Chapter 32 – Encounter with a Wild Boar

Upon seeing the matsutake mushroom, Wen Lan grinned with joy and bent down to pick the rare find.

That’s how foraging worked—once you found the first one, others would soon follow. Before long, Wen Lan had already found several clusters of matsutake beneath the pine trees.

She was so overjoyed that she became completely absorbed in the hunt, her eyes fixed on the mushrooms as if she were staring at piles of shining silver coins.

Unknowingly, she had filled nearly half her basket, and her path took her deeper and deeper into the forest.

Just as she was fully engrossed in searching, a rustling sound suddenly echoed from within the pine woods, as if something was moving through the trees.

Someone else was collecting matsutake mushrooms!

That was Wen Lan’s first thought.

Though she knew that no one from Yushou Village had ever ventured this deep into the mountains for mushrooms, that didn’t mean people from other villages wouldn’t.

Alright, since she’d run into a fellow forager, she might as well ask how much matsutake mushrooms sold for per jin in the Southern Dynasty.

With this thought, Wen Lan straightened up and walked toward the source of the sound.

What she saw nearly scared her to death!

There wasn’t any fellow forager among the pines—there was a black wild boar rooting around in the fallen leaves. Its tusks were about a foot long, and its fierce, brutal expression looked exactly like the raging wild boar characters from movies.

Wen Lan saw it—and it saw Wen Lan.

Their eyes met, and for a moment, the world seemed to freeze.

The first to break the stillness was the wild boar. Upon seeing Wen Lan, it immediately roared angrily and began ramming its head against nearby pine trees, striking them left and right.

Wen Lan wasn’t sure if it was trying to warn her, but she was already frozen in fear.

She stood there, staring at it, her mind a complete blank.

Snort! The boar let out another loud grunt, then lowered its body and prepared to charge straight at her.

Only then did Wen Lan react—she turned and fled in panic.

As she ran, she let out shrill cries of “Aiya! Aiya!”

But how could she possibly outrun a wild boar? Even if she had been a short-distance track star in school, this body belonged to Lin Furong now, not her own.

Seeing that the boar was about to catch up, Wen Lan pulled off a last-minute move, making a sharp 360-degree turn around a tree. The boar, caught off guard and not particularly bright, charged straight past her.

Wen Lan narrowly escaped and was just about to wipe the sweat from her brow—when she saw the boar turn around, ready for another charge.

Oh my god, was this beast trying to finish her off right here in the forest? Two days ago, she hadn’t died in the mountains, and now it was back to claim her?

Or maybe it was Lin Furong’s vengeful spirit unwilling to let go, coming to reclaim her body?

Wen Lan’s thoughts raced wildly, but her feet kept moving. She took off running again.

Fortunately, her small size and nimbleness, combined with the thick trees of the pine forest, gave her an advantage. The wild boar, though not very large, was a brainless brute and couldn’t catch her no matter how wildly it charged.

After dodging for a while, Wen Lan was simply too exhausted to run any longer.

She found a large pine tree and tried to reason with the boar:
“Mr. Fierce Boar, I’m not Miss Gao from Gao Village. Please… please stop chasing me. Let’s make a deal—you go that way, I’ll go this way, and we’ll stay out of each other’s business, how about that?”

The boar paid no attention. It kept grunting and snorting with its head raised, clearly preparing for another charge.

Wen Lan had no choice. Running was no longer an option. Her only remaining strategy—was to climb a tree.

Humans are like this—when their lives are on the line, they unlock all kinds of hidden potential. At that moment, Wen Lan didn’t know where the strength came from, but she scrambled up the tree with a series of quick movements, “swish swish swish.”

The wild boar couldn’t climb trees, but it didn’t give up. Since it couldn’t reach her, it started ramming its head against the tree trunk with all its might, as if determined to knock her down.

Poor Wen Lan clung tightly to the tree trunk, not daring to breathe too loudly. She knew if she fell, she was dead for sure.

And so began a battle of attrition.

From a distance, the scene looked rather ridiculous—a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl with a big basket strapped to her back, clinging to a tree with her bottom stuck out, a face full of despair—while the wild boar focused intently on ramming the tree again and again, completely obsessed.

Wen Lan was on the verge of tears.

“Grandpa Boar, please stop ramming, go home already! Be careful or the hunter will catch you!” Wen Lan tried once again to reason with the boar.

She hoped to scare it off by mentioning the hunter.

And speaking of the hunter—Wen Lan suddenly thought: Could she call for help while clinging to the tree? What if the hunter was nearby?

“Help! A wild boar is trying to kill me!”