Chapter 28: Building a Reputation
After understanding his own feelings, Wen Zhongshan did not act rashly.
That night, he sent his good friend Fu Yuan a message, telling him there was no need to mention the previous request for him to look after the mountain god anymore.
Fu Yuan was a busy man. It was two hours before he found time to reply: Why? Aren’t you two getting along pretty well? You’re eating together and climbing mountains every day. Did you have a fight?
Wen Zhongshan: No.
Fu Yuan: ???
Fu Yuan: Then why can’t I mention it?
Fu Yuan: That request of mine was just something I said in passing. With your personality, it’s not like you would deliberately get close to someone just because a friend said something.
Fu Yuan: You’re drawing such a clear line even for this. Is it because you want to preserve the purity of your relationship with His Lordship the Mountain God?
Fu Yuan: Something’s not right with you, brother!
Wen Zhongshan looked at the flood of messages and was silent for a long while. In the end, he only sent a period and did not reply.
There were more and more wood ears in the mountains, and Ying Kongtu went up every day to harvest them.
Wen Zhongshan also came over every day to help.
Because the wood ears were grown in a simulated wild environment and allowed to grow naturally, Ying Kongtu’s wood ears were planted especially scattered. Wherever there were fallen trees, he had casually planted some wood ears there, without damaging the forest’s original environment at all.
The naturally fallen branches were scattered throughout the mountain forest, making the wood ears very troublesome to harvest.
They had to climb up and down and walk all over the entire mountain.
Ying Kongtu did not mind it himself.
He patrolled the mountain every day anyway. Harvesting wood ears while patrolling was simply a convenient matter.
But having Wen Zhongshan climb up and down with him every day made him feel a little embarrassed.
Climbing the mountain to pick wood ears was different from picking other wild vegetables and fruits. Although the places with fallen wood were scattered, when harvesting wood ears every day, they basically walked the same route.
Once the same path was walked too many times, its freshness and interest decreased greatly.
This kind of harvesting activity no longer counted as an outing. It was only repetitive and dull labor.
Feeling bad about it, Ying Kongtu said to Wen Zhongshan, “You don’t have to accompany me. I can do it alone.”
“It’s fine. Coming out every day to pick wood ears is interesting too.”
Ying Kongtu turned and looked at him, somewhat unable to tell whether he was sincere or simply being polite.
“It really is interesting.” Wen Zhongshan looked into Ying Kongtu’s eyes and smiled. “The mountains change every day, and the state of mind when going up the mountain is different every day too. It’s very interesting.”
This time, Ying Kongtu could tell the sincerity in Wen Zhongshan’s words.
Ying Kongtu nodded. “After the wood ears are sold, I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“Can we eat ingredients from the mountain?”
Ying Kongtu thought for a moment. “When the time comes, I’ll see what good ingredients there are.”
Wen Zhongshan took the initiative to come over and help. Every day, they went up the mountain in the morning and returned in the afternoon.
And every day, they could harvest two large baskets of mountain wood ears.
The wood ears distributed across the six mountains under Ying Kongtu’s name were slowly moved down from the mountains by the two of them, bit by bit, like ants moving house.
They harvested wood ears every day.
The small animals at home all knew that these black wood ears placed on the bamboo rafts were Ying Kongtu’s most treasured things at this stage.
After knocking over the bamboo trays twice and getting beaten five times by Tiaozhu, even Dart, whose paws were the clumsiest, learned to weave through the courtyard in an S-shaped route, carefully passing beside the various bamboo trays with its belly puffed out, without knocking anything over.
Ying Kongtu’s household had more and more wood ears. There was no longer enough room to dry them on top of the courtyard wall, so they could only be dried in the courtyard.
As for the wolf cub, it was still too small. Ying Kongtu directly shut it inside the house and did not let it go into the courtyard.
Every evening, Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan would take it out for a walk on a leash, so that it would not get too little exercise and grow poorly.
The wolf cub drank goat milk very enthusiastically.
