Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
That night, Wang Yao had a very strange dream. In the dream, he saw clouds, trees, licorices, dogs, and gods. That’s right, gods!
The next morning, when he awoke, Wang Yao laid on his bed trying to recall what the dream was about. However, he found that although he had a vague impression of it, he could not remember what exactly transpired in the dream.
What a strange dream.
After his morning exercise, Wang Yao returned from the hilltop. As he was preparing breakfast, he received a call from Li Maoshuang.
“Are you back?”
“I am.”
“When do you want your herbs? I’ve prepared the herbs you asked me to get. When should I deliver it over?”
“I’m home today; just deliver it to my house,” Wang Yao replied.
“Okay.”
“Once you’ve reached, give me a call.”
At 9 am, Wang Yao received another call from Li Maoshuang. Li Maoshuang had arrived and parked his car at the village entrance. Wang Yao descended the hill.
This time, Li Maoshuang drove a pickup truck. The inside of the trunk of the truck was packed full of herbs. These were the herbs that Wang Yao had asked him to buy before leaving for Cangzhou.
“Why did you order so many herbs this time?” Li Maoshuang asked.
“I’m trying to fill up the empty space,” Wang Yao replied.
“What?”
“Let’s go. We’ll talk inside.”
Wang Yao’s parents weren’t home.
The two of them moved all the herbs from the truck into the house.
“Your mom and dad aren’t home?”
“Nope, they’re working on the hilltop,” Wang Yao said as he poured Li Maoshuang a glass of water.
“Why? You have more than enough money anyway. Why are they still working?” Even though Li Maoshuang did not know exactly how much money Wang Yao had, he knew that Wang Yao was definitely not lacking in money. He could even afford a car worth millions of dollars.
“They’re used to it. If they didn’t go to work at the fields, they’d be bored to death staying at home,” Wang Yao replied.
He understood his parents very well.
“Well then, hurry up and get married and give them a few grandchildren. Make them happy,” Li Maoshuang said as he lit up a cigarette.
“Hey! Why are you smoking again?”
“I smoke when I’m bored.”
A fragrant tea aroma was coming from the teapot.
“Would you like to stay here for lunch?” Wang Yao asked.
“I don’t want to trouble you,” Li Maoshuang said, waving his hands. He meant that he didn’t want to trouble Wang Yao’s parents.
“It’s no trouble. There’s a newly opened restaurant down by the village; shall we go try it?”
“Okay,” Li Maoshuang replied. “Just the two of us?”
“Yeah. Who else were you thinking of?”
“Let’s your parents, too.”
“They don’t like that kind of environment,” Wang Yao replied. “It’s still early; you can ask Wang Mingbao and the rest if they are free.”
“That works too.”
In the end, not even twenty minutes after Li Maoshuang called Wang Mingbao, Wang Mingbao drove his car to the village with Wei Hai in tow.
“When did you return? You didn’t even tell us.”
“I came back the day before.”
“How did it go? Was the treatment successful?”
“It’s alright.”
The few of them gathered in Wang Yao’s house to chat. At 11 am, Wang Yao’s parents returned. They were stunned to see so many people in the house.
“Yao, why didn’t you inform us that your friends were coming?” Zhang Xiuying admonished.
“Mom, we’re going out to eat. Why don’t you and Dad join us?” Wang Yao asked.
“Go ahead, we’re fine staying at home,” Zhang Xiuying waved her hand.
“Uncle, would you like to join us?” Wang Mingbao invited.
“No thanks, you guys go. I’ll eat at home,” Wang Fenghua declined.
“Then, we’re going.”
“Don’t drink too much.”
“Got it.”
The group of them drove to the restaurant in the neighboring village. The restaurant specialized in cooking wild vegetables and had attracted quite a crowd.
“How’s the food?” Wang Yao asked Wang Mingbao after going in. He was not very familiar with the place, but he recalled that this place didn’t originally have a restaurant. He had no idea when the restaurant was set-up, but Wang Mingbao would probably have a better idea.
“It just opened last month. It’s fairly clean, and the taste is acceptable,” Wang Mingbao replied.
“Then let’s eat here.”
“Sure.”
They stopped their cars and entered the restaurant. After selecting a private room, they ordered a few specialty dishes. While the food was being cooked in the kitchen, they started talking.
“Quick, go check on Wei Hai. He has been going on and on the past few days,” Wang Mingbao said.
“Hehe,” Wei Hai laughed sheepishly.
“Okay, let me see.”
Wei Hai immediately stretched out his arm to let Wang Yao take a look.
“Your body is recovering very well.”
“That’s good, that’s good,” Wei Hai said after hearing that. He had just been waiting for Wang Yao to tell him that.
As they were talking, the dishes were served. There were some seasonal vegetables as well as other wild plants.
“It tastes alright,” they said.
“I never expected that there would be so many people in this part of the mountains,” Li Maoshuang said, gesturing to the cars parked outside.
“People nowadays are even more willing to go to faraway places.”
“That’s kind of true.”
