The next day
The weather was nice.
At five or six in the morning, before sunrise but already bright, the people delivering seedlings arrived by car.
It was only one mu of land, about twenty thousand seedlings.
Most people here plant early and late rice, so nobody joined in with her order.
Because of the distance, there was a fifty-yuan delivery fee. Besides rice seedlings, they also brought pre-germinated wheat seeds, totaling five hundred yuan.
Jiang Heng had chosen the pricier varieties, hence the higher cost.
There wasn’t much, and the driver kindly dropped it off near the field edge.
She paid, and the driver left promptly.
After confirming delivery, Jiang Heng was about to go get breakfast when she saw Aunt Shen and Jiang Guoxia, Chen Aying, and Jiang Changhai and his wife arriving.
Each wore straw hats and old clothes, with their pant legs rolled up.
They’d agreed in advance to help her plant all the rice and wheat in one day, two hundred yuan per person. Her aunt was embarrassed to take the money, but Jiang Heng talked her into it.
With more people, the one-and-a-half mu should be… manageable in a day, right?
Jiang Heng greeted everyone and asked, “Did you eat breakfast? Should I make some noodles?”
Originally, food wasn’t included, but it was just past five, and she felt bad making them work hungry.
Chen Aying quickly said, “We already ate! Gotta start early for transplanting, I got up a little after four.”
Aunt Shen laughed too, “That’s right. Otherwise, how would we know the seedlings were delivered? We got up early, ate, and waited.”
Jiang Heng relaxed, “Let’s get started then.”
“You haven’t eaten yet, right?” Aunt Shen guessed, and when Jiang Heng nodded, she said, “Go eat, children need to eat to grow. We’ll get started.”
Jiang Heng didn’t argue.
They’d already split up the work: the two men scattered the seedlings evenly, the paddy field had settled overnight, so the mud had sunk and the water was clear. With this action, the water turned murky again.
The three women waded in to start transplanting, and soon the men joined.
All five were experienced, and before Jiang Heng had walked far, she could already see neat rows of seedlings standing straight in the paddy, green leaves fluttering in the breeze, occasionally dipping into the water and sending out ripples.
Jiang Heng quickly hurried home to cook herself some egg noodles.
As she was eating, she heard the sound of an electric scooter outside.
Jiang Peng rode in, grinning, “Hey~ surprised?!”
“Surprised!” Jiang Heng nodded honestly, happy. “Why are you back? Where’s Xiaodao?”
“At class. Grandma will pick her up at noon,” Jiang Peng parked the scooter, changed pants, and explained,
“Had some free time, so I came to help. I wasn’t sure if my mother-in-law would babysit for the day, you know how she is, always pushing for more kids but never wants to take care of them. But this time, as soon as I mentioned it, she agreed—must be because of the mushrooms you gave, she was so happy.”
Jiang Heng smiled, “That so? Then I won’t be polite.”
Jiang Peng snorted, “No need! I didn’t hesitate to take mushrooms and fish from you, did I?”
Changed into shorts and slippers, Jiang Peng put on a straw hat, “Go do your thing, I’ll cover for you. Aunt will watch the field, don’t let your mushroom business suffer, I’d feel bad for you!”
Jiang Heng replied, but before she could say more, Jiang Peng was already out the door.
With her bowl of noodles unfinished, she just kept eating.
She’d planned to help out in the fields, but after Jiang Peng’s words, Jiang Heng thought for a second and gladly accepted her cousin’s help.
Whether she set up her stall or not didn’t matter.
With extra time, she could pick mushrooms first.
If the shop owners wanted them, she could deliver when convenient. If not, she could dry them and sell later.
So, after breakfast, Jiang Heng packed up and carried three burlap sacks up the mountain!
Passing her own field, she glanced over and saw they’d already finished a big section. From a distance, the neat rows of tender green seedlings stood out.
Efficient, indeed.
Perhaps it was the right season for Chicken Fungus mushrooms, and the stable temperatures created perfect conditions for growth.
