Chapter 29: Qianchongcui
After wood ear was inoculated once, the wood ears would grow one after another, at least two or three harvests.
Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan spent the whole of October picking wood ears, drying wood ears, and selling wood ears.
It was not until mid-November that the deadwood in the mountains gradually stopped producing new wood ears.
And during this process, the wood ears from Ying Kongtu’s family had already made a name for themselves.
People from several nearby counties all knew that his family’s wood ears were especially delicious.
Even if they were not eaten at home, they were very good as gifts.
Relatively speaking, the gift-boxed wood ears were not expensive, yet very distinctive. They counted as excellent local specialties.
The wood ears from Ying Kongtu’s family sold very well. There were even people from the provincial capital who drove over specifically to buy wood ears.
When some people could not buy his family’s wood ears, they settled for buying local wood ears instead.
Changchuan County had many mountains, and its mountains and waters were very good. The wood ears “grown” locally were also decent.
Although they could not compare with Ying Kongtu’s, on the market now, they still counted as medium-to-high quality wood ears.
For a while, the wood ears of Changchuan County became modestly famous, and even more people came to buy them.
Changchuan County’s wood ears were in short supply.
Many people saw the business opportunity and tried going into the mountains to gather wood ears. Some directly grew wood ears themselves.
Some mountain villagers did not know how to grow wood ears, so they grew shiitake mushrooms instead.
The growing conditions for wood ears and shiitake mushrooms were similar, and this season was also suitable for growing shiitake mushrooms.
Changchuan County had many mountains.
Since ancient times, the mountain villagers had had the habit of cultivating shiitake mushrooms and wood ears. Locally, it was called “putting out shiitakes” and “putting out wood ears.”
Now that the prices were good, everyone was willing to put in the effort.
Wen Zhongshan sat on Ying Kongtu’s three-wheeled vehicle. As the two drove in from the outer ring road, they could see that many households along the way had mountain goods drying on their rooftops.
Black wood ears, grayish-white shiitake mushrooms, brown chestnuts… all kinds of mountain goods gave off the fragrance of having fully absorbed sunlight.
As nonhumans, they could smell it from far away.
Wen Zhongshan said, “More people have been going into the mountains recently.”
Ying Kongtu glanced around. “The prices for mountain goods are good. Everyone is happy to earn a little extra money.”
“Earning some money is still nice. If this develops for a few more years, Changchuan County might even become a somewhat famous county of wood ears.”
Ying Kongtu thought about that scene and felt it was quite nice. A smile could not help appearing on his face.
When Ying Kongtu first began growing wood ears, he had only wanted to earn a sum of money to make it easier to repay his loan.
Even he had not expected the wood ears to sell so well and earn so much in the end.
Across the six mountains under his name, after more than a month of harvesting wood ears, each mountain had produced more than a thousand jin of dried wood ears on average.
Altogether, the dried wood ears from the six mountains totaled more than nine thousand jin.
After selling these wood ears, deducting the costs of hiring people to pick, dry, sort, and package the wood ears, as well as packaging fees, delivery fees, and so on, he had earned more than 3.4 million yuan in total.
It could be considered quietly making a fortune.
Most people probably could not guess that he had earned so much money in just over a month.
He had never told anyone either.
Except Wen Zhongshan.
Wen Zhongshan had helped a great deal throughout the process, including quite a bit of help collecting payments.
He was quite clear on how much Ying Kongtu had earned.
Mainly because Ying Kongtu had not thought of hiding it from him either.
After the long wood ear harvesting season ended, Ying Kongtu truly wanted to thank Wen Zhongshan, but he could not think of what kind of grand meal to treat him to.
Ying Kongtu was a little troubled, and his gaze fixed on the group of half-grown piglets on Wuchuan Mountain. “How about I slaughter a pig?”
“Wouldn’t slaughtering a pig at this time be a big loss?”
“There’s no helping it. I said I’d give you a gift, but you wouldn’t accept one.”
“There’s really no need. You let me freeload meals every day, and that has already helped me a lot. Otherwise, if I were alone, I’d at most eat takeout or cook some noodles.”
“That doesn’t count. You helped with the work, so meals should be included no matter what.”
Ying Kongtu was still racking his brains, planning what kind of ingredients to get for a good meal.
Before he could decide, Xing Chang came to him first.
