Xu's mother gave Xu Zifan the money, and he accepted it. It was easier to control the money himself, giving him more freedom. He didn't mention anything about his brother to Xu's parents. After all, blood ties are unbreakable, and few normal parents would be heartless towards their children. He had already expressed his attitude; the rest was up to his parents. It was their money, and they were free to do whatever they wanted with it.
Xu Zifan, eager to reach the deep mountains as soon as possible, got up before dawn the next day. While getting dressed, he found Su Qianyun cooking in the kitchen; she had probably stopped hurting and started selling snacks again. Putting everything else aside, the transmigrated woman was quite diligent, unlike those lazy, cunning, and brainless idiots who dreamed of getting something for nothing.
Xu Zifan, feeling unsafe after putting on the shoes, wrapped a handkerchief around his ankles to connect the shoes to his trouser legs, securing them with a rope. He said to Shaohua, "These shoes are unsuitable for mountain paths; they're too uncomfortable. Last time I was gathering herbs, I even cut my ankles twice. I should make a pair of boots like Zheng Chuan's to make walking in the mountains easier."
Do you need the boot styles and instructions?
[No need, thank you. It would be strange if I knew how to do these things. I'll have my mom make me a sturdy pair. I'll ask Zheng Chuan if he has any suitable leather for making boots when I have the chance.]
After tidying himself up, Xu Zifan stepped out of his room and was surprised to see Su Qianyun quietly leaving, her hurried departure unknown. He frowned, unable to recall what Su Qianyun had done in the original plan, and put it out of his mind. He packed all the usable tools into a large bamboo basket, slung it over his shoulder, picked up another large bamboo basket, and left the house, ready to get to work.
He brought a pot of water and some flatbread that Xu's mother had prepared the night before. If he went into the mountains by himself, he could climb trees to catch bird eggs and roast them. If he was lucky, he might even get some wild game. Anyway, he wouldn't go hungry, as long as he was always vigilant and careful. Xu Zifan walked towards the mountains, lost in thought. Zheng Chuan's house was at the foot of the mountain. When he was almost there, he saw Su Qianyun standing outside Zheng Chuan's house. He hesitated for a moment, then avoided Su Qianyun's gaze and hid behind a tree.
Zheng Chuan opened the door. Even though it was still dark, he was dressed as usual, only his hair wasn't very neat, as if he had just done it in a hurry. Zheng Chuan frowned as soon as he saw Su Qianyun. "What are you doing here?"
Su Qianyun laughed and said, "Why did it take you so long to open the door? I've been knocking for ages." She handed over the basket she was carrying and said, "These are some snacks I just made, they're still warm. I brought them for you to try. Thank you for taking me into the mountains last time."
Zheng Chuan took a step back and refused outright, "No need, you've already paid."
"Yes, I paid last time. To be honest, I came to you this time because I have a favor to ask. I want to go into the mountains again, but Erlang disagrees. I... I have no choice but to ask you if you could take me into the mountains a few times, just for half an hour in the morning. My family hasn't gotten up yet, so they won't know."
"No, you should leave." Zheng Chuan said expressionlessly, and was about to close the door.
Su Qianyun hurriedly pressed down on the door panel, pleading, "Zheng Chuan, please listen to me! I have no choice. I'm just a weak woman, getting up before dawn every day to make food, which I then carry to town to sell. I work so hard but don't earn much, and I'm almost exhausted. I just want to go into the mountains to see if there's anything good. If I find one, it could be enough to cover my food expenses for many days, allowing me to rest more. I'm begging you! If I weren't so tired, I wouldn't have come to you. I know you have a kind heart, please help me!"
Xu Zifan felt something was off. What did she mean by "working so hard she was almost exhausted"? It sounded like the Xu family was forcing her to work. Wasn't selling things to make money her own idea? Xu Erlang was just supporting her. Why did she sound like she was portraying herself as a pitiful little thing?
