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Now, as I herd the sheep out, Shi Wen that the grass in the pasture has mostly grown.

He could see with his naked eye that the grass on the pasture was growing better, thicker, and greener than last year, with a unique vitality.

It might be due to manure.

Last winter, fertilizer was spread on the pasture, and this spring, the grass grew exceptionally well and was especially welcomed by the livestock.

Their livestock love the pasture grass so much that the hay stored from last year and the concentrate feed bought from outside are not so popular.

Shi Wen felt that after buying this batch of premium grain, they shouldn't buy any more, as their livestock didn't like it, and it would probably just go to waste.

We don't need to buy tea cakes this year; we'll wait until the livestock are a bit bigger.

Overall, life on the ranch hasn't changed much. Driving the livestock out to graze is a relatively simple task; once the livestock are in the area, they can be left to graze freely.

As for Shi Wen, you can sunbathe if you want, listen to music if you want, play on your phone, or read a novel, etc.

Shi Wen there wasn't much to do today, I decided to lie down and sunbathe with the little fox.

Seeing that Shi Wen had started to rest, Heiwa and the others worked tirelessly, running around to keep the livestock from disturbing them.

With Heiwa and the others watching over the sheep, Shi Wen simply turned his back to the sun, took out his phone, and planned to reply to some messages and chat with Yan Kexing for a bit.

To his surprise, when he took out his phone, he found that everyone in the village's group chat was talking about cordyceps.

Do they still have cordyceps here?

Shi Wen scrolled up the page and found that it was true.

[... I dug up some cordyceps yesterday, not much, just this small handful. Photo. JPG]

The weather has been better this year, so there are more cordyceps than before.

Are there still cordyceps available outside? I went to several places yesterday and found they'd all been dug up.

[You have to know how to find this; it's not that easy to find something that makes that much money.]

Why is everyone saying there are more cordyceps this year than last year? I went to the place where I dug them last year, but I didn't find any.

Shi Wen never expected that they would start digging for cordyceps as early as March.

In his memory, caterpillar fungus was always harvested in May, June, and July, and it was always outsiders who harvested it. Locals shouldn't be harvesting caterpillar fungus; at least, he didn't see anyone harvesting it when he came last year.

It's also possible that he arrived too late last year, in April, and wasn't familiar with the villagers when he first arrived, so no one called him and he didn't know about it.

Shi Wen that the messages in the group chat were messy and lacked focus, he simply sent a private message to Fu Meng: [Brother Fu, is it the season for digging for cordyceps now? Are there many cordyceps available outside?]

Fu Meng: [Have you seen the village group chat?]

Fu Meng: [Actually, it's not much. This isn't a major production area for cordyceps, but since everyone's idle anyway, many people like to go out and try their luck.]

Shi Wen: [I thought there would be more cordyceps here.]

Fu Meng: [No. We didn't have the habit of digging for cordyceps before. People only started digging because the price of cordyceps was high. Later, when they saw that it was profitable, everyone rushed to dig, hoping to earn as much as they could.]

Fu Meng: [Qingqing and the others went too, do you want to go? If so, ask them to take you.]

Shi Wen: [Aren't you going?]

Fu Meng: [I won't go; I have to stay home and look after the house.]

Shi Wen: [I'm not going for now either. I just saw some people discussing it in the group and I'm a little curious, so I wanted to ask.]

The two chatted over the cordyceps.

Shi Wen learned a lot about the local specialties, such as cordyceps and ginseng, but they are not common and can only be found deep in the mountains.

The mountains here are very high; the nearest snow-capped mountain is over 5,000 meters high.

Because of the mountain's great verticality, the mountain landscape is quite diverse, and the species within it are also abundant.

Shi Wen my family is quite busy, and with a bunch of pets, we don't really have the energy to go outside, so we've hardly ever been up in the mountains.

However, after hearing what Fu Meng said, he couldn't help but feel a longing for it.

That evening, Shi Wen asked Yan Kexing, "Are there many cordyceps here? Do you see any when you go out?"

Yan Kexing: "You can see them, but not many. I haven't paid attention myself, and my colleagues don't find them very often either. Why are you asking? The cordyceps they collect are useless; they just sound nice, so they sell for a higher price."

Shi Wen keenly noticed the implication in his words: "'They'—do you mean the people who go out to collect cordyceps now? If the cordyceps they collect are useless, then whose cordyceps are useful?"

Yan Kexing: "The cordyceps on the market are just rather unusual. People are curious about its morphological changes and assume it has medicinal value. In fact, the one with real medicinal value is an unusual creature called 'Grass Immortal,' but people may have confused the two."

Shi Wen, "So cordyceps nowadays has no medicinal value?"

Yan Kexing: "For us, this is just a gimmick. As for whether it has medicinal value in the eyes of relevant doctors, that's a matter of opinion."

Shi Wen, "Then what's the point of picking them?"

Yan Kexing said directly, "It can be sold for money."

"That makes sense." Shi Wen her head on his lap. "The cordyceps we dig up now have little medicinal value, so what about that Grass Immortal you mentioned?"

Yan Kexing: "There are still Grass Immortal, but they are almost extinct. If you want to experience collecting medicinal herbs, I can take you in to collect Ganoderma lucidum."

Shi Wen asked very honestly, "Is it illegal to harvest Ganoderma lucidum? Is it a protected plant?"

Yan Kexing: "No."

Shi Wen, "Then let's go pick them!"

Shi Wen like we haven't been able to go out for a while. The whole family has been cooped up at home for ages, and even the pets are getting restless.

We're going out to collect Ganoderma lucidum now, so this is a good opportunity for a spring outing.

They have a lot of apricot trees here, and in the lower altitude areas, the apricot blossoms have already started to bloom one after another.

A tree full of apricot blossoms, like smoke and rosy clouds, looks exceptionally beautiful.