Chapter 230 Going into the Mountains to Catch Wild Boars
When Liu Ye and Bai Zilin came out of the house after finishing their meal, they were blocked at the door by the two girls. Bai Zilin didn't even glance at the two girls before going to find Lao Li and the others to prepare things for going up the mountain.
Liu Ye looked at the two girls and asked knowingly, "Is there something you need?"
Zhao Yingtao quickly stepped forward and said, "We have something to discuss with you, Madam. We would like to serve as your maids. Please accept us. We can do anything, from laundry to cooking. We will pay you whatever you want, no bargaining..."
Liu Ye thought to herself, "If you don't bargain, I don't want it either." She looked at the two men with troubled expressions and said, "I'm really sorry, I have enough people in my household, and I don't need any maids for the time being."
Just then, Mango ran over from the kitchen: "Madam, I've finished eating. Shall we go back?"
Mango looked curiously at Zhao Yingtao and Wang Xique, wondering what the two of them were doing.
Wang Yingtao and Wang Xique left awkwardly when Liu Ye didn't agree. Bai Zilin and the others prepared their things, and Liu Ye took Mango and went up the mountain with them. After the villagers finished eating, they all went back, each carrying a large piece of meat. At noon, Old Li had the kitchen stew a wild boar, and he distributed the remaining three wild boars to the villagers. Of course, this was Bai Zilin's prior instruction.
When Bai Zilin and Lao Li arrived at the mountain, they began digging a pit. The place they dug was on the route that wild boars always took down the mountain, which was what the villagers had told them. It was also the closest place to their land at the foot of the mountain.
Liu Ye took Mango to pick mushrooms. Mango carried a large basket on her back. After picking the mushrooms, Liu Ye asked her if they were edible. There were so many varieties of mushrooms in the south, and they came in all sorts of colors. Some of the colored ones were edible, while others were poisonous. She thought the poisonous mushrooms would be good for making poison, so she secretly collected quite a few into her space.
Suddenly, Mango pointed to a tall tree, his eyes shining with excitement, and shouted, "Madam, look! It's a monkey head mushroom! We've found a treasure! Monkey head mushrooms are very valuable; rich people love to eat them."
Following the direction of Mango's finger, Liu Ye looked at the tree and saw huge monkey head mushrooms growing on the thick trunk. They were white and yellow, fuzzy, and looked like monkey heads.
She leaped up the tree with a light touch of her toes, startling Mango so much that she covered her mouth and stared wide-eyed: "My goodness, Madam can actually fly! Madam, be careful, don't fall!"
When Liu Ye climbed the tree, she discovered that there were not just one or two monkey head mushrooms on it, but four or five, and they were all quite large. She collected a few of the smaller ones into her spatial dimension, and as soon as the monkey head mushrooms entered the space, they were automatically planted in the space's forest.
She picked the large monkey head mushrooms and placed them on her skirt before lightly leaping down from the tree. Mango quickly took down the basket and had Willow put the monkey head mushrooms into it: "Madam, we are so lucky! We found monkey head mushrooms as soon as we got up the mountain! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, wow, six monkey head mushrooms! If we took them outside, we could sell them for two taels of silver."
Liu Ye patted the wood shavings off her hands and continued walking into the mountains with Mango. In no time, they had picked half a basket of mushrooms. Suddenly, Mango stopped and said, "Madam, we can't go any further. If we go any further, we'll reach Gu Lao Mountain. No one who goes into Gu Lao Mountain has ever come out. Let's hurry back."
Gu Lao Mountain, Liu Ye thought the name sounded familiar. Could it be a Gu Lao Mountain? In her previous life, she had never seen the Wu Li Kingdom in history books, so she always thought that she had traveled to another time and space. How come there is a Gu Lao Mountain here?
She looked at Mango curiously and asked, "Gu Lao Mountain, isn't it just a mountain? Why can't we go in?"
Mango tilted her head and began to talk incessantly: "Madam, look at the ground. The black soil in front is the boundary of Gulao Mountain. The place where we are standing is yellow soil. We can go where there is yellow soil, but we must not go where there is black soil."
“I’ve heard my grandfather and many other elderly people say since I was a child that Gu Lao Mountain is actually a cage that seals many monsters inside. Some say it’s the entrance to the demon realm. Every plant and tree in Gu Lao Mountain is cursed, and anyone who touches it will bring bad luck.”
"Legend has it that some people have gone into Gulao Mountain and come out of it. They all went mad and their words were unverifiable. They said that there were gems and gold in the mountain, as well as mermaids living in the water. They had human heads and fish tails and used their songs to bewitch people and then eat them."
“Some people say that the Gu Lao Mountains are full of insects, and the rats are as big as cows. There is also poisonous gas in the mountains, and the weather is unpredictable, sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Madam, let’s leave quickly. We can’t go into the Gu Lao Mountains.”
Liu Ye nodded. She hadn't originally planned to go inside. In her previous life, Gu Lao Mountain was rumored to be terrifying, and she figured this Gu Lao Mountain would be similar: "Let's go. We've gathered enough. The wild vegetables we had at noon were quite delicious. What kind of wild vegetables were they?"
Mango breathed a sigh of relief. She was really afraid that Madam would go to Gulao Mountain, which was not a place for humans. "The wild vegetables we ate at noon are called chicken wings. They are delicious when dried and stewed with meat. They are also delicious when blanched and dipped in sauce. Madam, look, there is a large patch of them over there. Let's go and pick them quickly."
After picking wild vegetables, Liu Ye and Mango went back the way they came to find Bai Zilin and the others. By then, Bai Zilin and the others had dug a lot of pits, which were covered with large-leaf grass. Inside the pits were sharpened wooden sticks, which would kill any wild boar that fell in. Wherever there was a trap, they tied red cloth strips to the trees nearby so that the villagers would know there was a trap as soon as they saw it. This was what the villagers had told them.
Bai Zilin breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Liu Ye and the other woman return. The mountains in the south are quite different from those in the north. The terrain and environment of the southern mountains and forests are too complex. Sometimes there are cliffs, sometimes caves, sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's daytime. It's really quite strange.
They were digging a pit when a thick white fog suddenly rose up all around them, making it impossible to see the people on the other side. If they hadn't been brave, they would have run away in fear. Fortunately, the fog dissipated after a while.
"My wife, you must have been quite tiring. There are definitely more mountain products in the south."
Liu Ye laughed and said, "That's right, we didn't go very far and we came back with so many. We even stepped on some monkey head mushrooms."
She craned her neck to look at the hole they had dug: "Oh my, you dug so deep! You could have dug a shallower one. It must be so tiring to dig this deep. Don't they sell animal traps in town? They would have saved us so much trouble."
Bai Zilin handed the shovel to Lao Li, then took Liu Ye's hand and walked down the mountain, with Mango following behind at a leisurely pace.
Bai Zilin removed the grass from Liu Ye's head: "A trap will do too. Everyone in the village digs pits to catch wild boars. Let's try digging a pit first. Did you two encounter anything unusual in the mountains?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Ye quickly asked, "No, you ran into her?"
Bai Zilin nodded and said, "You two hadn't been gone long when suddenly white fog rose up around us. Old Li was standing right in front of me, but I couldn't see him. If he hadn't spoken, I wouldn't have known where he was. The weather in the south is too strange. I also heard the legend of Gu Lao Mountain from the villagers. From now on, you are not allowed to go up the mountain without me by your side, and I will not go into the mountains either."
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