The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

On an early autumn afternoon, an autumn rain washed away the summer heat, and the occasional breeze swept away the fatigue.

Shen Cao and his group walked along the country road with baskets on their backs, while a few people were busy in the fields around them.

Upon seeing them, they all cast curious glances their way.

Shen Cao felt that these people looked familiar, but she couldn't remember their names.

The village chief, however, greeted everyone and introduced Shen Cao and the others to them. After a brief greeting, they left.

As soon as they left, the people in the field started talking.

"The Shen family has really prospered. Look at the clothes those kids are wearing; they're dressed better than we were for Chinese New Year."

"Especially that adult among them, who looked to be only in his forties, didn't look like an ordinary person; the fabric of his clothes was so shiny it was reflective."

"I just saw the village chief carrying a bag full of Guo Suo. The river is overflowing with those things. I don't know what they're catching those things for."

"Who knows."

"Sigh, we're doomed, let's just get back to work."

……

When they reached the large banyan tree at the entrance, the people under the tree stared at them even more brazenly.

One of the people who had been secretly carrying a basket to peek at what good things they were picking, quietly gestured to the others, 'See? I told you so. They're just picking mushrooms nobody wants to eat.'

Shen Cao's basket was a bit torn, and a small stalk of Bodhi seed was leaking out of the hole and fell to the ground.

Shen Cao didn't notice, but the onlookers saw it all clearly.

Many people looked terrified, clearly frightened by the sight of the blue bonito.

But none of them wanted to warn Shen Cao and the others; like the previous person, they all wanted to watch the show.

Back at the village chief's house, Shen Cao quickly sorted the mushrooms, and the village chief's wife had already prepared the meal.

Since the village chief didn't know how to handle the Boletus edulis, she took all of them. As for the remaining Boletus and Termitomyces, Shen Cao gave half to the village chief, but he didn't want that much, keeping only a quarter.

“Hey! These things are everywhere on the mountain, I can pick them anytime. But you guys don’t come back often, so why don’t you take more back with you?”

Shen Cao thought about it and decided not to refuse.

Seeing that the village chief's wife had prepared the meal, Shen Cao washed the crabs and steamed a pot of hairy crabs.

Everyone was tired from hiking in the mountains today, so even though the village chief's wife's meal was very simple, everyone finished it.

Nobody eats the hairy crabs.

Shen Cao took a large hairy crab first, and she asked the village chief to wash the scissors early in the morning.

She picked out a female crab that wasn't the biggest, and skillfully lifted its shell.

Wow! The golden crab roe has solidified into a solid mass, and the crab oil is overflowing.

She quickly lowered her head and took a sip; the crab roe was incredibly sweet and delicious.

She first used chopsticks to scoop out the crab roe from the crab shell and then removed the crab's mouthparts. The crab shell was full of crab roe.

After removing the crab gills and heart, she then scooped the crab roe from the crab body back into the shell.

Then, she skillfully snapped the crab's body in two.

She picked up one half and cut it horizontally with scissors, making it very easy to remove the meat from the crab body. After quickly processing the crab body, the crab meat and crab roe inside the shell had already overflowed.

She then cut the crab legs apart at the joints, and with the thinner front half of the crab leg, she poked it from behind the thicker crab leg, and the meat came out intact.

The village chief and the others were stunned by what Shen Cao did.

No wonder they can't eat crab meat; they just don't know how to eat it.

The crab shell is full of meat and crab roe, so who can say there's not much meat to eat?

After all the crab meat was removed, she used a small spoon to scoop a spoonful of ginger and vinegar and poured it into the crab shell.

Next, she began to slowly enjoy her crab.

Others followed suit and began to slowly peel the crab meat.

It was just that it was my first time, so I was a little unfamiliar with things and would ask Shen Cao for help from time to time.

There is currently little environmental pollution, and the river water is very clear, so the crabs' gills are all white and free of any impurities.

The village chief had previously thought that crab gills were edible and had eaten them all. He then complained that they tasted terrible, realizing that they were inedible at all.

It was Grand Tutor Zhou's first time eating crab, and he was a bit flustered.

After managing to extract all the crab meat, he first tasted it on its own; it was fresh and sweet.

He took another big bite of the crab roe mixture; it was delicious, but a bit greasy.

He added a small spoonful of vinegar and took another bite.

Wow! Not only did the sweetness become more pronounced with the help of vinegar, but the slightly sour vinegar also completely eliminated the greasiness.

He gave Shen Cao a thumbs up again. When it comes to eating, he used to be second to none.

Now, he admits defeat.

He quickly finished one crab, then took a larger one and started eating it.

After we finished eating, it was already quite late.

Shen Cao asked the village chief to take out the dried chili peppers and dried bamboo shoots he had dried and weigh them.

There are a total of 100 jin of dried chili peppers and 200 jin of dried bamboo shoots.

One pound of dried chili peppers costs ten coins, and one pound of dried bamboo shoots costs three coins, totaling one ounce and six hundred coins.

Shen Cao gave him three taels of silver directly, since the village chief and the others had picked quite a few mushrooms and crabs today.

"Shen, why are you giving so much? I don't need this much."

"Uncle Village Chief, here are some mushrooms for today, please take them."

Knowing Shen Cao's character, the village chief didn't stand on ceremony with her. Before leaving, he added about ten kilograms of dried porcini mushrooms that had been sun-dried a couple of days earlier to the pile of goods.

The group first left their things at the village chief's house, and Shen Cao went to the old Shen family house alone.

She had specifically learned how to drive a horse-drawn carriage beforehand, and this time she drove the carriage herself to bring them to Stone Village.

She first drove the carriage to the village chief's house and then took all the goods back to the Shen family's old house.

There was just too much stuff this time; the carriage couldn't hold it all.

She first unloaded the dried chili peppers and dried bamboo shoots and put them in the kitchen.

Sun-dried goods are easy to preserve, and she plans to take them back with her next visit.

Others helped her move her things to the kitchen.

As soon as Shen Cao entered the kitchen, she smelled a faint, almost imperceptible odor of blood.

After putting her things away, she excused herself by saying she needed to tidy up and sent the others to the yard.

She carefully examined the kitchen, which was covered in a layer of dust because no one had lived there for a long time.

It looked exactly the same as when she moved, but she still sensed that something had been moved.

She walked cautiously toward where the firewood was stored, and at first she did not notice anything unusual.

Just as she was about to turn around, she suddenly heard a slight noise coming from under the firewood.

She took out the dagger that Wei Siyu had given her from her bosom and held it tightly in her hand.

She moved the firewood away little by little.

There was even a layer of thatch under the firewood.

She didn't remember putting so much straw in the kitchen before.

Thatch is flammable, and she was afraid of starting a fire, so she always took it from outside as needed.

She said that when she first arrived, she felt that something was strange about the yard.

Thinking about it now, it turns out that the haystack in the yard has gotten smaller.

She gently parted the thatch, and the scene before her startled her so much that she stumbled and took a few steps back.

He quickly covered his mouth with one hand to prevent himself from making a sound.

She was so nervous that she almost dropped the dagger in her hand.