Cute Beast Food Garden

"Come on, there are a lot of snakes and insects in the mountains in summer, they all tie their legs tightly so that no skin can be exposed!"

Before entering the mountain, Uncle Le, who is a veteran of the mountain goods trade, repeatedly told the young men who accompanied him to put their legs on their feet obediently.In this way, when walking on the weedy mountain road, they will not be caught off guard by a few bites from snakes and insects, and then miserably poisoned and lying on the ground.

After Si Dongmo quickly tied up his legs, he squatted down again and helped Qi Yan tie up his trouser legs.

It was the first time for Qi Yan to enter the mountain as a human form, and he was completely puzzled by their leggings, squatting on the spot in embarrassment, not knowing what to do.

Fortunately, Si Dongmo came over quickly, knelt on the ground, carefully wrapped him tightly, and carefully checked around, and after confirming that there were no loopholes, he patted him lightly: "Okay, let's go. "

"Hey..." Qi Yan heard Ah Jin sniggering behind him, and even winked at his brother with a gossip look on his face.He coughed twice, and then walked forward with Loeb.

For the newcomers in the mountain team, the two Le family brothers had seen each other before, but it was the first time for Le Bo to see Qi Yan. This warm-hearted uncle cheerfully talked about the things in the mountain with this handsome young man.

When to pick what kind of fruit, when to get what kind of animal skin, Loeb remembers clearly.

The objects they collect are mainly fruits and herbs, and occasionally they also hunt some small prey.But Le Bo told Qi Yan that there are actually many types of people picking goods in this mountain.Some specialize in hunting large and ferocious beasts, which are called beast hunters, that is, hunters like Lao Kang; some specialize in collecting herbs, such as the apprentices of the barefoot doctor in the village; Specialize in collecting a certain kind of mountain products, such as ginseng.

"As for me, the old man, of course I know a little bit about all eighteen martial arts, I'm a 'mountain miscellaneous expert'!" Lobo said jokingly.

Qi Yan also laughed crisply: "Uncle Le, you know everything, you are a 'know-it-all'!"

"Haha." After being praised by the cute boy, the old man shook his head in satisfaction.He said: "Young students, there are so many treasures in this mountain. Last time we went into the mountain to get some dry goods, this time we will go to pick pine nuts. Then each person will tie a set of foot ties to his legs and climb up. To climb a tree, you have to climb tens of feet high, until you climb to the top of a big pine tree to pick pine cones!"

"So tall!" Qi Yan was taken aback.He had never seen pine nuts picked before, and he thought he could pick them just by climbing to a place of about ten meters. He never thought that the pine nuts were actually at such a high place.No wonder, the pine trees here are hundreds of meters high, much taller than the pine trees on earth.Isn't it very dangerous to climb all the way to the top like this?

"In the past years, every year when I entered the mountain, some people accidentally fell from the pine trees. Even if they didn't fall to death, they would be half-crippled. Alas, this business is considered a dangerous job. Even if they don't get eaten by wild beasts, they will kill themselves... ..."

Le Bo sighed faintly, his hoarse voice seemed to be a little choked up.Qi Yan lowered his head. He knew that there were no so-called textbooks in ancient times, and there were no systematic safety protection measures. All the experience was passed down from generation to generation from the older generation, which can be called teaching by example.

After trekking in the mountains for almost half a day, they finally arrived at a pine forest when the sun was westward.Looking up, there are towering trees with no end in sight above them, and the upper part of the trunk is tightly covered by layers of dense leaves.

"Come on, before it's dark, go up and try picking."

Without any explanation, Ah Jin put on the special foot tie for climbing tree trunks.This special "shoe" is like a claw, which allows people's feet to grab the rough trunk of the pine tree and will not fall easily.

"Come on, hey, watch me perform a 'vertical tree climbing' for you."

Ah Jin volunteered to set an example for the newly joined beauties.He carried a thick bamboo pole on his back, came under one of the trees, and observed the surrounding ground.

"Well, there are fallen pine cones at the bottom, and the ones above must have matured."

As he said that, he rubbed his fists together, shouted a few more courageous shouts on the spot, and then flew towards the big tree trunk, hugged it like a koala bear, and started climb up.

"Be careful under your feet, keep your eyes on the tree!" Seeing his playful smile, Loeb stood under the tree worriedly and kept urging, "Focus!"

"Dad, don't worry!" Ah Jin laughed and climbed up like a monkey, "You, just wait to pick up the pine cone under the tree...Ah!"

