Chapter 14: A New Life
The mushroom-gathering season had arrived in the mountains. More and more mushrooms were appearing, and the mushroom gatherers had gradually begun moving about as well.
Their small county town, located deep in the mountains, was rich in mountain delicacies. Usually, the street outside the vegetable market was already full of stalls selling all kinds of mountain goods.
Now it was even more so.
Ying Kongtu came out to buy vegetables and saw the entire street selling mushrooms.
On the main road at the street entrance, several trucks were parked as well, with specialized vendors waiting there to purchase mushrooms and chilies.
The purchase price offered by the vendors was relatively low, but it was convenient. Mushroom gatherers could sell their mushrooms to the purchasing vendors without delaying their time going up the mountain to gather more.
“Make way. Don’t set your stalls out onto the road.”
“Hey, people selling mushrooms, check them properly. Buyers too—don’t buy mushrooms you don’t recognize!”
Amid the bustling sounds of the vegetable market, urban management officers held loudspeakers and maintained order.
They also helped identify the wild mushrooms at the mushroom stalls, to prevent people from accidentally selling poisonous ones.
Ying Kongtu walked past the mushroom stalls and saw all kinds of mushrooms.
Some of them did not grow on his mountains at all.
There were also some mushrooms that looked like cultivated mushrooms, yet the sellers were passing them off as wild ones.
He walked around outside the vegetable market. In the end, he did not buy any mushrooms, only two blocks of handmade tofu, intending to make soup with them.
Ying Kongtu also went up the mountains to gather mushrooms.
His four mountains were likewise producing many mushrooms. Although there were not many valuable varieties, he could still earn several hundred yuan in a day, and he was fairly satisfied.
That day, after gathering mushrooms, Ying Kongtu returned home. He had just delivered the mushrooms to the purchasing vendor and sold them when he faintly sensed moisture in the air.
He raised his head and looked toward the horizon.
Dark clouds had risen there, thick and black, looking as though rain was about to fall.
Ying Kongtu sniffed and felt that it would be heavy rain.
Rain was a good thing for mushroom gatherers.
After rain, mushrooms would appear in greater numbers, grow plumper and more tender, and mushrooms soaked with rainwater would be heavier, allowing them to sell for more money.
At this moment, however, looking at the dark clouds on the horizon, Ying Kongtu was not thinking about mushrooms, but about the saker falcons on Baogu Mountain.
The saker falcon couple on Baogu Mountain had already settled into the artificial nest Ying Kongtu made.
Perhaps because they were about to miss the breeding season, this pair of saker falcons moved very quickly.
The day before yesterday, Ying Kongtu had discovered that the female saker falcon remained in the nest and no longer went out.
He climbed up a nearby tree and looked over from afar. After watching for quite a while, he finally discovered reddish-brown eggs beneath the female saker falcon’s belly.
The saker falcon was shielding the eggs beneath her body, so Ying Kongtu could not see clearly how many there were.
Perhaps after another month, when the young saker falcons hatched, he would know how many eggs the female saker falcon had laid this time.
The saker falcon couple had finally made a home here with great difficulty. Ying Kongtu did not really dare disturb them, nor did he go over there.
However, as birds of prey, saker falcons did not need special human care in the first place.
Although the forest rodents were no longer severe enough to form a rodent outbreak, their numbers were still abundant.
The saker falcons did not lack food at all.
If it rained today, it would probably be a considerable challenge for the falcon couple currently incubating their eggs.
Ying Kongtu stood at the intersection, somewhat hesitant about whether to go home or go up Baogu Mountain to take a look.
He gazed toward the distant mountains for a while, but in the end, decided not to go.
Wind and rain were merely the most common difficulties animals encountered in the wild mountains.
When he had installed the nest earlier, he had nailed it directly to the tree, so he was not afraid that wind or rain would knock it down.
In addition, he had deliberately placed the nest on a large tree fork, with the crown of the tree protecting it overhead, which could effectively block wind and rain.
The nest itself also used a woven grass basket, so water would not accumulate. It should not flood the eggs either.
For wild raptors, no matter how hard they worked, their nests could at most be made like this. They could not be made any better.
