Chapter 24: Picking Wild Vegetables

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Picking Wild Vegetables

There weren’t many wild shiitake mushrooms, but the upside was that they had just sprouted. Right now, each one was chubby, cute, and far from being mature.

Huai Yu circled the tree trunk, carefully pinching the stems and snapping them off. Seeing a new ingredient added to her bamboo basket, she couldn’t help but feel even more satisfied.

Once she finished picking them all, she followed the vine markers she had left last time and soon arrived at a gentle slope ahead. There, after a spring rain, bracken ferns had quietly sprouted one by one. There were even more of them than last time! Huai Yu only needed to reach out her hand, gently pinch, and snap—

SNAP.

The crisp and subtle sound was incredibly pleasant to the ears. Coupled with the thrill of a bountiful harvest, Huai Yu couldn’t help but grin, revealing a bright smile.

Next, she was going to go all out!

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

Continuous crisp snapping sounds echoed across the hillside as the pile of bracken ferns in Huai Yu’s hands grew larger and larger.

Although in her mind, this type of bracken fern wasn’t as tasty as water fern, beggars couldn’t be choosers nowadays. Besides, if chives could sell for twelve Contribution Points a pound, Boss Tang would surely keep his word and buy these for eight Contribution Points a pound! ℯℯ𝑙.

Her figure darted back and forth across the entire hillside. Except for the ferns that had only just poked their heads out, she harvested everything in one clean sweep. But this kind of plant would grow right back with a breeze of the spring wind, so there was absolutely no need to hold back!

Now that her basket was fully loaded and heavy, Huai Yu withdrew her hand. She spotted a few small Aralia trees, but estimating that the young shoots wouldn’t even amount to two pounds, she decided to spare them for now.

There was also a vibrant, exceptionally tall Chinese toon tree. The clusters of tender leaves at the top had already poked out. Although it was still early in the season, it was definitely a good tree to keep in reserve. But Huai Yu only took one glance before sighing in regret.

"It’s so tall. I can’t climb up there..."

But that was fine. There were still large patches of shepherd’s purse at the foot of the mountain!

Thinking of shepherd’s purse inevitably reminded her of shepherd’s purse dumplings. And thinking of those dumplings made Huai Yu crave them all over again. But it was already past nine o’clock, and the sky was still gloomy. She could only push the thought of dumplings to the back of her mind and quickly head down to dig up the shepherd’s purse.

She called it "digging," but since she hadn’t brought any tools, she could only pinch the roots and carefully pull them out. Fortunately, it had just rained. The soil was moist, making it not too difficult. However, compared to the bracken ferns, the shepherd’s purse was inevitably much lighter in weight.

Huai Yu set her basket down, pulled out a large plastic bag, gave it a vigorous shake to open it, and stuffed the shepherd’s purse she had just gathered inside. There was such a huge patch here, and she had brought three plastic bags with her. No matter what, she had to fill at least a bag or two first.

By the time the hour hand on her battered watch pointed to eleven o’clock, all three bags had been packed down tightly and stuffed to the brim.

Having bent over all morning, Huai Yu could hardly stand up straight now. Her back ached and her waist was sore, but she didn’t dare to rest, afraid that once she relaxed, she would lose all her strength. She simply gave a few deep stretches before putting the heavy basket back onto her back. Carrying the plastic bags in her hands, she hurriedly made her way home again.

Sanqing Mountain was simply too big. When she was picking wild vegetables, she didn’t feel like she had gone far. But in reality, following the winding path along the mountainside took a whole hour. By the time she got home at twelve o’clock, if it hadn’t started raining yet, she would have to deliver all these to Boss Tang as soon as possible.

Otherwise...

Huai Yu began to worry. Otherwise, she would have to come up with another excuse to give them to the Defense Army.

She sighed, looking up at the gloomy sky, and muttered softly with her hands clasped together, "Please! Cut me some slack! Don’t rain during the day!"

After finishing her standard routine of psychological comfort, she quickly set off.

It was exactly twelve-thirty when she returned to the treehouse. She only had time to pour the cold salt-sugar water she had boiled yesterday into a bowl and chug it down before setting out once again. After taking two steps, she turned back and covered her basket with a straw mat. She then used the jacket she had taken off that morning to obscure the three bulging plastic bags.

Looking at the slightly damp grass, she gritted her teeth and changed into the new pants and shoes she had bought the day before yesterday. She ran her fingers through her hair to tidy it up, and only then did she finally head out again.

Unfortunately, luck was not on her side this time. Huai Yu waited at the bus stop for nearly half an hour before the bus finally arrived. Perhaps because it was about to rain, there were only a few scattered passengers on board.

No one was chatting. Now that she understood a lot more about how things worked, she didn’t casually start any conversations either. But not long after the bus started moving, someone broke the silence—after all, not everyone could afford to pass the time by scrolling through videos or chatting on their phones nowadays.

"The forecast said the heavy rain wouldn’t come until tomorrow, but why do I feel like it’s going to pour today?"

"Hey, it’s not like our forecasts have been accurate lately anyway. Ever since that mutation thing happened, the satellites can’t get a clear shot of any place with plants. The pictures all come out blurry."

"If they can’t even get a decent picture of the flowers and trees, I bet the weather predictions are a mess too."

"Exactly! And if it rains, we have to keep raincoats at home, or else it’s a hassle for the kids to get to work. There goes more Contribution Points."

"Sigh. My son hasn’t even found a job yet."

"Tell me about it. Those of us living around here don’t have high initial Contribution Points to begin with, yet employers prioritize hiring those with higher scores during interviews..."

"Sigh! If I had known we just needed to tough it out for a few years, I never would have let him slack off at the base back then..."

"Don’t waste your money on raincoats. Just make do with some spare plastic bags. I’m more worried about what to eat... Now all the edible rice, flour, grains, and oil are so expensive. Drinking nutrient solutions day in and day out is making me sick to my stomach."

"Someone is selling aged rice in our neighborhood square. Didn’t you buy any? There are also people selling self-cultivated wild vegetables."

"Oh, please! That aged rice is thirty Contribution Points a pound. It’s barely enough for my family to eat one meal. It’s not a holiday, so I can’t bear to splurge on that."

"And what ’self-cultivated wild vegetables’? Those are just dug up from parks or roadside bushes. Their Mutant Values are sky-high—none of them are below eighteen. They taste incredibly bitter..."

"My son had good educational qualifications before. He also did a lot of work at the base. Now he’s been assigned to the statistics department. The pay is high over there—he gets around eighty to a hundred Contribution Points a month..."

"Oh my! My daughter works in that administration building too. It’s just that she wasn’t allocated an apartment, so she has to catch the bus at six every morning just to avoid being late..."

"Let me tell you, they sell flour at the trading market. It’s a bit old, but still edible. It goes for twenty-two Contribution Points a pound. You can buy some, mix it with nutrient solution to make dough, and steam buns..."

The conversation was quite all over the place, but Huai Yu managed to pick up on some key details.

The mention of monitoring satellites and weather satellites, however, sent a sudden chill down her spine. Then, she relaxed immensely. Since satellites couldn’t capture clear images of ordinary plants, they definitely couldn’t photograph the Rose Corridor either. She realized she had been far too careless in her thinking before.

However, there was nothing she could do about her carelessness anyway.

Huai Yu gently stroked the straw mat covering her basket. Right now, that towering mountain was her only source of livelihood.