Food and Delusion

The next morning, the thin fog had not yet dissipated.

Shen Yan, clutching the purple Ganoderma lucidum wrapped tightly in oil paper, felt as if he were carrying a glittering future, and went out with high spirits.

Just past noon, he returned with light, almost floating steps, carrying two heavy, bulging grain sacks on his shoulders, and a money bag hanging from his waist, jingling with each step like a string of flamboyant silver bells.

"Look! Look, everyone! Our hero is back!"

As soon as he entered the courtyard, Shen Yan shouted at the top of his lungs, looking exactly like a general who had just won a brilliant battle. He unloaded the grain sacks on the ground with a deep, satisfying thud. The children, hearing the sound, swarmed around him, their little eyes filled with amazement and joy.

"Dad! There's so much grain!"

"White rice! Pure white rice!"

"And cured pork! It smells so good!"

Shen Yan was so smug that his eyebrows almost flew off. He untied the bulging money pouch at his waist and poured out a small pile of shiny copper coins and a few pieces of silver with a "whoosh," which dazzled people in the afternoon sun.

"That old fox from Jishetang still wants to play tricks on me and try to lower the price?" He said arrogantly, raising his voice, "But I just said a few words to him and he—ouch!"

Before he could finish speaking, his collar was suddenly tightened, making his eyes roll back in his head.

Ling Zhan appeared behind him like a ghost at some point, grabbing his collar with one hand, his face expressionless: "Get to the point."

"It hurts! Let go! Let go!"

Shen Yan grinned exaggeratedly, but the smugness in his eyes didn't diminish at all. "I sold the purple lingzhi for twelve taels of silver! Plus three dou of top-quality white rice, five dou of refined flour, two jin of fine cured meat, and half a jin of fine salt! How about that? More than double what you got last time, right? That's some skill of mine!"

Ling Zhan released his grip, his gaze sweeping over the substantial amount of grain on the ground. He then picked up a piece of silver and weighed it in his hand; it felt quite heavy.

She nodded, a rare occurrence, with a very slight gesture.

"good."

Those two words instantly made Chen Yan's tail swirl in the air. While excitedly directing the children to carry the grain into the barn like precious treasures, he leaned close to Ling Zhan, lowered his voice, and said with a hint of boasting and mystery, "This is nothing! I've reached an agreement with the old manager; from now on, all our medicinal herbs will be delivered directly to Jishetang! As for the price..."

He held up three fingers and shook them, "Thirty percent higher than the market price!"

Ling Zhan raised an eyebrow, his scrutinizing gaze falling on Shen Yan's face. Shen Yan immediately raised his hands in a gesture of surrender: "Don't worry! We definitely didn't expose our 'secret base'! I knew... cough, my family has some ancestral connections and knows some old herbalists."

Seeing that Ling Zhan's eyes still held suspicion, he awkwardly touched the bridge of his high nose. "Alright, alright, I gave a slight hint that we might have a mysterious old pharmacist backing us up... Anyway, that old fox believed it and is more than happy about it!"

Ling Zhan gave a light snort, letting the matter drop.

Seeing this, Shen Yan immediately became bolder, his eyes darting around: "However, relying solely on God's bounty of food and herbs is not a long-term solution. It's risky and the money doesn't come quickly enough. We need to think of a more reliable way to make money."

He leaned closer, his voice almost a whisper, "I have a brilliant idea—a new banker has arrived at the 'Lucky' gambling den in town, and his luck has been absolutely terrible! I've been watching him for days, and I've noticed that when he's the banker, he's particularly prone to 'long runs,' meaning he'll be the banker for a long time. If we just time it right, bet a small amount, and we're guaranteed to make a profit…"

"Smack!"

Before he could finish speaking, a sharp, clean tap on the forehead landed precisely on his smooth forehead.

"Ouch!" Shen Yan jumped back, clutching her head, looking aggrieved. "Let me finish! It wasn't a real gamble! It was a setup! I know a few sharp-eyed con artists, we'll work together from the inside..."

"Bang!" This time, I got a solid slap on the back of my head.

"Ouch—you woman! You're so rough!"

Shen Yan rubbed his burning head, grimacing, "Fine, fine! Let's find someone proper! Boss Liu's cargo ship at the dock needs guards, and he's paying a good amount! With your skills..."

Ling Zhan shot him a cold, sharp glance, and Shen Yan instantly changed his tune, speaking rapidly, "Of course not! Too dangerous! Swords have no eyes! Then...then how about this," he had a flash of inspiration, "Widow Wang at the 'Fangfei Pavilion' rouge shop on West Street is currently hiring embroiderers, paid daily! We could let Da Niu and Da Ya try it out; girls should learn some needlework..."

