Lin Yue thought for a moment about the money he’d spent and replied, “It came to a total of forty-two jin. We finished collecting mushrooms half an hour early today, but since it rained yesterday, there were plenty of mushrooms—so the quantity is about the same as before.”

Shen Lingzhi nodded, looking relieved. “Thank goodness. I was worried we wouldn’t have enough mushrooms. If we ran out on the first day of selling to the restaurants, I’d be afraid the proprietor would regret it.”

Lin Yue patted him on the shoulder and laughed. “You can relax now. Come on, let’s go home to pack up so we can leave early.”

Back home, Shen Lingzhi packed their belongings into the cart in the courtyard, while Lin Yue prepared the seasonings in the kitchen. Once they’d finished their tasks and put the rice on to cook, they pushed the cart out, locked the courtyard gate, and set off.

As soon as they entered the town, they headed straight for the back door of Yang’s Restaurant. Just past the intersection, they saw Manager Feng waiting for them at the entrance.

Lin Yue immediately stepped forward, his voice tinged with apology. “Sorry to keep you waiting. We’ll be even earlier tomorrow.”

Feng Bo shook his head with a smile. “You weren’t late at all. I just happened to have nothing else to do, so I waited here. How are the mushrooms today?”

Lin Yue held out the bamboo basket he was carrying and smiled. “Take a look. Most of today’s mushrooms are small button mushrooms, and there are quite a few chanterelles. We even have two matsutake.”

Feng Bo was clearly pleased. “I’ll take both of those matsutake. The boss happens to love them—I’ll send them over to him later. As for the rest, I’ll take eight pounds of porcini, ten pounds each of green-capped mushrooms and milk mushrooms, and all the chanterelles.”

As he spoke, he stepped aside to let Lin Yue and Shen Lingzhi enter. “Come on, come on, let’s go to the courtyard to weigh them—it’s not convenient to do it here.”

Since it was his first time doing business with the restaurant, Lin Yue borrowed the restaurant’s scale to weigh the mushrooms, using both scales simultaneously, and even had Manager Feng watch over the process.

“Manager Feng, the mushrooms total 211 wen. The two matsutake mushrooms weigh three liang; I’ll charge you nine wen for them. Add 14 wen for the mushroom sauce, bringing the total to 234 wen.”

It sounded like a lot, but if he didn’t count the profit from the mushroom sauce and deducted the cost of collecting the mushrooms, he’d only made twenty wen. Lin Yue initially felt the profit was a bit meager while doing the math, but then he thought about it: a grown man working a full day in town would only earn sixty or seventy wen, and not everyone could even find work. So he decided that the mushroom-collecting business wasn’t so bad after all.

Since the prices had been agreed upon beforehand, Feng Bo had already done the math in his head while Lin Yue was tallying up the total. He paid without hesitation, then directed the kitchen help to take the mushrooms to the kitchen before turning to Lin Yue and saying:

“Young Master Lin, our young master tasted the tamarind cakes you sent yesterday and liked them very much. He asked me to see if you have any left today? If there are, I’d like to buy some more.”

Lin Yue’s heart leapt with joy, and he replied immediately, “We have plenty! We made quite a lot today. Shopkeeper, how many would you like?”

Feng Bo waved his hand and said generously, “Just give me thirty pieces, then.”

“Alright, I’ll pack them up for you right away. It’s three wen per piece, so forty-five wen in total. I also made some millet steamed cakes today—they’re quite tasty—so I’ll throw in a few for you to try.”

Shen Lingzhi had been silent the whole time, but the moment Lin Yue finished speaking, he wrapped up the pastries and handed them over.

“Here you go, shopkeeper.”

“Oh my, I can’t accept this! Thank you both so much. If you come up with any new pastries in the future, be sure to let me know when you’re selling mushrooms. Our young master has a real sweet tooth, and the old lady at home loves them too.”

Lin Yue nodded repeatedly. “It’s the least we can do. Thank you for the business referral, shopkeeper. I’ll work on two new pastries by tomorrow and make sure the young master is satisfied.”

