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Tan Erqian wandered deeper into the grass, hoping to find some useful medicinal herbs.
As he searched, he couldn’t help but regret his decision. If he’d known, he would have brought Third Brother along.
Though he had ideas about selling herbs, he didn’t actually know much about them. Third Brother, however, was different—he had been raised in Doctor Li’s household and would surely recognize some medicinal plants.
Just then, Tan Yiliang noticed Tan Erqian had fallen behind and quickly called out, “Second Brother! Second Brother! Where are you?!”
Tan Erqian immediately stood up, waved his hand, and shouted, “Elder Brother, Father, I’m over here!”
Tan Yiliang saw him and yelled back, “Second Brother, don’t wander off! Stay close to Father and me!”
“Yes, Elder Brother!” Tan Erqian responded as he started walking toward Tan Yiliang and their father.
As he walked, he suddenly felt something unusual underfoot.
It wasn’t quite soft, but not entirely hard either.
He quickly looked down and saw that he had stepped on and crushed a giant lingzhi mushroom.
The glossy, light-brown lingzhi lay in two pieces at his feet, split apart by his misstep.
Tan Erqian’s heart ached. Even though he didn’t know much about medicinal herbs, he certainly knew how valuable this was. He immediately crouched down and carefully picked up the broken lingzhi in his hands.
Just then, Tan Yiliang called out again, urging him, “Second Brother, hurry up!”
Tan Erqian, hearing the call, slowly walked forward. This time, he moved with extreme caution. Sure enough, as he pushed aside a man-tall bush, an incredible sight unfolded before him—a cluster of giant lingzhi mushrooms.
At a glance, there were at least twenty or thirty of them.
Each one was enormous, about the size of a human head.
The large lingzhi mushrooms stood upright on their slender stalks, swaying slightly, almost like shy young girls.
Overjoyed, Tan Erqian couldn’t contain his excitement and shouted toward Old Tan and Tan Yiliang, “Father! Father! Giant lingzhi! Giant lingzhi!”
Hearing his voice, though not catching his exact words, Old Tan and Tan Yiliang sensed something unusual in his tone. They quickly ran over, calling out, “Erqian? Erqian? What’s going on?”
Tan Erqian quickly picked up one of the giant lingzhi mushrooms, his crescent-shaped eyes curving with delight as he grinned and called out to Old Tan and Tan Yiliang, “Father, Big Brother, come take a look! There are so many giant lingzhi mushrooms here!”
Old Tan and Tan Yiliang were completely stunned by the sight before them.
Though they hadn’t seen much of the world, they certainly knew about lingzhi. Who didn’t know that lingzhi was a precious medicinal treasure, practically a miracle cure?
Old Tan was so overwhelmed with excitement that he nearly lost his balance. “This… this… so many…”
Tan Yiliang quickly steadied his father, saying, “Father, don’t panic, don’t panic. It’s just a few lingzhi mushrooms, that’s all.”
Old Tan slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “My son, do you have any idea how much silver these lingzhi mushrooms could sell for? How much silver?”
Tan Yiliang scratched the back of his head, unsure.
Old Tan held up all ten fingers. “So much that these ten fingers wouldn’t be enough to count it!”
Tan Yiliang was momentarily stunned. “Father, does this mean that if we sell these lingzhi mushrooms, our family will never have to worry about food or drink again?”
Old Tan nodded repeatedly.
Tan Yiliang stepped forward, grinning. “Then shouldn’t we hurry up and take these lingzhi mushrooms home?”
As Old Tan gradually calmed down, he spoke slowly, “This sudden bounty… who knows if it’s a blessing or a curse? People shouldn’t be too greedy. These lingzhi mushrooms came to us by chance—it’s fate. Let’s take one with us and leave the rest for others who are destined to find them.”
Tan Yiliang didn’t understand. “We found these because of our good luck. Of course, we should take them all.”
Old Tan’s face immediately darkened. While the sheer number of lingzhi mushrooms here was undeniably tempting, the ease with which they were found unsettled him. His sons were still young, and he couldn’t allow them to believe in getting something for nothing, in relying on luck rather than hard work.
Otherwise, these boys might ruin themselves in the long run.
With a serious expression, he said, “Yiliang, Erqian, remember this: What you earn through your own effort is truly yours. Things that fall from the sky—take as little as possible.”
Tan Erqian, being more sensible, quickly grasped his father’s meaning. Squatting down, he collected a piece of decayed wood with small lingzhi sprouts growing on it. Smiling, he said, “Father, you’re right. Let’s take one big lingzhi home and bring this little sprout with us. We can plant it when we get back.”
Tan Yiliang glanced over at his younger brother. “Can it really grow?”