Under Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan’s careful care, it had grown quite a lot and no longer looked obviously congenitally weak.
Now it was chubby and fluffy, and when brought outside, it was much bigger than ordinary puppies.
It was also much fiercer.
At such a young age, it had already learned to quarrel with other puppies. Now it went “aow-wang, aow-wang,” using its little milky voice but with plenty of momentum.
Ying Kongtu checked the blue film in the wolf cub’s eyes every day.
The blue film in the wolf cub’s eyes had almost faded, and its vision was getting better by the day.
Once it grew a little bigger and could see completely clearly, he could take it up the mountain.
As it gradually grew, simply walking it every day would probably no longer be enough to consume all of its energy.
In addition, a wolf cub of this size should slowly begin learning hunting knowledge.
Ying Kongtu planned to train it gradually, and once it grew a bit larger, he would release it back into the wild.
A wolf should live in the mountain forest, not be shut up at home.
As the days passed, the dry autumn wind and sunlight carried away the moisture, concentrating the fragrance of the fungi.
The wood ears at Ying Kongtu’s home gradually finished drying.
Ying Kongtu packed the wood ears into cloth bags.
The wood ears, dried until extremely crisp and dry, were very light. Even a large sack weighed only a little.
When Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan collected the wood ears, Tiaozhu also came over to help.
It held the mouth of the cloth bag in its mouth and dragged the wood ears back into the house with rustling sounds.
“Tiaozhu.” Hearing the movement, Ying Kongtu turned his head and saw the muscular golden cat helping out.
“You’re too good, aren’t you?” Ying Kongtu, who was collecting wood ears, could not help crouching down, his eyes curving, and reached out to scratch Tiaozhu’s chin.
Tiaozhu let Ying Kongtu scratch it a few times, then continued dragging the bag of wood ears into the house.
Wen Zhongshan watched the interaction between one person and one golden cat, then turned to look at Dart.
Dart was sitting nearby, licking its fur. When it saw Wen Zhongshan look over, it remained completely unmoved.
Tiaozhu was too good, and it made this fellow seem like the foolish son of a landlord’s family.
Thinking this, Wen Zhongshan shook his head and smiled.
He must have lost his mind to expect the cat at home to work.
When Ying Kongtu turned around, he saw Wen Zhongshan smiling while working. “What is it?”
“I was looking at Dart.”
“What happened to Dart?” Ying Kongtu turned back and glanced.
When Dart met Ying Kongtu’s gaze, it immediately ambled over, rubbed against Ying Kongtu’s leg, and called flatteringly, “Meow.”
Wen Zhongshan said, “Tiaozhu was so good just now, so I looked at Dart to see if it would also go work.”
“How could it? Cats are very independent.”
“Right. So I felt my idea was ‘forcing a cat into difficulty.’”
Ying Kongtu also laughed. “It’s still because Tiaozhu is too good. A cat like Dart is what an ordinary little cat is like.”
Once the first batch of wood ears at Ying Kongtu’s home finished drying, he began selling them.
It was his first time trying to sell dried wood ears.
As always, Xing Chang and his colleagues supported him and bought a batch in advance.
Ying Kongtu asked the courier to come to his door and sent out the wood ears they had preordered.
In addition, he also sent some to Wen Zhongshan’s friend Fu Yuan.
After eating the rice Fu Yuan had sent, Ying Kongtu felt somewhat embarrassed and sent him some wood ears in return.
As for the remaining hundred-plus jin of wood ears, Ying Kongtu carried them to the area outside the vegetable market to set up a stall.
He had been selling mountain goods outside the vegetable market for half a year and had gained some reputation.
As soon as he arrived at his usual spot and had just set up the stall, regular customers surrounded him to see what mountain goods he had brought today.
“Kongtu, you’re selling wood ears today?”
“These wood ears are really dry and crisp. They snap as soon as you break them.”
“They smell good too. Among all the families selling mountain goods in our county, yours are the best.”
Ying Kongtu spread out the waterproof cloth, then took out one white bag after another, opened them, and arranged them neatly.