Xu Zifan peeked out from behind the tree and saw that Su Qianyun seemed to have dressed up specially, not at all like she had just finished cooking in the kitchen. Then he looked at Zheng Chuan, who was a head taller than Su Qianyun, making her appear petite and delicate in front of him.
[Shaohua, something feels off. It's like those old movie rendezvous scenes.]
[Based on my recent browsing of 137 time-travel/rural romance novels, Su Qianyun and Zheng Chuan perfectly fit the character settings of the female and male leads. Furthermore, Su Qianyun's current secret visit to see Zheng Chuan, kept hidden from the Xu family, confirms it is indeed a clandestine meeting.]
Zheng Chuan, already impatient, grabbed Su Qianyun's basket and shoved it out the door, slamming the door shut behind him. "It's none of my business, don't come looking for me again."
Su Qianyun knocked on the door again and called out to Zheng Chuan, but received no response. Looking at the sky, she dared not delay any longer and angrily returned the way she came. Xu Zifan heard her mutter to herself, "Such a blockhead, so clueless about romance. It's a wonder anyone likes someone like that!"
After she left, Xu Zifan stroked his chin and emerged from behind the tree, wondering, "[Is Su Qianyun up to something? Zheng Chuan is only 18, and Su Qianyun's eldest daughter is already 8. She's 7 years older than Zheng Chuan. Besides, Zheng Chuan is quite eligible; why wouldn't he be interested in her?]"
[Based on ancient customs, people in ancient times were very superstitious about having no family or relatives, and also about being associated with murderous intent. Zheng Chuan had no family, was a hunter, and his master had passed away, which seemed to be considered a very undesirable choice in the eyes of the ancients. Therefore, Su Qianyun likely believed she had a significant advantage, given her extensive modern knowledge and, in some aspects, superiority over 95% of the women in the village.]
Xu Zifan thought for a moment, then chuckled and said, "[I've been reading too many time-travel novels lately, I've gotten all confused. Characters like Zheng Chuan are always the first choice for time travelers; ancient people really don't like them. Let's go, forget about them, you be my searchlight, let's hurry into the mountains.]"
As Xu Zifan walked, he said to Shao Hua, "It's so much more interesting having you by my side."
Yes, and it's much more efficient. I'm already looking forward to every trip from now on.
Thank you for your appreciation; it's an honor to travel with you.
Xu Zifan was in excellent physical condition. Having traversed the area several times before, and with Shaohua's virtual screen marking the potholes in red, he simply jogged into the mountains to save time. Along the way, Shaohua was constantly expanding her map, marking everything she scanned on it so she could look it up at home later. Xu Zifan quickly reached the large rock; beyond that lay the deep mountains. He unloaded his water bottle, took a few sips, rested briefly, and, after reminding Shaohua to stay alert, continued on his way.
Shao Hua's scanning range was a 500-meter spherical area centered on him, allowing him to scan a wide variety of things. Xu Zifan, carrying a wooden stick, walked and looked around. After about fifteen minutes, he found medicinal herbs worth 500 wen per jin (approximately 500 coins per kilogram), but the herbs could only be processed into two jin, or one tael of silver. It was good, but far too little compared to his target. Time was limited, so Xu Zifan decisively said, "[Shao Hua, let's do this: let's quickly search the entire mountain area. This way we can record the entire mountain's layout, and then use the map to find valuable and easily obtainable items to descend the mountain.]"
[Okay, full-range scanning and road condition warning maps have been activated.]
Xu Zifan hid the map and started moving quickly with only the road condition warning map enabled. The roads in the deep mountains were not so easy to travel, and it was early in the morning, so Xu Zifan's shoes were soaked in no time, and they were very uncomfortable wrapped around his feet.
[I should borrow Zheng Chuan's boots; he definitely has more than one pair. Now they're probably all wrinkled from soaking in the water.]
