Chapter 105: The Pictures Seen Online Were True

“Second Uncle, you’re back. Did you gain anything?”

As Lin Heng approached the camp, Lin Wei came to greet him.

“I caught a rabbit—Xiongba caught it—and I also dug up eight or nine catties of huangjing (a medicinal herb),” Lin Heng said while ruffling Lin Wei’s round little head.

“Xiongba is this amazing?” Lin Wei looked at Xiongba in disbelief.

“Woof!” Xiongba shot him a dissatisfied glance, full of disdain, as if saying, Who do you think you’re looking down on, you freeloader?

When they got back to the camp, Lin Heng put down the basket. Seeing such a big rabbit, Lin Wei’s eyes widened even more. “It’s so big! Xiongba is too amazing.”

He reached out to pet Xiongba, but the dog just glanced at him in disdain and walked away.

“Let’s kill this rabbit and chill it in the stream for tonight’s dinner; otherwise, it’ll spoil. Go collect some firewood. I’ll cook the innards for Xiongba later,” Lin Heng said while holding the rabbit and looking at his nephew.

“Got it!” Lin Wei turned to run off but was pulled back by Lin Heng. “Wait, help me skin the rabbit first.”

Skinning a rabbit alone is too troublesome; it’s much faster if one person pulls while the other peels.

“Okay!” Lin Wei was quite eager to help, actually finding the process interesting.

With a knife, Lin Heng started at the rabbit’s neck, slicing around to loosen the skin. Lin Wei held onto the edges and pulled while Lin Heng worked with the knife. With their cooperation, the rabbit was skinned in no time.

Lin Heng scraped off the remaining meat from the hide and fed it to Xiongba, who gobbled it up while still holding onto his hand, unwilling to let go.

“Stupid dog, you’ll get more later,” Lin Heng said, pulling his hand free and patting Xiongba’s head.

Lin Wei went off to gather firewood while Lin Heng chopped off the rabbit’s head, gutted it, and cleaned it thoroughly.

“Second Uncle, give me the lighter. I’ll start the fire,” Lin Wei said, returning with the firewood.

“It’s in my pocket. Grab it yourself,” Lin Heng replied while continuing his work. Once the rabbit was cleaned, he placed two large rocks in the stream to weigh it down and keep it fresh.

Lin Heng then used some branches to set up a fish trap around the rabbit meat, as it was excellent bait. This time, he made a larger trap to catch more fish, ensuring they wouldn’t go hungry if hunting failed.

“Second Uncle, is this for catching fish?” Lin Wei asked curiously after lighting the fire.

“Yes. You can make some too if you’re bored. But remember, if the stream gets muddy, that’s a sign of a flood coming from upstream. Drop everything and run immediately, or you won’t see us again.”

“I’ve got it, Second Uncle. I promise I won’t mess around or swim in the water,” Lin Wei assured him.

Lin Heng nodded and began cooking the rabbit’s innards and head in a pot. Taking a short break, he gathered some dry grass to use as bedding for the night.

“Here, eat up,” Lin Heng said as he poured the cooked rabbit head and innards onto a rock for Xiongba.

“Woof~” Xiongba waited eagerly for the food to cool. The innards cooled quickly, and soon Xiongba was munching loudly, making crackling noises. When he finished, the rabbit head had also cooled, and with terrifying jaw strength, he snapped the skull apart, leaving no trace of the rabbit’s existence.

“Let’s go,” Lin Heng said after Xiongba finished eating, ready to set out again.

“Second Uncle, I’m coming with you!” Lin Wei, feeling bored, wanted to tag along.

“Fine, but you need to listen and walk quietly. No complaining,” Lin Heng warned, glancing at him.

“Don’t worry, Second Uncle,” Lin Wei said, nodding eagerly.

With his nephew in tow, Lin Heng carried his basket and bow and set out. He didn’t hold much hope for finding musk deer but planned to set a few traps just in case.

When they reached the forest where musk deer lived, the situation was as expected—no sign of any animals, not even squirrels.

“Second Uncle, there’s some animal droppings here. They look like goat pellets,” Lin Wei whispered excitedly.

