As soon as he heard this, Shen Huaizhi shook his head immediately. “You can spend it however you like. It’s my fault—I haven’t been able to earn any money yet.”

Lin Yue didn’t want Shen Huaizhi to dwell on his guilt; it served no purpose other than to drive a wedge between them.

“Your top priority right now is studying and passing the exam to become a Xiucai. You can make money anytime. Besides, you just took on that copywriting job—that’s earning money too.”

After chatting for a while, Lin Yue got up and left. While it was still light out, Shen Huaizhi needed to make the most of his time to review his lessons, and Lin Yue had his own tasks to attend to.

Tomorrow was the first day of mushroom harvesting in the village. Although Lin Yue had gotten along fairly well with the villagers since his marriage—everyone greeted him with smiles when they passed on the street—there were plenty of people who would turn on you faster than you could turn a page when money was involved. He had to establish the rules on the very first day to avoid disputes and conflicts later on.

Especially since both Lin Yue and Shen Lingzhi were relatively young, and the village had no shortage of people who liked to lord their seniority over others. Therefore, Lin Yue had made up his mind early on: he had to be firm on the first day. Even if people accused him of being heartless, it was far better than being taken advantage of.

“Lingzhi, are you done with your work? Let’s discuss how we’ll collect the mushrooms tomorrow.”

Shen Lingzhi waved him over. “Brother, come in quickly. I’m just discussing this with Mother.”

Song Xunchun also chimed in: “Since it’s your first day collecting mushrooms, I’ll go with you to avoid any awkward situations. First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll check if your grandmother has time. If it works out, we’ll bring her along too. Given her age and seniority, no one will dare to take advantage of you two kids.”

Lin Yue immediately relaxed considerably, and his tone lightened. “Lingzhi, my idea is that on the very first day, we need to establish our standards for collecting mushrooms. For instance, we’ll remove the dirt from the stems, and we won’t accept any with caps that are too large. Another point: mushrooms are very fragile. We’ll also accept those where the cap has separated from the stem, but to prevent people from stuffing stones or sticks inside, out of fear, we won’t accept the ones that are too big. If we don’t catch them and they’re sold, it’ll damage our reputation.”

Mushrooms grow incredibly fast—often expanding from the size of a fingernail to the size of a palm overnight. Within about two days, they fully open up and start to rot. While mushrooms that have opened too wide or grown too large may look appealing, they’ve actually become soft throughout, taste bad, and are often infested with insects. Such mushrooms are completely inedible.

Those without worms can still be dried, but generally no one bothers. Drying mushrooms is mainly to have a side dish for the winter, and since the process is labor-intensive, naturally, they should select the best ones.

Song Xunchun nodded repeatedly. “You really think of everything, Yue. Let’s do it this way.”

Shen Lingzhi thought for a moment before speaking up: “The kids in our village have been running up the mountains since they were little. I expect some of them will go mushroom picking to sell this time. If any kids come tomorrow, make sure their parents come along too. Otherwise, the kids might not know how to read the scale, and their families might later complain that we’re taking advantage of them.”

Song Xunchun frowned. “Right, we do need to consider that. And about the scales—since this is your first time going tomorrow, Carpenter Li’s house is right by the big rock behind the village. We’ll borrow a scale from him then and use both to compare, just in case anyone tries to cause trouble.”

“We won’t take advantage of others, nor should we let others take advantage of us. All right, I’ll go find your grandmother right now to see if she’s free tomorrow. You two don’t need to come with me. Since we’re harvesting mushrooms tomorrow, start gathering things like weights and bamboo baskets. Our baskets have deep rims, so we’ll probably need to layer the mushrooms—otherwise, the ones at the bottom will get crushed.”

No sooner had Song Xunchun finished speaking than she hurried out.

Lin Yue could only call after her, “Mother, please come back soon. We’ll head out right now.”

Early the next morning, Lin Yue and Shen Lingzhi set off for the mountains, still carrying their bamboo baskets. Although Lin Yue didn’t find many mushrooms, he was quite skilled at picking bayberries, and gathering some firewood on the way back would be a bonus.

As for Shen Lingzhi, he focused entirely on gathering mushrooms. He was already quite skilled at finding them, but now that he was thinking about making money, he searched the grassy patches even more carefully, naturally gathering more than usual.

Since they were focused on collecting mushrooms, the two didn’t stay on the mountain for long; they came down in less than two hours.

