After fleeing the famine, my older sister and I married the brother next door.

"There are mushrooms!" Su Xiaoyin whispered, her voice filled with excitement.

Su Xiaoqing quickly squatted down to help pick them. The two searched carefully under the bushes and found a few more flowers. They carefully dug them up by the roots, shook off the soil, and put them into their baskets.

There weren't any more around. Su Xiaoyin stood up, patted the mud off her knees, and took a different path, heading downhill. She walked and stopped, picking mushrooms whenever she saw them, and gathering handfuls of edible wild vegetables as well. By the time she reached the foot of the mountain, her basket was half full of mushrooms. Although it wasn't a lot, it was enough for her family to eat for a while, and she could dry some to store.

"Sister, look, wild berries!" Su Xiaoqing, with her sharp eyes, spotted small, bright red berries hanging on a clump of bushes by the roadside. They were about the size of a fingernail, crystal clear, and looked like little rubies.

Su Xiaoyin leaned over to take a look. They were early-ripening raspberries, sweet and sour. They could be dried and steeped in water in winter to make a refreshing and digestive drink. The two sisters picked a large bunch, scooped it up with their clothes, and put it in their baskets.

The path down the mountain was much easier to walk on. The sun was already high in the sky, and sunlight filtered through the leaves, warming their skin. As Su Xiaoqing walked, she planned out the afternoon's activities, her voice as light as a mountain stream: "Sister, let's go back and have some food, rest for a while, and then go to the west side of the back mountain to pick some flowers to dry. I saw the wildflowers there are in bloom, golden and beautiful, in patches. We can make some flower tea, and in winter, steep it with dried fruit—it'll be fragrant and warming."

Su Xiaoyin nodded and replied, "Okay. Let's go early this afternoon, don't stay out too late. It gets cool quickly in the mountains, it gets cold as soon as the sun sets."

When they got home, the sun was already setting. Su Xiaoyin reheated the leftover porridge from breakfast, and sliced ​​the two leftover steamed buns from last night, frying them in a pan until golden brown and crispy on both sides. The two sisters ate a simple meal.

Su Xiaoqing didn't have time to rest. She squatted in the yard and poured the mushrooms she had picked onto a bamboo mat, picking them one by one. The whole ones and the ones in good condition were spread out on the mat to dry, to be sold or given away in the winter; the broken ones, the ones with wormholes, and the ones in poor condition were put into a basin to eat that night.

"Sis, let's have steamed buns for dinner. I picked out a lot of chopped mushrooms, stir-fried them with cured pork, and they'll be perfect for making steamed buns." Su Xiaoqing looked up and called out to the kitchen, her voice filled with craving.

Su Xiaoyin was kneading dough in the kitchen when she heard this and replied, "Okay. I'll start rising the dough now. It's hot, so it'll be ready by tonight. Then we'll have mushroom and cured meat buns, a pot of mung bean soup, and some cucumber salad to cleanse our palates."

Su Xiaoqing carried the selected mushrooms into the kitchen and then picked a handful of scallions from the vegetable garden in the backyard. Soon, the tangy aroma of fermenting dough wafted from the kitchen, mixed with the oily fragrance of mushrooms and cured meat, spreading from the kitchen doorway and filling the entire yard.

The sun was setting, and sunlight streamed in through the window, falling warmly on the cutting board. Su Xiaoyin kneaded the dough, one stroke at a time, unhurried and deliberate. Su Xiaoqing sat beside her, chopping minced meat, her knife moving with a steady rhythm, the clanging sounds particularly clear in the quiet kitchen.

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The dishes from dinner had just been cleared away, and the grease on the stove hadn't been wiped clean yet. The family sat around in the main room, digesting their meal. Outside the window, the sky wasn't completely dark yet; a sliver of crimson hung on the horizon, like someone had spilled a rouge box. A gentle evening breeze blew in through the doorway, carrying the fresh scent of the old locust tree leaves in the yard, and the faint, pungent smell of burning wheat stubble from the distant fields—a scent reminiscent of summer.

Su Xiaoqing stood up, swept the remaining crumbs from the table into her hand, and poured them into the dustpan behind the door. As she wiped the table, she said to Chen Xiaohe, her tone as if assigning something important: "Xiaohe, when you go to the county town tomorrow, bring some steamed buns for your parents and the children. They're made with freshly harvested mushrooms this year; they taste the most authentic. Your parents have been talking about wanting to eat mushrooms from the mountain for a while now, but I haven't had time to bring them any. These buns are best eaten hot, and they'll stay soft and easy on the teeth even when they're cold."

Chen Xiaohe was drinking water when he heard this. He put down his bowl, scratched his head, and said with some difficulty, "I have to go up the mountain tomorrow to check on the fruit trees and melon seedlings. The sun has been strong these past few days, and the ground has dried up quickly. The melon seedlings are starting to wilt, and if we don't water them soon, it might affect the fruit production. I also need to check on the fruit trees. They need thinning out the fruit these days; if the fruit grows too densely, it won't grow big. I'll have my older brother deliver them tomorrow."

Hearing this, Chen Dashan nodded, put down the bamboo basket he was weaving, and patted the bamboo shavings off his knees. "Okay, I'll go tomorrow. I can go to the county town to buy the glutinous rice, dates, and other things we need for making zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival, and also buy a pig's head. Once it's braised, we can give it as a gift for the Dragon Boat Festival." He paused, looking at Su Xiaoyin, "The Dragon Boat Festival is in a few days, how about we send it a few days earlier? It's better to be early than late, so we don't have to be scrambling at the last minute. We have to visit Manager Liu, Manager Sun, and Brother De. Sending it early will make them happy and put our minds at ease."

Su Xiaoyin was squatting on the ground tidying up the children's scattered toys, picking up the building blocks one by one and putting them into the wooden box. Hearing this, she looked up, thought for a moment, and nodded, saying, "Okay. You can buy whatever you think is best, but buy a little more glutinous rice and dates. We'll send some to Uncle Li Hu's family and some to Brother De's family too. They've been very good to our family, so we can't leave them out for the festival. Oh, and buy a set of pig offal too, it'll make another dish when we braise it. Xiaoqing and I soaked some soybeans today, you can make them into tofu tomorrow morning and take a slab to the county town to sell. I'll make the rest into dried tofu at home and braise it in the braised dishes, that'll be another dish."

Chen Xiaohe came out of the house, carrying a wooden basin. He squatted by the well to fill it with water, preparing to wash his feet. Hearing the sisters' conversation, he interjected, "Sister-in-law, Xiaoqing, didn't you say you wanted to dry wild fruits and flower petals? I'll be home tomorrow and make you a few more bamboo tubes. Bamboo tubes are best for storing dried things; they're airtight and don't attract insects. The things you dry will still taste the same when you put them in there and store them until winter."

Su Xiaoqing's eyes lit up, and she slapped her thigh, her tone filled with excitement and sudden realization: "That's right! We can dry more of them, and then we can put them in pastries in winter. It'll be a novelty. The pastry shops in the city only sell the same few things in winter: jujube paste, red bean paste, mixed nuts—it's so old-fashioned. If we can make floral-scented pastries, that would be so refreshing!" She added, "Why didn't I think of that? Sister, dry more this year, and dry all kinds of petals separately—one jar of chrysanthemums, one jar of osmanthus, one jar of honeysuckle. Then we can use whichever kind of pastry we want to make. Make me a few more bamboo tubes, and also a few wooden troughs. My sister and I are planning to try growing chives and garlic indoors in winter. It's warm indoors, so they can grow even in winter."