Lin Heng quickly walked over and examined the black, bean-shaped droppings. They were still moist. “These are fresh. If they’d been here longer, they’d have turned grayish or decayed.”

He glanced at Lin Wei. Does this kid have beginner’s luck?

“Second Uncle, what animal is it? A muntjac?” Lin Wei asked eagerly.

Shaking his head, Lin Heng replied, “Can’t be sure. Most likely a muntjac, but it could also be a musk deer.”

He patted Xiongba. “Xiongba, it’s up to you now. Try to track it.”

“Awooo!” Xiongba sniffed the droppings and began searching, but after about 100 meters, he lost the trail.

“We’ll just have to set traps,” Lin Heng said, pulling out some rope to set up King of Hell traps—simple nooses designed to snare animals by their legs.

Though Xiongba was smarter and more sensitive than most dogs, it was still just a dog and not some mythical creature capable of tracking anything.

Lin Heng and Lin Wei worked together, setting five traps along trails with frequent footprints. They searched for a while longer, but by mid-afternoon, they’d only encountered a couple of squirrels and a grouse, both of which fled before they could act.

They did manage to find five lingzhi mushrooms, six qingtou mushrooms, and two huangqi roots. Not much else.

“Let’s head back. We’ll try exploring towards Mount Taibai next,” Lin Heng said, shaking his head.

Back at the shelter, they found it empty—Lin Heng’s father and older brother must have gone far to collect herbs.

“You still want to come along?” Lin Heng asked, surprised when Lin Wei insisted on following.

“Of course! The shelter is boring.”

“Alright then, let’s go,” Lin Heng said, patting his shoulder.

Following the stream, the two of them and Xiongba walked deeper into the forest.

“This is so hard, Second Uncle. We’ve walked for half an hour and still haven’t found anything,” Lin Wei complained.

“Patience,” Lin Heng replied with a smile. He wasn’t in a hurry. Whenever he saw signs of animals, he’d set traps or nooses.

If not for his memories of his past life, he might have been just as anxious. But having experienced so much, he knew some things couldn’t be rushed.

The forest was cool and refreshing, with beautiful scenery that fueled Lin Heng’s sense of exploration. Occasionally, he found mushrooms like lingzhi, which was good enough for him. For five-year-old Lin Wei, however, it was incredibly disappointing.

“Second Uncle, look! Wild ducks!” Lin Wei suddenly grabbed Lin Heng’s arm, whispering and pointing to a pond.

“Well, look at that,” Lin Heng said, turning his gaze to where Lin Wei was pointing. In a large 70-80 square meter pond, five or six wild ducks were fishing. They were large, with green feathers and red necks.

Lin Heng quietly set down his basket, picked up his bow, and crept closer. He was still about 400-500 meters away from the creek and had to move carefully.

Luckily, the wild ducks in this deep forest were not very alert and hadn’t noticed his approach. Lin Heng soon found a perfect position, about 20 meters away, hidden by reeds.

Knocking an arrow onto his bow, Lin Heng waited patiently for the perfect moment to shoot—hoping for a two-for-one shot.

“Buzz, buzz!”

But just then, a mosquito landed on his hand and started biting. Blowing on it didn’t help.

“Damn it!”

Lowering his bow, Lin Heng crushed the mosquito into a smear of pulp.

Ten more minutes passed, during which mosquitoes and gnats left him with multiple itchy bites. Finally, a good opportunity presented itself.

“Gaga!!”

A little duck caught a golden creek grouper that was more than ten centimeters long. The fish was too big for it to swallow, so it held it in its mouth. The sunlight reflected off the fish scales, sparkling, attracting the other ducks nearby to fight for it.

Lin Heng notched an arrow, aimed for three seconds, and shot.

The black arrowhead, the light yellow shaft, and the red tail feathers made from rooster feathers formed a graceful curve in the air, reflecting a captivating glow in the sunlight. With a “puchi” sound, the sharp arrow pierced through two wild ducks, wounding a third one.

“Gaga!!!”

In an instant, the other ducks flapped their wings and flew away.

One of them, seemingly with an injured wing, couldn’t fly and ran away frantically.

