God-Tier Get Rich System – CH83

Chapter 83: Trustworthy Wangcai

Mu Lantu took Wangcai into the forest. The base of the mountain was still technically considered the foot of the mountain—that’s right.

The children had all been strictly told by the adults at home not to enter the woods.

Mu Lantu used this as a convenient excuse to avoid them.

He didn’t forget what Xu Huazhang said, so he didn’t go too deep.

There were many treasures in the mountains.

Mu Lantu leisurely picked up a dry tree branch and tossed it into his basket.

[Ding! You picked up a piece of firewood. Points +4.]

Wangcai watched closely, then ran to the side. Moments later, he came back with a tree branch as thick as a baby’s arm clamped in his mouth and dropped it into the basket.

“Wangcai, good job!”

Mu Lantu’s face lit up with a joyful smile at this unexpected surprise. He rubbed Wangcai’s head as a reward.

There was no shortage of firewood in the mountains. The man and dog quickly gathered a pile, but the basket was too small to hold it all.

Mu Lantu didn’t know how to twist hemp rope, so he pulled up some cogongrass and braided it into a rope using a three-strand plait technique to tie the firewood together.

He also noticed there were lots of wild vegetables in the mountains.

“Wangcai, let’s split up. You collect firewood, and I’ll dig up wild veggies. How about that?”

“Woof!”

Mu Lantu took that as agreement and put the firewood aside for now, digging up vegetables with a small shovel.

Besides the ones on the ground, there were also other types in the mountains—Toona sinensis shoots, Aralia elata buds, Eleutherococcus senticosus…

He picked three big handfuls, filled the whole basket, feeling a great sense of accomplishment—and earned over 800 points in the process.

Seeing no one around, he used 360 points from the Glory Board store to buy nine wild chicken eggs and a wild pheasant, pretending he found them in the woods, placing them at the bottom of the basket.

A little further ahead, he spotted bamboo shoots.

Thinking of the pickled spicy bamboo shoots he used to eat in his past life, Mu Lantu started drooling.

At this time of year, it was the last batch of bamboo shoots—any later and they’d get too old.

Mu Lantu excitedly rushed over.

[Ding! You dug up a bamboo shoot. Points +10.]
[Ding! You dug up a bamboo shoot. Points +10.]
[Ding! You dug up a bamboo shoot. Points +10.]
[…]

Mu Lantu was having a blast, digging like crazy.

Wangcai, too, was joyfully collecting firewood.

Mu Lantu noticed many pinecones on the ground and picked one up to show Wangcai.

“Wangcai, we want pinecones too.”

Wangcai stared at the pinecone for two seconds, then scratched around in a pile of dead leaves, bit a pinecone, and dropped it into the basket.

“Wangcai, you’re amazing!”

Mu Lantu cautiously looked around, then took out a cooked egg from his inventory and fed it to Wangcai.

“Woo-woof!” Wangcai wagged his tail wildly, his mouth open in a way that made him look like he was smiling.

Mu Lantu stopped collecting other wild greens and focused entirely on digging bamboo shoots.

By 11:30 a.m., he had dug over 30 jin (15 kg) of bamboo shoots.

Wangcai also did well, collecting enough firewood for three bundles.

Mu Lantu covered the wild chicken and eggs at the bottom of the basket with vegetables and bamboo shoots. He stored the extra bamboo shoots and greens in his space and tied the three bundles of firewood together, carrying them down the mountain.

There were fewer children at the foot of the mountain now—just four or five still digging wild vegetables.

“Comrade Mu, I have some straw rope here. Do you want some?” a little girl glanced at his braided cogongrass rope with slight disdain.

The girl was about eight or nine, wearing a floral shirt, black pants, and black cloth shoes. Her hair was in two neat braids, and she was tidy and expressive.

Without waiting for Mu Lantu’s reply, she took two pieces of straw rope from her basket and said, “I twisted these myself. Take them. It’s nothing.”

Mu Lantu chuckled inwardly. Who was this little boss lady?

He pulled a wild egg from his basket. “Thank you. Here—no reward without merit.”

The girl didn’t understand the last phrase but recognized the familiar “here” and blushed, yet accepted the egg with ease.

“Alright then.”

Mu Lantu, worried that his own rope might break on the way, used the straw rope to re-bundle the firewood.

“I’m off. You kids should head home too—it’s not safe with fewer people around.”

“Got it!”

Back home, Mu Lantu rested for a while, then went to the kitchen to cook.

The staple for the meal was sorghum rice.

The neighboring educated youth would definitely smell the aroma, so he couldn’t always cook white rice.

He didn’t know how to make noodles or buns—mainly because he didn’t know how to knead dough.

He used sorghum rice bought from the system store to replace the rationed grains from the village. It had already been husked and tasted decent.

Once the rice was cooked, Xu Huazhang came back.

Mu Lantu had already prepared wash water, and clean white towels hung on the wooden rack. Waves of happiness washed over Xu Huazhang.

After washing up, he saw the wild pheasant and went to butcher it. Since the weather was hot, the bird had to be processed quickly and salted.

“Baby, I invited Miao Jiaze over for dinner tonight.”

“Then let’s save the pheasant for dinner. I also picked up some wild eggs. For lunch, how about scrambled eggs with cucumber and a spicy shredded potato dish?”

“Sounds good.”

Mu Lantu excitedly told Xu Huazhang about his wild vegetable harvest.

Xu Huazhang had already seen it, and seeing how happy Mu Lantu was made him happy too.

