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So everyone sat under the fig tree, waiting for news from the little ones.

Soon, the sound of dogs barking rang out.

They Shi Wen standing up and going to check where the dog was barking.

This time, they called for Xi Wa.

Xi Wa scratched at the ground with its paws. When it saw them coming, it turned its head and barked at them, its voice full of joy.

Shi Wen there was indeed a nest of termite mushrooms there as well.

This nest of termite mushrooms is larger; many have already sprouted above the ground, and the caps on top have already opened.

Shi Wen caught that unique aroma of termite mushrooms again, and couldn't resist pulling out a stick. "Come on, let's dig! Let's dig!"

Everyone worked together to carefully dig out the termite mushrooms.

Before they had finished digging up the mushrooms, the sound of dogs barking came from deep within the orchard.

Lin Chengqian immediately said, "It seems that some dogs over there have found termite mushrooms too. I'll go over there and take a look."

Ge Yue stood up and said, "I want to go too."

After Ge Yue and the others ran over, a short while later, the sound of dogs barking rang out again from deep within the orchard.

Shi Wen exchanged a glance with Yan Kexing and said, "There are quite a lot of termite mushrooms here?"

Gong Jiang stood up on his own initiative. "Then I'll go dig over there."

The little ones are fast runners and have a keen sense of smell.

Starting with the second nest of termite mushrooms, nests of termite mushrooms appeared one after another.

In just a few hours, they had already dug up six nests of termite mushrooms.

Shi Wen, looking at everyone's baskets that were almost full, said, "This trip wasn't in vain."

Ge Yue: "I didn't expect there to be so many termite mushrooms here. If Zhake's family tidies up a bit, they might even be able to start a termite mushroom cultivation business as a sideline."

Yan Kexing: "Perhaps because there are many fruit trees here, the conditions for termites to survive are relatively good."

Shi Wen, "No matter what, finding termite mushrooms is a victory."

Shi Wen took out his phone to check the time; it wasn't even noon yet, so he could dig a little longer.

Shi Wen said, "We've finished digging on the west side. Shall we head east and take a look?"

No one had any objections.

Lin Chengqian: "I hope we can find just as many termite mushrooms in the east."

They walked back a short distance, and the little ones excitedly ran off to explore places they had never been before.

Soon, the little fox noticed something and called out loudly, beckoning them to come over.

Shi Wen the little fox's excited cries, he laughed and said, "Finally, it's the little fox's turn to find something. That's really something!"

Ge Yue: "Let's go, let's see how big this nest of termite mushrooms the little fox found is!"

They followed the sound and found the little fox crouching beside a mound of earth.

Seeing them arrive, the little fox grinned, stuck out its pink tongue, and called out to them again.

The little snow leopard was right next to me, scratching at the dirt with its paws in confusion.

Shi Wen he went over to take a look, he realized that the mound of earth that smelled of termite mushrooms didn't actually contain any termite mushrooms.

The termite mushrooms may still be hidden underground and haven't sprouted yet.

Shi Wen also tried to poke around with a stick, but after only a couple of pokes, he noticed something was off about the texture underneath: "Huh--"

Yan Kexing turned around. "What's wrong?"

Shi Wen, "Look down there, there's a nest down there."

After they dug away the soil, they found not soil underneath, but an empty termite nest.

Yan Kexing glanced at it and said, "It's an abandoned termite nest; there shouldn't be any termite mushrooms left."

This termite nest looks quite large, about as deep as a pot.

The aroma of soil and mycelium wafted out, unmistakably the smell of termite mushrooms, but mixed with a few other notes.

Shi Wen had enlarged the entrance to the hole, and the nest underneath looked quite dry, clearly not an environment suitable for growing termite mushrooms.

Shi Wen said to the little fox, "There are no more termite mushrooms. They probably grew before, but they've withered now."

The little fox was surprised to find that the nest of termite mushrooms it had painstakingly found contained no termite mushrooms.

It gave an incredulous look, squeezed out of the crowd, and scratched at the chicken coop with its paws. "Aww?"

Shi Wen, "Indeed, no."

The little fox ignored it and kept rummaging around.

Shi Wen was about to grab it by the scruff of its neck and pull it up, he suddenly noticed a white ball in the termite nest.

"Huh?" Shi Wen stopped tugging at the little fox's hand and picked up the round ball. "What's this?"

He picked it up and looked at it, only to find that it was not a sphere, but a teardrop-shaped object.

The object was covered with a layer of white mycelium, which also resembled a spider web.

Shi Wen, somewhat confused, "Is this a termite nest?"

Ge Yue and the others came over, but they all shook their heads, indicating they didn't know.

Yan Kexing took the object from Shi Wen, examined it, and said, "It's not a termite nest, it's a fungal sclerotium."

Shi Wen didn't understand at first. "What?"

"Sclerotium," Yan Kexing repeated, "The 'jun' of bacteria, the 'he' of peach pits, this should be the sclerotium of Carya carnivora."

Shi Wen felt that he hadn't understood a single word, and stared blankly at Gong Jiang and the others.

Gong Jiang and the others also seemed confused, their expressions even more bewildered than Shi Wen's.

Shi Wen asked, "Which charcoal mushroom?"

Yan Kexing searched for the technical terms on his phone and showed them to him, then rubbed the hyphae on the outside of the sclerotium apart.

The sclerotium that reappeared indeed looked like a jet-black egg; Shi Wen, I immediately understood why it was called an anthracnose fungus.

Shi Wen sniffed the aroma of the charcoal mushroom and asked the crucial question, "Is this edible?"

Yan Kexing answered without hesitation, "It's edible. In China, it's also called Wuling ginseng. It has a good calming and soothing effect and can be considered a tonic."

Shi Wen immediately said, "As long as it's edible, shall we dig some up and take it back?"

Since it's edible, I'll definitely take it back with me.

Shi Wen dug the termite nest even wider and soon found other sclerotia.