With their bellies completely full and satisfied, the Jiang family of three returned to their low-slung, mud-brick house.
Sure enough, the moment they stepped through the courtyard gate, Old Mrs. Jiang’s sarcastic, eccentric voice drifted right over: “Oh, so you actually remember the way back? I thought your whole family had been carried off by mountain wildcats! I don’t see you earning any work points, yet you run up that mountain quite frequently!”
Jiang Jianguo now had plenty of confidence, so he didn’t care in the slightest. He grinned sloppily, saying, “Mom, look at what you’re saying. Wasn’t I just thinking about bringing a little something back to help out the family? Look here,” he gestured with the wicker basket in his hand, revealing the medicinal herbs and a bundle tightly wrapped in leaves inside. “I dug up some herbs. I’ll take them to let Old Mr. Qi have a look tomorrow. Maybe I can exchange them for a little money to buy some candy and sweeten Tangtang’s mouth.”
Old Mrs. Jiang cast a sidelong glance at the basket, let out a snort, and continued to grumble and curse, “What does a little girl need candy for? It would be better spent feeding my Yaozu.”
Jiang Jianguo completely ignored her biased rhetoric. Grabbing his wife and daughter, he walked away, tuning out Old Mrs. Jiang as she continued to snarl and curse behind their backs.
The family of three ducked into their own small room, closing the door tightly to shut out all outside eyes. Jiang Tangtang immediately tugged at her father’s shirt. Tilting her little face up, she used a hushed whisper to speak with an air of absolute mystery: “Daddy, put… put those fragrant mushrooms, and a bit of the plant roots, into my little basket.”
Jiang Jianguo was taken aback. “Why put them in your basket?”
“The old grandpa… likes them placed right next to me…” Jiang Tangtang did her best to weave together childish phrasing. “He said… it’s easier to pick them up at night that way…”
Lin Wanting and Jiang Jianguo exchanged a glance, instantly catching onto their daughter’s intent—she was about to trade items with the “old grandpa.”
“Alright, we’ll do exactly as Tangtang says.” Jiang Jianguo lowered his voice, deftly removing the tightly wrapped bundle of matsutake mushrooms from the wicker basket. After a brief thought, he also pulled out two of the highest-quality Siberian Solomon’s Seal roots and placed them together into the battered little basket Jiang Tangtang usually used to play house. Then, he placed the basket in the corner at the head of Jiang Tangtang’s bed and covered it with a piece of old cloth.
Even though she knew this kind of exchange probably wouldn’t cause any harm to Tangtang, Lin Wanting still couldn’t help but feel worried.
“Tangtang,” Lin Wanting squatted down, gently smoothing her daughter’s hair as she softly instructed, “If the old grandpa comes and you feel uncomfortable anywhere, you must wake Mommy up, understand?”
“Mmh mmh, I know.” Jiang Tangtang nodded obediently.
In the dead of night, when everything was still, the moonlight cast vague shadows through the tattered cloth curtains. Once Jiang Tangtang confirmed that the parents beside her were breathing steadily and deeply, she quietly opened her eyes.
Holding her breath, she carefully reached out and dragged the little basket from the head of the bed into her blanket. Then she concentrated heavily, and the light screen of the system illuminated in her mind.
First, she recycled all the matsutake mushrooms and Siberian Solomon’s Seal roots.
[Sold Wild Matsutake x5, obtained 1,200 Gold Coins.]
[Sold Wild Siberian Solomon’s Seal x2 (Quality: Premium), obtained 550 Gold Coins.]
Adding the remaining 1,200 gold coins already in her account, her total gold coin count reached a staggering “2,950”!
This sudden sum of “massive wealth” made her heart race. Without any hesitation, she immediately tapped open the 【Douyin Shopping Mall】. Browsing through the product catalog, her gaze rapidly locked onto two items she had set her heart on:
[White Granulated Sugar (500g): 1,000 Gold Coins]
[Pork Belly (500g): 1,000 Gold Coins]
Both of these items were extraordinarily precious in this era. Sugar was a rare commodity, and meat was a source of fat and grease that ordinary families rarely laid eyes on more than a few times a year. She could already picture her mother’s blissfully happy face while drinking sweet sugar water, and her father’s satisfied expression when eating meat. She clicked purchase without a single shred of hesitation.
