Chapter 213: Into the jungle

The next day, Bai Yi Yang woke up at 7.35 am. Today, Bai Yi Ling is not going to her tuition class so they can stay in bed for a while but TongTong woke her up, telling her that the old couple is awake and it is also hungry.

Bai Yi Yang sat up and stay like that for a while before coming out of the bedroom. She saw Old man Cui sipping warm water while sitting at the guest receiving area, he doesn't seems to be long awake too. As for Grandma Cui, she is at the central courtyard, sitting near the puppies house and watch them eat.

"Good morning Grandpa. Did you sleep well last night?" Bai Yi Yang come over and sat across to Old man Cui.

"Good morning. Yes, we fall asleep right away, we usually woke up 1 hour earlier but today we overslept." Old man Cui said.

"I am glad. Do you have anything you want to eat for breakfast, I can make it." Bai Yi Yang said.

"Anything you make is delicious, this old man don't have any complaint." Old man Cui laugh.

Bai Yi Yang nod and decided to enter the kitchen to start cooking breakfast. Along the way, she also exchanged a few words to Grandma Cui at the yard.

Bai Yi Yang first make a rice congee, steamed egg, then steamed a few types of dim sums, steamed buns and a simple stir fry vegetables. They hadn't had a variety of food for breakfast for a while now, but, since there will be a lot of people who will be eating, there is no worries that the food won't be finished.

By 8.00 am, Bai Yi Yang only need to cook the congee for a while more before they can start eating. Bai Yi Ling has also woke up, as for Bai Yi Chen, he is still at the vegetables field near the mushrooms drying platform with the old couple.

"Go wake up the rest. We will have breakfast soon." Bai Yi Yang said to Bai Yi Ling.

[7 points earned. Total points: 1,433]

Bai Yi Yang ring the pot of congee to the middle of the table and start scooping out congee into each bowl. She ran to the kitchen window and called the people at the vegetables field. It was Old man Cui who replied to her. They also quickly make their way back.

So, by the time she finished serving the food, everyone is already seated, including TongTong who actually had start eating.

"Eldest yatou, when you sent it to us last time, we were saving it to last us a few days. Now, you can't be stingy, you must let me eat as much as I want." Old man Cui said.

"Look at you, being greedy again. People may think that you have been starving. Yesterday, it was also you who eat the most, so embarrassing." Grandma Cui scold her old husband.

"Grandma, don't worry, Grandpa Zhou is also like this when he come over to eat." Bai Yi Mo said giggling, this couple is a bit similar to Old Zhou couple that they are used to seeing.

"See. When we return home tomorrow, we won't have the chance to eat the eldest yatou food again. I am just being reasonable." Old man Cui said as he sample the vegetables dumpling.

When Bai Yi Yang send it the first time, they thought she bought it from a local shop that sell very good dim sums, who knows that it was made by her. Since Bai Yi Yang often send stuff, even the people from Natural Grocery coming to their house at least 2 times a month is not odd anymore.

However, no matter how much Old man Cui wanted to eat, when he is full, he can't do anything about it. They take a break after the breakfast, just chatting around until 9.00 am. They all changed into long sleeves and long pants outfit, wear a proper footwear before heading into the jungle. Today, they will do some mushrooms foraging.

Bai Yi Yang lead in front, today they are walking at the trail that the siblings had walked a few times. Right behind Bai Yi Yang is Grandma Cui and the children, when they passed by a colony of still growing mushrooms, the small children who already recognise the mushrooms will point it out to Grandma Cui, then they will stop for a while to take a look.

For someone like the Cui couple who never really get close to nature, everything is interesting. Whether it's the different type of colour mushrooms either edible or non edible, the big trees, wild flowers, small insects and so on, they will stop and ask. They are a bit similar to curious children all over again.

So, they only found a new mushrooms colony at around 10.00 am. Bai Yi Yang gave the same instruction as when she was teaching her siblings, pick only the mushrooms that they recognise, as for the mushrooms that they are not sure with, don't touch and ask her first.

The old couple nod and quickly start picking mushrooms, Grandma Cui is obviously more excited, she will laugh and compare the size of mushrooms she picked with the children. Even Bai Yi Ling seems to like Grandma Cui a lot, Bai Yi Ling temperament is quite similar to the calm Grandma Cui so they get along well. As for Old man Cui, he will pick up mushrooms for a bit, then look around. He is more interested with looking at the interesting stuff in real jungle.

After one colony, they move further to find more colony of mushrooms.

'TongTong, can you point out some Matsutake, let them bring back some tomorrow.' Bai Yi Yang said.

'Okay ah, no problem.' TongTong jump from the back of one of the puppies and start walking around.

