When Gu Dachui returned home, Old Madam Gu had already divided up the food—one bowl of wild vegetable paste for each person.
Gu Dachui watched his elderly parents holding their bowls of wild greens and drinking it slowly, and his heart ached beyond words.
When his parents were young, they could endure hardship, and the family could always manage a proper meal.
Even after they began supporting Chengwen’s education, they could still afford thick porridge, and every meal came with a cornbread bun. Never had things been so bad that they couldn’t even drink coarse rice porridge like today.
He told them about what had happened in the northern part of the village.
When Old Madam Gu learned that Liu Shi and the others were still raising chickens, all the anger she had bottled up for days finally exploded.
“Those damn bastards! The two old folks in our family can barely afford to eat, yet they’re living comfortably—raising chickens and even keeping a useless animal!”
Old Madam Gu had lived comfortably for many years. This was the first time she had ever gone up the mountain to dig wild vegetables, and she had even been mocked by women of her own generation for it.
She hated Gu Dachui for being useless, and even more she hated those three ungrateful white-eyed wolves in the northern part of the village!
Compared to her, Old Man Gu was much calmer.
“So what if they’re raising chickens? Even if that house of theirs has been repaired, it won’t last two years. Sure, they may have chickens and a dog, but I bet both people and dog are eating nothing but wild vegetables without oil or salt every day. It’s probably worse than our situation. Not worth getting upset over.”
After hearing his analysis, both Old Madam Gu and Gu Dachui felt it made sense, and their hearts eased a little.
Meanwhile, the “mother and three children” who were supposedly eating wild vegetables were sitting in their kitchen, happily eating fried small fish, cured pork stir-fried with wild greens, and a pot of fish head tofu soup.
The tofu was something Gu Nianzhi had taken out of her space using an excuse.
Three dishes were enough for the three of them, so she hadn’t taken much.
Although what had happened earlier left them in low spirits, it didn’t affect their appetite in the slightest.
“Big sis, I feel like I’ve gained weight!”
Gu Nian’an rubbed his little belly and let out a satisfied burp.
Gu Nianzhi looked at his sallow little face and burst out laughing.
After being hungry for so many years, how could he gain weight after just a few days of eating well? Still, all three of them looked much healthier. Liu Shi no longer felt weak and powerless, Gu Nian’an was full of energy, and even Gu Nianzhi felt stronger than before.
“Big sis, what if he comes to make trouble again?”He and his sister couldn’t lay a hand on their father. He was afraid that if it happened again, their mother wouldn’t be able to beat him and would suffer.
Gu Nianzhi thought for a moment.
She needed to keep the people in the old house busy—otherwise, if they came to cause trouble while she was away, Liu Shi would surely suffer.
“Does the eldest branch of the family usually not come back?”
If they had no money, why were they all living in town? Gu Tiezhu was the only one working there, and Gu Chengwen lived at the academy. The rest could clearly return home to work.
“They only come back during festivals, or when Gu Chengwen needs to pay tuition.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded.
The next day, rumors spread through the village that the old Gu family could barely afford food, while Gu Tiezhu was living lavishly in town with his wife and children.
The old couple found it more and more wrong the more they listened, and had Gu Dachui go to town to notify Gu Tiezhu’s family.
When the weather finally cleared, Gu Nianzhi figured mushrooms should be sprouting in the mountains. She took Liu Shi and Gu Nian’an up the mountain with her.
Before long, they had filled an entire basket with mushrooms.
“Nianzhi, this one’s poisonous! Someone in the village ate mushrooms before and ended up vomiting and having diarrhea. They only recovered after a quack doctor forced them to drink human feces.”
Just thinking about it made Liu Shi feel sick.
“I heard people in the neighboring village even died from mushroom poisoning—no amount of that stuff could save them.”
Gu Nianzhi thought to herself that those people must have eaten poisonous mushrooms.
“Mother, I ate these in my previous life. Not all mushrooms are poisonous. As long as you distinguish them carefully, nothing will happen.”
When Liu Shi heard that Gu Nianzhi had eaten them in a past life, she felt reassured and began picking mushrooms again.
She memorized which mushrooms Gu Nianzhi said were edible and which weren’t, and whenever she was unsure, she brought them over to ask.
As for Gu Nian’an—he picked every mushroom he saw. Gu Nianzhi figured she could sort them again at home, so she didn’t dampen his enthusiasm.
After an hour, all three baskets were full. They carried them home.
Liu Shi followed Gu Nianzhi’s example, slicing the mushrooms thinly and laying them out to dry. Gu Nianzhi took Gu Nian’an’s small basket and began carefully sorting through the mushrooms.
Suddenly, her hand froze.
Among the colorful mushrooms lay a lingzhi mushroom.
Gu Nianzhi: ……
It seemed that the chosen one of this generation was none other than Gu Nian’an.
Seeing Gu Nianzhi stop moving, Gu Nian’an peeked into his basket.
Nothing wrong there!
Why had big sis suddenly gone blank?
Liu Shi noticed too and patted Gu Nianzhi on the shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mother, look at this.”
Gu Nianzhi picked up the lingzhi. Liu Shi’s pupils shrank.
Lingzhi!It was actually lingzhi!
She had seen it before while serving in a wealthy household—each piece cost at least several dozen taels of silver!
“An’an, you’re truly our family’s little lucky star!”
Gu Nianzhi pulled Gu Nian’an over and pinched his cheek.
“What’s going on?”He didn’t understand why his sister and mother were so excited over that dried-up mushroom. It didn’t look tasty at all!
“This is lingzhi. We can make a lot of money selling it to a pharmacy.”
Money?
Gu Nian’an was first stunned, then burst into louder and louder laughter.
“Hahaha! I found lingzhi! Our family’s going to make big money!”
Meat!They could buy lots and lots of meat!
Now he stared at the mushroom he’d originally ignored, drooling all over it.
Seeing his greedy little face, Liu Shi felt both happy and helpless.
How did her child look so… unpromising?
Sigh.A good bamboo shoot growing from rotten bamboo—she really should be satisfied that the Gu family could produce a child like him.
“Tomorrow we’ll take the lingzhi to sell it, then buy meat for An’an.”
At the mention of meat, Gu Nian’an grinned even wider.
“Big sis, I want to eat chicken!”
He’d eaten pork and fish for several days now, but hadn’t tasted chicken yet!
“Well, look at you being picky now!”
Liu Shi affectionately poked his head, and the three of them happily continued slicing mushrooms.
“Nianzhi, how do you plan to eat these mushrooms?”
“Dry them and eat them next year. We’ll sell a small portion in a few days.”
She lacked money, but not supplies.She only needed a little cash on the surface. Since she didn’t have mushrooms stocked in her space, it was better to dry them or make mushroom paste for the family to eat slowly.
“These… can really be sold?” Liu Shi hesitated.
If anything went wrong, the three of them would bear the blame.
“Don’t worry, Mother. Not only can mushrooms be sold, they can sell for a good price.”
Liu Shi nodded and kept working.
Since her daughter had a plan, she stopped nagging.
That night, Gu Nianzhi selected a small basin of milk-cap mushrooms, washed them clean, and used dried chilies from her space to stir-fry them.
She also took out the leftover cured pork and stir-fried it with wild vegetables.
At the table, Gu Nian’an ate three bowls of rice.
It was delicious!
Who would have thought that the mushrooms growing all over the mountains could taste so good?
If he’d known earlier, he would’ve gone mushroom-picking back when he was starving so badly his chest stuck to his back.