“Woof woof!!”

Xiong Ba’s eyes sparkled, seeing the duck trying to run. He immediately chased after it.

“Damn, second uncle, you shot two birds with one arrow, that’s amazing!”

Lin Wei exclaimed, running over excitedly, even more thrilled than if he had gotten the prey himself. He reached Lin Heng’s side, out of breath.

“Haha, when you grow up, I’ll teach you archery,” Lin Heng said, patting his shoulder, though by then hunting might be banned.

“Okay, second uncle!”

Lin Wei nodded enthusiastically. He looked at the two wild ducks stained with blood in the water and said, “Second uncle, let me go into the water and fetch the ducks.”

“No need, Xiong Ba’s here.”

Lin Heng looked into the distance, where the injured wild duck had already been caught by Xiong Ba, who had killed it.

“Amazing!”

Lin Wei was stunned. Xiong Ba’s ears stood up, and his gaze was wolf-like.

“Well done, go fetch the ducks from the pond too.”

Lin Heng patted the duck and pointed to the pond.

“Woo!”

Xiong Ba nudged Lin Heng, wagging his tongue, and swam into the pond to fetch the ducks.

“This one’s small, probably only half a pound when it’s done,” Lin Heng said, holding the duck in his hand.

“The other two are bigger, probably four or five pounds?” Lin Wei looked at them and then pointed to the ducks in the pond.

Lin Heng shook his head. “No, the bigger ones are probably about two pounds each, and the smaller one is just over a pound. Wild ducks don’t grow any larger than two pounds.”

In fact, wild duck meat isn’t very tasty—it’s all oil. But since they hadn’t caught much today, they couldn’t afford to be picky.

Any meat would do, and roasting a duck should be enough for four people to enjoy tonight.

Soon, Xiong Ba returned with the duck in front of Lin Heng. Lin Heng weighed it in his hand, estimating that the second duck was probably even lighter than he had said, not even a pound.

He showed the duck to Lin Wei and started heading back.

“Today’s not bad. I hope this is just the beginning, not the end,” Lin Heng said with a sigh.

“It’ll definitely get better! Second uncle, I admire you so much!” Lin Wei was full of confidence again.

Lin Heng put the ducks in the basket and smiled, “Let’s go, we still need to move forward and set some traps. In the summer, we’ll rely on traps.”

“Second uncle, let me play with your slingshot,” Lin Wei said with a grin.

“Fine, but don’t break it,” Lin Heng said, handing him the slingshot from his waist.

On the way, Lin Wei became more active, using the slingshot to shoot small birds in the bushes by the water’s edge.

However, his aim wasn’t very good. Lin Heng had taught him a few times, but his accuracy was still off. Unfortunately, this kind of skill requires some talent, and Lin Wei’s talent was average.

But after many tries, he finally hit a poor green-headed finch.

Looking at the bird he had hit, Lin Wei wanted to shout in excitement but remembered Lin Heng’s words and quickly covered his mouth.

“Not bad,” Lin Heng praised with a smile.

Lin Wei was excited for a moment and then looked at Xiong Ba, saying, “Can you go fetch it too?”

“Woo~”

Xiong Ba didn’t even look at him. The bird was too small, not worth fetching, so he showed no interest.

Lin Wei, feeling slightly despised, could only run over to fetch the bird himself.

After shooting the wild ducks, they walked for another two or three hours. Along the way, they saw many signs of prey, but no actual prey. Lin Heng set traps one by one.

They collected some mushrooms—this area was damp, and there were shiitake mushrooms. They gathered about one to two pounds. Additionally, they harvested three lingzhi mushrooms and dug up a pound or so of astragalus.

Looking at the sky, the sun was already slanting heavily to the west, but there was no red glow, so Lin Heng guessed it was still around four or five in the afternoon and they could explore a bit further.

“Second uncle, do we still need to go forward?” Lin Wei was tired from shooting birds.

“Of course, hunting means moving around,” Lin Heng said with a smile.

In this area, fallen trees had become more common, with many large trees that could not be embraced by one person, decaying on the ground. There were also many logs the size of a person’s thigh scattered everywhere.