Just as he was laughing, the man in mid-air stepped on the rough bark and slipped suddenly, scaring everyone under the tree into a cold sweat.

"Ah Jin, you kid, why are you so reckless!" Uncle Lo stomped his feet angrily, "Look at the top of the tree for me!"

"Hey, okay, okay, I see..." Ah Jin smiled guiltyly.He climbed higher and higher, and even his laughter gradually disappeared in the tall leaves and could no longer be heard.

Picking pine nuts is really dangerous.Qi Yan looked at the foot tie in Ah Sheng's hand. The special "shoes" were purely handmade, and there were many repair marks visible to the naked eye.Climbing up a [-]-meter-high tree wearing this crude equipment really required considerable courage and skill.

"Screw rustle..."

Human beings are not the only ones living among the pine trees.

For example--

"squirrel!"

Si Dongmo saw the small figure flashing past the woods, and let out a low exclamation.

Squirrels are small animals on pine trees. They mainly feed on pine nuts and are also good at picking pine nuts.No need to be as troublesome as people, squirrels are born to pick pine cones and come and go freely in the woods.

The squirrel is quite timid. It glanced at a few humans in the ground from a distant tree, then snickered and ran away with its pine cone in its arms.

"Bang, bang—"

Suddenly, there was a knocking sound on the trunk from above.Lobo cheered up and signaled them to back off: "A Jin is about to knock down the pine tower with a bamboo pole. You all stand far away and be careful not to hit your head. When he finishes knocking, we will go up to pick it up."

Not long after, there was only a soft "cracking" sound, and the huge pine cones were knocked down from the top of the tree, and fell towards the ground one after another.

Due to the cover of the dense leaves, they couldn't see Ah Jin's movements, only the "pine cone rain" came down from above, scattered on the ground.

"The quantity is almost the same, he should have finished picking."

Practice makes perfect, and Le Bo can know the "work progress" of Ah Jin on the top of the tree just by glancing at the number of pine cones that have fallen to the ground.

"One pine tree can probably pick more than 100 pine cones. Skilled pickers can climb more than ten pine trees and pick more than 1000 pine cones a day. Pine trees grow slowly, and they can't pick all the pine cones every time. Gotta leave some on the tree for the squirrels to eat."

Qi Yan is amazed that ordinary farmers in this time and space also have the concept of "sustainable development".Mining half and keeping half, never exploiting everything, killing everything—maybe this is the rule passed down from generation to generation in the mountain goods business, and it is a tacit understanding passed down from generation to generation in the mountains.

After a quarter of an hour, Ah Jin climbed down from the tree backwards, panting.Descending from the tree was even more difficult than climbing it, and Ah Jin's physical strength had been consumed a lot, and his front and back clothes were completely soaked when he landed.

"I'm exhausted." After taking a few deep breaths, Ah Jin sat down on the ground, screaming and jumping up in the next second: "My God! It hurts me to death!"

Qi Yan took a look and found that he happened to be sitting on a hard pine cone, and the hard lines on it made him grin his teeth.

Loeb patted his butt a few times, "Silly boy, go sit and rest over there."

The rest of the people picked up the pine cones that Ah Jin knocked down from the tree and put them in bags.After picking a tree, it was getting dark gradually, so they packed up, built a fire in the woods, and prepared to camp at night.

Qi Yan followed Si Dongmo to collect firewood.The woods at night are particularly gloomy, with strange chirping of insects everywhere, and occasional shrill chirping of birds.He followed closely behind the man, and kept looking back, for fear that some monster would suddenly jump out from behind him and bite him on the neck.

"Qi Yan, you can walk obliquely in front of me." Si Dongmo saw that he was so nervous that he was almost in danger, so he pulled him to his left front and walked.In this way, Si Dongmo could not only show him the way, but also guard the rear.

"Si Dongmo, do you think there will be danger tonight?"

"Not sure, if you mean painted wolves. The place where the wolves appeared last time was quite far away from the pine forest. However, judging from Hong'er's encounter last time, painted wolves will disguise themselves and wander in the forest. Not confined to its lair."

"Hmm." Qi Yan frowned, feeling that the matter was not simple.Painted wolf can not only fight ambushes, but also fight guerrillas, he has really become a master.

After picking up enough firewood, the two quickly turned back and returned to the vicinity of the camp.They didn't have time to hunt, so they hurriedly ate around the fire with the dry food, meat and preserved fruit snacks brought from home.

