Mushroom picking turned into poop picking

Holy crap, what was that?!

Seeing Jin Zhizhi panic in front of him, Jiang Ze grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

Thankfully, the dark shape missed them both. When he took a closer look, he realized it was a brightly colored snake.

Its long, slender body writhed on the ground, enough to make anyone's skin crawl.

Jin Zhizhi was even worse off. Most girls were naturally afraid of such things, and her pretty face had gone pale with fright.

"See? I told you to slow down."

Jiang Ze used his stick to push the snake into the grass, then picked up another stick and handed it to Jin Zhizhi.

"Thanks."

This time, Jin Zhizhi accepted it without protest, her face still pale. For once, she even looked at Jiang Ze kindly.

They followed the mountain trail in search of damper areas. Luckily, it had rained two days earlier, and they picked up quite a few scattered mushrooms along the way.

On the way back, Jiang Ze kept thinking about how things were going with Shen Yun. He had no idea when or where the Jade Pendant would appear.

Or whether his presence would change the course of events.

"Hey, there's a huge patch of termite mushrooms!"

Jiang Ze was lost in thought when he heard Jin Zhizhi exclaim beside him.

Following her gaze, he saw a large patch of termite mushrooms growing here and there beside some rain-soaked fallen leaves.

He hadn't expected them to get so lucky. Putting everything else aside, Jiang Ze took out the small bamboo basket he had brought and began picking.

He had heard termite mushrooms were delicious. They were really going to feast this time.

They picked enthusiastically, but barely a third of the way through, they heard voices nearby, along with quiet exclamations.

"Come here, Chen! There's a huge patch of mushrooms!"

Jiang Ze recognized the voice before he even looked up. When he did, he saw Shen Yun hurrying over as though he hadn't noticed them.

He crouched down and began picking mushrooms by the handful.

Beside Jiang Ze, Jin Zhizhi's happy expression immediately soured.

"We found these first!"

Du Chen jogged over too. He no longer looked weak, running with surprising vigor.

"Come on, Jin Zhizhi, that's not fair. You didn't grow these mushrooms. Everyone who finds them gets a share!"

The two seemed to know each other. Du Chen smiled at her familiarly, though to Jin Zhizhi, he looked like he was asking for a punch.

The cameraman jogged up behind him, wearing an indescribable expression.

Seeing that Shen Yun and Du Chen were empty-handed, Jiang Ze was puzzled. It had been almost an hour. Surely two grown men couldn't have found absolutely nothing?

There was still plenty of food in the storage slot Jiang Ze had bought. He had already planned to sneak out a few things that could be found on this mountain to pad out their haul.

They wouldn't earn him any mission points, but at least he could have a good meal.

So he didn't mind what the two were doing.

Jin Zhizhi, however, was furious. She already had a spoiled heiress's temper and had never liked Du Chen. Now that the two were sweeping through like locusts, her pretty face grew even colder.

Jiang Ze said nothing. Jin Zhizhi might have a bad temper, but she wasn't a bad person at heart.

None of them spoke much, but their hands never stopped moving. Before long, each of their bamboo baskets was half full.

Seeing Jin Zhizhi walk behind a nearby tree with a frosty expression, Jiang Ze assumed she was still angry and paid little attention.

But moments later, another startled cry rang out.

Thinking of Jin Zhizhi, Jiang Ze frowned slightly, got up, and went over.

"System, there aren't any actual wild beasts in these mountains, are there?"

"Don't worry, host. There aren't any dangerous animals here."

Jiang Ze felt reassured. Shen Yun trailed behind Du Chen as they followed him over.

Behind the tree, they found Jin Zhizhi standing there, perfectly safe, staring at a patch of golden-yellow things nearby.

"Looks like a small patch of amanita mushrooms."

Du Chen spoke first and started forward.

Jin Zhizhi frowned, her voice full of disgust.

"I found these first too. Have you got no shame, Du Chen?"

"Zhizhi, Chen didn't mean anything by it. He just got excited when he saw them. Besides, we all saw them together. You'll share some with us, won't you?"

