a few small flowers, only as big as a spoon, which were of no value in collecting.

Yang Chunyan walked to the place where she remembered the mushroom nest, opened her eyes wide, and looked up and down carefully, but still did not find the two small ones left last time. Thinking that someone might have got there first, she heard Zhou Huaian's surprised shout from the front.

"Yan'er, come here, I found it."

"It's still in front? Why do I remember it was right here?" Yang Chunyan happily walked over and followed the direction he pointed, only to find that it wasn't much bigger. "It's still a little small!"

"Not small anymore. This one has been growing for five or six years. I saw that Wang Zhen's collection had smaller ones than this one." Zhou Huaian took out a hemp rope and tied the sickle to the bamboo pole. "I remember the other one was on the tree in front. Can you see how big it is?"

"Hmm!" Yang Chunyan looked carefully and finally found the Coriolus fusca. It looked a little bigger than the other one. Next to it grew another one that was only as big as Xiao Jiu'er's wooden spoon. (End of this chapter)