Chapter 7: Learning to Trust
With their only pottery jar broken, apart from the naïve Fu Ning, both Luo Shi and Fu An, grandmother and grandson, wore faces of deep sorrow.
Yu Ying came out of the house with some red mushrooms and gathered some wild vegetables and herbs from the yard to clean.
As she washed the mushrooms, Fu An watched her unblinkingly, his eyes wide like copper bells, fearing she might poison them.
Yu Ying didn't mind. While washing the herbs, she tasted a few, the sweetness dissolving in her mouth, slightly alleviating the bitterness in her heart.
However, as she ate the wild fruits, Fu An couldn't help but swallow repeatedly. Even little Fu Ning was salivating, sucking on her fingers pitifully.
Not wanting to eat alone, but mindful that too much of the fruit wasn't good, Yu Ying only filled half a bowl. She didn't give it directly to Fu An or Fu Ning but instead handed it to Luo Shi.
Luo Shi, seeing a blurred figure, recognized it was Yu Ying. Grateful for Yu Ying's treatment of Erlang today, her attitude had warmed. "What is it?" she asked.
Yu Ying took Luo Shi's calloused hands and placed the wooden bowl in them. Her manner was neither cold nor warm as she calmly said, "Eat these wild fruits to stave off hunger for now."
Having said that, she turned and went back to continue her work.
Luo Shi, holding the bowl, looked somewhat astonished, unaccustomed to Yu Ying's kindness.
Fu An approached, standing beside his grandmother, whispering, "Grandma, I was watching; she didn't tamper with the fruits."
His soft voice still reached Yu Ying's ears.
Squatting by the fire, Yu Ying stirred the embers in the fireplace and quipped with a hint of mockery, "Since you trust me enough to let me treat your legs and eyes, why would you fear I'd poison you?"
Hearing this, Luo Shi fell silent for a moment, then hesitantly tried a wild fruit.
Initially, she wanted to ensure it was safe before letting the children eat, but the sweetness of the fruit immediately made her expression stern.
The sweet wild fruits nearby had all been picked, except in the mountains – there were no fruits as sweet as these.
"You went into the mountains?!" Luo Shi's expression turned serious.
Yu Ying didn't hide it from her: "I did, but didn't go deep."
Luo Shi's expression grew heavier as she said, "The mountains are full of wild beasts and venomous snakes, extremely dangerous. Countless people from our village have been devoured or poisoned to death. Everyone else avoids the mountains, how could you dare to enter?!"
Luo Shi spoke anxiously, but Yu Ying knew she meant well and didn't take offense, responding calmly, "If there was any other way to survive, I wouldn't have gone into the mountains."
She understood the ancient reverence for mountains but didn't expect it to be to such an extent.
Standing up, Yu Ying looked out towards the village shrouded in twilight, her gaze falling on the dilapidated thatched cottages.
It wasn't just the Fu family; the entire Ling Shui Village was poor.
Yu Ying asked helplessly, "To survive, eating only wild vegetables without oil or salt, can anyone truly live like that? Even if adults can endure it, can the children? Can Erlang inside the house endure it?"
She paused, then continued, "I know the mountains are dangerous, and I'm scared too, but I can't just sit and wait for a miracle."
How could Luo Shi not be aware of the situation Yu Ying described?
Unable to refute, Luo Shi lowered her head and, after a moment, handed the bowl of fruits to her grandson, "Take this and share with Ning Ning."
Fu An hesitated, glancing at Yu Ying, then at the bowl with dewy, tantalizing wild fruits, and swallowed hard, unsure whether to relent.
But after a moment, he made up his mind.
He thought, why should he let his issues with Yu Ying affect his appetite?
He took the bowl and ran to his sister, feeding her a fruit before eating any himself.
Little Fu Ning's face, dirty yet sweet, lit up with a smile upon tasting the fruit, her tiny canines peeking through.
Fuyuan fed his sister and then took a fruit to taste for himself.
Ever since their father went to the quarry, Fuyuan hadn't tasted sweet wild fruits for two years. Eating this fruit, a smile appeared on Fuyuan's face that Yuying had never seen before.
Yuying withdrew her gaze and lowered her head to continue her work, but the corners of her mouth unknowingly lifted slightly.
After scraping out some sparking firewood, Yuying also retrieved a pottery shard, larger than her palm, from the fire, cleaned it, and set it aside for later use.
She then used a chopper to split a leftover piece of bamboo, thumb-thick, into eight sturdy bamboo skewers.
After whittling the skewers, she threaded red mushrooms onto them. Once done, she placed them on two stones, stood up, and went outside to gather larger stones to build a makeshift grill, about a foot in length.
