Chapter 106 If it's not a pine tree, then what is it?

The fir tree is 20 meters high and half a meter in diameter. Its dark gray bark is like a tortoise shell, cracked and revealing the light red inner bark.

The 3-cm-long, 2-mm-wide strips have slightly curled edges, are glossy green above, and have two pinkish-white stripes below.

Chu Qiao held a leaf in front of the camera and said with a smile, "This is Abies xinjiangensis. It grows between 1900 meters and 2350 meters above sea level. It is very cold-resistant and can even survive extreme conditions of -50 degrees Celsius without freezing."

"Master Chu, seeing how excited you are, you must be ready to eat."

"The brothers upstairs have completely understood Mr. Chu's routine."

“I think it’s edible too.”

Chu Qiao looked up at the fir tree and shook his head, seeming a little regretful. "It's true that it's edible, but fir fruit only bears fruit from October to November. It's already March, and the tree is bare."

The drone shot the treetops, and saw that the treetops, which were more than 20 meters high, swayed gently in the wind. Apart from the needle-like leaves, there was no trace of fir cones.

"It's all for nothing."

"I thought we'd finally have something to eat."

"Can't we eat the leaves?"

"Bark. I heard that bark can be eaten."

Chu Qiao shook his head. "Although the bark and leaves are edible, they contain calcium oxalate, which is toxic in large quantities and cannot be digested by the stomach."

"Isn't that just a false alarm?"

Chu Qiao shook his head and said comfortingly, "Don't worry, everyone. There is always a way out. Seeing trees is like seeing fungi."

"Some fungi grow on trees, and some grow at the base of trees."

Chu Qiao seemed to have insufficient eyesight and searched carefully up and down, and netizens followed him in the search as if they were treasure hunts.

"Chen Ao gifted the Chu Qiao family a rocket—whoever helps Mr. Chu find edible mushrooms will receive a 5,000 yuan red envelope."

Netizens became even more interested.

Chu Qiao certainly knew that it was Chen Ao who was helping her off the court.

Chu Qiao raised the corner of his mouth. How could he miss such a good thing as making money?

She quickened her search.

The advantage of netizens is that they can see several trees at a glance on the screen, while Chu Qiao has a relatively narrow field of vision and needs to look up and down each tree and search slowly.

But Chu Qiao knows more about fungi than they do.

More than half an hour passed, Chu Qiao's shadow moved from overhead to one side, and no one had any harvest.

This forest is very large, but the fir trees are very sparse. After finding one, it takes another half day to walk to the next one.

Chu Qiao took a step forward, but a large rock buried under the snow twisted her foot and caused her body to fall forward.

Chu Qiao tried hard to steady herself. She pulled her upper body back and rolled forward to avoid falling headfirst onto the ground. However, the pain in her feet still made her duck when she landed, and she supported herself on the snow with her hands.

Brother Feng: "Chu, how's your foot?"

Chu Qiao shook his head at the drone: "I'm fine, I just sprained my ankle, it's nothing serious, let's continue..."

Before Qianjin could finish his words, Chu Qiao felt something strange on the palm of his right hand.

Chu Qiao raised his palm cautiously.

Netizens in the live broadcast room all gasped.

"Oh my god, Master Chu, should I say you have a good life or a bad life?"

“A blessing in disguise.”

"I think it should be a blessing rather than a disaster, and if it is a disaster, it cannot be avoided."

Chu Qiao looked at the milk mushroom under his hand with a mixture of laughter and tears. The milk mushroom was just like a mushroom, soft and extremely fragile. It would break if you used a little force, not to mention that Chu Qiao had just put all his strength on it.

The white, muddy milk mushroom lay in Chu Qiao's palm.

"Don't be discouraged. We don't even know what kind of mushroom it is. What if it's poisonous?"

"That's right, let's wait for Master Chu to explain."

"Why do I think Mr. Chu's expression is not good?"

Chu Qiao took out a knife, carefully scraped the snow-covered corpse of the milk mushroom from his palm, and stuffed it into his mouth without hesitation. After eating it, he licked the blade with satisfaction.

He said, "This is called pine milk mushroom, it's not poisonous."

"Master Chu is so miserable."

Chu Qiao shook his head. "They can be eaten even if they're flattened. Besides, pine milk mushrooms usually live on the ground in broad-leaved forests, not on trees. And most fungi grow in groups, so besides observing them on trees, we should also keep an eye out in the snow."

Chu Qiao continued to walk forward, looking at the trees while scraping the snow aside with his feet to make it easier to find mushrooms on the ground.

Chu Qiao's eyes suddenly narrowed. "It's right there."

The comments in the Chihuahua livestream room all echoed simultaneously: "In the tree."

The two people spoke almost at the same time, and the netizens in the live broadcast room immediately watched the fun without thinking it was a big deal:

"Mr. Chen, what should we do? Who should we give the red envelope to?"

"It must be Chihuahua. It takes time for him to type, so he must have seen it before Master Chu."

"Not necessarily. I saw Mr. Chu speak a few seconds earlier."

"Mr. Chen is in trouble."

"Mr. Chen, be fair."

Chu Qiao smiled and said, "Mr. Chen, you really have to be fair this time. Not only did we find it at the same time, but we also found different things."

As she spoke, she walked forward, but Chu Qiao had not yet cleared the snow with her feet, and netizens were confused.

Chu Qiao immediately saw a small yellow tip about one centimeter long emerging from the snow.

She walked over, pinched the little ear-like thing, and pushed the snow away from both sides with her hands.

I saw several pine milk mushrooms with yellow caps exposed.

The caps of these milk mushrooms are about 15 centimeters long, which are considered big among milk mushrooms.

Chu Qiao cut them off at the roots without saying a word and put them in his pocket.

Chu Qiao didn't rush to eat it because she knew there were more filling things.

Chu Qiao looked in the direction the Chihuahua had pointed out, and saw that the mulberry tree was surrounded by a plant with green leaves and red flowers.

Chu Qiao: "This is not a fungus, it is a sheath flower, an evergreen semi-parasitic shrub that often parasitizes on fir trees."

Chu Qiao picked a sheath flower and placed it in front of the drone. He saw that the plant was about 10 cm long and 5 cm wide, with orange-yellow tubular flowers.

Chu Qiao smiled and said, "This parasitic plant can be harvested year-round. The tender juice from its leaves can be used to make tea. Of course, it can also be eaten fresh, but it doesn't taste very good."

As he spoke, Chu Qiao plucked a handful of leaves, put them in his mouth and began to chew.

“Although it’s a bit astringent, it has a refreshing herbal fragrance, which is quite good.”

Chu Qiao finished speaking and started picking fruits from the tree while speaking to the drone, "Mr. Chen, please send out the red envelopes. We are all waiting."

"Mr. Chen, give out red envelopes."

"Mr. Chen, give out red envelopes."

+1

Netizens were led by Chu Qiao and were flooding their screens with comments.

Chen Ao suddenly laughed in front of the screen, parted his red lips, and said, "I admit defeat. I lost another ten thousand."

After he finished speaking, two huge red envelopes fell from the sky. Chu Qiao didn't even need to do anything. With just a thought, the red envelopes were in his hands.

Chu Qiao smiled and thanked him.