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The family decided not to dwell on the matter of the grandmother feigning illness. However, Mingcheng noticed his uncle sneaking out with biscuits and shared the news with his siblings.
Seeing the displeasure on his brother’s face, Wang Qian quickly comforted him, “Brother, it’s just biscuits. If we bought them for Grandma, it shows we’ve fulfilled our filial duties. Once something goes into someone’s mouth, we can’t control it. As long as Grandma is happy, that’s what matters. Let’s focus on living our own lives. By doing so, we won’t let others look down on us. By the way, why hasn’t anyone from Uncle’s family come to visit us?”
Wang Qian hadn’t seen her second uncle’s family since she arrived. Could it be that they didn’t live here?
Wang Xuan seemed indifferent when her sister mentioned Uncle’s family. “It’s better if our second aunt doesn’t come. Otherwise, you’ll explode with anger just listening to her. Every time she meets, she never stops talking about how poor her family is, how they don’t have enough food, and all sorts of hardships. She’s just someone who cries poverty.”
Hearing her sister’s words, Wang Qian realized that her second aunt didn’t leave a good impression on her elder sister. Otherwise, the usually gentle and generous sister wouldn’t say such things.
Alright, it’s probably for the best that Uncle’s family hasn’t come. It would prevent them from adding more troubles to their already complicated situation.
The next day, the siblings left a note at home and set out for the mountains with their tools. As expected, the mountains looked closer from a distance, but the journey was not as comfortable as they thought.
This was Wang Qian’s first time leaving the village. She discovered that beneath the river to the south, there was a north-south canal. The canal’s endpoint was a big river, eventually merging with their river, flowing towards the sea. Between the two rivers and northeast was a vast forest that belonged to their brigade. Crossing the river, they would reach the territory of another brigade. Passing through Li’s village, they soon reached the foot of the mountain, where a few households were scattered.
The siblings followed the slope upwards. The mountain was quite high, estimated to be several hundred meters. However, for the sake of their family’s livelihood, none of the children complained about fatigue.
Halfway up the mountain, the siblings discovered several chestnut trees with chestnuts scattered on the ground. By stepping on the spiky husks, they easily peeled them off.
“Chestnuts! These are delicious. Let’s gather them to bring home,” Mingcheng suggested, and everyone started searching around. The mountain was vast, rarely visited by people, so there were no proper paths. The children carefully combed through the area, stepping on rocks and weeds, collecting chestnuts. Mingyuan filled the bag he brought with him, while Mingcheng placed the remaining ones in a wooden baskets, discarding the rotten or empty ones.
Wang Qian glanced around and noticed several pine baskets on the ground, but carrying them back would be cumbersome, so she didn’t mention it.
Mingyuan kept a watchful eye, spotting bird nests in the trees. His face lit up with joy. “Brother, look at the bird nests. There must be bird eggs inside.”
At the mention of bird eggs, Mingyuan couldn’t help but salivate. Mingcheng checked the height of the nests and deemed it reachable. “Little brother, wait here. I’ll get some bird eggs for you.”
Climbing the tree trunk swiftly, Mingcheng discovered bird eggs in the nest. Without anything to carry them, he took off his hat, placed the eggs inside, and secured the hat back on his head. He then slid down the tree.
Mingyuan eagerly approached, “Brother, how many eggs?”
Seeing his brother’s anxious expression, Mingcheng couldn’t help but smile. “Wait a moment, I’ll show you.” He lowered his head, took off his hat, revealing the intact bird eggs inside.
Mingyuan counted and found eight of them. “Bro, we can cook bird eggs for lunch. That’s great,” he expressed his satisfaction with the number.
Suddenly, they heard a sound behind them. When Wang Qian turned around, she surprisingly saw a big wild chicken coming out to forage. They all stayed silent and started to surround the wild chicken. Mingcheng held a basket, but even with their caution, the wild chicken noticed the movement and flapped its wings, attempting to escape.
However, the children surrounded it, preventing its escape. The wild chicken started flapping its wings, trying to fly away, but Mingcheng quickly threw the basket, hitting the wild chicken and causing it to lose balance and fall to the ground. This time the children didn’t let it get away. Wang Xuan and Mingyuan pounced on the wild chicken together.
“I caught it, I caught it!” Mingyuan exclaimed excitedly. Catching the chicken meant they could have a meaty meal.
The children excitedly tied the legs and wings of the wild chicken. With this chicken, their trip was no longer in vain.
“Brother, let’s look around and see if we can find something else. Let’s put these things aside, and don’t wander off too far,” Wang Qian said.
“Okay, let’s keep looking. We’ve come this far; we might as well get as much as we can,” Mingcheng responded.
With the eldest giving the order, the children began to spread out. Wang Qian was drawn to a vine-like structure, where she found clusters of brown beans attached to the vines. In her previous life, she had seen this thing called “Shan Yao Dou,” which meant there should be “Shan Yao” (Chinese yam) below.
“Brother, sister, come quick! I’ve found something good,” Wang Qian called out, summoning her siblings from a distance.
“What’s the good thing? Let me see,” Mingyuan, curious about his sister’s discovery, asked.
“Brother, do you know what this is?”
Mingcheng and the others shook their heads, indicating their unfamiliarity. Wang Qian guessed that people in this area rarely ate this, hence the children’s lack of recognition.
“Brother, these are Chinese yam beans. The roots below are Chinese yam, similar to sweet potatoes, and they’re delicious. Plus, they can fill our stomachs,” Wang Qian explained.
The primary goal for the Wang family was to secure food and ensure they could eat their fill.
“Sister, are you sure? Why haven’t we heard about this before? Where did you hear it from?” Mingcheng followed up with a question.
“I heard it from someone else. It was Hongmei’s mom who mentioned it before they moved away,” Wang Qian recalled that a family had moved out of the village, so she used that as a reason, which didn’t raise any suspicion.
However, they didn’t have the right tools to dig up the Chinese yam buried underground, and they had already gathered quite a lot today, making it difficult to carry more.
“Brother, let’s take the Chinese yam beans back for now. We can come back to dig up the Chinese yam later. You guys remember the spot where we came up today,” Wang Qian directed.
Mingcheng and Mingyuan began to search for their markers, and once they found them, they nodded at their sister.
Mingcheng carried a bag, Wang Xuan had a basket, Mingyuan held the wild chicken, and Wang Qian carried the bag of Chinese yam beans. Slowly, the four made their way downhill from the slope, without a clear path, carefully avoiding spilling their findings.
By the time they reached the foot of the mountain, the sun was high in the sky. “Sister, we need to hurry back, or Mom and Dad will be worried,” Mingcheng urged.
The children were eager to get home, but carrying their findings slowed them down. Their burdens also grew heavier. Faintly, they could hear someone calling their names from a distance.