When she was younger, they would make a grill with bricks in the absence of a barbecue stove at home.
Finally, she placed the sparking firewood into the trench and reignited it with some dry leaves.
Once the fire stabilized, Yuying placed the mushroom skewers over it and finally put the pottery shard on the fire to heat.
After a while, the water stains on the pottery shard slowly began to boil.
Seeing this, Yuying picked wild amaranth into half-finger-length pieces and placed them on the shard.
Without oil, both the wild vegetables and mushrooms were prone to burning or charring, so Yuying occasionally sprinkled some water over them.
She flipped the mushrooms occasionally and stirred the vegetables with bamboo chopsticks.
Gradually, a faint aroma of roasted mushrooms began to waft through the air.
Fuyuan, smelling the aroma, looked at the half-cooked poisonous mushrooms, thinking to himself that no matter how fragrant, he would never take a bite.
Seeing the wild vegetables were cooked, Yuying added them to the bowl and took the freshly washed berries, squeezing them until they burst, their purple-black juice dripping onto the vegetables.
She squeezed a few more berries, then stirred everything evenly.
The small amount of wild vegetables was hardly enough to satisfy hunger, but it was better than an empty stomach.
She handed it to Fuyuan: "Take this first to your uncle."
Fuyuan hesitated and looked at his grandmother: "She didn’t add any poisonous red mushrooms."
Luo thought it over in silence and decided that Yu's words were right.
If she had doubts about her, she wouldn't have allowed her to help treat Erlang’s leg in the first place.
Besides, if Yu really wanted to poison them, she could easily do it in the water tank at night, why bother with the food now?
With this thought, Luo chose to trust Yu this time, and said to her grandson, "Go ahead and take it to your uncle."
Fuyuan, always obedient to Luo, took the bowl with a few wild fruits left for his sister, and hurriedly carried the bowl of wild vegetables to the thatched cottage.
Yuying then went back to picking more vegetables, placing them on the pottery shard for cooking.
Inside the house.
After the bone setting, Fuyan had been weakly asleep all afternoon, waking up only when a loud 'pop' sound echoed.
The sounds from the yard, passing through the rolled-up grass curtain of the window, reached inside the house. He propped himself up on the bamboo bed, sat up, and looked out to the yard, watching Yu's bustling figure.
Yu had changed somehow.
But what did it matter if she had changed?
Fuyan narrowed his eyes, retracting his gaze to look at his legs, bound in bamboo, lost in thought.
Delving into Yu's transformation was of no benefit to anyone.
At that moment, the bamboo curtain was lifted, and Fuyan entered, carrying a bowl of wild vegetables, which he placed at the edge of the bed.
"Uncle, she made this."
Fuyan's gaze shifted slightly, landing on the wild vegetables in the bowl, which looked more appetizing than before.
After a long silence, he still brought the bowl to his hands and used chopsticks to taste a bit.
Fuyan watched his uncle intently, eating and asked curiously, "Does it taste different from what grandma makes?"
Fuyan chewed thoughtfully, discerning the distinct flavor.
Still devoid of oil and salt, yet there was a faint sweet aroma. The natural sourness and bitterness of the wild vegetables were masked. Though not delicious, it was much more palatable than the previously hard-to-swallow fare.
Soon after, Fuyan ran out of the house with the empty bowl, excitedly saying, "Grandma, uncle finished it all today!"
Hearing this, Luo showed a look of surprise.
Normally, Erlang would hardly eat a few bites for lunch or dinner, showing little desire to eat more. His finishing the meal today was unexpected for Luo.
Yuying glanced towards the direction of the thatched cottage, her eyes briefly meeting his in the air before withdrawing her gaze. She picked up the almost ready red mushrooms and laid them across the bowl.
These freshly roasted red mushrooms had a richer aroma than before. Ningning, the young girl, didn't understand what was poisonous or not, only seeing that the red mushrooms looked delicious, watching them unblinkingly.
Due to malnutrition, her face was small, making her eyes appear unusually large.
Yuying thought of the young girl's premature death, feeling a heavy sense of suffocation in her heart.
She hoped to change the fate of Fuyan's eldest son, who was destined to be crushed to death, believing it might be the only way to alter the family's fortune.
The third batch of wild vegetables on the pottery shard was ready. Yuying put aside her thoughts, transferred the vegetables to a bowl, and started on the fourth batch.
It wasn't until after the fifth round that she stopped.
After mixing the wild vegetables with the sweet juice of the wild fruits, she divided them into three portions, asking Fuyan to serve his grandmother and sister.
Yuying had no intention of actively sharing the red mushrooms with them.