Suddenly, Zheng Chuan's profile appeared on the virtual screen, stating his shoe size was 38. Xu Zifan's shoes were size 42. Xu Zifan glanced at it and exclaimed, "[Zheng Chuan's feet are so small?]" He then looked at Zheng Chuan's other data: height 178cm, estimated weight 60kg, skilled hunter, weapons were bow and arrow and a long knife. The information was quite brief. Xu Zifan was puzzled after reading it, "[I remember I weigh 130 pounds, is Zheng Chuan lighter than me? He's also two centimeters shorter than me, how come I didn't notice? I thought he was quite tall and strong.]"
[The weights of other people are estimated based on comparative analysis of the depth of their shoe prints in the mud; this is not precise. Your data is from a body measurement record. Depending on the situation, some people may appear taller, while others may appear quite short.]
Xu Zifan frowned. [Why do I feel like you're saying his proportions are better than mine? Never mind, why are we thinking about this? Let's get down to business!]
Xu Zifan closed the character information and continued in the direction Shao Hua had indicated. This time, he had only taken a few steps when an alarm suddenly went off in his head. He heard Shao Hua say, "[There's a poisonous snake about 500 meters ahead at the one o'clock position.]"
Xu Zifan immediately stopped, glanced at the map, and drove in a large circle to the right. After walking for fifteen minutes, an alarm sounded in his mind again. Shao Hua said, "[There are three snakes within the next 500 meters, one of which is poisonous.]"
Xu Zifan stopped again, this time carefully examining the location of each snake marked in red on the map. He noticed that the three snakes were not close together, with one non-venomous snake on the far right of the map, several hundred meters away from the venomous snake. He then hatched a plan. He quietly approached the right side, taking out his iron fork. After confirming with Shaohua that the snake was non-venomous, he swiftly and forcefully plunged the fork into the ground, then quickly grabbed the snake by its vital spot, killing it instantly!
Luckily, he had participated in two wilderness survival reality shows and learned a few tricks from professionals; otherwise, he wouldn't have known how to catch it. Xu Zifan looked at the map and saw that they were already at the edge of the deep mountains, and there was a cave within a newly scanned range of 500 meters ahead. Tiger droppings were detected outside the cave!
Xu Zifan quickly retreated to a safe distance, put the snake he had caught into a bamboo basket and carried it on his back. Cautiously, he changed course and headed left, avoiding the venomous snake and being careful not to encounter a tiger. Along the way, he encountered many other animals: wild boar, deer, mink, rabbits, squirrels, roe deer, and more. There were many kinds of animals in the deep mountains, and Xu Zifan, afraid of startling the wild beasts, didn't dare hunt, constantly avoiding them and keeping a safe distance from any aggressive animals.
By noon, he had traversed most of the deep mountains and was quite exhausted. He found an empty cave and ate some flatbread with water inside. Better safe than sorry, he figured it was best not to roast anything in such a dangerous place; the most important thing on his first trip was to gain something.
Xu Zifan ate while checking the map. The map recorded by Shaohua was already very large and detailed, and it was 3D, allowing for a 360° view. Items could be isolated for close inspection, and most items even had descriptions. Everything in Shaohua's database had been added to the map.
The map marked all the herbs in bright green and aggressive animals in bright red. The areas where tigers and wild boars roamed were covered in red and marked with dangerous skulls. Xu Zifan studied it and found that there were many medicinal herbs, including wild ginseng and lingzhi. However, there weren't many of these rarer ones, mainly because there weren't many wild ginseng varieties that were old enough to fetch a good price, and there weren't many valuable types of lingzhi either.
Xu Zifan marked the location of the oldest wild ginseng. Shaohua could scan up to 500 meters underground, so he already knew the quality of these medicinal herbs. This wild ginseng was about thirty years old; he didn't know its value here, but it was certainly worth several tens of taels of silver. He also marked another wild ginseng that was about twenty years old. Both of these were of exceptionally good quality. There was another good wild ginseng in a rather dangerous location, which he didn't plan to visit for the time being.
After finishing his meal, Xu Zifan took off his shoes, looked at the soles of his feet, and shook his head, saying, "[Let's just dig these two ginseng roots today; any more walking will ruin us.]"