“That’s wonderful. Same time tomorrow—I’ll be waiting right here for you.”

“Don’t worry, shopkeeper. We’ll be here on time tomorrow. It’s getting late, so we’ll take our leave now and not keep you from serving your other customers.”

Feng Bo politely tried to keep them a little longer, then saw Lin Yue and his companion out the door.

They’d left early today, so neither of them had eaten lunch. When they reached their rented stall, Lin Yue reached into his pocket and handed Shen Lingzhi a handful of copper coins. “There aren’t many customers around right now. Go take a look around and pick up something to eat. I remember you mentioned wanting a scallion pancake last time, but we were too busy to get one. Today’s the perfect chance to make up for it—let’s have scallion pancakes for lunch.”

Shen Lingzhi took a step back and whispered, “Brother, let’s have cold jelly instead. The wheat gluten is good too. I don’t want the scallion pancakes.”

Lin Yue grabbed his hand and shoved the coins into it. “How can that be the same? Never mind the rest—scallion pancakes have meat in them, while cold noodles don’t. Hurry up and go. I’ll set up the stall as soon as you get back. If you don’t go now, I won’t have a free hand once things get busy later.”

Only then did Shen Lingzhi nod, squinting his eyes and smiling. “All right then, Brother. What kind of filling do you want in your scallion pancakes?”

Lin Yue pondered for a moment before replying, “Let’s have the shop’s signature pickled mustard greens and braised pork pancake, and one vegetarian one too.”

“Alright, I’ll go right now.”

About fifteen minutes later, Shen Lingzhi ran back. “Brother, eat while they’re hot. I just had a bite—they’re so crispy! I also bought a salt-and-pepper pastry. Do you want to try one?”

“You eat first. I’ll serve up two bowls of cold shrimp. We’ll eat and drink together.”

As mealtime approached, the two worried that customers might arrive, so they finished eating in a hurry and got to work. Today, Shen Lingzhi manned the stall while Lin Yue took the pastries out to hawk them along the street.

Whether it was because they’d arrived early or for some other reason, by the time Lin Yue returned from his rounds, all twelve pounds of mushrooms at the stall had sold out.

Shen Lingzhi looked conflicted, his joy tinged with a hint of worry. “Brother, we don’t have any mushrooms left to make the mushroom sauce.”

Lin Yue wore a smug expression. “When I was collecting mushrooms this morning, I thought we’d probably sell out today. I’ve already arranged with them to collect another five pounds this afternoon. They’ve all agreed to take turns—two people will go out every afternoon to gather them.”

Shen Lingzhi finally relaxed and clapped his hands. “Brother, you’re so thoughtful! I was just thinking that if we ran out of mushrooms, I’d go back to pick some and then come back to pick you up.”

“It’s only natural that you were busy attending to them just now and didn’t think of it.”

With no customers at the stall at the moment, the two of them each took a cup of perilla leaf drink, sat under the umbrella to cool off, and took a sip before calling out again, “Cold jelly, cold shrimp, cold rice noodles, and cold wheat gluten—all three wen per bowl, three wen per bowl!”

“Tamarind cakes and millet steamed buns—two for just three wen, only three wen! Refreshingly sweet and sour tamarind juice and perilla leaf drink—one wen a cup. Deliciously sweet and refreshing rice-based cold shrimp—two wen a cup!”

As the cries echoed, people began to gather at the stall one after another. One wanted a bowl of cold jelly, another a cup of cold shrimp; some couldn’t decide between the perilla leaf drink and the tamarind juice, so they ordered a cup of each. Before long, more than half of the stall’s stock had been sold.

It was past the middle of the afternoon, and the sun was about to set. Lin Yue and Shen Lingzhi began packing up their stall. Since they were on the side of the road, Lin Yue didn’t dare take out the money to count it; he only made a rough estimate. After deducting the costs of renting the stall and the umbrella, as well as the cost of the mushrooms and mushroom sauce, they had made a profit of nearly five hundred coins.

