Chapter 11

The next morning, Song Qinghan got up together with Wu Dahu and headed to the back mountain.

It was a back mountain misty and cloudy, with a sense of creepy coldness.

They found that the place where they dug the Chinese yam left a bald area, however, it was quite smart for Wu Dahu not to dig all of them out but kept some under the ground, aiming to get another harvest next year.

Due to the bald area, the vegetation downhill could been seen clearly from some angles.

Song Qinghan stared at that corner and suddenly shouted, “Dahu, go pick that fruit for me.”

It wasn’t a kind of easy task for Song Qinghan to go downhill, so he would prefer to ask him to do so. And Wu Dahu complaisantly went over to pick a fruit in a bluish yellow color and then delivered it to Song Qinghan.

Staring at the appearance of Song Qinghan, he couldn’t help but remind, warning, “We got a name of it here – ‘sweet-to-death’. Being called that name, it is edible, but you will get a sense of paralysis on your tongue after tasting it. So I will assume to have just a lick if you get yourself in an extreme starvation. But no one would really take a risk of that.”

However, Song Qinghan didn’t even wait until Wu Dahu finished his explains, he tore the fruit apart and licked one piece of them.

Seeing that, Wu Dahu grabbed the fruit over and looked at his lips nervously, asking, “Are you alright? How about your tongue? Let me check it out!”

Song Qinghan opened his mouth and put his tongue out, saying with a teasing tone, “It’s not a big deal, I just lick it a bit.”

Wu Dahu sighed with relief hearing that and noticing there was nothing bad emerged,  but in the next seconds, his sight fell on the juicy and pink lips of Song Qinghan for a while.

Song Qinghan didn’t notice his sight. He just pouted and nodded satisfactorily, “That’s it. Take all these fruits!”

Wu Dahu took a pause at the moment. He got no words to say eventually, but walked over again and picked all those bluish yellow fruits.

“Han…” said Wu Dahu as he was picking the fruits.

At the same time, Song Qinghan was carefully searching other places. But he turned over his head after hearing the voice of Wu Dahu, asking, “What happened?”

It seemed that Wu Dahu took a quite long while for a hesitation and organized his words, and then the man asked after some seconds, “How do you know that these fruits are edible? And the ‘itch stick’ and those ‘piercing balls’?”

Song Qinghan was tight in his mind, not considering that Wu Dahu would notice the details.

It could be blamed for the memory loss for not recognizing these stuff, but as for the edible things, how could he make an excuse?

Wu Dahu glanced at him and saw his grave look, suddenly he lowered his head and whispered, “Actually some parts of your memories have been carried back, right? Did you learn these from the town?”

Grabbing the chance, Song Qinghan hurriedly nodded and said, “Right, you’re right. I did get some of my memories back and I have seen these things in books before, so I recognized them when I saw them!”

Hearing his reply, Wu Dahu showed a look of “AS EXPECTED”. Suddenly, he stopped picking the fruit and avoided their eyes contact and asked carefully, “Then when all your memories come back, will you…will you resent me as before?”

Song Qinghan was stunned, and he said vaguely, “It shouldn’t be. What’s the point of that?”

He didn’t dare to look at Wu Dahu because of his guilty conscience, so he didn’t notice the sadness in Wu Dahu’s eyes.

Well, it was true. It would be nothing to nurse a grudge. Moreover, what’s done was done. Song Qinghan got only two choices now facing him, the first was to live with Wu Dahu, and the second was to beg for Lin Dafu. There would not be a third one.

The two were silent for a while, but it was Wu Dahu to break the subtle yet awkward atmosphere, he asked, “What are the names of these fruits? Are they the same as the cherokee rose?

Song Qinghan sighed with relief, nodded and said in a soft voice, “This is fructus momordicae, a kind of medicinal material that is used to soak in water and for people to drink. It can clear heat and cool blood, mitigate the symptom of coughing and it is a kind of material to improve one’s look.”

After hearing this, Wu Dahu asked in his confusion, “Then why does it cause people a sense of paralysis on tongue. Isn’t that a feeling when one is poisoned?”

Song Qinghan recalled how the residents here judged about Chinese yam, he explained with a laughter, “Well, a symptom of paralysis is indeed the common reaction of being poisoned. Some vegetation use poisonous materials to protect themselves, for instance, the mucus of the outer layer of Chinese yam. But as long as you can get the poisonous materials off them, they will be something treasure.”

“And the fructus momordicae.” said Song Qinghan, as he raised the fructus momordicae in his hands, then continued to explain with a smile, “For another example, they aren’t poisonous themselves causing people paralyzed. It’s purely because the sugar content of it is higher than the standard. If you eat it directly, the high content of the sugar will stimulate your tongue and cause a delusion of paralysis.”

“But if we know how to clean the fructus momordicae off before we intake it, it will be another treasure for us.” concluded Song Qinghan.

Wu Dahu nodded, with confusion still lingering in his mind. It would be only him to know that how many he acknowledged the vegetation stuff. At this very moment, what mattered and caught his attention was the look of Song Qinghan, the man with delicate appearance when he was explaining.

After Wu Dahu picked up more than half of the basket of fructus momordicae. These two continued to walk ahead, pushing the branches away and going forward.

After walking for a while, Wu Dahu suddenly stopped. He picked something up and then turned around and put the thing into Song Qinghan’s hands, saying with a smile, “I know this is kind of an attractive one for femina males.”

