Chapter 10

How could such a tiny animal be so clever? It even knew how to leave markers?

The four followed Shi Wen as he wound left and right along the markers.

After nearly twenty minutes, they arrived in front of a small hole in the ground.

Shi Wen bent down to look and found himself staring into a pair of round black eyes.

Inside the little burrow, a slender little wood mouse with brownish-yellow and black fur huddled, trembling as it looked at them. It held both front paws in front of it, looking as though it had been frightened so badly it was about to drop its sunflower seeds.

Shi Wen said, "There really is one? Is this a little wood mouse?"

As he spoke, he bent down, trying to get a closer look.

Yan Kexing reached out, gripped his shoulder, and stopped him. "Don't get too close. It could be carrying hantavirus or something similar."

Yan Kexing's hand was slender and warm. With it on his shoulder, Shi Wen became especially aware of his right shoulder.

Shi Wen coughed to cover it up. "Okay."

Lin Chengqian said excitedly, "Now that we've found a little wood mouse, can we follow the paths they made to find Bachu mushrooms? They know Linzi much better than we do, right?"

Gong Jiang said, "That's possible. I'll take another photo. This little wood mouse is so cute. I'll see if I can put it in our publication."

Chapter 10

There were many "mouse paths" made by little wood mice in Linzi.

By studying these paths, Shi Wen could roughly judge how many little wood mice there were.

There really were quite a lot of them here. They were probably the dominant species.

After telling Yan Kexing and the others, Shi Wen picked another mouse path and led them onward.

The poplars in the woods weren't densely spaced, and the ground was flat, so it was fairly easy going.

As Shi Wen walked and looked around, he suddenly spotted several black dots on the ground ahead.

Had they found some already?!

Excited, Shi Wen hurried over and stared at the black dots ahead.

"They really are Bachu mushrooms!" Shi Wen turned to Yan Kexing. "Following the little wood mice works!"

Yan Kexing said, "Let's see how many there are."

Shi Wen said, "Let me count. One, two, three... six. Looks like six."

Gong Jiang craned his neck. "Aren't there two more next to those leaves over there? Those black things sticking out."

They all crouched down.

Shi Wen gently brushed aside the fallen leaves and soil around the Bachu mushrooms. Once each mushroom was fully exposed, he used a knife to cut it off at ground level.

Wild mushrooms tended to have a lot of dirt and grit on them. Pulling them up by the roots made them harder to clean, so cutting off only the parts aboveground was a little better.

One, two, three... Shi Wen counted silently as he cut. Including the two Gong Jiang had found, he harvested nine Bachu mushrooms in all.

This really was quite a large patch of Bachu mushrooms.

No wonder the little wood mouse had left a marker pointing here. It probably treated this place as a food store.

When Shi Wen finished cutting the mushrooms, he looked at Yan Kexing. "Looks like there aren't any more?"

Yan Kexing nodded. "We've picked them all."

Shi Wen rummaged in his pocket. Before leaving, he took out a handful of boiled sunflower seeds and put them on the ground.

Ge Yue watched him in surprise. "Shi Wen, are you-"

Shi Wen said, "I raided the little wood mouse's food store, so I'm giving it something to make up for it."

Lin Chengqian couldn't help saying, "You don't really need to do that. There are bound to be more Bachu mushroom spores around here. We picked them today, and new ones will grow tomorrow. Sunflower seeds might not even be part of the diet of the little wood mice in this area."

Shi Wen insisted, "I looked it up. Little wood mice eat grass seeds and nuts. They have a pretty varied diet. These sunflower seeds were boiled in plain water, so they can eat them."

Lin Chengqian said, "That's so romantic of you."

Shi Wen's ears reddened slightly. "Think of it as a guide fee."

Yan Kexing said, "Having the ability to do this and still being in awe of nature is a good thing."

Gong Jiang agreed. "A handful of sunflower seeds brings happiness. Leaving them or not makes no difference, so follow your heart."

Shi Wen nodded.

Yan Kexing patted Shi Wen on the shoulder, then turned to Lin Chengqian. "Always keeping your mind active is a good thing too."

Lin Chengqian nodded solemnly, looking at Yan Kexing with complete trust.

Shi Wen glanced at Yan Kexing out of the corner of his eye.

He felt that Yan Kexing was pretty good at keeping things even.

But he really was considerate.

Following the mouse paths to find patches of Bachu mushrooms was much faster than searching for them one here and one there.

Shi Wen picked another mouse path and led Yan Kexing and the others onward.

This time, the path led not to Bachu mushrooms but to a patch of wild strawberries.

The wild strawberries had only just begun to flower, and the fruiting season was still a long way off, so they found nothing.

After a couple more searches, Shi Wen learned from experience that he needed to look for fresh mouse paths, ones the little wood mice used often. That gave them a better chance of finding something.

Once they figured that out, their success rate at finding Bachu mushrooms immediately rose from one in five to one in three.

They searched for more than two hours, filling each person's basket halfway. It was much more efficient than when they usually searched on their own.

Shi Wen felt that the mouse paths in Linzi were incredibly easy to recognize, as obvious as fireflies in the dark.

But Gong Jiang and the others couldn't recognize a single one. Even when Shi Wen pointed them out, they struggled to see what made them different.

Because the mouse paths were so distinctive and they still couldn't find them, Gong Jiang took plenty of photos to document them.

The five of them moved together.

Every time Shi Wen took a patch of mushrooms, he left a handful of sunflower seeds for the little wood mice.

Little by little, he used up all the sunflower seeds in his backpack.

Ge Yue and the others offered the sunflower seeds in their pockets, but those were soon used up too.

They put down the last handful of sunflower seeds.

Gong Jiang looked at the Bachu mushrooms in his basket. "Before we came, I thought I'd be perfectly happy if we found enough Bachu mushrooms to make a soup. At this rate, we might even have enough for a stir-fried dish too."

Ge Yue said, "There's enough for two or even three stir-fried dishes. We found so much today—we can truly say we're returning with a full load!"