“You should eat, Mother. Brother and I will go and gather some firewood now,” Rong’er said.
Although they had some firewood at home, they still had to gather more.
They were going to pile up some wet firewood at a dry spot under the treehouse and carry them up into the kitchen once they were dry.
“Wait, I’ll go with you.”
An Jiuyue felt uneasy letting them go on their own. She had to bring them to gather firewood.
After she washed the three bowls hastily, the trio changed into straw shoes and donned large rain hats and straw raincoats. She carried a large bamboo basket while the children each carried a small bamboo basket. With that, they headed out.
…
There were not many wild beasts roaming in the forest due to the rainstorm.
However, a few pheasants were wandering around to look for food. An Jiuyue caught a couple of them while gathering firewood. Since she intended to rear these pheasants in her space, she made sure that her children did not see it.
She also found a dozen of pheasant eggs and a nest of chicks. She felt as if luck was on her side.
Not far away, the two adorable children were bending over to gather firewood and placing it into their bamboo baskets. The bamboo baskets were soon almost filled.
When she saw that their baskets were full, she brought them home.
“Zheng’er, Rong’er, stay at home, okay? I will go and gather more firewood. It’s raining heavily again today, so you can’t stay outside for too long.”
“Okay.”
Zheng’er and Rong’er answered in unison.
Carrying her bamboo basket again, An Jiuyue turned around and headed downstairs into the forest.
The rain was getting heavier, as though it had no intentions to stop. She felt that it seemed plausible that a flood would occur if the rainstorm continued. Hence, she wanted to be prepared by stocking up on essentials.
And that included wild vegetables, common herbs, and most importantly, firewood.
She had previously ploughed some land on the mountain for arable crops. However, there were very few vegetables as it was only early spring and there were also many wild animals wandering around on the mountain. Hence, she would harvest the wild vegetables frequently.
But if a flood occurred, the villagers would rush up the mountain to harvest wild vegetables once the floodwaters subside. From tree barks to grassroots, they would take everything available if they were starving. She would no longer have a monopoly over the wild vegetables on the mountain.
There were many wild vegetables on the mountain during spring—bracken, purslane, aralia elata shoots, Chinese mahogany, etc. There were also a large variety of mushrooms whenever it rained.
However, the aunties from the village never dared to harvest the mushrooms as they couldn’t tell which ones were not poisonous and did not want to risk their lives.
It had been raining heavily these days, and water celery had been thriving. There were a lot of water celery, wild vegetables, and herbs growing along the mountain spring. An Jiuyue harvested everything she saw.
In just two hours, she had gathered a lot of wild vegetables and stored them in her space. She also picked up some branches along the way to be used as firewood in the future.
She looked up. The sky was not getting dark yet.
Let’s head to the bamboo forest.
She walked the familiar path towards the bamboo forest.