Chapter 98 97: Good Luck is in Your Own Hands
Zhao Huifang said: "Let's go pick up the chicken mushrooms first, otherwise they will be picked up by others if we are late."
"Yes." The four of them carried their backpacks and vegetable baskets and walked up the mountain.
Walking upwards, the fallen leaves and humus underfoot were very thick and soft when stepped on. Yang Chunyan felt that there must be a lot of mushrooms hidden in it.
The four of them were busy going up the mountain to pick chicken mushrooms and did not dig through the grass and fallen leaves to look for them.
Walking out of the chestnut forest, Yang Chunyan picked up some green mulberry and brush mushroom, and also found a few golden vines and chicken shit vines. She didn't plan to dig herbs today, she just wanted to pick mushrooms, so she ignored them.
The few of them went up all the way and unknowingly climbed over a beam.
From time to time, you can see women carrying baskets on their backs, girls and boys picking mushrooms in the woods.
Yang Chunyan followed Zhao Huifang and the other two down the mountain. On the way, they saw several Millettia reticulata, some Dioscorea bulbifera, Codonopsis pilosula and other herbs.
She stopped and looked at the misty forest, feeling that the forest was a treasure these days.
"Chunyan, let's go!" Zhao Huifang turned around and shouted.
"Here we come!" Yang Chunyan came back to her senses and followed the three people forward, looking for herbs and watching the grass for mushrooms. Suddenly, she found a small mound of earth on the side of the road and walked over excitedly.
People who have never picked up chicken mushrooms don't know the secret of the small mounds, but people in the mountains know it. That is, the chicken mushrooms are about to emerge!
"Sister-in-law, there are chicken mushrooms here." Yang Chunyan said as she squatted down and gently lifted the small mound of earth with a wooden stick, revealing the pointed heads of the chicken mushrooms.
Zhao Huifang came back and squatted down to take a look. "It's a large chicken mushroom. It looks quite big."
"Yes!" Yang Chunyan took the sickle handed over by Zhao Huifang, dug up the soil and pulled up the chicken mushroom. A mushroom about 50 cm long and with a stem as thick as a child's arm appeared in front of several people.
Li Qiuyue exclaimed, "Oh my god, it's so big!"
"This one flower is enough for a meal." Zhang Xiufang said, "Chunyan is lucky. We didn't see it when we walked past."
Yang Chunyan gently covered the soil back and said, "You were busy going to the chicken mushroom nest and didn't pay attention."
Li Qiuyue saw Yang Chunyan put the chicken mushrooms in the backpack, "Let's go down quickly, otherwise the chicken mushroom nest will be discovered later."
"Okay!" The four of them quickened their pace and arrived at the mountain nest of chicken mushrooms they found last year.
A large area of densely packed torch mushrooms appeared before their eyes, and the tender white caps had already broken through the soil. The few people felt like they had found a treasure.
Alpinia fasciata is flat in nature and sweet in taste. It has the effects of nourishing the stomach and intestines, curing hemorrhoids and stopping bleeding, benefiting the stomach, clearing the mind, and curing hemorrhoids. It can treat spleen deficiency, poor appetite, indigestion, hemorrhoid bleeding, etc.
There are several varieties of Chicken Mushroom. The locals in Ning'an call the one with a white cap white-skinned Chicken Mushroom, and the one with a yellow cap yellow Chicken Mushroom or big Chicken Mushroom. This kind of Chicken Mushroom is the one that Yang Chunyan picked up above.
There are also green chicken mushrooms with dark blue caps, gray yellow chicken mushrooms, and chicken mushrooms with cracked caps revealing white flesh, which is called flower-skinned chicken mushrooms.
Chicken mushroom is a clump-growing fungus. Dozens to hundreds of them are connected together and are called torch chicken mushroom or nest chicken mushroom.
The ones whose caps have not yet opened are called garlic chicken mushrooms, which are named because the color and shape of the chicken mushroom caps are similar to garlic. The best quality of chicken mushrooms is when the caps are not opened, followed by half-opened, and the worst is when the caps are fully opened.
