"Why don't we go and take a look together sometime? Grandpa Zhao hasn't come down the mountain since he came here. Now that Ze'er is all grown up, he can travel far away, so we don't need to leave him at home to watch over him."
“I think it’s a good idea. The county town should be back to normal now. Let’s go down the mountain together and have some fun,” Lu Chuan agreed.
"Okay, hahaha, then I'll go with you guys to take a look," Grandpa Zhao agreed.
"Mu'er has never been down the mountain before, it's time to let him go out and see the world."
"Yes, although the mountains are nice, he also needs to see the outside world."
"Mu'er, we're going out to play. Aren't you excited?" Lu Chuan asked.
"Go out to play? Is Father taking me up the mountain?" Mu'er asked, puzzled.
"Haha, it's not going up the mountain, it's going to a place you've never been before. We'll go together, Daddy and Mommy will come with you," Xu Han explained.
"Is it the faraway place that Great-Grandpa mentioned? It's a place Mu'er has never been to, and I want to go."
Although Mu'er has lived deep in the mountains all these years, she has neither had the time nor the opportunity to see the outside world.
However, Grandpa Zhao was afraid that Mu'er's understanding would remain limited to what he had seen, so he told Mu'er about the outside world from a very young age.
So for Mu'er, the outside world wasn't particularly unfamiliar. Although she had never seen it herself, she had always heard about it.
"Yes, after a while when the weather clears up, Father, Mother, Great-Grandfather, Taoist Grandfather, and my younger brother, we'll all go to the county town together."
“Okay, I want to go too,” Mu’er replied happily.
Then I started looking forward to the sun coming out soon so I could go to the county town with my family.
Although Mu'er didn't know what a county town was, she had some basic understanding of the outside world that Grandpa Zhao had mentioned.
Mu'er thought to herself, "The county town should be similar to the place Grandpa Zhao described."
This was the first time Mu'er had heard that she could go out to play, so she was naturally looking forward to the trip even more. Every day she hoped that the weather would clear up soon so that the whole family could go to the county town together.
"I just heard the Taoist priest say that you made hand-peeled bamboo shoots. Are they ready to eat?" Grandpa Zhao asked, changing the subject.
"It's ready to eat. It's already cooked and is soaking in a large wooden basin in the kitchen."
"Then I'll go get a few, and we'll all try them together." Upon hearing this, the Taoist priest put Ze'er down and quickly walked towards the kitchen.
"Why is this old man in such a hurry?"
Everyone burst into loud laughter upon hearing this.
"How do you eat this? The bamboo shoots haven't been peeled off yet. They smell quite fragrant, just like cooked meat." The Taoist priest brought over a few bamboo shoots, smelling them as he asked.
"Let me demonstrate for you," Xu Han said, picking up a hand-peeled bamboo shoot and starting to eat.
"The tender parts of the bamboo shoot husk are edible too. You can peel it as you eat it. You should try it, it tastes great!"
Everyone else took one upon hearing this, but Lu Chuan, worried that Mu'er couldn't handle anything too spicy, specially took a smaller one, rinsed it with cool boiled water, and handed it to Mu'er.
"Mmm, this tastes really good, it's spicy and fragrant, delicious."
"Haha, it would be even better with some wine."
"It hasn't been soaked in the marinade yet. It will taste better if it's soaked for a longer time, and it tastes even better when it's cold."
"I see you made quite a lot. You can store it up and eat it slowly as a snack."
"Yes, that's what I think."
Each person had one, and in no time, the small bowl of hand-peeled bamboo shoots that had been brought over was finished.
"Alright, that's enough for today. Eating too many bamboo shoots isn't good for you. We can save the rest for later."
"Okay, I'm not eating anymore. It's almost lunchtime, and I feel a bit full," the Taoist priest asked, rubbing his stomach.
"You eat the most, how could Kuangkuang not be full?" Grandpa Zhao said with a look of disdain.
"It was so delicious! I couldn't resist and ended up eating too much."
"Let's have lunch later today. Everyone's eaten something now, so I guess you're not hungry yet?"
"Okay, okay, we'll eat later."
After everyone finished eating the bamboo shoots, they started peeling them together. With Grandpa Zhao and the Taoist priest joining in, the peeling process became much faster.
"My goodness, I haven't finished peeling them yet. When I'm breaking them apart, it always feels like I'm not breaking enough, but when I'm actually peeling them, it feels like I can never finish!" Xu Han stood up, stretched, and said.
"Haha, it's like there's some kind of magic when you're breaking bamboo shoots. The more you break, the more you want to break. I never thought about how painful it would be to peel the bamboo shoot shells," Lu Chuan replied with a laugh.
"Hmm, if I could do it again, I probably could break even more than before. Hahahaha." Xu Han said with a serious expression.
I doubt many people could resist the joy of picking bamboo shoots and mushrooms.
They will never feel that they did too much; they will only regret not having performed better.
"If you want to peel them, we'll go again next time. After peeling these bamboo shoots, they'll shrink by more than half. I don't think there will be many left after peeling them all. If we dry them, there probably won't be many left either."
“We dried a lot of bamboo shoots last time. If we dry more, it will be too much. We won’t be able to finish them all this year,” Xu Han said hesitantly.
"That's easy. If we can't finish them, we can just take them down the mountain to sell. Anyway, things won't be chaotic down there for a while, so we can at least make some money," Grandpa Zhao suggested.
“That’s a good idea, let’s do it that way,” the Taoist priest replied.
"Next time we go down the mountain, we can take the vegetables we can't finish to the county town to sell. Right now, there probably aren't many vegetables to sell in the county town, so they'll definitely sell well."
“I don’t think this is appropriate. We grow our own vegetables to eat fresh in winter. If they are bought, our vegetables will become less available.”
"Besides, we've all just settled in. If we start selling vegetables now, we'll inevitably attract unwanted attention, and it'll be too conspicuous. Let's keep a low profile," Xu Han said.
"Xiao Han is right. We're not short of money, so let's not sell it."
"But we can consider doing that if we can't finish it later. Right now, it's too conspicuous," Grandpa Zhao said.
“It was my oversight. Then we won’t sell it. It won’t spoil anyway, we can keep it for winter.”
This is also why Xu Han grows so many vegetables. When the vegetables are harvested, there will definitely be more than enough to eat, but Xu Han has a spatial dimension, so she can store them there to eat in the winter.
This way, you'll have fresh vegetables all year round, and you won't have to worry about not being able to finish them.
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