Grandma Yun came to her senses and replied somewhat blankly, "She stays at home. She's strong and helps with chores around the house. She's very hardworking."

Mrs. Hu nodded in satisfaction, "It's good to be at home, unlike our rascal, who can't stay at home and is always out."

Are you never home?

If Chun Jie'er marries into that family, wouldn't she be left alone in an empty room?

That won't do.

Grandma Yun said frankly, "It's not good to be away from home."

Ms. Hu was displeased upon hearing this. She said that her own son was fine, but no one else could say anything about him, "Even those at home are not good."

"Isn't it good to stay at home?"

"What's wrong with not being home?"

"..."

Yunling had no idea how the two of them started arguing, and how the argument escalated until they became best friends and even made plans to go somewhere together next time. Yunling was completely baffled; it seemed she had truly "gotten a lot" today.

**

As soon as the weather cools down, the bees go out to forage for food.

When the autumn harvest came, Grandpa Yun, Grandma Yun, and Yun Shenghua went to the fields to harvest, while Yun Ruoxia and Yun Chu went to the city to sell mushrooms and herbs. Zhang Shi and Yun Ruochun were responsible for cooking and taking care of the house, and Yun Ling went up the mountain to pick matsutake mushrooms. Everyone was busy with their own tasks, and they were all making the family better little by little.

Because Yunling went up the mountain to pick mushrooms alone this time, she used her special ability to double the quantity, filling four large baskets. Yun Ruoxia exclaimed in surprise when she saw it.

"Ling-jie, how come there are so many? Is it because there are more in autumn than in summer?"

"No, I found two more termite nests."

Yun Ruoxia had no doubts; she was only focused on calculating how much oil she could extract and how many copper coins she could sell.

Just like her, Zhang was also calculating. Zhang calculated how much rapeseed oil she needed, went to the next village to buy it, pressed the oil, and put it into six small jars, each containing about half a jin (250 grams).

After scooping out the dregs, Zhang started braising pig intestines. These pig intestines were given to her by Manager Zhou. Ever since his business became booming, Yun Ruoxia would always bring back something whenever she delivered mushrooms. Today, it was just some pig offal, all of which had been thoroughly cleaned.

Zhang rinsed the pig intestines again with clean water, put them in a pot of cold water, added cooking wine, ginger and scallions to remove the odor for the first time. After the water boiled, he took them out and put them in a clay pot. He added ginger, scallions, cooking wine, salt, pepper, rock sugar and spices such as star anise, cinnamon and bay leaves. Finally, he poured in hot water, covered the pot and simmered it.

Half an hour later, the pig intestines were coated with a braising sauce, and the aroma of the sauce was like a seductive vixen, constantly tempting Yunling's taste buds.

Yunling didn't say anything, just stuck to Zhang's side, her eyes darting around. Zhang laughed out loud, quickly cut off a small piece with scissors, dipped it in sauce, and fed it to Yunling.

Yunling chewed carefully. The intestines were cooked until soft and tender, and the inside was oily and juicy, with a rich texture. The more she chewed, the more fragrant the braised flavor became, which fueled Yunling's desire to find the star anise tree.

After the autumn harvest,

She estimated the day when the star anise would ripen, and then went into the mountains with Yun Ruochun. With her supernatural abilities, finding things wasn't difficult for her. However, the tree was eight to ten meters tall, and Yun Ruochun was a little worried. "Ling-jie, are you really going to climb up there?"

"Yes, Auntie, I'm good at climbing trees. Don't worry, I'll call you if anything happens."

Yun Ruochun was still a little worried, but Yun Ling was already darting up like a monkey, so she went to chop wood at the other end. However, she kept looking back as she went, afraid that something might happen to Yun Ling. Finally, she stopped at a spot where she could see Yun Ling before she could finally relax.

Yunling was so focused on climbing that she didn't notice someone standing below. His greeting caught her off guard, causing her to slip and fall from the tree. Unfortunately, someone was there, preventing her from using her powers.

When Pei Lin saw her fall, he quickly took a step back, afraid that she would hit him. Yun Ling fell straight to the ground. Fortunately, the ground was soft to her, otherwise she would have been crippled even if she didn't die.

Hearing a noise, Yun Ruochun looked up but couldn't see Yun Ling, and anxiously called out, "Ling-jie?!"

"Auntie, I'm here, it's alright."

Yun Ruochun was relieved and continued chopping wood.

Yunling glanced at the culprit, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to the village for a house call and also to see if there's anything worth digging up." Pei Lin seemed a little awkward, touching his nose. "Are you... are you injured?"

Of course she wasn't hurt. If she weren't lying down and was still jumping around, wouldn't she be mistaken for a monster?

"I'll be fine once you leave."

Pei Lin naturally assumed she was being sarcastic, which made him even more conflicted. So he looked into the distance and said, "You said it yourself, so don't tell my master that I scared you and that he'll beat me."

Wasn't his implication obvious enough?

As long as she threatens him with Old Zhong, he can disregard the traditional boundaries between men and women, carry her down the mountain, check her injuries, and avoid gossip.

But Yunling didn't think that way. She just wanted him to leave quickly so she could get up sooner. Lying there was tiring enough.

“I said it, you can leave.” To show that she really didn’t care, she added, “I won’t tell Dr. Zhong.”

"Don't regret it, or you'll try to extort me again."

"Hey, why are you being so indecisive? Just go already, stop nagging."

Hearing the commotion, Yun Ruochun stopped what she was doing and walked over. Pei Lin saw this and quickly went down the mountain, allowing Yun Ling to stand up as well.

"Ling-jie, who are you whispering to?"

Yunling was afraid that Yun Ruochun would find out about her fall, so she shook her head and said, "No, I didn't say anything."

"Oh, I must have misheard you. Be careful then, and call me if anything happens."

Yunling gave a heavy "hmm" and climbed back up. This time, she steadied herself and picked a whole bagful. Back home, she boiled water, poured all the picks into it, and cooked them until they darkened in color. Then she took them out and put them in the yard to dry.

Smelling the rich aroma of star anise, Yunling felt completely at ease.

A few days later, Yunling began to scrape the honey. The honey that came out was a deep yellow color, with less moisture than spring honey, and therefore a higher concentration. She still did not scrape the batch of honey before winter, leaving it for the bee colony to overwinter.

Yun Ruoxia looked at this batch of honey and found it to be even better than the wildflower honey harvested in spring. The selling price should be higher, but since Uncle Cao had always taken good care of her, she couldn't very well do something so presumptuous.

She didn't say anything, but Uncle Cao could tell when he inspected the honey that this batch was indeed better than the first batch. "Second Aunt, I'll buy it for 500 coins per catty this time, but if the honey isn't this good next time, I'll lower the price."

Yun Ruoxia was delighted upon hearing this and quickly nodded in agreement.

Lu Yinghuai, who had been pacing back and forth in the inner room for a long time, finally came out. Since he couldn't wait for Yun Ling, he would take the initiative to go find her!