Going down the mountain
After sitting in the pavilion for a while, the spirits of several people were restored.
But there are only maple trees here. At first glance, it is quite stunning and beautiful, but after a while, it becomes a bit monotonous and boring.
Seeing that Liu Anan was losing interest, Shi Yanqing thought for a moment and made a suggestion.
"I heard there's a stream in the back mountain. Why don't we go there and catch some fish and grill them? I happened to have a pot and a stove with me, along with all the seasonings. By the time the fish is grilled, it'll be almost time for dinner. We can get some cakes and have lunch."
Grilled fish? Liu Anan's eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly.
When she went out for fun before, she always ate dry food and biscuits, and had never caught fish or chickens to eat. Now, when she heard Shi Yanqing's suggestion, she felt it was novel and interesting, and she couldn't wait to set off.
It is said to be a stream, but it was a river a long time ago, and it became a waterfall when it flowed to the cliff.
Because of the fire that fell from the sky, the trees on the top of the mountain were almost burned to ashes. It rains frequently in this area, and mudslides occur from time to time, blocking the end of the river and flooding it.
Later, the county magistrate organized the people to plant trees on the mountain. After more than ten years of persistence, the environment on the mountain recovered and the grass and trees took root in the soil again.
Now the mountain has not recovered to its original appearance, but it has recovered half of it. At least the frequent mudslides have become less common.
They left as soon as they said they would, and Danye and Taoye packed up the pastries and maple leaves on the stone table.
Before leaving, Liu Anan suddenly felt abdominal pain. She frowned, leaned close to Shi Yanqing's ear, and whispered in a very low voice.
"Yanqing, I want to go to the toilet. Please come with me."
"Okay."
Shi Yanqing felt a little helpless. She stood up and nodded to Bai Fenghua, then pulled Liu Anan and walked towards the temple entrance.
"Miss Bai, what's wrong with my wife?" Dan Ye didn't hear what Liu Anan said at all, and asked in confusion.
Bai Fenghua has been practicing martial arts since she was a child, and her hearing is better than others. Naturally, she heard what Liu Anan said.
However, going to the toilet is something that should not be told to others.
Bai Fenghua shook her head, showing no intention of saying anything.
"It's okay, let's go to the stream first, they will come over later."
this……
Danye and the others looked at each other, and finally listened to Bai Fenghua's words and set off for the stream.
The stream is on the west side of the maple forest, very close to the location where the maple viewing party is held.
However, Tanye and the others did not meet the scholar when they went there, so they did not know about this matter.
When they arrived, Danye took the coarse cloth out of the package, tore it apart together with Taoye, and spread it flat on the grass.
The two of them deftly placed the small stove, small pot, dry vermicelli and other things that would be needed later on the coarse cloth, then took out a fire starter and made a small fire pit on the open ground with dry branches and dead leaves.
Qingjiu and Qingbai took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their trouser legs, and walked into the stream barefoot.
As soon as they stepped in, their bodies shivered because of the cold stream water.
"Okay, you two come up quickly. It's winter now, and you're still touching the cold water barefoot. Are you afraid that you won't get sick?" Bai Fenghua turned around and saw the two of them like this, and couldn't help but speak.
Upon hearing this, Qingjiu immediately pulled Qingbai's arm and came over.
He looked behind Bai Fenghua and saw that Shi Yanqing and Liu Anan had not returned yet, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"The sun is out today, and I thought the stream wouldn't be too cold, so I wanted to catch the fish before Madam comes back."
After hearing such a realistic reason, Bai Fenghua was speechless for a moment.
On the other side, Shi Yanqing was waiting for Liu Anan under the maple tree in the temple courtyard.
This maple tree is so huge that it takes three people to hug it with their arms around it. Some of the roots are exposed outside the ground, winding and twisting, and the thinnest ones are sometimes as big as Yan Qing's arms.
Shi Yanqing raised his arm and gestured to the tree roots, feeling a little surprised.
"Amitabha, the donor is lost."
Shi Yanqing lowered her raised arm upon hearing this. She turned around and looked at the person who spoke, who was an old monk.
Judging from his attire, he doesn't look like an ordinary monk. Could he be the abbot of the temple?
She thought so in her heart.
"It was just my first time seeing such big trees, and I was curious, so I stopped here."
"This maple tree was planted three hundred years ago when Puxian Temple was built. At that time, the tree was not so big, only as thick as an arm, but now it is more than an arm's thickness." The old monk's tone was quite emotional, with a bit of vicissitudes of life in his voice.
"Since you are not lost, I will go and chant the sutras first."
Shi Yanqing nodded. She stood there and watched the old monk leave. She only looked away after his back disappeared around the corner.
She walked closer to the tree trunk, raised her hand and touched it, and her palm felt rough and dry.
"Yanqing, what are you doing?"
Liu Anan wiped the water stains off her hands with a handkerchief. After she was done, she folded the half-wet handkerchief and put it into her sleeve pocket. She walked to Shi Yanqing and stopped, looking at her curiously.
When he heard Liu Anan's voice, Shi Yanqing withdrew his hand.
Her palms were covered with dust and dirt from the tree trunk, and were now gray and dirty.
Shi Yanqing shook his head. "Nothing. I was just looking at the tree."
"Wow, this tree is so big? Why didn't I notice it just now?" Liu Anan exclaimed.
The two of them stayed in the temple for a long time. Thinking that Bai Fenghua and the others were still waiting by the stream, they quickly left Puxian Temple.
