Chapter 169: Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia's World for Two

"You say, can I really see a mushroom circle?" On the way, Gu Xiaoxia kept asking, "And Tianshan snow lotus..."

"Tianshan snow lotus can't be seen for the time being, mainly because the time is wrong. When the snow lotus blooms in June or July, if there are three or five days, we can climb to the snow mountain, it's possible. However, if you want to see a mushroom circle, it's relatively easy to achieve."

"Really?" Gu Xiaoxia was like a child who hadn't grown up at this moment, sitting on the back seat of the bicycle and chattering all the time.

Li Long could see that Gu Xiaoxia might have been suppressed for a long time because of family reasons. Now that she had a job and her father was doing well, the thoughts that were suppressed before were now slowly releasing.

This is quite good. Young girls, being old-fashioned is not good.

"I'll take you to a place," Li Long said, "There, you can find a mushroom circle, and if you are lucky, you might be able to see wild boars, wild sheep, etc. Of course, this still depends on your luck today."

"My luck..." Gu Xiaoxia's tone suddenly became low.

"I think your luck today must be very good!" Li Long had a premonition, interrupting Gu Xiaoxia's words, "Listen to me, it's right."

Gu Xiaoxia felt warm in her heart.

"Look here, I hunted a wild boar here, look at that piece of soil and grass roots arched up? The wild boar was active here a few days ago, and then I hunted it, and caught some little wild boars, and then that group of wild boars didn't come here anymore."

"Really? Are little wild boars fun or not?"

"Quite fun, they are small and not afraid of people, know how to arch people, very wild."

Passed the mountain ditch where Halimu and the others were. Because time was tight, Li Long didn't stop and went straight to the location of his winter shelter.

"Look, this wooden house is our destination." Li Long proudly showed Gu Xiaoxia, "This is my winter shelter, please visit."

"Your winter shelter? You actually have a house in the mountains?" Gu Xiaoxia looked puzzled, "Is it really yours?"

"Of course." Li Long said with a smile, "I have many friends in the mountains, they helped me build this winter shelter—actually it should be called a small wooden house in the mountains. Come, come in and sit."

Li Long stood up the bicycle, opened the wooden house door and said: "At present, it is relatively simple inside, wait a few days, I will get a stove, and add some things, and it will be almost the same."

Now there was bedding on the wooden kang, and the stove utensils were quite complete, but there was no furniture at present, so it looked quite messy.

"This house is really made of wood! It seems like the one in the fairy tale, the small wooden house in the mountains... really not bad!" Gu Xiaoxia praised sincerely, "Living here, it's like in a fairy tale..."

"Go, take you to find out if there is a mushroom circle." Li Long smiled, "Two days ago I picked up quite a few grass mushrooms, today there might be more."

Hearing that they were going to see a mushroom circle, Gu Xiaoxia couldn't care about the wooden house in the fairy tale anymore, turned around and walked out, asking impatiently:

"Where is it?"

Li Long took the small-caliber rifle from the bicycle, put down the gun case, loaded the bullets, and then closed the safety, pointing to the mountain slope on the back side of the wooden house and said:

"See? The white dots in the middle of the green grass, most likely are mushrooms. Think about how the mushroom circle is described in Natural Scenery, just look for it, let's go!"

"You even carry a gun?" Gu Xiaoxia asked curiously while walking, "Is it very dangerous?"

"Better safe than sorry." Li Long smiled and said, "In the mountains, no one can guarantee what will happen. Some time ago, herdsmen helped me build the house. On the day of celebration, I treated everyone to small champagne. At night, I lived here. In the middle of the night, a group of wolves surrounded and gnawed on the discarded sheep bones. I even hit a wolf."

"Sounds really exciting!" Li Long said it lightly, so Gu Xiaoxia didn't hear the danger, just felt it was exciting.

The two walked to the white dots, and sure enough, they saw grass mushrooms the size of a palm growing in the grass. Gu Xiaoxia happily bent down and picked them up, examined them, smelled them, and said:

"This one mushroom can stir-fry a plate!"

"There are more over there, look, this is wild onion, this is wild garlic, there is a piece of wild leek over there, by the way, the one that grows like wormwood over there, that is pepper wormwood, you... huh?"

Li Long suddenly saw a fat head poking out of the soil pile not far away, and immediately said:

"Look, marmot!"

"Where, where?" Gu Xiaoxia asked excitedly:

"There is also one in 'Tianshan Scenery'... marmot is said to be very cute..."

