The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 837 - 815: Into the Mountains

Chapter 837: Chapter 815: Into the Mountains

Bai Erlang muttered something softly, and the two of them couldn’t hear it clearly. They were about to ask him when they heard Zhou Hu say, "We used to come here to collect firewood."

Everyone looked over. It was the slope of Tiger Mountain, not far from Qili Village, and exactly where one would enter the mountains. The trees here were sparse, and the grass wasn’t dense, so there was no need to clear a path to walk through.

But Zhou Erlang sighed, "Now it’s not possible. The weeds and brambles have grown quite a bit and no one has cleared them. Just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, people used to come here to cut trees or collect firewood. Those brambles would be chopped down and left in the forest to dry for twenty to thirty days, and then when winter came, they could be dragged back home to be split and burned..."

However, since twelve years ago, the people of Qili Village no longer came to this mountain to gather firewood, nor did they go hunting. Over time, these trees and wild grasses were allowed to grow wildly.

Liu Gui took two steps forward and quietly said to Daji, "We have searched this place, nothing."

Daji then walked over to Bai Shan and shook his head slightly.

Bai Shan said, "This place is too close to the entrance of the village, definitely nothing here, let’s go further inside."

Bai Erlang didn’t think there was anything here either. Following the crowd, Manbao had already started communicating with Keke. Although she knew the chances were low, she still had it scan continuously with her at the center.

It was from here that Liu Gui and the others had begun their search inward. In order to leave no stone unturned, they searched inch by inch, so this area had been covered.

Keke also didn’t find any unfamiliar species, nor the particular thing that Manbao and the others were looking for.

The group moved forward, and Zhou Hu gradually felt something was amiss. As a hunter, he couldn’t claim to be extremely skilled, but he could still discern some traces. He rummaged through the underbrush and, after observing the surrounding traces, couldn’t help saying, "Strange, our villagers haven’t entered Tiger Mountain, so why are there recent signs that someone has passed through?"

Liu Gui cast his eyes down and quietly fell back with his group.

Zhou Silang glanced at Liu Gui and nonchalantly said, "Maybe it’s people from other villages, and even though our villagers may not enter, the hired hands from the farms still might, right?"

Zhou Hu thought so too.

Zhou Hu stood in the woods for a moment, looked around to get his bearings, and then led Manbao and the others southwest. He laughed, "We used to dig pits and set traps over there, it’s been so many years, I wonder if those traps are still there."

Liu Gui and the others who had fallen behind silently agreed: Yes, not only are they still there, but they’re also in good condition and haven’t caught them short.

Zhou Hu took Manbao and the others to look at the traps, thinking that Manbao wanted to know about her biological father, and he also detailed some fun stories about them setting traps in the past.

Manbao listened while observing her surroundings. Liu Gui and the others had mostly searched this area and found nothing. Keke also didn’t discover anything.

Seeing that they had no intention of stopping and Zhou Erlang had also quietly pulled him aside to tell him to just keep showing them around and in as much detail as possible, Zhou Hu could only lament that the Zhou Family was spoiling Manbao too much, to spend so much time entertaining a child like this.

He led Manbao further inside, walking deeper and diverging in directions, gradually moving beyond the area Liu Gui and his group had searched. And as they went deeper, the variety of species differed from those outside, and Keke began to report new species it discovered.

Moreover, because there were many people, when a bird flew overhead, Keke also reported, "Unrecorded bird species, recommend collection."

Manbao looked up and saw a bird flapping its wings flying away, but in the blink of an eye, it disappeared from their sight.

Manbao: ...

Keke expressed regret, "Out of scanning range."

Manbao let out a sigh of relief and continued forward.

Keke: "Two hundred meters to the left, a number of previously unseen plants discovered, recommend host to collect."

Manbao looked in that direction, and with Keke’s guidance, she found them. They seemed familiar, and after looking, she asked, "Isn’t this Indian basket grass?"

Keke scanned the listing history and confirmed, "It has not been recorded."

"Of course it hasn’t been recorded, this is written in the medical books. I seem to have seen it in the ’Classic of Herbal Medicine’," Manbao answered inwardly while taking out a hoe to dig up the grass.

Since she also needed to collect the soil characteristics where the plants grew, Manbao always carried extra soil while hoeing. Out of habit, she only uprooted three plants, leaving the rest.

She picked a big leaf to wrap their roots, casually pulled a blade of grass to tie them up, and placed them in her basket.

Bai Shan, along with Liu Gui, Daji, and Zhou Erlang, started searching around to see if there were any places nearby to hide things.

Bai Erlang thought they were looking for lingzhi mushrooms, also joining in the search, stirring up leaves and grass wildly, but ultimately found nothing.

Manbao asked Keke, "Did you find what we’re looking for?"

Keke replied, "Nothing within an eight hundred-meter radius."

Manbao felt slightly disappointed and looked around. After thinking for a moment, she turned to Bai Shanbao and said, "Let’s continue forward, there might be nothing here."

Bai Shan thought about it, then pulled Zhou Silang aside to ask, "Where did you find the body back then?"

Zhou Silang was stunned for a moment and then pondered, "It’s been too long, I don’t quite remember, but it wasn’t in this area."

Zhou Silang looked around and finally pointed in one direction, "Over there, where it’s shady. We always found mushrooms growing there after it rained, so we would go there to look."

Bai Shan then said to Manbao, "Let’s go over there to look."

Manbao nodded, called Zhou Hu over, and pointed in that direction asking, "Brother Zhou Hu, where did he like to go to before?"

Zhou Hu was taken aback, he certainly knew what direction that was. He looked down at Manbao, then turned to look at Zhou Erlang.

He saw Zhou Erlang nodding at him slightly, and Zhou Hu silently nodded in agreement, "We often went there to forage for wild products."

Manbao then said, "Then let’s go over there and look."

Seeing them switch from one place to another so quickly, Liu Gui frowned, "Searching like this, it’s probably even harder to find anything."

Daji glanced at him and said, "If the young master was also going to search inch by inch like you did, we might as well have left the searching to you, no need for him to enter the mountain personally."

Liu Gui fell silent.

Everyone followed and changed locations.

Keke scanned all the way, and while they didn’t find the object, they did find several unrecorded plants. Manbao had only promised Keke the day before, so of course, she went to collect them whenever there was a report, carrying her basket over.

When encountering larger plants, such as trees, she would collect branches, soil, and bark. Even Zhou Erlang, who was in on the situation, was astonished. Was Manbao here to find evidence or to gather herbs?

Indeed, in their eyes, the various strange things Manbao collected were all considered medicinal.