Chapter 253 Can you lead Hezibao out of here?
The Sichuan peppercorns are good quality, and the quantity is sufficient. If we can successfully cultivate Sichuan peppercorns here, transporting one product or two products is the same, so there's not much difference.
But now, the villagers have dug up all the hot pot peppers. If they can't be planted, they're just disposable items. He and Uncle Dongliang can take away dozens of kilograms of hot pot peppers.
Now it mainly depends on Li Yanfu's mother. If the survival rate of the planted peppercorns is high, Xu An wouldn't mind buying them all at once; but if the survival rate is low, then forget it. Hezibao is really not an ordinary remote place, and the transportation costs alone will be enough to give Xu An a hard time.
Perhaps because Xu An remained silent, or perhaps because Li Sixin felt the timing was inappropriate, he stepped in to smooth things over.
"Haha, just kidding, Mr. Xu. Come on, let's go into the mountains. Even though the sun's blazing, it'll cool off once we're in the mountains..."
"Indeed, the higher you go up in this mountain, the lower the temperature gets..."
Xu An and Li Sixin continued their conversation, and the atmosphere became lively again, as if the silence just moments before was merely their imagination.
Most of the villagers here get up at four or five in the morning to be among the first to go into the mountains to pick mushrooms. It's around noon now, which is when they're heading home. After Xu An and his group walked up the mountain along the path, they encountered many villagers coming down the mountain.
How was the harvest today?
"Not very good. Less than a pound. There are also some cheap goods that are edible but the buyers don't want."
"You don't have many either."
We encountered many mushrooms along the way. The red-umbrella-shaped ones with white stems were obviously poisonous; some mushrooms looked extremely harmful, practically screaming "Eat you, eat you, eat you slowly!", but upon inquiry, they turned out to be poisonous...
"Hey, you naughty one, over there, over there."
Upon hearing this, the villagers, almost without any affection for her, rummaged through their baskets and pulled out a bunch of large-budded dried mushrooms. One of them even took out a plastic bag from his pocket, put all of the young man's dried mushrooms together, and handed it to Li Yanfu.
"That bag is full of dried mushrooms, and there's so little of it. I'll make dried mushroom fried rice tonight. There's also a half-pound of mixed mushrooms over there. We can make soup with them or stir-fry them with meat. Mr. Xu, which way of cooking would you like to try?"
"No, no, no, you picked eight big buds and gave them to Secretary You."
"Two months before you graduated, the village party secretary at the time came to you and asked you a question."
As he spoke, Li Yanfu sighed, whether out of emotion or relief.
I specifically instructed them not to tell anyone about it after it was done, so why are people in the distant village digging for spicy food?
They walked and stopped, searching for mushrooms, until they reached the top of the mountain. The mushrooms they had collected weighed more than half a kilogram.
On the way down the mountain, we still encountered more mushroom pickers, and several people carrying baskets on their backs and holding a few stalks of spicy peppers in their hands, their eyes red and noses sneezing as they made their way up. There were no villagers from Li Sixin's village or any villagers from the distant villages among them.
"Mr. Xu, aren't you interested in hearing how you managed to get through elementary school?" Li Yanfu didn't directly answer Xu An's question, but instead asked him back.
“Secretary Li, I heard from Yanfu that he was the first primary school student in Li Sixin. When he graduated, he also found a bad job. Why would he think of returning to Li Sixin to be the village secretary, and not just for a few years?” Another mountain wind blew by, and Zhen Da’s voice was carried by the wind, sounding ethereal and unreal.
Xu An sensed a hint of entrustment in those simple words.
“Whether it’s a mistake or not, that one dried mushroom alone is enough to make him a week’s income from coming down the mountain.” Li Yanfu patted the man’s shoulder with satisfaction, glanced back at Xu An and the others, and said to the mushroom pickers around him, “They didn’t pick any dried mushrooms, so let’s forget about the small ones, but we’ll give you the big ones to make up for it, see if we’re missing anything.”
When that dried mushroom appeared, not only Zhen Da and his group, but even the passing young mushroom pickers couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, holding the dried mushroom in both hands. They had indeed seen it a few times before.
"That 'Ghost-Seeing Sorrow' has a very mild smell. When it was finished, we planted it outside the yard. We scattered a handful of seeds and only two plants survived. The fumes from day and night made it hard for people to sleep. It was unbearable. So we cleared a large plot of land at the foot of that big hill to plant it."
Wow!
The silence was profound, an atmosphere that lasted until the seven of them reached the foot of the mountain, arrived at their home in Hezibao, and met Hezibao's mother.
Xu An glanced at the several large hens running around outside the yard and said with a smile, "Auntie, let's stir-fry some meat. We had soup yesterday, so let's see how it tastes stir-fried today."
However, since the main task at present was to take Xu An and the other two to experience the fun of mushroom picking, Li Yanfu was puzzled for a moment. He wondered whether he should continue to think about it further and continue to take Xu An to search for mushrooms outside the mountains with Hezibao.
Hearing those seemingly ordinary words, Xu An felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on his heart; loving her meant he couldn't breathe.
The mother from Hezibao took the mushrooms from Li Yanfu and praised them profusely, then proceeded to arrange their final destination.
“The school is very, very far from Li Sixin. He has to get up at seven o’clock in the morning and walk for two hours on mountain roads to get there. Since the journey is so far, he might have to go home for lunch, so he has to bring his own rice and vegetables to the school. Because of that lunch, your family is planning to let you study. If you study, you can save on textbook and food costs and also help your family with some chores.”
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