[Expended 2,000 Gold Coins. Successfully exchanged for “White Granulated Sugar (500g)” and “Pork Belly (500g)”! Items have been dispatched to the System Storage.]
Looking at the bag of crystalline, snow-white granulated sugar and that piece of perfectly layered pork belly inside the storage slots, Jiang Tangtang couldn’t help but eagerly look forward to the scene of them eating meat at their “secret base.” As for the remaining 950 gold coins, she decided to keep them for now in case of emergencies.
She with utmost care retrieved the two items from the system storage and placed them inside the little basket that had originally held the mountain goods. Then, she returned the basket to the head of the bed, covered it with the old cloth, and only then did she close her eyes peacefully. Filled with anticipation for tomorrow, she drifted into a deep sleep.
The next morning, just as the sky was beginning to turn light, Jiang Tangtang was awakened by an extremely gentle rocking motion. The moment she opened her eyes, she was met with her father Jiang Jianguo’s enlarged, expectancy-filled face. Her mother, Lin Wanting, was also lying on her side, staring at her without blinking an eye.
“Tangtang…” Jiang Jianguo asked in a hushed whisper, his finger quietly pointing toward the basket at the head of the bed. “Did that old grandpa… come last night…?”
Jiang Tangtang rubbed her eyes, flashing a sweet, sleepy smile, and nodded vigorously. Propping her little body up into a sitting position, her tiny hand grabbed a corner of the old cloth. Under her parents’ tense and eager gazes, she yanked it open!
In an instant, that package of shimmering white granulated sugar wrapped in coarse oilpaper, along with that glistening, beautifully layered slab of pork belly, was presented right before the three pairs of eyes!
“Hiss—” Jiang Jianguo sucked in a breath of cold air, his eyes instantly bulging like copper bells as he stared dead at that piece of meat, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down completely involuntarily.
Lin Wanting also clapped a hand over her mouth, staring at the package of white granulated sugar in absolute shock. Sugar! Such fine, snow-white sugar! She had only ever seen it from afar on the counters of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. White sugar was expensive, and it required sugar coupons to buy. Workers in the city only received two to three taels worth of sugar coupons a month, yet this was a whole pound of white granulated sugar! And that piece of meat—look at that rich fat, look at that thickness… it looked incredibly delicious.
“Grand… Grandpa said,” Jiang Tangtang chimed in at the perfect moment, playing her role as the little messenger to a tee while pointing at the items in the basket, “the sugar is for Mommy and Daddy to mix with water and drink… and the meat is for Daddy, Mommy, and Tangtang to eat together…”
Jiang Jianguo snapped out of his daze. He suddenly wrapped his arms around his wife, daughter, and that precious basket, his voice trembling slightly with sheer emotion. “Good! Good! Good! The old grandpa… no, our daughter… is truly… just amazing!”
He quickly calmed himself down, his eyes gleaming with shrewdness and decisiveness. “No one else must find out about the meat and the sugar! Wanting, slice the meat into small pieces, salt-cure it, and hide it at the very bottom of our clay pot, then cover the top with something. As for the sugar… hide it securely inside the hollow of the káng bed heating-flue. We’ll only scoop out a tiny bit each time to sweeten your and Tangtang’s mouths.”
Lin Wanting nodded heavily, her face flushing with excitement. Her hands and feet moved nimbly as she began to process these two “luxury goods” that had literally fallen from the sky.
Watching her parents work so busily and with so much hope for the future, Jiang Tangtang felt a sweetness in her heart that surpassed even the finest honey.
However, she also deeply felt that she was still far too poor. She had to find a way to earn more gold coins; there were still so many good things waiting for her in the shopping mall.