Chapter 47: Monkey Heads and Sharp-Headed Hazelnuts

  Song Wen tied up the rabbit and put it in his backpack, then continued on his way.

  The deeper you go, the denser the mountains and forests become, with more weeds and shrubs in the woods. The daylight is gradually blocked by layers of trees and grass, making the forest look increasingly dark.

  It was originally cold air moving southward, and last night there was a light rain, causing the dark forest to become somewhat chilly.

  But Song Wen strangely found himself feeling not a hint of coldness, and after walking for a while, he even felt a bit hot. He couldn't help but feel strange in his heart, thinking to himself, "Could it be the result of drinking snake wine yesterday?" That's just too amazing.

  He was a bit bewildered and turned his head to ask Song Hu who had taken the snake wine: "Ah Hu, have you drunk that snake wine?"

  "What's up?"

  "How does it feel after drinking?"

  After hearing Song Wen's words, Song Hu seemed to have thought of something and his expression changed dramatically.

  After half a beat, he said with an odd expression: "The effect is not bad."

  Looking at him like that, Song Wen also knew what the effect was, and it seemed to be different from the effect of drinking snake wine with himself. It's really strange. After thinking for half a day, he couldn't figure out why, so he stopped thinking about it.

  It was late autumn at this time.

  The north has had several big snowfalls, and as far as the eye can see, everything is withered and desolate.

  Only in southern regions like Nanzhou, after a light rain, the small grass underfoot is nourished by the rainwater and suddenly sprouts out, as if spring has arrived.

  Song Wen, Song Hu and Short Brother took turns leading the way forward, drilling through the forest, stepping over streams, walking over rocks, crossing mountain ridges, and struggling to move forward.

  They just wanted to go pick some bamboo shoots this time, nothing else was in their plans. It was Song Wen himself who had an idea and thought of picking some mountain delicacies to take back.

  Conehead is also known as Pearl Chestnut. In a valley deep in the mountains, there were originally only a few trees, but over time they gradually grew into a grove.

  Nowadays, people live a good life and are too lazy to go up the mountain. Moreover, the mountain is high and far away, and there are many wild beasts, snakes, and insects inside. As a result, few people go there to pick chestnuts. Last time, Song Hu saw Short Brother picking half a bag of chestnuts and was so envious that his eyes turned red, but he didn't know that Short Brother was afraid that he wouldn't be able to come back when he went in.

  Especially now is the time when wild beasts in the mountains are struggling to survive the long winter, if you're not careful, it's possible that instead of getting something from the mountain, you'll become their winter food.

  Song Wen used to often come to the mountain forest to pick and eat wild fruits, but it had been too long since he last came, everything familiar was covered by the overgrown grass and trees, the recognizable environment had changed beyond recognition, so much so that he couldn't even recognize the road, and could only rely on Old Brother Short Legs, this old bird who often walked in the mountain forest, to guide him forward.

  Thick old vines as wrist-thick were everywhere in the forest, Song Wen looked at them and thought about whether to find some time to cut some mountain vines back home to make chairs.

  The rattan is tough and pliable, after drying, the rattan is hard but also very soft, made into a rattan chair to sit on, it feels soft, like a chair with a soft cushion, but more breathable than a soft cushion.

  After walking over another mountain ridge, Song Wen suddenly saw a patch of chestnut trees in the valley ahead, with fruit as big as lotus seeds hanging from the branches.

  The Quercus tree is also called the Lithocarpus or Oak tree, and the fruit it produces is called an Acorn, which tastes bitter.

  However, if you bring it back to cook, remove the water when cooking for the first time, and add a little ice sugar when cooking for the second time. The taste is very good after cooking. But eating too much of this thing will cause constipation like durian. However, it's not serious, just eat some bananas to moisturize your intestines.

  Maybe it's the bad taste of acorns, a big pile of acorns under the oak tree hasn't been harmed by wild beasts in the mountains, quietly lying there, densely packed.

