Chapter 16 – Picking Mushrooms, Catching Chicks

When they got home, Shen Nian continued sitting at the door, splitting bamboo. The bamboo needed to be split into strips to be woven into things.

Xia Tian looked at Shen Nian’s calm expression and felt a bit relieved.

She was worried that, with such peaceful days, Shen Nian might start overthinking, which wouldn’t help his recovery.

Xia Tian went to the kitchen, lit the stove, and boiled a big pot of hot water.

She took out the pig intestines she had bought in the morning and began carefully cleaning them.

Today, there was plenty of time, so Xia Tian took her time in the yard to handle everything.

She first cleaned them twice with warm water, then turned the pig intestines inside out and used a bamboo stick to scrape off the grease inside, cleaning it thoroughly. The grease was the main source of the foul smell.

In the village, when people cleaned pig intestines, they usually washed them a few times, thinking they were clean enough, and then cooked them straight away.

Farmers usually eat meat very sparingly, even something as cheap as pig intestines is something they hesitate to buy.

They only occasionally buy it when they’re craving it, and they wouldn’t think to scrape off the grease. So, just like the aunts said, when they cook it, it gives off a strong stinky odor.

After scraping off the grease, Xia Tian rubbed the intestines with coarse salt and continued scrubbing them.

After washing off all the slimy residue, she rinsed them several times with warm water.

Next, she added flour and kept rubbing to remove the remaining grease and slimy substances, finally rinsing them with warm water until the water became clear.

If she told the aunts about using salt and flour, they’d probably call her wasteful.

Next time, she’ll try using rice water and wood ash to see if it works. If it does, she could even let the aunts add this method to their cooking.

After cleaning the pig intestines, the water in the barrel was about done as well.

She boiled the pig intestines, then Xia Tian grabbed a wooden bucket to fetch some water. On her way, it started to drizzle.

She quickened her pace, and when she entered the yard with the water bucket, she saw Shen Nian collecting the dried bamboo shoots, bitter vegetables, and dandelions that had been drying in the yard.

She hurriedly brought the bucket into the kitchen and joined Shen Nian in gathering the dried goods in the yard.

By the time they finished gathering everything in the yard, the rain had gradually gotten heavier.

It was still early for dinner, so Xia Tian saw that Shen Nian had neatly split a pile of bamboo strips and sat down on a stool next to him to figure out how to weave them.

The bamboo strips had been smoothed out by Shen Nian, and Xia Tian recalled some videos she had watched before about bamboo weaving. She realized that ever since drinking the spiritual spring water, her memory had become exceptionally good.

Before, she could remember everything she had read or seen in videos just by thinking about it—it was like watching a movie in her mind.

Moreover, now she could remember any person or thing she saw instantly. It was no exaggeration to say that she had an eidetic memory.

Perhaps this was one of the perks of being a transmigrator.

Xia Tian couldn’t help but feel a little happy about it.

Having never woven anything before, she decided to start with a simple bamboo basket to practice.

As she began weaving, she realized… well, her brain understood it, but her hands hadn’t learned yet.

Sure enough, there’s a gap between ideals and reality!

In the end, Xia Tian spent a lot of effort and barely managed to weave a bamboo basket that was passable.

Sighing, she decided to leave dinner to the side—delicate handiwork was never her strong suit, and it still wasn’t.

She went to the kitchen and found that the pig intestines had been boiled for long enough. She scooped them out into a bowl and poured the braising sauce over them to continue soaking, as it would improve the flavor.

Today, she had bought tofu, so she used half of it to make Mapo tofu with soybeans and chili paste.

She saved the other half for a tofu and egg soup later and fried some slices of tofu in oil until golden, adding chopped chili and garlic to make fragrant fried tofu.

She also sliced some of the braised pig intestines.

The main focus today was a tofu feast, hehe!

Shen Nian was genuinely impressed with Xia Tian’s cooking skills. Whatever dish she made, it tasted great.

Xia Tian, too, was impressed by Shen Nian. While she was cooking dinner, Shen Nian had already woven a bamboo basket far superior to hers.

Well, from now on, Shen Nian would have endless handicraft work to do, haha!

During the Qingming Festival, the rain was persistent!

The gentle rain had been falling for three days straight.

Over these three days, Shen Nian, under Xia Tian’s theoretical guidance, had woven two baskets—one large and one small—two stools of different heights, and a large bamboo sieve.

