Huai Zi turned to the side, squatted slightly, and carefully lowered the wicker basket from his shoulder. He let out a long breath before saying to Juhua, "Wash these berries with warm water before you eat them. There are a lot of bugs in the mountains, so they're not very clean."
Juhua nodded quickly and stepped forward to ask, "Did you go out first thing this morning? I already saw the wood ear mushrooms. You made two trips?"
Huai Zi nodded, looking at her with a smile. "I've been wanting to go pick these berries and dig up a tree root for a while. So I went today." As he spoke, he started to move the tree root out of the wicker basket, which had long since been crushed under the weight.
