Chapter Fifty-One: Ascending the Mountain

After finishing their midday meal, Chen Ling and Wang Susu rested at home for a while before leading the cow from the backyard and taking two small puppies out of the house.

A couple of showers had fallen recently, and the weather over the past two days had turned brilliantly clear.

The sky was intensely blue, bright and dazzling to the eyes.

It was indeed growing warmer day by day, and the peach trees in the village were beginning to swell with flower buds.

Chen Ling had Wang Susu ride on the cow while he walked alongside, holding the lead rope.

Susu had a slender and light figure, so the little water calf could easily carry her.

Crucially, over the past couple of days, it had grown quite accustomed to Wang Susu.

Perhaps because Wang Susu carried a lingering trace of Chen Ling's familiar scent, or perhaps because she possessed a strong, gentle aura much like that of a mother comforting a baby, she did not cause the calf any sense of unease.

In short, Wang Susu could now not only reach out and stroke it, playing with it affectionately, but also ride upon its back.

The two of them walked through the village. There were not many people about today; only a few villagers accompanied by the women's association director, Wang Xiuhua, were going from street to street to brush and paint new family planning slogans on the walls.

"Ah-Ling, Fifth Uncle mentioned that you came up with the ideas for these slogans this time?" Wang Susu asked, sitting atop the cow's back.

"That's right. Dongmei's older sister said that the previous slogans were only half-painted before they were ordered to stop because they were just the same old cliches from previous years and failed to achieve the desired publicity effect. So she asked me to think of some new ones."

Seeing that Wang Xiuhua and her group were still quite far away, Chen Ling didn't feel like going over to greet them, and continued, "It's nothing special, really. I just tried to come up with a few slogans that ordinary country folk could easily understand. I was just tossing around random ideas."

"How can you call them random? I heard that even Jusheng-ge couldn't think of any good ones!"

Wang Susu glanced at several of the slogans. Finding them refreshingly novel, she looked left and right, feeling quite proud of Chen Ling in her heart.

Soon, however, her attention was caught by a particular line: "Tie the tubes where they must be tied, or your house will be demolished; terminate the pregnancies where they must be terminated, or your roof will be stripped and your cattle impounded..."

Reciting it softly twice, Wang Susu knitted her delicate brows. "Ah-Ling, the others are all quite good, but this one is just too... well, you know."

Knowing what she meant, Chen Ling understood that she found it far too blunt and crude.

He chuckled and said, "Since they chose to use this particular line, it shows that this slogan matches their exact mindset. Let's not look too deeply into it."

Hearing him put it that way, Wang Susu didn't say anything more.

Still, she couldn't help letting out a soft, dissatisfied huff to express her disapproval.

Seeing this, Chen Ling gave her a reassuring smile and continued leading the cow toward the outskirts of the village.

Once outside the village, heading toward the western side, they saw a bustling, high-energy scene over at Erhuo's greenhouse construction site to the south.

Donkey carts and ox-carts were hauling long, thick bamboo poles, alongside wagonloads of cement, thickened plastic sheeting, and other supplies being continuously transported to the location.

Because once the tractors brought the materials this far, they couldn't cross the reservoir dam, and all other paths leading out of the village were either too narrow, bumpy, or steep to navigate, the materials could only be ferried across laboriously, trip by trip, using donkey carts and ox-carts.

Witnessing this, Chen Ling suddenly understood why Erhuo had called upon so many people to help.

With a fifty-mu greenhouse, just hauling the raw materials alone would take several days.

Moreover, concrete pillars would need to be cast afterward; otherwise, the greenhouse structures could never hold up.

After gazing toward the greenhouse construction site for a moment, the young couple continued on toward their own fields.

When they reached the plots at the foot of the mountain and Wang Susu saw every single tree glowing with renewed vitality, her inner joy naturally went without saying.

In short, any lingering doubts she might have had about Chen Ling's proposal to grow fruit trees completely vanished.

"Oh! I forgot to bring the woven medicine basket!"

After letting the cow graze along the edge of the field for a while, Wang Susu suddenly let out a startled cry.

Looking thoroughly vexed, she said, "I had originally planned to come down to the fields to check on how the trees were growing, and then go up into the mountain to gather some herbs, but now that's out of the question."

