Li Qingyun arrived at the foot of the back mountain, where Aunt Jiang and her two daughters-in-law were already waiting.
"Aunt, sisters-in-law, I've kept you waiting for a long time."
"We just arrived too. Tingzhou's wife, let's go." The few of them said hello and headed up the mountain.
Although Aunt Jiang's two daughters-in-law didn't know Li Qingyun very well, after hearing what their mother-in-law said about her taking the meat, they were willing to make friends with her. After all, no one can refuse money.
As a northerner, it was her first time to go up the mountain to harvest mountain products by herself. She made up her mind to talk less and observe how others harvested. Once she understood it well, she would go her separate ways to avoid being exposed.
We met several groups of people along the way, all of them were women and teenagers. Aunt Jiang said that it was not yet the time for large-scale harvesting. In half a month, everyone in the family, including the strong laborers, would join in. Now they were just small-scale harvesters, picking as many as they could.
It is a tacit understanding that whoever picks the things from the mountain owns them, and no one will make a big deal out of it. Who doesn’t pick mountain products to eat?
However, people did not dare to take prey for themselves openly. Some people were greedy and would secretly take home pheasants or rabbits they hunted in the mountains, or roast them on the spot and eat them. If they were seen, they would be punished.
The few of them talked and laughed, and after walking for about ten or twenty minutes, they arrived at the dense forest. Li Qingyun also had a general understanding of the situation. Along the way, the few of them put some mountain products they found in their backpacks.
"Grandma Jiang, hello everyone."
As they were talking, a skinny, half-grown boy came towards them. He was so thin that his bones were visible, but he was carrying a huge backpack that was several times wider than himself. The backpack was full to the brim, as if it could crush him at any time. Every step he took was like walking on the edge of a knife, and he was staggering.
Li Qingyun was stunned for a few seconds, and then she recalled her original body's memory and found that this was the Erniu with an extraordinary life experience that Gu Tingzhou had mentioned.
"It's Erniu. You got up so early and filled a whole basket." Aunt Jiang was a little surprised and felt sorry for the child.
Erniu's eyes were dull and numb, and he looked very depressed. He came here before dawn today, hungry and tired.
"Grandma Jiang, I came here before dawn." He then looked at Li Qingyun and said, "Aunt Li, do you have enough firewood? I've been busy these past two days, so it might take a few days before I can bring you some."
"I have more at home. You can go about your business first. Have you eaten? Auntie has some cakes here." Li Qingyun said as she went to take out her backpack.
"That's good. Auntie, don't take it. I've eaten and I'll leave first." Erniu lowered his head, carrying the backpack and quickening his pace.
Several people looked at his frail back and sighed deeply.
"This child has a hard life. Fortunately, you help him every month. Otherwise, I don't know how he would survive." Aunt Jiang sighed. "If Erniu's father in heaven saw how hard this child is going through, he would be so sad."
Li Qingyun didn't expect that her original lazy behavior was misunderstood as kindness. Her original body didn't want to chop firewood, so she thought of a way.
She asked Erniu to help her chop firewood and gave him some money and food. Because Erniu lived a miserable life, everyone turned a blind eye to their behavior.
"I can only help a little and prevent him from starving to death." Li Qingyun felt a little ashamed.
"It's already pretty good. It's not easy for anyone."
Erniu's father is a disabled person with a slight limp. He learned some skills of repairing bowls, plates and porcelain basins from others in his early years. He has been working outside with his belongings all year round to make a living, going wherever he goes.
Later, everyone thought he had died outside, but unexpectedly, he suddenly returned home with a newborn child, and this child was Erniu.
From then on, he lived in the village with Erniu and never went out again. They lived by the mountain and the water, and the father and son lived a simple and happy life.
When Erniu was five years old, his father went to fetch water and accidentally fell into the river and never got up, and died like that.
Erniu became an unwanted child. The family had already divided up, and his grandparents lived with his second uncle, and they never liked him.
Later, for some reason, they changed their minds and said they were willing to take care of him. They moved out of Erniu's house, but made him sleep in the kitchen and eat their leftovers.
From then on, Erniu became a farmhand in their family. He worked from dawn to dusk but never had enough to eat. When Erniu turned fourteen, he was kicked out of the house.
They didn't want to support him anymore, but made him continue to work for the family.
Erniu returned to his and his father's home and gradually settled down with the help of some kind people in the village. The villagers also took care of him and gave him six work points a day, so that he earned enough throughout the year to not starve.
But he was small, and was often exploited, beaten and scolded by his uncle and aunt, and had to work for them, so he always ate little and worked a lot, and was so thin that his bones were visible.
Today he was forced by his second aunt to come and pick mountain products.
Li Qingyun felt very sad when she thought of Erniu. He was just a fifteen-year-old child. In later generations, fifteen-year-old children would still be in junior high school, but Erniu was already struggling to support himself.
I'll take better care of him when I have the chance.
The four of them found a large hazelnut forest and started picking them quickly.
Aunt Jiang and her two companions picked enough hazelnuts to fill a backpack, and then they stopped picking. They only had three backpacks and could not use them all for picking hazelnuts, so they had to look for other mountain products.
Seeing them stop, Li Qingyun thought, good opportunity
"Aunt Jiang, if you don't want to pick hazelnuts anymore, go ahead. I'm slow, so I'll pick them for a while. I finally came across this one."
Aunt Jiang told her to be careful and not to go too deep, and then she left with her two daughters-in-law.
Li Qingyun found a pair of nylon gloves from the space and put them on. He harvested like a storm and soon finished picking all the fruits in the area, filling three backpacks.
During this period, every time she filled a basket, she would check to see if there was anyone around, then quietly smuggle the hazelnuts into the space, find a few large boxes to pack them up, and take them back to deal with them later.
During this period, I took out some things from the space and freed up a lot of space, so I don’t have to worry about not having enough space.
Following the principle of plucking feathers from passing geese, she also picked all the hazel mushrooms under the hazelnut tree, filling up most of the backpack, and put them into the space.
Hazel mushrooms are an important ingredient in chicken stewed with mushrooms, and they have a very strong mushroom flavor.
In later generations, hazel mushrooms became a rare delicacy. Dried hazel mushrooms cost more than 70 yuan per kilogram, and there was no guarantee that they were wild.
Hazel mushrooms are not a rare thing nowadays. They can be found wherever there are hazelnut trees. There are many mountain products that are better than hazel mushrooms, so Aunt Jiang and the others didn’t like them just now.
Carrying the empty backpack, Li Qingyun continued to move forward.
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