Chapter 582 Chapter 583: Perfect Match
The three of them walked and searched, and saw colorful mushrooms hidden under the withered yellow pine needles and under the small bushes.
Li Wu picked up two mushrooms and saw some milk mushrooms in front of him. He wanted to pick up red mushrooms, but gave up.
"Oh my goodness! Two more little fat ones!"
Zhou Huaian pulled away the dead branches, patted the mushroom caps, and picked up two white boletus mushrooms. He turned around and looked at the two of them, "Old Xu, my Third Aunt, Uncle Datian... where are you going to collect them?"
When Xu Hongbing heard that Aunt Zhou San's family was selling tofu pudding while harvesting red mushrooms, he thought to himself, "Youngest brother, what do you think about us buying some salt, matches, needles and thread, and selling them while we go into the mountains to harvest red mushrooms?"
"Sure!" Zhou Huaian said with a smile, "If you want to purchase goods, you can ask my sister to take you there."
"You guys are smarter!" Li Wu smiled naively, "I just put in my strength."
Xu Hongbing looked at his small body, then at the taller Li Wu, and said with a smile: "Old Li, let's work together. One uses the brain and the other uses the strength. We are a perfect match!"
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "Old Xu, what's the point of being a perfect match with you? You should go back and ask Aunt Qian to help Brother Li find a perfect match for him."
Xu Hongbing: "You said it all, Wang Chunhua is as honest as him, and it just so happens that Cai Ermei moved to another position, so she's a perfect match."
Li Wu smiled innocently: "You two are just like old women, why don't you hurry up and find some red mushrooms!"
Zhou Huaian smirked, "Okay, I won't talk about you anymore. I'll wait for you to slowly blend in!"
Li Wu didn't respond and changed the subject, "Youngest, the forest ahead is full of people, where can we go to pick them up?"
Zhou Huaian walked to the top of the mountain ridge and thought of the forest where he and Ding Ding Mao dug out beehives last time. "Let's go over the ridge above and go to the valley below to pick up some."
"That's right!"
Zhou Huaian took the two of them along the way without any delay and arrived at the ridge where he and Zhou Yiding had looked for the little bees last time. The place where originally only white Bidens pilosa flowers bloomed, now there were many pink sea buckthorn flowers, and some had already produced sea buckthorns covered with small thorns.
"Let's go down from here." Zhou Huaian took the medicine hoe and dug up the sea buckthorn. Li Wu and Xu Hongbing hurriedly followed.
When they got to the bottom of the mountain, they saw a field of olives. The three of them picked a few and put them in their pockets. After walking a few steps, they saw a few olive trees. They picked a few yellow ones and ate them as they walked in.
Zhou Huaian seemed to see a few pointed cockleburs from the corner of his eye. He turned around and walked over, exclaiming, "Holy crap! Such a large field of cockleburs!"
Li Wu and Xu Hongbing rushed over after hearing the noise. They stared in surprise when they saw it. "Youngest brother, this is such good luck. Who would have thought that there would be such a large area of Alpinia fasciata in this mountain nest!"
"Hurry up and start sowing!" Zhou Huaian said as he put down his backpack and basket, picked up a crowbar and started working. He grabbed the mushroom stalk, inserted the crowbar into the soil and pried it up, and a chicken mushroom emerged.
"Okay!" The two of them put down their work and started working.
…
At the foot of the mountain, not long after Zhou Huaian and his companions left, Qu Qiulin arrived at his house, leading two mules. He poked his head inside and looked, "Mrs. Yang is home!"
"Hey!" Yang Chunyan came out holding the child, "You're here! It's quite early today!"
"It's much faster for me to do it alone!" Qu Qiulin took out two baskets from the rattan basket. "Inside are morels, chicken mushrooms, and big-foot mushrooms. The villagers gave them to you."
"Thank you!" Yang Chunyan said with a smile, "Tie the mule over to the woods and I'll show you some mushrooms." As she spoke, she put Xiao Jiuer on her back with a strap and helped Qu Qiulin carry the wicker basket down.
"Good!" Qu Qiulin pointed at the basket that had been lifted down. "Inside are dried morels and dried black fungus... There are also some golden thread vines, ganoderma lucidum, mulberry wood, and wild honey. This time, we also got about 20 kilograms of cliff honey."
Yang Chunyan was happy for them after hearing this, "This time they found good stuff!"
"We have good luck this time. We have been busy digging potatoes these days, so we didn't bring down some bad ones." Qu Qiulin said as he moved the rattan basket into the yard and took out the dried golden thread vine, Ganoderma lucidum...
Finally, he took out a few stones from the bottom of the basket and placed them on the ground. "Last time, I heard Brother Zhou say that you like stones with beautiful colors. We found these when we were digging in the mountains. The red color is very festive, so I brought them to you."
Yang Chunyan picked up a piece and looked at the crack in the stone. She saw the cherry-red flesh inside was delicate and moist, and the color was very beautiful.
She suddenly remembered that Zhou Xiaoqian had a set of jewelry of this color in her previous life. She said it was southern red agate. She also said it was not valuable when she bought it, but it is becoming more and more valuable now.
"This should be agate. It's too valuable. I can't have it. You take it back."
"Mrs. Yang, you are just too polite. Look at how much food we have eaten since your family started selling truffles. How can a few worthless stones you gave to me become something precious?"
"Really? These should be agate or something like that. Pick them up and put them away. When people's lives get better, these things will be valuable."
Qu Qiulin took out the bucket of honey and said, "We know! The old ladies in the village wear agate stones on their heads and ears. Sister Yang, if you don't mind, just keep it."