They arrived home just past noon. Lin Yue lit the fire and began making pastries.

Since it was their first day selling mushrooms and they didn’t know how things would go, Lin Yue didn’t plan to set up a food stall just yet. If all went well, he would push a cart loaded with tables and chairs out tomorrow to set up a small stall.

Among the pastries he’d been making recently, the best sellers on market days were rice cakes, steamed rice cakes, and buckwheat cakes—hearty, filling treats with good flavor. On ordinary days, sales of various pastries were fairly even. Since today wasn’t a market day, he made pumpkin rice steamed cakes and red bean glutinous rice cold cakes.

The method for making pumpkin rice steamed cake is largely the same as for regular steamed cake; you simply need to add steamed and mashed pumpkin when mixing the dough. If you have jujubes, adding some diced jujubes makes the flavor even better and the appearance more appealing.

Unfortunately, jujubes aren’t cheap. On his first trip up the mountain, Lin Yue had already set his sights on the few wild jujube trees on the backside of the mountain; now he’s just waiting for the wild jujubes to ripen.

The red bean glutinous rice cold cake is even simpler to make; Shen Lingzhi has already gotten the hang of it and can prepare it even faster than Lin Yue can steam the steamed cakes.

Mix cornstarch and sugar into the glutinous rice flour, stir until well combined, then steam until cooked. Add a little oil and knead into a smooth dough. Roll it into a long strip, wrap the cooked red bean filling inside, cut into thumb-sized pieces, and coat the outside with a layer of toasted glutinous rice flour—and it’s done.

Two kinds of pastries, two buckets of bayberry soup—we’ll split them into two portions: one to sell while hawking along the street, and one to keep at the stall.

The pastries were just finished when Song Xunchun returned.

“Haven’t you started cooking yet? I was worried I’d be back too late.”

Lin Yue added a log to the stove and turned to say, “I’m just about to start cooking.”

“Alright then, you two go ahead. I’ll wash my hands and come help.”

Song Xunchun had just crouched down to wash her hands when she suddenly looked up at the two people in the kitchen. “I came home late last night and forgot to tell you—your grandmother has some free time today. We’ll just go get her when we head out later.”

Lin Yue leaned back and called out, “Got it, Mom. Let’s take a few pieces of steamed cake with us—it’s just the thing for the old lady.”

Lunch was served early today. Since Shen Zhengchu was still working in the fields, the three didn’t wait for him; they simply left his meal in the pot to keep warm.

Afterward, the three set out with their belongings.

As soon as they stepped out the door, Lin Yue began calling out, “Buying mushrooms! Porcini for five wen a pound, green-capped, milk cap, and chanterelle mushrooms for seven wen a pound. We’ll take only small ones—half price for larger ones. Right by the big rock behind the village.”

Shen Lingzhi had also honed his skills; as soon as Lin Yue’s call died down, he began calling out to himself.

The two walked and called out as they went. When they passed Uncle Shen’s house, they went inside to call for Grandma Shen. As Lin Yue set down the pastries, he also grabbed a chair so Grandma Shen could sit down later.

After leaving the Shen household, a few people followed behind, each carrying a bamboo basket of mushrooms. Seeing them hawking their wares, they didn’t approach but stayed behind to chat with Song Xunchun.

“Sister-in-law, what made you suddenly decide to start a business? Could it be Yue’s idea? Last time I went to town, I saw him selling pastries and bought two myself—they were quite tasty.”

“No need to ask—it’s definitely him. Before Yue came to live here, I never saw you ladies doing business. That Yue is really capable; he’s the one calling the shots inside and out, isn’t he? Taking charge right after getting married—tsk, tsk…”

The praise was a bit blunt, but since they were about to do business today, Song Xunchun didn’t argue. She merely smiled modestly. “Yue’er is capable, and we’re the ones reaping the benefits. Honestly, there’s not a single flaw to be found in him. Both Huaizhi’s father and I feel like our ancestors’ graves are giving off a green glow.”

“Oh, really? You two are so wise—willing to let the younger generation handle everything.”

Song Xunchun smiled even more gently. “Sister, don’t say that. We’ve only got a few pots and pans at home—what’s there to be so reluctant to let go of?”

Grandma Shen laughed along. “In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with Yue-ger managing the household. It gives Xunchun a chance to rest.”

They were speaking quite loudly, so Lin Yue and the others up ahead naturally heard them, though they both tacitly agreed not to turn back and speak to him.

