Chapter 6: Hunting in the Mountains

Entering the space, she first used her mind to collect the rice and then planted a new batch. Suddenly, an interface appeared in front of her, startling Mi Xia.

After calming herself, she looked at it. The top line read “Upgrade,” and the bottom line had two options: “Agree” and “Refuse.”

A better system would certainly be better than the current one, so Mi Xia didn’t hesitate to click “Agree.” A new line of text appeared.

“Enable automatic planting and harvesting of crops?” Mi Xia read the description below. After enabling this, she would need to pre-schedule which crops to plant, and the space would automatically harvest and plant them. If she didn’t schedule a subsequent planting after one cycle, it would continue planting the previously scheduled crop.

Mi Xia definitely agreed. It would save her the trouble of calculating the time and using her mind to harvest and plant. The upgrade would be much more convenient.

After taking a bath with spiritual spring water, she left the space. She had been holding Mo Zhixia all day and was very tired, so she decided to go to sleep with her little daughter.

At the same time, in the east wing, Zhang Hongxia was chatting with Mi Qiu: “Husband, my younger sister has changed a lot since she came back. She’s very open and even gave me a jar of snowflake cream.”

“Isn’t it good that my younger sister has improved? Our family is also eating meat now. You just need to be nicer to her from now on. You can’t work now, you have to stay home to look after the children. If you see your younger sister needs help, just help her. Alright, go to rest. I have to work tomorrow.” After saying this, he turned off the lights and went to sleep. Soon, snoring could be heard.

On the other hand, the Mo family was also restless. For more than a year, because Mo Haoyue hadn’t sent money home, their food had gotten worse, and the different branches of the family were constantly arguing.

Now that Mi Xia was gone, there was no one to do the housework. Everyone had worked in the fields all day, and no one wanted to come back and continue doing housework.

So for the past two days, as soon as work was over, the Mo family had been arguing loudly. Today at noon, the wives of the first, second, and third branches even had a fight.

The villagers had watched the commotion for two days. From the beginning to the end of the village, the post-dinner conversations of every family revolved around what had happened in the Mo family these past two days. Mi Qiu naturally heard about it, but he didn’t tell Mi Xia, fearing she would be unhappy to hear news about the Mo family.

Actually, Mi Qiu was overthinking. The current Mi Xia wouldn’t be affected at all by the Mo family’s affairs. She wasn’t the original owner, but she couldn’t say this to others.

The next morning, Mi Xia got up early to cook noodles. She picked some greens from the vegetable garden and took one egg from the eggs she bought yesterday, adding another one from the space and crushing it into the noodles so that it wouldn’t be obvious how many eggs were used.

She had just finished cooking when she saw Zhang Hongxia come in: “Little sister, why are you up so early?”

“Sister-in-law, I went to bed early last night, and I couldn’t sleep when I woke up this morning. I’ll go wash up and wake Xia Xia up to eat.”

“Go, go. I’ll take care of the rest.” Zhang Hongxia urged Mi Xia to go out.

Mi Xia first woke her daughter up and dressed her, then took her to wash up. When they went to the main hall, her brother, sister-in-law, and their family were already eating.

“Little sister, come and eat. I’ve served you and Xia Xia,” Seeing this, Mi Xia didn’t stand on ceremony and sat down with Mo Zhixia to eat. The noodles were just the right temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.

After eating, she entrusted Mo Zhixia to the care of her sister-in-law, greeted them, and went up the mountain with her backpack. Following the same path as last time, she caught many wild chickens and rabbits along the way, and also collected many mushrooms and wood ear fungi.

Last time she went to the middle of the mountain, this time she went to the left. She hadn’t walked far when she saw several wild fruit trees. Mi Xia’s eyes lit up. Now she had a reason to take out the fruit from her space and give it to her brother’s family. She didn’t expect to find wild fruit trees deep in the mountains.

Upon closer inspection, there were wild jujube trees, chestnut trees, and persimmon trees, all laden with fruit. Mi Xia first climbed a persimmon tree, picked one, and tasted it. It was very sweet.

After eating the one in her hand, she started picking frantically, putting any ripe fruit into her space to give some to her brother’s family and making the rest into persimmon cakes for storage.

After picking all the ripe jujubes and chestnuts into her space, she contentedly continued walking forward.

She had told Zhang Hongxia that she wouldn’t be home for lunch, so she had plenty of time.

