Why Do I Feel Like You're Using This as an Excuse to Settle a Personal Grudge?

Liu Su'e looked at her and said, "If you can find them, then do. If you can't, that's all right too. I just miss them and want to go back and see them."

Zhou Wanwan nodded and plunged into the woods with her three older brothers.

The little ginseng let out a delighted "Heh, heh, heh," giving Zhou Wanwan a fright. "Are you crazy? Laughing like that in the middle of the night."

"You don't understand. I'm home! How could I not be happy? Besides, you're the only one who can hear me. I'll take you to find some wild game!"

Zhou Wanwan looked at him. "You know where the wild game hides?"

"Of course I do. I'm the gossip king of our forest. What happens here that I don't know about?

"Just up ahead, a little over two hundred steps away, those woods are home to the red-necked pheasants.

"Those little fellows strut around proudly all day, darting back and forth through the woods.

"One time they nearly ate me. Luckily, I ran fast."

Zhou Wanwan narrowed her eyes. "Why do I feel like you're using this as an excuse to settle a personal grudge?"

"What do you mean, using this as an excuse? I couldn't stand the sight of them long ago.

"I've been roaming these woods for so many years. I've got more than one or two enemies.

"Last year I offended a pack of wild rats. Those things were crazy. Hundreds of mountain rats searched the mountains for me.

"If I hadn't been able to climb trees, they'd probably have gnawed me down to nothing." The little ginseng's face was full of pride.

Zhou Wanwan said helplessly, "All right, stop bragging. These red-necked pheasants do sound pretty good. I just don't know if they're easy to raise."

The little ginseng quickly shook his head. "Those things are terribly picky. Your family doesn't have any of the food they like to eat. You'd better just sell them!"

Zhou Wanwan led her three brothers to the red-necked pheasants' territory. Sure enough, before they reached it, a flapping and fluttering came from the woods.

Several red-necked pheasants were hopping back and forth among the branches, their wings beating rapidly and noisily.

The little ginseng listened for a while, then said indignantly:

"These chickens are really something! They're still muttering about eating me.

"This is outrageous! Do they really think I'm easy to bully?"

Hearing that, Zhou Wanwan's eyes lit up. She bent down, fixed her gaze on the little ginseng, and asked curiously, "You can understand what those animals are saying?"

The little ginseng said proudly:

"Of course I can. I know the languages of most animals. Grandpa Purple Lingzhi often teaches me."

"He lives deep in the old forest. I haven't seen him in over a year. Next time, I'll take him some good things to eat."

Zhou Wanwan asked, "What does your Grandpa Purple Lingzhi like to eat? I'll help you prepare something next time."

The little ginseng looked at her and said, "Grandpa Purple Lingzhi likes quite a lot of things. He especially likes drinking wine."

Zhou Wanwan thought for a moment and said:

"Then help me find more medicinal herbs. I can make medicinal wine, and mine is very nourishing.

"I can make baijiu too, as well as green plum wine, grape wine, rice wine..."

The little ginseng began to drool. He rubbed against Zhou Wanwan's hand and said:

"Wanwan, you have to treat me well. I know how to do quite a lot too. I can't make wine, but I can understand what animals say!

"I can also help you gather information. Never mind anything else-I know everything about this mountain."

Zhou Wanwan nodded. "All right, those red-necked pheasants are all asleep. It's time for us to act."

While the red-necked pheasants were distracted, Zhou Wanwan rushed straight over, raised the slingshot in her hand, and fired at them.

Zhou Qingyan and the other two pounced on them. Seeing the red-necked pheasants they had caught, Zhou Wanwan laughed. "All right, six in total! I never ate red-necked pheasant in my previous life. Now I can finally have a taste and see what it's like!"

The little ginseng smacked his lips. "Add some medicinal herbs to the chicken, and it'll smell even better."

The red-necked pheasants were furious. They kept flapping around in the carrying basket, struggling for quite a while.

The little ginseng looked at them and said proudly:

"Hey, what are you flapping about for? What good does cursing me do? That's right, I'm a lackey, a traitor!

"You were the ones who wanted to eat me, and now you blame me for being a traitor. Serves you right!"

The red-necked pheasants chattered at length, and the little ginseng snorted and retorted:

"You brought this on yourselves!

"If you hadn't harmed others and taken their lives, why would I have treated you this way?

"Wasn't it you who ate my best friend? And now you have the nerve to blame me for treating you badly?"

Zhou Wanwan looked at him with a smile. "So you really were using this as an excuse to settle a personal grudge!"

"No, I just couldn't stand the sight of them."

Zhou Wanwan closed her eyes and heard the wood ear mushrooms on the tree say, "Where did this person come from? She's so formidable! Why is she looking at us?"

Zhou Wanwan pulled all the wood ear mushrooms off. Soon, she heard the wild grass in the bushes beside her say, "She can't have seen us, can she? She isn't going to stew us with wild chicken, is she? We don't taste good."

Zhou Qinghe cut down all the grass. "We still have a few sheep at home! Let's take some grass back."

Zhou Qingchen hurriedly started cutting grass too. Zhou Wanwan closed her eyes again and heard many mushrooms singing.

The forests of the northeast were damp, and many mushrooms grew on piles of fallen leaves and beside tree roots.

Clusters of honey mushrooms held up slender white stalks, golden oyster mushrooms looked like little golden umbrellas, and long, slender tea tree mushrooms showed a brown hue. Huddled together, they chattered and sang without stopping.

Their songs had no particular tune; they were simply everyday words hummed on a whim.

The honey mushrooms sang in thin, soft voices, "Rain is falling, drink our fill, bask a little when the sun comes out, sway along with the shadows of the trees..."

The golden oyster mushrooms sang, "Nice and warm beneath the fallen leaves, grow with all our might, plump and round..."

The tea tree mushrooms sang a leisurely tune, "Roots in the mud, never moving, a new look every day, singing happily along with everyone..."

Zhou Wanwan walked over and harvested a whole bunch. Stewed with red-necked pheasant, who knew how delicious they would be?

The little ginseng led them farther ahead. There was a particularly large persimmon tree over there. Did they like persimmons?

Zhou Wanwan walked beneath the persimmon tree and nodded. "I really like persimmons..."

The wild persimmon tree was laden with densely packed fruit, a heartening sight.

Zhou Qingyan and his two brothers hurriedly set their carrying baskets aside and climbed the tree in no time.

They climbed as fast as monkeys, and once they were up in the tree, they started picking.

Some persimmons were pocked with bird pecks, while quite a few were yellow with a tinge of green, not yet fully ripe.

Zhou Wanwan called from below, "Pick them all! These persimmons will soften if we leave them to ripen, and they'll be sweet!"

Hearing that, the three brothers picked with even more enthusiasm. Before long, they had filled a carrying basket to the brim.

Zhou Wanwan looked at it and said, "How about we go back now?"