Chapter 58: Finding Food

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: Finding Food

Lynn Miller was picking flowers as she replied, "I love eating them, but I’m not sure if I can recognize them."

Renee Morgan: "..."

Lynn Miller finished picking her flowers, feeling quite pleased, and watched as Renee Morgan kept stomping her feet and circling around an area, then finally headed in a certain direction and stopped on a patch of damp soil.

Before Lynn could ask, Renee Morgan looked up and spoke to everyone, "Let’s search around here, see if we can find any wild greens... Mushrooms work too." Realizing they might not recognize wild greens, Renee quickly switched to suggesting mushrooms.

Lynn and the others weren’t stupid; they immediately understood Renee’s intention. Although they had no idea how Renee knew there might be wild greens and mushrooms nearby, no one asked. Even if they didn’t find anything, it didn’t matter; they’d never blame Renee.

An hour later, Renee Morgan returned to the spot, looking discouraged, while the other three hadn’t gone far and were all heading back. Lynn and Kyle Beckett were holding all sorts of little plants, excitedly asking Renee to identify them—were they edible greens or just weeds?

Renee’s fading hope rekindled a bit, and she perked up to examine the plants in their hands. Ultimately, she realized none were the wild greens she knew. Maybe they were other edible greens, but she couldn’t tell; she only recognized the ones her grandma had taken her to dig up before.

If only they had cell phones, they could search and compare pictures online.

Thinking about still being on the show, she reminded herself any difficulties were temporary, and Renee cheered up as she turned her gaze to whatever Miles Yates was holding.

Earlier she’d been distracted by Kyle and Zara Chapman’s bright green plants and hadn’t noticed what Miles Yates had found.

Miles’ slender, rosy palms quietly cradled a tiny mushroom-shaped thing, though it didn’t look like common mushrooms; the cap was full of holes, almost like a decaying mushroom.

Renee let out an "Eh?" and took the mushroom from him, inspecting it from all sides but still uncertain if it was what she’d guessed.

Lynn felt reluctant to throw out her plants—what if it was a wild green that even Renee didn’t know?

She could bring them back and ask Zayed and the others to help identify them.

"Hey, Miles, did you actually find a mushroom? This one looks kind of rotten." Lynn eyed the mushroom in Renee’s hand, surprised, and then shook her head regretfully.

Who knows if mushrooms are poisonous, but a rotten one surely isn’t edible.

Renee’s confidence wavered—was this just a rotten mushroom after all?

"Miles, where did you find this? Are there more?" Renee carefully cradled the mushroom and asked.

"There should be more, but they’re all really small and kind of rotten." Miles had no faith in what he’d found; he’d only brought it back to answer to Renee.

Renee asked Miles to lead her back to where he found it.

The others naturally followed along to take a look.

After several minutes of walking, they finally reached the spot where Miles had found the mushrooms.

Renee looked at the ground covered in fallen leaves and the damp soil underfoot. The tree canopy overhead formed a tight roof, blocking out the sky—a cool, moist environment ideal for mushrooms.

The fallen leaves made it easy to overlook mushrooms that hid under them—little mushrooms whose caps were dotted with tiny holes, their stems resembling common mushrooms. Having just been pulled from the ground, they gave off a fresh, sweet scent.

"Morgan, can these mushrooms be eaten? And since they’re all rotten, would eating them make us sick?" Kyle asked, seeing Renee staring silently at the mushrooms, curiosity getting the better of him.

Renee shook her head, "I don’t think they’re rotten."

Kyle broke out in a cold sweat, "Don’t tell me they’ve mutated?"

Renee: "..."

Renee: "They’re not rotten; maybe that’s just how they naturally look. Don’t you guys think they look like something familiar?"

"Mm-hmm." Kyle nodded first, then seeing Renee’s gaze, quickly switched, "What do you think they look like? I’ll see if I agree."

Lynn Miller and Miles Yates both watched Renee, waiting for her to finish.

"Don’t you find their shape a lot like a sheep’s stomach?" Renee actually felt pretty sure inside, but wanted a second opinion.

Lynn and the others all picked up a mushroom and examined it carefully. Now that Renee mentioned it, they realized it really did resemble one?

"Morgan, how did you come up with sheep stomach? Are you just hungry and craving it?" Kyle squatted down, hand propping up his chin, "I want lamb too—delicious grilled lamb skewers, lamb hotpot, lamb noodles..."

Renee: "..."

"Morgan, does this thing have anything to do with sheep stomach?" Miles’ pleasant voice sounded, far more calm and breezy than Kyle’s noisy buzz—gentle and clear, making everyone feel relaxed.

"It really does..." Renee was now completely certain and said with confidence, "I’m guessing this is morel mushroom."

Morel?

The others might not have eaten it, but had surely heard of it.

Morel is the ’Hermès’ of mushrooms; pricier than most others. Dried morel is used by many to make soup, it’s a super rare gourmet mushroom, and wild ones are especially hard to find. It’s said a pound can go for thousands.

Lynn was thrilled to hear it was morel, tossing out her plants and cupping the little mushroom in both hands, looking at Miles eagerly: "Miles, you must’ve eaten morel before! Come check if this is what you had."

Most folks wouldn’t pay thousands for a pound of mushrooms, so Lynn and the others had never tried it.

But for Miles, who was wealthy, that was nothing.

Miles spoke, a bit embarrassed, "I’ve had morel soup, but I never really studied it." He’d never cared about the taste, let alone the tiny mushrooms floating in it.

Lynn wasn’t disappointed, holding her mushroom and almost bursting into laughter. If not for knowing people elsewhere in the forest might snatch their food, she’d be shouting with joy: Morel! Wild morel! We actually found wild morel mushrooms!!

"Morgan, are you sure these are morels?" Lynn, suppressing her excitement, asked for confirmation.

"Pretty sure; I’ve seen them several times on short videos." For the first time, Renee thought all the time spent mindlessly scrolling videos was actually worthwhile.

Getting a definite answer, Lynn immediately took off her backpack and began searching for more mushrooms under the leaves.

The others carefully walked across the leaf litter, poking through the wet earth. The area wasn’t huge, and soon the four of them had turned it over and found dozens of these little mushrooms.