Chapter 268 - 268 257 Eh

Words : 1520 Updated : Oct 1st, 2025

268: Chapter 257: Eh 268: Chapter 257: Eh It was already nearing dusk, and it’d be weird if Manbao could still find anything. The mountains near Qili Village weren’t very deep, and neither adults nor children would go beyond the paths cleared by the adults to venture deeper. It wasn’t that they were particularly obedient, but rather, the deeper you went, the thicker the brambles and grass, the more snakes and bugs there were, and the paths became very difficult to traverse. Just a little deeper inside, and not to mention whether you could find anything, you’d first end up with a lot of scrapes on your hands and face. The situation was somewhat better in the mountains to the northwest of Qili Village, where the trees were sparser and taller, and thus there were fewer of such thorny vines and thick grasses. However, not many people liked to go there because the legend had it that not only wolves but also wild boars and tigers roamed the area, and there were stories of children who disobeyed and ventured up there only to be carried off in their mouths. How pitiful. Manbao had only started playing outside in these last two years, naturally following wherever Datou and Daya went, and that became her habit. Datou was usually taken out to play by Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang, who in turn had been taken out by Zhou Silang, as for Zhou Silang... Alright, he never went into those mountains. Dragging a bamboo basket, Manbao skipped towards the foot of the mountain. Datou, Daya, and the others had already filled up a bamboo basket and were carrying it down together by hand. The basket was filled with leaves, mostly dry ones, and not heavy at all. Catching sight of Manbao, Daya immediately tossed the basket to her brother and ran over to meet Manbao, “Little auntie, I’ll take you up the mountain.” Manbao wasn’t there for the dry leaves; she was there for straw mushrooms, so she asked, “Did you guys find any straw mushrooms?” “We did! Fourth Uncle found a lot, didn’t he already bring them home this morning?” “I still want to look.” It wasn’t fun if they weren’t found by herself. Keke: “...Host, I don’t mind that they weren’t found by you, just collect one of those and it would be fine.” Manbao refused, “No, I must find that kind of straw mushroom myself, I want to capture what I find myself.” Keke felt so helpless. Although Daya felt it was unlikely to find any more now, she patted her chest, promising to help. As for that big bamboo basket full of dry leaves, she let her brother drag it back himself since they were already at the foot of the mountain and their home’s compost heap wasn’t far from there. Daya helped her little aunt lift the other side of the damaged bamboo basket, heading into the mountains together. Datou stood at a distance, silently watching the two of them walk away. He let out a sigh of world-weariness and started dragging the big bamboo basket away. As for whether the bamboo basket would break, who cares? If it did, let Second Uncle fix it. There were quite a few kids helping out in the woods, and although it had rained last night, the insides weren’t very wet anymore. After all, it was the middle of Great Xia, and the ground outside had long since dried. Only because of the woods did the water evaporate slower, which allowed Manbao to notice that the ground was somewhat moist. Daya took her to look for straw mushrooms. But this area had already been searched by everyone in the morning, and the chances of missing any were very slim. Manbao searched for a long time, not even seeing any inedible, poisonous mushrooms, let alone straw mushrooms. Manbao sighed forlornly and waved her hand, “Forget it, I’ll look for them again when I have my day off.” It seemed that her older sister-in-law was right after all; if you want to find mushrooms, you have to come in the morning. By evening, you can’t even see a trace of them. But she had classes to attend, so she could only go to the mountain on the mornings of her days off. Having given up on searching for straw mushrooms, Manbao started turning her little head, beginning to rake dry leaves into her rickety bamboo basket. She was always meticulous, not letting a single leaf go when raking the ground, and sometimes, when she saw dark soil, she’d even tear off a big leaf from the side and rake the soil into the basket along with it. Daya didn’t feel like teaming up with her anymore, saying, “It’s going to be tough carrying it back like this, little auntie, I don’t want to be in the same group as you.” Manbao replied, “What’s there to worry about? Let the fourth brother carry it back later.” Daya thought about it and figured it made sense; she couldn’t order Fourth Uncle and the others, but the little auntie definitely could, so she also happily started raking soil into the damaged bamboo basket, even thoughtfully surrounding all sides with leaves to keep the black soil from leaking out... When Manbao finally couldn’t drag the basket anymore, she gave up on it and took a wooden stick to rake together the dry leaves and good soil into a pile, leaving it for the fourth brothers to pack up later. Manbao just kept her head down, running wherever there were plenty of dry leaves and good soil, and soon she’d moved a little further away from Daya. But Daya had been keeping an eye on her the whole time, reasoning that as long as Manbao was within sight, everything was fine since there were people all over that area, and several of the village girls who got along well with Daya also came over to join in on the fun with her. They were all about Daya’s age and rarely played with Manbao; besides, Daya’s little aunt seemed very different in their eyes, and they were a bit scared of her. So they watched Manbao from a distance and quietly asked Daya, “Why is your little aunt doing this kind of work?” Daya asked curiously, “Why can’t my little aunt do this kind of work?” “My grandma says your little aunt is the treasure of your family, and so is my little brother. He doesn’t have to do this sort of work.” Daya tilted her head, thinking for a moment before replying, “My grandma never said that. My grandma and my mom told us not to take the little aunt to dangerous places but never said that she didn’t have to work.” The girl replied, “Your grandma and your mom are really nice.” Daya glanced over at her little aunt, noticing she had wandered a bit too far, and called out, “Little auntie, don’t go too far.” Manbao, while bending down to rake the leaves, responded back and thought Daya was rather foolish for bringing so many friends over. What if they started fighting over the leaves and the good soil? Of course, she had to rake everything together quickly and claim it first. After toiling for quite some time, Manbao felt tired and wanted to sit down, but she didn’t want to sit where she hadn’t cleared because the leaves had some rainwater on them, and she definitely didn’t want to sit where she had cleared because it was all exposed mud. She looked around and saw a few wooden stumps from trees that had been chopped down nearby. Even though there were some young branches growing on the stumps, they were still suitable to sit on. Manbao ran over and plopped down on one, exhaling deeply. Daya and the others were not far off, chatting and picking up leaves and occasionally glancing at Manbao to make sure she was sitting nearby before going back to their work. Manbao, however, became interested in the stump underneath her. From the books she had seen through Keke, she knew that you could tell how many years a tree had lived by the rings on the stump. One ring was one year. Manbao found it very fascinating, thinking that trees were even more interesting than people, as they kept a clearer record of their age. Shifting her little bottom, Manbao began to count the rings. As she did, she accidentally sat down on the ground and instinctively reached toward the tree stump, grabbing what she thought was a black root. Of course, at that moment, Manbao thought it was a root. But when she pulled on it, trying to use it to get up, she broke off a piece of it. The “black root” snapped, revealing the white flesh inside. Both Manbao and Keke let out a “huh” simultaneously, one out of curiosity to look, the other out of curiosity to scan.

Chapter 268 - 268 257 Eh

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