The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

In the end, Chen Zhao, failing to learn the ten-verse poem, had no choice but to stretch out his hands and tightly shut his eyes under the supervision of Wen

Shu and the icy gaze of Yingbao.

Thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack!

Summoning all her strength, Yingbao slapped Chen Zhao’s hands ten times, enough to bring tears to his eyes.

Upon opening his eyes, his palms were red and swollen.

Chen Zhao managed to suppress his tears by pouting his mouth and ran back to the classroom next door with red-rimmed eyes.

After this episode, Chen Zhao never came to look for Wen Shu in Class A again, avoiding Yingbao for many days.

During this time, Yingbao managed to find the time to harvest her premium golden and silver ear mushrooms, sunning them thoroughly under the high autumn sun.

On this rest day, Yingbao put the sunned golden ear mushrooms in a clean bamboo basket, preparing to give them to her father to sell in the county town the day after tomorrow.

She used the new scale her family bought to weigh them — one hundred fifty pieces of dried golden ear mushrooms totaled four and a half pounds, while one hundred fifty pieces of dried silver ear mushrooms weighed five pounds and two ounces.

She planned to keep the leftover pieces and let her father take the rest to the county town to sell.

“Yingbao, what are you busy with?” Wen Yanmin and his wife, Xiu Zhenniang, stood outside the fence, smiling as they watched Yingbao.

When Yingbao saw it was her husband, she quickly opened the entryway to their courtyard and invited them in.

“What brings you here, sir?” She moved a bamboo chair for them to sit.

Wen Yanmin flipped his robe and sat down, laughing, “I’m free and decided to take a walk with your husband.”

Xiu Zhenniang glanced at the few baskets of golden and silver ear mushrooms and asked, “Yingbao, are you selling these mushrooms?”

Yingbao nodded, “Of course they are for sale.”

“Have they been designated for sale to a specific family?” Xiu Zhenniang asked again.

“No, my father will take them all.”

Wen Yanmin bent down to pick up a golden ear mushroom, took a sniff, and asked, “Yingbao, how much do you sell these golden ear mushrooms per ounce

“Last time my father sold them for ten taels per pound,” Yingbao honestly replied.

“Ten taels a pound, not expensive,” Wen Yanmin asked with a smile, “Would you sell them to me? I’m willing to pay twelve taels per pound.” Yingbao blinked her eyes and nodded vigorously, “Of course.” As long as the price was right, it didn’t matter who the buyer was.

“Will your parents agree?” Xiu Zhenniang asked.

“Of course, my parents would agree,” Yingbao giggled, “How much do you want? I can weigh it for you right away.”

She wouldn’t not take or take less money just because Wen Yanmin was her husband. Even biological brothers keep clear accounts. It wasn’t like she had to beg him to buy it.

“I want all of them, ” Wen Yanmin laughed and pointed at the silver ear mushrooms, “And how much is the silver ear mushroom per pound?”

“One tael of silver,” Yingbao replied, “The last time my father took them to the county town, it was one tael of silver per pound.”

“Good, I’ll take them for a tael of silver as well,” Wen Yanmin picked up a silver ear mushroom, sniffed it, and his eyes smiled like crescents.

So, Yingbao managed to sell her golden and silver ear mushrooms without even leaving the house, receiving more than sixty taels of silver.

She originally wanted to keep the golden ear mushrooms’ residue, but Wen Yanmin made a broad gesture and even bought the residues.

Yingbao didn’t mind, she collected the silver and started to allocate the mushroom hyphae.

She replanted fifty golden and fifty silver ear mushrooms in the cave and planted a hundred more outside. The extra hyphae were put into new clay jars she bought, which she prepared to give to her father for distribution.

Several busy days passed, and under the guidance of Jiang Sanlang, households in the village that planted golden ear mushroom also progressively harvested and sunned them.

The premium golden ear mushrooms of old Jiang and his two sons were also sunned, each weighing over a pound.

The next step was to sell them in the county town.

Jiang Sanlang didn’t keep any secrets, he took along his elder brother Jiang Erlang, as well as Chen Yin and Li Dayong to the Furuifeng Trading Company to sell golden ear mushrooms.

Store Manager Zhou Mao had been anxiously waiting a long time. When he heard from a shop assistant that Jiang Sanlang had arrived, he lost a shoe in his hurry.

“Hahaha, Brother Jiang, you are finally here,” Zhou Mao laughed, picked up his shoe, ordered a servant boy to make tea, and hurried to check the carts of mushrooms himself.

“How many premium products did you bring today?” He craned his neck to scan around, even picking up a piece to take a sniff.