That afternoon, Xing Chang specifically made an appointment with Ying Kongtu, planning to come to his house.
Ying Kongtu opened the door for Xing Chang. “What exactly is it? I told you to say it directly, but you still kept me in suspense.”
Xing Chang said, “If I said it directly, it would be easy to explain poorly. It’s better to talk in person. Besides, you’ve been busy all this time. I haven’t come to your house to hang out in ages. Can’t I specially come to visit you?”
Ying Kongtu invited Xing Chang to sit in the courtyard and handed him a small plate of black huckleberries.
“Black huckleberries!” Xing Chang happily grabbed a handful of the dark fruits. “I haven’t eaten these in so long. I really like them, but they’re hard to pick, and no one sells them at the market.”
“Eat more.” Ying Kongtu sat back in his original spot and began weaving a bamboo tray.
“Delicious!” Xing Chang looked at him and said, “I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but I always feel like the wild fruits here taste better than the wild fruits picked by others.”
Ying Kongtu glanced at him. “When I pick them, I select them. I leave the ones that don’t taste good on the branches for the birds and beasts.”
“I knew it.” Xing Chang propped his chin in his hand, eating black huckleberries while watching Ying Kongtu.
Ying Kongtu’s home had a large demand for bamboo trays, so whenever he had nothing to do, he would weave some.
He went up the mountain to cut good bamboo, split it carefully into bamboo strips, and used ancient weaving methods to make all kinds of utensils.
This process made Ying Kongtu feel very peaceful inside.
The bamboo wares he wove were also better than those sold on the market. They were smooth, delicate, sturdy, beautiful, and carried the fragrance of bamboo.
Xing Chang sat to one side, watching Ying Kongtu’s movements, feeling somewhat proud.
Their mountain god was getting better and better.
The mountain god sat under the sunlight, and his whole person seemed to glow. Even his half-long hair was smooth, glossy, and soft, making him look different from ordinary people.
His own contribution was part of this too.
“Have some tea.” A voice sounded beside him.
Xing Chang, who had been staring in a daze, had his view blocked by Wen Zhongshan’s tall figure.
Before Xing Chang could poke his head out and look at Ying Kongtu again, Wen Zhongshan said, “This is wild chrysanthemum tea we newly gathered from the mountains. It clears the eyes and reduces internal heat. I don’t know if you’ll be used to drinking it.”
Xing Chang’s attention was quickly diverted. He picked up the chrysanthemum tea and took a sip.
“It’s good!” Xing Chang’s eyes lit up at once. “It tastes much better than the chrysanthemum tea I buy outside. What did you put in it?”
“Wild honey,” Wen Zhongshan said. “It may also be because these wild chrysanthemums were picked on a high mountain, so the flavor is better than ordinary chrysanthemums.”
“I knew it. No wonder it has a special fragrance. Although there’s still a little of the wild chrysanthemum’s clear bitterness, it doesn’t taste bitter when drunk. Instead, it has a special fragrance.”
Xing Chang did not notice that Wen Zhongshan had deliberately spoken to him. He raised his head happily and thanked him. “Thank you, Brother Wen.”
“You’re welcome.” Wen Zhongshan asked, “What news did you want to talk about?”
“Oh, you’re asking about that.” Xing Chang looked a little smug. “Do you still remember Yue Chengji?”
Both Wen Zhongshan and Ying Kongtu had excellent memories, so of course they remembered.
As Ying Kongtu wove the bamboo tray, he said, “Yue Chengji, who grows kiwifruit on Qianchongcui Mountain? I even picked mushroom on his mountain before. What happened?”
Xing Chang said, “He might want to sell the mountain.”
Ying Kongtu’s hands stopped moving. “He wants to sell the mountain?”
“That’s what he seems to mean. You don’t know this, but recently he keeps hanging around my mom’s circle of old sisters. Every word, spoken and unspoken, is about how kiwifruit is hard to grow and how he wants to offload the mountain and go do something else.”
Ying Kongtu said, “I thought his family’s kiwifruit was growing pretty well?”
Xing Chang waved his hand. “Mainly, he thinks it doesn’t make money.”
Xing Chang explained:
“Last year was too dry. Since summer began, it barely rained here. Many ponds in our area dried up. His kiwifruit orchard is on high ground, with not much water for irrigation, so the final harvest wasn’t very good.”