If, even so, the two saker falcons still could not protect their eggs, that too would count as natural selection.
That was what he thought.
After returning home, however, Ying Kongtu had no heart to cook.
He moved a chair to the corridor and sat there, feeling the wind howl past, feeling the rain fall from high above.
At this moment, he and this mountain forest bathed together beneath the wind and rain, as though he were the mountain, and the mountain were him.
Wind and rain lasted through the night.
When Ying Kongtu woke the next day, the rain had already stopped.
The mountain had returned to stillness once again. Only the puddles and fallen leaves on the ground showed how heavy the rain had been last night.
Ying Kongtu did not eat breakfast. He went up the mountain early to check on the saker falcons.
The female saker falcon was still incubating the eggs. The oil she had applied to her feathers had blocked most of the rainwater, and under her protection, the eggs remained safely in the dry nest.
The bird nest had excellent drainage. The rain that had struck the nest last night should have quickly flowed away through the gaps in the nest and had not flooded the center.
And in the center of the nest, there were small stones laid as padding, with rabbit fur spread over the raised stones.
The eggs lay on the rabbit fur, completely unaffected.
Wonderful.
Ying Kongtu let out a breath of relief, and his mood, like the weather, became bright.
Since nothing was wrong with the saker falcons, he went to check on the pigs raised on the mountain.
The pigs were now half-grown. Every day, they drank mountain spring water and ate wild vegetables. With thick skin and tough bodies, Ying Kongtu was not too worried about them.
When he went over, he found that they had indeed taken shelter in the shed last night. Their bodies were dry and clean, and now several of them had run into the mud pit to roll and frolic, looking extremely happy.
The saker falcons and the domestic pigs on the mountain were all fine. Ying Kongtu’s mood was excellent. After simply cleaning the pig shed, he carried his back basket and continued gathering mushrooms.
After the rain, mushrooms indeed emerged one after another.
Ying Kongtu gathered from halfway up the mountain upward and found that there were not only many mushrooms, but that they were also very plump and tender.
Because they had been wet with rainwater, insects had not really come out to eat the mushrooms.
Most of the mushrooms Ying Kongtu gathered were complete and looked to be in very good condition.
However, mushrooms like these had a relatively short shelf life and were also easily crushed.
Ying Kongtu looked at some of the mushrooms in his back basket that had been crushed. After thinking for a moment, he finally took a detour up the mountain to gather some wild spices and decided to fry some mushroom oil.
Some mushrooms had been crushed and would not sell for a good price at the purchasing vendor’s, but their flavor was still excellent.
Rather than selling them at a discount, it would be better to fry some mushroom oil and eat it slowly.
That evening, after Ying Kongtu went to the street and sold the mushrooms, there was indeed a small half-basket of crushed mushrooms that the purchasing vendor was only willing to buy at an extremely low price.
So Ying Kongtu went to Uncle Xu’s house at the foot of the mountain, bought a large bag of chicken fat, then returned home to rinse it, blanch it, and use it to fry mushroom oil.
Ying Kongtu worked for more than half the night, and the courtyard was full of rich meaty aroma and mushroom fragrance.
When the mushrooms were fried, Ying Kongtu had not yet had time to put them into sealed jars.
Dart, the big fat orange tabby, jumped down from the wall. Ignoring its long fur getting wet, it wound around Ying Kongtu’s feet, drilling back and forth. “Mi.”
As it rubbed against Ying Kongtu, it also made purring sounds.
Pestered by it, Ying Kongtu crouched down and scratched its chin. “Cats can’t eat mushrooms. It’s no use calling.”
Dart bumped Ying Kongtu’s hand with its round head. “Mi.”
Ying Kongtu said, “How about some fish meat?”
In the past, whenever Ying Kongtu fed Dart the fish pieces he made, Dart would always take them away at once, impatient to taste them.
Today, when he placed a fish piece in his palm, Dart sniffed it, then still raised its head and meowed at Ying Kongtu.
Seeing that it truly did not want to eat, Ying Kongtu closed his hand around the fish. “If you don’t want to eat it, forget it.”
As he spoke, Ying Kongtu was about to stand.
