Chapter 26: Simple Folk Customs

"The little girl picking mushrooms, carrying a big bamboo basket on her back. In the morning, she walks barefoot through the forests and hills..." The girl's clear singing voice echoed along the mountain path with a cheerful melody. The little maid sang the song that her uncle had just taught her, jumping all the way, and the small bamboo basket behind her was already filled with a lot of mushrooms.

The uncle was going to make another dish that he had never eaten in the afternoon. The girl's heart was full of little expectations, and even her steps were much lighter.

Li Yi walked a few steps behind the little maid, looking at this figure that seemed to be full of infinite vitality, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "It's great to be young!"

The mushrooms grown in the mountains are natural and pollution-free. They are freshly picked. Whether it is stewing chicken with mushrooms or making a bowl of delicious mushroom soup, they are the best choice of ingredients.

"Son-in-law, come and see, this mushroom is so beautiful!" The maid's startled voice sounded in Li Yi's ears again. When he turned around, he found that Xiaohuan was happily running to a tree and picked a mushroom with an orange surface and white scales on it.

"This mushroom is so beautiful, it must be delicious." The little maid walked to Li Yi as if to ask for credit, holding the mushroom and said.

Li Yi took a close look at the mushroom in Xiaohuan's hand, and soon found a similar picture in a mushroom atlas in his mind. Then he smiled, shook his head, and said, "This mushroom can't be eaten, it will cause stomachache."

"Why?" The little girl didn't understand why such a beautiful mushroom would cause diarrhea?

"This is fly catching fungus, also known as poisonous fly fungus, a poisonous mushroom." Li Yi once again acted as an encyclopedia for the little maid, "If you eat this kind of mushroom, you will have a headache, stomachache, and pain everywhere... Anyway, this kind of mushroom can't be eaten."

The little maid looked at Li Yi's big eyes and began to twinkle with little stars again.

He can cook, draw, write poems, sing, and can recognize whether mushrooms are poisonous at a glance... My son-in-law is so amazing!

"Remember in the future, the more beautiful the mushrooms are, the more likely they are to be poisonous, just like women, the more beautiful they are, the more dangerous they are..." Seeing that the mushrooms have been picked, when they are ready to go down the mountain and go home, Li Yi rarely tells the little maid about the philosophy of life.

This little girl is as pure as a blank sheet of paper. If she is sold, she will probably have to count money for others. She should be taught the correct three views in normal times to avoid being at a disadvantage in the future.

"Such a beautiful mushroom, how can it be poisonous..."

The maid looked at the mushroom in her hand, and thinking of what Li Yi had just said, she hurriedly threw the mushroom away, and said to herself: "The more beautiful it is, the more dangerous it is... It's not like that, the eldest lady and the second lady are so beautiful..."

As she said that, the maid's pretty face blushed again, and she whispered: "In fact, Xiaohuan is also very beautiful..."

Looking up, she found that Li Yi had walked more than ten steps away, and immediately stopped thinking about these things, and hurriedly chased after him, "Son-in-law, wait for me..."

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When they returned to the village with Xiaohuan, there were quite a few people who greeted them------and Xiaohuan along the way. Li Yi remembered the faces of these people one by one in his heart. Generally speaking, those who were enthusiastic about Xiaohuan were on the side of Liu Ruyi and her sister.

When passing by a certain family, a naughty child, about seven or eight years old, wearing coarse cloth clothes and full of patches, was squatting at the door to eat. Hearing someone coming, he looked up and called out timidly: "Sister Xiaohuan."

This naughty child Li Yi looked very unfamiliar and must have never been to school. From this, it was guessed that he should not be a member of the Liu clan.

The people in Liuye Village mostly eat two meals a day, and the time is not fixed. When passing by, Li Yi glanced at the naughty child's bowl. There was a black piece. I don't know what it is. When I got closer, there was a not very pleasant smell. It was hard to imagine that this was actually food for people.

However, for the naughty child, this seemed to be a delicacy. He ate it with a slurp and was eating it. In his other hand, he was holding an object similar to a steamed bun, which was also black. He bit it and it made a crunching sound. Seeing the naughty child finally bite it, the muscles at the corners of Li Yi's mouth were a little impulsive, and he felt a faint toothache.

A sturdy figure walked out of the house. After seeing Li Yi and Xiao Huan, he was stunned for a moment, then smiled and greeted the two of them.

Li Yi was also stunned. Wasn't this big man the one who gave them two pheasants in the morning?

Looking down at the food in the child's bowl again, Li Yi couldn't believe that the big man who gave them meat so straightforwardly in the morning actually gave his own child such food?

The big man walked out of the house, gently kicked the child sitting on the ground, and cursed: "Little bastard, what are you still standing there for? This is my uncle, call someone quickly!"

"Aunt, hello uncle..."

After being kicked by his father, the child put down his bowl and steamed bread and called out timidly.

"Woof!"

A yellow dog ran out of the house. Perhaps it felt that the young man in front of it was very strange. It barked at Li Yi twice, and suddenly sniffed hard. When it saw the steamed bread beside it, its eyes suddenly lit up, and it bit the steamed bread in one bite, and disappeared in front of several people at an astonishing speed.

Seeing this scene, the naughty child was stunned, Xiao Huan was stunned, and Li Yi was stunned.

The big man was also stunned, but the next moment, Li Yi heard a roar like an explosion in his ear, and the big man's bear-like body had chased out.

"Dahei, if you dare to eat that steamed bread, I will kill you today!"

Seeing the figures of the man and the dog disappear, Li Yi looked down at the black and smelly food in the bowl on the ground. He no longer had the mind to wonder why the yellow dog had such a domineering name "Dahei"... The big man gave them two pheasants, but his family ate this kind of thing, which made Li Yi fall into deep thought after being shocked.

In Liuye Village, the Liu family is like a landlord, owning all the land. Although their lives are not rich, they are not too bad.

But more people are like the big man just now, almost equivalent to tenants living at the bottom of society, just able to feed their families and not starve to death. If they encounter a disaster year with a bad harvest, I am afraid that even this minimum requirement cannot be met.

Li Yi learned from Xiao Huan that last year was a disaster year with a huge drop in harvest, so everyone in the village is currently living a very hard life.

To be fair, if it were Li Yi himself, he would definitely not do the same thing as the big man in such a situation.

Perhaps, this is also the most admirable thing about the people in this world.

Li Yi had to admit that he was moved by this honest big man in front of him, or the simple folk customs of this world.