Mr. Yamamoto had an extra stick in his hand as a walking stick, and walking became much more stable.
The uphill mountain road was still slippery in some places.
Seeing that the stick was quite useful, others also wanted to get one.
Since they were all young people, they were shy to ask Little Seven to get them.
Jin Zaiyan went looking all over, but there was only rotted wood on the roadside, or very slender twigs, so she had to ask Little Seven for help.
They happened to come across a slightly flatter spot, and Little Seven let everyone rest for a while, while she went to find sticks.
There were wild bushes at the roadside, and a little further in there was a small grove.
When Little Seven was in Gumula Village, she had gone with her mother to chop firewood, although she didn't do it herself, she just watched her mother chop.
Not all trees in the mountains can be chopped down, usually the crooked little trees in the denser clumps are chopped first, leaving the wider, straight trees to grow bigger, and some visibly dying trees can also be chopped first. Managed forests with human activity won't grow too dense to walk through, because they are thinned out periodically.
Also, some trees are extremely hard, you can chop for a long time and still not fell them, more trouble than it's worth, so those trees are generally left alone if possible.
Little Seven had a knife in her bag, originally intended for cutting meat and whittling bamboo skewers, now it came in handy.
Chopping trees with this kind of knife was impossible, but Little Seven could first break the trees, then use the knife to sharpen and flatten them.
She was strong and fit, with the strength and physique of a robust healthy human, breaking small trees was quite easy for her. Jin Zaiyan and Grace followed her in, and seeing Little Seven whizzing out several walking sticks, they looked at her in amazement.
Little Jiajia got tired from walking and didn't come along.
Grace stood at the opening of the bushes, holding a small video camera to film.
Jin Zaiyan went along to help gather sticks too.
When they came out, everyone had a "walking stick" and was very happy.
Grace even said she wanted to take it home as a souvenir.
Jin Zaiyan hugged the fresh wood and kept smelling it, saying her walking stick was exceptionally fragrant.
So everyone else also brought their wooden sticks up to their noses and sniffed hard, and they did indeed each have a scent, and the scents were different.
"There are many types of trees in the woods, but one kind, with rough bark and sawtooth edges around the leaves, is lacquer trees, avoid those, many people are allergic, touching them can easily make you itch, seriously it can make your face swell up like a pig head, but it's no problem if your face really swells up like a pig head, it will go down by itself after about a week, you just have to endure it a bit." Concerned that people would be too curious and touch the lacquer trees, Little Seven gave a special reminder.
Mr. Yamamoto, who had been quiet most of the time, also joined the conversation, his English was a bit awkward and very Japanese-style, he said: "We also have many such trees in Japan, we love lacquerware, and this is the first time I've heard it can cause allergies. Wonderful things always have their trials and tribulations, if we come across any later, please point them out for me to see."
Little Seven nodded.
After resting, the group continued uphill.
Although still far, there was an end.
When they went faster, the group finally reached the mountaintop village.
Near the top, there were two paths, one went to the village, one kept climbing up.
Old Garen had them keep climbing.
Continuing up, the mountaintop had a flat area and a lake. Looking down, you could see a small village in the valley.
It looked like 200-300 households, mostly those wooden houses, with one or two brick and tile buildings.
Garen pointed at the empty space in the center of the village where a building was half-built, and said: "That's where the new school will be."
Everyone looked together and felt a strange sense of pride.
Doing good deeds always makes you happier than doing bad things.
Grace had been filming scenery all along the way, posting in the group, and also posted the video of Little Seven making walking sticks.
Betty, who had previously insisted she was coming, regretfully shouted in the group that she had been called out by friends to play, she still preferred big cities at heart, and found the crowds disastrous, packed shoulder to shoulder the whole way, seas of people, seeing Grace's posts of the scenic mountains and clear water with barely anyone there, she felt very regretful.
The first thing the group did when they stopped was not to start preparing the barbecue spot, but to discover in surprise that everyone's pants legs were covered in little prickles.
Jin Zaiyan said: "This is how we spread seeds for them, right? We're like animals passing through near these plants, carrying their seeds to new places."
Everyone felt it was amazing.
Little Seven had also experienced school field trips in autumn and spring when she was a student.
While everyone was curiously observing their own pant legs, she and Old Garen went to the lakeshore to find a relatively flat spot with good water access.
Cooking outdoors definitely required being near water, one reason was for convenient water access, two was to avoid easily causing wildfires.
There was also less grass by the lakeshore, if a fire started, it wouldn't spread extensively.
After everyone picked off the burrs on themselves, they came to help out.
The things they brought were quite complete, a plastic sheet on one side and a soft mat on the other side were spread out, they could sit or even lie down on it.
There was also a pot.
Garen built a stone stove, unexpectedly Mr. Yamamoto was also very adept at this.
"I was sent on business trips to remote subsidiary companies before, and did this kind of thing." Yamamoto explained to Little Seven.
When he spoke to Little Seven he would habitually use Japanese, when speaking to others he used English, clearly his English was also a bit clumsy, sometimes Little Seven would translate a sentence or two for him.
When Jin Zaiyan spoke to Little Seven, she would sometimes use Korean, if Little Seven didn't understand, she would translate it to English.
So Little Seven was simultaneously learning three languages, English, Japanese and Korean.
Thanks to memory and language aptitude buffs, Little Seven didn't feel it was too difficult to learn now, but she also realized that learning English well was still very important. It was almost like a bridge, not just for her, the other foreign teachers were the same, coming from different places, without English they would also have difficulty communicating, usually English was a must-learn second language for them, so that was good.
With the pot set up, they could cook instant noodles...some foreign teachers had brought a lot of instant noodles, still worried the other food might not turn out well, at least there were noodles.
There were a lot of rocks by the riverside, Little Seven learned from Old Garen and built another barbecue grill.
Little Jiajia also helped out, skewering meat on bamboo skewers.
Everyone was busy.
Surprisingly, Garen had even brought fishing rods.
By now everyone was rather hungry already, and couldn't help eating some snacks first. When the fire rose up and smoke drifted languidly, they felt it was all worthwhile.
Little Seven set up the grill, and soon the smell of cooking meat wafted over.
The charcoal-grilled meat sizzled, dripping oil, brushed with seasoning, extremely appetizing.
Everyone gathered in a circle, grilling and eating. Suddenly Grace shrieked.
She had left her coat not far away, and now some small cows of unknown origin were chewing on her coat. She quickly ran to rescue her clothes.
Although she got the coat back, it was covered in drool...
Looking up, they realized that somehow, a herd of calves had appeared, farther away there was also a flock of sheep, scattered on the mountainside.
Cattle, sheep, grasslands, distant mountains, lake water, it formed an extremely beautiful scene.
At this moment Little Seven's thoughts were also very peaceful and joyful, deep down she still loved the mountains, after all she was a true mountain girl.
