The fans were still clamoring noisily, and by this time Joshua had searched everywhere without finding a single additional matsutake. On top of that, it was already time to head back, so he and the cameraman could only leave. In Joshua's basket were eight matsutake mushrooms, each one plump and round. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that today was the luckiest day of Joshua's life.
If the mountain paths hadn't been so treacherous, he probably wouldn't have been able to stop himself from skipping all the way back.
By then, everyone else had already returned. Among them, Luther had picked the most mushrooms, while Leonard had the fewest, though it wasn't too bad. He muttered irritably, "What kind of forest is this, full of nothing but mosquitoes. Good thing I dressed thickly, or I'd have been bitten all over!"
Ben stood to the side, silently taking the brunt of it. Luther, however, looked toward the mountains with some concern. "Why hasn't Joshua come back yet?"