  Song Wen took a look and then ran over with his snake skin bag.

  "Awen, don't pick that up, it's not good to eat. Go get the pointed head instead!" Song Hu shouted from behind.

  "I'll pick some up later and be on my way."

  Seeing him like this, Song Hu and Short Brother exchanged a glance, having no choice but to go forward and help pick up.

  When they had picked up most of the fallen olives, Song Wen suddenly ran up the tree and started shaking it again.

  Mature acorns suddenly fell like rain, pattering down and hitting Song Hu and Short Brother, who buried their heads and ran wildly. Song Hu was furious and cursed loudly, while Song Wen laughed heartlessly on the other side.

  After finally picking up all the acorns, the three of them leaned weakly against the oak tree to rest.

  "My waist is broken." Song Hu said with a grunt, tapping his waist with his hand.

  It was almost noon, and the three of them took out their food and started eating.

  Everyone has already agreed on this lunch, bringing their own food, and it's just making do for now. We'll make something more substantial tonight.

  The dwarf brother brought a dish of rice mixed with lard, and Song Hu also had something similar, but with a few more pieces of braised meat.

  Song Wen, while cooking porridge in the morning, also took the opportunity to grab a bowl of dry rice, which was good for lunch. However, the dishes were much more abundant than the two of them. He brought over all the braised flavors he had bought from Nanzhou the day before yesterday, including roasted duck, roasted meat, duck wings, duck intestines, and five-spice, making Song Hu's eyes almost turn green. He didn't know that Song Wen's backpack also contained cured meat and red sausage, or else he would have snatched them away.

  "Don't be polite, come on in." Song Wen said to the two of them.

  It was him who didn't speak, Song Hu also planned to take action. He picked up a roasted goose leg and started eating it. The short brother wasn't polite either, following behind Song Hu and picking some up too.

  In no time, the three of them finished off a whole plate of braised food.

  After finishing dinner, Song Wen took out a package of things from his backpack, which was the leftover fried bamboo worms from yesterday.

  "Where did this come from?" Song Hu looked and his eyes almost popped out. He didn't think Song Wen would bring so many good things.

  "I caught it in the bamboo forest yesterday."

  "Not exploding is delicious."

  Song Hu stuffed some into his mouth and chewed a few times before speaking.

  "You have food to eat, but you still complain about this and that." Song Wen said in a bad mood, then turned around to invite the short brother to eat.

  The dwarf elder brother also didn't stand on ceremony, and ate it with relish, saying: "This thing is actually the same taste as that honeycomb."

  "Not bad, it's about right." Song Hu nodded his head.

  "It's all protein inside, so it's about the same."

  After finishing dinner, I took a rest.

  A few people patted their buttocks and got up to continue on their journey. Suddenly, Song Hu saw a white thing lying on the tree beside them, and he couldn't help but point at it and ask Song Wen and Short Brother: "What's that thing on the tree?"

  Song Wen and the dwarf brother listened, turned their heads in the direction of his pointing hand, and saw a white fluffy thing lying on the oak tree, but they didn't know what it was.

  Song Wenda plucked up the courage, took a branch and carefully walked over, saw that thing not moving, then picked up the branch lightly poked it once, found no reaction, so boldly used force to poke it down, that thing was knocked to the ground. Several people gathered around to take a closer look, but found it was a kind of mushroom.

  "Can this be eaten?" Song Hu said after taking a look.

  "Who knows."

  Song Wen picked up a leaf and wrapped the white fluffy thing in it, bringing it to his nose for a sniff. A fragrance wafted into his nostrils, somewhat like the scent of shiitake mushrooms but not quite. After taking a closer look, he discovered that this thing seemed to be a type of monkey head mushroom, so he shared his observation with Song Hu and Short Brother.

  "Herculean mushroom? Impossible! How could this thing possibly exist in our place?" Song Hu said disbelievingly.

  "Have you heard of leopards on our side?" Song Wen asked.