Feeling the heavy weight of the copper coins in his pocket, Lin Yue couldn’t suppress the smile on his face. “Lingzhi, let’s hurry home.”

Upon hearing they’d made so much money, Shen Lingzhi began to feel anxious. Their best day before had only brought in three hundred wen—and that had happened just once. Today, however, they’d earned five hundred. What if they were robbed on the way home? he immediately replied, “Alright, let’s walk faster. We’ll be home in two quarters of an hour.”

The two returned late that day and ran into Shen Huaizhi, who had come to pick them up, halfway home. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Seeing their expressions, Shen Huaizhi asked in puzzlement, “What’s going on?”

Lin Yue and Shen Lingzhi exchanged a glance and told Shen Huaizhi in unison how much they had earned that day. Seeing Shen Huaizhi’s astonished expression as his eyes widened, the two walked away satisfied, leaving Shen Huaizhi alone behind to push the cart.

After dinner, when Song Xunchun and Shen Zhengchu heard about this, they were also quite surprised. Song Xunchun even remarked, “No wonder Huaizhi felt he wasn’t good enough for you. At the time, I thought he was just being modest, but now I see he was telling the truth.”

Hearing this remark for the first time, Lin Yue turned around in confusion and locked eyes with Shen Huaizhi, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.

He hadn’t really understood why Shen Huaizhi had come to visit him right after his engagement was broken off; he’d even wondered if it was just a random act of kindness. But now it sounded as if Shen Huaizhi had known about him all along.

Lin Yue leaned close to Song Xunchun and smiled sweetly. “Mother, is that true? When did Huiazhi say that?”

Just as Song Xunchun was about to speak, Shen Huaizhi cut her off. “Mother, don’t say any more. I’ll tell Xiao Yue another time. Let’s go back to our room first.” With that, he hurriedly grabbed Lin Yue’s hand and led him out.

At that moment, the same teasing laughter rang out both inside and outside the room. Outside, in particular, Lin Yue not only laughed but also leaned close to Shen Huaizhi, asking as they walked, “Is what Mother said true? Why do you feel you’re not good enough for me? Could it be that you knew me before? But we’ve never even spoken…”

The two entered the bedroom one after the other. The moment the door closed, Shen Huaizhi raised his hand and pressed it against Lin Yue’s lips. Their eyes met, and Lin Yue involuntarily held his breath before lowering his head.

This was the first time the two had been so close in broad daylight. Shen Huaizhi gazed at the trembling lashes before him, his eyes filled with tenderness and indulgence, as well as a hint of helplessness.

In the end, Shen Huaizhi took a step back, though his hand remained on Lin Yue’s face. His voice was low and gentle. “I was worried I wasn’t good enough for you, afraid you’d have to endure a hard life with me. And I still worry—that I’m a useless scholar who’ll only hold you back and be of no help to you.”

Lin Yue wanted to speak, but with Shen Huaizhi’s hand still on his face, he could only shake his head gently. In married life, how could one speak of one person holding the other back? Besides, Shen Huaizhi was by no means idle.

It was a long while before Shen Huaizhi released Lin Yue. He’d intended to pull him over to the desk, but Lin Yue turned and ran out.

As he dashed out the door, Lin Yue didn’t even know why he was running; he just felt the atmosphere was a bit stifling, and if he stayed any longer, he’d start blushing.

After wandering around the courtyard for a while, Lin Yue finally stepped into the kitchen. He hadn’t given Song Xunchun the money he’d earned today yet. Previously, he’d given her a third of his earnings, though it wasn’t fixed—sometimes a few more coins, sometimes a few less. Tonight, Lin Yue handed over one hundred and sixty coins.

“Mother, this is the money I earned today. Please take it.”

Song Xunchun took only half, saying gently, “We agreed on a third before, but I never expected our Yue to be so capable—earning so much in a single day. Your father and I both feel we can’t accept this much. Half of that is enough to cover household expenses and buy rice, flour, and beans; you should save the rest yourself.”