After they left, a monk pushed the door open and came out. He looked at the empty courtyard and breathed a sigh of relief.
Originally, we wanted to catch some fish and grill them, but the stream was too cold to go into the water to catch them, and we didn't have any fishing or catching tools, so in the end, the plan was left unfinished.
Since they didn't catch any fish, they cooked vermicelli in a pot for lunch.
Fortunately, Danye brought a lot of vermicelli, otherwise it would be difficult to eat a full lunch.
After dinner, Shi Yanqing and the others also felt sleepy.
They originally had the habit of taking a nap, but now that they were full and their hunger was gone, they felt sleepy instead.
"No, I'm so sleepy." Liu Anan said while yawning.
She didn't sleep well last night and got up early today. After coming here, she climbed the mountain and played in the maple forest for a while. She was already exhausted and tired.
"I have some too. Why don't we go down the mountain first and have a good rest in the carriage." Shi Yanqing rubbed his eyebrows and tried to cheer himself up.
"Let's go, let's go. I'm so sleepy that I can't even open my eyes." Bai Fenghua stood up, looking like she was ready to go down the mountain.
However, when they packed up and prepared to go down the mountain, they found that the way down the mountain was blocked.
"Qingjiu, go and see what's going on." Shi Yanqing ordered.
Qingjiu received the order and first handed the thing in his hand to Qingbai, then trotted over to see what was happening.
He ran to the outside of the crowd and squeezed in through the gap. When he finally reached the front, he saw a man lying on the ground with his eyes closed and his lips pale black.
"Madam, I saw a person lying on the ground with black lips. I'm afraid he may have eaten something poisonous."
Hearing that someone was poisoned, Shi Yanqing immediately walked towards the group of people.
"I'm a doctor, please get out of the way."
When the scholars heard someone say that she was a doctor, they immediately stepped aside to make way.
"Doctor Shi?" The speaker was a scholar in his early twenties.
After hearing this, the person next to him asked curiously, "Brother Liu, do you know this female doctor?"
Liu Xiulan nodded and whispered to her friend, "It was this Doctor Shi who cured my sister's illness."
It turns out that Liu Xiulan is the youngest son of the Liu family's patriarch and Liu Duo'er's younger brother. When Shi Yanqing went to the Liu family's house to treat Liu Duo'er's illness, Liu Xiulan had seen her from a distance. He had a great impression of the doctor who cured his sister and was grateful to him.
"It turns out to be her." Obviously, Liu Xiulan's friends had also heard of Shi Yanqing's reputation.
Shi Yanqing squatted down to take the pulse of the person who had fainted on the ground. After a moment, she stood up and looked at the people around her and asked.
"What did this young master eat just now? Can you take it out and let me see it?"
"Brother Lin hadn't eaten yet. We were planning to go to the Zhuiyue Tower in the county for dinner, but halfway up the mountain, he suddenly collapsed. No matter how hard we tried to call him, he wouldn't wake up."
Although Liu Xiulan and Lin Jian's relationship is not close, because of the status of the Liu and Lin families in the county, they can chat with each other when they meet.
Lin Jian had been chatting with him just now, so he naturally knew whether Lin Jian had eaten or not.
"Could it be that Brother Lin was really poisoned? But since the autumn leaf viewing party started, we haven't eaten anything, just some tea."
"Could it be that the tea is poisonous?"
"How could the tea be poisonous? So many of us drank it. If it was poisonous, shouldn't we all be poisoned together?"
Seeing that they were about to stray from the topic, Shi Yanqing spoke up and asked again.
"Since you are drinking the same tea, could you please let me check the remaining tea?"
"Of course there's no problem." Liu Xiulan just had some water left to drink, so he took off the bamboo water bag from his waist and handed it to Shi Yanqing.
Shi Yanqing took it, opened the lid of the bamboo tube, poured a little tea on the handkerchief, and brought the handkerchief to his nose and smelled it carefully.
"It's the finest spring snow from the mountains. It has a sweet and light scent. There's no medicinal powder in it, so it's not poisonous."
"Just tell me, how could this tea be poisonous?"
"Just in case, it would be reassuring to check it out."
"Since the tea is not poisonous, what kind of poison did Brother Lin get poisoned by? Does Doctor Shi have any idea?" Liu Xiulan asked in confusion.
Shi Yanqing smiled softly upon hearing this, "I didn't say he was poisoned."
"What? He wasn't poisoned?"
"If he wasn't poisoned, why were his lips black and why did he faint for no apparent reason?"
"That's right, what's going on?"
Liu Xiulan was also confused at this moment, "Doctor Shi, Brother Lin is not poisoned, so what is he doing now?"
"He's fainted from hunger. You should quickly send him down the mountain and prepare something to eat for him." Shi Yanqing shook his head helplessly. "As for why his lips are black, I guess he accidentally rubbed some ink on them."
"Look at his right finger. Are there traces of ink left on it?"
"It really is." A scholar who wanted to verify it squatted down and spread out Lin Jian's fingers, and there were indeed ink stains on them.
"I didn't expect that he fainted from hunger," Liu Xiulan couldn't help but feel funny in her heart, and at the same time she also expected that Lin Jian would not go out again for half a month after that.
After the matter was resolved, Liu Xiulan called on a few strong scholars to carry Lin Jian down the mountain. She also asked people to buy sweet soup and food, intending to fill Lin Jian's stomach after he woke up.
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