Dart stretched out a paw and hooked it into Ying Kongtu’s trousers. “Meow!”
Wherever Ying Kongtu went, Dart followed, meowing incessantly to beg for food, sticking close, rubbing against him, and purring.
Ying Kongtu had raised so many little creatures, yet he had never seen one better at acting spoiled than this orange tabby.
In the end, Dart still did not get to taste the mushroom oil Ying Kongtu had fried. Feeling wronged, it jumped onto a chair, curled into a ball, and fell asleep.
Ying Kongtu did not chase it away, only sent Wen Zhongshan a message, telling him that Dart was with him.
Wen Zhongshan: Sorry to trouble you. Should I come pick it up?
Ying Kongtu: No need. Let it sleep here. Tomorrow morning I’ll send it back. I have something to give you anyway.
Wen Zhongshan: All right. See you tomorrow morning.
The next day, Ying Kongtu brought Dart with him to send it home.
Ying Kongtu had not only brought Dart over, but also carried a cloth bag.
When he saw Wen Zhongshan, he took two jars of mushroom oil from the cloth bag and handed them over.
Wen Zhongshan gave him a questioning look.
Ying Kongtu said, “Mixed mushrooms I fried. You can use them to mix with rice, noodles, or salad.”
After being awake for so long, Ying Kongtu was already very familiar with modern people’s lifestyles.
“Don’t you have the habit of working out? If you’re mixing it with salad, grind a little black pepper and salt over it, then add a tiny bit of fried mushroom oil. The taste should be good.”
“I just didn’t expect you to fry this.”
“Some of the mushrooms were crushed and couldn’t sell for a good price, so I simply fried them.”
Wen Zhongshan looked at the golden-yellow fried mushroom oil in the sealed jar. “It looks so tempting. Let me smell it.”
Ying Kongtu nodded. “Go ahead.”
Wen Zhongshan was already very familiar with Ying Kongtu. Sensing the faint, hidden pride in his expression, he immediately realized that this jar of mushroom oil he had fried should be extremely delicious.
Thinking this, Wen Zhongshan opened the clasp of the sealed jar and lifted the lid by a narrow crack.
In an instant, a rich mushroom fragrance drifted out—fresh, dense, and fragrant, mingling the aromas of mushrooms, meat, and plants.
“Why is it so fragrant?”
“I added a special spice called husuozi. When used to fry mushroom oil, husuozi can draw out the mushroom aroma to the greatest extent and creates an unusual fragrance.”
“No wonder Dart stubbornly stayed at your place last night and refused to come back. It must have smelled this!”
“Maybe? Do you want to taste it? You can eat it plain too. It will have a different fragrance.”
Hearing him say this, Wen Zhongshan immediately went to the kitchen and brought out a bowl and plate.
The mushrooms had been fried dry and were overall a yellowish-brown color. They looked a little like shredded beef, but thicker than ordinary shredded beef.
Wen Zhongshan tasted some, and his first reaction was also meat.
The dried fried mushrooms had a very rich meaty aroma and a shredded-meat texture, fresh, fragrant, and enticing. After chewing further, one could taste the mushroom fragrance within.
This fragrance was extremely complex. For a moment, Wen Zhongshan could not describe exactly what flavor it was. He only felt that the fragrance lingered between his lips and teeth.
With this flavor, forget mixing it with salad; even mixing it with sand would probably taste good.
Seeing that he liked it, Ying Kongtu said, “You eat this first. Once you finish, I’ll bring you more. There are many mushrooms recently, so I can fry it many more times.”
“Are you going up the mountain to gather mushrooms today too?”
“Yes, but I also need to gather some husuozi along the way.”
Meeting Wen Zhongshan’s questioning gaze, Ying Kongtu explained, “Now that there are more mushrooms, the purchasing vendors are pressing the prices down hard. I want to see whether I can fry some mushroom oil to sell. It just so happens that several of Xing Chang’s friends have all said they want to buy some.”
Wen Zhongshan raised an eyebrow lightly.
Ying Kongtu immediately realized. “You want to go too?”
“Can I?”
“Come, then. It’s just that we’ll need to climb a high mountain. As long as you don’t mind getting tired.”
