Chapter 49
After walking over carefully and taking a closer look, Gu Ran was sure that he was not mistaken.
The tall stalk that stands out among the green weeds, shaped like corn but with a color as bright as a poisonous flower, isn’t it the hairy konjac?
It is the taro plant commonly known as konjac.
It's also good stuff.
She was thinking about what business to start to increase her income. Making a living from konjac was one option, but the production process was too complicated. She could just eat it herself, but judging from the color of the konjac fruit, it was not yet fully ripe and it was not time to pick it.
So Gu Ran remembered the land where konjac grew, marked it, and waited to harvest it later.
After getting out of the weeds, I found that I had gone deeper into the woods and saw several patches of humus soil with mushrooms growing on them.
In fact, ever since she saw the bamboo fungus, she has discovered mushrooms popping up everywhere in the forest along the way, but she doesn't recognize many of them. Some of the ones she recognize, such as some Amanita, Curly-edged Agaricus, Weeping Agaricus, and Pendulous Parasol mushrooms, are poisonous mushrooms, so Gu Ran didn't dare to pick them randomly.
It seems that there are many poisonous mushrooms in this forest. I wonder if there are any edible mushrooms in the forests outside.
When you go back, take a look!
Gu Ran looked at the sunset that appeared in the forest at some unknown time, and realized that he would not be able to return to the village today.
But it's irrelevant.
She could stay overnight in the workshop, and there was food stored in Space No. 8 - she had made preparations for the possibility of having to spend the night in the mountains.
Despite this, she still found a small hill, climbed up, and chose a flat piece of land halfway up the hill to settle down.
Standing on it, one can clearly see the setting sun falling into the other side of the horizon like an egg yolk. Gu Ran then realized that from the mountain side of Dayu Lin, one can see the sea thousands of miles away.
Because there is a workshop and he can avoid danger at any time, Gu Ran is not worried even if he has to spend the night alone in the jungle.
When she was a cultivator in her previous life, she had been to many secret realms and often spent time alone. What's more, compared to the strange and bizarre evil birds and beasts in the secret realms, the mountain beasts in the island forest were not even that impressive.
Fear is not to be afraid, just be careful and vigilant.
So after watching the sunset, Gu Ran immediately went into the workshop.
At this time, the workshop seemed too small and insufficient, but there was no other way. Spaces No. 10 and No. 8 were not accessible, so she could only make do in a space of less than two square meters.
After moving the chair slightly and sitting down, he selected tonight's dinner from space grid No. 8, rested for a while, and then prepared to go to bed.
Gu Ran collected all the things on the desk and put them into the drawer below. As for the talisman leather and paper doors in the cupboard beside her, knowing that all twelve compartments of the cupboard could be repaired by drawing cards to unlock space, she had already sorted them out and put them into the storage box under the desk.
The originally messy workshop suddenly became tidy.
Gu Ran slept on the desk.
The table, including the cabinet connected to it on the other end, is exactly two meters long. Gu Ran can lie flat on the table, but it is a bit narrow and not easy to turn over.
Gu Ran slept well all night. The next day, he opened his eyes, rubbed his shoulders, and went out with the bamboo basket. It was already bright outside.
Many birds that woke up early in the morning kept chirping in the mountains and forests, and even the fog in the mountains was thinned a little by the noise.
Gu Ran didn't dare to use the water in the forest or the valley water. He just took the water he had stored before entering the mountain to wash, then stood on the mountainside to look in the direction and saw the flowing Wujiang River in the distance.
Village chief Wu once said that the outermost edge of the island forest in the northwest is the bank of the Wujiang River, so she decided to go in that direction.
After going down the mountain, we entered another forest.
Gu Ran encountered obviously more big beasts along the way. Thanks to her sharper ears and eyes than ordinary people, she did not act recklessly. Instead, when she sensed the presence of these big beasts, she hid herself alertly and escaped danger many times.
She saw a group of wild boars, two red muntjacs, mountain beavers, musk deer, gorals, and even traces of tigers.
When Gu Ran saw the beautiful spotted creature flying through the jungle, he was surprised and delighted. After secretly hiding in the workshop, he couldn't help but stick his head out to take a greedy look.
It turns out that there are such rich and diverse mountain creatures in the Lantau forest!
