"Didn't you say you also grew termite mushrooms? Do you want to take me to see them?" Looking at Yun Duo's smiling face, Li Bingchen hesitated for a long time before finally making up his mind to tell her about how his father had rejected his suggestion to raise silkworms.
Yun Duo noticed that Li Bingchen hesitated several times before speaking, and guessed that he had something to say to her. So when she heard Li Bingchen's words, she nodded and said, "Okay, there are two clumps in the backyard that should be sprouting today. I'll take you to see them."
"Okay." Li Bingchen pursed his lips and said somewhat absentmindedly.
Yun Duo then took Li Bingchen's hand and led him along the wall towards the backyard. Passing by the beehives, she pointed them out to Li Bingchen: "Look, these are the bees I told you about, the ones we raise ourselves. We're busy planting corn these days, so we haven't had time to harvest sugar. Once the corn is planted, we can harvest the sugar. We can sell it for several yuan then. This is only because these bees are a new colony; we need to leave them enough sugar to grow. Otherwise, we could sell it for ten yuan."
"Hmm." Li Bingchen nodded, his body slightly stiff as he followed Yun Duo past the swarm of bees.
He was still a little afraid of these little things. If he hadn't had no other choice, he wouldn't have bothered with the beehive. Of course, if it weren't for that, he and Yunduo wouldn't have met.
"Look, this is it."
The Yun family's old courtyard was shady, located on the edge of the village, right next to a slope. So the two clumps of termite mushrooms actually grew at the foot of the slope. Because Yun Duo had been watering them, the area where the mushrooms grew was still damp, covered with a thick layer of withered leaves—leaves that Yun Duo had also brought. Above the withered leaves, a few small, shallow buds were visible.
Squatting down and looking at the newly sprouted termite mushrooms under Yun Duo's guidance, Li Bingchen was somewhat surprised and couldn't help but ask, "How come there are so many in one clump?"
As he spoke, he looked at the other side, where there was also a large clump, and his surprise became even more evident. A month ago, he had also gone to the woods with the farm boy to look for mushrooms after the rain, so he naturally knew that mushrooms usually grow in single or at most a few clusters, and it was rare to see such a large clump.
"Perhaps this place is suitable for the growth of termite mushrooms?" Yun Duo touched her nose and said hesitantly. After thinking for a moment, she felt that her statement was not convincing at all, so she spoke again: "It could also be that this termite colony is large enough."
She didn't genuinely want to lie to Li Bingchen; it was just that she couldn't say it. She couldn't very well say it was because of Xiao Jiu.
However, Li Bingchen somewhat agreed with Yun Duo's latter explanation. Although Yun Duo couldn't explain the relationship between termites and chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms, Li Bingchen actually knew some biological knowledge in this area, so he nodded and said, "That's possible."
She wondered, "These two termite colonies are so close together, don't they fight?"
They really don't fight! After all, they're all 'obeying' Xiao Jiu's orders.
However, I can't say that either.
So, Yunduo just shook her head and said, "I don't know, maybe they'll have to fight?" She paused, pretending to think, and then continued, "Do you think it's possible that they're desperately trying to grow stronger because they know there's another group of termites nearby, so they won't be at a disadvantage in a fight?"
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