Siheyuan: The Temptation of the Mountains

By the time Lin Ze discovered the two boys, Lin Wu had already washed his face.

Lin Wen picked up a pile of dry cow dung weighing one and a half pounds, while Lin Wu picked up four and a half pounds of cow dung.

Lin Ze led Lin Wen and Lin Wu to the foot of Dongshan Mountain and shared the watermelon with his two younger brothers.

"Sweet, Brother Ze, this watermelon is so sweet!" Lin Wu was given four pieces of watermelon and was so happy that he almost lost his mind.

Although Lin Wen picked up less manure, Lin Ze still rewarded him with two melons.

"Brother Ze, I know where there is more feces!" Lin Wen wished he could eat the melon rind into his stomach.

"Where else is it?" Lin Ze asked curiously.

"My chicken coop. There's so much chicken manure in it!"

Lin Wen stamped his feet excitedly and raised his eyebrows, "Brother Ze, this is the shit I found, so the reward should be mine, right?!"

Lin Ze had long wanted to take over his uncle's chicken coop. He nodded thoughtfully when he heard this. "Okay, use the dustpan to carry out some chicken manure, and I'll give you some watermelons."

Of course, Lin Ze couldn't just collect the cow dung and take out the watermelon in front of Lin Wen and Lin Wu.

The cow dung picked up by Lin Wen and Lin Wu was piled in the ditch at the foot of Dongshan Mountain, and the watermelons were taken out by him in advance.

While Lin Wen and Lin Wu went home to clean the chicken coop, Lin Ze returned to his grandfather's house, took the old hunting rifle, and went up the mountain again. This time, he went to Nanshan Mountain.

Lin Changgui is the old man of the village, and his youngest son is the village party secretary, so under normal circumstances he does not have to work in the fields.

Whenever he had free time, he would play chess with several of his nephews in the village who were in their seventies and eighties and were a generation younger than him.

Liu Ying went to Dongshan to dig wild vegetables. There was no one at Grandpa Lin's house, which gave Lin Ze the opportunity to get the old hunting rifle.

Lin Ze walked very quickly, following the deserted grass and climbing to the deepest part of Nanshan Mountain.

Here he found a basin formed between two mountains. The ground was slightly moist and full of various mushrooms.

There are nests of chicken mushrooms, clusters of chanterelles here and there, and a single matsutake mushroom.

"Matsutake?! What a good stuff." Lin Ze was overjoyed and picked up all the mushrooms and matsutake he saw into the space.

After all, Lin Ze went up the mountain just to pick mushrooms. Of course, if he came across pheasants or wild ducks, he could also collect one or two.

Along the way, he picked five pounds of chicken mushrooms, two pounds of chanterelles, two pounds of morel mushrooms, and three matsutake mushrooms.

Pheasants, ducks, and rabbits, two each.

Just as he was about to leave the basin, Lin Wen and Lin Wu's nervous and subtle voices called out from the other side of the mountain.

"It's getting late."

Lin Ze looked up at the setting sun and decided not to pick any more fruits. He went down the mountain to reunite with the two little ones.

The unique sounds of insects and frogs in summer gradually sounded, and Lin Ze walked quickly in the jungle.

Soon, Lin Wen and Lin Wu's calls were heard nearby.

"Brother Ze!"

"Brother Ze, why did you climb up Nanshan Mountain?" Lin Wen asked with a pale face.

Lin Wu said, "Yes, Brother Ze, my mother and grandmother said that children cannot go to Nanshan Mountain. There are blind bears and wild wolves deep in Nanshan Mountain."

Lin Ze took off the old-fashioned hunting rifle from his back, and without showing the backpack to the two children, he said cheerfully, "My grandma and aunt are right, but you are children, and I, Brother Ze, am an adult."

"That's right, Brother Ze has a gun!"

Lin Wen and Lin Wu finally reacted and said earnestly, "Brother Ze, next time you go up the mountain, take us with you."