Hearing everyone’s praise, he raised his head and smiled at them.
More and more people came to watch, and someone asked the price. “How much are these wood ears per jin? Give me one jin.”
Ying Kongtu said, “Thirty per tael (~50g).”
“Huh? The mountain goods store next door only sells them for thirty-five per jin (~500g)!”
“My wood ears are high-mountain wood ears, grown by imitating a wild environment.”
“That’s still too expensive.” The person asking the price kept shaking his head. “Several times more expensive than the wood ears in the shop.”
Ying Kongtu said good-temperedly, “The quality is different, so the price really can’t be the same.”
Some of the onlookers left, while others stayed.
The wood ears Ying Kongtu sold were indeed much more expensive than ordinary wood ears. Even most regular customers were watching for the time being.
A small portion of people quite liked his family’s wood ears, so they weighed out a handful, at most half a tael or one tael, planning to take them home and try them.
Ying Kongtu did not mind. No matter how much someone weighed out, he carefully weighed it for them.
After weighing, he would give them one or two extra pieces.
The first time he sold mountain wood ears, Ying Kongtu’s business was very average.
After selling for a whole day, he only sold a small half basket.
The remaining large half basket of wood ears, he carried back home.
Wen Zhongshan came to his home that evening to eat with him. Seeing the wood ears he had brought back, he asked, “Was business bad?”
Ying Kongtu set down the wood ears and went to get water to drink. “It’s normal. Mountain wood ears just came out, and everyone doesn’t know what they taste like yet. In a couple of days, once word of mouth spreads, they’ll sell well.”
Ying Kongtu was very calm and not at all worried about his family’s mountain goods.
He continued going up the mountain to harvest wood ears, dry wood ears, and, together with Wen Zhongshan, bring the wood ears from deep in the mountains back bit by bit.
The storage room that had previously been used to store acorns had now been cleared out because Ying Kongtu had planted the acorns on the mountain as seeds.
He cleaned out the entire storage room and also made wooden shelves.
The mountain wood ears, dried until completely crisp and dry, were packed into snow-white cloth bags and neatly placed on the shelves.
He opened the doors and windows every day for ventilation. Combined with the mountain wood ears drying in the courtyard, his home now carried the pleasant fragrance of mountain wood ears every day.
Looking at so many mountain wood ears, Wen Zhongshan was somewhat worried for Ying Kongtu.
After returning home, he checked information about wood ears every day and followed all kinds of accounts that mentioned wood ears.
If they truly could not sell all of them offline, he planned to find someone to help sell them online.
Ying Kongtu knew exactly what his mountain wood ears were worth and was not anxious at all.
He only went to sell mountain wood ears once every two days.
The third time he went to the vegetable market to sell mountain wood ears, sales suddenly exploded.
The regular customers who had bought mountain wood ears before came over one after another and bought several taels more.
“I knew there’d be no mistake buying your mountain goods. These are pure wild wood ears, right? They’re too fragrant.”
“They become big after soaking too. Big and thick. You dried them so well!”
There were also people who had not bought them before. Seeing his business doing so well, they were half believing and half doubting. “Are they really that fragrant?”
“Really. Use them to cook chicken, and it’s amazing. I even felt the old hen I bought wasn’t good enough and wasted such good wood ears.”
“My family used them to make beef and wood ear buns. They were delicious too, fresh and crisp.”
“They’re good stir-fried with meat too, really good with rice. Soak five or six pieces and it’s enough. Thirty yuan for one tael of wood ears can make five or six meals.”
The regular customers not only promoted them enthusiastically, they also bought them with great vigor.
Although each person did not buy much dried wood ear, there were too many people.
In just over an hour, all the dried wood ears Ying Kongtu had brought were sold out.
The next few times, Ying Kongtu sold out faster and faster.
Many times, as soon as he arrived outside the vegetable market, before he even had time to put down his back basket, people surrounded him, saying they wanted to buy wood ears.
That day, Ying Kongtu was also selling wood ears outside the vegetable market.