“This year, the weather was favorable, but everyone else’s weather was favorable too. Kiwifruit couldn’t sell for a high price, so he still didn’t make much money.”
Wen Zhongshan said from the side, “There might not be big money, but small money shouldn’t be a problem.”
Xing Chang shrugged. “I don’t know. Anyway, that’s what he said.”
As he spoke, Xing Chang winked. “I heard from my mom that he previously asked around about the price Jiang Hanhai got for selling his mountains and was terribly envious. It was from then on that he slowly started letting out the news that he wanted to sell his mountain.”
Ying Kongtu nodded. “Got it.”
Xing Chang said, “Hehe, Kongtu, you’re about to have a new mountain again.”
Ying Kongtu smiled faintly. “Yes.”
After receiving the news, Ying Kongtu showed no movement for several days in a row.
Seeing him like this, Wen Zhongshan could not help asking one day, “What are you planning? Aren’t you going to talk to him?”
Ying Kongtu lay in the lounge chair. “No rush.”
Wen Zhongshan studied him. “That isn’t your style.”
“To be honest, the six mountains I have on hand are already enough for me to digest for a while. I really am not in a hurry.”
Since waking up, he had been busy on the mountains the whole time.
Now, of the six mountains, he had almost finished clearing them and had also laid the foundation.
When next year came, as soon as all kinds of plants on the mountains sprouted and the condition of the mountain forests improved, his divine power would definitely increase further.
Too much greed would make one unable to chew through it all.
If he really bought a new mountain, he might genuinely be too busy to manage it.
Ying Kongtu rocked the lounge chair, narrowed his eyes, and said, “Besides, I don’t want to take out another loan. Borrowing so much money is quite stressful.”
“I—”
Wen Zhongshan had only begun speaking when Ying Kongtu raised his hand to stop him. “If you’re going to say you’ll lend me money, there’s no need.”
“Then, the money you just earned from selling wood ears?”
“According to the current calculation method, Qianchongcui Mountain has more than three thousand mu. Yue Chengji absolutely won’t be satisfied selling it for only twenty or thirty yuan per mu. Adding up more than three thousand mu, the money from selling wood ears might still not be enough.”
“If I rush to talk now, he’ll demand a high price,” Ying Kongtu concluded.
Ying Kongtu had thought it through. The mountain was right there. It would not grow legs and run away.
With his long lifespan, all of his former territories would return to his name one after another.
Wen Zhongshan looked at his leisurely manner and smiled. “That’s fine too.”
Ying Kongtu said happily, “There really is no need to hurry. If Yue Chengji truly wants to sell, he’ll come find us.”
Yue Chengji did indeed want to sell the mountain, but he did not want to lose the initiative.
He waited at home for several days, confirming that the news had already blown to Ying Kongtu’s ears, yet Ying Kongtu had not come looking for him. He could not help becoming a little anxious.
After thinking it over, Yue Chengji did not look for Ying Kongtu. Instead, he went to squat outside Xing Chang’s workplace to wait for him.
As Ying Kongtu’s liaison, Xing Chang was part of the Abnormality Management Bureau.
As a mysterious organization, the Abnormality Management Bureau was not directly exposed to the public.
Therefore, Xing Chang also had an open identity: a minor clerk in a certain leisurely local public institution.
Yue Chengji had been waiting outside their workplace early on.
After Xing Chang got off work and saw Yue Chengji, he was somewhat surprised. “Uncle Yue? Are you looking for me?”
“Ah, isn’t this about my family’s mountain? I wanted to find a middleman and ask around.”
Seeing that he really wanted to sell the mountain, Xing Chang smiled. “Then contact Kongtu.”
Yue Chengji rubbed his hands. “We’re not familiar. It’s a little embarrassing.”
Xing Chang said, “It’s business. What’s there to be embarrassed about?”
Yue Chengji said, “We’re not that familiar, and I can’t quite figure out Boss Ying’s personality. I’m afraid if the talks collapse, things will be awkward. It’s easier to talk with a middleman.”
Seeing that Xing Chang had already opened the car door, Yue Chengji tugged his arm and said warmly, “Come, come, come. Uncle will treat you to tea. Let’s find a teahouse and chat while drinking tea.”
