Seeing this scene, Chen Xiaobei felt a bit worried. What if someone discovered the treasure in Gourd Valley? What would he do then? He'd have to find time to go up the mountain again and check.
Li Dong noticed Chen Xiaobei staring blankly at the distant mountains and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Xiaobei, what are you looking at?"
Chen Xiaobei shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. I was just thinking about where to get some stones."
Li Dong laughed heartily. "You don't need to worry about that, leave it to me. You can just come by tomorrow to check."
That was a relief, it saved him some trouble.
Back at his home, Chen Xiaobei picked up the carrying pole and took two wooden buckets to the river to fetch water. The green leaf vegetables he had planted were nearly ready to harvest in a couple of days, so the water couldn't be lacking.
After finishing the work and eating lunch, Chen Xiaobei leaned under the big locust tree but found himself unable to fall asleep.
Looking at the fish-mint drying in the yard, he felt an urge to go into the mountains again in the afternoon to bring some more back.
It was midsummer now, and the sun was scorching. By the end of the day, the fish-mint would be half-dried.
At this rate, in about three days, the fish-mint would be dry enough to meet the standard that Jia Wannian mentioned.
This time, Chen Xiaobei brought two bundles with him into the mountains.
Earlier in the morning, when he saw the startled birds, he was still worried. What if the secret of Gourd Valley was discovered? He feared that if the others used destructive methods to harvest the Lingzhi, it would be a great loss. So today, he decided to salvage a few plants himself.
Unlike before, when he reached the Mountain God Temple, he felt that something was off.
On the open ground beside the temple, there were traces of firewood being burned, some leftover bones, and bits of food scraps.
This indicated that someone had been here.
And it seemed like there had been several people.
However, he couldn't determine when they had been here. Given the startled birds, perhaps they were here last night, or maybe they just came in early this morning and had lunch here.
Not knowing whether they were friends or foes, Chen Xiaobei hesitated for a moment. But in the end, he gritted his teeth. "If it's fate, it will happen; if it's disaster, it cannot be avoided."
As he walked further up, the traces of people became more apparent, but what reassured him slightly was that aside from the increased traces, everything else seemed the same.
When he reached the vicinity of Gourd Valley, he felt completely at ease.
The traces went up the mountain and didn't head toward Gourd Valley.
Following the familiar path into the dense forest, Chen Xiaobei, before digging for the Lingzhi, made sure to check the weather. It was another sunny day with not a cloud in sight, so it seemed unlikely to rain.
Chen Xiaobei snapped a branch and began to walk into Gourd Valley again.
The day before, there had been a heavy rain.
The ground was soft and moist, which made it perfect for digging.
Chen Xiaobei spread out his bundle carefully and started to dig for the Lingzhi.
He selected the four largest Lingzhi mushrooms, two of which were meant for Jia Wannian, and the other two he intended to keep for himself. After digging them out, he carefully bundled the soil that came with the Lingzhi using grass and placed the bundle gently inside his pack.
He placed the pack under the shade of some nearby grass and trees, intending to walk a little further to see what else he could find.
Ahead was a patch of trees that were taller than a person. While the individual plants weren't tall, they were definitely trees, not grass.
The trees bore white flowers in clusters, filling the air with a strong fragrance. It seemed that the scent he had been smelling in the woods came from these flowers.
As he passed through this patch of flowers, he came across some low-growing plants. What surprised him were the small clusters of red spots scattered among the grass. They were all ginseng!
Redyu's grandfather had been right—this gourd valley really did contain valuable medicinal herbs.
Chen Xiaobei didn't venture further. Instead, he carefully dug up two ginseng plants.
On his way back, he broke off two flowering branches to take back, hoping to show them to Cui Hongyu and figure out what they were.
The sun was bright and there was no wind or rain. With the bundle in hand, Chen Xiaobei began his walk back.
As he entered the dense forest, he heard some movement from a distance.
The sound wasn't from within the forest, but from the small path leading up the mountain—it was the sound of rocks rolling down.
Could it be that someone had come down from the mountain?
Chen Xiaobei quickened his pace, hiding behind a large tree and cautiously peeking out.
Sure enough, after a short while, a group of five people came down from the mountain.
The first person was a strong-looking middle-aged man, his robust frame and bushy beard making him stand out.
Behind him were people of various sizes and shapes, but they all wore black clothing. Some held knives, others swords.
As they walked down, they were talking to each other, but their accents sounded strange.
The reason it sounded strange was that their accents were completely different from those of people from Riverhead Village, Qingniu County, or anyone Chen Xiaobei had encountered before.
Fortunately, although the accent was strange, Chen Xiaobei could still understand most of it.
The people walking behind the middle-aged man were complaining as they walked.
"It's so cold on Qingniu Mountain at night."
"Yeah, it's not just cold, the path is so difficult to walk."
"Who says it's not? We searched for ages and didn't find anything. How are we supposed to report back? We've just endured all this cold for nothing."
The middle-aged man walking at the front coughed, "Alright, we didn't find Liu Tie's corpse, so it means he escaped. Be more careful when going into the mountain next time. Don't let the other side ambush us."
"Boss, Liu Tie is really something. Even with those injuries, he managed to escape."
Hearing this, Chen Xiaobei's legs tensed up in fear.
He clearly heard them say they hadn't found Liu Tie's body, meaning they had been searching for him.
And judging by the context of their words, they were likely Liu Tie's enemies.
Chen Xiaobei quickly recalled what Hongyu had diagnosed about Liu Tie's injuries that night—both legs broken and his waist injured.
If that's the case, Liu Tie's injuries weren't from falling off the cliff but from being beaten by them.
This realization made Chen Xiaobei feel a surge of dread.
If these people had shown up that night, he, Hongyu, and Dachun would probably have been in great danger.
Watching them leave, Chen Xiaobei finally let out a long breath of relief.
After waiting for what felt like a long time, he cautiously stepped out of the forest and started heading down the mountain.
What puzzled him even more was when he passed the mountain temple. The bones from the burnt wood, which had been there before, were now gone, and the area looked as though no one had ever been there.
Chen Xiaobei knew that these traces had been cleaned up by those people.
This was even stranger. If they were just ordinary mountain villagers, they wouldn't have had the awareness to clean up the traces.
Then he remembered what the leader of the group with the thick beard had said: "Don't let them ambush us."
It occurred to him that they were clearing up the traces to prevent any retaliation from the other side.
But now, a bigger question arose. What secret was hidden on Qingniu Mountain? And why was it so important that people would go to such extremes to protect it, even if it meant killing?