Gao Erping and Xie Lin looked at each other and nodded in agreement.
Zhang Qiurui patted his chest and said confidently, "Don't worry, Mom. We will take good care of ourselves and try to find more mountain products."
If they were separated, she could also take out some good things from the trading supermarket to supplement the family’s food.
Hitting the mountain undoubtedly provides an excellent opportunity.
Then they split up according to the plan. Zhou Guihua led Zhang Mingqi and Xie Lin along a relatively flat path deep into the forest.
Zhang Qiurui, Gao Erping and Ming Ren chose another path.
In the mountains and forests, birds sing and insects chirp, and the sunlight shines through the dense leaves, casting mottled shadows.
"Is this a vine pear?" Not far from the mountains, in a forest on a slope, there is a plant with vines wrapped around the tree, full of fruits hanging on it. The fruits are only the size of eggs, and the small ones are only the size of quail eggs, but the skin is covered with dense hairs, giving the fruits an attractive orange-yellow color.
This vine pear is a wild kiwi fruit. The ripe ones can be picked and eaten directly. The unripe ones can be placed in rice to ripen them. The ripe kiwi fruit has a soft, sweet taste, with natural freshness and mountain fragrance. It is a rare mountain delicacy and much more delicious than the kiwi fruit of later generations.
"Yes, this is the vine pear. There are also quite a few August fruits. Unfortunately, the opened August fruits have been eaten by birds. Let's go and pick some to take back." Gao Erping nodded with a smile.
Zhang Mingren's eyes lit up, and he immediately set to work, carefully climbing the slope to pick the vine pears. Because the vines were tangled and the fruits were scattered in different places, the three of them had to divide the work: one was responsible for pulling the vines, one was responsible for picking the fruits, and the other was responsible for putting the picked fruits into the bamboo baskets they brought.
As time went by, the bamboo basket was gradually filled.
"Sister-in-law, why don't you let Mingren carry this basket of rattan pears back so that he doesn't have to go up the mountain again. We can take him with us when we go down the mountain and go up again." Zhang Qiurui saw that it was a thankless task to search for mountain products with a basket of rattan pears on his back, so it would be better for her to let Zhang Mingren go back directly.
"I think it's okay, Mingren, you can carry this basket of rattan pears back, right? Do you know the way?" Gao Erping lifted the basket of rattan pears and saw that it weighed about twenty pounds. It would be no problem for ten-year-old Mingren to carry it back.
"Mom, you underestimate me. This little weight is a piece of cake for me! Don't worry, I know the way and I promise to bring Fujilizi home safely." Zhang Mingren patted his chest, his face full of confidence, like a little adult, his eyes sparkling with eagerness to try.
He squatted down and carried the basket steadily on his shoulders. Although his figure was a little young, the Fujiriko on his back did not seem to bring him too much burden.
"Good job, Mingren! Be careful on the road, remember to walk steadily and don't fall." Zhang Qiurui nodded with satisfaction and watched Zhang Mingren gradually go away along the winding mountain road until his figure disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.
"Let's continue and see what else we can find." After watching her son leave, Gao Erping turned to Zhang Qiurui and said, her eyes flashing with anticipation for exploring the unknown.
Zhang Qiurui responded with a smile, and the two of them set out on their journey to look for mountain products again.
"Look, there are so many wild taro here!" Soon they came to a stream. There was a lush vegetation beside the stream, interspersed with clusters of green leaves. Under the leaves were round taro with tiny roots on the surface.
"Sister-in-law, look over there, those are the leaves of konjac. The trunk is so thick, the konjac must be quite big." Zhang Qiurui pointed to another more lush area not far away.
"Let's go and dig some konjac back home. If we take this konjac back and make it into konjac tofu, it will taste amazing! Taro can also be eaten as a staple food." Gao Erping ran over excitedly, picked up the hatchet and started chopping at the konjac tree trunk, then used the hatchet as a hoe to dig up the konjac.
Zhang Qiurui also picked up a branch and gently loosened the soil around the taro, then pried it gently, and a whole taro appeared in front of the two of them.
"Sister-in-law, look." Zhang Qiurui, who was digging taro, suddenly heard bursts of roosters crowing. A colorful pheasant ignored Zhang Qiurui and the others and was drinking water by the stream.
When Zhang Qiurui saw the pheasant, her eyes rolled. She didn't know what she was thinking about, and she stopped digging taro.
"Sister-in-law, I'm going to catch pheasants." Zhang Qiurui said this, carrying a backpack and a fishing net, and went straight to the pheasant net.
As expected, the pheasant was frightened and flew away.
"Sister-in-law, I'll go after her."
"This kid, there's no way he can catch a pheasant." Gao Erping couldn't help but shake her head and smile bitterly when she saw her sister-in-law being so impulsive, but she also felt a little warm in her heart.
She knew that although Zhang Qiurui was young, she was a smart and brave girl. She had heard before that her sister-in-law was very lucky. When she went up the mountain to collect firewood in the county, she either picked up pheasant eggs or caught pheasants. She hoped that her sister-in-law's luck would still be so good today and bring her some unexpected surprises.
"Be careful and don't run too far. There are many snakes, insects, rats and ants in this mountain. Pay attention to safety." Gao Erping warned loudly, but her eyes involuntarily followed Zhang Qiurui's light figure until she disappeared on the lush forest path.
Zhang Qiurui chased the pheasant for a distance, but the pheasant had long disappeared, and her sister-in-law was nowhere to be seen behind her. Zhang Qiurui opened the trading supermarket and directly bought fifty-six pheasant eggs and put them in her backpack.
Pheasant eggs were sold for three cents each in the supermarket, and fifty-six of them cost her one dollar and sixty-eight cents. With nearly sixty dollars in savings, this extra dollar was a drop in the bucket.
Afterwards, Zhang Qiurui thought about it and bought a pheasant at the trading supermarket. The pheasant was much more expensive, costing one yuan per catty. A pheasant weighed three catties and seven ounces, and he spent three yuan and seventy.
However, she did not take it out immediately, but waited until she was about to return home.
She also bought some mountain products such as yam, mushrooms, chestnuts, apples, persimmons, fungus, pecans, etc. from the trading supermarket, scattered here and there, buying four or five pounds of each variety, which cost her five or six yuan in total.
However, Zhang Qiurui put these things in his supermarket backpack and did not take them out.
Her father had said before that having a daughter or a son in old age is a symbol of bringing happiness and good fortune to the family, and that if she brings these things back, they will just attribute it to her good luck.
That makes sense!
Zhang Qiurui had just bought these things from the trading supermarket. When he came to his senses, he heard a rustling sound in his ears, accompanied by a series of "humming" sounds.
"This is.......?"
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