Unfortunately, many of them should not be caught, and some cannot be caught by one person alone.
Every time he encountered a ferocious mountain beast, Gu Ran would feel a sense of loss after carefully hiding in the workshop.
Those things that are moving around are all ingots of silver!
So, not giving up, Gu Ran quietly dug a deep pit in the mountain with a hoe, just like the mud pit trap he set before, covered it with hastily woven straw mats, and sprinkled soil, dead branches and leaves on it. He planned to wait for two days and then go into the forest again to see if he could get any harvest.
It took her another day to reach the end of the Dayu Forest and see the shimmering Wujiang River beside the forest.
From where she was standing, it seemed that the Broken Island was still some distance away, so Gu Ran continued to go south along the forest, and finally saw the confluence of the two rivers that the boat would pass through.
She saw Dunzi Island on the other side of the river and the small boats rowing through the river.
It actually takes more than two days to travel from Xiaxi Village through the island forest to the riverside at the end.
However, I have to take into account the time I spent exploring the forest. The actual distance is probably less than two days' journey. Or, if a road can be built from Xiaxi Village directly to the river, it will be even shorter.
There were not many small boats on the river, and they all passed by here in a hurry, so no one noticed Gu Ran in the dense forest by the river.
Gu Ran rested for a while, then turned back from this place and took another route to cross the island forest.
On a mountain range, she discovered a basswood forest.
It was also the flowering season of the lime trees, but Gu Ran was not attracted by the green and fragrant lime trees. Instead, he was staring at the humus soil next to the roots of the lime trees.
On the humus soil, many wild grasses, wild flowers and wild mushrooms are growing vigorously. One of them has a red cap and a white stem, which is particularly bright.
Gu Ran, who had seen many poisonous mushrooms in the forest, picked up the first red mushroom hesitantly, pulled down his mask, put it to his nose and sniffed it, as if he had found a treasure.
This is, red mushroom.
It is a summer mushroom unique to Fujian, and only likes to grow on humus soil near lime trees.
In the early days, people could only pick wild red mushrooms to eat. The yield was extremely small and the price was extremely high.
I almost mistook it for a toadstool because of its bright color.
Gu Ran looked around and saw that there was not only this one flower, but also many others scattered on the muddy ground at the roots of the linden tree.
It must have appeared after the rain a while ago.
Red mushrooms are the freshest and sweetest kind of mushrooms, so naturally they cannot be missed. Gu Ran immediately squatted down and picked the red mushrooms one by one. In order to maintain their freshness, she put them directly into space grid No. 8. Of course, in order to maintain the output of red mushrooms, she made sure to leave some mycelium in each place so that the red mushrooms could continue to grow, so that she would have mushrooms to eat continuously in the future.
Gu Ran searched almost the entire basswood forest and picked all the red mushrooms that were big enough to be picked.
Red mushrooms only begin to grow in May and June, for a short period of about a month, so they are particularly rare.
There are two harvests a year, no more than two months apart. If you miss it, you have to wait until next year.
All these red mushrooms have been picked. Come back in a few days to check. She can keep some and sell some.
Russula is a mushroom that can be sold at a high price.
With such a harvest, it can probably be sold for dozens of taels - if a buyer who knows the value of the goods can be found.
Although he didn't know whether he could sell them, Gu Ran was still very happy to encounter the red mushrooms. After picking the mushrooms, he mustered up the energy and walked a long way.
Then something bad happened.
She probably found one of the many sources of the miasma - a swamp, which was foul-smelling and full of mosquitoes, and the white bones of animals could be seen in the filthy mud.
Gu Ran was immediately discouraged and took a detour. The rest of the journey was smooth under the protection of the workshop, the best hiding place. During the journey, he encountered a wild lemon and a mugwort bush.
Lemon, also known as lemon.
I didn’t expect there are lemon trees on Lantau Island!
Unfortunately, it is not time to pick them yet, but the trees are already bearing green, thumb-sized lemons. I guess we can come in and pick them in about a month.
So she only picked a lot of mugwort, which can be used for cooking or medicine, and can also be dried and burned to repel mosquitoes.
Beyond the mugwort bushes is another mixed forest.