After all, changing one's beliefs is not easy. She believed the red mushrooms were non-toxic, but the people of Fuyan's family and the entire village thought otherwise. Arguing about it at this time was pointless.
Having portioned the wild herbs, Yuying picked up a skewer of red mushrooms, blew off the ash, and took a bite.
Yuying, who had tasted various delicacies, felt in that moment that these roasted red mushrooms were the most delicious of all the foods she had ever eaten.
Luo tasted the wild vegetables prepared by Yu, feeling momentarily stunned, almost as if all the wild vegetables she had cooked before were fit only for pigs.
They contained no special seasoning, just the added sweetness of wild fruit juice, yet the difference was astonishing.
Although Luo couldn't see, Fuyan had described in detail Yuying's entire cooking process.
Seeing Yuying eat the red mushrooms and Fuyan eating the wild vegetables with relish, Fuyan's eyes widened in disbelief, telling his grandmother, "Grandma, she... she ate the poisonous mushrooms!"
Hearing Fuyan's claim that Yu had eaten the poisonous mushrooms, Luo was initially shocked but then began to doubt whether the red mushrooms were truly poisonous.
After a long silence, Luo finally spoke, asking Yuying, "Are those mushrooms really non-toxic?"
Yuying truthfully replied, "Not all brightly colored mushrooms are poisonous. I have eaten this type before; they are harmless. But rest assured, I won't force you to eat them."
Luo hesitated for a moment, then seemingly compromised, extending her bowl towards Yuying and said, "Give me some too."
Yuying was surprised to hear this.
Fuyan was even more astonished, quickly cautioning, "Grandma, that's poisonous mushrooms, you can't eat them!"
Luo hesitated, then said, "Grandma trusts your aunt."
Yuying felt a bit uncomfortable with this sudden reference to her as 'aunt,' and was also surprised by Luo's swift change of attitude.
After a moment's hesitation, Yuying reluctantly placed a red mushroom in Luo's bowl, saying, "Try this first, and if you think it's alright, then we can give some to Fuyan and Funing."
Luo reached for the mushroom, but Fuyan suddenly grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing quickly like a warrior making a sacrifice, and swallowed it.
It seemed he wanted to test it for poison.
However, as he ate the mushroom, his previously furrowed expression gradually changed.
Blinking, he thought to himself: Although poisonous, these mushrooms taste quite good…
Chapter 7: Learning to Trust
With their only pottery jar broken, apart from the naïve Fu Ning, both Luo Shi and Fu An, grandmother and grandson, wore faces of deep sorrow.
Yu Ying came out of the house with some red mushrooms and gathered some wild vegetables and herbs from the yard to clean.
As she washed the mushrooms, Fu An watched her unblinkingly, his eyes wide like copper bells, fearing she might poison them.
Yu Ying didn't mind. While washing the herbs, she tasted a few, the sweetness dissolving in her mouth, slightly alleviating the bitterness in her heart.
However, as she ate the wild fruits, Fu An couldn't help but swallow repeatedly. Even little Fu Ning was salivating, sucking on her fingers pitifully.
Not wanting to eat alone, but mindful that too much of the fruit wasn't good, Yu Ying only filled half a bowl. She didn't give it directly to Fu An or Fu Ning but instead handed it to Luo Shi.
Luo Shi, seeing a blurred figure, recognized it was Yu Ying. Grateful for Yu Ying's treatment of Erlang today, her attitude had warmed. "What is it?" she asked.
Yu Ying took Luo Shi's calloused hands and placed the wooden bowl in them. Her manner was neither cold nor warm as she calmly said, "Eat these wild fruits to stave off hunger for now."
Having said that, she turned and went back to continue her work.
Luo Shi, holding the bowl, looked somewhat astonished, unaccustomed to Yu Ying's kindness.
Fu An approached, standing beside his grandmother, whispering, "Grandma, I was watching; she didn't tamper with the fruits."
His soft voice still reached Yu Ying's ears.
Squatting by the fire, Yu Ying stirred the embers in the fireplace and quipped with a hint of mockery, "Since you trust me enough to let me treat your legs and eyes, why would you fear I'd poison you?"
Hearing this, Luo Shi fell silent for a moment, then hesitantly tried a wild fruit.
Initially, she wanted to ensure it was safe before letting the children eat, but the sweetness of the fruit immediately made her expression stern.
The sweet wild fruits nearby had all been picked, except in the mountains – there were no fruits as sweet as these.
"You went into the mountains?!" Luo Shi's expression turned serious.
Yu Ying didn't hide it from her: "I did, but didn't go deep."