"Hey... oh my brother, take it easy..."

Ah Jin was lying on his elder brother's lap, humming and muttering non-stop while bearing his elder brother's willful massage.

"Brat, let you be brave and climb so fast." A Sheng beat his legs carefully, kneading the muscles on his back and shoulders, "If you don't 'fix' it today, you won't be able to climb a tree tomorrow .”

"Oh, my brother, with your method, you can press me out without any injuries! Be gentle, it hurts, hurts..."

Ah Jin was panting in pain. Lobo at the side handed him a small handful of grass leaves for him to chew and eat.

"I still have to climb dozens of trees tomorrow, let's have a good rest."

While chewing the herbs, Ah Jin smiled and said to his father and brother: "Actually, I'm lucky today. I climbed all the way to the top of the tree, but I didn't see the pine tree fairy."

Hearing his words, the atmosphere suddenly froze. Both Le Bo and A Sheng stopped what they were doing and frowned.Qi Yan and Si Dongmo looked at each other, neither of them had ever heard of "Pine Fairy".

Qi Yan asked curiously, "Excuse me, what is a pine tree fairy?"

"Uh..." Lejia father and son looked at each other, hesitant to speak.Qi Yan vaguely felt that this matter was a little complicated, just thinking about not asking, Ah Jin scratched his head and opened his mouth again: "Actually, it's not a secret, I'm just afraid that you will be scared after I tell it. "

"Afraid?" However, when he said this, Qi Yan wanted to hear it even more.Ah Jin coughed dryly: "Hey, I don't have anything else to do tonight, why don't I tell you about the pine tree fairy..."

Qi Yan squatted obediently in front of Ah Jin, pricking up his ears to listen to the story.Sudden--

"Swish..."

There was a sudden rustling sound from behind them.Several people turned their heads immediately, and Si Dongmo's nerves tensed for a moment. Qi Yan caught a glimpse of a cold light under his cuff - his right hand was already firmly pressed on the blade, ready to strike at any time.

"There's something over there." Ah Jin said in a low voice, putting away his smile.

Is it a painted wolf?Qi Yan stared intently at the deep darkness.Now there are five of them here, there are several wolves in Painted Wolf's gang, and they grope quietly from the darkness, which can really catch them by surprise.

At this moment, Qi Yan saw from the corner of his eyes that Lobo's head seemed to have suddenly grown in size, he gasped in shock, and the bulging "head" also moved a bit, but it was a hairy guy.

Taking a closer look, it turned out to be a small animal lying on Loeb's head.Loeb reached over his head and patted the little animal's body, and the little thing immediately jumped off his head and swished into the bushes where the sound came from.

"Uncle Lo, that's..."

"Don't be afraid, this is the little boy I brought." Loeb explained.Not long after, the brown-fur cub ran out of the bush and waved its front paws at Loeb.

"It's okay, they're gone."

"Let's go..." Qi Yan watched the chubby little bear slip into Uncle Le's arms, obediently accepting the old man's touch.

"We encountered wolves in the mountains last time, so I brought Xiaodai here today. It has good ears and a good nose, and it can remind us to keep those beasts from sneaking over without knowing it. "

As he spoke, he casually took out a peanut and threw it into Xiaodai's mouth.The little bear immediately stood up on his hind legs, opened his mouth wide, and let the peanut fall into his mouth with precision.

The appearance of the little bear opening his mouth to pick up the peanuts made Qi Yan cute, and he made a funny face at the little bear.The little bear's big round eyes happened to see Qi Yan's smiling face. It froze for a while, then looked at Qi Yan with some curiosity, and suddenly walked towards him staggeringly.

"Ooooooooooo."

The little bear let out a low howl, stretched out its front paws and hugged Qi Yan's leg.Qi Yan was a little surprised, and hugged the little bear into his arms.Seeing this little hairy guy crawling up and down on his body, his fluffy body rubbing against him, he couldn't help pulling the hair on the top of the little bear's head.

Ah Jin smacked his lips enviously: "Oh! I didn't expect the little idiot to like Beauty Qi, and I wouldn't even hug her if I wanted to."

Looking at the little bear's big watery eyes, Qi Yan thought it was very interesting, so he broke a piece of scone brought from home and gave it to eat.The little bear held the scone with two short hands, and ate it bite by bite. At the end, he wiped his mouth carefully with his little paw.

"Uncle Lo, why haven't you seen this little bear during the day?"

