Hengfeng Mountain
Liu Muzhe turned his head to the side, pretending not to see or hear.
Ye Jingan was both angry and sleepy, so he ran upstairs, locked the door, and went back to sleep. It was almost noon when he woke up hungry and came downstairs to find something to eat.
"I've prepared everything. Let's go after lunch!" Qiu Zimu had lost a lot of corpse insects last time, and he couldn't wait to catch insects. So he prepared everything early while Ye Jing'an was sleeping and waited for him to come together.
"Okay, where are we going to catch it?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Hengfeng Mountain, I checked and found that there are a lot of insects there, especially at night." Qiu Zimu showed him some real-life photos he found online. The vegetation was lush and it looked like there were a lot of insects.
"At night? How can you catch bugs at night?" Ye Jing'an questioned.
"You'll know when the time comes." Qiu Zimu smiled and carried the tools into the car.
"Are you planning to drive there?" Liu Muzhe asked.
The two nodded.
"Wait for me to get something from the car." Liu Muzhe took out the talisman placed under the seat in the car, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
After finishing their meal, the two of them prepared to leave. They wanted to drag Liu Muze along, but he said he wouldn't go no matter what. Liu Muze couldn't stand their nagging, so he locked them out and said, "Don't bother me!"
"You're so lazy, all you do is eat and sleep all day!" Ye Jing'an cursed and dragged Qiu Zimu downstairs, "Let's go together."
The navigation system indicated it would take forty minutes to get from home to Hengfeng Mountain. From the moment Ye Jing'an fastened his seatbelt, he'd felt a tingling sense of oppression. Initially, he'd thought it was the heat and the stuffiness of the car, but after opening the windows, the feeling actually improved, so he didn't think much of it.
When the car drove onto the city avenue, Ye Jing'an felt a chill on his back. His eyes would unconsciously look at the rearview mirror from time to time, and he always felt that someone was staring at him in the back seat.
With another glance, Ye Jingan saw a black object suddenly leaking out of the rear window of the car. It looked like a woman's hair. He wondered if a black plastic bag had flown onto the roof of the car and got caught. He stared at the rearview mirror and took a closer look. The black hair was clearly visible. It was indeed a woman's hair.
Before he knew it, Ye Jingan had driven his car into someone else's lane, and a bus was coming from the opposite direction. The traffic on the opposite side was heavy, making it difficult to dodge. The bus kept honking at Ye Jingan, but he acted as if he didn't hear it.
"Be careful of the car!" Qiu Zimu pulled the steering wheel back.
Ye Jing'an quickly turned the steering wheel, avoiding the oncoming car and breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's wrong with you?" Qiu Zimu frowned slightly.
Ye Jingan glanced at the rear window of the car. The black hair was gone. He pulled over to the side of the road and got out to check. There was nothing.
"What are you looking at?" Qiu Zimu asked.
Ye Jing'an didn't want to tell Qiu Zimu what he saw without first figuring out what it was. He was afraid of scaring him and making others panic, so he said, "Maybe I didn't sleep well. I'm dazzled just now. Please help me keep an eye on the back of the car. Call me if you see anything."
"Okay." Qiu Zimu glanced at the back of the car and didn't find anything strange.
Ye Jingan ignored the uneasiness and focused on driving. There was the last traffic light ahead, and beyond it was the suburbs. Ye Jingan only had ten seconds left on the green light, and with no cars ahead, he didn't want to wait for the next one, so he sped up and drove right through.
"Huh? The light should have been red, why did they leave?" Ye Jingan was confused. He thought to himself, could it be that because there are fewer cars and people here, they dare to run a red light?
Qiu Zimu stared at Ye Jingan with wide eyes and said, "Why did you run a red light?!"
"What? I only went when I saw the light was green!" Ye Jing'an frowned deeply. He took another look before driving over. There were only three seconds left on the green light. There was no way he would run a red light.
He slowed down and glanced at the traffic light in the opposite lane. It had just turned green. He had indeed run a red light. Ye Jing'an was completely stunned.
"Fortunately, there were not many cars there just now. It seems that you really haven't woken up yet." Qiu Zimu was a little panicked. Driving while tired is not safe, so he suggested that they should not go today, go back and have a good rest for a day, and come back tomorrow.
Before Ye Jingan could reply, the feeling of being watched returned, along with a strong sense of unease. This felt very wrong, so he pulled over to the side of the road and prepared to check the back seat.
"Why did you stop the car?" Qiu Zimu asked.
Ye Jingan told Qiu Zimu that he felt someone was watching him, and then he sorted out what happened on the road. But when he checked the car, there was nothing.
"I don't feel that way." Qiu Zimu comforted him, "Maybe you didn't sleep well. Let's go back."
"No, I'm not going back. When I was about to agree to go back, I felt uneasy. I always felt that something bad would happen if I went back." Ye Jingan burned a peace amulet in the car. "Get in the car, I'll drive slowly."
"Okay, there aren't many cars on the road ahead anyway, so I'll play some songs for you." Qiu Zimu has always trusted Ye Jing'an's intuition.
I don’t know if it was because of the talisman, but I didn’t feel that cold feeling on my back in the second half of the journey. I didn’t encounter anything strange along the way, and the car arrived at the destination very quickly.
Ye Jingan got out of the car and stretched his arms and legs. The feeling of depression in his heart disappeared. "This land is really good. The grass here is almost as good as your Worm Valley."
"Of course, I chose the right place." Qiu Zimu handed the insect net to Ye Jing'an, "Let's go, get to work!"
