Chapter 52 Picking Hazel Mushrooms
The two of them went up the mountain from the nearby path, with Lu Fengqin leading the way and Su Mo following behind.
The mountain here is a section of the Wanda Mountains, called Bukai Mountain.
The Lujia Village Production Brigade is distributed horizontally along the foot of Bukai Mountain. There are several small paths going up the mountain from the beginning to the end of the village, so no one else was seen along the way.
Su Mo chatted with Lu Fengqin as they walked: "Fengqin, are you in school?"
"Yes, I'm in the second grade." Lu Fengqin said, a little proud. Many girls in the brigade did not go to school, but she did.
Children at that time went to school late, and most of them were sent to school at the age of eight or nine. At that time, elementary school was a five-year system, junior high school was a two-year system, and high school was a two-year system.
"Why didn't you go to school today?" If she skipped school just to accompany her to harvest, she would be guilty .
"It's still the autumn harvest holiday, and we won't be back to school until
two days later." Lu Fengqin said. Education at that time was more casual. Schools in rural areas would have a long autumn harvest holiday when the autumn harvest came.
"Oh, how much does it cost for you to go to school?" Su Mo was a little curious.
"Tuition and miscellaneous fees are one yuan per semester, and textbooks are fifty cents, so one yuan and fifty cents for a semester." Lu Fengqin said.
Su Mo nodded. That's really not expensive. You have to know that in later generations, there are many aristocratic schools with sky-high prices, and kindergartens are also very expensive. Ordinary people even jokingly call them "kindergarten college students", which means that the tuition for kindergarten is more expensive than that for college students.
"Have your brothers and sisters gone to school?"
"The second sister didn't go, she will go next year, and the eldest brother went this year." The second sister mentioned by Lu Fengqin refers to her younger sister Lu Aiqin, and the eldest brother refers to Lu Weiguo's eldest son Lu Guodong.
The two are both 7 years old, and the boy went to school one year earlier than the girl. Although the Lu family does not favor boys over girls, under the overall atmosphere, they still prefer boys.
"Then where did they go? Why didn't they go together to harvest the crops?"
"Second sister and eldest brother went to collect pig grass." Lu Fengqin said. If she hadn't taken Third Aunt to harvest the crops, she would have gone to collect pig grass to earn work points.
Su Mo was embarrassed. It seemed that she had delayed Lu Fengqin from collecting pig grass.
"By the way, what is the pig grass you collected? Is it a specific kind of grass?"
Su Mo was very curious when she read novels. Every novel talked about collecting pig grass. What exactly is this pig grass?
Lu Fengqin smiled secretly. Third Aunt was indeed from a big city. She didn't even know what pig grass was.
"There are many kinds of pigweed, as long as pigs can eat it, it's fine. We usually look for sedge, amaranth, hollyhock, bitter endive, ryegrass, etc. Shepherd's purse, which the elderly don't eat, can also be dug up for pigweed." Lu Fengqin answered carefully.
Su Mo smiled embarrassedly, "Auntie has never seen these before, so she's a little curious."
"It's okay, my mother said that Auntie is from a big city, so it's normal that she doesn't know these."
The two chatted all the way, and after more than half an hour, they arrived at the outskirts of Bukai Mountain. At this time, the leaves of the trees began to turn yellow. It was the most beautiful season. The whole mountain turned on the color mode, yellow, red, green, and colorful, making people feel like they were in a painting.
Both the original owner and Su Mo were from the south and rarely saw such beautiful scenery. They couldn't help but sigh: "It's so beautiful!"
Lu Fengqin looked around and couldn't see what was beautiful at all.
"Auntie, are you going to pick hazel mushrooms?" Lu Fengqin asked.
"Yes, but not necessarily hazel mushrooms. Just pick whatever you can find." Su Mo said.
In the forest, feeling the rich wood energy around her, Su Mo felt very comfortable.
"Okay, I know where there are hazel mushrooms. I picked them some time ago. There are still many small ones there. Auntie, I'll take you there." Lu Fengqin said, and led the way in front.
