Chapter 18: Gathering Acorns
The weather was hot now, and it often rained. In the mountains, mushrooms emerged here and there along with the rain.
When Ying Kongtu inspected the mountains, he would gather mushrooms along the way, and his harvests were often considerable.
That day, when Ying Kongtu went up the mountain, he stopped by to feed the pigs.
With August approaching, the pigs had grown a little bigger and ate even more.
Food in the mountains was very abundant, and after adapting for so long, they were basically able to find food on their own.
However, the pig manure in the mountains still needed someone to deal with it.
Ying Kongtu roughly cleaned the ground around the pig shed and piled the manure together.
This was the fifth manure pile he had made.
Not far away, there were four others.
In truth, it would have been fine even if he did not collect and handle it. The manure would eventually decompose slowly, but Ying Kongtu could not stand such a dirty, messy environment.
After piling up the manure, he went into the forest and swept out a large pile of fallen leaves, mixing them with the pig manure. At the same time, he sprinkled in a special pig-manure composting microbial agent to ferment it thoroughly.
Several hundred years ago, humans had already learned how to handle livestock manure and knew to add straw, fallen leaves, and other materials to help fermentation.
Only after Ying Kongtu awakened and read books did he learn that these materials were called carbon-source materials and could help livestock manure compost more effectively.
Several hundred years ago, there had been no ready-made microbial agents. Manure composted very slowly, and the effect was unstable.
Now, things were completely different. Not only were there professional guidebooks, there were also all kinds of auxiliary microbial agents sold online. The manure composted quickly and well, with hardly any bad smell.
Looking at it from these aspects, technology truly did change life nowadays. Some technological products were even more useful than divine power.
Ying Kongtu had started raising the piglets at the end of May.
The earliest manure pile had now fully composted. The entire pile was as dark, loose, and soft as fertile soil.
This meant that this batch of fertilizer could now be used.
After finally fermenting the first batch of fertilizer, Ying Kongtu pushed it to the mother forest in a small cart to fertilize the trees.
Apart from the masson pines that had just sprouted, the other trees could gradually be fertilized.
Especially some choumu-type trees—right now, they were either flowering or fruiting, and the fertilizer could help them grow better and produce higher-quality seeds.
After working for more than half the day and finishing the fertilizing, Ying Kongtu went to a small pool in the mountains to bathe.
Back when he had been gathering wild vegetables, some people had coveted the wild vegetables on his mountain and secretly entered the mountain wanting to pick them.
He had used a little divine power so that anyone who entered the mountain without his permission would lose their sense of direction and judgment, endlessly going in circles in the mountain until they could only leave at dusk.
Because of this, he did not need to worry about anyone stumbling upon him bathing here.
The summer pool was clear, shallow, and deep green, somewhat like jelly.
He washed his clothes clean downstream from the pool and placed them on a rock to dry, then swam in the pool himself.
His half-long hair floated in the water, making him look a little like he had several hundred years ago.
Ying Kongtu swam in the water for a long time, then soaked in it to cool off.
Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard the crunching sound of fallen leaves being stepped on.
Something was coming.
He scooped up his clothes and put them on, then turned his head and saw Dart, orange and white all over, twisting its bottom as it came out of the forest.
“It’s you.” Ying Kongtu crouched on the ground and held out his fingers for Dart to smell. “It’s so late, and you still came up the mountain?”
His bewildering formation only guarded against people, not cats.
As expected, Dart sniffed his fingers, then bumped its head against his palm. “Meow.”
“Did you come up the mountain to hunt?”
“Meow.”
Ying Kongtu had already enjoyed swimming enough today, so he simply took Dart down the mountain from another direction.
He had not walked in that direction for several days. If they went that way, they should be able to gather pine milk-cap mushrooms and boletes.
Dart stepped with its cat paws, silently following beside Ying Kongtu.
Because the forest was full of lush grass and trees, Dart’s small body charged wildly through the bushes, its long cat fur even flying about gracefully.
If it was not careful, it ran too far ahead and left Ying Kongtu far behind.
“Meow? Meow-ow?!”
Dart retreated, looking for Ying Kongtu.
Ying Kongtu was not hurrying along the road. He had climbed up a tall, large-leaved Lithocarpus tree.
Dart could not climb trees as well as Ying Kongtu and could only stay at the foot of the tree, lifting its round head and looking up with focused curiosity.
In the tree, Ying Kongtu stretched out his hand to reach for the fruits growing at the tips of the branches.
The fruits of this large-leaved Lithocarpus matured slightly later than those of other trees. Now they were growing just right. The mature fruits on the branches nearly bent the branch under their weight.
Ying Kongtu selected them and picked them one by one.
Very soon, he had gathered half a basket of round, heavy, greenish fruits.
He swept his gaze over the tree and, seeing that all the good-quality ones had been picked, finally climbed down.
These fruits were what were commonly known as acorns.
The fruits produced by several hundred species of trees in the beech family could all be called acorns. What Ying Kongtu had gathered was one of those types.
There were many acorns on the tree, and there were also many acorns that had fallen beneath it.
Ying Kongtu specifically picked up the full, large ones. He inspected them one by one before placing them into his back basket.
Earlier, Dart had scratched at the bark at the foot of the tree for quite a while and tentatively climbed several meters. Hanging on the tree trunk, however, it still felt afraid and did not dare climb higher. It could only come back down and walk back and forth under the tree, waiting for Ying Kongtu.
At long last, Ying Kongtu came down, only to crouch and pick up acorns from the ground.
Dart grew impatient from waiting and circled around Ying Kongtu’s feet, even using its paw to bat at the acorns. “Meow.”
Ying Kongtu pushed its furry cheek. “Don’t make trouble.”
