Chapter 60: One by One, Plop Plop

From a distance, it was obvious those persimmons were big and round—if you could eat one, it would definitely be very sweet.

Lu Yuanbao stared at the golden-yellow persimmons and swallowed hard, his dark eyes sparkling.

Such beautiful big persimmons growing on the mountain, yet no one had picked them. Of course, there was a reason.

That reason was—they were too high up.

The persimmon trees were seven or eight meters tall, growing halfway up the mountain. Their trunks were thin and long. Even if you climbed up, the trunk probably wouldn’t support your weight, and you might fall down with a thud.

Falling could break your arms or legs at best; rolling down the mountain could be deadly.

So, even though the persimmons were so good, no one dared to pick them.

Lu Yuanbao looked at the big persimmons with regret in his heart.

Beside him, Chu Yue had already pulled out a tool: a slingshot tied with a thick leather band.

She held the slingshot in one hand and picked up a small stone from the mountain path with the other. Raising her arm, she squinted her left eye slightly, aimed with her right eye, and pulled back the leather band.

With a sharp “shoo” sound,

the small stone sliced through the air, flying at high speed toward the persimmon tree not far away.

In the blink of an eye,

the branch of the persimmon tree shook, and a bunch of big, round persimmons fell from the air, rolling on the ground with a “gulu gulu” sound.

Lu Yuanbao was dumbfounded.

Everything happened so fast and so precisely.

He didn’t even clearly see where Chu Yue had hit, yet the big persimmons fell down.

Immediately after, Chu Yue fired several more shots—“shoo shoo shoo”—and persimmons dropped one by one, rolling on the ground.

Her small stones were used up quickly, each shot accurate, hitting every time without missing.

Lu Yuanbao was no longer just amazed; he was filled with admiration.

He knew Chu Yue was capable, but before he’d only seen her medical skills and intelligence—not much in terms of physical prowess.

Chu Yue was just showing off a little, and now she had gained a little fanboy.

If it had been Lu Zhànlǐn instead, he might not have hit every shot either.

After Chu Yue finished shooting all the stones, she looked down at Lu Yuanbao’s shining admiring eyes and asked, “Yuanbao, do you want to try?”

“Can… can I?”

Lu Yuanbao eyed the slingshot carefully. Chu Yue seemed to love it very much but hid it carefully.

“Of course you can!” Chu Yue said firmly and handed the slingshot to Lu Yuanbao. “Starting from now, this slingshot is yours. But you can’t use it to hit people, understand?”

Lu Yuanbao nodded vigorously, his little heart pounding.

This was a slingshot…

Yesterday, it was unimaginable; today, his dream came true.

It felt like a dream.

Chu Yue held his hand and said, “Hold this with your left hand, pull this with your right hand, try it… use your full strength… and let go when you can’t pull anymore.”

Lu Yuanbao tried a few times, with no small strength, and could hit the persimmon tree.

“Very good. Now start aiming… don’t hit the persimmons—aim a bit above them, at the branches. If the branch breaks, the persimmons will fall.”

Makes sense.

Lu Yuanbao nodded.

The theory was simple, but the practice was hard. The persimmons were at least big and round, a relatively large target.

But the branch was thin—looking in the air with the naked eye, it was thinner than a chopstick.

Lu Yuanbao tried several times without hitting. He didn’t give up. He calmed himself, took a deep breath, positioned himself as Chu Yue said, and remembered the little figure Chu Yue had drawn yesterday, instinctively forming the pose.

Shoo.

A small stone flew out.

Not far away, a persimmon on the tree gently shook.

“Great! You hit it!”

Chu Yue encouraged him.

Lu Yuanbao was still very young, yet with such strength and accuracy, he could be called quite a prodigy.

Lu Yuanbao kept trying. On the second strike, he hit a branch, and a big persimmon fell with a thud.

Swish, swish, swish.

After a few minutes, many big persimmons dropped from the tree, rolling among the fallen leaves.

The persimmon tree soon lost more than half of its fruit.

Chu Yue thought that was enough and told Lu Yuanbao to stop. The remaining persimmons could be left for the birds in the forest or for others who would come up later.

Lu Yuanbao’s face was lit with an excited smile. He happily touched the slingshot with both hands and wanted to hand it to Chu Yue but hesitated a little.

Chu Yue smiled and said, “Put it away. This is yours from now on—don’t lose it on the mountain.”

“Okay!”

Lu Yuanbao answered loudly.

The two of them walked under the persimmon tree, raking aside thick fallen leaves to find the big persimmons.

The big persimmons were crisp and still hard; some were cracked from the fall, but some remained intact.

Lu Yuanbao ran quickly, finding one persimmon after another and putting them into Chu Yue’s bamboo basket.

Chu Yue took out a small knife, peeled and cut the persimmons into small pieces. The fruit looked bright yellow, and the inside flesh was orange. She handed a piece to Lu Yuanbao to eat.

Lu Yuanbao was already sweating. He took a bite of the crisp persimmon flesh, crunching loudly.

“Is it sweet?”

“Sweet!”

After gathering the persimmons, Chu Yue strapped the bamboo basket to her back and continued up the mountain.

Following the route Zheng Yue’e had given them, after a while, they finally found the high mountain chestnut trees.

The chestnut trees were tall and big, even taller than the persimmon trees. Unlike the bare persimmon trees, the chestnut trees still had green leaves, which did not wither even in winter.

Picking chestnuts didn’t require climbing the tree because once ripe, the chestnuts would fall. They only needed to pick them up around the tree roots.

When Chu Yue and Lu Yuanbao stood under the tree, they could hear chestnuts dropping, thumping onto the ground.

Chestnuts had a spiky outer shell, like little hedgehogs. (illustration)

If a spiky chestnut fell on your head, it would be painful.

Luckily, Chu Yue’s hat now served a protective role.

She said to Lu Yuanbao, “Yuanbao, stand farther away, and then hold the bamboo basket over your head.”

Lu Yuanbao immediately obeyed and ran a short distance away.

Chu Yue faced the chestnut tree, took a deep breath, gathered the power in her body and the spiritual energy in the space, then kicked the chestnut tree firmly.

Thump, thump, thump.

One by one, chestnuts fell from the branches, like a rain of chestnuts.

Chu Yue stood under the chestnut tree, her triangular hat shielding her from the spiky chestnuts’ attack.

One chestnut rolled from under the tree right to Lu Yuanbao’s feet.

The ripe chestnuts had an opening through which you could see the mature brown nut inside the spiky shell.

Lu Yuanbao reached out to pick up a chestnut and accidentally touched the spikes for the first time. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel any pain at all. He pried open the shell and took out the brown chestnut inside.

He sniffed it—it smelled so good, just like the ones he ate yesterday~