Lin Erxi was terrified. She grabbed Song Anxin's arm and sobbed, "..."
"Waaah, Auntie, I hope the big grass and little grass won't be carried away by the wolves in the mountains."
This was also what Song Anxin feared most: what if these two young children encountered wild animals in the mountains? Her brows furrowed even deeper, and she could only lead Erxi deeper into the mountains.
The trees inside were even denser, blocking out the spring sun and making it feel somewhat cold and damp, with the smell of decaying wood. Song Anxin called out Da Xiao's name while her eyes searched around, hoping to spot Da Xiao and Cao.
Perhaps because she was too focused, Song Anxin didn't pay attention to her feet. She tripped over something and fell forward, taking a big tumble.
"Oh my god!"
Song Anxin fell to the ground and couldn't help but cry out. Fortunately, the spring soil was quite soft, so the fall didn't hurt. She was just a little startled by the sudden trip.
She looked down at what had tripped her; it was a piece of dark, rotten wood. But why were there things growing on this dark wood, also dark? Before she could take a closer look, Lin Erxi, who was not far away, rushed over in a panic, crying:
"Second Aunt, Second Aunt, are you alright? Waaah... Second Aunt, if anything happens to you too, I'm doomed! Waaah..."
Seeing her crying like this, Song Anxin had no time to check on the black thing and quickly comforted her:
"It's alright, Erxi, your aunt is fine. The ground is soft. I was just scared. Look, I didn't even get a scratch."
Lin Erxi, with red and swollen eyes, checked her second aunt from head to toe and was relieved to find that she was alright. But thinking that she still hadn't found Da Xiaocao after so long, she sat down on the ground and started crying again.
"Second Aunt, sob sob... I regret not practicing martial arts when I was little. If I could fly around like Brother Qingshan and the others, we wouldn't have been searching for the bamboo shoots for so long. Sob sob... It's all my fault. Why did I bring them here to dig bamboo shoots?"
Lin Erxi sat on the ground, crying with snot and tears streaming down her face.
"Waaaaah, big grass, little grass, where are you?! Waaaaah... big grass, little grass! If anything happens to you, I won't live anymore..."
The sound of Lin Erxi's heartbroken sobs echoed through the mountains and forests.
Just then, Song Anxin, who was also sitting on the ground, seemed to hear something and put her finger to her lips.
"Shh... Erxi, listen, can you hear something?"
"Second...Grandma, Aunt...we're here..."
"Second...Grandma...Auntie...Waaah..."
The sound was very faint and intermittent.
Lin Erxi immediately stopped wailing and pricked up his ears, which made it even clearer to them.
"Auntie, Second Grandma, we're here!"
"Auntie, Second Grandma, boohoo, Little Grass is scared..."
"It's the sound of big and small grass! That's right, Second Aunt, it's the big and small grass!"
Lin Erxi's eyes immediately lit up with excitement. Before she could even wipe away her snot and tears, she and Song Anxin scrambled to their feet and began searching for the location of the large and small grasses, following the sound. Finally, they found the grasses in a large ditch in a dense thicket of bushes.
The pit was about seven or eight feet deep, and it looked like it had been abandoned by hunters a long time ago. For some reason, there was some dry straw in it, but thankfully there was some. The grass and grass probably fell on it and seemed to be fine except for being frightened.
Both of them breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the grass in the pit was safe and sound.
When Big Grass and Little Grass looked up and saw their second maternal grandmother and aunt, they immediately cried even more pitifully.
"Grandma, Auntie, we're so scared of the grass! Please help us out, boohoo..."
"Little grass is scared, Second Grandma and Auntie, please save me..."
Song Anxin looked on with a pained expression.
"Big grass! Little grass! Don't be afraid, your second grandma is coming down to save you."
She turned to Lin Erxi and said, "Erxi, I'm going down. You can use the ropes to pull the grass up from up here."
There are some not far from the vines; they were probably left by hunters before.
After Song Anxin finished speaking, she jumped down. As soon as the two little grasses saw their second maternal grandmother come down, they immediately ran into her arms crying. Song Anxin gently patted their backs to comfort them.
"Don't be afraid, don't cry, your second grandma will get you out of here right away."
"Waaaaah... Second, Second Grandma, the bunny ran away! We chased it, and it fell, it fell down!" Little Grass said pitifully.
Song Anxin thought to herself, "So these two came here chasing rabbits. There are so many rabbits at home. It's really just a child's nature."
Seeing that Da Cao and Xiao Cao had gradually calmed down, she pulled them apart and gently pinched their little noses, saying:
"You can't leave your second maternal grandmother and aunts to run around anymore. There are wild animals in these deep mountains, it's very dangerous. Luckily you didn't encounter any this time."
Da Cao and Xiao Cao nodded emphatically, both promising not to run around again. Da Cao seemed to have thought of something, and pulled a "flower" from his pocket, presenting it to Song Anxin like a treasure.
"But we picked some beautiful white flowers, they're so pretty, we'll give them to my second maternal grandmother."
With tears streaming down her face, Da Cao held up the flowers she had picked, her nose bubbling with snot, and smiled sweetly.
"There are some grasses here too, I'll give them to my second maternal grandmother."
Xiao Cao quickly took a flower from her bosom and gave it to Song Anxin.
Song Anxin was utterly stunned when she saw the two white "flowers." These weren't flowers at all! These layers of curled little snowflakes looked like silver ear fungus!
She swallowed hard and asked, "Big and small grass, where did you pick these flowers? Do you have any more?"
Upon hearing this, Da Xiaocao took out all the little flowers from her arms: "There are more, this is for Grandma, this is for Mom, this is for Aunt, oh, and this is for my eldest aunt."
Song Anxin was utterly stunned. They had actually pulled out seven or eight silver ear fungus, and each one was of excellent quality, with a bright white color, glossy appearance, and large, plump size.
It should be noted that white fungus was an extremely expensive item in that era, and those of such excellent quality were even rarer, only affordable to wealthy officials and nobles in prosperous areas.
Last time, Madam Su said she made tremella soup for Lin Taohua, which must have been quite expensive, but the tremella there certainly wouldn't have been of such good quality.
Da Xiaocao pulled Song Anxin to a corner of the pit. The bottom of the pit was quite wide, about ten zhang (approximately 33 meters), but it narrowed as they approached the edge.
"Second Grandma, look, this is where we picked these flowers," Da Cao said, pointing to a half-rotten tree trunk in a corner.
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