CH 21

Chapter 21 – Discoveries

Man Bao was shocked. She took the flower baskets out and saw that last evening’s fresh and beautiful flowers had all wilted. Some of the flower stems had even broken off.

Da Ya and Er Ya also ran out to look at the baskets. They were shocked and sad when they saw the state of the flowers.

Wu Lang couldn’t understand their heartache at all. He hadn’t been to town for many years and was immersed in the excitement of it.

He just glanced at the flower baskets and put them all in the pack basket indifferently, “Don’t worry, just pick more beautiful flowers along the way.”

He pointed to the bunch of flowers which they picked up last evening. As it was already dark and Mrs Zhou was reluctant to light the oil lamp, they didn’t use the flowers, “Bring these too. It should be enough. We’ll decorate the baskets once we arrive in town.”

They could only follow Wu Lang’s ideas. Man Bao was slightly depressed. After all, she had planned this for such a long time. She was so confident, but things have turned out this way.

The family took out the two bags of grain which they didn’t sell at the market a couple of days ago. Once the grains were sold in town, they’ll buy some paper for Man Bao and reserve the rest to buy Mrs Zhou’s medicine.

They would also need to reserve some money in the event of emergencies.

There were many baskets and large bamboo baskets on the cart. All Liu Lang needed to do was to carry some in his pack basket.

Da Lang carried Man Bao on the cart and seated her in one of the large bamboo baskets.

Then, Mrs Zhou took one of Da Lang’s winter clothes and wrapped it around Man Bao so that she wouldn’t feel cold.

Once the basket was covered, Man Bao could just sleep. (Wow, imagine the size of the weaved basket!)

Since this was her first venture to the far-off town, Man Bao couldn’t fall asleep. She was very energetic and poked her small head out of the basket.

Her eyes were gleaming. However, as it was still dark, she could only see her fifth brother carrying a torch. Her vision was restrained by the darkness.

She was awake for a while and then, felt sleepy. She couldn’t help but yawned, and slowly closed her eyes.

Er Lang noticed Man Bao was asleep and covered her basket with the bamboo lid. She wouldn’t suffocate as the lid was perforated.

Er Lang glanced at Da Ya and Er Ya who were walking beside him. He shifted the baskets which contained the grains, straightened an empty large bamboo basket, and placed Er Ya into the basket.

Then, he carried Da Ya and placed her on top of the grain basket. To balance herself, he told her to hold on to the sides of the basket. “Sit down. Wait until it’s dawn before walking.”

Er Lang and Da Lang took turns pushing the cart. When one brother was pushing, the other helped. It wasn’t very tiring when they were walking along a flat road, but the road would lead up and down the mountain.

The road wasn’t very smooth, and everyone stumbled. Although it was a late autumn morning, everyone sweated and felt chilly.

When the sun slowly came out and the sky began to brighten, they had already walked halfway to town.

Other than sleepyhead Man Bao, who was still asleep, both Da Ya and Er Ya were awake. They wanted to get off the cart and walk because their feet were numb from sitting too long.

Wu Lang and Liu Lang looked at them enviously. They wiped the sweat from their faces and felt that their nieces were so fortunate.

Da Lang said, “Let’s take a break.”

Wu Lang and Liu Lang immediately plopped down on the grass next to them and put down the large back basket they were bearing.

Man Bao finally woke up. She rubbed her eyes and poked her head out of the basket. She was so excited when she realized she was in a new environment.

She stood up in the basket and wanted to get off the cart.

Er Lang carried her down and allowed her to play with Big Ya and Er Ya, “You can pick flowers, but you’re not allowed to run far to play. Just pick the flowers where we can still see you, do you understand?”

The three little girls nodded eagerly, indicating that they would obey him.

From young, Man Bao was bold. She walked to the edge of the mountain road, stood on tiptoes, and looked down.

She seemed to be able to see wisps of smoke from kitchen stoves. She immediately pointed to a far-off distance and shouted, “Our house!”

Da Lang didn’t even glance at where she pointed. He pulled a blade of long grass and chewed it, “Nonsense, it’s not possible to see our village.”

Man Bao vaguely saw a road below the current road they were on. That road looked much wider. She asked curiously, “Big brother, why’re we not taking the road below?”

“This is a shortcut. The one below is for carriages. It will take us an extra hour if we take that road. It’s not worth it.”

He proudly pointed to the road they were on, “Look at this mountain road. There used to be a lot of rocks. People can’t get across, let alone carts.

“Later, Master Bai and Li Zheng had us to remove all the rocks and patch some of the areas with soil. Only then were carts able to use this road.”

Da Lang added regretfully, “It’s just too small for carriages. Otherwise, this road will be livelier.”

Man Bao liked to listen to such stories, so she squatted beside her brother to listen.

The system couldn’t stand it and said, “Host, there’re many wildflowers here, don’t you want to pick them? There might not be any other flowers along the road if we missed these flowers.”

Man Bao was reluctant to give up on her money making plans. So, she decided to stop listening.

She held on to her brother’s hand to assure him, “Big brother, you’ve to continue telling me stories when we’re home. I love to listen to them.”

Da Lang and Er Lang looked at each other knowingly. They knew Man Bao wanted to listen to stories, but she also wanted to pick flowers and play with Da Ya and Er Ya.

Da Lang dotingly patted her head and said happily, “Go play. I’ll tell you more stories when we get home.”

Man Bao happily went after Da Ya and Er Ya.

The road was relatively flat. Although it was still a mountain road, at first glance, both sides were within Da Lang’s sight. The three children wouldn’t be in any danger as long as they don’t go beyond where Da Lang could see them.

Da Ya and Er Ya found many flowers, some of which Man Bao hadn’t seen before. So, she crouched down and dug around happily.

Da Ya and Er Ya looked stunned, and asked, “Little aunt, why are you digging the roots as well?”

Man Bao raised her mud-streaked face. With her gleaming eyes, she said, “I’ve never seen any of these flowers. I want to dig one, just the smallest one.”

The system did not stop her, because after scanning these two types of flowers and checking, he found that they were undocumented. Pictures were also not available.

This meant that these flowers either mutated or became extinct. Either way, it had great value for future research.

If these flowers could be included in the Encyclopaedia, Man Bao would earn many points.

Keke produced a cheerful code. He thought he did the right thing last evening when he didn’t alert Man Bao to the fact that if left overnight, the flowers wrapped around the baskets would wilt and break off.

If the flowers didn’t wilt, she would be reluctant to leave the storytelling session and wouldn’t be digging for flowers.

Man Bao didn’t know this at all. Although she wanted to dig up the flowers and hand them to Keke, it was also important to collect enough wildflowers and fine grasses.

So, she didn’t want her nieces to help her and got them to quickly pick the flowers.

Man Bao held a long narrow strip of wood, and worked hard to dig the flowers out.

Keke secretly watched for a long time and couldn’t help but reminded her, “Host, I think your eldest brother and everyone else are done resting. You should just break off the plant and give it to me.”

With the way you are digging, you may not even be able to dig three plants in one day.

Man Bao asked curiously, “Is it ok to submit a broken plant?”

“Generally speaking, most plants can be kept viable through cuttings, so please be rest assured, this should be possible.

“You can break off the roots. Just fold a few more branches for me. First, fold the red plant on your left, and then go forward and pull the purple vine.”

These two kinds of flowers were the most important. The others were already recorded. Even if they were submitted to the Encyclopaedia, they would only receive encouragement points.