When Gu Ran thought he had harvested enough, he saw a patch of short green grass as he was about to reach the edge of the island forest. He originally thought it was a group of weeds, but the leaves looked a bit like mint.
Thinking that if it was mint, he could pick some and take it home to soak in water or cook. But when Gu Ran walked over, he found that it was not mint, but fairy grass.
Gu Ran's eyes immediately lit up.
With the magic grass, I finally have the livelihood I’ve been looking for for the past few days.
There is a famous frozen drink in Fujian called Shaoxiancao, which uses the grass jelly jelly made from this grass jelly as the main ingredient.
The finished product looks like ice jelly and is similar to tortoise jelly. This frozen drink is very popular in summer.
It just so happens that I have an advantage among the many snacks in the county, that is, it has a lot of ice, which can be used to make cold drinks. What's more, this fairy grass is the same as bayberry, and I don't need to spend extra money!
Gu Ran immediately picked the fresh and tender ones and harvested a large batch of fairy grass.
After she walked across the slope where the fairy grass grew, she saw her own house in the distance between the trees in the forest. It seemed that she would be able to return to the village soon.
Gu Ran paused for a moment, then walked back to the bamboo forest. He caught two bamboo rats using the old method, and then caught a rabbit in the trap before slowly leaving the forest.
Five days had passed since she left the house.
When I returned to the locked house, it was quiet inside. Only the setting sun was lazily shining on the ground. Even the cat was nowhere to be seen.
Gu Ran placed the full bamboo basket on the stone table in the corner of the patio and first checked the tangerine tree.
During her absence, the tangerine tree was covered with tiny white flowers, which smelled of a fresh fragrance.
Gu Ran took off his mask, took a deep breath, and then sniffed his body. He decided to go to the kitchen to boil some water and wash his body clean after staying in the miasma forest for several days.
However, when he opened the water tank, he saw that there was not much water left inside, so he had to carry two wooden buckets to the stream to fetch water.
Carrying the wooden barrel, he walked to the gate of the yard and happened to run into Village Chief Wu.
Village Chief Wu practically pounced on her, grabbed her by the arm, and said in a voice that was both angry and surprised: "Second Mother Gu? Where have you been?"
Seeing Gu Ran in a daze, he breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, "Didn't you leave?"
"Leave?" Gu Ran wondered, looking at Village Chief Wu's anxious face, "Where should I go?"
"You haven't been in the village these days. I thought you..." ran away like the people who were sent to Xiaxi Village before.
"Where have you been these days, you woman? Why haven't you been around?" Village Chief Wu breathed a sigh of relief, but then he scolded her again, "Why didn't you tell me? What if something happened?"
Gu Ran later found out that Village Chief Wu was the official who was responsible for reviewing and evaluating the exile every month.
On the second day after she arrived in Xiaxi Village, when she went to the county town with her, Village Chief Wu went to the Yongchang County government to handle official business and accepted the task given to her by the government.
As a result, there was no one at Gu Ran's house for several days, which led Village Chief Wu to misunderstand and think that she had escaped.
Realizing that it was a misunderstanding, Village Chief Wu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Then where were you going? I've looked for you in several places, even at Master Huang's place." Although Master Huang told her that he didn't believe that Gu Er Niang would escape from Xiaxi Village.
After all, he was still asking her to complete a big project and had paid her five taels of silver.
Five taels is not a small amount.
Master Huang firmly believed that Gu Erniang went there to get money for the windmill she had ordered from him.
Gu Ran was scooping water from the stream while listening to Village Chief Wu's chatter. After hearing Master Huang's guess, he thought that he was not wrong.
"I did go for a walk in another village."
Gu Ran made up an excuse, "You know, when I was exiled, a group of people I knew were exiled to Yongchang County. They were in the next village, and I wanted to go see them."
Village chief Wu looked at Gu Ran with a half-believing and half-doubting expression, and wanted to say something, but seeing that she was struggling to carry two buckets of water, he took the initiative to carry one bucket of water over and helped Gu Ran carry the water back to the house.
"Don't worry, Village Chief Wu, Xiaxi Village is my new home. I'm a Xiaxi Villager now. I'm not going anywhere and I won't run away."
"It's good that you know," Village Chief Wu warned, "but next time you go on a long journey, remember to report to me, or you won't be allowed to leave Xiaxi Village."