"What mountain? Is that a mountain you can climb?"

Lin Ze hit two eight-year-old boys who looked basically the same on the head.

With a straight face, he asked, "Did you get the chicken manure out?"

"Ouch! Ouch!"

"Ouch, it hurts, brother Ze."

Lin Wen rubbed his head and led Lin Ze towards the valley.

"Don't underestimate me because I only have two old hens. I have a lot of chicken manure."

"Oh?" Lin Ze followed the two boys half-believing and half-doubting until they reached the valley.

But there was only a small pile in the ditch.

"Is this what you mean, more chicken manure?"

Lin Ze compared the chicken manure and cow dung, and made a rough estimate. He estimated that it was only the amount of a pile of cow dung.

"One piece of watermelon per person. There's no more."

After Lin Ze finished speaking, he pretended to take out two pieces of watermelon from the backpack, but actually he took out two pieces of watermelon from the space.

The warehouse in Lin Ze's space is very good. Any items put in there will not deteriorate. They will remain the same when you put them in.

There were knives in the kitchen on the second floor of Lin Ze's space. He only cut two watermelons, which was enough for himself and the two little ones.

Even though there was only one piece of watermelon each, Lin Wen and Lin Wu still ate them with gusto, and were so greedy that they wanted to eat even the rind.

This time when they returned to the old man's house, Lin Wen and Lin Wu followed Lin Ze on the left and right, like two little bodyguards.

"Brother Ze, Brother Ze, do you have any food in your backpack?"

The greedy Lin Wu stood on tiptoe, wishing he could put his head into Lin Ze's backpack.

"Don't ask, little brother!"

Lin Wen, who was more clever, quickly covered his brother's mouth.

As soon as he covered Lin Wu's mouth, Lin Xiaohu came towards him with a group of children.

"Uncle Ze, Uncle Wen and Uncle Wu."

Lin Xiaohu greeted everyone politely, and the children behind him also called him uncle and grandpa one by one.

"Uncle Ze, you won't go back to the city since you're in the village, right?" Lin Xiaohu asked.

"I'll just be back after a few days of fun, what's wrong?" Lin Ze didn't understand.

"It's getting dark today, Uncle Ze, come and go fishing in the lake with us tomorrow."

Although Lin Xiaohu called him uncle all the time, he was the same age as Lin Ze after all, so he preferred to play with people of the same age.

"We can compete to see who swims faster."

There's no point in taking care of a group of little kids in the village every day.

"Okay, I'll go to the lake with you tomorrow." Lin Ze could swim, so he readily agreed.

Lin Xiaohu's eyes lit up instantly, "Really?"

"My brother Ze promised it, how could it be false?!" Lin Wu raised his head and patted his chest hard.

Seeing that Lin Ze no longer paid attention to him and walked around them to go back to Lin Changgui's house, Lin Xiaohu said loudly, "Okay, it's settled."

"Brother Ze, that Lin Xiaohu is really nagging." Lin Wen said.

"Don't worry about him. I have an appointment with him for a swimming competition. You two are not allowed to tell the adults."

Lin Wen and Lin Wu both nodded vigorously.

The group of three quickly returned to Lin Changgui's home.

After arriving home, Liu Ying was cooking wild vegetable porridge with sorghum flour, and she had pickled the wild duck that the old man had shot at noon.

Lin Ze passed by the old man who was taking a nap, walked into the kitchen, and took out the mushrooms, wild vegetables, and two pheasants from the backpack one by one.

"Oh my God."

Lin Wen, Lin Wu, and old lady Liu Ying, who had not left yet, were all stunned.

"Hey, here, how did you get two more pheasants?"

Liu Ying was surprised and asked, "What kind of mushroom is this? Is it Matsutake?"

"It's Matsutake, you are so knowledgeable."

"My great grandson, you are so awesome, this is it!" Liu Ying gave Lin Ze a thumbs up.