【Night Reading】The fun of picking up mushrooms | Wang Zongli

Talking about the fun of picking up fungi, some people must show a dismissive look, thinking that picking up fungi, where there is any fun. Yes, "the people's livelihood has its own happiness", the poet Qu Yuan is happy to "cultivate for granted", and my generation of ordinary people, or happy to sit and fish, or happy to have a cup of tea, or happy to swallow clouds and spit fog, or happy to read in the study... Or both. And picking up mushrooms is not a great pleasure in life.

To make yourself something, you must be familiar with the mountains. Where the mountains will grow blueheads, where the mountains will grow porcini mushrooms... It must be understood in advance, and of course, the time of the bacteria must be understood, otherwise it will be "empty when you return". Consult with the veterans who collect mushrooms, ask the people on the side of the road, ask the people who herd cattle and sheep on the mountain, and there will be a harvest.

Walking in the mountains and forests carrying a bamboo basket or bag, the cricket catching in Pu Songling's novel "Promoting Weaving" is "in the place of the grass that is blocked, exploring the stone and hair hole", while I am walking and stopping by the roots of the trees in the grass, looking for foraging, and when I see the fungus I like, I am overjoyed and shout: "I have a harvest!" "The fungus is either a lonely flower, or a flock of clumps; or a large flower, or a small body, or an orange color, or a green color... Collected in the hand, in the basket, full of interest, still looking left and right, I am afraid that there will be slippage.

Picking up mushrooms is fun and exhausting. Between the searches, or bow their heads, or bend over, or crouch down, pull open the dead branches and leaves, stir the deep grass, meet the insects and spider silk, and meet the branches and thorns, the shoes are covered with yellow mud, and the trouser legs are hung with grass leaves. After the rain, the shoes and trouser legs are like water soaked. Facing the morning sun into the mountains, stepping on the sunset home, exhausted, but tired and happy.

Picking up mushrooms is also a test of patience. Walking through the grass and woods, the fungus is not everywhere, it is overlooked. When they see it, they are either elated, or they are overjoyed in their hearts, and their interest increases greatly; if they do not see it for a long time, they are lost, and they return home with pity, or their interest does not diminish, and they still search. When you encounter good fungi, pick them up, and if you see something you don't want, you throw it away. When you see unfamiliar mushrooms, you can carefully distinguish who is poisonous, who is non-toxic, who tastes good, who tastes bad. At this time, it is not "picking", not "picking", and selection has become the first priority.

One of the great pleasures of picking up mushrooms is, of course, satisfying the appetite. The fungus is sorted according to categories, washed, large cut, according to its characteristics, or fried, or boiled, or accompanied by ham, or with sauerkraut, of course, peppers, garlic is indispensable. The aroma enters the nose and makes you salivate. The entrance may be crispy, or smooth, or soft, making you shout: "Cool!" Endless food, sun-dried collection, to the winter when the wind is howling or the snow is flying, or boiling ribs, or goulash, or boiling ham... Dried mushrooms soaked and washed, put into the pot, around the stove, will you have the feeling of "red clay small stove, can drink a cup of nothing". The delicacy on the tip of your tongue makes you want to stop.

The process of picking up mushrooms is not a journey of life. Sometimes they meet unexpectedly and return with a full load; sometimes they look for it, but there is no harvest; sometimes they step on the iron shoes and have no place to find it, sometimes it is a village with dark willows and dark flowers.

Picking up fungi is the life of the people in the city; the fun of picking up bacteria is the fun of the small people of my generation. There is an open-minded heart, there is a sense of kindness, there is an aesthetic feeling, a dull and boring life is full of beauty, and an obscure and difficult life is full of poetry. Picking up bacteria, too.