The chicken mushroom with unopened cap has the crispest texture, the sweetest taste and the highest price.
Therefore, people go out early in the morning to pick chicken mushrooms, because the caps of chicken mushrooms will open after the sun comes out, and the price of chicken mushrooms with opened caps is also much cheaper.
Chicken mushrooms are actually mushrooms grown by termites. The roots of chicken mushrooms are termite nests. They are similar to Cordyceps sinensis. Each nest of chicken mushrooms has a growth cycle of three years. After three years, the termites move away, and no more chicken mushrooms will grow in that area.
There is another trick to finding chicken mushrooms, which is to look at which direction the head of the chicken mushroom is leaning, and then look in that direction. If you walk out within a radius of 50 meters, you will most likely find other chicken mushroom nests.
If you can't find it, it just means that your luck is really bad. Yang Chunyan feels that she was a person with extremely bad luck in her previous life.
"Oh my god!" Zhao Huifang exclaimed happily, "This year there are more than last year."
"Luckily it wasn't picked up by anyone, otherwise I would have been heartbroken." Li Qiuyue happily put down the backpack, picked up the crowbar and started working.
Yang Chunyan walked to a clump of chicken mushrooms, squatted down, grabbed one, and pried it up gently with a crowbar. "After digging these up, there will be about ten pounds!"
Li Qiuyue put one down and said, "It would be nice if these were all yellow chicken mushrooms, like the one Chunyan just had, which weighs at least a pound. Torch chicken mushrooms are too small."
Zhang Xiuxiang, "I haven't found more than three large chicken mushrooms."
Zhao Huifang, "I think the big chicken mushrooms are too thick, and there's not enough heat to make them crispy when stir-fried."
Yang Chunyan thought of Huang, the purchasing manager of the guesthouse, and said, "Take Ning'an and sell it. It should be able to fetch a good price."
"Tell the third brother to send the mushrooms to Ning'an tomorrow." Li Qiuyue thought of something, "Chunyan, have you told the youngest brother to collect eels at home?"
Yang Chunyan shook her head, "No, someone sent it to him, he should know how to accept it."
"Chunyan, where do you think the fishmongers buy eels and sell them?"
"Maybe he was sent to Gangcheng? There are steel mills and coal mines there, there are many workers, and they can afford good food."
"It's better to be a worker. You have a stable job and get paid by the government. When my parents retire, my children can take over the job."
Who would have thought that in a dozen years, the iron rice bowl that everyone envied would be broken. Even an iron rice bowl is not secure, only holding your own rice bowl is secure.
The four sisters-in-law were chatting while prying the chicken mushrooms. Half an hour later, all the chicken mushrooms were loaded into the backpack, about five or six pounds per person.
After picking up the mushrooms, several people began to cover up the loosened soil. You can still pick them during these days the next year, with a difference of only a few days at most, as if the date was set by someone.
At this time, several more people came over, and the tall woman greeted them with a smile, "Huifang, it's you!"
A few people looked at the loosened soil and then at their backpacks, revealing envious expressions.
Yang Chunyan looked back and smiled politely. She couldn't remember the names of these people.
Zhao Huifang looked up, saw a few people and smiled: "Hongying, you are here too! Did you pick up a lot?"
Li Hongying pointed to the basket on her back and said, "I picked up a few big-foot mushrooms and about one or two kilograms of chicken mushrooms. The rest are miscellaneous mushrooms."
Another woman looked at the baskets of the people and said, "Wow, you picked up so many chicken mushrooms!"
Zhao Huifang knew that this chicken mushroom nest was no longer safe, "I'm lucky, I just found it." Fortunately, I came early, otherwise this nest would be gone.
Li Qiuyue was too lazy to cover the soil anymore, so she pulled Yang Chunyan and carried the basket on her back, "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, let's go over there and take a look."
"Okay!" Zhao Huifang also picked up the backpack, "Hongying, do you still want to go inside?"
Li Hongying nodded, "Let's go in and take a look."
The two groups separated and went their separate ways, each wanting to see if there were any more chicken mushroom nests nearby.
(End of this chapter)
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