  He was talking about the thing that happened two years ago when a leopard came down from the mountain forest and ran into the village to steal chickens and ducks, and that guy was later taken away by the forestry bureau, but it's unknown where he went.

  If nobody saw it at that time, the villagers might still not know that there are leopards in the mountains.

  "It's different," Song Hu said.

  "What's different?"

  "This leopard has been here before, it's just that it hasn't been seen often lately. But as for the existence of monkey head mushrooms in this mountain, no one has ever mentioned it."

  "Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

  Seeing Song Hu still wanting to say more, Song Wen waved his hand and said: "Alright, don't worry about these for now, go look again to see if there's anything else."

  After a while, several people found more than ten in the woods again.

  Perhaps it was because this place had no one coming, and there were no mountain beasts to disturb him, that Song Wen actually found a basketball-sized dry monkey head mushroom, and he was so happy that his mouth couldn't close.

  "This smells so good, it must be delicious." Song Wen said, looking at the monkey head mushrooms spread all over the ground.

  "Can this be eaten? Don't eat it or you'll get poisoned and something big will happen." Song Hu said.

  "I think last time Ah Wen, you had diarrhea because of eating something wrong, don't eat randomly again, be careful of poisoning. During Qingming Festival, there were sheep in the village that ate wild mushrooms from the ground and died." Short Brother also advised beside him.

  "Don't worry, I'm not that stupid, I won't just eat anything. As they say, even after cooking, you have to let the chickens and ducks try it first to see if it's poisonous before eating."

  "That's also true, I didn't think your brain was still so useful?" Song Hu praised.

  Song Wen felt that this remark was not very pleasant to hear.

  He took a look at the monkey head mushroom on the ground and wanted to share it with Song Hu and Short Brother, but the two shook their heads repeatedly, apparently afraid that this inexplicable monkey head mushroom was poisonous. Seeing that they didn't want it, Song Wen put it in his bag and put it in his backpack, then took advantage of the two not paying attention to turn into a fan.

  Just now, Wu Zi picked up three big bags of walnuts. Since they still had to hurry along the mountain road and it wasn't convenient to carry them, Song Wen decided to first hide these walnuts in the forest.

  He then took it into the forest and hid it. In fact, he had taken advantage of Miao's and Song Hu's inattention to put it into the space of the Ruyi fan.

  After putting it down, continue to move forward. The farther you go, the more difficult the road is. A large pile of withered branches and leaves, not to mention that sometimes you have to climb over stone crevices to continue moving forward.

  Finally, after walking through a forest full of decaying smells, the three people arrived at their destination, the Pinecone Forest.

  Cone Hazel Forest, located in a small canyon.

  In the canyon, there are tall and short conifers. The shorter ones are obviously new shoots, only two or three meters high; the taller ones are all over ten, twenty, or even thirty meters high.

  Hazelnut trees are laden with fruit, and the ground is covered with ripe hazelnuts.

  Several people took a look and didn't stop, then took out their bags and started picking up from the ground. On the way here, several people had already said that no matter how much they picked up, whoever picked more would be divided equally.

  After picking for a while, Song Wen saw that the hazelnuts on the ground were almost all picked up, so he climbed up the tree and started shaking it.

  The ripe chestnuts suddenly fell from the tree with a "rustling" sound, fortunately Song Hu and Short Brother saw it quickly and ran away, otherwise they would have been hit by the thorny chestnut shells. The mature chestnuts fell down, but some were still hanging on the branches, so Song Wen cut off a long branch and knocked them down from the tree, then came down to pick them up together.

  In just a short while, the three of them picked up four big bags, but most were with shells. If they were to remove the shells, about half of the sharp heads would be left inside.

  After picking for a while, they saw that it was already late, so the three of them stopped.

  The dwarf brother often comes here to catch wild bees and the like, so there is a nest here. Song Hu and Song Wen carried the pine nuts on their backs, following the dwarf brother to his nest.