"Wow! That's my milk lid! Bad dog! Give me back my milk lid right now!"
The presence of Ah Qing was like a toll collector on a highway. One by one, the fierce beasts from the Qinling Mountains came out to collect their meat, ate until half full, greeted Ah Qing, and then headed straight to the School of Animal Science.
With the experience of the past two days, the beasts seemed to understand something, brazenly demanding their share.
"......"
A group of professors and teachers from the Agricultural Research Institute stood in the distance with benevolent smiles, watching as the School of Animal Science guesthouse turned into a refugee shelter, all trying hard not to laugh.
This wasn't them diverting trouble. It was the professors and teachers of the School of Animal Science who proactively asked the Agricultural Research Institute for this.
If the students have complaints, they should go to their professors.
Approximately five or six months old, a little black bear, carrying a silicone milk lid in its mouth and full of excitement, sprinted out of the dormitory of the School of Animal Science, on all fours, with a girl chasing it in embarrassment and anger, only to be held back by her roommates.
The little black bear ran past Ansheng and Ah Qing.
It excitedly shouted about honey and floral scents, as if it had found a solid honeycomb.
Ansheng & Ah Qing: "......"
Watching the little black bear run away, Ah Qing was startled and rushed forward to snatch back the milk lid: "You can't eat that!"
Consuming nine layers of silicone pads might not cause malnutrition.
But getting an intestinal obstruction is certain.
After a fuss to retrieve the milk lid and return the little black bear to its mother, Ah Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she glanced at the little fox following her closely and said:
"This... can't be eaten! If you eat it, you'll turn into a gravestone!" Ah Qing declared confidently: "You'll become an epitaph after death."
"You don't need to explain; I'm not going to eat it," Ansheng retorted, facepalming.
Though Ansheng was being sarcastic, he had to admit that perhaps due to some body lotion or other reason, the surroundings of that thing indeed had a floral and honey scent.
The little black bear mistook it for a honeycomb, which is why it took it out of the girl's arms, intending to hide in a corner and savor it alone.
Returning the milk lid covered in bite marks to the dormitory, the students of the School of Animal Science looked at the perforated lid, speechless, as they turned to Ah Qing and the little fox, sighing.
"Nothing left, really nothing. Even the lids are all torn up now…"
Ah Qing looked peculiar and couldn't shake the feeling that this student looked particularly familiar and that similar incidents seemed to have happened last year and the year before?
Though fortunately... the little fox didn't bite these.
......
Under Ah Qing's guidance, all the wild beasts in the mountains went to the School of Animal Science guesthouse, turning what was originally a guesthouse directly into a zoo, with all kinds of birds and beasts.
The relatively dangerous venomous snakes were all properly placed in a pool, where logistics staff tossed mice to them as if feeding fish, with three mice allocated per snake.
After completing the preparatory work, the teachers of the Agricultural Research Institute began the new day's course.
"It's now eight o'clock sharp. Set your watches accordingly; we'll return to the guesthouse at ten-thirty."
"All group leaders, listen up: every half hour, count the number of people in each group and report in the group chat. Don't panic if anything happens. In the forest, eighty percent of issues can be solved by climbing a tree!"
"If you find you're lost or missing someone, just fire the signal gun. Don't harbor any illusions."
"Now, follow the teacher into the mountain!" At the routine pre-class meeting, Professor Meng repeatedly advised the students about mountain-going safety protocols.
The youngest professors were in their forties, while some rehired ones were nearly seventy.
They couldn't accompany the students into the mountain. The management of the pre-study observation experiments consisted of department heads, the teaching team, and the Forest Ranger as a guide.
With Ah Qing driving away the wild beasts and harmful creatures in advance, the safety level was already very high.
But when it comes to safety, you can never be too careful.
"Hey! Little An is awake today; he's got something to look forward to!"
Ah Qing looked at the little fox on her shoulder, grinning mischievously: "After two days of exploration, we found porcini mushrooms, bamboo mushrooms, and morels. Later, we'll buy a chicken from the neighboring village, and by noon, we'll make a big pot of stew!"
On the first day of mountain exploration, they gingerly carried little trowels, searching and digging for soil samples, and secretly marking edible plants along the way.
On the second day, they carefully dug for samples and placed some soil detectors, then collected ingredients.
Today, apart from expanding the area and continuing to dig samples, it was mostly about harvesting food. With the records of the past two days, the weight of fungi and fruits gathered today should exceed fifty pounds.
Moreover, they found a stream with crystal-clear water, where cold-water fish frequently swam.
Ah Qing's mountain ascent today was not for climbing, but for gathering ingredients for a meal.
"Yes, yes, be careful eating wild mushrooms, lest you end up hallucinating like your classmates and think you're a monkey. Let me tell you, I don't have lice, so don't scratch me," Ansheng rolled his eyes subtly.
Ansheng had an incredibly rich experience when it came to trekking over mountains.
Though mountain treasures grew in the mountains, finding them at their best edible stage purely depended on luck or the season. Even the most experienced hunters didn't dare claim a full haul.
In a past life.
Ansheng's self-proclaimed wild king friend, Xia Dong, would beat his chest every day, assuring him to prepare a chicken, promising they'd have delicious mushrooms for a late-night snack.
Out of the eight late-night snacks in a month, at least three or four times, the wild king brought mushrooms in a vacuum-sealed package with a barcode.
He didn't fish, though he ran a beef hot pot restaurant.
But his stubbornness was even worse than that of the fishermen.
And his face was strikingly dark.
So, the moment Ansheng heard about mountain treasures, his first reaction was not to ask what to eat, but to question first.
Not about whether you can do it.
But... is your face dark or not?
"Huh? What's with that look, trust me, okay!"
Seeing the little fox's face clearly full of disdain, saying they'd rather gnaw on pot helmet bread for lunch, Ah Qing was immediately displeased.
She was an agriculture student!
Tilling fields before studying!
She even plotted out the mushroom growth zones and had a backup plan to catch cold-water fish. Yet this little An was saying it would be better to gnaw on pot helmet bread and dip it in corn porridge!
"Ah Qing, you know me. I, An, won't say who orders takeout at home during every holiday and forgets to add salt even when boiling two pieces of plain water meat, which forces me to go next door to ask Lai Foo for some satay sauce."
Faced with Ah Qing's displeasure and already having decided to dig for food himself, Ansheng responded with unusual determination.
"Hey! Stinky Little An!" Ah Qing huffed.