This time, Jiang Heng found many more Chicken Fungus than before.
As soon as she reached her usual spot, she spotted clusters of unopened Chicken Fungus ahead.
She hurried over, gently pinched the stem, channeling spiritual energy into her fingertips, loosening the soil around it. With a little effort, one Chicken Fungus came out.
One, two, three…
Jiang Heng picked with glee.
Suddenly, she sensed something coming her way.
Jiang Heng dodged quickly, just missing a chestnut that was hurled at her head.
She looked up in confusion to see, about five meters up, a big-tailed squirrel puffing at her angrily.
Jiang Heng raised an eyebrow.
Was this the Yellow-throated Marten’s debt, coming to collect now?!
“Chitter chitter chitter!” The squirrel, seeing her look up, shrieked even louder, its fluffy tail standing on end, looking twice as big.
Jiang Heng couldn’t help but laugh, “Pfft~”
Squirrel: ?!
Is this fair?
It came for revenge!
It spat out another chestnut and prepared to hurl it at her.
“Chit!” Another cry rang out, similar yet different, with a dangerous warning in its tone.
This time, the squirrel really puffed up, its fur ballooning until it looked twice as big. It stuffed the chestnut in its mouth and bolted, all four paws scrambling.
A streak of yellow chased after it.
Huh?
Is the Yellow-throated Marten really repaying a debt? After all this time?
Could it be… protecting her?
Jiang Heng squinted at the two vanishing figures, silently wishing the squirrel good luck.
Squirrels were a favorite food of Yellow-throated Martens, after all. Then she continued foraging.
Sure enough, there were plenty of mushrooms today.
Perfect temperature, Spiritual Rain, great environment—
It was a mushroom gatherer’s paradise!
In no time, she filled a sack.
Since she had several bags today, once the first was full, Jiang Heng hung it on a tree branch and kept picking with the others. She’d retrieve them all on her way back.
Now that she was at Qi Refining Second Layer, her speed had increased a lot. With Shrinking Earth, crossing a mountain was just a minute or two.
If picking mushrooms didn’t take so long, she could comb through all the deep mountains.
By a little after ten, all three sacks were full.
This time she went farther, discovering several Wild Chestnut Trees and a Pear Tree. The chestnuts were fine, and the pear tree was in fruit, small green pears hanging thickly.
Jiang Heng took note of the location and summoned a Spiritual Rain over the area, then set up an array around the pear tree to keep birds and bugs away after the Spiritual Energy infusion, or else she’d come back to a bunch of pecked and scarred fruit.
Really, these birds were such a waste.
Instead of eating a whole fruit, they nibbled a bit of each.
But Jiang Heng wasn’t planning to sell these.
The tree was deep in the mountain, hard to reach and not worth hiring people to pick.
She’d just take a few for herself when picking mushrooms.
If she was right, these were Little Sand Pear, great for making pear water to soothe coughs and throat. When they were ripe, she’d remove the array—plenty of animals would enjoy the rest.
After marking the spot, Jiang Heng used Shrinking Earth to return to her bags.
Just two hills away, and as she arrived, she saw the Yellow-throated Marten perched on the same tree as her sacks.
They made eye contact.
The Marten blinked its round black eyes at her, huffed, then flashed away to another tree and quickly disappeared.
Jiang Heng was stunned, then saw, beside her sacks, a fat dead mouse!
Its long tail dangled, swaying in the breeze.
She was even more shocked.
Seriously? Was the Marten protecting her stuff, and left a present as thanks?!
She almost cried.
Actually, Jiang Heng had placed a layer of spiritual power on her bags—any animal trying to chew in would be bounced off.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t dare leave them like this.
But now, imagining it, she was moved by the Marten’s actions.
Too bad humans and wild animals can have no results (bushi!)
Jiang Heng stared at the mouse for two seconds, but decided to reject the Marten’s gift.
Even with the Dust Removal Art, she couldn’t get past the mental hurdle.
She hoped the Marten would come back to eat it, so it wouldn’t go to waste.
