Today she walked more carefully and more slowly than yesterday. It was already noon when she finally reached the bamboo forest behind the house from the spring.
The bamboo forest, after the dense fog receded, still revealed clumps of bamboo. There were also some low shrubs. There were quite a few bird's nests here; some were from pheasants, some were abandoned. She collected over twenty pheasant eggs.
While searching for pheasant nests, she discovered a wooden box in a bush. This wooden box was significantly smaller than the one she kept in her room.
[Obtained Wooden Treasure Chest +1 (What you get depends entirely on luck)]
Luck. She felt her luck was excellent and wasn't afraid at all. However, she didn't rush to open it. She directly put it into her backpack to open later when she returned. It didn't feel safe outside.
She continued to search for pheasant eggs. After exploring this entire bamboo forest, she collected over ten bamboo shoots and thirty-three pheasant eggs. She hadn't seen a single wild chicken, not even the ones she encountered in the morning. Perhaps they had gone out to forage.
Instead, there were many more bird's nests on the bamboo trees, and she could occasionally hear chirping birdsong.
Feeling hungry, she walked directly from the bamboo forest towards the house. She cut down shrubs and weeds along the way, collecting several bundles of tree branches and some thatch.
Back in her room, she first took care of her physiological needs and washed her hands before starting to eat. She took out two bowls of sweet potato paste she had cooked in the morning. It was no longer scalding hot. After eating two bowls of sweet potato paste, she was still a bit hungry, so she ate a pheasant egg she had roasted yesterday. Although it was cold, the warm weather didn't affect it.
After eating, she ventured out again under the sun to search for supplies. She walked along the newly built path, heading into unexplored areas. She used bamboo to tap and clear her way, startling many small animals. She didn't chase them, focusing solely on observing her surroundings, afraid of encountering a snake.
She encountered two gray rabbits midway, but unfortunately, she couldn't catch them. She found wild fruits and wild vegetables, but she always observed the surroundings for danger before picking.
As she neared the place where she picked kiwifruit, she heard "coo coo" sounds. When she went to investigate, she saw several familiar pheasants eating something under the kiwifruit vines. New areas that had appeared also had some trees with climbing plants, and a pheasant was eating something there.
She approached again with her wooden plank, aiming for a beautiful rooster and struck it. The rooster, sensing something, flew away, scaring the other pheasants off as well.
She didn't chase them. She knew her chicken-catching skills. Her success this morning was pure luck, like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse, or a novice defeating a master with random moves. But a blind cat doesn't always have such luck, and a master might be caught off guard by random moves.
This group of chickens had been startled by her once already, making them even more alert and harder to catch. She arrived at the newly exposed trees and realized these climbing plants, not kiwifruit, were actually Augustguas.Augustgua, also known as August fried, splits open when ripe, revealing the fruit inside. The fruit is shaped like a banana but has too many seeds. She had eaten it a few times and didn't particularly like it.[Obtained August GUA +1 (Edible)]...
The shorter ones had already been pecked at by chickens. She picked all the ripe and nearly ripe ones, collecting a total of 26 Augustguas. Even if she didn't eat them, she could trade them for other supplies.
She picked some more kiwifruit and prepared to pick some Earth Purls nearby. She quite liked eating Earth Purls. Passing by a recently refreshed area, she was once again stopped by the plants before her.
Among the green leaves were small white flowers, and hanging from the branches were lantern-shaped fruits, both red and green. Although they didn't look like the long peppers she had in her backpack, she was certain these were also peppers. She plucked one and held it in her hand. Indeed.
[Obtained lantern chili +1 (Strange-looking peppers, edible)]
She wondered why she could recognize these peppers that didn't look like peppers. It was because of her grandmother, who loved growing flowers. One time, her grandmother saw lantern peppers at the market, found them pretty, bought a few, ate them, and then planted the seeds in the yard for ornamental purposes.
After collecting over a dozen bright red lantern peppers, there were still some small green ones that hadn't grown up yet, as well as more than a dozen small white flowers that were blooming. Lin Qiǎnmò looked at the two pepper plants that were still flowering and dug up some of the surrounding leaf mold, piling it around the roots. Since it was near her residence, taking good care of them might even yield more harvests.
She walked to the area with Earth Purls and found quite a few ripe ones. After circling and patting the area to ensure there was nothing around, she began picking. There weren't many Earth Purls left; she estimated only two more harvests before they were gone.
Returning to the apple tree, she found nothing on it, which disappointed her. Was this really a game? Besides the dense fog that receded daily, other plants only grew faster; there were no refreshes. It was becoming increasingly strange. It was neither like a game nor like reality.She decided to set aside the things she couldn't figure out and, discarding these messy thoughts, continued her exploration.
Soon, in a newly refreshed area, she discovered something good again. It was a clump of green broad-leafed plants about a meter tall. Small, pale yellow flowers were clustered together one after another, forming layers like a pinecone. She could smell the fragrance of the flowers from afar. It was a bit close to the dense fog.
It smelled like grass fruit, and it looked like it too, but she wouldn't know for sure until she got her hands on it. Since it was quite close to the dense fog, she didn't dare to go closer. She could only use the bamboo she had to pull the flowers over. With great effort, she managed to pull a stalk over and twisted off the entire flower spike.
[Grass fruit flower +1 (Edible)]
It was indeed grass fruit flower. This type of grass fruit flower was best for making soup. She remembered when she was young, she didn't like soup, but whenever her grandmother made soup with grass fruit flower, she could drink two bowls. It was said to be good for the stomach and spleen.
After picking the flower spike, she put the stem back. She had a large grass fruit flower spike, which would be enough for her for a long time. She would use at most one or two per pot of soup. Not everyone could accept the taste, and she didn't plan to pick too much.
Skipping the grass fruit flower, she continued forward and encountered another rabbit. This gray rabbit was pacing near the dense fog, seemingly wanting to enter it but being blocked, just like the one last time.
She was thinking if she could pick up another rabbit, but when the rabbit noticed her, it immediately ran in the other direction. A bit regretful.
She walked a little further and found a bush shaking slightly. She gripped her axe firmly in one hand and tapped with the bamboo in the other. The creature inside the bush ran out from the other side, causing the surrounding bushes to shake.
After tapping a few more times with no response, she used the bamboo to push aside the bush and peeked in, but couldn't see clearly.
She poked with the bamboo and seemed to hit something hard. She tapped again, and it made a slight 'dong dong' sound.
This sound piqued her interest. She used her axe to cut open the bush and found where the bamboo had poked. It was a wooden box, but this wooden box was larger than the previous one, making it difficult to carry out. She reached her hand inside and felt the wooden box.
[Obtained Wooden Treasure Chest (Medium) +1 (Random item)]
She tried to put the wooden box into her backpack. With a 'whoosh', the wooden box in front of her disappeared, and a similar wooden box appeared in her backpack.
Seeing that there was nothing else worth her stopping for in the vicinity, she continued forward, aiming to complete a full circle today as well.