Chapter 33 - Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Xue’er 1

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Xue’er 1

Translator: 549690339

Jiang Sanlang quickly agreed.

He happily carried the copper coins back home. He gave five hundred coins to his little daughter, took fifteen hundred for himself, and gave the rest to his wife.

He took the copper coins to his eldest brother’s house, called over his two nephews, and gave each of them one hundred coins. He gave five hundred coins each to his eldest and second brothers.

Because when he was building the bamboo sheds and drying kilns, they had all come to help.

He also generously gave three hundred coins to his parents, then merrily said, “Yingbao found some golden ear mushrooms in the forest. I sold them today and got more than four coins.”

“More than four coins?” Jiang Dalang was surprised. “Are these golden ears made of gold? How come they are so valuable?”

Jiang Sanlang laughed, “They are even more valuable than gold.”

He then said to his two older brothers, “I have grown another batch that is just starting to sprout. Once they mature, I will share some golden ear seeds with you guys. You can also try growing them.”

Jiang Dalang and Erlang Jiang readily agreed.

Jiang Erlang felt awkward accepting money from his younger brother and tried to refuse it: “I still owe you three coins, it’s not right for me to take these five hundred.’

Jiang Sanlang laughed, “You take it first, Erlang. Repay me when you make some money later.”

“Alright then.” Jiang Erlang took the money with a sigh.

After his wife divorced him, he and his two kids have been having a tough time. Even so, he doesn’t regret it. He determines to make a lot of money in the future so that his children and himself can live a good life, without making a joke of himself in front of others.

But making money is certainly not easy.

He was busy with farm work recently, didn’t even have time to look for jobs outside, and didn’t even have ten coins on hand.

If it weren’t for his eldest brother and sister-in-law, who invited his family in to eat every day, he probably wouldn’t have had enough to make two meals a day.

Ah, if only the golden ears could keep selling at a high price, he would then be able to see a future for himself. If he followed his younger brother and planted a few, wouldn’t he have an easier time making money?

Thinking of it, he asked to see how his younger brother cultivated golden ears. Jiang Sanlang was happy to, taking his elder brothers and their father to his yard.

Jiang Sanlang’s yard is now unusually cramped, having not just chicken and deer sheds, but also a bamboo shed and a clay kiln that’s two people high.

In the bamboo shed, there’s a wooden rack with two layers, and each layer has ten dried mulberry trunks.

The upturned mulberry trunks each had about ten holes in them, filled with rice husks and wood chips, then the golden ear seeds were sown.

The golden ears had already sprouted, specks of golden yellow, which was very lovely.

“If all of these grow, how much could we sell them for?” Jiang Dalang marvelled. He counted and found twenty dried mulberry trunks.

If each mulberry trunk produced ten golden ears, that would be two hundred golden ears.

Two hundred golden ears, how much could they sell for after drying?

Dalang Jiang’s heart was fluttering.

He had come by when his little brother was drying the golden ears, but he didn’t take it seriously back then.

After all, no one had ever seen this before, and nobody knew if they were really worth anything.

But now that his little brother had sold them at a high price, and made more than four coins at once, how could he not envy him until he was breathless?

Just tens of dried golden ears sold for so much, how much would these more than two hundred golden ears sell for?

Ah, he didn’t dare to even think about it.

Jiang Dalang turned his head and asked his little brother: “Sandan, where did you find the golden ear seeds? Why don’t we go look for some too and try growing them with you?”

He couldn’t wait any longer, he needed to go into the mountains to find golden ears now.

Jiang Sanlang scratched his head, “This is what Yingbao found, let me go ask her. ”

As a result, Yingbao, who just returned from herding the deer, was warmly surrounded by her two uncles. They eagerly asked her where she found the golden ears.

Yingbao blinked, “I found them in the woods over there, but there isn’t any left.

Maybe we can go look in the North Mountain’s Stone Tower Mountain.”

She still remembered the raggedy young boy saying, that the firewood he carried had been chopped from Stone Tower Mountain in North Mountain. “Good! Let’s go to the North Mountain and find it.” Jiang Dalang slapped his thigh, excited. There were many woods and mulberry trees on North Mountain, maybe they would indeed find what they were looking for there.