On these logs, there were plenty of tea tree mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, which Lin Heng happily collected.

After walking a few hundred meters, Lin Heng suddenly froze, rubbed his eyes, and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“My god, I can’t believe I’m seeing this too!”

Lin Heng was amazed. He had only seen such scenes in pictures online, never in real life, whether in this life or the last.

Not far away, on a large fallen tree, hundreds of brownish-yellow shiitake mushrooms were growing densely. Could it be that someone had planted mushroom spores here?

“My god, second uncle, are these mushrooms edible?” Lin Wei, who had been dejected earlier, widened his eyes when he saw so many mushrooms.

“They’re edible, of course. These are wild shiitake mushrooms. Not only can you eat them, but they’re also incredibly delicious,” Lin Heng said, grinning from ear to ear. He was so grateful for his efforts; otherwise, he might have missed them.

Not to mention “next time,” who knew if he would even pass by here again?

Lin Heng picked a large mushroom and examined it. They were all good, with hardly any insect holes. It seemed like they had only sprouted after the recent rain.

Lin Heng was now tempted to take this tree home, but it was too far away. Otherwise, if it were near his home, he could pick some every time it rained.

“Help me pick them, take all sizes, no need to leave any behind,” Lin Heng said while pulling a snake-skin bag from the basket.

After this, he believed it—such mushroom trees really did exist in the wild. He had always thought they were fake, something others made up, but now he knew it was real.

Unfortunately, without a phone, Lin Heng sighed to himself as he picked mushrooms. Otherwise, he would definitely make a video and send it to every friend, bragging about finding a mushroom tree.

After calming down, the two of them worked together, picking mushrooms for about ten minutes until the snake-skin bag was almost half full.

“Definitely thirty to forty pounds,” Lin Heng grinned. This was really good luck.

“Second uncle, we’ve hit the jackpot! Do we still need to move forward?” Lin Wei asked excitedly.

Lin Heng looked at the sky. The sun told him it was time to go back, and even if they walked straight along the stream, it would take over an hour to get back.

But Lin Heng couldn’t resist. “Let’s look a bit more, maybe there’s another mushroom tree around.”

This was the common problem of fishermen: once they catch a big fish, they always want to wait a little longer.

They walked another five hundred meters and picked up four or five more shiitake mushrooms. After that, the fallen trees and decaying wood became scarcer.

“It looks like it’s not going to happen. Let’s head back,” Lin Heng finally said, shaking his head in defeat.

Taking his big nephew back, Lin Heng tried to walk faster, but Lin Wei’s legs hurt and he couldn’t move quickly.

When he was excited earlier, he hadn’t felt anything, but now, on the way back, the pain had kicked in.

Lin Heng had no choice but to walk slowly, taking breaks, and looking around to see if there was any prey.

It seemed like their good luck had run out. From dusk until dark, they didn’t see any other prey worth hunting.

Lin Heng’s father and older brother had already returned and reinforced the shelter. They had also laid out the hammock grass and were cooking.

“You’re finally back. Why did you take so long? Did Lin Wei slow you down?” Lin Yue said, coming out to greet them when he saw the flashlight.

“Dad, carry me, I can’t walk anymore.” Lin Wei jumped onto his father’s back.

Lin Heng shook his head and laughed. “It’s fine, today might just be because Lin Wei was with me; we had really good luck.”

“Yeah, Dad, we had a huge haul today!” Lin Wei couldn’t wait to show off.

Lin Yue looked at Lin Heng. “Did you dig up some valuable herbs? It can’t be ginseng, can it?”

They didn’t have any large game, so he couldn’t figure out what else could be so special.

“I’ll show you when we get to the camp,” Lin Heng smiled, building suspense.

Mainly, because if he said it now, he’d have to say it again when they got there.

When they returned to the shelter, Lin Heng sat down, placed the basket in front of his father and older brother, and said with a smile, “Everything we harvested today is in here. Our luck today was really something special.”

“What’s in it?” Lin Yue said as he opened the snake-skin bag.

“These are all shiitake mushrooms??” Lin Yue’s voice immediately rose, thinking that there were herbs inside.

—

(End of Chapter)