After walking for about an hour, they emerged from the forest from the side.
After walking along a winding mountain road and then crossing a hillside, a poor village came into view after another 15 minutes.
The villages here are not as neat and orderly as those in Lingnan.
The houses in Wudaopo are of varying heights, some tall and some short.
The village is built deep in the mountains, surrounded by mountains inside and out.
Qiu Yan saw a young woman sewing shoe soles at the village entrance and went up to ask her where the old lady who went out to sell mountain products lived.
The woman looked up and glanced at the three of them with surprise. She said that it was inconvenient for people from their village to go out to sell their goods, and that Granny Wu was an exception.
Then, the woman pointed out to Qiu Yan the courtyard of Granny Wu's house, which was located on the hillside of their roof.
Following the woman's directions, Qiu Yan and the other two went up the small hill to Grandma Wu's house.
At this moment, Granny Wu was feeding the few wild chickens she had received from Qiu Yan.
The little pheasants have grown quite a bit and are eating with great gusto.
When she saw Qiu Yan, she recognized her after a moment, and her yellowish old eyes were filled with joy.
She thought Qiu Yan wouldn't come.
"Girl, it really is you."
Grandma Wu asked Qiu Yan if she had come to buy mountain products. After receiving confirmation, she immediately took Qiu Yan to see the mushrooms that she had carefully dried.
Most of them were grown by herself, but she didn't eat them all, so there weren't many.
Besides wood ear mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms, there are other varieties.
Gu Qian and Qiu Dafu stood on the fence of Grandma Wu's yard, gazing at the distant green mountains.
They have no say in business matters either.
Qiu Yan carefully examined Granny Wu's mushrooms, touched them with her hands, and thought they were good, so she bought them all.
She took out the prepared scale and weighed the dried goods, which totaled more than ten kilograms. Ten kilograms of wood ear fungus and five kilograms of dried mushrooms.
Five pounds of fresh ones are also available, still at the original price.
At this moment, the sun was shining brightly.
When Grandma Wu's son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and grandson returned from the fields, they were all surprised to see guests at their home.
Upon hearing that they were there to do business, they were all given a warm welcome.
Qiu Yan counted the heads. Grandma Wu lived with her eldest son, who had five grandsons and two granddaughters.
Grandma Wu's eldest son is named Wu Shi.
At noon, Grandma Wu invited the three of them to stay for lunch.
She cooked a pot of wild vegetable porridge and served the three of them her best food: wild vegetable pancakes and boiled cabbage.
Each person gets one bowl of wild vegetable porridge, plus a small flatbread.
Knowing that Qiu Yan was there to resell goods, Granny Wu introduced Qiu Yan to the other villagers.
Almost every household in the village has mountain products, so of course they wouldn't miss such a good opportunity. They all rushed to deliver their own mountain products to Granny Wu's house for Qiu Yan to inspect.
Each family bought a little bit, and they collected over 160 jin of dried black fungus, about 30 jin of dried mushrooms, and 50 jin of fresh mushrooms.
In total, I paid about two taels of silver.
Qiu Yan felt that coming here to collect mountain products for a long time and running back and forth like this was not a sustainable solution.
Thinking this, Wu Shi spoke up, "Girl, the men in our village are strong. Where do you live? In the future, when we get more mountain produce, I will personally deliver it to your home."
"That's good," Qiu Yan nodded immediately, and told Wu Shi to be the head of their village and to give him extra money for every kilogram of mountain produce.
She told Wu Shi the location of her village: after leaving the mountains and forests, walk a little further ahead, and the first house at the village entrance is her old family home.
Wu Shi silently made a mental note of it.
Qiu Yan has been selling herbs, wontons, and now she's dealing in mountain products. Qiu Dafu thought to himself, "That girl, Xiao Yan, is really good at making a fuss."
Qiu Yan had originally planned to come alone, but now she was somewhat relieved that Gu Qian and her second uncle had come along; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to bring many people with her today.
These items are not heavy, but they are quite large.
Gu Qian and Qiu Dafu each carried two large sacks, and there were still some left over.
Qiu Yan offered to help with the weight, but the two men said they could do it and wouldn't let her lift a finger; they would carry the rest on their backs.
Qiu Yan did carry some dried mushrooms, after all; she wasn't completely helpless.
The three returned home late at night.
Wang had prepared the meal and was waiting for a long time. Ye was also waiting because Qiu Yan had not returned.
Seeing how many mountain products they brought back, and hearing that they were going to sell them in Baiyang City, I realized that money could be made in this way.
However, with so many items, will they be able to sell them all?
Tonight, Gu Qian still sleeps in the carriage.
Qiu Dafu offered to switch places with him, but he refused, saying that the carriage was more comfortable to live in.
Qiu Yan said that she took the children to stay at the Li family's house, but Gu Qian did not agree.
In his opinion, having a carriage to stay in was good enough, much better than sleeping in the open.
Late at night, Gu Qian and his second uncle talked for a while in the courtyard.
Afterwards, the sounds of sparring came from inside the courtyard; it was Gu Qian practicing martial arts with Qiu Xu.
Each time, Gu Qian would stop short of causing serious pain, but Qiu Xu still felt sore all over.
However, being with my senior brother is much more relaxing than being with my master.
Hearing the sounds of fighting outside, Qiu Yan came out of the room and said, "Gu Qian, let A Xu go to sleep early."
Although she worked hard to earn money, Qiu Xu also worked hard.
He would get up before dawn every day to learn martial arts from his master. He would also take time to read in the morning, and after breakfast he would read some more. Whenever he had free time at noon or in the evening, he would either read or practice martial arts.
Having lived two lives, this was the first time Qiu Yan had ever seen such a hardworking child.
Qiu Xu listened to his sister, ran to the stream by the door to wash off the sweat, and then went to sleep.
When Qiu Xu returned, Gu Qian also went to wash himself.
He took off his coat, revealing a slightly bleeding shoulder.
Qiu Yan looked up unintentionally and ran to the stream.
When Gu Qian saw Qiu Yan coming over, he quickly put on his coat, his face showing an unusual embarrassment.
"Are you injured?"
"Are you concerned about me?" Gu Qian smiled slightly, answering a question that seemed unrelated to the question.
Qiu Yan didn't reply. She stepped forward, lifted Gu Qian's collar, and revealed half of his shoulder.
His left shoulder appeared to be injured by a sharp blade.
She didn't know if it was because she was careless or because Gu Qian was too patient, but after two days, she hadn't noticed anything at all.
It hurts her just looking at those injuries.
Gu Qian's body stiffened for a moment, then he quickly recovered and smiled gently, "It's just a minor injury, nothing serious."
"How did you get injured?" Qiu Yan asked.
"I went back to the military camp a few days ago and unfortunately encountered an enemy attack." Gu Qian said it casually, as if it didn't matter.
"Squat down first." Qiu Yan wanted to check his injuries, but the man was too tall.
Gu Qian sat cross-legged on the ground, his eyes full of smiles as he stared intently at Qiu Yan, his earlier unease vanishing.
Qiu Yan went back and found a clean piece of linen. After wiping his wound, she applied some herbal medicine and re-bandaged it.
Gu Qian felt Qiu Yan's warmth and became enamored with the sensation.
After a long silence, he said, "I'm going back to the barracks tomorrow."
His voice sounded slightly tired, as if he were exhausted.
Qiu Yan gave a soft "hmm," and after bandaging the wound, she washed the blood-stained strips of cloth in the stream.
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