The sun was shining brightly, casting small clusters of shadows on the trees; it was almost noon.
The Song family knew they couldn't delay any longer, and they didn't dare to run into the Qiao family. They refused to let the Qiao family bring their own people, lest their own people compete with them for the mushrooms.
They quickly searched for another mountain.
Unexpectedly, good luck came our way. There were quite a lot of these mushrooms on the hills. We picked them until most of the afternoon had passed, and we actually filled two baskets.
The next few hills had fewer of these mushrooms, so the Song family busied themselves exchanging the two large baskets of mushrooms for money before heading home, hoping to clean them all and sell them today so they could quickly make some money.
Qiao Lian'er and her two cousins had already sold the silver and returned home. Da Yong and Da Cheng went up the mountain, while she stayed at home. In the afternoon, she chopped a pile of firewood and cleaned the yard.
It wasn't that she didn't want to go up the mountain, but the Qiao and Song families had just had a falling out, and if the Song family came looking for her, her mother, with her limp, wouldn't be able to handle it alone.
As evening approached, Ms. Lü and Xiao Meng returned first. Xiao Meng carried a basket on his back. He lifted the straw covering it and saw that it was half a basket of matsutake mushrooms.
"We didn't find much today." Xiao Meng shook his head: "Our three families are all in one place. We searched many hills and only found this little bit. The distant mountains are not as long as the nearby mountains."
Madam Lü weighed the half-basket of matsutake mushrooms, her face showing even greater dissatisfaction: "Only a little over ten jin, I'm afraid even the eldest and third sons of the family couldn't find much."
"Third Aunt, it's good enough that we have some. After the rain, we'll have more babies one after another." Qiao Lian'er said, "A little more or less each day is fine as long as we do our best."
After washing her hands, Ms. Lü went to cook, only to find that the rice was soaking and several vegetables had been washed and set aside. Qiao Yunni was sitting in front of the stove, starting a fire.
Knowing she couldn't persuade her younger sister, she sighed.
When it was her sister's and her daughter's turn, she helped them out as much as possible.
"Third Aunt, did the Song family also go up the mountain today?" Qiao Lian'er asked.
Whenever this matter was mentioned, Lady Lü would feel relieved.
"They heard from somewhere that the mushrooms our family was picking could be sold for money, so the whole family pitched in. They happened to run into your uncle and his family of three, and tried to take the mushrooms from them, but they were completely outmatched by your uncle and his family."
"What? Three against ten, and they still won?" Qiao Yunni asked in disbelief.
"Yes, Auntie, both Song Lao Da and Song Lao Er lost an eye," Qiao Xiaomeng said while chopping lean meat.
Qiao Yunni was a little surprised. She knew that the Qiao family members were good at fighting, but she didn't expect them to be this good. This was because they had been trained in battles with wild beasts, unlike her, who had only been doing farm work for so many years in the Song family.
No, she can't fall behind. Once her legs are healed, she will also master this skill and not disgrace the Qiao family.
Right now, the Song family has washed the forty catties of mushrooms they picked from the mountain.
They also covered their baskets with rags and branches. Song Laoda, Song Daming, and Song Xiaoming went to town to sell mushrooms.
Qiao Lian'er saw the Song family leaving from the courtyard, so she picked up a basket, carried one herself, and handed the other to Qiao Xiaomeng.
"Brother Meng, let's go to town."
"What are we going to town for? We'll be eating soon," Xiao Meng said.
Qiao Lian'er winked at him: "Let's go pick mushrooms."
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