Chapter 25: Morel Mushrooms, a Treasure in the Mountains

"Xiu Lan, I'm going up the mountain."

After Xiongba finished his meal, Lin Heng untied his chain and set off up the mountain.

"Go ahead, and be safe."

Xiulan nodded. She was going to help plant sweet potatoes in the afternoon and would not go up the mountain.

“Woof woof!!”

Xiongba barked loudly towards the sky and rushed out first. He turned back not far away and whimpered and acted coquettishly at Lin Heng's feet.

The forest for cutting down trees is on the mountain behind the house, and the forest in the middle of the mountain belongs to his home.

At this time, the bang bang of trees being cut down could be heard. My father and the other four had already gone up the mountain to start working.

Lin Heng, holding a bow and arrow, and taking Xiongba with him, prepared to cross the mountain and look in the ditch behind. At this time of year, finding prey in the forest depends entirely on luck.

Xiongba urinated every two steps and looked back at Lin Heng, as if he was afraid that he had gotten lost.

"The second young master of the Lin family, are you going up the mountain to hunt?" Not long after walking away, someone greeted Lin Heng.

Lin Heng took a look and remembered that it was the uncle of the Wang family in the village, a figure of his father's generation: "Yes, let's try our luck."

After saying this, Lin Heng took Xiongba and walked over quickly.

Seeing Lin Heng walking away, the uncle from the Wang family shook his head and laughed, "This second-rate guy is still hunting, holding a bow and arrow, humiliating others."

Obviously, in his opinion, Lin Heng was taking the exam with his eyes open - it was embarrassing.

Although the distance was far, Lin Heng still heard these words and took note of them silently.

Soon they entered the forest. Xiongba suddenly became alert and stopped making any sound. He looked around and sniffed the ground from time to time.

This is obviously entering hunting mode.

Lin Heng also looked around, but the leaves were too thick and his vision was limited, so he could hardly see any prey.

After walking nearly two kilometers to the top of the mountain, Lin Heng finally found something valuable - a clump of kidney-essence grass, also called Aoaojiao, growing on the stone wall.

This herb is easy to identify. It is dark green in color, has long, strip-shaped leaves, and has small yellow medicine bags on the back.

Lin Heng took a look and didn't pull it out. There were too few of them, so he let it grow.

“Ouch~”

At this time, Xiongba let out a cry, obviously he had discovered something.

Lin Heng walked over to take a look and couldn't help but smile: "Good dog, you found this."

What Xiongba found was a small piece of morel mushroom. Lin Heng guessed that he had smelled the scent of morels at home and knew that this would be useful.

Xiongba opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue, revealed a Samoyed smile, and stretched his head over to ask for a touch.

"Well done. If you kill prey today, the organs will be yours."

Lin Heng smiled and touched the dog's head, thinking that he could now be completely sure that the old man had not lied in his previous life, and Xiongba was really a good dog.

Morels are a rare wild mushroom and a famous edible mushroom. They are delicious and even comparable to Matsutake mushrooms. There are records of them being eaten since ancient times.

Because it is particularly sensitive to the environment and temperature, the quantity is small and the price is expensive. The fresh one costs one yuan per pound, and the dried one can be sold for three or four yuan per pound.

Xiongba found about 11 or 12 black morels, scientifically known as Morchella nigromaculata. They were 4 to 5 centimeters tall, with long black caps and vertically arranged rectangular pits, and milky white stems.

Lin Heng picked one and smelled it, and couldn't help revealing an intoxicated expression. The fragrance of this mushroom was so beautiful, not strong, but very pleasant, and it didn't have the faint earthy smell of the red mushroom.

Lin Heng's appetite was aroused for a moment, and his mouth was watering. Even if morels were used alone to make a soup without adding anything else, it would still be very delicious.

"It's a pity that there are only seven or eight taels, and the two largest ones were eaten by insects." Lin Heng sighed, but he was reluctant to throw away the two big ones, so he put them all into the small backpack he carried with him.

I searched the area again, but to no avail.

After climbing over the ridge, the view in front of us suddenly became bright, because there were two fields planted with wheat. When the breeze blew, the wheat ears that had already sprouted swayed in the wind.

Lin Heng took a look and walked towards the direction of Goutongshugou on the upper side. As he walked, he found Xiongba crawling down and slowly moving towards the edge of the wheat field.

"Something?"

Lin Heng hurriedly stopped and looked in the direction of Xiongba. He rubbed his eyes several times before he found his prey.

A gray rabbit was eating wheat under the leaves of weeds. If it weren't for Xiongba, he would never have seen it.

He wanted to draw his bow and shoot an arrow, but after looking at the distance he gave up: "It's too far."

The distance between them is at least a hundred meters, and there is no obstruction in front, so he will definitely be discovered if he moves forward. Instead of doing that, he might as well see what Xiongba is capable of.

At this time, Xiongba had crawled forward more than ten meters, and the rabbit had not discovered him yet. He stood up with his ears erect and stared at the rabbit's every move with a focused gaze. If he found anything wrong, he would immediately lie down and not move.

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The rabbit also stopped from time to time to take a look, but was avoided by Xiongba every time.

Seeing this scene, Lin Heng couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Sure enough, powerful dogs have extremely high hunting instincts without deliberate training."

When the two sides were less than 20 meters apart, the gray rabbit finally discovered Xiongba. A trace of fear flashed in his eyes, and he ran away without saying a word.

“Woof woof!!”

Xiongba also started to sprint and chased after him at high speed. The distance between the two sides kept getting closer and closer, and soon he disappeared into the woods at the edge of the ground.

Lin Heng hurriedly chased after it, but he couldn't even see Xiongba's figure because it ran too fast.

“Woof woof~~”

Soon, Xiongba's voice of calling came.

Lin Heng followed the sound and quickly found Xiongba. It looked very anxious in front of a hole in the ground, and there was a lot of rabbit hair on the ground.

It was obvious that it failed in its first hunting attempt. It did not catch the prey and let it run into the hole.

"It's okay, it's already great." Lin Heng touched its head and rubbed its chest to encourage it.

Xiongba is still young. He didn’t eat well before and his body hasn’t developed yet. It is normal for him to make mistakes.

Looking at the entrance of the cave, Lin Heng knew that the rabbit was inside. He looked around and blocked all the suspected exits with stones.

Then he went to find some dry pine needles and took out an aluminum kerosene lighter to light a fire.

This type of lighter is mostly used in rural areas these days.

The structure of the kerosene lighter is very simple. The lower part is a cotton ball soaked in kerosene, which is connected to the upper part through a cotton core. The upper part has a gear and a flint under the gear.

The continuously fluctuating gears rub against the flint to produce sparks, which ignite the cotton core containing kerosene, and a flame appears.

There were two crisp crackling sounds, and a small yellow flame appeared. It was placed on the dry pine needles and began to crackle under the action of the pine resin.

Place it at the entrance of the cave and mix it with some fresh leaves, and thick white smoke will roll in. Fan it into the cave, and the smoke will soon come out from other places.

"Oh no, there's still a hole that hasn't been plugged!"

Lin Heng suddenly realized that there was a secret exit that he had not discovered. As soon as he finished speaking, two gray rabbits rushed out with a whoosh.

(End of this chapter)