Luo Shi's expression grew heavier as she said, "The mountains are full of wild beasts and venomous snakes, extremely dangerous. Countless people from our village have been devoured or poisoned to death. Everyone else avoids the mountains, how could you dare to enter?!"
Luo Shi spoke anxiously, but Yu Ying knew she meant well and didn't take offense, responding calmly, "If there was any other way to survive, I wouldn't have gone into the mountains."
She understood the ancient reverence for mountains but didn't expect it to be to such an extent.
Standing up, Yu Ying looked out towards the village shrouded in twilight, her gaze falling on the dilapidated thatched cottages.
It wasn't just the Fu family; the entire Ling Shui Village was poor.
Yu Ying asked helplessly, "To survive, eating only wild vegetables without oil or salt, can anyone truly live like that? Even if adults can endure it, can the children? Can Erlang inside the house endure it?"
She paused, then continued, "I know the mountains are dangerous, and I'm scared too, but I can't just sit and wait for a miracle."
How could Luo Shi not be aware of the situation Yu Ying described?
Unable to refute, Luo Shi lowered her head and, after a moment, handed the bowl of fruits to her grandson, "Take this and share with Ning Ning."
Fu An hesitated, glancing at Yu Ying, then at the bowl with dewy, tantalizing wild fruits, and swallowed hard, unsure whether to relent.
But after a moment, he made up his mind.
He thought, why should he let his issues with Yu Ying affect his appetite?
He took the bowl and ran to his sister, feeding her a fruit before eating any himself.
Little Fu Ning's face, dirty yet sweet, lit up with a smile upon tasting the fruit, her tiny canines peeking through.
Fuyuan fed his sister and then took a fruit to taste for himself.
Ever since their father went to the quarry, Fuyuan hadn't tasted sweet wild fruits for two years. Eating this fruit, a smile appeared on Fuyuan's face that Yuying had never seen before.
Yuying withdrew her gaze and lowered her head to continue her work, but the corners of her mouth unknowingly lifted slightly.
After scraping out some sparking firewood, Yuying also retrieved a pottery shard, larger than her palm, from the fire, cleaned it, and set it aside for later use.
She then used a chopper to split a leftover piece of bamboo, thumb-thick, into eight sturdy bamboo skewers.
After whittling the skewers, she threaded red mushrooms onto them. Once done, she placed them on two stones, stood up, and went outside to gather larger stones to build a makeshift grill, about a foot in length.
When she was younger, they would make a grill with bricks in the absence of a barbecue stove at home.
Finally, she placed the sparking firewood into the trench and reignited it with some dry leaves.
Once the fire stabilized, Yuying placed the mushroom skewers over it and finally put the pottery shard on the fire to heat.
After a while, the water stains on the pottery shard slowly began to boil.
Seeing this, Yuying picked wild amaranth into half-finger-length pieces and placed them on the shard.
Without oil, both the wild vegetables and mushrooms were prone to burning or charring, so Yuying occasionally sprinkled some water over them.
She flipped the mushrooms occasionally and stirred the vegetables with bamboo chopsticks.
Gradually, a faint aroma of roasted mushrooms began to waft through the air.
Fuyuan, smelling the aroma, looked at the half-cooked poisonous mushrooms, thinking to himself that no matter how fragrant, he would never take a bite.
Seeing the wild vegetables were cooked, Yuying added them to the bowl and took the freshly washed berries, squeezing them until they burst, their purple-black juice dripping onto the vegetables.
She squeezed a few more berries, then stirred everything evenly.
The small amount of wild vegetables was hardly enough to satisfy hunger, but it was better than an empty stomach.
She handed it to Fuyuan: "Take this first to your uncle."
Fuyuan hesitated and looked at his grandmother: "She didn’t add any poisonous red mushrooms."
Luo thought it over in silence and decided that Yu's words were right.
If she had doubts about her, she wouldn't have allowed her to help treat Erlang’s leg in the first place.
Besides, if Yu really wanted to poison them, she could easily do it in the water tank at night, why bother with the food now?
With this thought, Luo chose to trust Yu this time, and said to her grandson, "Go ahead and take it to your uncle."
Fuyuan, always obedient to Luo, took the bowl with a few wild fruits left for his sister, and hurriedly carried the bowl of wild vegetables to the thatched cottage.
Yuying then went back to picking more vegetables, placing them on the pottery shard for cooking.
Inside the house.
After the bone setting, Fuyan had been weakly asleep all afternoon, waking up only when a loud 'pop' sound echoed.
The sounds from the yard, passing through the rolled-up grass curtain of the window, reached inside the house. He propped himself up on the bamboo bed, sat up, and looked out to the yard, watching Yu's bustling figure.
Yu had changed somehow.
