Chapter 16 Wild Chicken Eggs_1

Second watch of the night, seeking recommendations, seeking collection.

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Lian Wulang wiped the sweat from his forehead and handed Lian Manman a newly woven wicker basket. Lian Manman took it and saw it half filled with bitter berries.

"You went to pick bitter berries?" Lian Manman asked, "Why didn't you tell me so I could have joined you."

"Next time, it's a bit far off," Lian Wulang said with a smile.

"Oh, those are pretty distant hills," Lian Zhizhi said, "Did you guys go over from Nanshan?"

Lian Wulang and Xiao Qi both laughed.

"You guys are really brave," Lian Zhizhi said.

"Nanshan?" What is it, anything terrifying there?

"It's daytime, what's there to be scared of? Even if there were ghosts, they would only come out at night," Lian Wulang said nonchalantly.

Lian Manman recalled hearing Lady He say in her half-awake state that they wanted to throw her in Nanshan to bury her, so it seemed Nanshan was a graveyard.

"I didn't pick much, just the biggest and reddest," Lian Wulang told Lian Manman.

She mentioned the bitter berries just once, and Lian Wulang had already taken it to heart. The half-basket of bitter berries looked like tiny red lanterns, very pretty. Lian Manman plucked a berry, peeling the thin red skin to reveal the slightly reddened, transparent flesh with its clear, tiny seeds inside.

Actually, Lian Manman didn't really want to eat them, but she remembered in her previous life, during autumn, the berries, like other fruits, were on sale in the market and quite popular. She wondered if they would sell here.

Lian Manman put one in her mouth; it was a little bitter, a little sweet, and a little sour.

"You guys should try some too," Lian Manman reached into the basket, "Oh? What's this?"

At the bottom of the basket, securely covered by the bitter berries, was a layer of eggs of varying sizes, each patterned with intricate designs.

Lian Wulang and Xiao Qi started giggling as if they had discovered treasure.

"You found bird eggs? And even pheasant eggs!" Lian Zhizhi leaned over and exclaimed happily.

"The bird eggs were from me climbing trees, and the pheasant eggs I gathered from a nest in the grass," Xiao Qi proudly claimed.

"Sister, let's roast the eggs and have Manman eat them," Lian Wulang suggested.

Lian Zhizhi constructed a simple stove with stones on the ground while Lian Wulang and Xiao Qi gathered a pile of twigs. Lian Wulang took out the flint and steel from his bosom, ignited the twigs, and buried several bird eggs and pheasant eggs in the embers.

"Wu Lang, you're still carrying flint and steel?" Lian Zhizhi observed Lian Wulang.

Lian Wulang just smiled, remaining silent.

This morning, Lady Zhang had asked Lady Zhou for some eggs for Lian Manman to eat. Lady Zhou had refused and even scolded Lady Zhang. Xiao Qi heard about it and told him. At that moment, he had decided to look for some bird eggs for Lian Manman while they were out gathering wild vegetables.

Nanshan had many trees and was seldom visited by people as it was a graveyard. Relying on his bravery, Lian Wulang took Xiao Qi with him. They indeed found a nest of bird eggs, and even more luckily, they came across a few pheasant eggs. Lian Wulang also remembered Manman's request for bitter berries, so he made the extra trip to pick half a basket to give to his sister.

"Second sister, here's some 'black sweet,' 'black sweet' is even sweeter," Xiao Qi approached Lian Manman with a large tree leaf she had been hiding behind her back, unveiling a bunch of small purplish-black berries the size of a small fingernail each.

'Black sweet,' scientifically called dragon hollyhock, also known as 'black berries,' stays green when immature and turns purple-black when ripe, tasting very sweet and delicious. However, it's cooling in nature and slightly toxic, so one shouldn't eat too much.

Xiao Qi selected the largest cluster and placed it in Lian Manman's hand.

"Second sister, you eat," Xiao Qi said, gazing at Lian Manman with sparkling large eyes.

"These shouldn't be eaten in excess, especially not when raw."

"Even if I wanted to eat more, there simply isn't enough," Lian Wulang laughed. The wilds where they lived didn't have a lot of 'black sweet,' yet many children wished to have them. He and Xiao Qi went through a lot of trouble to find these.

"Second sister, don't worry, I only picked the fully ripe ones. The green unripe ones are sour and not tasty, I wouldn't eat those," Xiao Qi said.

Lian Manman nodded and added, "The raw ones are poisonous, remember never to eat those."

Xiao Qi nodded, "I'll remember, second sister."

Seeing Xiao Qi only watching her eat without partaking, and that Lian Zhizhi and Lian Wulang also weren't eating, Manman guessed 'black sweet' must be a rare treat in their eyes, so she grabbed two clusters and gave them to Xiao Qi, then took two more for Lian Zhizhi and Lian Wulang.