Aya, standing beside her, flinched and quickly tossed the mushroom away. She then began wiping her hands on her Beast Skin clothes.

Wu Yue stepped forward and picked up the mushroom, its cap already crushed from the abuse. "There are many kinds of mushrooms," she said seriously. "This type isn’t poisonous, but many of the brightly colored, beautiful ones will poison you if you eat them."

The two young women, who were practically Wu Yue’s fangirls, had absolute faith in her abilities. They immediately began pestering her to teach them how to identify mushrooms.

In the end, the three of them actually managed to gather three full baskets of mushrooms to take back. Later, they enjoyed a pot of incredibly delicious mushroom soup at Wu Yue’s home.

The rain during the light rainy season wasn’t as intense as during the heavy one, but sunny days were a rarity.

At noon, the three of them sliced the mushrooms they had gathered and laid them out to dry on grass mats.

Qingcao looked at Wu Yue. "Is this enough? Will this preserve them for a long time?" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Wu Yue shook her head. "In this weather, we can’t just wait for them to air-dry. We’ll need to use heat to dry them properly."

Qingcao and Aya were utterly clueless about what Wu Yue meant by "air-dry" and "heat-dry."

All they could do was stare with wide eyes, flexing their arms to show off their strength. "Just give us the work that doesn’t require any thinking."

Wu Yue: "..."

’You certainly know your own strengths.’

"There’s a type of clay near where I was digging for taro that we can use to build a drying kiln. We need to go bring some of it back."

Aya chuckled. "Why don’t we just get a few slaves? They could move most of it in one trip."

The three of them made their way to the slaves’ living area.

Chang Ye, who had just returned from his shift in the back hills, spotted Wu Yue and trotted over. "Wu Yue, are you here because you need us for something?"

Wu Yue was happy to see him too. "I need some of that clay Teng Kun found in the back hills."

Hearing this, Chang Ye’s eyes brightened. This was a chance to do something for Wu Yue.

His eyes, usually dull and numb, gained a spark of light. "Please, go back and wait. I’ll get some people to bring the clay back right away. I know where to find it."

Seeing the happy look on his face, Wu Yue felt a pang in her heart. She nodded and said, "Thank you for your trouble, then."

With that, she left with Qingcao and Aya.

Qingcao looked at her, confused. "Yue, how do you know those slaves?"

Wu Yue glanced back at the slaves’ grass huts, which were now stirring with activity. "Because we’re all from the same tribe."

Aya frowned. "The little tribe that traded you for food?"

Wu Yue nodded. "That’s the one. If I hadn’t been brought here in a trade for food, I never would have met you two."

Hearing this, they both started chuckling.

"Yue, you saying that doesn’t make us happy at all, you know."

"Yeah, exactly! It’s just an okay feeling, I guess."

Wu Yue: "..."

’You two are so good at hiding your true feelings. Really.’

The task of carrying the clay was left to the slaves, so the three women went to their homes to fetch wooden buckets and started carrying water.

With the slaves’ help, Wu Yue’s simple drying kiln was finally finished that afternoon.

Looking at the slaves, who were covered from head to toe in yellow clay, Wu Yue felt a warmth spread through her heart.

"Chang Ye, come here for a moment."