Ye Jingan swept the nets a few times, and when he closed them, he saw that they were full of tiny flies and mosquitoes. He asked Yukou, "Little bastard, do you eat mosquitoes and flies?"
The corpse baby ignored him.
"Hey, it won't eat. These little flies and mosquitoes aren't enough to fill its teeth." Ye Jing'an shook the flies out of the net. "Why are there only these little flies? Are there any big ones?"
"There are fewer insects now, and there are more in summer. You have to look carefully." Qiu Zimu squatted on the ground and turned over something.
Ye Jingan walked over to him and saw that his jar was already filled with a large jar of worms: "Fuck, how did you catch these big worms?"
"Look carefully, some like to hide under the leaves. There are also beetles that can feign death. Once you disturb it, it will pretend to be dead and fall to the ground, so there will be some on the ground too." Qiu Zimu just saw one fall and pulled away the grass to let him see.
"Your method of sweeping the net is not quite right." Qiu Zimu taught him carefully.
Ye Jing'an caught some larger locusts and beetles as he said.
"Little guy, come out and eat some bugs." Ye Jing'an let the corpse baby sit on his shoulder and fed the bugs he caught into its mouth.
The corpse baby enjoyed the treatment of having food served to him without having to do anything, and sat obediently on Ye Jingan's shoulder.
As they walked deeper into the forest, the vegetation around them grew denser and denser. There were many more insect species than before, and they could hear insects chirping in the weeds. Small wild fruits grew by the roadside.
"Hey, look in front, is that August bomb?" Qiu Zimu excitedly pointed at the fruit not far away and shouted to Ye Jing'an.
"What...what exploded?" Ye Jing'an looked confused.
Qiu Zimu walked up, picked one, handed it to him and said, "This is it, you haven't eaten it before?"
"I've never seen one before." Ye Jing'an turned the fruit around and looked at it. "Why is it called August Explosion?"
"Because this kind of fruit usually matures around August, and it will explode when it is ripe." Qiu Zimu broke open the fruit and explained to him seriously.
“…” This name is really simple and crude.
Ye Jingan looked at the gray-purple cracked fruit in his hand. Black seeds could be vaguely seen in the white flesh inside. "Can this thing be delicious?"
"You try it." Qiu Zimu started eating first.
Ye Jing'an pursed his lips and gently cracked a little bit of the fruit flesh with his teeth to taste it.
"Mmm! Sweet." He took another big bite, "Delicious!"
This meal opened the door to a new world for Ye Jingan. Although he had picked wild fruits in the mountains before, he had only eaten the two most common fruits, raspberries and jackfruit. He had never even seen or eaten the others, let alone eaten them. Once, he mistook snakeberries for raspberries and ate a lot of them, and ended up vomiting all day.
But Ye Jingan was the kind of person who forgot the pain once the wound had healed, and he didn't dare to eat something that didn't exist. Ye Jingan perfunctorily swept the bugs, but in fact his mind was all on finding wild fruits: "Old Qiu, look up there, aren't there more fruits?"
"Where is it?" Qiu Zimu looked around, "I don't see it."
Ye Jingan pulled him towards the wild fruits.
"Really? Your eyesight is so good!" Qiu Zimu was a little surprised. He could see this tiny thing even though it was far away.
"Of course." Ye Jing'an picked one and opened it to look at it. Suddenly, he felt that the fruit looked familiar. "Hmm? It looks like a kiwi."
"This is a wild kiwi fruit, just a little smaller than the ones we buy." Qiu Zimu said with a smile.
Ye Jingan ate a few and felt that the taste was not as good as the big kiwis he bought, but it was still pretty good. He planned to pick some for Liu Muzhe to take back and try.
After walking a little further, we came across a tree covered in small brown fruits. Some of the fruits were cracked, revealing their red cores. "What are those? They look delicious."
Qiu Zimu thought about it for a long time, but still had no impression of the fruit, but it looked really delicious. The two of them picked one to try, but some things tasted different from what they looked like.
"It doesn't taste good. I won't pick it for Brother Liu." Ye Jing'an threw away the uneaten fruit.
The two of them stopped and walked along the way, and time passed quickly. In the evening, Qiu Zimu took out a lot of tools and prepared light traps.
"What are you doing?" Ye Jing'an picked up the large mercury lamp and looked at it.
"Catching bugs." Qiu Zimu assembled the things and turned on the light.
As soon as the mercury lamp is turned on, the surroundings instantly become as bright as day.
"Your... equipment is pretty good." Ye Jing'an looked at the lamp, his eyes sparkling.
Qiu Zimu nodded: "Yes, there will be a lot of insects coming soon. Release the corpse baby and let it catch and eat it."
Soon, the white cloth was covered with insects, mostly moths, with the occasional katydid or rhinoceros beetle landing on it. It wasn't anything unusual, so Qiu Zimu put the insects he needed into the Gu jar and let the corpse baby eat the rest.
After more than an hour of watching, the insects continued to come. The corpse baby seemed to be full and lay on the ground with its belly turned upside down, motionless.
"It's full, let's go back." Ye Jing'an lifted the dead baby up, but as soon as he let go, it fell down again.
"Why are you the same as Brother Liu!" Ye Jing'an smiled wickedly, grabbed the corpse baby's feet, and carried it upside down.
The corpse baby was unhappy about this. After a lot of crying, it hid in the jade button. Judging from its tone and expression, it seemed like it was scolding Ye Jingan.
The harvest is great, go home and sleep!
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