Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

This group of people didn't squat on the ground digging for wild vegetables. They rummaged through the grass, digging up wild grass roots, withered leaves, and bark from unknown trees, stuffing them one by one into their baskets. Granny Liu had never seen any of those things before, and they didn't look like edible items.

Dr. Gu was squatting on the ground, holding a Rehmannia glutinosa plant, explaining to Wang Laoshi and Chen Shuisheng how to identify the shape of the leaves.

Granny Liu stood on a hillside not far away, hands on her hips, watching for a while. The panic on her face slowly turned into disdain. She smirked and turned to a few village women, sneering, "I thought they were stealing wild vegetables, but it turns out they're just digging up weeds. These outsiders are really starving; they're stuffing their baskets with everything. Even pigs won't eat those weed roots and tree bark, but they treat them like treasures."

Several village women laughed and shook their heads. A round-faced woman pouted, "Who cares about them? As long as they don't steal our wild vegetables, it's fine. Let's go, let's go, there are plenty of wild vegetables on that hillside over there."

Several village women, carrying baskets, walked in another direction, glancing back every now and then and muttering to themselves, probably laughing at these outsiders for being so ignorant that they couldn't even tell what was edible.

Jiang Xing didn't join the others in digging for medicinal herbs. She told Doctor Gu and then, carrying her basket, headed alone into the depths of the mountains. She walked quickly, her steps light and steady among the fallen leaves and branches, and soon she crossed a ridge and reached a low-lying valley.

The valley is surrounded by earthen slopes, with a depression in the middle, resembling a shallow bowl. The surrounding slopes block the cold wind, making the temperature inside the valley significantly higher than outside.

As soon as Jiang Xing walked in, he felt that the wind here was warm, unlike the biting wind that blows on his face elsewhere.

She squatted down and touched the ground with her hand. The soil wasn't cold; it was even slightly warm.

Jiang Xing's heart skipped a beat, and he looked around. To the south of the valley was an earthen cliff, covered with withered vines and shrubs that hung down densely, like a natural curtain.

She walked over and parted the withered vines, and sure enough, there was a hidden world behind it. At the bottom of the earthen cliff was a natural, shallow depression, in which grew a lush plant with green leaves and branches full of bright red berries.

Jiang Xing was stunned.

She recognized them all too clearly. They were small red chilies, each only the size of a little finger, pointed at one end and round at the other, bright red, hanging densely on the branches, so red they looked unreal in the withered, yellow forests of the dead of winter.

In this weather, the chili peppers should have frozen to death long ago. But this valley is sheltered from the wind on all sides, and there must be some warm water veins or geothermal heat underground. The whole valley is like a natural greenhouse, and these chili peppers have not frozen to death. Instead, they are growing more and more vigorously.

New white flowers are still blooming on the branches, and tender green fruits are growing next to them, layer upon layer, clearly indicating that they have been propagating here for several generations.

Jiang Xing squatted down in front of the chili pepper bushes, reached out and picked one, examining it closely in her palm. The familiar shape, the familiar scent—she leaned closer to smell it, a pungent aroma filling her nostrils.

She'd browsed her low-level system shop countless times, but there was no chili pepper in it. She'd complained more than once, "If there isn't even a chili pepper, how can this system even be called a system?"

She is someone who can't live without spicy food, but since she fled famine and arrived here after crossing the border, she has been wandering for several months. Let alone spicy food, she has not been able to eat a decent hot meal more than a few times.

She thought she had long since gotten used to life without chili peppers, but now, with this patch of bright red chili peppers growing right in front of her, she suddenly realized that she had never gotten used to it.

Jiang Xing took a deep breath, rolled up his sleeves, and began to pick them.

This chili pepper field has been here for who knows how many years, undiscovered by anyone. It's a vast, dense patch, with hundreds of plants bearing fruit. The peppers on the branches are ripe and red, some already wrinkled from ripeness, but still looking quite good. A layer of ripe red peppers has fallen to the ground, some already starting to shrivel, but after picking through them, there are still quite a few usable ones.

She picked them quickly, her fingers flying up and down the branches, plucking each chili pepper and tossing it into her basket. The basket soon filled, but she didn't mind; she simply emptied it into her storage space to make room for more picking.

Once it's full, pour it in and continue picking.