"Oh, okay, I'll do it."
Then she immediately reported that she might go to the county town to do her job in the next two days. If she was busy, she might stay in the county town for a few days. At that time, Village Chief Wu would not misunderstand that she had escaped.
"Going to the county town? What kind of business are you planning to make?" Village Chief Wu asked curiously.
The bayberry season is over, and Gu Er Niang can no longer make bayberry drink. But just a few days later, she found another job for herself?
"It's still a drink, a frozen treat. I'm thinking of making some and selling them in the county town."
Although the county town is far away and it costs fifty cents a day to get to the Donglin Township ferry, the county town has a large population and a large consumer market. In Donglin Township, she can basically sell a stable amount every day.
It's fine when you don't need money in a hurry, but if you have to save money like now, you naturally want to sell more, and it would be best to go to the county town.
When I was selling in Donglin Township, people could clearly see that I was carrying a bucket of drinks. Once it was sold, it was sold. How could I dare to take more from the space compartment?
The county town is big, so she can make more roasted grass jelly at a time, put a pot outside, and put a few buckets in space No. 8. When she arrives at the county town, she can sell one pot at the dock. If it is still early, she can go to other places in the county town, such as the commercial streets, the east and west districts, and continue to sell slowly.
No one would investigate how many drinks he had sold in the beginning, and no one should be suspicious. It was safe, and there was plenty of food that could be sold!
In addition, this roasted grass jelly is not as good as the bayberry drink. The bayberry drink is cheap, while the roasted grass jelly is expensive. People in Donglin Township who are willing to spend four cents to buy two spoons of bayberry drink may not be willing to spend six cents to buy a small spoon of roasted grass jelly.
There are many wealthy people in the county town, and there are also many merchants with money in their pockets at the dock. Naturally, they will not attach too much importance to six cents, so they still have to go to the county town to sell it.
Having made up his mind, Gu Ran did not rush to make the grass jelly. Instead, after taking a bath, with wet hair, he first watered the red oranges and phoenix grass in the courtyard, as well as the flowers, trees, ginger and onions in front of and behind the house.
The two buckets of water that were brought back were naturally not enough, so a few more buckets were drawn until the five water tanks outside the kitchen were filled.
Then he filled an empty bucket with ice cubes taken from space grid No. 10 to cool the room. He enjoyed the coolness, had a simple dinner, and then lay down on the bed and had a comfortable sleep.
After working hard for so many days, it’s time to reward yourself and relax.
The next morning, we began to count the harvest from this arduous trip into the Dayu forest: bamboo fungus, red mushroom, ground twister, raspberry, mugwort, fairy grass, bamboo rat, and rabbit.
I picked the raspberries and berries when I saw them in the woods. I planned to eat them as snacks, and the raspberries could also be used to make jam.
After sorting, they were processed. The bamboo fungus and red mushroom were divided into two parts and placed in space No. 8. Half of the mugwort was put in there, and the other half was spread out on a bamboo winnowing basket and dried. As for the grass jelly, a lot was picked, so it was placed in a separate area and will be used later when making grass jelly jelly.
Gu Ran first had to deal with the bamboo rats and rabbits.
After removing the skin and bones, the meat is placed in the space grid, and the fur must be tanned and exposed to the sun first.
As he was fixing the leather on the wooden frame and hanging it up, there was another knock on the door outside, and a woman's voice asked, "Second Mother Gu, are you home?"
Gu Ran recognized the voice of Lin Er's sister-in-law and quickly responded, "Yes, wait a moment, I'm coming."
Mrs. Lin came to give Gu Ran some sewn clothes.
Gu Ran asked Lin's second sister-in-law to make four sets of clothes for him, including inner and outer clothes, and two pairs of cloth shoes.
"Sister-in-law Lin, your craftsmanship is great. Next time I want to make clothes, I will look for you."
Gu Ran accepted the clothes with a smile, invited Mrs. Lin Er to the main hall for tea and talk, and gave her the wages.
"OK!"
When she entered, Second Aunt Lin noticed the hides Gu Ran had hung up. She stopped in the courtyard and glanced at the baskets of things Gu Ran had taken out to dry. Her eyes fell on the hides hanging. "Hey, Second Aunt Gu, is this something you...something you brought back? What kind of hides are these?"