As soon as he put down the wood ears, the regular customers who had received the news rushed over one after another.
“Kongtu, have the wood ears I ordered arrived?”
“And mine. Did you save some for me?”
Ying Kongtu took out the wood ears the regular customers had reserved.
Each portion had been packed according to request, and each was slightly heavier than the ordered weight.
The regular customers opened them and looked, then paid happily and left.
There were many people buying wood ears. Some bought on the spot, some placed orders.
Yet Ying Kongtu did not mix anything up.
Everyone greeted one another, introduced one another, and scanned to pay. In truth, Ying Kongtu did not need to do much.
His family’s wood ears today also sold out very quickly.
When Ying Kongtu was packing up his stall, a middle-aged man hurried over.
“Boss Ying, are your family’s wood ears sold out already?” The middle-aged man craned his neck. “Do you still have any?”
Ying Kongtu shook his head. “Not today.”
The man said disappointedly, “Not even a little? Do you have any at home?”
“The ones at home haven’t finished drying yet,” Ying Kongtu said.
“Then can I preorder? I’ll pay extra!”
“No need to pay extra. You can order.” Ying Kongtu raised his eyes and looked at him. “How much do you want?”
“Two jin. No, five jin!”
“It’s thirty yuan per tael.”
“I know. I want five jin!” The man wiped his sweat again. Seeing that Ying Kongtu had agreed, he relaxed and said, “It would be great if your family’s wood ears had a gift-box version. Then I wouldn’t have to package them separately when giving them to people.”
Ying Kongtu paused and said, “There is.”
“Your family also has gift packaging?”
Ying Kongtu nodded.
Previously, there had been no gift packaging, but now there was.
Ying Kongtu glanced at the man.
Once he went back, he could custom-order packaging boxes, select a batch of wood ears, and pack them into gift boxes.
Ying Kongtu recorded the man’s contact information and told him to come to the vegetable market area in two days to pick them up.
After returning home, Ying Kongtu went online to look for a suitable online shop and planned to design gift boxes.
Selling agricultural products and mountain goods was relatively simple.
Ying Kongtu specifically found someone from an online shop to design a rustic and simple package, making a gift-box version of the wood ears.
For this version of wood ear, one box was 500 grams, and he sold it for 388 yuan per box.
For the gift-box version, Ying Kongtu had carefully selected every piece and packaged them very tightly.
Once the gift box was opened, one could smell the rich mushroom fragrance, the kind carrying the breath of the mountains and wilds.
It was completely different from the faint grassy and woody scent of ordinary wood ears. That was a special fragrance belonging solely to wood ears, pure and rich.
The mountain goods Ying Kongtu sold had always been worth every cent.
The 388-yuan boxed wood ears looked a little expensive, but unexpectedly, they were extremely popular.
He had barely promoted them, yet the local people in the county had almost completely reserved them.
Those who acted late could not reserve any at all.
When Wen Zhongshan’s good friend Fu Yuan finally remembered and called him, the wood ears on Ying Kongtu’s mountain were almost out of season.
“The wood ears you sent me last time were very delicious. Are there any more? Send me some more?” Fu Yuan said enthusiastically.
“I’ll ask Kongtu for some when I go back.”
“Sure, I’ll be waiting. By the way, is the mountain god selling wood ears? Need any help?”
“No need. Our wood ears are all free-range wood ears grown naturally in the forest. There’s no worry about selling them.”
“Oh, no worry about selling—” Fu Yuan repeated. “Listen to that proud tone. Is this still the Wen Zhongshan that ghosts dread?”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Why the rush? Seriously, record your current tone and listen to it yourself, and you’ll know.”
Wen Zhongshan ignored him and hung up directly.
The wood ears in Ying Kongtu’s hands were indeed in short supply, but if he wanted some to send to Fu Yuan, that was still no problem.
Proud?
Wen Zhongshan looked at the ended call on his phone. If someone could grow such good mountain wood ears, shouldn’t that be something worth being proud of?