Unbeknownst to her, she had entered the space three times, but had only picked a third of the chili peppers. She squatted among the chili peppers, her fingers stained red with chili juice, and capsaicin stuck to her skin, burning and painful, but unexpectedly warming her fingers.

As darkness fell, the valley, surrounded by earthen slopes, grew even darker. Jiang Xing, engrossed in picking the fruit, faintly heard shouts from afar, the sounds carried by the mountain wind, intermittent and broken.

"Sister—Jiang Yatou—"

They are looking for her.

Jiang Xing straightened up, looked at the sky, and realized that she had unknowingly been there for far too long. She looked at the remaining two-thirds of the chili pepper field in front of her, feeling a little reluctant, but still stopped working.

No rush, the chili pepper patch is here, no one can take it away. She remembered this place; next time she comes, she'll just come here directly.

She gently placed the last handful of chili peppers into her basket, patted the dirt off her hands, and turned to walk out of the valley.

By the time they descended the mountain, it was already getting dark. Jiang Xing emerged from the woods carrying a full basket of bright red chili peppers, and the others waiting on the mountain path finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Several children eagerly gathered around.

"Big sister, big sister!" Little Niu ran ahead, his little face full of excitement. "We caught five rabbits today! They're huge!" He gestured with both hands to show their exaggerated size.

Tie Dan squeezed in, gesturing and eagerly saying, "It was Xiao Niu who found it! The rabbit was hiding in the grass, Xiao Niu saw it and called us over, and it took several of us a circle to catch it!"

"Stone is the best!" Little Cow pulled Stone over. "Stone pounced on the rabbit and pinned it down. The rabbit kicked him, getting dirt all over his face. He even tripped and fell, but he didn't let go!"

Shi Tou scratched his head, and sure enough, there were still mud marks on his face that he hadn't wiped off, but he was smiling happily.

Jiang Xing patted each of the three children's heads and praised them with a smile, "You're all amazing, even more capable than adults. Five wild rabbits are enough for us to have a good meal."

The three children blushed from her praise and giggled as they nudged each other.

Tie Dan suddenly pointed to the basket on Jiang Xing's back and asked curiously, "Sister Jiang, what's in your basket? It's not medicinal herbs, is it? It's all red."

The children's eyes were all fixed on the basket on her back. The basket was crammed full, and the bright red chilies inside were particularly eye-catching in the twilight.

It wasn't the dull yellow or grayish-brown color of medicinal herbs; it was a bright red, with long, thin strands, pointed at one end and rounded at the other. None of them had ever seen anything like it before.

The calf reached out to touch one, then pulled its hand back, tilting its head back to ask, "Sister, what's this? Can I eat it?"

Jiang Xing glanced at the children's curious expressions, then at the adults walking ahead who were also glancing back at her basket, clearly noticing that it wasn't filled with medicinal herbs.

She thought for a moment, then smiled, her tone carrying a hint of mystery: "Don't ask yet. I'll use this to make rabbit meat for you tonight, and I guarantee you won't be able to stop eating it."

After descending the mountain and walking along the village road, their group stood out. The adults carried baskets full of medicinal herbs, while the children held five heavy wild rabbits, chatting and laughing all the way back.

The villagers from Maocao Village they encountered all stopped in their tracks. Their eyes first fell on the medicinal herbs, which they didn't recognize and paid no attention to. Then, when they saw the wild rabbits in the children's hands, their expressions changed immediately.

A middle-aged man carrying a hoe stopped, frowning as he stared at the rabbits for a moment, then whispered something to his companion. A woman carrying a basket also stopped, exchanging glances with him, their eyes filled with surprise and displeasure.

Although Maocao Village is a large village with over a hundred households, everyone honestly farms the land, working from dawn till dusk all year round. You rarely smell meat or fish in it.

Only during festivals and holidays, families with a little more money can afford to buy a piece of meat for a treat, while the poorer families can't even afford to eat meat during the New Year.

The villagers have hunted wild rabbits on this mountain before, but they're never so easy to catch. These outsiders have only been here a few days, yet they've already caught five of them.

What is this? It's not enough to rob their village, they also want to steal their wild game from the mountains?

The families didn't care what the villagers thought. They went back on their own, not wanting to cause trouble, but not afraid of trouble either.