After a morning of pursuit, He Teng encountered quite a few villagers working in the mountains. This was normal; mountain villagers relied on the mountains for their livelihood. In this season, it's not unusual to dig for wild vegetables, hunt, or chop wood. But when he brushed past a farmer in his early twenties carrying a hoe, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and called out to him.
"Hello there, heading down for lunch?" He Teng saw the man stop and walked back towards him, seemingly just making small talk, "There must be lots of good stuff in the mountains during this season, right? Are you digging for wild vegetables, or something else?"
"Hey, you clearly haven't worked before, right? Would anyone use such a big hoe to dig wild vegetables?" The farmer put down the hoe from his shoulder, waved at He Teng, and laughed, "I'm just digging for some cool root vegetables. No luck though, I haven't found anything."
