Shouts from the boys echoed from the tall grass. Guan Ailan and Mo Shuixia stopped their roughhousing. The four older girls told the younger ones to stay in the woods and not run off, then plunged together into the tall, dense thicket. Xiao Man grabbed the wood knife, while Mo Shuixia and the others each gripped a dry branch as they ran toward the sound.
It wasn't that they had encountered danger. The boys were shouting, "Quick, come here! We're catching wild rabbits! And pheasants… there are so many!"
It's impossible for a lot of wild rabbits to gather in one place. They must have stumbled upon a lot of pheasant nests.
In these rarely visited deep mountains, the giant reeds and myrtle bushes grew especially tall and dense, rivaling a sun-blocking jungle canopy. Once inside, looking up revealed only a sliver of blue sky. Underfoot lay a thick carpet of withered grass and dead leaves.