Jiang Sanlang carried over the quasi-premium products he and his older brothers and father had grown, “Five catties of premium products in all.”

Zhou Mao picked up another piece and sniffed, feeling the fragrance was very light, not as strong as last time.

“There must be a mistake?” Picking up another piece to sniff, he felt that he might be overthinking.

However, as a businessman, if he had doubts, he had to voice them, “Is this really a premium product?”

Jiang Sanlang kept his face unchanged and said, “Yes, they’re indeed premium products.”

The premium products grown by his own little daughter had already been sold to Mr. Wen at a high price of twelve taels, so the quasi-premium products he and his father grew should be worth at least ten taels per catty.

If Zhou Mao doesn’t buy, then he would just take them back. He couldn’t show weakness at this juncture.

Zhou Mao frowned at Jiang Sanlang for a moment, then clucked dismissively,

“Whatever, just unload the goods now.”

The young assistant arrived early with a steelyard, weighing out the golden fungus basket by basket.

“A total of fifty-two catties of ordinary golden fungus, seven catties of Xue’er, five catties of premium golden fungus, three catties of Xue’er,” the assistant reported.

Zhou Mao calculated on his abacus, “A total of two hundred and twenty-two taels and five hundred coins.

Jiang Sanlang nodded.

This includes the golden fungus and Xue’er grown by other households in the village.

He had already calculated it once at home, and the amount was accurate.

Zhou Mao was pleased, and said to Jiang Sanlang, “Brother Jiang, next time you don’t need to run around. Our Store Manager said that we will come to you for collection, which will save you the trouble.”

Jiang Sanlang: “Okay.” He didn’t want to bother running back and forth anyway.

“Do you want silver notes or cash silver?” Zhou Mao asked again.

Jiang Sanlang shook his head, “Not silver notes, just cash silver. After all, we country folks can’t identify those notes.”

If he got those things, he wouldn’t know where to change them. If the silver shop ever disappeared, wouldn’t his money be lost for nothing?

Zhou Mao shook his head, not bothering to argue with such a backwoods peasant. He ordered an assistant to bring the accountant to settle the silver money.

Twenty-two silver ingots, each of ten taels, and another two thousand five hundred copper coins.

Chen Yin and Li Dayong, both seeing such a pile of silver ingots for the first time, were nearly blinded.

Good Lord, that’s a lot of money. The Jiang family has indeed struck it rich.

Returning home, Chen Yin showed the seven taels of silver to his father, “Dad, you don’t know, the golden fungus business does make money. The Jiang family made over two hundred taels this time. Goodness, you’ve been the village head for so many years, and you haven’t made that much!”

Chen Sanyou glared at his second son, “You rascal! Do you think your dad makes money by being the village head?”

Chen Yin giggled and said, “I was just drawing an analogy.”

Handing the seven taels to his father, Chen Yin added, “This time, I’m going to grow two hundred pieces. Jiang Sanlang says this is the last chance to grow golden fungus this year. We have to act quickly, otherwise, once it frosts, the fungus won’t grow.”

Chen Dafei, standing on the side, was unhappy, “What do you mean, second brother? If you’re going to grow two hundred pieces, how many will my younger brother and I grow?”

The golden fungus spawn could only be split from the previous fungus mycelium. If you wanted bigger fungus, a lump of mycelium could at most be split into three or four portions. If the second brother used up two hundred portions, would that mean he and his younger brother wouldn’t get even two hundred portions combined?

Chen Sanyou couldn’t stand it when his three sons started squabbling and immediately interjected, “Enough! Grow them together. I’m not dead yet. You brothers are arguing over such petty things. Aren’t you ashamed?” The oldest Chen boy closed his mouth huffily.

Chen Yin, however, was not upset. He immediately took his wife and ten-year-old son to divide up the fungal seeds.

He was enthusiastic because he was acting out of selfishness, wanting his wife and son to learn how to grow and care for the fungus as soon as possible.

Soon enough, he and his older and younger brothers would have to split the household. By that time, if his family all knew how to cultivate golden fungus and Xue’er, wouldn’t their future be bright?

Maybe he’d be like Jiang Sanlang, making hundreds of taels per year. Haha, just the thought made him immensely happy.

Wham! A porcelain bottle flew over from next door, almost hitting Chen Yin’s head.

Chen Yin shouted in outrage, “Who threw that? How can you just throw things like that? Can you afford to pay if you hurt someone?”

An angry shout and crying came from next door, along with chastising from the Clan Leader, “Things are turned upside down! A fight breaks out over some fungus.. You’re regressing in your ways!”