“Little miss, I’ll take all of your mushroom paste at one tael of silver per jar. As for the dried mushrooms…”
He hadn’t tasted them yet, so he couldn’t make a decision.
Besides, dried mushrooms didn’t require nearly as much processing as mushroom paste.
At a glance, he could tell these were simply the wild mushrooms that had grown in the mountains a few days ago—this girl just knew which varieties were poisonous and which weren’t, so she dried them.
If he bought some this year, then next year he could send servants into the mountains to gather mushrooms and make them himself, greatly reducing costs.
“Master Chen, a small handful of dried mushrooms can soak into a whole basin. And as you can see, these are sun-dried wild mushrooms from the mountains. You only need to remember which kinds are non-toxic, and next year you can gather them yourself. So this year’s dried mushrooms are mainly about novelty—wouldn’t you agree?”
Master Chen immediately understood that the girl wasn’t going to lower her price, but he also felt her words made sense.
“Then how do you plan to sell them?”
“Ten taels of silver per sack. There are twenty sacks in total.”
Master Chen frowned.
Ten taels per sack was expensive!
These were just mushrooms—find them, dry them, and that was it. They really weren’t worth that much.
Seeing his expression, Gu Nianzhi knew he thought the price was too high.
“Master Chen, the dried mushrooms are packed in burlap sacks. Each sack weighs over sixty jin. Once soaked, it’s enough for a restaurant to sell for several days.”
The sacks at her home were enormous—those twenty sacks had filled half her room.
Hearing this, Master Chen didn’t rush to agree.
No matter what, he needed to taste them first.
Since the mushrooms needed to be soaked overnight, Gu Nianzhi left the Chen residence for the time being.
The vegetables at home were nearly ready to harvest, the cured meat was long gone, and they were almost out of oil. Carrying an empty basket, she went to the butcher’s stall.
“Two jin of fatty pork, and two jin of tenderloin.”
“Coming right up!”
Seeing her again, the butcher immediately beamed. He cut the meat, wrapped it in banana leaves, and placed it into her basket.
Thinking that the household needed more seasonings, Gu Nianzhi stopped by the general store to buy some salt, sesame seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise. She didn’t buy much—just enough so everything had a proper explanation.
As she neared home and saw no one around, she reached into her basket and took out a large pile of seasonings from her spatial storage. She also put in a whole pork leg, then finally added a coarse cloth sack filled with a hundred jin of rice.
Thinking of little Gu Nian’an, she also took out some small pastries and candies.
Gu Nianzhi thought to herself that it was a good thing she was strong—otherwise, she’d be exhausted to death.
“Mother, I’m back.”
At home, Liu-shi was picking vegetable leaves under the osmanthus tree.
The small bok choy in the field was already edible. She sorted out the poorer leaves to feed the chickens and rabbits, while a small basket beside her held a bunch of cleaned wild scallions.
Seeing her daughter return with a basket full to the brim, she hurried over to help.
“Why did you buy so many things again?”
Her daughter was good in every way—except that she loved spending money! Every time she went to town, she came back carrying heaps of food and supplies. Watching their home gradually fill up, Liu-shi actually felt a trace of reluctance.
“Mother, we’re almost out of rice, so I bought another hundred jin. And pork—I bought a whole pork leg. When we get back, smoke it. Winter’s coming soon, so we need to stock up on food.”
Here, winter could bring continuous snowfall for an entire month.
When it was bitterly cold, even going to town was inconvenient.
If they didn’t prepare in advance, the three-month winter would be very hard to endure.
“Starting tomorrow, I’ll go chop firewood so we can stay warm in winter.”
People in town burned charcoal for heat, but charcoal was expensive. Villagers prepared firewood two months in advance and spent the winter huddled around the stove.
She still remembered last winter—her branch of the family didn’t even have a thick quilt. At night, they shivered from the cold, and Gu Nian’an had a low-grade fever that lasted a full month. Old Madam Gu refused to spend money on medicine, so they had no choice but to endure it.
“Mother, tomorrow go ask Uncle Daniu if he can help us build a woodshed. It doesn’t need to be fancy—just sturdy enough not to collapse under heavy snow.”
They only had three rooms now, with nowhere to store firewood. Once buried under snow in winter, it would be hard to burn and would sting the eyes with smoke.
“Big sister, what about Eleven?”
Right—there was also the dog!
Eleven had grown into a big dog by now, wandering around the house whenever it pleased. Gu Dazhuang had come by once and been scared away by it.
“When we have time, we’ll use mud and straw to build Eleven a small earthen doghouse. It’ll be warm and sturdy in winter.”
“Okay!”
With everything arranged, they hung up the pork leg. The rest of the meat would be eaten over the next few days.
Some time earlier, Gu Tiezhu had been forced by pressure to give the old household over seven hundred copper coins. Though it wasn’t much, it was enough for Old Madam Gu’s three-person household to get by.
Combined with the money Gu Dazhuang earned from odd jobs and the wild vegetables Old Madam Gu dug up daily, they could at least fill their stomachs.
Since they weren’t starving but still barely scraping by, they naturally had no time to come cause trouble.
The only question was whether, with not even one tael of silver to their name, they would survive the flight from famine next year.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t want to concern herself with that. What she needed to do now was sell off these space-hogging mushrooms as soon as possible and directly improve her family’s life!
After tasting the dried mushrooms and thinking it over several times, Master Chen finally decided to buy all of them—but he could only pay one hundred taels.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t haggle. She had more goods than she could use anyway, and as long as the money was enough, that was fine. After reaching an agreement, both sides signed a contract.
Three days later, Steward Song arrived at Gu Nianzhi’s home with more than twenty household servants to collect the goods. The villagers were stunned at the sight of five or six donkey carts.
When they heard the carts were there to load goods from Gu Nianzhi’s home, everyone said her family had made a fortune, and many households were burning with envy.
Old Madam Gu was also in the crowd. Summoning her courage, she stepped up to Steward Song.
“Sir, so many donkey carts came to haul goods—does that mean they earned quite a lot of money?”
Gu Nianzhi had already instructed them: if villagers asked how much money was earned, they were to say three taels.
When Steward Song first heard this, he had nearly sprayed out his tea.
Over three thousand taels reduced to three taels—this girl was ruthless!
But since it was her instruction, he naturally wouldn’t expose her.
When Steward Song said “three taels,” many people’s eyes lit up.
That was already quite a sum!
Some, however, just shook their heads and walked away.
Soon, Steward Song’s group arrived at the foot of the mountain. Seeing the small fenced courtyard and the lonely three thatched huts, he rolled his eyes.
He remembered that the girl had earned dozens of taels from hunting before. Adding this time’s three thousand-plus taels, she could have bought several large estates in town!
Though that’s what he thought, his expression remained calm.
“Little miss, here is the payment. Please check it.”
As he spoke, two servants carried over a wooden chest and placed it in front of Gu Nianzhi.
Usually, sums of over three thousand taels were paid in banknotes, but Gu Nianzhi had told Master Chen she wanted only silver.
Inside were fifty-tael silver ingots, ten-tael ingots, and some loose silver.
While Gu Nianzhi counted the silver, the servants had already loaded the mushroom paste and dried mushrooms onto the donkey carts.
Steward Song rubbed his hands together.
This time, he had rendered a great service to the Chen family as well! If the Chen family’s restaurants flourished, he would surely receive more rewards.
The happier he felt, the more warmly he greeted Gu Nianzhi as he left, telling her not to forget him if she ever had good goods again!