Chapter 172: It Won’t Poke Ashes, Boo
Su Ran’s second spring on this continent had finally arrived!
While Su Ran wasn’t paying attention, on the river beach, in the forest, in front of the house, tender green spring grass buds had already quietly sprouted from under the thick fallen leaves and soil.
Now, the woods on both sides of the river beach, when viewed from afar, already appeared as a patch of fresh yellow-green.
But upon getting closer, one could see that the leaves on the trees had only grown to less than a finger’s length.
The frozen meat had begun to thaw, and it had to be eaten or it would go bad.
So the stored meat inside the small wooden house was all turned into sausage and fried meatballs by Su Ran before it spoiled.
Early this morning, after breakfast, Gray stopped Su Ran, who had wanted to clean the now-empty small wooden house and storage room, and said: “Ran Ran, let’s go out today and pick wild fruit.”
“Pick wild fruit?”
Su Ran was stunned!
It had been over six months since they last picked wild fruit, and upon suddenly hearing the word, she almost didn’t react!
“Mm, small fruit, sweet and sweet woo~”
Gray nodded, looking at Su Ran with eyes full of warm amusement.
Su Ran, who had now reacted, immediately perked up:
“Ah! Where to pick? Wait, I’ll go put on a hat!”
With that, she hurriedly ran inside the house, taking out her hat, Gray’s hat, gloves, mask, and the newly made neck gaiter for convenience.
Although the weather had warmed up now, it was still much colder compared to late spring and early summer!
Especially when flying in the air—if she didn’t wear a hat and neck gaiter, the knife-like cold wind would blow as if it were going to slice off her ears and neck together!
After putting on the gear for herself and Gray, Su Ran shouldered the backpack, then reached out to hug Gray’s neck, following Gray away from the ground.
This was Su Ran, after a long time, finally soaring high in the sky with Gray again, overlooking the entire forest!
The ground beneath her feet grew farther and farther away.
But the higher the altitude, the denser the green her eyes could see.
Gray flew straight toward the opposite bank of the river with Su Ran.
This flight was quite far, and it was nearly an hour later before Gray gradually slowed his flying speed.
He hovered over a patch of woods for a moment, then flew toward a certain direction.
After flying a bit further, Su Ran was surprised to discover an inland lake on the ground not far ahead.
The lake wasn’t large, its waters rippling blue, shining under the sunlight, looking from above like a finely made silver mirror.
Gray landed with Su Ran in the open space in front of the inland lake.
And as soon as Su Ran landed, she spotted the wild fruit Gray wanted to bring her to find.
That wild fruit grew along the lake shore.
It was a kind of shrub that could grow quite tall.
These shrubs grew in a large patch by the lake, but they looked somewhat tricky to pick from.
Because the shrub branches were covered in sharp thorns, somewhat like the thorns on rose stems.
The shrub leaves were deep red.
At this time, every shrub was laden with strings of small fruit hanging from the branches.
The fruit wasn’t large, similar to wild cherries in the mountains on Earth.
The fruit was light purple, each one showing distinct segments of pulp, looking a bit like raspberries.
Su Ran picked one off, glanced at Gray, and after receiving Gray’s affirmative look, she confidently popped it into her mouth to taste.
The fruit’s flesh was easily bitten through.
Once bitten, a sour-sweet, very refreshing flavor burst on her tongue, carrying the fruit’s unique aroma.
This fruit wasn’t fully ripe yet, so it was a bit hard and a bit sour.
But it was already very delicious.
After eating a few more in a row, Su Ran discovered that fully ripe fruit was very sweet and fragrant, with even softer flesh.
Surprise lit up her eyes, and she turned to Gray, who was watching her expression, reaching out to offer him the two remaining fruits in her hand.
“So sweet, they’re all ripe.”
Gray wagged his tail behind him, a hint of pride in his expression, the delight in his eyes impossible to hide.
He took the two wild fruits from Su Ran’s hand, popped them into his mouth, then pointed at the shrubs in front of them: “Let’s dig up a few to take back and plant in the vegetable garden.”
After saying that, he paused, then continued: “Ran Ran, after fruiting, it will have yellow flowers woo~ very fragrant flowers~”
Flowers?
Su Ran was slightly surprised.
Flowering after fruiting—this shrub was like that?
Then what was the purpose of flowering?
She looked at the large patch of shrubs laden with light purple small fruits, and the next second, she suddenly smiled.
She didn’t know why the shrubs flowered after fruiting, but she knew the reason Gray had specially told her about the flowering.
It was because he thought Su Ran would like flowers.
Because last summer, when Su Ran went to the woods where the chili fruit grew to pick chili fruit, she would always pick a few bunches of blue flowers growing nearby, bring them home, and put them in a flower vase hollowed out of stone.
After Gray saw that, whenever he went out hunting, he would specially find that kind of flower to bring back for her.
But later, probably after he had picked bare the nearby blue flower clusters, for a while, he started bringing back bunches of other kinds of flowers.
Then he discovered that Su Ran didn’t just like that blue flower—she liked any flowers that were fragrant and pretty.
“Okay!”
Su Ran reached out and picked another string of purple berry fruit, agreeing verbally while stuffing another fruit into Gray’s mouth with her hand.
“But it’s too cold now to dig them up; we’ll wait a bit longer until the weather warms up, then come back.”
Hearing Su Ran’s words, Gray paused, then reacted and nodded: “Okay woo~ then we’ll come back in a bit.”
“Then today we’ll pick wild fruit to take back and eat…”
As he spoke, he suddenly remembered something and pointed at the wild fruit toward Su Ran: “Ran Ran, what is this wild fruit called?”
“Let’s call it purple berry fruit; it really looks like a berry variety.”
Su Ran brought the backpack from behind her to the front, her gloved hands already having picked two strings of purple berry fruit.
While picking, she didn’t forget to call out to Gray, who was about to remove his gloves: “Gray, pick with gloves on; it hurts a lot if you get pricked.”
“Ao wu~”
Gray had already taken off half of one glove when he heard Su Ran; his action paused, his big tail swished once, brushing against Su Ran’s calf.
Then he slowly put the half-removed glove back on, though while doing so, he muttered: “It won’t prick Gray woo~ it never hurts woo~”
Su Ran: …… (frowning)
Right… thick-skinned, of course it doesn’t hurt.
Her eyes watched Gray picking wild fruit, thinking this, when she suddenly stepped forward, grabbed both of Gray’s hands, and yanked off both gloves one after the other.
After yanking them off, she let out a heavy “hmph” at Gray, then turned her back to him to pick berries from the other side.
And Gray, who had suddenly received an obvious emotion-laden “hmph”:
“?”