Then she shouldered all three sacks, used Shrinking Earth, and though it burned spiritual energy, she could appear a hundred meters away in a blink.
If not for reaching Qi Refining Second Layer, she couldn’t afford to use it.
This world had no Spiritual Energy to absorb; her spiritual power stored in her Dantian was all she had, and once used, she had to meditate to restore it.
No way to replenish at will.
With her previous spiritual power, she’d be out after a few uses, and in danger if anything went wrong.
But now, things were different.
A few flashes later, with a third of her spiritual power left, Jiang Heng was already at the edge of the forest, the whole trip taking only a minute.
From there, it was back on foot, down the hill and across the fields. She finally returned home and saw the paddy was more than halfway done!
Actually, they’d already been working for more than four hours.
A mu of land was still big—666 square meters, about 33 meters long and 22 meters wide. Transplanting was tough, always bent over the water, back to the field.
After a while, everyone’s back would ache.
Especially now, with the sun high and hot, it was even more exhausting.
Jiang Heng didn’t disturb them, hurrying home. Opening the yard gate, Caramel and Pudding, her two dogs, rushed over to greet her.
The little dogs were getting attached to her.
Last night, they whined to go upstairs to sleep with her.
After not seeing her all morning, each grabbed a shoe in its mouth, hanging onto her legs, begging to be held.
But Jiang Heng was busy, so she gently pushed them away and dumped the mushrooms out onto the clean cement ground.
The two dogs were startled by the sound, stumbled, and one even fell over, barking at the ground in frustration.
Jiang Heng glanced at them, lips twitching.
She spread the mushrooms out evenly, snapped a photo, and opened WeChat to post to her Moments:
[Freshly picked mushrooms, orders over 500 yuan delivered in the county.]
It was her first time trying to sell via Moments.
Ahem.
She’d forgotten about this function, mainly because most of her contacts were villagers, with the rest in Beijing—too far away to be customers.
But since yesterday, she’d added several shop owners, so it was different now.
After posting, Jiang Heng was hopeful.
Surely someone would place an order?
As she absentmindedly refreshed, she saw two new messages.
She checked:
[Ye Sui: Eh? Mushrooms? Am I seeing this right? These look expensive, right? Can you ship to Beijing?]
[Manager Huang: You really quit your job just to sell mushrooms?]
The first was her old colleague, but unlike Jiang Heng’s humble working life, Ye Sui came from a well-off family, worked in admin just for the social insurance, and they’d met during a company outing, exchanged contacts but weren’t close.
At first, Ye Sui had been friendly.
But with her fancy clothes and Jiang Heng’s frugal three-piece work uniform, and with Jiang Heng always declining invitations to go out, they gradually lost touch.
The second was her old boss—big-bellied, always making empty promises: “You can do it, this task is yours, you’ll get it done tonight, right?” When she worked herself to the bone to finish, he’d reply with a brief “Good job” the next day.
Even when she nearly collapsed from overwork, he never had a kind word, just blamed her for not balancing work and life.
Once he knew she was okay, he was relieved, no need to pay compensation, just afraid she’d try to get money from the company.
(smile.jpg)
Just thinking about him was a bad omen.
Jiang Heng was happy to see the first message. Dried mushrooms could definitely be shipped to Beijing, right?
But when she saw her old boss’s message, her smile vanished. She quickly typed: [Yep, selling mushrooms is way better than working for you. Why did I forget to delete you?]
After sending it, she went to his profile, waited a bit—he was definitely online—and then blocked and deleted him.
WeChat felt much cleaner instantly.
Then she replied to Ye Sui: [Sure, they’re a bit pricey, but I guarantee they’re wild, freshly picked this morning from the mountains.]
Just as she sent it.
A private message arrived.
[Ye Sui: I know, these mushrooms look great! Give me five jin of each, how much in total?]
Jiang Heng: “!!!”
She knew it—Ye Sui was rich!
Didn’t even ask the price, just nearly bought her out!
She thought her express delivery sales would come through Song Ming, but she got her first order herself!