Ying Kongtu was delayed on the mountain until rather late. By the time he brought Dart down the mountain, night had already fallen.
On the road, many people who had finished dinner had come out for a walk, and people were dancing in the riverside square.
Ying Kongtu took Dart to the mountain god temple by the river, skillfully took off the back basket, and placed the basket full of acorns before the mountain god temple as an offering for a while.
His divine power had recovered somewhat now, but it was still very weak. If he wanted to bless the seeds, he still had to bring them to the mountain god temple and go through a ritual once.
With this delay, Ying Kongtu returned home even later.
When he saw Wen Zhongshan’s figure at the gate of his house, he was not surprised at all.
Wen Zhongshan came over to take the back basket from him. “Have there been many things happening on the mountain recently? I see you often come back very late.”
“No, I just got delayed picking acorns.”
Seeing the round acorns in the back basket, Wen Zhongshan’s first reaction was, “Are you making acorn tofu?”
“Of course not. They’re seeds for planting.” Ying Kongtu found it funny. “How did your mind go there?”
“I just saw a neighbor making acorn tofu a couple of days ago. It was yellow and soft, and looked quite tasty.”
“Acorn tofu? I really haven’t eaten that in a long time.”
Several hundred years ago, when food was insufficient, many people indeed liked to pick acorns and make acorn tofu.
However, the seeds produced by several hundred species of beech-family trees were all called acorns. These acorns had different components, and the acorn tofu made from them also tasted vastly different.
Most acorns were extremely bitter and astringent. To make acorn tofu, they had to be soaked repeatedly for a long time to remove the bitterness and astringency. Making delicious acorn tofu was not easy at all.
Now that food was abundant, Ying Kongtu had truly not thought of making acorn tofu.
Ying Kongtu pushed open the gate and asked, “Do you want to eat it? This basket of acorns won’t do. They’re seeds from large-leaved Lithocarpus, a near-threatened protected plant, and they need to be saved as seeds.”
“Not really. I just thought you were going to make acorn tofu, so I asked.”
“Then wait a little longer. In another month or so, the cork oaks and sawtooth oaks in the mountain will bear ripe fruit. We’ll go up the mountain and pick some to make it. The acorns from these two kinds are relatively tasty and not very bitter.”
“When the time comes, call me to go up the mountain with you and work.”
The two entered the courtyard, and Wen Zhongshan placed the back basket in the open space. “Do we need to pour the acorns out to dry?”
After spending so much time with Ying Kongtu, Wen Zhongshan had gained some understanding of planting.
He knew that most seeds had to be shade-dried after being gathered to remove part of their moisture.
Otherwise, they would soon grow moldy and consume some of their nutrients, causing their quality to decline quickly.
“No. These are post-ripening seeds, so they need post-ripening treatment.” Ying Kongtu walked over, picked up the back basket, and headed toward the storage room. “It’s not time to shade-dry them yet.”
Wen Zhongshan heard a new term. “Post-ripening treatment?”
Ying Kongtu explained, “When plants in the beech family drop their seeds, the embryos inside the seeds have not fully matured yet and need to continue developing for a period of time.”
“Wait. They fall even though they haven’t fully matured?”
“Yes. Once the time comes, they fall. That’s their physiological characteristic. They have a process where they fall into the soil and then continue developing.”
Ying Kongtu signaled for Wen Zhongshan to bring the acorns over and pushed open the door of the storage room.
As soon as the door opened, a slightly moist plant scent rushed toward them.
Wen Zhongshan looked inside and only then discovered that several piles of sand had been stacked inside.
Ying Kongtu pushed the door all the way open, fixed it in place, pointed at the sand piles, and said, “That’s prepared river sand and peat soil. If the acorns are left outside, they’ll mold very quickly. Only by burying them in the sand piles can they slowly mature.”
“The sand is all full of acorns? How long exactly have you been gathering acorns?”
“I started gathering them as they ripened one after another in July. It’s not much. When I inspect the mountains and see suitable ones, I bring some back along the way. This is what it means to accumulate little by little.”
As they spoke, Dart, who had been poking its head around outside, saw the sand piles. Its eyes lit up, and it charged directly inside.
Wen Zhongshan was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He bent down and scooped up the fat cat directly with his large hand, supporting it in his palm.
Dart’s paws swiped through the air several times before it realized that it had been held up.
It twisted its head and hissed at Wen Zhongshan. “Meow-ow!”
Wen Zhongshan tapped its nose. “Who are you hissing at?”
“Meow!”
“Meowing won’t help either.”
“This fellow probably thought the sand piles were a giant litter box.” Ying Kongtu placed the back basket beside the sand piles and went over to open the window a little wider.
Wen Zhongshan set Dart on the ground and gently pushed its fat bottom away with his foot, then closed the door. “How long will these acorns take to finish post-ripening?”
The windows were all covered with screen mesh. Once the door was shut, Dart could not get inside.
Listening to Dart scratch at the door with kaka sounds, Ying Kongtu laughed and said, “Two or three months. It’s just right to let them sit for a while and plant them next spring.”
“It seems there will be many acorns to plant next spring.”
“It’s all right. There are four mountains, after all. When I inspect the mountains, I can just carry them out along the way and scatter them in suitable places.”
Ying Kongtu was used to carrying a back basket up the mountain and did not mind the weight of these seeds.
Wen Zhongshan said, “Next spring, I can inspect the mountains with you and scatter seeds.”
Ying Kongtu turned his head to look at him.
Just as Wen Zhongshan thought he was about to say something, Ying Kongtu nodded. “Sure. Next year, I’ll drag you in as labor.”
Wen Zhongshan agreed seriously. “It would be my honor.”