To the south of the restaurant was a small mud path. Going further south, there was a stream, and to its south was a mountain. The mountain looked like a human head. To the north of the restaurant were even steeper cliffs, reaching a few hundred meters. It was almost a right angle. At the base of those mountains was a lush chestnut forest. Every year, around September and October when the chestnuts were ripe, many people would come to pick the chestnuts.
They didn’t eat quickly.
Just as they were finishing, the owner of the shop brought them cherries. He said that the cherries were picked from the mountain. They tasted delicious.
After lunch, Wang Yao invited them to his hill. Wei Hai was the first to agree. After knowing Wang Yao for so long, Wei Hai had yet to visit Nanshan hill. He had often heard Wang Mingbao and Li Maoshuang mention that the hill was very special.
“Okay, shall we go?”
The few of them were exiting the restaurant when they saw a woman coaxing a young girl. The young girl was about five years old and was crying very hard.
“Mummy, my stomach hurts!”
“Hold on a moment, Mommy’s bringing you to the hospital!” The woman was anxious, and sweat dripped from her head.
Her husband came in and immediately carried the child in his arms.
Hmm?
Wang Yao looked at the child.
“Please wait a moment.”
“What is it?” The man carrying the child asked.
“I’m a doctor. Could I see the child?”
Wang Yao was no Madonna, nor was he a Lei Feng. However, he noticed that the child’s facial color was weird, and her lips were also strange. Those weren’t good signs.
“Okay, please.”
As Wang Yao took her pulse, his facial expression changed.
“She must have eaten something bad and wants to throw it up.”
As he said this, he rubbed the child’s belly, pressing a few spots.
Blegh. The child immediately vomited at the restaurant entrance. Everything she ate for lunch had come out. From the contents of the vomit, it could be seen that the child had eaten a fair amount of wild mushrooms.
Although wild mushrooms tasted great, some people could eat them while others were sensitive towards them. In serious cases, eating them could be dangerous. At times, in order to preserve the taste, restaurants might not cook them thoroughly over the fire, only taking them out after a short while.
“Quickly bring her to the hospital.”
“Thank you.”
“Wow, how did you do it? You pressed a few points and rubbed her belly and made her vomit?” Wei Hai asked curiously as he watched what Wang Yao had done.
“You want to try it?” Wang Yao joked.
Earlier, he had pressed a few acupuncture points to trigger the vomiting.
“No need. Hey, we ate the wild mushrooms too. Will we get poisoned too?”
“Could it be something in the food?”
“Our food definitely won’t have any problems,” the owner of the shop said, walking out. He was a fat middle-aged man. Obviously, he had overheard their conversation and didn’t look pleased.
“Just a joke, hope you don’t mind,” Wei Hai said.
“Let’s go.”
The few of them left the shop, got into their cars, and drove off.
At the south end of the village, they stopped their cars.
“So this is Nanshan hill?” Wei Hai said after getting out of the car. He looked at the not-too-distant peak. In reality, this could not even be considered a hill. It was just a mound of dirt.
“Nope, Nanshan hill is behind this one.”
The winding road up the hill didn’t appear to be very long, but when you tried to climb it, you would find that it was harder than it seemed.
Going around this small hill, another hill appeared. On top of the next hill, there were no fields, only trees. Somewhere hidden among the leaves, one could see a small cottage.
“So this is Nanshan hill.”
“Let’s keep going.”
The hill was not too high, but there were rocky outcrops every now and then which made climbing it tiring. After walking for a little more, they arrived at the small cottage. There, they saw the little sprouts that had already started growing into trees.
“Eh!” Wei Hai rubbed his eyes.
Wang Yao was leading the way, and as he waved his hands, the trees suddenly seemed to become a lot quieter.
The sky was blue, and the clouds floated by lazily.
The little cottage was not very big, just enough for four people.
Wang Yao brought out a warm pot of tea. As the mountain breeze blew in through the window, they felt that it was very cooling.
“Whew…” After climbing the mountain, Wei Hai was very out of breath. He immediately sat down on the bench, gasping for air.
“It’s really quiet in this area!” Li Maoshuang praised.
“It’s much better than those famous mountains.”
In actual fact, how could Nanshan hill compare to real mountains? Perhaps the only thing that was better about Nanshan hill was that Wang Yao had set up the Spirit Gathering Battle Array here. The reason those famous mountains weren’t as quiet was because they had many tourists, making the place noisy and bustling. Once it became night, those mountains would also be very quiet.
“The mountains and water are invigorating. It’s really comfortable here,” Wei Hai praised as he sipped his tea.
“The tea is good too.”
The tea was from Nanshan Hill, and the water, it was naturally the ancient spring water. Of course, it was the best!
“I really think you should build an inn here,” Wei Hai said.
“What for?”
“You want to build a fake village?”
“There’s nothing to look at around here, just a few hilltops,” Wang Yao said.
“I think this is already pretty good.”
Even if this place could attract many guests, Wang Yao would not choose to do it. He liked the hill as it was—natural and calm.