Su Mo hurried to catch up, and as she walked, she stretched out her hand and kept touching the plants around her to absorb energy.
About ten or twenty minutes later, Lu Fengqin brought Su Mo to a shady slope, "Auntie, this is it. I picked a large basket of hazel mushrooms here some time ago."
Su Mo nodded, and the two of them started looking for hazel mushrooms in this area. They soon found a patch of hazel mushrooms. Although they were sparse, there were still a lot of them. The two of them quickly squatted down and started picking.
Soon, both of their baskets were covered with a layer of hazel mushrooms.
At this time, voices were heard not far away. Three little girls came chattering. When they saw Lu Fengqin, they shouted, "Lu Fengqin, what are you doing there? Are you picking hazel mushrooms?"
Lu Fengqin heard the voices and stood up quickly, opened her arms, and looked like a guard: "Lu Lanhua, we found this place first, you can go find it somewhere else."
Lu Lanhua curled her lips in disdain, "The mountain belongs to everyone. Why can't we pick it just because you found it?" As she spoke, she continued to walk forward.
When she got closer, she found that the person next to Lu Fengqin was not her sister, but a very good-looking adult.
"Lu Fengqin, who is this person?"
"My third aunt." Lu Fengqin puffed out her chest, her third uncle was the pride of her family.
Everyone in Lujia Village knew that Lu Changzheng was a military officer, and the children were afraid of him, so they were also a little scared of Su Mo, the wife of a military officer. Seeing that Su Mo didn't say anything, but just stared at them, the three of them backed off.
"Then you guys pick them, we'll go look somewhere else." Lu Lanhua said, and then took the other two away.
"Do they often bully you?" Su Mo asked in a low voice after they left.
"Not really, it's mainly because her grandmother doesn't get along with my grandmother, so she doesn't get along with me either." Lu Fengqin said. Her grandfather is the secretary of the branch, her father is an accountant, and her third uncle is also a military officer. There are really not many children in the brigade who dare to bully her.
Lu Lanhua is Li Cuihua's granddaughter.
"Auntie, let's hurry up and pick them, or someone else will come soon." Lu Fengqin said.
"Okay, then let's pick them separately. I'll look here and you look there." Su Mo said.
After separating from Lu Fengqin, Su Mo looked for hazel mushrooms while absorbing the wood energy of the weeds and surrounding trees.
The weeds would die in winter anyway, so she absorbed all of them. As for the trees, she absorbed about one-fifth of the energy from each tree, leaving them enough energy to survive the winter. For some trees that looked weak, she would secretly transfer some energy to them.
After finding the hazel mushrooms, Su Mo would use her supernatural power to stimulate the growth of any hyphae around them, and soon, a patch of hazel mushrooms grew in the ground again. As Su Mo picked the hazel mushrooms, she put most of them into the space and only put a small part into the backpack.
After searching all the slopes, Su Mo's backpack was already half full, and there was probably enough space for two more backpacks.
At this time, Lu Fengqin also called from a distance, "Auntie, have you finished searching over there?"
"I have no more over here, how about yours?" Su Mo said as she walked towards Lu Fengqin.
"I have also finished picking." Lu Fengqin replied. Children who are used to walking in the mountains are very fast, and soon, Lu Fengqin was next to Su Mo.
"Auntie, how much have you picked?"
Su Mo put down the backpack to show her. Lu Fengqin was very happy to see that most of the backpack was full, and the task given to her by her grandmother was completed.
"I also have half a backpack." Lu Fengqin handed her backpack to Su Mo to see.
"It's getting late, let's go back first." Su Mo said. It was almost 11 o'clock and it would take an hour to walk back from here.
After arriving home, Su Mo asked Lu Fengqin to wait in the yard for a while, and she went back to the house, pretending to take a small handful of about seven or eight fruit candies from the house, but actually from the space, and gave them to Lu Fengqin.
Lu Fengqin was very happy to see so many fruit candies, and went home happily.
Before leaving, she shouted loudly: "Aunt, I will take you to pick pine nuts, chestnuts, and walnuts in the afternoon."