Continuing forward, she caught many more wild chickens and rabbits along the way. When she got hungry, she ate cooked food from her space; when she got thirsty or tired, she took out a bottle of sports drink and rested while drinking.

Just as she was about to rest for a while, Mi Xia saw a long river ahead, with many fish in it. Mi Xia caught all these fish and put them into her space to raise, including large fish and many small fish fry.

After collecting the fish, Mi Xia continued walking forward. She was having such good luck today! Not far away, a group of wild mountain goats were grazing.

Without making a sound, she killed them all and slowly put the wild mountain goats into her space. Seeing that it was almost time, Mi Xia started heading back.

On her way back, she stopped and picked up some wild eggs and bird eggs, collecting many wild vegetables and mushrooms.

By the time she reached the foot of the mountain, it was completely dark. Mi Xia took out several wild chickens and rabbits from her space, along with many wild vegetables and mushrooms, filling her backpack. She also carried a wild mountain goat in her hand.

Just like last time, Mi Qiu was pacing back and forth at the door, waiting for Mi Xia to return: “Big brother, let’s talk at home.”

Mi Qiu glanced at Mi Xia, relieved to see that she wasn’t injured, and took the wild mountain goat from her hand, walking into the courtyard: “Don’t come back so late next time. Your sister-in-law and I were very worried when you were gone all day.”

“Okay, I understand, big brother. I’ll be more careful next time.” Mi Xia replied with a playful smile.

“Alright, you’ve grown up, big brother won’t nag anymore. Put down your backpack and go see Xia Xia. She was looking for you all afternoon. Your sister-in-law left you some food. Go eat after you see your daughter.”

Hearing this, Mi Xia first went to her sister-in-law’s room to see her daughter. Her sister-in-law saw her come in, glanced at her a few times, and then went out to set the table for her. The little girl saw Mi Xia and jumped up and down, running over: “Xia Xia, did you have fun today?”

“Mama, I had so much fun at Uncle’s house! My brothers and sisters all played with me. It was more fun than at Grandma’s house. Can I live here from now on?” Mo Zhixia asked innocently, looking at Mi Xia.

Mi Xia felt heartbroken when she heard her daughter say this, and quickly replied: “You can. You can live here as long as you want.”

The little girl was overjoyed to hear her mother say this, and hugged Mi Xia and started kissing her. After playing for a while, Mi Xia let her daughter play with her nephews and nieces before turning to eat.

Her brother and sister-in-law were sitting at the table: “Come and eat quickly, it’ll get cold soon.” her sister-in-law called out.

“Okay, thank you, sister-in-law. You’ve worked hard.” Mi Xia said, and then ate heartily. She ate the simple vegetable porridge and vegetable cakes happily because her daughter was having fun here, and she felt very happy.

After Mi Xia finished eating, Mi Qiu asked: “Little sister, why do you have so much stuff in your basket? Villagers haven’t been going into the mountains for many years. On the outskirts, there are only wild vegetables and mushrooms; wild chickens and rabbits are rarely seen.”

Seeing that she couldn’t hide it any longer, Mi Xia said: “Big brother, didn’t I say before that I learned some martial arts from Mo Haoyue? So I went deeper into the mountains. I can protect myself, big brother, don’t worry.”

“You’re a girl going into the mountains. Your sister-in-law and I were already worried, and now you’re going deep into the mountains. How can I rest easy, big brother?” Mi Qiu said anxiously.

“Big brother, don’t worry. Look, am I not back safe and sound?”

Mi Xia coaxed her brother and sister-in-law until they calmed down, asking them to sort out the things in the basket. Then, claiming to be tired, she took Mo Zhixia to wash up and went back to their room.

In the kitchen, Mi Qiu and his wife looked at the full basket of things, not knowing whether to be happy or worried. They were happy that their younger sister was here and they could eat meat every day, but worried that their younger sister was going into the mountains, which made them uneasy.

Finally, the two sighed helplessly. Even if they didn’t let their younger sister go, she wouldn’t listen. Oh well, they’d just keep an eye on her from now on.

With mixed feelings, they sorted and categorized the things in the basket, putting the chestnuts aside to ask their younger sister how to deal with them tomorrow.

Zhang Hongxia washed a few persimmons and wanted to give them to her younger sister, but found that the lights were already off. With no choice, she took them to her own room and ate them with her children.