“They need to practice calligraphy,” Ling Zhan interrupted him, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Shen Yan scratched his thick, black hair in frustration: "This won't work, that won't work... Ah! That's it!" He suddenly slapped his thigh, his eyes gleaming, "I heard the county government posted a notice offering a reward of fifty taels of silver for the capture of the notorious bandit 'A Gust of Wind'! A whole fifty taels of silver! With your skills, it'll be a piece of cake..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ling Zhan raised his foot and kicked him precisely in his pert buttocks.

"Why--!"

Chen Yan stumbled and exaggeratedly lunged forward, landing hard on the newly moved grain sacks that smelled of grain.

"Murdering her husband!" he wailed, lying on the grain sack. He turned his head, but only saw Ling Zhan's swift back as he walked towards the kitchen, leaving behind only three cold words: "Go make lunch."

Shen Yan rubbed his throbbing buttocks and muttered under his breath, "That shrew... all she knows is how to use her hands... which of my ideas isn't a golden path to success..."

That night, the oil lamp flickered dimly.

After settling the twenty-odd children to bed, the noisy courtyard finally fell silent. Ling Zhan stood up, preparing to return to his own room to rest. The dim light illuminated Shen Yan's handsome face, which seemed to scream "I'm not happy" and "I still have something to say."

“Seriously speaking,” Shen Yan tapped her finger on the rough tabletop, making a soft tapping sound. “Sit down.”

Seeing Ling Zhan stop, Shen Yan curled his lips and finally put away his cynical and playful smile.

He said seriously, "Alright, right now the safest and least risky path is still the medicinal herb business. I've inquired carefully, and apart from rare and precious herbs like purple lingzhi, ginseng, he shou wu, and dendrobium officinale can sell for three times the price in the big pharmacies in the prefectural city compared to our town!"

Ling Zhan nodded and said succinctly, "There are more on the mountain."

"But we cannot exhaust the resources of a fishpond!"

Shen Yan was a little anxious, her fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the table. "I have an idea—the herbs we grow in our fields, although mostly common medicinal herbs, are in high demand and are the cornerstone of the pharmacy. I've looked through Jishetang's sales records; herbs like angelica, astragalus, and licorice, although their unit price isn't high, have extremely high sales volume, ensuring a steady stream of income. We need to expand our fields and add more varieties!"

He got up, rummaged through a broken wooden cabinet in the corner and pulled out several packets of seeds wrapped in coarse paper, which he placed on the table like treasures.

“Look, these are the medicinal herb seeds that the old manager ‘gifted’ from Jishetang today… uh, after a sincere conversation! He said these are the most suitable for our local soil and water.”

Ling Zhan picked up a packet of seeds, weighed it in his hand, and looked up at him: "You know how to grow them?"

Shen Yan choked on her words, her momentum instantly diminishing: "This... I can learn it! Anyway, there are experienced practitioners in the village I can consult..."

Ling Zhan's gaze softened considerably.

Shen Yan quickly pressed on, lowering his voice mysteriously and leaning forward: "Actually, there's an even more lucrative and faster way! Do you know why Jishetang is willing to pay 30% more than the market price for our medicinal herbs? Because..." He made a gesture of fine grinding and processing, "The finished medicinal herbs, once processed, are worth far more than the raw herbs we sell! An ordinary ginseng root sells for five taels, but if it's properly processed and in good condition, it can sell for eight or even ten taels! The difference in price is... wow..."

"How long?" Ling Zhan cut to the chase, his eyes sharp.

Shen Yan awkwardly touched his nose, his voice lowering: "The old shopkeeper said... food preparation is a complex art, and to master it, it would take at least... three to five years..."

"Bang!"

Ling Zhan slammed his fist on the table with such force that the oil lamp flame flickered violently, and a few drops of oil spilled out.

“Say something useful.” Her voice was icy.

"Don't rush, don't rush!" Shen Yan quickly waved her hand, speaking rapidly, "I haven't finished yet! The old shopkeeper has agreed! He promised that when we send medicinal herbs over in the future, we can send a clever apprentice to learn some basic processing techniques from the master craftsman in his shop! Although we can't learn the core secret recipe, we can at least learn simple cleaning, slicing, drying, and bundling, right? That should be enough to raise the price a bit!"

Ling Zhan's tense expression eased slightly, and after a moment of contemplation, he said, "It's possible. But not fast enough. We still need to go up the mountain."

