Chapter Twenty-Three: Climbing the Mountain

Gong Meng's words caught in her throat, and her face instantly turned a deep purplish-red. She had thought that giving up her city job to go to the countryside would move Qin Haifeng—those women who had previously fawned over him when he was wounded and retired from the military.

Zhi Du kept his distance, but she traveled thousands of miles to this poor mountain village. She never expected that he would be so kind to a country girl and wouldn't even look at her.

Lin Baozhu ignored Gong Meng and said to Qin Haifeng, "Wait for me a moment, I'll clear the basket for you!" With that, she turned and went back into the yard. Hu Zi and Tian Tian hurriedly followed her with their short legs.

Tiger tugged at her sleeve and whispered, "Auntie, let's hurry up, or the brigade leader will say we're slacking off again. If the three of us only earn one work point, won't we be laughed at by all the other kids in the village?"

"Okay, okay."

It's so late anyway, it won't hurt to let the cows out a little longer.

If she weren't so bored every day, she wouldn't even want to herd cattle. But once she gets her hunting license, she can hand over the cattle-herding work to Tiger and Sweetie.

Lin Baozhu took the items out of the basket little by little. Hu Zi and Tian Tian clung to the table with both hands, staring longingly at the items on the table, swallowing their saliva incessantly.

"Do you want red date cake or steamed rice cake?"

"Red date cake! It smells so good!" Tiger stood on tiptoe to reach the table, his little arms outstretched.

Lin Baozhu broke the jujube cake in half and handed it over, taking a small piece for herself as well—in these days, fine grains were precious, and this jujube paste probably had a lot of sweet potato flour mixed in, yet it was still so sweet it made one's tongue tremble. When she came out carrying the empty basket, she saw Gong Meng running away with her face covered. Qin Haifeng was squatting by the fence, teasing the speckled hen. Seeing her come out, he hurriedly stood up, his military green jacket covered with several chicken feathers.

"The basket is clean." Lin Baozhu handed the basket over: "I'll bring you some mushrooms I picked in the mountains another day."

Qin Haifeng took the basket, turned around, and left, his steps so fast it was like a dog was chasing him. Lin Baozhu watched his back and laughed. She had thought he was a cold-faced and sarcastic man, but she never expected him to have such a pure side.

As soon as they arrived at the cowshed, they saw Tiger pick up a stone and stare warily at the two low mud-brick houses: "Auntie, Gou Dan said that all the intellectuals living here are stinking intellectuals. If you see them, you have to throw stones at them, otherwise they will come and harm us."

Through the open window, you could see a woman with a swollen belly lying inside.

The old man was bloated yet emaciated. Lin Baozhu frowned slightly—in the original owner's memory, there were two people living in the cowshed. The older one was a descendant of a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners; his ancestors had served as imperial physicians in the palace. Because his family owned a few acres of fertile land and a few tiled houses, they were exposed and sent here. The younger one was a university professor; his father had gone abroad years ago after sensing the danger, and he became one of the first to be persecuted. Not long ago, his leg was broken, and now he walks with a limp.

These were swept away by the tides of time

How many of those swept along by the tide are truly capable pillars of society? Lin Baozhu sighed. She had no power to turn the tide, but she couldn't bear to see the innocent suffer.

With a "smack," Tiger's pebble slammed hard against the window paper, startling a cough that came from inside.

“Tiger!” Lin Baozhu grabbed his arm, her voice turning somber. “Those who live here aren’t necessarily bad people. Some of them are teachers who teach children to read, some are doctors who can cure all diseases, and some are experts who study crops. They’re just suffering a bit now, but the clouds will eventually part and the sun will shine through.”

She peeked through the hole, took the reins of the old ox, and led the two children down the mountain. Tiger kept looking back at the cowshed, whispering, "Auntie, did I do something wrong?"

“You did something wrong.” Lin Baozhu stopped and squatted down to look into his eyes. “They didn’t provoke you, so why did you throw stones? Gou Dan’s words aren’t always right. You have to use your own brain. You’re a seven-year-old man now; you can’t let others use you as a pawn.”

Tiger lowered his head, twisting the hem of his clothes with his fingers: "Then I'll go back and apologize to them."

Lin Baozhu ruffled his hair, took out two White Rabbit milk candies from her pocket, and stuffed them into Hu Zi and Tian Tian's hands: "That's a good boy. You two keep an eye on the cow, I'm going to take a walk on the mountain, okay?"

Tiger snapped to attention and gave a rather awkward salute: "Mission accomplished!"

Lin Baozhu packed the water bottle and cornbread for the two children, then carried a basket on her back and headed up the mountain. In the autumn forest, the weeds were waist-high, and rabbits and pheasants darted about happily. She gripped a small shovel and ventured into the bushes, picking handfuls of wild hawthorn berries whenever she saw them, and even picking goji berry seedlings whenever she found them.

She dug up the roots and threw them into her basket—the spiritual spring in her space could nourish anything, regardless of its age; she just collected them first.

She had just dug up two goji berry bushes when she heard a "baa" and a group of white things darted out from behind the trees. Lin Baozhu's eyes lit up—it was more than twenty wild goats! She quickly lay down in the thick grass, her mind already racing: roasted lamb leg, lamb soup, steamed lamb, selling dog meat under the guise of lamb, cough… she'd gone off-topic.

She swallowed hard and quietly probed the space with her mind; the captured repeating crossbow was still there.

Just as she was pondering how to proceed, she suddenly noticed a row of rabbits squatting by the spring, sprawled out on their backs, seemingly drunk. Could this spring have some magical effect on living creatures? Lin Baozhu's eyes lit up. She scooped up two spoonfuls of spring water and sprinkled them on the grass in front of her, then held her breath and waited.

The lead ram indeed raised its head, sniffed warily, and hesitated before approaching. Lin Baozhu seized the opportunity, grabbed its hind leg, and with a thought, the ram vanished instantly. The other goats, unaware of the anomaly, were instead drawn by the water on the grass, gathering around one after another—by the time Lin Baozhu stood up, clapping the grass from her hands, seventeen plump wild goats had appeared in the space.

Carrying a half-basket of medicinal herbs down the mountain, Lin Baozhu suddenly stopped after rounding a bend. On the steep slope ahead, several plants topped with red buds swayed in the wind, their leaves overlapping and their stems covered with fine hairs—wild ginseng!

She was so excited she almost cried out. She quickly grabbed a small shovel, knelt down, and carefully dug at the soil. The black soil in the mountains was soft, and she unearthed the ginseng rootlets intact without much effort. Holding them in her hand, she examined them; they were only about the thickness of her little finger, and she estimated they were only five or six years old.

"Tsk, still a bit green." Lin Baozhu clicked her tongue and casually tossed it into her spatial storage.

Like other women, she preferred thick and strong ones, regardless of whether it was ginseng or anything else.

Lin Baozhu tossed the ginseng into her spatial storage and turned to walk back. Suddenly, her legs went weak, and something wrapped around her feet. When she looked down, she saw a red, patterned snake twisting and turning. Her hair stood on end.

She screamed, suddenly lifted her leg, and ran down the mountain without looking back...

Ahhhhhh...