"It doesn't matter even if we didn't bring the basket. If we find any medicinal herbs today, we can just mark the spot and come back to harvest them tomorrow. It'll be just the same," Chen Ling said, pointing toward the south. "Right now, the villagers are either working over at Erhuo's place or busy with spring plowing, so basically nobody is going up into the mountains. Once we mark a spot, nobody else will take them."

"That's true," Wang Susu reflected, realizing he made sense. "Then, Ah-Ling, are you coming up the mountain with me?"

"Of course I am. How could I possibly let you go up alone?" Chen Ling walked over and gently pinched the tip of her delicate little nose.

"Heehee, then let's go right now."

Wang Susu immediately beamed a sweet smile, batted his hand away, and puffed out her cheeks in a playful glare.

And so, the two of them led the cow and brought the two small puppies as they headed up the mountain.

"Watch your step, Susu. There are lots of shattered glass shards by the ditch ahead, so be careful not to pierce your feet," Chen Ling cautioned.

The plot at the foot of the mountain was less than a hundred meters away from the narrow path leading up.

Between them lay a dried-up little river ditch.

It had been dug out previously by Erhuo's father, partly to discharge wastewater from the lime kiln, and partly to serve as a drainage channel during the summer when mountain rains were heavy, preventing the lime kiln from being flooded.

Yet, after being abandoned for a decade or so, some unscrupulous person had dumped numerous glass wine bottles into it. They lay shattered into countless pieces, ready to pierce anyone who wasn't careful.

Especially during the summer when the rains were heavy, the little ditch would fill with water, becoming a haven for green frogs and toads. When children came by to catch frogs, they were most susceptible to cutting their feet on the glass.

"Alright, I'm watching," Wang Susu replied in a sweet, tender voice, stepping lightly around the ditch and leading the two puppies onto the mountain path.

Having grown up in a stronghold deep within the mountains and frequently accompanying her parents to gather herbs, she held an exceptionally deep and affectionate bond with the forests and hills.

During the two years since their marriage, after Chen Ling quickly squandered away the family fortune left behind by his parents, it was solely through Wang Susu going up the mountains to gather and sell medicinal herbs that they had managed to barely scrape by and cover their living expenses.

Otherwise, the grain produced from their ten mu of farmland would never have been enough to fuel his reckless spending.

In the past, Chen Ling would often stay away from home all day long, refusing to return until nightfall from the video game arcades and billiard halls in the county town.

During those days, she always had to go up the mountain alone to gather herbs, and then go alone to the township market or the apothecary in the county town to sell them.

Along the way, how many dangers did she, a delicate young woman, have to brave?

Just imagining that scene made Chen Ling's heart ache.

Yet now...

Having arrived here from another space and time, everything had turned for the better.

Looking at Wang Susu's joyful, bounding figure ahead on the mountain path, Chen Ling couldn't help a smile spreading across his face.

"Ah-Ling, hurry up!"

"Alright, coming!"

Holding the cow's lead rope, Chen Ling quickly caught up with her.

Though the mountain path here was narrow, it was not steep, so the little water calf walked without much effort.

Naturally, nourished by the wondrous spring water and extraordinary vegetables, it was far different from ordinary cattle and could navigate steep mountain trails with ease.

As the young couple walked, they scanned the surroundings for medicinal herbs.

Suddenly, a flash of grey darted right across their path.

The sudden movement gave Chen Ling and Wang Susu a start, making their hearts leap. Before they could even process what was happening, Blackie and Goldie had already barked fiercely and bolted forward in pursuit.

"Don't chase it! Come back here..."

By then, Chen Ling had clearly made out that it was a grey rabbit—a fairly good-sized one, much fatter than the rabbits of early spring.

Startled by them, it leaped swiftly through the mountain underbrush, moving at an incredible speed.

Blackie and Goldie chased closely behind, but being still too young, they were simply no match for its speed.

Hearing Chen Ling's call, the two little pups reluctantly gave up the chase and trotted back to their side.

"You two little fools, running wild as soon as you get up the mountain, not even scared of stepping into an animal trap."

With a stern expression, Chen Ling scolded them lightly.

In those days, hunting was not yet considered illegal, and the mountain forests were free for anyone to enter.

Whenever the villagers went for a stretch of time without tasting meat, they would find ways to head into the hills to treat themselves.

However, entering the mountains did not always guarantee a satisfying harvest.

Consequently, setting iron traps and snares throughout the forest was a common occurrence.