'There is two here.' TongTong said. Bai Yi Yang immediately come over to the pine tree and look around it and as expected, she found two Matsutake growing side by side. She preferred to find Matsutake mushrooms far from their trail usually, she only pick the one in their trail when she doesn't have much time to explore the mountain area further.

"Grandpa, Grandma, see what TongTong found." Bai Yi Yang call the couple over. When they saw the Matsutake mushrooms, they gasp.

"Is that Matsutake mushrooms?" Old man Cui ask, he squat down to look closer.

"Yes. TongTong is good at finding it." Bai Yi Yang grinned.

"I only heard about dogs that is good at finding truffles, who knows that TongTong is also this talented." Grandma Cui said. Bai Yi Yang then said that TongTong is always good at this, it often found Matsutake mushrooms before too.

After the first find, Bai Yi Yang told TongTong to find a few more big one along the way, so, they found about 1 kg of Matsutake mushrooms by the time they finished mushrooms foraging. Actually, they can get much more, but Bai Yi Yang don't want it to be too unbelievable, the old couple may be scared away, so, she discuss with TongTong in advance. She even let the old couple to 'accidentally' found it themselves.

"No wonder Xiao Mo recommend this place, I will really regret it if didn't come into the jungle." Old man Cui laugh. On his back is a basket and he is also holding a smaller basket with Matsutake mushrooms inside.

"Grandpa, how can I lie to you. Going into the jungle is one of the most fun thing to do." Bai Yi Mo said proudly.

"True, true." Old man Cui nod a few times.

After returning, half of the mushrooms is arranged to the drying platform, the old couple pull their sleeves to help too.

'Now that they look a bit haggard with all that sweat under the sun, they don't look like rich old couple from the city again.' TongTong said to Bai Yi Yang. Bai Yi Yang is currently cleaning the fresh mushrooms that she will be using in their meal today under the running water.

Bai Yi Yang can't help but laugh at TongTong's statement. She look over and saw the old couple with her siblings taking their time drying the mushrooms. At one side, workers from Natural Grocery is also still picking vegetables, when they come out of the jungle, the people from Natural Grocery is here.

'It's good that they are able to spend some times like this.' She comment.

After settling the work outside, everyone enter the house by 11.00 am. The sun is very strong too so even if they wanted to stay outside, it is to unbearable.

After changing her clothes, Bai Yi Yang immediately enter the kitchen. As for the rest, they take turn taking their shower.

Bai Yi Yang start preparing for lunch. Today's lunch menu will be whole chicken soup with various fresh wild mushrooms, braised pork belly with preserved mustard green, steamed stuffed tofu, shrimp tempura, oyster omelette and two vegetables dish.

Bai Yi Yang is quite busy preparing stuff in the kitchen, what more TongTong is also chatting with her about the food that she is making for lunch. So, she didn't notice it when Grandma Cui come into the kitchen and watch her prepare all the ingredients in extraordinary speed. By the time she turned around to have some drinks, her eyes met with Grandma Cui shocked look.

"Ah, Grandma.." Bai Yi Yang smile.

"Your knife skill is amazing. Did you receive training since young?" Grandma Cui sat at one of the stool.

"Can't really said that I was trained, it's just that I pick up the skills by cooking for my siblings." Bai Yi Yang said.

"Then, you must be very talented." Grandma Cui praise.

"What are you making?" Grandma Cui ask, she didn't try to meddle in Bai Yi Yang work. Knowing how good she is, she will just become a nuisance. Bai Yi Yang recite all the menu that she is making today. So, Grandma Cui will only help with cleaning the ingredients, as for the cooking part, Bai Yi Yang is the one who is doing it.

"Jie, the same amount of rice like last night?" Bai Yi Ling ask while he is measuring the rice.

"Add 2 more portions." Bai Yi Yang said. Last night they were eating seafood boils, even though they ate a lot of rice too, today she can predict that they will eat even more rice. Bai Yi Ling nod and proceed with adding more rice.

At 12.15 pm, Bai Yi Yang turn of the gas with the clay pot. Inside is the whole chicken with wild mushrooms soup.

[7 points earned. Total points: 1,440]

Everyone is already sitting at the table, waiting for the final dish to be brought to the table. Bai Yi Yang start scooping out the soup gave some to everyone. Because of the hot weather, Bai Yi Yang close the window after cooking and the air conditioning is turned on so it was very comfortable. They had another fulfilling meal after walking around the jungle the whole day.

"Ah, I think I will have gained weight by the time we leave tomorrow." Old man Cui said as he lean back on the seat.

"I told you to eat less." Grandma Cui said. Actually she also eat much more than usual but not as much as Old man Cui. This old man is really stuffing himself so much. Old man Cui can only laugh and didn't deny it.

After lunch, they all returned to their room to take a rest. Bai Yi Yang also went to take a quickly shower before joining her sister to take an afternoon nap.