Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 450 Crazy Picking

"Let's go," Xu Xiaoyan tugged at Lan Yue's sleeve, turned and took a few steps into the woods, then turned a corner and headed in a direction Lan Yue hadn't noticed.

"There are still some people over there who haven't gone over yet. Let's go around from the other side of the hillside and sweep through that pine forest before those people do."

Without saying a word, Lan Yue followed.

The two men crouched low, staying close to the edge of the bushes, trying their best not to reveal their presence, and moved quickly through the woods.

The path was difficult to walk on, with exposed tree roots and loose pebbles everywhere. In addition, the ground was slippery after the rain, and Lan Yue almost slipped several times, but Xu Xiaoyan grabbed her.

They took a long detour, cutting in from the north side of the hillside, and spent another half hour picking pine needles in a pine forest that hadn't been trampled on yet.

This pine forest is deeper and denser than the previous one, with a thicker layer of fallen leaves on the ground, and there are indeed quite a few mushrooms.

But Lan Yue glanced at them and saw that most of them were old mushrooms that had already opened their caps and turned yellow. There weren't many tender ones, which meant that they had obviously grown a day or two ago and had been missed by them.

"Someone beat me to it." Blue Moon squatted down in front of a clump of yellowing pine mushrooms, reached out and pinched the soft cap, shook her head, and didn't pick them.

"These are all soaked in water, they're not tasty anymore. The tender mushrooms that could be picked have probably all been taken by the group ahead of us."

Xu Xiaoyan squatted down next to her, looking at the layer of fallen leaves that had been trampled into a mess, with footprints clearly visible.

It was just stepped on; the soil is still wet. At least five or six people have been here.

The footprints extended up the hillside, dispersed, and then reunited a short distance ahead, continuing along the ridgeline to higher ground.

She stood up and glanced in the direction the footprints led.

In the morning light, several blurry figures were moving along the ridgeline, one of whom was wearing a bright yellow coat, standing out conspicuously against the gray-green forest.

The figure grew farther and farther away, smaller and smaller, until it finally disappeared on the other side of the ridgeline.

Xu Xiaoyan didn't say anything, tied the plastic bag tightly, and turned to walk down the mountain.

Blue Moon followed behind her, glancing back at the swept-up pine forest as she went, muttering to herself:

"What a pity, we're too late. We'll have to come earlier tomorrow, or we won't even get a sip of soup."

When they reached the middle of the mountain, they encountered another group of people.

Three young people, two men and one woman, were bending over and searching for something in a relatively flat clearing in the woods.

Their bags were already more than half full, bulging, indicating a considerable haul.

The young woman in the bright yellow coat was the first to see Xu Xiaoyan and Lan Yue. She straightened up and smiled at them.

"You've picked so many mushrooms!" Her voice was clear and loud.

Lan Yue hummed in response, said nothing more, and didn't stop walking.

Xu Xiaoyan nodded slightly to the person in response, then followed closely behind Lan Yue and quickly walked down the hillside.

Back in the cabin, Lan Yue poured out the pile of mushrooms, spread them on a waterproof cloth, and cleaned and sorted them one by one.

Xu Xiaoyan squatted by the pot to start a fire, preparing to make dried goods.

Outside the wooden house, more and more people were appearing on the mountain path, some walking uphill and others coming downhill, each carrying, carrying, or hugging containers filled with mushrooms.

The trading area also became lively, with people setting up stalls selling fresh mushrooms at the entrance, writing prices crookedly on wooden boards.

"Two biscuits for a pound of matsutake mushrooms," "Three biscuits for a pound of green-headed mushrooms," "One biscuit for a bunch of mixed mushrooms"—the cries of vendors rose and fell, just like in a vegetable market.

As Lan Yue cleaned the mushrooms, she glanced towards the trading point and sighed, "The news spread way too fast."

Xu Xiaoyan didn't look up. She added another piece of dry firewood to the bottom of the pot. Staring at the bubbles slowly rising from the bottom of the pot, she suddenly said, "We need to get up early tomorrow."

Blue Moon replied, "How about three o'clock?"

"Okay," Xu Xiaoyan put the lid on the pot, stood up, and patted the dust off her hands. "Luckily we went early today. If we had gone any later, there probably wouldn't have been any left."

"I wonder how long the fungus will last," Lan Yue said, wiping the mud off her hands on her trousers, her voice laced with a fierce determination.

"Never mind all that, let's get it done as early as possible tomorrow, I refuse to believe we can't get ahead!"

Xu Xiaoyan nodded and squatted back down by the pot to stir-fry the dried goods.

The mushroom craze lasted for less than two days.

On the first day, the mountain was full of people, each carrying a bag and a bamboo basket, bending over and conducting a carpet search in the forest.

Seven or eight temporary stalls were set up at the entrance of the trading point.

Pine mushrooms, green-headed mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, copper green mushrooms—all sorts of mushrooms, both well-known and unfamiliar, were piled on the ground, spread on cloths, or placed in basins.

The price of compressed biscuits dropped from two yuan per kilogram to one yuan per kilogram, and then to one yuan for three kilograms, but there were still not many people buying them. It wasn't that they didn't want to buy them, but that they were afraid to buy them.

The cause was what happened that evening.

The first group of people who went up the mountain to pick mushrooms returned to the camp one after another in the evening.

Some people cooked the mushrooms they picked into soup, some stir-fried them, and some, impatient as ever, even chewed a few pieces raw to taste them.

For the first two hours, nothing happened; everyone ate and drank as usual.

Some people even went from house to house with bowls in hand, tasting the mushrooms each other had picked and exchanging information about which hillside had the most mushrooms and which type was the most fragrant.

The area around the trading point was filled with the aroma of various mushroom soups, mixed with the smoky smell of firewood, creating a lively and festive atmosphere, like a holiday.

Around 8 or 9 p.m., something happened.

First, a scream came from the gray tent on the east side of the camp.

The sound didn't seem like pain; it sounded more like someone was frightened by something.

People nearby ran over and found the young man living in the tent curled up on a sleeping mat.

He was trembling all over, his eyes wide open, and he kept shouting, "Snakes! Snakes! There are snakes everywhere!"

His fingers scratched wildly in the air, his nails drawing bloody marks on his arm.

But he said it wasn't blood, it was snake saliva, a sticky, green substance that was corroding his skin.

His companion squatted beside him, at a loss, wanting to hold him down but afraid of hurting him, and could only say over and over again, "There is no snake, you are mistaken, there is nothing."

But the young man wouldn't listen; his eyes were wide open, and his gaze swept frantically across every corner of the tent.

It was as if the snakes, which only he could see, were surging toward him from all directions.

Not long after, someone in another tent started vomiting; their face turned blue and their lips turned purple.

His wife was crying anxiously beside him, patting his back as she cried, but it didn't help.

He vomited so much that he couldn't even sit up straight. He collapsed to the ground, saying he felt dizzy and the world was spinning. He felt like the tent was spinning, the ground was spinning, and even the stars in the sky were spinning.

The news spread like wildfire throughout the camp.