Travel to the mountains and make a fortune in silence

After the rain, all of Wang Qing'er's seeds had sprouted, with a germination rate of over 90%.

Wang Cuiying has already pickled the sauerkraut and salted duck eggs, and they will be ready to eat in about a month.

The bamboo shoots that couldn't be sold each day were either blanched and dried, or soaked by Wang Cuiying.

After breakfast that day, Wang Qing'er thought of the tea bushes she had seen on the mountain a few days ago, which were not far from her home.

Seeing that the new shoots had sprouted that day, I figured we could harvest them today. So I said to Wang Cuiying, “Mom, I found something good yesterday that’s sure to make money. Come with me. It’s on the back hill, not far from home.”

“Okay, I’ll go with you after I finish feeding the pigs.” Wang Cuiying readily agreed. She also realized that her daughter-in-law knew a lot, and if she said something was good, it must really be good.

Taking advantage of her free time, Wang Qing'er turned over the mushrooms and bamboo shoots that were drying in the yard, picked up a stool, sat down, and tore the bamboo shoots apart, tearing the thick ones into four strips and the thin ones in half.

Mushrooms are now abundant in the mountains. If we can't sell them all every day, we dry them to keep at home or sell them to restaurants when fresh mushrooms are no longer available.

Just as the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were about to set off, Mu Nan returned carrying a basket of bamboo shoots. Seeing that the two were also about to leave, she asked, "Mother, Qing'er, where are you going?"

“Keep breaking bamboo shoots. Qing’er said she saw something good yesterday, in the back hill, not far from home. I’ll go with her to take a look,” Wang Cuiying said happily to her son.

Mu Nan put down the bamboo shoots and sat down next to Wang Qing'er. "You should rest at home today and not go up the mountain."

Thinking about how my wife had been busy making braised pork and cooking bamboo shoots so late last night, I felt a little sorry for her and wanted her to rest at home for a day.

"Brother Mu Nan is alright. What I saw was in the bamboo forest." Wang Qing'er thought to herself that she had to pick the tea leaves today.

"It's not the tea tree you mentioned the other day, is it?" Mu Nan thought of the tea tree his wife had mentioned to him in the bamboo forest.

“Yes, yes, you saw it the other day too. They’ve all sprouted and we have to pick them today, or they’ll get too old. Why don’t you come with us? I see there are a lot of seedlings around here. You can dig them up and plant them in the yard.”

Upon hearing that it was a tea tree, Wang Cuiying asked excitedly, "Qing'er, the tea tree you're talking about, you don't mean it's a tea tree that can be used to make tea, do you?"

"Mother, you know about that one too?"

"Back when our family was better off, we always had that stuff. Your dad loved to drink it. Are you sure it's tea? Tea is really expensive!"

Wang Qing'er seemed to have forgotten that the Mu family had once been wealthy. "Of course I'm sure. My maternal grandmother's family grows tea there, and I often help with the tea picking."

Wang Cuiying was so excited about the tea that she couldn't wait any longer. "Let's go quickly. The tea isn't cheap, and it'll be a considerable income."

The three locked the gate and headed up the mountain.

The three of them quickly found the tea bushes. Mu Nan set animal traps nearby, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law began picking tea leaves. Wang Cuiying worked quickly and efficiently, and in no time the two of them had picked all the tea leaves, filling a basket to the brim.

The mother and daughter-in-law sat on a rock to rest, eating steamed buns with pickled vegetables. As Wang Qing'er ate, she looked around and suddenly asked Wang Cuiying, "Mother, why are there no medicinal herbs on this mountain?"

"I don't know either. Mu Nan and Mu Xiao used to go deep into the mountains to dig for medicinal herbs. They would set off before dawn and not get home until dark. If they were lucky, they could find some precious medicinal herbs and sell them for a few taels of silver." Wang Cuiying rarely went up the mountain. She usually just dug up some wild vegetables in front of and behind her house.

After eating and drinking their fill, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law started looking for mushrooms again, and soon they found more than half a basket of mushrooms.

Suddenly, Wang Cuiying shouted, "Qing'er... come quick and see, can we eat these mushrooms? They're huge!"

Hearing the sound, Wang Qing'er went over to take a look and was instantly stunned. In the tall grass, there were more than a dozen mushroom-like things of varying sizes on several dead tree stumps. "This...this can't be Ganoderma lucidum, can it?"

She had never seen it in person in her previous life; she had only seen it in videos and books, and she wasn't sure.

Upon hearing this, Wang Cuiying was so happy that she fell to the ground. Although she had never seen it before, she knew that Ganoderma lucidum was a highly nutritious and precious ingredient. It seemed that her father-in-law's medicine used to contain Ganoderma lucidum, even if it was just a small piece, the price of the medicine was much higher. "My God! Qing'er, is this really Ganoderma lucidum?"

"Mother, I'm not sure either. Why don't we take it back to town and ask?" Wang Qing'er didn't dare to make a guarantee. She knew from watching the video that there was a kind of medicinal herb that looked a lot like Ganoderma lucidum, but it wasn't expensive. She couldn't remember what it was called for the moment.

"Yes! Yes! Let's take them back first, regardless of whether they're good or not." Wang Cuiying was extremely excited.

Wang Qing'er carefully picked more than a dozen brown Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms and put them in her basket. She helped her mother-in-law up and tried to restore the grass that they had pulled apart to its original state.

There were still a few small lingzhi mushrooms on the tree stump that she hadn't picked, hoping that they wouldn't have been picked by someone else when she came back next time.

She searched around again but couldn't find any Ganoderma lucidum. Instead, she saw a dead tree covered with wood ear mushrooms. "Mother, there are wood ear mushrooms here."

"Wood ear fungus? Where?"

Wang Qing'er pointed to the dark mass on the withered tree in front of her.

"Wow... my daughter and I are so lucky today!"

“Mother, this grove is shady and damp, with lots of dead trees. Mushrooms and wood ear fungus love to grow here. Let’s finish picking them here and look around. Maybe there are more,” Wang Qing’er said to Wang Cuiying while picking wood ear fungus.

"Qing'er, you know so much." Wang Cuiying sincerely praised her daughter-in-law, whom she had gained so easily.

"Mother, my maternal grandparents were hunters. I grew up playing in the mountains, so of course I know these things." Before the original owner was ten years old, she did often go into the mountains with her grandmother, but she was just playing along. She probably didn't even recognize all the edible wild vegetables.

After Wang Qing'er transmigrated, she went up the mountain almost every day. Finding that there were hardly any people in the mountain, she became curious and asked, "Mother, don't the villagers go up the mountain? Why have I never seen anyone go up the mountain?"

“Wild boars used to appear on the mountain behind our house, so not many people come here. But there are many people digging for wild vegetables on the mountain west of the village every day.”

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law chatted for a while and ended up picking all the wood ear mushrooms from the tree, filling almost half a basket.

The two continued their search and found a few more items.

Seeing that her daughter-in-law was about to go deeper into the area, Wang Cuiying stopped her, saying, "Qing'er, let's turn back. It would be troublesome if we encountered wild animals on our own."

"Mother, let's walk a little further! If it's not there, we'll go back."

"All right!"