"Hey, just some rabbits from the mountains!" Gu Ran said with a smile, "I was lucky enough to catch them when I went to the next village recently."
"Can you catch rabbits?"
"Yes!" Gu Ran asked tentatively, "Then have other hunters ever gone into our village's Dayu Forest to look for rabbits?"
"Going into Dayu Forest? Who would dare?" Mrs. Lin shook her head. "Look at how terrifying the miasma is. If you just go in, you'll lose your life. How can you even look for rabbits?"
"Oh! That's right." Gu Ran nodded.
"You're still planting... what is this?" Mrs. Lin was stunned when she saw the red tangerine tree covered in flowers. "Is this, an orange tree?"
"Yes, Mrs. Lin, you also recognize this as an orange tree, right?"
"Of course I recognize them. In Donglin Township and several nearby villages, many people grow orange trees and sell them for money."
"real?"
"Really! Many merchants are interested in buying our oranges. They say they're very popular whether they're sold in Southeast Asia or sent north," said Mrs. Lin. "Even if the emperor wants to eat oranges, he has to grow them here and send them as tribute."
"That's amazing." Gu Ran was also delighted. "Sister-in-law Lin, do you know which families grow oranges? Can you take me to see them?"
Some people grow oranges, which means that by autumn, there will be a lot of oranges on the market, right?
How could Gu Ran, who loves oranges, not be happy?
She can now eat oranges like she did in her previous two lives.
There is still space grid No. 8 now. If you buy more and stock up, you can eat oranges all year round, right?
"It's not possible now. It's too late for your orange tree. The orange trees in the mountains have all yielded fruit and are being looked after by hired hands. Outsiders are not allowed in." Mrs. Lin said, "But when the oranges are ripe, they will hire workers to work in the garden. If you're willing, I can invite you to come with me."
"Okay, it's settled."
When Gu Ran sent Lin Ersao away, she gave her a bamboo basket of ground cucumbers picked in the mountains, and asked her to give them to the young men and women in the family. She also thanked Lin Ersao for telling her the good news.
Someone is growing oranges!
She almost forgot that the Fuzhou oranges are also famous.
In order to buy as many oranges as possible when they are released, there is another motivation to make money.
Gu Ran immediately took out the herb and planned to start making herb jelly.
Remove the rhizomes and dead leaves from the fairy grass. Most importantly, clean all the dust and fine sand adhering to it, then cut it into sections, put it in a pot, add water, and boil it over high heat.
This will take a long time.
Because the grass jelly in the pot must be stewed until it is soft, so that a thick and thick juice can be stewed out, and the final grass jelly jelly will be fragrant.
When the heat is right and the cactus inside is rotten, it can be taken out of the pot.
At this time, the grass residue and juice are mixed together, so the juice must be filtered. After filtering, wash the stew pot clean, pour the pure juice that has been removed from the grass residue into the pot, and continue to cook on low heat for the most critical step: adding fiber powder, also called dough powder.
This is the starch that the chef in the kitchen often uses to thicken dishes.
When Gu Ran was purchasing food, he noticed that there were many kinds of starch used for thickening in Dasheng Dynasty, including wheat flour, corn flour, pea flour, tapioca flour, etc.
She even saw some small food vendors in the county town popularize the skill of using fiber starch to thicken the food.
Fiber powder is added to the grass jelly juice to make the grass jelly solidify into clumps.
While heating, stir the fiber powder and grass jelly juice evenly. The grass jelly juice will slowly become mushy. At this time, you can stop, turn off the heat, and wait for it to cool down slowly.
Of course, Gu Ran didn't have to wait for it to cool down slowly. She had space grid number ten, which was ten degrees below zero. She put the pot directly in. After a while, she took it out and the pot was full of solidified grass jelly.
Cut the whole piece of grass jelly into small pieces with a knife, put it in a bowl, add sugar, honey or other ingredients, and you will have a bowl of successful grass jelly!
After it was done, Gu Ran ate a bowl by himself. It was smooth, delicious, chewy and thick!
After finishing the meal, looking at the pot of grass jelly, Gu Ran smiled and said: Very good, I can go sell roasted grass jelly tomorrow!
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