The next day, Jiang Sanlang carried his granddaughter, leading his older and younger brothers, along with their two nephews, into the mountain.

Just in case, they all carried bows, arrows, ropes, machetes, and backpacks.

North Mountain was abundant with fruit trees, which were blooming beautifully in the early spring of the third lunar month with peaches, pears, apricots all competing with each other in splendor.

This reminded Yingbao of the fruit seedlings in the cave. She had to think of a way to plant them on the South Mountain as soon as possible.

They walked, stopped, and ran over several hills, and inspected countless trees. They didn’t find the golden auricularia, but they unexpectedly discovered some white wood ears, as big as a chicken egg.

Yingbao was thrilled. She didn’t let her father and others touch them, only allowing them to cut down this dead mulberry tree and carry it home.

Since it was dead wood, Jiang Sanlang didn’t hesitate and, along with his brothers, cut down the thick tree.

“I don’t know who owns this land; nobody seems to come and take care of it.”

Jiang Dalang murmured, looking around and urging his brothers to leave quickly. “We should not let anyone see us. Let’s go.”

He was worried that the owner of this place would find out that he and his brothers had secretly cut down their trees. If they were caught, it would be a disaster and could lead to a serious fight.

Jiang Erlang stood on a high slope and looked around for a while, then said, “Don’t worry, this piece of land should be public property now. No one will come and bother us.”

According to the law of the Great Qian Dynasty, after a landowner dies, his allocation of land must be returned to the Imperial Court until later it can be redistributed to other adult men.

Therefore, either the owner of this land was dead, or the entire family had abandoned the place and migrated.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Dalong cheered up and promptly ordered his sons,

“Hurry up and look around to see if there are any more white auriculas.”

This was the first time he had seen this kind of thing. He had heard that it was called a white auricula from his niece and brother, and that it was worth a lot of money. Doctor Li’s pharmacy even sold it, so he hurriedly asked his sons to look around for more.

Jiang Cheng and Jiang Quan agreed and set about looking separately.

They found another mulberry tree with white auriculas nearby.

The auriculas on this tree were small, just bigger than a fingernail. However, they were plentiful, with many clusters growing.

So, Yingbao asked her father and others to cut down the entire tree and take it away.

By the evening, the Jiang family came back to the village carrying two sections of dead trees.

Although the villagers were curious as to why they brought home an entire dead tree, no one asked about it.

After all, everyone had needed firewood at some point, and carrying firewood back from North Mountain was an everyday occurrence.

These two sections of the tree were taken to Jiang Sanlang’s yard, where the three brothers cut off the ends and left only the middle, leaning them against the bamboo shed.

That night, Yingbao stealthily sprinkled the pond water from the cave onto the white wood ears on these two dead trees, and also onto the golden auriculas, then went back to the room to rest.

The next day, she saw that the white wood ears had not only survived, but even grown a bit larger.

Yingbao was delighted.

Saying it, she would soon have white wood ear spores, and afterwards, she wanted to take some into the cave and cultivate them there.

More than twenty days passed in a blink of an eye.

The golden auriculas in Jiang Sanlang’s bamboo shed were finally ready to be harvested.

The white wood ears on those two sections of mulberry trees had also grown. They were crystal-clear and even prettier than the golden auriculas. However, the white wood ears were somewhat scattered, not as well-shaped as the golden auriculas.

He and his wife washed their hands and carefully harvested them with a newly purchased thin knife.

Then they removed all of the golden auriculas’ roots, carefully placed them on a bamboo tray, some exposed to the sun, and others baked in a kiln.

The white wood ears were also harvested, scattered on the bamboo tray, and pushed into the oven along with some golden auriculas.

The weather was exceptionally clear these few days, and in only five days, more than a hundred golden auriculas had dried nicely.

Jiang Sanlang picked up one and compared it with those he had baked himself, commenting, “The ones from the oven are drier, but the color isn’t as good as the ones dried in the sun.”

His wife felt that the baked ones looked better, but this method was too troublesome and tiresome.

Because somebody had to attend to the kiln all night, adding and reducing the firewood constantly to maintain the right temperature. These few days, her husband had lost quite a bit of weight because of it..