Pushing open the door, Yuan Doudou put down the basket and immediately went inside to check on Anji. When she entered the room, there was no one on the bed, and her heart trembled, fearing that something had happened to Anji.

Yuan Doudou went out of the room and walked around the yard, calling out as she searched, "Anji, Anji, where are you?"

After waiting a while, Anji's voice was heard: "Mommy, I'm here."

The sound came from the outhouse at the back, and Yuan Doudou breathed a sigh of relief.

Yuan Doudou took some toilet paper to the outhouse to wipe Anji's bottom, and then led him to the front yard to wash his hands.

“Mommy, I just woke up and didn’t see you, but I didn’t cry. Then my stomach hurt, so I went to the toilet. Mommy, wasn’t I amazing?” Angie’s eyes shone as he waited for his mother to praise him.

Yuan Doudou playfully pinched his nose and said with a smile, "Anji is the best! Remember, when Mommy calls you, respond immediately. Can you do that?"

Angie obediently replied, "I can!"

The courtyard was filled with the laughter of the mother and son.

"Huh, what's this?" Angie bent down and looked at the basket, which was full of things.

Mother is amazing; she went out and brought back so many things.

Yuan Doudou deftly emptied the contents of the basket; apart from a few bamboo shoots, the rest were all sorts of wild fruits.

She washed it a bit cleaner and handed it to Angie. Angie immediately picked one up and put it in his mouth. It was so sour that he made a face.

"Mother, this fruit is so sour!" He liked sour things, like hawthorn, but this was not just sour, it was also a bit bitter, and in short, it was hard to swallow.

Yuan Doudou couldn't resist trying one, but spat it out after just one bite; it was indeed awful.

No wonder so many wild fruits on the mountain are not picked by anyone; they probably can't stand the taste.

To put it bluntly, even a dog wouldn't eat it.

"Don't rush, once Mother has pickled them, they'll taste different." Just like the candied fruit sold outside, they'll be sweet and sour.

Angie was very excited: "Mommy, hurry up and make it! Angie wants to eat it as soon as possible."

Yuan Doudou smiled and nodded, "Then Anji, go inside and draw for a while, and wait for Mommy to make you something delicious, okay?"

Anji obediently went inside, afraid that his presence would slow down his mother's cooking process.

After Anji left, Yuan Doudou also got busy.

She first put the fruit into a wooden basin, rinsed it with clean water, then poured it into a pot, added an appropriate amount of water, and brought it to a boil over high heat.

The astringent taste of boiled fruit will be much less. After boiling, put it on a bamboo tray to dry and cool. Put the dried fruit into a clean jar, sprinkle in white sugar and a little salt, seal it, and let it sit for three days. The delicious fruit is ready.

After processing the fruit, Yuan Doudou started preparing the bamboo shoots. This time, the bamboo shoots she dug were quite tender, making them suitable for stir-frying or making soup.

She thought of snail rice noodles. If she used these bamboo shoots to make some pickled bamboo shoots and caught some snails in the river, could she make something with a similar taste? She did just that.

She immediately got motivated and started cutting the blanched bamboo shoots into strips, putting them in a jar, and pouring in an appropriate amount of aged vinegar. There was no white vinegar at home, so she would make do for now.

It takes at least seven days for bamboo shoots to develop a sour taste.

Yuan Doudou took out the Ganoderma lucidum, cleaned it, and put it back in the cabinet in the room for future emergency use.

"Anji, what are you drawing?" After finishing her work, Yuan Doudou washed her hands and came into the room, just in time to see Anji carefully drawing on rough paper with a brush.

"Mommy, guess!" Anji said mischievously.

Yuan Doudou became interested and examined it carefully. "It looks like a rabbit."

“Mother, you guessed wrong.” Angie said smugly.

Yuan Doudou wanted to laugh. Shouldn't she be sad if she guessed wrong? Why was she getting excited?

“That’s a cat,” Yuan Doudou joked.

Anji immediately deflated, realizing that his drawing was so bad that his mother had guessed wrong twice.

Seeing that the little one was listless, Yuan Doudou stopped teasing him and said seriously, "Actually, Mommy was just teasing you. Your drawing is very lifelike. It looks like a monkey."

"Yes, Mom got it right." He drew a monkey.

Ah, it really is a monkey.

Yuan Doudou secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She had just guessed randomly, but luckily she got it right in the end.

"Mom, after listening to your story, I admire Sun Wukong so much. Whenever I pick up a pen, I want to draw Sun Wukong." Anji learned some new words from his mother and often imitated them.

The clever little guy has even learned to use the word "admire".

"Hmm, not bad, keep up the good work, maybe you'll be a future painter." Yuan Doudou encouraged him relentlessly, not wanting to discourage a child's dream.

Angie nodded excitedly. He would definitely work harder to draw all the stories his mother told him.

"Alright, you must be tired after drawing for so long. Come on, Mommy will take you to the river to catch snails," Yuan Doudou said as she tidied the table.

Upon hearing this, Angie jumped off the stool. "Really? I can go play in the river!"

His mother never let him go to the river, saying it was too dangerous.

Yuan Doudou laughed and picked him up: "Of course it's true, when has your mother ever lied to you?"

The mother and son carried a small bamboo basket and walked towards the river. The people they met along the way were all returning from the fields, dragging carts full of rotten wheat.

Everyone looked grim, especially when they saw Yuan Doudou. They were both ashamed and angry, and everyone regretted not listening to her.

"Mother, they don't dare to look at us. Are they afraid of us?" Anji, who was observant, also noticed something was wrong.

Yuan Doudou smiled and shook her head: "You'll understand when you grow up."

In the evening, apart from the ducklings looking for food, there wasn't a soul in sight by the river.

Yuan Doudou took off her shoes and socks and stood by the water, which was just above her ankles and close to the riverbank, which was covered with countless snails.

"Mommy, there are so many snails!" Anji exclaimed.

Yuan Doudou was also overjoyed. She had thought she would have a hard time finding snails, but now she realized that the people here didn't seem to care about them at all.

Passersby saw them catching snails and reacted as if they had discovered a new world.

"Isn't it strange that DouDou is grabbing that dark thing? What can it do with it?"

"Yes, it's hard and ugly, you can't eat or drink it."

When Yuan Doudou heard their conversation, she remembered what her mother-in-law had said before: "Apart from fish, you shouldn't eat anything else in the river, especially those with shells, because they're full of toxins and will make you lose weight."

There were shelled ones. Oh right, besides snails, there seemed to be crayfish too. She picked up half a basket of snails, ran to the shore, found a tree branch, cut a thread from it, tied an earthworm to it, and threw the bait into the water.

"Mother, what are you doing?" It looks like she's fishing.

"Catching crayfish." Yuan Doudou said with a proud look on her face.