They haven't eaten meat in a long time since they were trapped in the yard.
Everyone enjoyed the meal.
After finishing their meal, Chi Xiaoyu and Gu Bei neatly stacked the firewood they had gathered from the mountains at the base of the wall.
Seeing that the two children were quite tired, Qiao An'an invited them to go upstairs to rest, but Chi Xiaoyu said, "No need to rest, we need to stock up on more before those people in the community come back."
The reason they can move around in broad daylight is because Chen Zhou and the others aren't here. Even if they were all out there, it would be impossible for two women and a child under one year old in the neighborhood to covet the small courtyard.
However, once Chen Zhou and the others return, Qiao An'an and the others will definitely not be able to freely enter or leave the courtyard. Not only will they not be able to freely enter or leave, but they will also have to monitor the opposite community 24 hours a day to prevent the people on the other side from having any ill intentions.
So Qiao An'an made a quick decision to go up the mountain with the children to collect firewood.
Gu Bei and Chi Xiaoyu had already collected firewood once near the small courtyard. There wasn't much firewood left on the ground, and they didn't want to waste time cutting down trees, so they crossed the hillside and went to the other side of the mountain.
There are several more mountains on the other side of the mountain. They are not a mountain park, but they are forest land and are not frequented by many people.
This is the first time Qiao An'an has come here, even though she has lived here for so long.
Because no one had been there for a long time, there were many leaves and branches piled up on the ground. They picked them up quickly and collected a lot. Just as the three of them were about to head back, Gu Bei tripped over the tangled tree roots on the ground. As he was about to get up, he saw several strangely shaped mushrooms growing where he had fallen. He pointed at the mushrooms and asked the others, "Can we eat these?"
Qiao An'an glanced at it and immediately recognized it. She quickly told the two people to pick it: "I may not recognize other mushrooms, but this one is definitely edible. It's the king of wild mushrooms, matsutake. It's super delicious, I wouldn't trade it for meat."
Hearing Qiao An'an say that she wouldn't even trade meat for it.
Gu Bei hurriedly joined the picking. Just as everyone had almost finished picking the matsutake mushrooms, a fist-sized ball of thorns suddenly fell from above. If it hit someone, it would hurt terribly. Everyone was so frightened that they quickly dodged away.
Only after the spiky ball fell to the ground did everyone look at it.
The spiky ball of fruit burst open, and many small black fruits popped out, but no one recognized what they were.
Qiao An'an found it quite familiar: "This looks a bit like the chestnuts from our farm..."
Gu Bei: "Our chestnuts are much bigger than this. This one is so small. Where can you find chestnuts this small?"
Chi Xiaoyu: "Is it possible that it's a wild chestnut?"
Qiao An'an picked up a piece and put it in her mouth to chew.
Gu Bei was startled: "No, be careful, it might be poisonous! Spit it out quickly!!!"
Qiao An'an was also afraid of dying. At first, she frowned when she ate it, but the more she chewed, the more her brows relaxed: "This tastes like chestnuts, even sweeter than the chestnut tree in our yard!"
Everyone looked up at the towering tree; the chestnuts from this tree would last a long time.
Gu Bei immediately climbed the tree to knock down the chestnuts from the branches. Qiao An'an felt that there would be enough bags to hold so many chestnuts, and since they had already taken a lot of firewood, they definitely wouldn't be able to carry all the chestnuts. So she decided to take the firewood back to the courtyard with Chi Xiaoyu first, and then take bags to put the wild chestnuts in, and also bring one to show Gu Bei's grandfather, just in case it wasn't poisonous.
Anyway, it would take Gu Bei a long time to pick wild chestnuts from the tree.
Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu put the firewood they had collected back in the small courtyard, and after confirming with Grandpa Gu Bei that it was indeed wild chestnut, they took two large bags and headed towards the wild chestnut tree.
Before the two even reached the chestnut tree, they heard Gu Bei shout at them, "Don't come any closer! There are zombies!!!"
Upon hearing the mention of zombies, the two became alert.
But Gu Bei was still in the tree, and they had to go up even if there were zombies.
The two hid in the bushes nearby and slowly approached the wild chestnut tree where Gu Bei was. When they got closer, they saw that there was only one zombie under the tree, and the zombie was desperately ramming against the wild chestnut tree.
Chi Xiaoyu raised her hand to shoot.
Qiao An'an stopped her and whispered to Chi Xiaoyu, "This wild chestnut tree has grown into a towering tree. This zombie can't break through the tree, but every time it hits it, a lot of chestnuts fall down. Why not let it hit it for a while longer? It will save Gu Bei from climbing up and down to pick them."
Chi Xiaoyu felt that this made sense.
Gu Bei had a better view from the tree than the zombies, and he had been keeping an eye on Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu's actions the whole time. He had just seen Chi Xiaoyu trying to deal with the zombies when Qiao An'an stopped her. Gu Bei felt incredibly frustrated.
However, he firmly believed that Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu would not abandon him.
So he didn't think much of it.
He clung tightly to the tree trunk to keep from falling.
Qiao An'an felt that the chestnut had been sufficiently damaged by the zombies under the tree before she stepped out of the bushes and shouted at the zombies, "Hey!!!"
After seeing the living person on the ground, the zombie, its eyes bloodshot, abandoned Gu Bei in the tree and charged towards Qiao An'an.
The zombies hadn't yet reached Qiao An'an.
Chi Xiaoyu also stepped out from the bushes, drew her bow and shot an arrow that struck the charging zombie in the forehead. The zombie immediately fell to the ground and stopped moving.
Only after confirming that the zombie was dead did Gu Bei dare to climb down from the tree.
Qiao An'an asked Gu Bei, "How come there are zombies here? Where did these zombies come from?"
Gu Bei shook his head, still feeling a lingering fear as he recalled the scene of discovering the zombie: "I don't know, I was just picking chestnuts from a tree when it suddenly crashed into the tree. I didn't react in time and almost fell off."
Chi Xiaoyu found a lighter, a knife, food, and a diary on the body of the already dead zombie.
After reading the diary, everyone realized that the zombie was a forest ranger. Judging from the date in his diary, he turned into a zombie not long after the outbreak. The reason he turned into a zombie was that he died of illness.
Because Qiao An'an and the others saw in the forest ranger's diary: "On the third day of the zombie outbreak, I had a very high fever, but I hid in my cabin and dared not go out because the broadcast said that the outside world had been taken over by zombies. I have food and water, so I definitely won't starve to death. But I don't know when this persistent high fever will get better. I feel like my consciousness is starting to blur..."
The next line of text was written crookedly, and it took them a long time to decipher it.
They gleaned two pieces of information from the diary.
First, this forest ranger lives alone, so there's a high probability that no other zombies will appear in the back mountain.
Secondly, this forest ranger has a small cabin, where there is food and drink.
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