Her voice was a bit loud, and the marmot was scared by her and drilled into the hole.

"Went into the hole, but don't worry, it should drill out in a while." Li Long pointed to that piece and said, "See? There are many dug-out soils, there is a piece of marmot hole there, they are also curious, silly, and will come out in a while."

Gu Xiaoxia also knew that it was her voice that scared the thing back, so she stopped making a sound and followed Li Long, staring at that place dead.

The marmot really drilled out in a few minutes, and then looked towards this side.

Li Long and they didn't approach, so the marmot didn't drill the hole. After looking for a while and not feeling threatened, it started to climb out and look for things to eat.

"Wow! Fat and cute!"

"This thing is a groundhog," Li Long explained softly, "But I heard that this thing might carry type 1 virus, let's stay away from it."

Type 1 disease is plague, which is quite scary at this time. Li Long remembered that the groundhogs in the Tianshan Mountains in his previous life became internet celebrities. People often took things to feed them, and those groundhogs were not afraid of people and ate directly.

At that time, when watching those videos, Li Long would sweat for them. If that thing was really startled and gave you a claw, it might be troublesome.

Even if there is a one in ten thousand chance, it is better not to test it.

"Let's continue walking up, look at the grass above, it's more lush, maybe there is a mushroom circle." Li Long suggested.

"Good." Gu Xiaoxia was in a very good spirit at this time. She pointed to the distance and said, "There is snow pine, the clouds in the sky are very beautiful, although I can't see the wild horse group, but just this scenery, I really felt the beautiful scenery in 'Tianshan Scenery'!"

Li Long looked at Gu Xiaoxia with a smile. These sceneries were ordinary in Li Long's eyes, after all, he saw them almost every day. But for Gu Xiaoxia, it was too wonderful to reflect the content of the book into reality for the first time.

"Wow! Sea of flowers!" Walking further, bypassing a small pine forest, Gu Xiaoxia saw white, yellow, and purple flowers of all sizes blooming on the mountain slope in front, and screamed again, "Too beautiful!"

Li Long felt that only at this time did Gu Xiaoxia have the appearance a girl should have.

Gu Xiaoxia trotted into the flowers, bent down and greedily smelled the fragrance of the flowers, and then suddenly jumped backward:

"Bees!"

Li Long smiled and picked a large handful of fresh flowers and handed them to her: "Here, there are no bees on this."

Gu Xiaoxia took the bouquet, smiled, held it, and continued to walk forward.

"Look there, I think that place is a bit like the mushroom circle you mentioned..." Li Long suddenly pointed down the slope.

In front of their right, ten meters lower, the grass was denser than other places, and the color was deeper. When the wind blew, Li Long saw vaguely white mushrooms in the grass, and he guessed that there should be many mushrooms there. Gu Xiaoxia trotted over, and as soon as she arrived, she screamed in surprise:

"It's really a mushroom circle! So many mushrooms... we are rich!"

Mushrooms can also make you rich, how cute!

Li Long walked over with a smile and found that there were really dozens or hundreds of mushrooms of all sizes in the dense grass. Some had already rotted and had wormholes on them, while others had just grown out, and the umbrella hadn't fully opened yet.

Li Long picked a few fresh ones and said to Gu Xiaoxia:

"This mushroom circle should be quite large, look, the diameter is five or six meters."

"Hmm, mushroom circle, really magical!" Gu Xiaoxia was full of satisfaction.

Gu Xiaoxia opened her small shoulder bag and put the mushrooms in. Li Long picked a few large leaves, rolled them up as a small package, but couldn't hold much.

"Don't pick the rest, they will grow later. And this mushroom circle, if no one destroys it, I think it should get bigger and bigger." Li Long said, "Let's go, go down the mountain to see, there is a small stream there, let's wash the mushrooms by the way."

Gu Xiaoxia followed Li Long to the small stream. After Li Long put the mushrooms he was holding there, he said to Gu Xiaoxia:

"I'll go to the winter shelter to get a bag, you wash your hands here."

Gu Xiaoxia nodded, lowered her head, and started washing the mushrooms.

!.

Li Long strode towards the wooden house, looking back from time to time.

He had just entered the winter shelter and grabbed a cloth bag when he heard Gu Xiaoxia scream there. Li Long was startled, rushed out directly, and ran towards Gu Xiaoxia, shouting while running:

"What's wrong?"

"I... I found a piece of jade!" Gu Xiaoxia shouted loudly, holding something the size of a fist there.