“Baby, you know all these wild vegetables?”

“Of course. Forgot to tell you—I used to be a doctor.”

That solved another mystery in Xu Huazhang’s heart. No wonder, in their past life, Mu Lantu had often checked his pulse in secret. Thanks to him, Xu Huazhang had always been healthy. They both lived to 98 without suffering before death.

After lunch, they went to fetch water and filled all three water tanks at home.

One in the toilet, two in the kitchen.

These tanks had cost quite a few industrial coupons.

Then, they started sorting the wild greens—removing dead leaves, washing off dirt, then laying them out on bamboo sieves to dry under the sun. According to Auntie Guihua, they’d dry in three or four days and could be sealed up and stored for winter.

They used all the bamboo sieves, arranged in two rows in the courtyard. Each wooden rack held two sieves—quite a satisfying sight.

Xu Huazhang also felt a sense of harvest joy.

The bamboo shoots were left unprocessed for now.

“I want to make pickled spicy bamboo shoots with them,” said Mu Lantu, “but we don’t have a pickle jar.”

Xu Huazhang replied, “The team leader gave me leave. I’ll go to town tomorrow to look for parts for a manual harvester and buy the jars while I’m at it. How many?”

“As many as possible.” Mu Lantu was really getting into the squirrel-like joy of stockpiling food.

Xu Huazhang looked at him dotingly. “Do we need anything else?”

Mu Lantu thought for a moment. “Doesn’t seem like we’re lacking anything else.”

“I’ll just buy as needed.”

The afternoon work was uneventful.

After work, Miao Jiaze followed Mu Lantu and Xu Huazhang home with a big grin.

At the door, he said to the other educated youths, “I’m eating at Brother Mu and Brother Xu’s tonight—no need to prepare dinner for me.”

The others licked their lips, remembering the pheasant and rabbit dishes Mu Lantu had cooked before. No doubt tonight’s meal would be great too.

Unfortunately, their relationship with Mu Lantu and Xu Huazhang was neither close nor distant.

Bai Ningning shot a glare at Xie Xiaojun and Zhao Chengxin. If those two hadn’t made a fuss about whether dogs were allowed at the educated youth point, Mu Lantu wouldn’t have decided to build his own house. If he hadn’t built a house, Xu Huazhang wouldn’t have moved out either.

If they all still ate from the same pot, how much could they have benefited?

Xie Xiaojun and Zhao Chengxin were also regretful. Who could have predicted things would turn out like this?

Inside the house, Miao Jiaze saw the courtyard full of drying vegetables and gaped.

Rolling up his sleeves, he asked, “Do you need to store these? I’ll help.”

Mu Lantu nodded behind him. Miao Jiaze was pretty perceptive—someone worth dealing with.

He turned and went into the kitchen.

Miao Jiaze and Xu Huazhang moved the veggies into storage, consolidated them into a few larger bamboo sieves, then covered them with smaller ones and weighted them down with bricks to keep out rats.

Then Miao Jiaze tried to help with the bamboo shoots.

Xu Huazhang stopped him. “We’ll deal with those tomorrow.”

“Alright. I’ll come help tomorrow.” Miao Jiaze marveled, “Were those all wild greens? I only recognized two—dandelion and shepherd’s purse.”

Those two were commonly found by the fields.

He added, “I’ve got to go forage too.”

He wasn’t short on money, but in this place, it wasn’t easy to buy things. Even with money and coupons, food wasn’t guaranteed. Without storing wild greens like Mu Lantu, he feared he’d starve.

That, in fact, was partly why Xu Huazhang had invited him over—to raise a bit of crisis awareness.

They were childhood friends, after all. If Miao Jiaze ran out of food, he’d just come bothering them—and ruin their peaceful days.

“I heard from the team leader that in a few days there won’t be much work, and members can take a two-day break.”

Xu Huazhang brought over a basin full of garlic, green onions, tomatoes, potatoes… and worked on them with Miao Jiaze.

“Brother Xu, Brother Mu, when we get that break, let’s go to the state-run restaurant together. I’ll treat you to meat buns and braised pork! The chef there is amazing—I’ve been dreaming of those meat buns since the last time I had them!”

“Sure, if we’re free by then.” Mu Lantu smiled.

He realized it had been nearly a month since he was sent down, and he hadn’t written to his uncle’s family or Grandma Li.

This trip to town would be a good time to send them a letter—and some dried goods too.

The three worked together—Miao Jiaze stoked the fire, Mu Lantu guided Xu Huazhang in cooking—and after over an hour, dinner was ready.

Staple foods: half were noodles, half were steamed sweet potatoes. Everyone got a bowl of noodles, and sweet potatoes were unlimited.

Dishes: potato stew with chicken, tomato scrambled wild eggs, braised dried beans with eggplant, and a cold wild greens salad.

Aside from the potato stew, the other three looked plain—some even slightly burned—but with Xu Huazhang being generous with the seasonings, they were all delicious.

Miao Jiaze was almost moved to tears.

And so were the people at the educated youth point.

They looked at their dry cornbread buns and oil-less cucumber and eggplant dishes, and completely lost their appetites.

Several people shot annoyed looks at Xie Xiaojun and Zhao Chengxin.

Lin Shuzhen tore her bun into small pieces to make it easier to swallow. “Honestly, we’re all educated youth—we should be living together. Comrade Xu and Comrade Mu living alone is not conducive to unity at all!”