Shen Yan's eyes lit up as if he had grasped a lifeline, and he clapped his hands: "That's it! Tools! What are those axe and iron spade for? Once the wasteland is cleared, besides planting medicinal herbs, we can also set aside a few plots to grow seasonal mountain products! I've inquired, and bamboo shoots, autumn mushrooms, and wild peppers are all hot commodities in the big restaurants and wealthy households in the prefectural city! The prices are much higher than in our town!"

As he spoke, he became excited again, gesturing with his fingers in the air.

"And we can't just sell raw materials! We need to process them! Fresh bamboo shoots sell for five coins a pound, but pickled bamboo shoots can sell for fifteen coins! And then there's mushroom oil! That stuff is fresh and fragrant, and it keeps well; a small jar can sell for tens of coins! We can even add some nourishing herbs to make medicinal food packets..."

Looking at his animated expression, Ling Zhan calmly asked, "You know how to pickle bamboo shoots? You know how to make mushroom oil?"

Shen Yan's excited expression froze instantly, and her lips twitched: "This... I can learn it..."

The voice clearly lacked confidence.

Seeing that Ling Zhan was about to raise his hand again, Shen Yan quickly covered his head and shrank his neck.

"Wait! I have another absolutely reliable, highly profitable, and foolproof idea!" He lowered his voice again, with a hint of desperation, "Do you know what our biggest advantage is, that no one else can match?"

He pointed mysteriously towards the backyard where the children were sleeping, lowering his voice even further: "Those twenty-three little rascals! They're all ready-made, limitless labor! They've done an indispensable job for keeping us alive! Tiger and the other boys are getting stronger, they're experts at clearing land and digging; Da Niu and Da Ya are skillful, they're meticulous in sorting medicinal herbs and tending the vegetable garden; even the little ones can help pull weeds and feed the chickens and ducks..."

Ling Zhan's eyes gradually turned dangerous, like a beast eyeing its prey.

Shen Yan quickly added, speaking rapidly like a machine gun: "Of course! Academics are fundamental! What I mean is, moderate hands-on labor is also an extremely important form of learning! Look, we can easily set up a small workshop at home, and during the off-season, let the children participate in some tasks they are capable of..."

"Bang!"

This time, Shen Yan clutched her stomach, curled up in pain, and squatted on the ground, her face contorted in agony.

“Child labor abduction…” Ling Zhan coldly uttered a few words, like ice beads hitting the ground.

Shen Yan gasped in pain, cold sweat beading on her forehead: "I...I was just...thinking that the whole family should work hard to make a living...!"

After catching his breath and realizing he was in the right, he stubbornly retorted, "Open your eyes and look at Kaoshan Village! Or go to the town and see! Whose child isn't already working in the fields at six or seven, or carrying loads at eight or nine? Poor children learn to be independent early! It's only right and proper for them to do their work! I call this making reasonable use of resources!"

Ling Zhan ignored his incessant ramblings and fallacies. She turned around, walked to a sturdy camphor wood chest in the corner, unlocked it, and took out several objects that gleamed with a cold, eerie light—a few strangely shaped metal tools that were neither knives nor shovels, with blades that had a tricky curve.

"What is this...?" Shen Yan ignored the pain and her curiosity overwhelmed everything. She rubbed her stomach and came closer.

“Tools for digging medicinal herbs,” Ling Zhan explained briefly, picking up one of them and running her fingers along its unique curved blade. “It’s specifically for digging up roots without damaging the main root. The children should focus on learning skills.” She laid out the tools one by one and gave the order without room for argument: “Starting tomorrow, I’ll take Hu Zi and Dou Ya into the mountains to identify and collect medicinal herbs. You,” she pointed at Chen Yan, “go to Jishetang and learn the basics of processing herbs. Ask Da Niu and Da Ya if they’d like to come with you to learn some skills?”

"I disagree with going into the mountains! You'd better avoid it too."

Shen Yan immediately protested, raising his voice. But when he met Ling Zhan's calm yet extremely imposing gaze, he swallowed back his words, only daring to mutter softly, "The mountains... are too dangerous..." Suddenly, his eyes lit up again, as if he had grasped at the last straw: "Wait! I have another idea! Absolutely legitimate! A sure thing! A huge profit! A win-win situation!"

Ling Zhan narrowed his eyes, his hand already resting on the rolling pin on the table.

"We can open a martial arts school! Or a school!" Shen Yan exclaimed excitedly, as if he had seen a mountain of gold and silver. "With your skills in fighting wolves with your bare hands and navigating the spring floods on a raft, you could definitely recruit apprentices if you opened a martial arts school! Tuition would be charged quarterly, and you could earn at least one or two taels of silver per apprentice! Twenty would be... oh my!"