Li Long slowed down, and his lifted heart fell—so it was a piece of jade, he thought she had encountered a snake or some danger.

He walked quickly to Gu Xiaoxia, looked at her excited and agitated expression, and asked with a smile:

"Let me see the treasure you found?"

"I guess it should be a piece of jade." Gu Xiaoxia held up the stone and handed it to Li Long.

It was indeed jade, jasper.

Seed material, but Li Long could tell at a glance, because it had been soaked in water for a long time, the jade skin wasn't much, it looked transparent, and there were many clear sesame dots, which was the most typical material of Mahe jasper.

"Hmm, it is indeed jade, you are really lucky!" Li Long smiled, took the jade in his hand and turned it around, "I've been here for so long, and I haven't picked up such jade..."

"Really? Then this piece is for you!" Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile, "For you!"

"Really for me?" Li Long asked, holding the jade.

"Really." Gu Xiaoxia nodded hard.

"Good." Li Long really accepted the jade.

The two started washing the mushrooms. Gu Xiaoxia looked into the stream from time to time, but didn't see any jade in this piece again.

The mushrooms were about two or three kilograms. After washing, Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile:

"After taking them back, we can stir-fry a good meal."

"Then shall we stir-fry them here?" Li Long had a sudden whim, "Anyway, time is still long, there is a stove, there is firewood, shall we make a meal here?"

"Just stir-fry vegetables?" Gu Xiaoxia hesitated, "What to eat for staple food?"

"Can you cook rice?" Li Long asked, "There is rice, there is a pot, but I can't cook it well."

"I... try it." Gu Xiaoxia said with a stiff scalp, "Stir-fry mushrooms..."

"I can stir-fry vegetables." Li Long smiled and said, "Just right, there is still some meat here, how about meat stir-fried mushrooms?"

"Okay."

Said and done, Li Long lit a fire with the stove that had been set up before, then carried the two pots to the stream to wash them, and went to the spring eye to fetch water to prepare.

Gu Xiaoxia scooped a bowl of rice with an enamel basin and went over to wash it, then waited for Li Long to set up the fire, and poured it into the pot.

"I'll make the fire smaller for cooking rice, don't be in a hurry, burn it slowly, it's best to get some scorched rice." Li Long said, while tearing the mushrooms into pieces, taking the meat brought over, and cutting it on the board.

Wild onions and wild garlic were easier to handle. After the mushrooms were washed and torn open, the moisture was quite full. Li Long even squeezed it specifically to dry the moisture.

Gu Xiaoxia looked at the rice in the pot while looking at Li Long's movements from time to time. She didn't expect Li Long to really know how to stir-fry vegetables.

Hot pot, cool oil, wild onions in the pot to explode the fragrance, put meat to stir-fry, then put mushrooms, soon the fragrance floated up.

Looking at Li Long's skilled movements, Gu Xiaoxia suddenly felt a bit ashamed. She didn't seem to be as comfortable as Li Long in stir-frying vegetables.

It seems she has to practice more in the dormitory in the future, can't let Li Long compare her!

Soon, a plate of meat stir-fried mushrooms was out of the pot. Li Long served it on a plate and put it on the temporarily supported board. He said to Gu Xiaoxia: "You cook the rice first, I'll see what else I can get out."

Gu Xiaoxia responded, and then continued to watch the fire, very careful. Li Long went to the stream, where a piece of grass grew quite lushly, and he found some wild celery in the grass, so he picked some and brought it back.

Taking the braised meat from the house shelf, Li Long stir-fried another mutton wild celery, which felt almost the same.

However, at this time, the rice on Gu Xiaoxia's side had just scooped out the rice soup, started to withdraw the fire, and there was still a distance to cook, so Li Long simply went up the mountain slope again, picked some wormwood in a sparse shrub, washed the pot and boiled water, and prepared to eat it cold.

"You are amazing, three dishes in a while." Gu Xiaoxia looked at Li Long busy there, and then came up with three dishes, couldn't help but praise.

"Mainly because the resources in the mountains are rich, you can get something casually." Li Long said modestly, he looked around, and intended to continue speaking, and then saw a yellow shadow flash in the shrub, and immediately said:

"There is a fox! Wait for me to take the gun and hit it down!"

Following the direction of Li Long's gaze, Gu Xiaoxia also saw the fox poking its head. At this time, Li Long had already turned and ran to the house to get the gun!

The fox didn't know the danger was approaching. It was attracted by the fragrance, but seeing people there, wanted to escape, but couldn't bear to.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 170 =====