"This little boy is a nocturnal bear. He sleeps in my back basket during the day, and only gets up at night to look for food." Le Bo sat two meters away from Qi Yan, and threw another peanut here.

The bear's night vision is surprisingly good.Seeing that the food flew a little high, it suddenly jumped out of Qi Yan's body, jumped straight into the air, opened its mouth in mid-air, ate the peanuts, and then fell back onto Qi Yan's arm.

"We have the night bear tonight, so we can sleep soundly. If there is any movement, Xiaodai will let us know in advance."

Qi Yan watched the little bear climb down from his body, and then quietly ran to Si Dongmo's side.It took a fancy to a piece of preserved fruit that Si Dongmo was holding in his hand, and ran towards him on all fours.

However, when the little bear stood in front of Si Dongmo, it looked into the man's cold eyes, and suddenly shuddered visibly, and the fur on its body trembled twice.Then he let out a scream, and ran away from him in a flash.

"Hahaha! Brother Mo, do you have such a fierce face that you scare away the idiots!" Seeing Si Dongmo's bewildered expression, Ah Jin laughed until his stomach ached.

After "begging for help" from everyone present except Si Dongmo, the little bear sat in Qi Yan's arms with his "trophy" in his arms, gnawing on the food.Maybe it's Qi Yan's stable appearance that makes him feel at ease, it seems to have a particularly good impression of Qi Yan, even closer than the Le family brothers who have been with it for a long time.

After dinner, they all took out their simple sleeping bags and prepared to rest.Qi Yan lay down under the quilt, and seeing the little bear still sitting on top of him reluctantly, he reached out and scratched the little bear's neck and back, making the little guy squint his eyes comfortably.

That night, amidst the crackling firelight and the little bear's footsteps walking back and forth, Qi Yan fell asleep in a daze.

=====

Early the next morning, they came to the pine forest again.Ah Sheng, Ah Jin, and Si Dongmo all put on foot straps, and climbed up the uneven trunk of the pine tree, while Le Bo and Qi Yan stayed under the tree, guarding their luggage, picking up and knocking down pine cone.

After a whole day passed, the three people who climbed the tree had collected thousands of pine cones, and each of them was so tired that they collapsed on the ground, almost unable to walk.Qi Yan handed them water and sweat towels one by one. The summer forest was humid and hot, and there were piles of mosquitoes. People could only wear clothes covering their whole body, sitting under the trees and panting for breath.

"Tired, so tired, I'm exhausted."

Ah Jin lay sprawled on the ground with a look of lovelessness on his face.Qi Yan gave him some herbs for relieving summer heat, Ah Jin threw them into his mouth, and chewed dryly.

"But, it's hard work, but look, look at what this is—" Ah Jin stretched out his arm, patted the bulging bag of pine cones leaning behind him, his eyes became bright .

"This, this is a full bag, what is it!"

The big guy was startled by his sudden yell, and saw Ah Jin giggling evilly, "This bag is full of money, it's full of money! Haha, hahaha..."

Ah Sheng, who was sitting on the other side, poked him, "Stupid brother, it's not money yet. If you peel all the pine nuts, you can sell them for fifty copper coins per catty! Haha, hahaha..."

The two brothers leaned side by side on the big cloth bag filled with pine cones, and at the same time showed fascinated eyes, and giggled.

Qi Yan glanced at them in horror, decided to stay away from these two tired and stupid young men for the time being, and walked quickly to Si Dongmo's side.

The man suddenly whispered to him: "I have an appointment with Lao Kang, and we will meet next to the pine forest this afternoon."

Qi Yan looked up at the sky, the sun was westward, and it was already afternoon.

"They haven't come yet. But, you picked pine cones all day today, won't you be tired?"

"Don't worry, I'm recovering quickly." Si Dongmo smiled relaxedly, "Qi Yan, I'll take a rest now and officially set off at night."

"Evening? Then...will you come back tomorrow?"

He nodded: "I'll come back and pick pine nuts, if I'm still alive." Hearing the second half of the sentence, Qi Yan's face suddenly became stiff, but the man immediately pinched the back of the young man's hand and shook his head with a smile. shook his head.

Qi Yan stood there sullenly.After a while, he fetched his coat and put it on the tired man who fell asleep quickly.

=====

When it was almost night, Lao Kang and the others finally appeared.Si Dongmo woke up where he was, and saw that the team of hunters had arrived at the pine forest, and Le Hong's bewildered expression stood out among the crowd.