Looking at the eight-horned green plant in his palm, Song Qinghan subconsciously asked, “Is this a succulent plant?”

Wu Dahu thought that he probably would have discovered another novelty, so he told Song Qinghan what he knew right away, saying, “It gives you a taste of sweetness when you take a first bite, but later you will get your throat spicy as if it is burning inside, and at that time you have to intake bunch of water to relieve the pain.”

Song Qinghan pinched the little plant in a meatball shape, and then tore it apart and sniffed.

“Ah, it is illicium verum!” He suddenly figured out.

Seeing that Song Qinghan had found something new again, Wu Dahu hurriedly asked, “What is it now? What’s the benefits of the illicium verum? Shall we take some home?”

Song Qinghan nodded. He remembered that Wu Dahu had once mentioned that people here didn’t know the seasoning stuff, saying, “Bring some back. I’ll let you try first. If you aren’t used to eating with it, it will be no use.”

He knew that it was very difficult to change a person’s bias on food which was cultivated from his childhood. It was fine to change the taste with garlic or onions, but as for the illicium verum, coming with a strong flavor itself, not everyone was a fan of it.

Seeing that Song Qinghan was not as happy as just now, Wu Dahu felt a little upset. He picked a few illicium verum and continued walking forward.

After an hour of discovering, Wu Dahu estimated that Song Qinghan wasn’t able to sustain to walk over his ailing physical strength, so he decided to go back home.

Just as he turned his head, he noticed a huge and ball-shaped object on a big tree.

“A honeycomb?!” Shouted Wu Dahu, with a tone of surprise and cheer.

Song Qinghan followed his gaze and looked at the big tree. There was indeed a basketball-sized honeycomb in the middle of the tree, and there were a few scattered bees flying around, in and out of the hive.

Wu Dahu put down the basket, raised his head and said to Song Qinghan, “Wait for me here. I’ll take the hive off.”

Song Qinghan was so shocked that he grabbed Wu Dahu’s arm and stopped him, saying, “It’s too dangerous. With so many bees, you will be stung to death!”

Seeing that he was making such a fuss, Wu Dahu stretched out to pat on Song Qinghan’s hands and comforted him, saying, “Don’t worry. I have been doing this since I was a child. There won’t be any problems.”

Song Qinghan was frightened as he watched Wu Dahu searching some branches for tool on the ground. In his imagination of fighting against the wild nature, he wondered whether he should run first for self-protection or stay for his loyalty.

After preparing the incineration ingredients, Wu Dahu made a confirm on the wind direction and then he smiled, saying, “It’s appropriate now. If you are afraid of this, hide in the bushes. If the bees didn’t recognize your scent in advance, they won’t chase you up.”

If Wu Dahu didn’t even mention it, Song Qinghan would really plan to find a place to hide. But as soon as he said this so, it arose the inner masculinity of Song Qinghan. Song Qinghan widened his eyes and said, “Who’s afraid? How can I be afraid since you are not?! Anyway, worry about yourself because you’re most close to them, I will stand here, for teasing you up.”

Ah-ah, a fierce of mien but faint of heart! Wu Dahu could obviously see it through what Song Qinghan said, although it was kind of unpleasant to hear. However, Wu Dahu found him somehow adorable, he would love to pinch the cute face of Song Qinghan fuming with anger.

Seeing that if he didn’t take action right now, Song Qinghan would be trembling on his legs. Wu Dahu took out a fire-stone and ignited the pine tree branches and then he used the praying leaves to gently fan, blowing the dense smoke towards the hive.

Although Song Qinghan had heard of the principle that someone could use smoke to drive away the bees, but this was the first time he saw it in reality. He stood there stationary and wait quietly for the consequence.

A fit of thick smoke was poured into the hive, the bees inside fled in drove. They flew down tracing the wind and disappeared soon.

After waiting for half an hour, Wu Dahu quickly climbed up the tree, took off the hive and slipped down from the trunk.

The series of smooth action shocked Song Qinghan, and make him widen eyes, it seemed that it was the first time for him to know Wu Dahu.

Wu Dahu walked over with the hive in his arms. His face was full of pride that Song Qinghan had never seen before, as if he was trying to verify the unnecessary of Song Qinghan’s worry.

He turned his head to look at the pine branch that was about to burn to the end, then carried the basket up and said to Song Qinghan, “Let’s leave this place as soon as possible. Otherwise, we’ll be stung by the bees coming back.”

Song Qinghan regained his wits, nodded subconsciously and followed him back home.

On the way back, Song Qinghan looked at the hive frequently, as if he was still immersed in the scene just now. He asked in his confusion, “The hive is quite easy to be picked, won’t they come here to build their nest again?”

Wu Dahu was in a daze, he didn’t expect that Song Qinghan would worry about the fate of the bees. He said with a teasing tone, “They can build their nest very quick. It will only take several hours to build up one as the same size of this. Don’t worry about them being homeless.”

Song Qinghan glanced at him strangely and muttered, “I’m not worried that they are homeless. I’m worried that there will be no honeycombs in the future for us to pick.”

Wu Dahu came to his senses and laughed, patting the hive in his hand and saying, “Don’t worry. Once this one is empty, I’ll come back in the mountain to search for another one. Anyway, they won’t be able to run out of the mountain.”

Hearing this, Song Qinghan turned to look at the dense forest and asked curiously, “How big is this mountain? It seems that it gets no boundary at all. Will there exist tigers?”