There were plenty of people like that in the village. It wasn’t that they were bad people, but as soon as a family’s life improved even slightly, there were always plenty of snide remarks. They’d take every opportunity to get under your skin, leaving you in a bind—you couldn’t very well take it to heart, yet you couldn’t just let it slide either.

Linshui Village wasn’t large, and it took the group less than fifteen minutes to reach the large boulder at the back of the village.

No one knew when this boulder had fallen here; it was considerably taller than a person, yet its surface was smooth and even. Two osmanthus trees stood by the roadside. Aside from the village entrance, this was everyone’s favorite spot—it had become a sort of landmark for Linshui Village.

Four or five people were already sitting under the trees, and as soon as they saw Lin Yue and the others approaching, they immediately came over to greet them.

Leading the group was Hao Yulan, the village chief’s wife. She had spoken up for Lin Yue and the others earlier. “Oh my, Auntie, you’re here too? Brother Yue, Sister Xunchun, you’ve finally arrived. If you hadn’t come, we were all about to come over to your place.”

Grandma Shen straightened her back and chuckled softly, “I’m getting on in years. Sitting at home all day isn’t good for me, so I came out for a stroll with Yue and the others.”

Since Song Xunchun had only arrived today, Lin Yue took the lead in addressing the group. He replied, “Auntie, sorry to keep you waiting. It’s our first day here, so we had to make some preparations before coming.”

A few people were still gathered around. Lin Yue called out to each of them by name, but eventually got stuck. He glanced back at Song Xunchun, only to find her shaking her head as well.

Fortunately, Hao Yulan spoke up just then: “This is my brother-in-law from my maternal family. I went back to my parents’ house yesterday, and when he heard that people in our village were collecting mushrooms, he picked some from the mountains in his village today.”

Every village has its own mountain behind it, and it’s generally forbidden to wander into other villages’ mountains, whether to chop firewood or pick mushrooms. Hao Yulan was well aware of this, so she stated it plainly.

Lin Yue smiled and nodded. “I see. Uncle, you can come a little later from now on; we usually gather mushrooms around this time every day.”

The husband, wearing a wooden hairpin, didn’t look particularly young but was quite shy. Upon hearing this, he smiled slightly, “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Just then, Shen Lingzhi returned with the borrowed scale. “Mother, Brother, this is the scale I borrowed from Carpenter Li’s house. I’ll set it down on the ground for now.”

Hao Yulan asked in confusion, “Why did you go borrow a scale? Could it be that yours is broken? If I’d known, I would’ve brought ours along to save you the trouble of borrowing one.”

Lin Yue quickly shook his head. “Not at all, Auntie, you’re overthinking it. Ours isn’t broken. It’s just that since this is our first time doing business, we need to be extra careful with the weights, so I borrowed one from Carpenter Li to use for comparison. Starting tomorrow, we’ll only need one scale.”

“Oh, come on! We’re all neighbors here—how could I not trust you?”

Lin Yue didn’t pick up on that, but simply smiled and said, “It’s not that I’m worried about that. I just feared our scales at home might have lost their accuracy from not being used for so long, so I borrowed one.”

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, seeing that the crowd was growing larger, Lin Yue cut short the conversation and called out, “Fellow villagers, I’ve already announced the price for the mushrooms. To be honest, it’s not as high as what they pay in town. If anyone finds the price too low, I suggest you take your mushrooms to town to sell.”

He then went over all the precautions they’d agreed on the day before—such as cleaning the dirt off the stems and having an adult accompany the children—to make sure everyone was on the same page.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a few children ran back home with their baskets to fetch their parents.

Hao Yulan was the first to speak up, “Don’t worry, Yue, we’ve got this covered.”

Lin Yue looked grateful. “I’m young and inexperienced. Thanks, Auntie. Let’s get started weighing them then.”

Shen Lingzhi suddenly raised his hand, revealing the pumpkin leaves he was holding. “Here are some pumpkin leaves. They’re perfect for wiping off the dirt without damaging the mushrooms.”

Whether willingly or not, everyone around him took a leaf, squatted down, and began wiping the dirt off the mushrooms.

Hao Yulan’s brother-in-law, however, simply handed over his basket—the mushrooms inside were already spotless.

“Could you please weigh mine first, Brother Yue?”

Lin Yue flashed a smile. “Sure thing, right away.”