If Xia Tian didn’t worry about Shen Nian’s health, she probably could have made even more. Xia Tian had never thought that Shen Nian’s hands were so capable. As long as she demonstrated once, Shen Nian could make it, and she couldn’t help but admire her.

But since Shen Nian had something to do, she no longer had time to overthink, which was probably a good thing.

Finally, the rain stopped, and Sister Yao from next door came to ask Xia Tian to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms.

After the rain, mushrooms would appear in clusters on the mountain, and nearly every household in the village would go pick them.

Xia Tian told Shen Nian and then, with her basket and machete, went up the mountain with Sister Yao.

When they arrived, they found some people had come earlier, including a few kids with baskets, picking mushrooms.

Xia Tian and Sister Yao quickly found a less crowded spot and began picking.

The mountain was still a little slippery after the rain, and one could easily slip and fall.

Xia Tian took a longer branch, bent down, and carefully searched through the grass.

After the rain, there were many mushrooms on the mountain, but most of them needed the grass to be pulled aside before they could be seen. Plus, she had to identify which ones were edible and which ones weren’t.

For the villagers who had been picking mushrooms since childhood, though, this was almost no challenge.

After about half an hour, Xia Tian’s basket was half full. Sister Yao was almost done as well.

Seeing that there were still plenty of edible wild vegetables on the mountain, Xia Tian also grabbed some tender leaves.

By around noon, Xia Tian’s basket was full. She called out to Sister Yao and got ready to head home for lunch.

Most of the people who came to pick mushrooms were aunts or older sisters, and they all had to return home to cook by noon, so everyone gathered to head back.

On the way back, Xia Tian asked Sister Yao if anyone in the village was selling chicks. She wanted to buy a few to raise.

An Aunt who had been on the same ride with them last time overheard and answered, “Your Aunt has some. She just hatched a batch of chicks a few days ago.”

Seeing that Xia Tian wasn’t sure how to address the person, Sister Yao introduced her, “This is Aunt Sanhe.”

Because her son’s name was Sanhe, the villagers all called her Sanhe Aunt.

Xia Tian asked Sanhe Aunt, “Is your Aunt selling chicks?”

“Yes,” Sanhe Aunt replied. “She hatched twenty eggs, and almost all of them have hatched.”

Since Xia Tian hadn’t seen Aunt today, she asked Sanhe Aunt to let her know that she would visit in the afternoon to buy a few chicks.

Sanhe Aunt and Aunt lived next door, so it was easy for her to pass on the message.

After lunch at home, Xia Tian first sorted through the mushrooms she picked in the morning, and Shen Nian’s bamboo sieve was drying in the yard.

After a short rest, Xia Tian went over to Aunt’s house to pick up a few chicks.

It was spring now, the perfect time to raise chickens. That way, she wouldn’t have to keep buying eggs.

She could even occasionally cook chicken soup for Shen Nian.

Arriving at Aunt’s house, Aunt warmly welcomed Xia Tian in. The chicks were soft yellow and so cute.

Xia Tian picked out ten, paid, and Aunt gave her a basket to take them home. She could bring it back when she had time.

Not being shy, Xia Tian thanked Aunt and took the basket home.

By the time she got home, Shen Nian had already finished weaving the chicken coop.

Xia Tian was once again in awe of Shen Nian’s handiwork skills.

She had just said what she wanted, and in no time, Shen Nian had already finished it.

After settling the chicks in the coop, Xia Tian fed them some boiled millet and water, then went up the mountain again.

Mushrooms grew quickly, and since fewer people were around in the afternoon, she planned to pick more to dry and have them for stew during the winter when there weren’t many vegetables.

As she thought about it, she couldn’t help but laugh. She realized she had truly become a village girl, spending all day thinking about what to eat.

The person who used to want to lie down every day now couldn’t stop working.

Humans truly adapt to whatever situation they find themselves in.

Going up the mountain, Xia Tian switched to a slightly deeper spot to continue picking mushrooms.

While she was brushing through the grass, she found a few wild chicken eggs.

What a nice surprise!

If there were wild chicken eggs, there had to be wild chickens nearby. Xia Tian pricked up her ears and listened for a while, then carefully searched around. Sure enough, a few wild chickens with long tails and colorful feathers were pecking for food in the grass.

Xia Tian found a spot and emptied her basket of mushrooms, then carefully approached with the basket. When she was close enough, she lunged forward, but just as her hand reached out… “Huh? Where’s my chicken?”