But what did it matter if she had changed?
Fuyan narrowed his eyes, retracting his gaze to look at his legs, bound in bamboo, lost in thought.
Delving into Yu's transformation was of no benefit to anyone.
At that moment, the bamboo curtain was lifted, and Fuyan entered, carrying a bowl of wild vegetables, which he placed at the edge of the bed.
"Uncle, she made this."
Fuyan's gaze shifted slightly, landing on the wild vegetables in the bowl, which looked more appetizing than before.
After a long silence, he still brought the bowl to his hands and used chopsticks to taste a bit.
Fuyan watched his uncle intently, eating and asked curiously, "Does it taste different from what grandma makes?"
Fuyan chewed thoughtfully, discerning the distinct flavor.
Still devoid of oil and salt, yet there was a faint sweet aroma. The natural sourness and bitterness of the wild vegetables were masked. Though not delicious, it was much more palatable than the previously hard-to-swallow fare.
Soon after, Fuyan ran out of the house with the empty bowl, excitedly saying, "Grandma, uncle finished it all today!"
Hearing this, Luo showed a look of surprise.
Normally, Erlang would hardly eat a few bites for lunch or dinner, showing little desire to eat more. His finishing the meal today was unexpected for Luo.
Yuying glanced towards the direction of the thatched cottage, her eyes briefly meeting his in the air before withdrawing her gaze. She picked up the almost ready red mushrooms and laid them across the bowl.
These freshly roasted red mushrooms had a richer aroma than before. Ningning, the young girl, didn't understand what was poisonous or not, only seeing that the red mushrooms looked delicious, watching them unblinkingly.
Due to malnutrition, her face was small, making her eyes appear unusually large.
Yuying thought of the young girl's premature death, feeling a heavy sense of suffocation in her heart.
She hoped to change the fate of Fuyan's eldest son, who was destined to be crushed to death, believing it might be the only way to alter the family's fortune.
The third batch of wild vegetables on the pottery shard was ready. Yuying put aside her thoughts, transferred the vegetables to a bowl, and started on the fourth batch.
It wasn't until after the fifth round that she stopped.
After mixing the wild vegetables with the sweet juice of the wild fruits, she divided them into three portions, asking Fuyan to serve his grandmother and sister.
Yuying had no intention of actively sharing the red mushrooms with them.
After all, changing one's beliefs is not easy. She believed the red mushrooms were non-toxic, but the people of Fuyan's family and the entire village thought otherwise. Arguing about it at this time was pointless.
Having portioned the wild herbs, Yuying picked up a skewer of red mushrooms, blew off the ash, and took a bite.
Yuying, who had tasted various delicacies, felt in that moment that these roasted red mushrooms were the most delicious of all the foods she had ever eaten.
Luo tasted the wild vegetables prepared by Yu, feeling momentarily stunned, almost as if all the wild vegetables she had cooked before were fit only for pigs.
They contained no special seasoning, just the added sweetness of wild fruit juice, yet the difference was astonishing.
Although Luo couldn't see, Fuyan had described in detail Yuying's entire cooking process.
Seeing Yuying eat the red mushrooms and Fuyan eating the wild vegetables with relish, Fuyan's eyes widened in disbelief, telling his grandmother, "Grandma, she... she ate the poisonous mushrooms!"
Hearing Fuyan's claim that Yu had eaten the poisonous mushrooms, Luo was initially shocked but then began to doubt whether the red mushrooms were truly poisonous.
After a long silence, Luo finally spoke, asking Yuying, "Are those mushrooms really non-toxic?"
Yuying truthfully replied, "Not all brightly colored mushrooms are poisonous. I have eaten this type before; they are harmless. But rest assured, I won't force you to eat them."
Luo hesitated for a moment, then seemingly compromised, extending her bowl towards Yuying and said, "Give me some too."
Yuying was surprised to hear this.
Fuyan was even more astonished, quickly cautioning, "Grandma, that's poisonous mushrooms, you can't eat them!"
Luo hesitated, then said, "Grandma trusts your aunt."
Yuying felt a bit uncomfortable with this sudden reference to her as 'aunt,' and was also surprised by Luo's swift change of attitude.
After a moment's hesitation, Yuying reluctantly placed a red mushroom in Luo's bowl, saying, "Try this first, and if you think it's alright, then we can give some to Fuyan and Funing."
Luo reached for the mushroom, but Fuyan suddenly grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing quickly like a warrior making a sacrifice, and swallowed it.
It seemed he wanted to test it for poison.
However, as he ate the mushroom, his previously furrowed expression gradually changed.
Blinking, he thought to himself: Although poisonous, these mushrooms taste quite good…
