Standing on the empty street to calm her uneasy mind, Grace Walker returned to the shop, rolled out a fine large black vat from inside, and laboriously tied it onto the wheelbarrow. After glancing around to make sure no one was nearby, she went back in and carried out two huge grain jars.

When leaving, she placed ten coins on the counter.

After pushing the wheelbarrow for about a hundred steps, she turned back, took six coins from the ten, and softly said to the shopkeeper lying in the inner room, “I forgot to bargain…”

Ethan Brooks was trapped in the bathtub, unable to go anywhere, and was very envious of the little fox, who could jump into and out of the tub from the outside, playing to its heart’s content.

Ever since the little fox peed a stinky puddle in the tub, Ethan Brooks had tormented it so much that it didn’t dare pee anywhere near the house anymore. As long as Grace Walker wasn’t around, Ethan Brooks would grab the little fox and talk to it.

Today, Ethan Brooks really wanted to look around, so he pushed the mat in the tub aside to use as a footrest, then climbed out of the tub.

After falling flat on his back, he managed to turn over with the little fox’s help and began, supporting himself against the city wall, his first journey in this world.

The high walls of the imperial city were covered in moss and many fallen leaves. Ethan Brooks had only walked a dozen or so steps before realizing his legs simply couldn’t handle such a journey.

With a “thud,” he sat on the ground, leaning against the city wall, gazing at the distant street.

Since his legs couldn’t handle the task of exploring, he figured he could at least use his eyes to see what this new world looked like.

The little fox somehow found a mushroom and tossed it beside Ethan Brooks. Ethan Brooks picked it up and examined it closely; the mushroom the little fox had found was actually quite good—it was a rare straw mushroom.

Seeing Ethan Brooks pick up the mushroom, the little fox excitedly hopped around, ran a few steps ahead toward the city wall, then came back to tug at Ethan Brooks’s pant leg.

Ethan Brooks stood up with the help of the wall and, stumbling, followed the fox forward.

After another dozen steps, he saw a large patch of straw mushrooms—or rather, a whole field of mushrooms.

This mushroom patch was split in two by a spring, the water clear, and occasionally broken lotus leaves could be seen floating out of the outlet. Without a doubt, this spring was the drain for the lotus pond in the imperial palace.

Ethan Brooks lay on the ground to gather mushrooms.

Mushroom picking is a very specialized task. He didn’t know if Song Dynasty mushrooms were any different from those in later times, but he was certain of one thing: if no one had tried these mushrooms before, he absolutely wouldn’t eat a single bite.

The domestication of wild mushrooms is actually a detoxification process. Many mushrooms eaten in later times were originally poisonous, but after long-term cultivation, the toxins were removed.

Who knows if the straw mushrooms of the Song Dynasty are poisonous?

Ethan Brooks wasn’t sure if the straw mushrooms were poisonous, but he was certain that the bright red mushrooms before him were. What puzzled him was why the deadly fly agaric, which grew in the far north, was now growing at the outlet of the imperial palace’s lotus pond.

In later times, people in the northeast would mash these up and mix them with leftover rice to kill flies—their strong toxicity was their most notable feature.

The most interesting thing is that eating a small amount of these mushrooms can cause hallucinations. According to friends from the northeast, Tunguska shamans would eat a bit before performing rituals to force themselves into the realm of the gods—though who knows if that’s true.

Such a good thing, Ethan Brooks felt he absolutely couldn’t pass it up.

As for whether there were more of these in the palace, or if someone had ever been poisoned or hallucinated by them, Ethan Brooks didn’t care.

Strange things or events happening in the palace was perfectly normal.

Soon, Ethan Brooks realized that the saying “a bear picking corn” described himself perfectly. Gathering poisonous things is a delicate process, and his small, undeveloped hands simply weren’t up to the task.

Glancing at the sun overhead, Ethan Brooks figured his mother would be back soon, so he decided to end his little journey.

Although he crawled back, his mood was excellent. People say “within ten steps, there is always fragrant grass,” and today he truly proved that saying right.

Being neighbors with the royal family really is a wonderful thing. Just look—even the area by the drain has essential remedies for home and travel.

Ethan Brooks believed that as long as he kept his eyes wide open and waited patiently, he would surely gain countless benefits from this enormous palace…

The guards on the city wall watched worriedly as a child in green crawled along, making strange laughing sounds, but didn’t dare shout for fear of frightening the child.

When the child padded the bottom of the tub and dove headfirst into it, the watching guards finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When Grace Walker returned, pushing the heavy wheelbarrow, the first thing she did was check on her precious child. Finding him and the little fox sleeping sweetly together, her tightly wound heart finally relaxed.