"If you don't mind, I'll keep it!" Yang Chunyan thought about waiting for Zhou Huaian to come back and ask him to convert it into money for them next time, so she began to sort the herbs he sent.
Seven mulberry mushrooms, although not as big as the ones they picked last time, they were still pretty good, and there were also a few purple ganoderma and fragrant blood ganoderma...
After she made her selection, she looked at the honey in the bucket and the cliff honey on the bag, "Village Chief Qu, I can't tell the difference between honey and cliff honey. I'll weigh them for you first, and I'll pay you next time you come, okay?"
Qu Qiulin nodded readily, "Okay, it will be the same next time."
Yang Chunyan brought out a scale, weighed the items, wrote him a note, and paid the money for selling the herbs.
After he counted them, he went to the wine cellar and took out the red mushrooms. "Village Chief Qu, when you go back, ask the villagers to pick these red mushrooms... The first-class ones are like this, and the second-class ones are smaller than this..."
Qu Qiulin held the red mushroom and couldn't believe his ears. "Mrs. Yang, are you sure that red mushrooms like this can be sold for money?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "I'm sure, but the premise is that the red mushroom you send must be the same as the sample I gave you."
"I guarantee it will be the same!" Qu Qiulin said excitedly, "There are a lot of them on our mountain these days, but no one has ever picked them up to eat because they are afraid they are poisonous."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Please sit for a while. I'll cook you a bowl of noodles. After you eat, go back and get someone to pick it up and bring it back."
"No, no!" Seeing that she was carrying the child, Qu Qiulin didn't feel comfortable waiting for her to cook noodles, so he quickly piled up the wicker baskets and carried them away.
"Village Chief Qu, we have steamed buns at home. Take two with you on the road!" Yang Chunyan said as she went to the kitchen, took two, and chased after him to give them to him.
"Thank you!" Qu Qiulin took it, went to the edge of the woods, put the wicker basket on the pack rack, and led the mule away.
Yang Chunyan went back and put the herbs and honey in the wine cellar. She took a colander and went to the vegetable garden to find vegetables for cooking. When she went out, she saw the old man, Zhou's mother, Zhou's father and the children coming back.
"Why are you back so early?"
Zhou's mother panted and said, "Grandpa urged us to bring back the red mushroom samples, and we didn't bring any dry food up the mountain. The children said they were so hungry that they had to come back."
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Huaian picked up a few red mushrooms in the back mountain and sent them down. Village Chief Qu has already taken the samples and left."
"Oh!" Zhou's mother sighed, "If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have rushed so fast. I'm old now, and my calves are shaking when I walk downhill."
Seeing that the three elders all looked exhausted, Yang Chunyan hurriedly said, "Go in and have a rest!"
"Aunt!" Zhou Jiaming and others followed listlessly, carrying baskets on their backs.
"How was the harvest?" Yang Chunyan looked at the children's baskets. "Wow, not bad! We can earn more than ten yuan today!"
Zhou Jiaming perked up after hearing this and winked at her, "Aunt, remember! We agreed on this this morning!"
"Remember!" Yang Chunyan smiled and handed him the basket. "You go find the vegetables, and I'll pick them and weigh them for you."
"Okay!" Zhou Jiaming happily put down his backpack and took the sieve. "Aunt, can you stew a cured pig's trotter? I'm so tired from climbing up here! I feel so hungry now, as if all the fat in my stomach is gone."
Zhou Jiakang nodded and said, "Yes, I also feel that now that I am older, climbing mountains is much more tiring than before."
"Little thing!" Zhou's mother laughed and slapped him on the forehead. "You haven't even grown all your hair yet, and you're already old. Your ancestors didn't even say you were old!"
Zhou Xiaoqian rolled her eyes at him and said, "Ha ha poke!"
"Sister!" Zhou Jiakang rubbed his forehead, "The ancestor is not old, the ancestor passed away faster than us today!"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "It's too late to stew the cured pig's trotters. I'll take out two pieces of oily meat and stir-fry some green peppers for you to eat."
"Yeah! The meat in oil has a lot of fat and water!" Several children went into the yard, put down their baskets, and followed Zhou Jiaming to look for vegetables.
Yang Chunyan asked Zhou's mother to help put Xiao Jiuer down from the sling, "You guys take a break, I'll go cook."
Father Zhou said, "Let your mother help you cook. Grandpa and I will pick out the red mushrooms. The third child should be back with the coal later."
"Okay!" Zhou's mother followed Yang Chunyan to the kitchen.
The old man and Zhou's father carried red mushrooms to the backyard to sort them. Red mushrooms are different from truffles. They have to be handled with care, and the rot and grass clippings stuck on them have to be scraped off.
At this time, Zhou Huaishan pulled a tractor full of coal into the yard, slowly poured it into the room where coal was loaded, turned off the engine, put away the crank and walked out.
He said to Zhou's father and the old man, "The price of coal at the coal yard has increased, and I heard it will continue to increase."
Father Zhou stood up and asked, "How much has the price of a tractor like this increased?"
"It's increased by five yuan!" Zhou Huaishan opened the car's floorboards. "Hurry up and unload everything in the bed. I plan to make a few more trips to fill up the empty pens at my house and my sister-in-law's house. Then I won't have to buy truffles in the second half of the year."
"That's right, five dollars at a time. If we fill up several rooms, we can save more than a hundred dollars." The old man said as he picked up a crowbar and walked forward to help shovel the coal down.
(End of this chapter)
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