Chapter 43: The Herb Gatherers

Afterwards, three human figures emerged from the darkness. In the light of the campfire, their appearances were revealed.

The leader was a middle-aged man wearing hemp clothes. His skin appeared somewhat red in the firelight, but Li Si could still see that his skin should be somewhat dark from long-term exposure to the sun.

The other two young men were similar.

“Young hero, excuse us for disturbing you. We are herb gatherers from nearby. We saw your campfire and came over,” the older middle-aged man cupped his hands and apologized to Li Si.

Li Si was wearing tight-fitting clothes at this time, so it was understandable that the middle-aged man referred to him as a young hero.

“Gathering herbs so late in the deep mountains?” Hearing the middle-aged man say this, Li Si was somewhat inclined to believe him, as it matched their skin color. But he still had some doubts, after all, gathering herbs in the middle of the night seemed unlikely.

After all, with so many monsters and ghosts in this world, weren’t they afraid of encountering ghosts while gathering herbs late at night?

“Oh, it’s like this. We’ve already gathered most of the herbs near our county town, so we often come to the deep mountains to gather herbs and frequently camp out here,” the middle-aged man explained.

“Aren’t you afraid of encountering ghosts?” Li Si frowned and asked.

“Haha, we believe in the mountain god, so naturally we’re not afraid. With the mountain god’s protection, ghost creatures can’t harm us,” a young man beside him couldn’t help but chuckle, somewhat proudly showing the tattoo on his wrist.

Seeing the tattoo on his wrist, Li Si’s eyes focused. The tattoo was actually a tiger sketched with just a few strokes.

“Da Yuan,” the middle-aged man turned back and glared at him, then said to Li Si, “We have the mountain god’s protection, so ghost creatures won’t harm us in the forest.”

“Young hero, may we rest here for the night? It’s late, and we can’t find a suitable campsite anymore,” the middle-aged man continued.

Li Si pondered briefly, then nodded and said, “It’s good to help others when traveling. You can camp here.”

After saying this, he walked to the tree where he had been before and sat down, slightly closing his eyes to doze.

But he didn’t actually close his eyes completely, leaving a small gap in his eyelids. Then he took out the Eight Trigrams mirror and secretly shone it at these people, finding that their expressions were normal, not monsters or ghosts.

Of course, Li Si didn’t fully trust the Eight Trigrams mirror now, as it had missed once at the Zhang mansion.

But at least now the possibility of these people being monsters or ghosts was much lower, and he felt more at ease.

“Young hero, we are herb gatherers from Meng Ting County. My name is Tu Feng, he’s Xu Da Yuan, and he’s Miao Qing An,” the three herb gatherers found a clean spot to sit down, and then the middle-aged man smiled and began introducing himself, as well as the two young men.

The young man who had chuckled earlier was Xu Da Yuan, and the quiet one who hadn’t spoken, like a closed bottle gourd, was Miao Qing An.

Li Si had some impression of Meng Ting County from the original owner’s memories. It was a county near Feng Men County, so encountering these three here wasn’t surprising.

“My name is Li Si, from Feng Men County,” Li Si opened his eyes, looked at the three of them, and then said.

“Brother Li, can we use your campfire? We haven’t eaten dinner and want to cook some food,” the middle-aged man said somewhat embarrassedly.

“Sure, go ahead. The firewood is over there,” hearing the middle-aged man say this, Li Si nodded in agreement, then pointed to the neatly stacked pile of firewood nearby.

“Great, thank you, brother,” Tu Feng chuckled, cupped his hands, then stood up and walked towards the pile of firewood.

When he reached the pile of wood and saw the smooth cut marks on the firewood, his expression changed, his pupils constricting.

But Tu Feng reacted quickly, immediately pretending as if he hadn’t noticed anything, maintaining a normal expression as he carried a pile of firewood to the campfire.

He selected two longer pieces of wood from the pile, then took out a small knife from his herb basket.

He first used the small knife to carve a groove at the top of the two pieces of wood, then took a small hoe and dug two holes on either side of the campfire. He inserted the two pieces of wood into the holes, then buried them with soil, pressing the ground firm with his foot.

After burying the wooden sticks, he shook them both to check if they were secure.

By this time, Miao Qing An had already gone to wash vegetables by the pool while Tu Feng was working.

Only Xu Da Yuan was left, yawning boredly.

“An Zi, are you done washing?” Tu Feng walked up to Miao Qing An, who was still washing vegetables, and asked.

“Just a moment,” Miao Qing An said while washing vegetables. His voice was rather hoarse, as if his throat wasn’t in good condition.

After Miao Qing An finished washing the vegetables, he carried the pot and walked side by side with Tu Feng.

On the way, he looked at Tu Feng, making eye signals, indicating Li Si.

Tu Feng patted his shoulder once, shaking his head slightly.

Then they walked to the campfire, took the wooden sticks they had prepared earlier, passed them through the iron pot, and began to cook.

“Brother Li, what brings you to these mountains?” Tu Feng asked Li Si as he added firewood to the campfire.

Li Si frowned slightly, thought for a moment, then said, “An acquaintance of mine lost his life here. I’ve come to retrieve his body.”

Hearing Li Si say this, the three men’s expressions paused, and they exchanged glances.

“How did your friend die here?” Xu Da Yuan asked somewhat curiously.

“He was also an herb gatherer like you. But he had bad luck and fell from a cliff while gathering herbs. He fell to his death, and his remains haven’t been found yet,” Li Si made up a story on the spot. He had found the tattoo on Xu Da Yuan’s wrist suspicious earlier.

Moreover, these three men said they had the mountain god’s protection, and other ghost creatures wouldn’t dare harm them.

Li Si thought the tiger that killed Cao Qing might be related to this mountain god, or even that the tiger was the mountain god.

So he didn’t directly mention the true cause of Cao Qing’s death.

Hearing Li Si say this, the three herb gatherers were stunned for a moment, then their expressions became somewhat unpleasant.

“Gathering herbs is indeed dangerous. Both my father and grandfather died falling from cliffs while gathering herbs,” Xu Da Yuan, hearing Li Si’s words, suddenly recalled past events and became somewhat emotional.

“Mm,” Miao Qing An spoke little, but his face also revealed a complex expression.

“Alas,” Tu Feng sighed, saying helplessly, “In these times, being able to eat one’s fill is already good. This is fate!”

“Brother Tu is right, being able to have a full meal is already good,” Xu Da Yuan shook his head and sighed, “At least since my family started this herb gathering business, we’ve never gone hungry.”

“If I were to fall to my death one day, I’d be satisfied,” Xu Da Yuan said with a smile.

Listening to their words, Li Si didn’t feel very good either. He had been here for almost half a month and had come to understand that many people’s goal was simply to have enough to eat and wear.


But many people couldn’t even achieve that.