Seeing that Fu Man'er was practically floating on air from all the flattery, Xu Yi kicked her in the buttocks and said, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and pick it up, or someone will see you."
The things on the mountain don't belong to anyone; if people see them, they'll come and pick them.
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The three boys understood this, so they put down the bamboo baskets and quickly filled them with ingredients. In no time, both baskets were full, but there were still mushrooms under the decaying leaves.
"Brother, they're both full." Xu Wen put the two bamboo baskets together.
There are still so many on the ground; they're not willing to leave them here for others to pick up. They could take them to town and exchange them for a few copper coins.
Xu Yi pulled some wild grass to cover it. "Xiao Wen, let's carry it home first. Mao'er, Xiao Wu, you two wait here and cover the leaves back up so no one else can find out."
As the eldest brother, Xu Yi made the arrangements and everyone started to get to work. Fu Man'er, whose name hadn't been mentioned, got anxious and asked, "Brother, what about me?"
She tried to stand up, but lost her balance and fell flat on her backside. The little girl was still clueless as to what had happened.
The Xu brothers burst into laughter, and even Xu Yi couldn't help but smile. Seeing everyone laughing, even though he didn't know what they were laughing about, Fu Man'er also chuckled foolishly.
Xu Yi reached under her armpits and easily lifted her up. "You just need to stay here and watch over the mushrooms."
He didn't expect the little girl to do anything; he just wanted her to wait for him to come back. Before leaving, Xu Yi gave her a few words of advice, "Mao'er, Xiao Wu, you two take care of yourselves and keep an eye on your little sister."
The two men patted their chests and made solemn promises, but for some reason, seeing their confident expressions, Xu Yi trusted them even less.
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Thinking to myself, I must go and come back quickly.
The young Xu hadn't been up the mountain long before he was already carrying a bamboo basket back down, which aroused the curiosity of passersby. "Xu Yi, you guys picked up pretty quickly today, you're already heading down the mountain."
"I didn't find much, but the wild grass looks nice, I'll take some back to feed the chickens," Xu Yi said as he walked.
Someone looked up and saw that the bamboo basket was indeed filled with wild grass. Their tone became sympathetic again, "It's good. It'll feed your chickens a little better. Even if they can't lay eggs, they can still gain some weight and earn a few coins."
"That's right. I don't know what's wrong with their chickens, they don't lay eggs. I would have sold them long ago. Why keep them? They're so stupid."
The Xu brothers left quickly, disappearing without a word. They didn't care what the people above said.
Instead of listening to these people chattering away, it's better to go home early; the wild mushrooms on the mountain are waiting for them.
The three children on the flat ground quickly pushed the rotten leaves back, one hand on each other. Fu Man'er even stomped on the ground a few more times so that no one could see it.
"Hey, Xu Mao, what are you doing?" a sharp voice rang out.
Xu Mao turned around and his expression changed. "Chen Ergou."
Chen Ergou was followed by three or four children, who looked like they had just come down from the mountaintop.
"Did you find some wild mushrooms?" Chen Ergou jumped down from the earthen embankment. He had seen the children deliberately pushing the decaying leaves back up.
"No, no, mushrooms only grow on mountaintops, not here." Xu Wu's words were more of a cover-up than a confirmation, which only strengthened Chen Ergou's belief that there were mushrooms here.
The boys following behind also jumped down and were about to walk onto the flat ground when they heard, "No, you're not allowed to come here."
Xu Mao and Xu Wu reached out to stop them. They were the ones who found it first, and they couldn't let these people take it.
Chen Ergou glanced around to make sure there were only these two people, then forcefully shoved them aside. "Why aren't you allowed to come? Doesn't your Xu family live in the back mountain? What are you doing in the front mountain? I haven't even chased you away yet."
Chen Ergou was only eight years old, but he was tall and strong. Xu Mao knew he was no match for them. "My brother will be here soon. You're going to get a lesson."
Xu Yi was a sore spot for Chen Ergou. That kid was the king of the kids in the village. If he hadn't been out playing much lately, Chen Ergou wouldn't have been so arrogant.
"Brother Er Gou." The people following behind him were still a little afraid of Xu Yi, and they hesitated.
Fu Man'er was furious when she saw these people pushing the Xu brothers. She ran up to Chen Ergou and said with great momentum, "My brother will teach you a lesson."
This really got Chen Ergou fired up. Don't I have any dignity?
How dare a little girl talk to him like that? She's so disrespectful. Does he think he's afraid of Xu Yi?
"Let's see how Xu Yi teaches me a lesson. These things on the mountain don't belong to him. I just took them, so what?" Chen Ergou was also afraid of Xu Yi after being beaten, so this time he learned his lesson.
He stopped fighting. "Come on, let's go inside. We won't fight, we'll pick mushrooms."
Now that the Xu brothers were no match for him, Chen Ergou couldn't help but admire his own cleverness.
"Shameless." Xu Mao wanted to stop them, but Xu Wen grabbed his sleeve. They really had no reason to stop them, but they could hurry up and pick mushrooms.
"Brother Er Gou, the mushrooms here are really good." Chen Er Gou and his group had reached the innermost part of the flat area. When they saw the mushrooms under the decaying leaves, their eyes widened. They were even better than the ones on the mountaintop.
"Brother Er Gou, these are different from the ones we picked on the mountaintop." Someone noticed that the two types of mushrooms were indeed different.
Chen Ergou slapped him across the face. "You idiot! How can the big ones be the same as the small ones? Hurry up and put them all into my basket!"
I originally thought there would be a lot, but after turning over all the decaying leaves, I only filled a small half basket. Each one was particularly large and looked very appetizing.
"Brother Er Gou, it's gone. We haven't found it yet." After searching around, there was nothing left on the ground. The little follower kept looking into Chen Er Gou's bamboo basket.
Having received some good stuff, Chen Ergou was generous today, giving them the small mushrooms he had picked on the mountaintop. "Here, don't say your big brother didn't protect you."
How can this be the same? The few lackeys were also afraid of getting beaten up, thinking that having something was better than having nothing, so they resigned themselves to carrying bamboo baskets and following behind Chen Ergou.
He walked up to the Xu brothers, glanced at the finger-length mushroom next to them, and gave a disdainful laugh, like a proud rooster. But after taking a few steps, his eyes fixed on it.
Because Fu Man'er was holding a larger cluster of mushrooms, light brown in color, which were not only big but also beautiful, he glanced behind him and, seeing that the Xu brothers were not paying attention, bent down.
Here you go.
Fu Man'er finally managed to pick up the mushroom from under the tree roots, and was about to show it to her two older brothers when she felt a gust of wind pass by her ear, and then her hands were empty.
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