The rolling pin whistled through the air and precisely kissed his buttocks.

"This won't work, that won't work either—!"

Shen Yan covered his head and ran away, circling the table. "Martial arts school won't do... then... then a private school will do, right? I've studied the classics, after all! I'm more than capable of teaching children to read and write... ouch!"

The rolling pin hit its target precisely once again.

"Go to sleep." Ling Zhan blew out the flickering oil lamp, plunging the small house into darkness instantly.

In the darkness, Shen Yan rubbed his burning buttocks, wincing in pain, but still muttered under his breath: "All she does is resort to violence... brute woman... every single one of my ideas is brilliant... we can have braised pork knuckle without even going into the mountains... fine... what a brute woman who only thinks about going into the mountains!"

"Um?"

From the darkness, on the other side of the partition, came Ling Zhan's cold, nasal voice.

Shen Yan immediately fell silent. But after a moment, his competitive spirit returned, and he continued muttering in an even softer whisper.

"Wanting to eat braised pork knuckle... what's wrong with that! It's perfectly justified!"

"Tomorrow," Ling Zhan's clear voice came again from the darkness, "go to town, prepare an apprenticeship, and buy one."

Shen Yan paused in rubbing his buttocks, a triumphant smile creeping across his lips in the darkness. Fine, his buttocks suffered a bit, but the core objective was achieved—worth it! Physical pain for long-term development, this deal… isn't a loss!

The darkness was quiet for a moment, with only the soft breathing of the two people.

The smugness on Shen Yan's face gradually faded. The scene of Hu Zi calmly paying the bill in front of the grain store during the day, with the shop assistant flattering and praising him, and the focused eyes of the children holding their books, uncontrollably surfaced before his eyes. A deeper, more realistic worry, like vines, began to creep up on him.

"Hello!"

A somber voice rang out again in the darkness, devoid of its previous liveliness, now carrying a rare, almost heavy hesitation: "You really intend... to keep the children, especially Da Niu and Da Ya, learning like this? Recognizing characters, reading, arithmetic, and now you're adding concoctions?"

There was no response from Ling Zhan, but Shen Yan knew she was listening.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn now,” he rolled over, facing Ling Zhan’s cubicle. “Right now, knowing a few words, doing some accounting, or even learning a little about manufacturing would certainly be useful. But…”

He paused, as if organizing his thoughts, his voice lowered, carrying a sense of pessimism from someone with experience, "Have you ever thought that if you study too deeply, you'll become arrogant? The reason they can follow you to identify herbs and help me at the pharmacy is because they are still young and naive."

"When they get older, learn more characters, read more books, and their hearts become wild, their eyes set on the outside world... But what kind of family are we? Can we afford to send them to school like the young ladies in town, to learn music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and to hire tutors? By then, they'll have high aspirations, but they won't have the skills to truly make a living and improve their family's status. They'll be stuck in the middle, neither good enough for high positions nor low enough for low ones..."

Shen Yan's voice was filled with worry, "This is the real taboo! Ling Zhan! They are still girls after all. In this world, they will eventually get married. They have learned too much and become too proud. They look down on the rough men in the village, but the respectable families in the town look down on them for their low social status and lack of manners... They are caught in the middle. Isn't this ruining them?"

"Their ambitions are sky-high, but their fate is as fragile as paper. This world can't tolerate too many unrealistic dreams. Let them learn enough practical skills, accept their fate, and find an honest man to marry peacefully. That's the right path. Learning too much is like pulling up seedlings to help them grow; it plants unrealistic dreams in their hearts, and in the future... they will only suffer more."

In the darkness, Ling Zhan remained silent.

After a long while, her calm, even slightly confused voice finally came through:

Why would learning a skill harm someone?

There was no accusation in her voice, only pure bewilderment.

In her view, knowledge and skills are weapons that make people stronger and have more choices; they are the foundation for survival. The logic that "high aspirations lead to greater suffering" that Shen Yan spoke of was something she, as a soldier, could not understand at all.

She believed only in power, whether force or knowledge, which brought freedom and dignity.

Shen Yan was speechless at this rhetorical question.

He opened his mouth... but in the end, all his words turned into a long sigh filled with endless helplessness and exhaustion.

"Forget it... I can't reason with you..."

Shen Yan turned over, buried her face in the sweaty, coarse cloth pillow, and mumbled, "Go to sleep."

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