It was Shen Yun speaking, his tone as innocent and pitiful as ever. He gazed at Jin Zhizhi with pleading eyes.

To his surprise, Jin Zhizhi gave him a disgusted look, unable to understand how a man could sound even more affected than a woman.

Seeing that neither of the other two moved, Du Chen and Shen Yun went straight over to pick the mushrooms.

But when Shen Yun reached out and touched one, something wet and sticky smeared onto his hand.

Both Shen Yun and Du Chen had touched the stuff. It felt disgusting, and now that they were closer, they could faintly smell a foul odor.

Jiang Ze came closer and saw that the golden-yellow mushrooms were covered in some unknown animal's droppings.

The colors were so similar that it was impossible to tell from a distance. Shen Yun and Du Chen had been too busy watching Jin Zhizhi's expression to notice anything unusual about the mushrooms.

He glanced back at Jin Zhizhi, who was still standing where she had been, and caught the fleeting gleam of triumph in her eyes.

Shen Yun and Du Chen, however, were in trouble.

Before realizing what was wrong, they had automatically tossed the mushrooms they picked into their baskets. Now several mushrooms smeared with droppings were already inside.

The other mushrooms in their baskets were bound to pick up some of the smell.

They headed back just before the mission's time limit was up. Throughout the journey, Shen Yun and Du Chen wore dark expressions and kept their distance from the other two.

That suited Jiang Ze perfectly.

When Jin Zhizhi wasn't paying attention, he excused himself to use the bathroom and secretly took a chicken and some common wild greens out of his storage slot.

Jin Zhizhi grew impatient waiting and was just about to check whether Jiang Ze had fallen into some hole.

Then she saw the young man strolling over, carrying a partly cleaned chicken in one hand and a bamboo basket topped with wild greens in the other.

"You... didn't you go to use the bathroom?"

Jin Zhizhi stared at what he was holding in surprise. The cameraman beside her was equally dumbfounded. They had been here for days and had never seen any chickens on the mountain!

"I was just about to come back when I heard something in the grass. I thought it was some wild animal, but it turned out to be a wild chicken eating the greens nearby."

"So I brought back both the chicken and the greens."

He had deliberately lingered for a while to make his story believable.

Jin Zhizhi gave him a complicated look. In the end, perhaps because she was too shocked, she said nothing.

When the two returned to the mission site, the director and the other four guests were waiting in the tent. Seeing them finally return, the director breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, getting lost on a remote mountain was hardly unusual.

But when everyone saw Jiang Ze with both hands full, their eyes widened.

The director looked particularly incredulous.

"Jiang Ze... did you go shopping for supplies?"

He remembered sending them to gather supplies on a remote mountain, not shop at a market.

Jiang Ze set out the chicken, wild greens, and basket of wild mushrooms, dusted off his hands, and looked at the director.

"Hey, I just got lucky. Director, my mushrooms are all underneath. Hurry up and count our points so we can eat!"

Beside him, Jin Zhizhi silently tipped the mushrooms out of her basket, scattering them over the ground. Together with Jiang Ze's haul, there were quite a lot.

"Didn't we check yesterday? There wasn't this much stuff!"

The assistant director standing beside the director looked baffled. They had scouted the area beforehand to ensure the guests couldn't find too much, forcing them to earn points through games in exchange for food.

The director was equally bewildered. He looked toward Chen Yong'an's team, who had reached the meeting point first. Their haul of firewood was fairly ordinary, earning them eighty-nine mission points.

Shen Yun and Du Chen's team had thrown away quite a few mushrooms along the way and had found little else. The handful of plants they had grabbed turned out to be weeds, leaving them with only fifty mission points.

After Jiang Ze's team's haul was tallied, they earned 235 mission points, the best result of the group.

With the points secured, Jiang Ze happily began preparing the chicken in front of everyone.

Before long, the fragrant aroma of chicken stewed with mushrooms wafted from the iron pot he had redeemed with his points.