The campfire crackled, its warmth barely dispersing the chill of the mountain night.
Old Zhang’s sowhat boastful voice had just faded when Li Younan looked towards the opened plastic bag he held.
The flas danced, illuminating the mushrooms—the caps were light brown, the stems sturdy—at first glance, indeed bearing so resemblance to the "Qiaoba mushrooms" from his hotown, as he ntioned.
But as he lifted one to examine the gills, the firelight clearly revealed their color—not the clean white or pale yellow, but a mottled, slightly dull gray-white.
Imdiately after, Li Younan’s gaze focused on the upper part of the stem—where the mushroom ring should have been, there remained a barely noticeable deep brown material resembling rotted cotton.
This was not a characteristic of "Qiaoba mushrooms."
"Old Zhang, hold on."
Li Younan stood up, voice as calm as possible, but everyone by the fire heard a difference.
He walked over to Old Zhang, reached out his hand, "Let have a closer look."
Old Zhang paused, perhaps not expecting skepticism, but handed over the bag anyway, his excitent slightly fading, replaced by a hint of indifference: "What? You know about this too?"
Li Younan didn’t respond, taking the bag and, using the light from the fire, pulled out one mushroom entirely.
His fingers pinched the stem, and his other hand carefully pried open the edge of the cap, letting the firelight clearly illuminate the inner gills and stem in detail.
Indeed, gray-white gills, the stem with traces of a decayed, deep brown, fragile mushroom ring, and the cap edge showing a subtly perceptible bluish-gray hue in the firelight—these traits combined pointed to a toxic mushroom common in the southwestern mountainous area, easily confused with others, whose consumption could lead to severe gastrointestinal reactions or even neurological symptoms.
"Old Zhang," Li Younan placed the mushroom back into the bag, returned it to him, voice low but clear enough to be heard by everyone around the fire, "This mushroom is probably not the ’Qiaoba mushroom’ from your hotown."
"Look here..." Li Younan pointed towards the upper part of the stem with the deep brown residue, "That’s the trace of a mushroom ring, it’s already rotted, but the shape is off. And these gills, the gray-white with dullness, are suspicious."
"I’ve seen similar ones, they’re poisonous."
The atmosphere montarily froze subtly.
Ma Jing was the first to glance at Li Younan, but she didn’t speak imdiately.
The crackling of the fire and the sound of the stream stood out sharply.
The other teammates, initially curious, shifted their gazes, looking from Li Younan to Old Zhang.
Old Zhang’s expression darkened.
He grabbed the bag forcefully, fingers pinching the spot Li Younan pointed out tightly, his brow furrowing, tone obviously annoyed and stubborn: "What would you know? There are plenty of these on our hills! The ring’s rotted, that’s all, they pretty much look like that! I’ve been picking them since I was a kid, don’t you think I know them?"
He raised his voice a bit, as if emphasizing his authority, "Look at this stem, so sturdy! Poisonous mushrooms don’t grow like this!"
"Old Zhang..." Li Younan maintained his composure, knowing that in such an ad-hoc group, clashing head-on would only escalate tensions, "Mushrooms vary from place to place, a slight difference can be worlds apart. Especially those with ring traces, they hold high risk. The mushroom species in the Hengduan Mountains are complex, just relying on appearance is too risky. For safety’s sake, let’s not..."
Of course, Li Younan wouldn’t make a mistake, damn it, how could the system be wrong!
At first glance of these mushrooms, he reflexively knew they were toxic...
"Safety? I’m responsible for the mushrooms I pick!"
Old Zhang interrupted him, his tone a bit sharp, obviously feeling that Li Younan was challenging his experience and judgnt, especially in front of everyone, "You’ve been here only a few days? How much do you know about the things in these mountains? If I dare pick, I dare eat! If you don’t want them, then don’t!"
He clutched the bag tightly, his gaze full of distrust and confrontation.
No one spoke by the fire.
Everyone was mature enough that no one wanted to rashly side and escalate the conflict at such tis.
Soone huddled, poking at the fire, soone else sipped water.
Just then, Qi Shunyi, who had been silently listening, cleared his throat.
He was the organizer of the trek, naturally responsible for making decisions.
To be honest, such a scenario is unlikely among truly seasoned trekkers; even if a wild mushroom was 100% safe, nobody would voluntarily add it to the communal al.
But it couldn’t be helped, they were all first-ti trekking novices, encountering such a situation wasn’t entirely unexpected.
He didn’t directly judge who was right or wrong, instead, he spoke in a calm, problem-solving tone: "Old Zhang, finding a gem is lucky. But what this brother said isn’t without reason, being cautious in the wild, especially with unfamiliar mushrooms, is always right. So..."
He looked at Old Zhang, then around at everyone, "Let’s keep these safe for now. Tomorrow morning, when it’s bright, we’ll take them out again and have the deputy leader look. He’s run this route often and knows the local species better. If he thinks it’s fine, then... let’s sun-dry them and keep them, and once the trek’s over, we can add them to a al. Safety cos first when we’re out here, if anything happens physically, it’ll delay the entire trek. What do you all think?"
Old Chen’s words were pragmatic, effectively giving both sides a way out.
Old Zhang’s face remained tight, his lips moved as if wanting to say more, but looking at the leader’s calm yet uncompromising gaze, and the surrounding teammates who silently but evidently agreed with the leader’s suggestion, that stubborn energy seed to deflate like a punctured balloon, slowly withering away.
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