Chapter 6: Picking Mushrooms in the Mountains   Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations

It was actually best for Gu Yan’s injured leg if she could rest at home and do nothing.

It takes at least a hundred days to heal broken bones or strained tendons.

Gu Dagang had a soft heart. He also knew that Gu Yan was not his biological daughter.

Sometimes, when he saw Zhang Lan bullying Gu Yan too much and too harshly, Gu Dagang would sympathize with Gu Yan. But in actuality, there was nothing he could do.

He was scared of Zhang Lan, so he didn’t dare to oppose her.

Zhang Lan used to work as a nanny in the city and made more than a hundred yuan each month. In the eyes of a village person in the ’80s, that was a lot of money.

Therefore, Gu Dagang admired his wife as well. He believed his wife was a very able woman.

Gu Yan remembered, in her previous life, Zhang Lan eventually moved to the city under the help of Bai Weiyang. Her outlook became higher, her ambitions became bigger, and she abhorred Gu Dagang and thought of him as useless. She divorced Gu Dagang and remarried a small restaurant owner who had a decent amount of money.

Gu Yan did not know what eventually happened to this spineless, reliable man.

Because at that time, Bai Weiyang framed her, and she was involved in that medical accident.

Gu Yang thought about all these things and carried the wicker basket on her back. Then, she locked the door and headed out.

She didn’t want others to know that her leg was already healed in order to avoid Zhang Lan’s family from getting suspicious.

Gu Yan still walked with a limp and slowly walked to the mountains in the back.

Today was the day she encountered Lu Ye for the very first time!

In her previous life, Gu Yan dragged her limping leg and picked mushrooms in the mountains. By sheer chance, she rescued an injured Lu Ye, who just came back from a mission in Northern Xinjiang.

Gu Yan’s heart was ecstatic at the thought of seeing Lu Ye very soon!

In her previous life, the scene of Lu Ye slowly closing his eyes in front of her was burned deeply into her memories. It burned so deep that Gu Ye bit her lips and worried that everything was just a dream, and she would wake up the next second!

With a perturbed and anticipatory mind, Gu Yan went up the mountains.

There were plenty of mountains where they lived, but the mountains weren’t high nor steep. Some villagers planted fruit trees, sweet potatoes, and peanuts in the mountains.

Northern villagers relied on the mountains and its natural resources.

Children would go into the mountains and catch birds, wild hares, and wild pheasants. Sometimes they would pick wild dates and wild hazelnuts.

There were plenty of wild mushrooms in these northeastern forests, which were considered delicacies. There was no pollution or fake products at this time. Once these mushrooms were taken home and sun-dried, they could last a very long time.

In the winter, mushrooms could be stewed together with chicken. Then adding some diced green onions, sliced ginger, salt, and star anise would complete an extremely delicious dish.

Meat from chicklings were more tender, and meat from older hens were chewier.

Once lunar August 15th came, there would be even more mushrooms, but now more and more mushrooms were starting to grow out.

Just then, Auntie Sun came from the other side.

Auntie Sun had been a widow in the village for many years. She was one who always spoke her mind. She was in her forties and had a son as her only child who joined the army.

She was a little chubby, her eyes were rather menacing, but she was really kind-hearted.

“Little Yan, why are you here picking mushrooms? Didn’t you hurt your leg in a fall?”

“Oh, Auntie Sun. Hmm, my leg is fine.”

“You’re saying your leg is fine, yet you’re still limping. How could your leg be fine when you fell from such a high stone bridge?” Auntie Sun frowned, and her eyes were filled with compassion.

She, for one, could not stand the way Zhang Lan acted.

She was just a common villager. She used to be normal, but once she lived in the city for two, three years, she believed she was a city folk by the time she returned!

Also, Zhang Lan’s heart was too damn biased.

Pretty much every family had more than one child. Some preferred boys over girls, some loved the youngest, and some only focused on their eldest.

But in Auntie Sun’s eyes, Zhang Lan treated her youngest daughter, Gu Moli, way too nicely. She babied and worried the heck out over her, and she never let that girl do any chores since she was little.

But the way she treated the elder daughter, Gu Yan, was...

It felt like she didn’t even consider Gu Yan as her own daughter!

Zhang Lan made Gu Yan quit school after she graduated from middle school and had her do all the chores since she was little.

Now, look at her, she had a limping leg and still had to pick mushrooms in the mountains.

Auntie Sun was beyond furious. She braced her hands on her waist and said with a burning rage, “Little Yan, stop working right now. Go home and have some rest. If your mother dares to yell at you, I will curse at her!”