"Brother Dongmo, look, I brought your brother back safely."

The leader was a strong man, he greeted Si Dongmo, and then led Le Hong to the man.

"Old Kang, thank you."

"You're welcome. But, I want to tell you..." Lao Kang approached and lowered his voice, "When we were hunting, the wolves had been quietly following us and just didn't move. You know what? Well, there are fewer of them than us, so they dare not act rashly, but," he glanced at the Le family and his son, "there are few people on your side, so maybe they won't be so afraid."

"It's nothing." Si Dongmo nodded slightly, "I'm here to make a break with them. I will kill them by myself, and I won't implicate anyone from the Le family."

"Isn't it? You, you want to go alone?"

"Well. This matter has nothing to do with Ah Jin and the others. I plan to solve it myself."

Old Kang looked at him worriedly: "With all due respect, this is not a good idea. It may be difficult to deal with them alone."

"The fewer people there are, the easier it is for the wolves to relax their vigilance, so that they will show up." Si Dongmo patted him on the shoulder, "I'm at the foot of the hillside over the pine forest tonight, if you want to pick up some wolf skins Wolf meat or something, remember to come and take a look tomorrow morning."

"You..." Lao Kang thought for a while and said, "We will spend the night at Taniguchi below. If there is anything, I can take care of it. Remember, Taniguchi below, drive the wolves there, understand? "

"Understood, thank you."

Night fell.Si Dongmo packed his backpack, while Qi Yan took out an elixir, and swallowed the dew collected earlier to melt it in his mouth.

As a "spiritual beast", Qi Yan's second transformation was better than the first time, but he still felt a lot of discomfort.In order not to cause trouble to Si Dongmo, he took the elixir given by Boss Lan, and sat quietly on the spot with his eyes closed.

Unexpectedly, after taking the elixir, at the same time, several gusts of icy or hot air circulated randomly in his body, crazily impacting his lungs, making him even more uncomfortable.

"Qi Yan, Qi Yan?" Si Dongmo put away his weapon, and suddenly saw Qi Yan sitting on the spot with a pale face, covered in cold sweat, he said in surprise: "Qi Yan, what's wrong with you?"

"Hoohoo!"

Suddenly, Qi Yan opened his mouth, and a big fireball shot out from his throat.

Immediately afterwards, there was another "puff puff" sound, and a stream of transparent venom shot into the air and fell into the haystack in front of it.

"Qi, Qi Yan?"

"Bang bang bang!" This time it was the iron head skill, Qi Yan, like a woodpecker out of control, slammed his forehead into the ground a few times, smashing the scattered branches on the ground immediately.

"Qi Yan..."

Si Dongmo was dumbfounded, watching the boy suddenly dance wildly, breathing fire, spitting venom, and "iron head skill". After dancing on the spot for a while, there was a bang , fell to the ground stiffly.

The moment he fell down, Si Dongmo saw the few remaining elixir in his hand.

……

Qi Yan was unconscious for less than a quarter of an hour before waking up again.

Although his head was dizzy, he already had some eyebrows in his heart.He remembered that when Boss Lan gave him the elixir, he said that this elixir would not only relieve him of the pain in the early stage of transformation, but also sublimate his "special ability".

Qi Yan's "special ability" is his ability to copy other beasts.When he was a little bird before, the new skills he learned secretly would replace the old skills, so this skill was very inconvenient for him, and it was very "tasteless".

But now, after successfully transforming and taking the elixir, his strength has broken through, and all the skills he learned before have been recovered one by one.The flame-breathing of the cottonbird, the venom of the giant mussel, the pecking of the woodpecker... Now he can use all the skills of the beasts he has learned along the way!

Boss Lan is worthy of being a friend of the Spiritual Veterinary Medicine Fairy, and the elixir he made is really effective!

"Qi Yan, are you okay?" Si Dongmo observed his expression carefully, "You stay here to rest tonight, don't go with me. Uncle Le and the others will take care of you."

But Qi Yan just smiled lightly.

"Dongmo, I'm fine now, and even better than before."

"Ah...ah? What, what?"

"Did you see the fireball and the broken wood I just blown out? Now I have more abilities than before." He patted Si Dongmo on the shoulder, "Tonight, I will definitely help you of!"

"Ah?" Si Dongmo looked at him dizzily, "More abilities? I, I thought that the reason you danced while breathing fire just now was because your brain was broken..."