Tan Erqian grinned. “We’ll only know if we try.”
Old Tan nodded in agreement. “That’s right. Erqian is correct.”
Tan Yiliang, trusting his father and younger brother, quickly agreed. “Alright then, we’ll do as Second Brother says.”
Having reached a decision, they turned to head back down the mountain.
But just as they were about to leave, a sudden chill swept through the air.
The Tan family trio shivered involuntarily, feeling the eerie cold pierce their skin.
Tan Erqian slowly turned his head, and there it was—a wild boar with sleek black fur and sharp, menacing tusks, standing right behind them.
His voice trembled as he whispered, “Father, Big Brother… it’s a wild boar… a wild boar…”
Wild boars in the deep mountains were known to be dangerous, sometimes even attacking and killing people.
Old Tan and Tan Yiliang’s faces turned ashen at the sight.
Stiffly, they turned their heads to face the wild boar’s fierce, glaring eyes. The chill of fear ran down their spines, and they shivered involuntarily.
Tan Erqian nervously whispered, “Father, Big Brother, what do we do now?”
Tan Yiliang, the boldest of the three, swallowed hard and said, “What else can we do? Run!”
With that, Tan Yiliang grabbed his father’s and Tan Erqian’s hands and bolted downhill.
Tan Yiliang, naturally athletic since childhood, sprinted like the wind. Old Tan and Tan Erqian could barely keep up, practically dragged along by his momentum.
Old Tan, utterly bewildered, felt his legs moving as if they no longer belonged to him. Gasping for breath, he stammered, “Yiliang, Erqian, you two go ahead. I’ll stay and distract the boar!”
Tan Yiliang frowned deeply. “Father, what nonsense are you saying? If we go, we go together as a family.”
Before his words fully landed, the wild boar closed in on them, snorting fiercely. Without hesitation, Tan Yiliang quickened his pace, pulling his family along.
Old Tan, being dragged in a dizzying rush, mumbled as if in a daze, “Yiliang, Erqian, if I don’t make it back this time, tell your mother… Tell her there’s ten coins hidden under the bed. She should keep them for herself. She’s had such a hard life with me. In my next life, I swear I’ll be a rich merchant and make sure she lives a life of luxury and ease.”
Tan Yiliang barked sternly, “Father, stop saying nonsense and move!”
But Old Tan, being older, was truly running out of stamina. Similarly, Tan Erqian, being younger, was struggling to keep up, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Realizing this was a losing battle, Tan Yiliang abruptly stopped, grabbed both of them, and shoved them into a dense patch of bushes. “Father, Second Brother, you two stay here and don’t move!”
Before either could protest, Tan Yiliang picked up a few stones from the ground. He turned and sprinted off, hurling the stones at the wild boar as he ran.
The wild boar, enraged by the assault, locked its bloodthirsty gaze onto Tan Yiliang, completely ignoring the others.
Taking advantage of the boar’s fixation on him, Tan Yiliang led it downhill, shouting and taunting it to keep it following him.
Old Tan and Tan Erqian were both frantic, shouting, “Yiliang! Yiliang!”
But Tan Yiliang, already far ahead, couldn’t hear them.
Not to mention, Tan Yiliang was exceptionally fast. His legs were like the wings of a bird, swift and powerful.
Despite the wild boar’s relentless pursuit, it couldn’t catch up.
Tan Yiliang glanced back a few times and noticed that the boar, much like a sticky pest, wouldn’t leave him no matter how much he tried to shake it off.
Unaware of how far he had run, he suddenly realized he had reached the village.
The villagers all stopped in their tracks, eyes wide in disbelief. “Wild boar! Wild boar! Ah! Wild boar!”
Every household scrambled to lock their doors, retreating in fear.
Tan Yiliang, exhausted from the chase, felt his strength waning. His legs were heavy, and his breath came in short gasps. He could feel the wild boar closing in on him.
Just then, Wan Chunmei, holding Little Qiyue in her arms, stepped outside and saw the chaos. With a shocked cry, she shouted, “Yiliang!”
Her voice rang out, loud and clear, but Little Qiyue, disturbed by the noise, furrowed her brows slightly.
In that moment, the wild boar, seemingly possessed by some wild instinct, charged straight at a large rock.
With a loud thud, it collided headfirst, its skull cracking upon impact.
The once mighty boar collapsed to the ground, tongue hanging out, completely still, lifeless.
Tan Yiliang, stunned by the unexpected turn of events, stood frozen for a long while, processing what had just happened.
After a while, he regained his composure and slowly approached the boar. Tentatively, he nudged it with his foot. When he saw that it didn’t move, he looked up at Wan Chunmei, who was standing at the door, and grinned. “Mother! We’ve got meat to eat now!”