4 Mushrooms

Liu Xiaolan run towards a tree and squated right under it.

"Mushrooms!"

"Finally something that I can eat."

Liu Xiaolan quickly picked up the mushroom and made sure that it's not poisonous. Although she didn't need to pick them by herself in her previous life, but as a chef she still knew quite a lot of different kinds of mushrooms and what to look for in order to know if they are poisonous.

The most obvious points to look at would be the cap or stem. Mushrooms with white gills, a skirt or ring on the stem and a bulbous or sack like base called a volva are most likely poisonous.

Also, mushrooms with any parts of it having red color, no matter if it's on the cap or stem, are very likely to be poisonous and shouldn't be eaten at all.

'This one looks fine…' She thought, looking around for some more.

Now that she knew what to look for, she noticed a pretty good amount of them growing around. It's very likely she had already walked pass many other mushrooms while not looking for them specifically.

Liu Xiaolan muttered: "Now that I know that I can find mushrooms here, at least food shouldn't be an issue…"

Without wasting further time, Liu Xiaolan decided to quickly pick up more mushrooms and go back before it gets dark. It already took her quite some time to get here and finding her way back will take her some time since she's unfamiliar with the terrain.

The good part of mushroom picking in ancient times also showed itself. There are plenty of mushrooms and no competition. While some people know some of the eatable types of mushrooms and can also pick them, most common folks living in villages are afraid of eating them, since it's easy to get poisoned if someone ate a bad one by accident.

It only took a little over half an hour for Liu Xiaolan to fully load her small basket with mushrooms. And that's also considering the fact that she's moving pretty slowly because of her current condition.

'Time to go back, I still need to go to the river before going home…' She thought to herself.

At the end of the day, Liu Xiaolan still has no tools for cooking. While mushrooms are mostly good and can even be eaten raw, the very least she needs to do is to wash them with some water. After all, she had just picked them up from the ground and most of them carry some dirt on themselves.

By the time that Liu Xiaolan managed to come down from the mountains it was already getting dark.

"Good thing that the river is not far away from my current home, if I had to go inside the village for some water I could be seen by someone from the Liu family…"

Liu Xiaolan wasn't scared of anyone from the Liu family, but her body is still hurting a little and overall she's pretty weak right now. If someone from the Liu family saw her and came to bother her, she would have some trouble to fight back against them.

'Anyway, I should probably try to get it done as fast as possible. With these people, it's never known if they won't suddenly come over…' Liu Xiaolan thought while gritting her teeth.

Moving with a relatively quick speed for her current body, she finally made it to the river. She instantly squatted down next to it and drank some water to relieve herself. After that, she threw her mushrooms on the grass next to her and slowly washed them one by one from all the dirt they had on them.

Liu Xiaolan looked at down at herself, and seeing her body she couldn't help but think she's dirty. The original owner of this body hasn't washed for a long time.

While the river is pretty deep, if someone knows how to swim it's still possible to swim from one end to the other one, and some parts of the river are shallow enough to stand in them. However, the original Liu Xiaolan never had a chance to learn how to swim, so she was scared of going inside the water.

"Now that I'm here, I might as well try to wash myself…" She said quietly, while looking around for a little more hidden spot. It was already getting dark, so she wasn't too shy, but she still didn't want anyone to peak at her.

She moved over a little further into the forest and slowly took of her old, dirty clothes.

"I definitely need to get myself some new clothes as soon as I have money…" Liu Xiaolan muttered to herself, looking at her tattered clothes. If a beggar wore them, nobody would think twice about it.

Liu Xiaolan jumped inside the river and quickly washed herself. While the water wasn't ice cold, but it still wasn't good for her to be in the water too long currently.

'I might as well wash my clothes. I'm already nass and it's not like I have something to dry myself with, if I put on my clothes after coming out they'll get wet anyway…' She thought as she picked up her clothes and washed them in the water.

After making once again sure she didn't see anyone near, she came out of the river, squeezed out as much water as she could from her clothes and directly wore them on her body.

Seeing it was already dark, she picked up her basket with mushrooms and quickly went home. The only good thing was the fact that it was still pretty hot outside, so even with wet clothes on herself it wasn't too bad.

Once home, Liu Xiaolan picked up some of her mushrooms and started eating.

"Ugh, even through I washed them, they still have the taste of earth…" She said, slowly chewing more and more mushrooms. It wasn't long before she ate everything she managed to pick today and went to sleep.