80s Transmigration: The Young Widow's Hustle to Riches

Chapter 229 - 225: Collecting Mountain Goods

Lin Lan, Li Xiangyang, and the others got to their feet as the commune members crowded around. They asked if Lin Lan’s group would pay them immediately upon accepting their dried goods.

"Don’t worry, everyone. As long as we accept your goods, you’ll be paid on the spot," Lin Lan said, looking at them.

"We trust you, Dashan’s here!" the crowd replied, and everyone went home to get their dried goods to sell.

When Lin Lan, Zhou Shitou, and the others returned to the house, they asked Wu Shufang to borrow a steelyard scale from the production brigade to weigh the dried goods. Wu Shufang agreed and hurried off.

Zhou Shitou asked, "Cousin, if the villagers ask me to bring back goods for them, where should I go to buy them?" He had only agreed to it earlier because Lin Lan’s confidence had rubbed off on him.

Lin Lan thought for a moment. Salt at the supply and marketing co-op was sixteen fen per jin, while she bought it on the black market for twenty fen per jin.

"The black market where we sell our goods has sundries like needles and thread. The salt is four fen more per jin than at the co-op. You can write down what they need, and I’ll find someone to get you some wholesale. They can buy it from your house, and you can earn a little to cover your travel expenses."

Zhou Dashan looked at Lin Lan. "If I sell salt, won’t I get arrested?"

Li Xiangyang said, "Alternatively, you can make a list of everything everyone needs, have them give you their ration books and coupons, and you can go to Shiqiao Town to buy things for them. You can charge each family two fen for the trip."

Zhou Dashan’s face lit up. "Right! If I’m just buying for them, there won’t be any trouble."

Xu Hongju ran in excitedly. "Cousin, people are here with their mushrooms and pumpkins!"

"I’ll go get some baskets to put everything in," Zhou Dashan said, heading toward the woodshed.

Lin Lan smiled at Li Xiangyang. "Master Li, I’ll have to trouble you with the weighing!"

Li Xiangyang grinned. "No problem. You can count on me."

Zhou Xiangui and a few of his family’s children arrived at Zhou Dashan’s house carrying mature pumpkins, dried mushrooms, and dried Szechuan peppercorns. Wu Shufang returned right behind them, carrying the steelyard scale.

Zhou Dashan happily went forward to take the bamboo basket from Zhou Xiangui. "Uncle, please, come inside and warm yourself by the fire."

Lin Guoliang pulled out a stool. "Grandpa Zhou, please have a seat."

Zhou Xiangui chuckled as he looked at the group. "Thank you, thank you all for coming all this way to buy our local produce. We mountain folk have been cheated before, so we’re a bit wary. Once we get to know you better, we won’t be asking so many questions."

Lin Guoliang smiled and lit a cigarette for Zhou Xiangui. "Thank you for the trouble of calling everyone to the meeting."

Zhou Xiangui and Lin Guoliang’s group were in the main hall shooting the breeze. When Zhou Xiangui heard from Lin Guoliang that the land had already been distributed to individual households in other places, he said, "That was fast! I didn’t hear anything about it the last time I went to the commune headquarters."

Lin Guoliang said, "It happened right after New Year’s Day."

"When your sister’s finished with her work, I’ll find her and ask about the details," Zhou Xiangui said, his gaze falling on the busy Lin Lan outside.

In the courtyard, Li Xiangyang was busy weighing pumpkins with the steelyard scale Wu Shufang had borrowed.

Xu Hongju and Wu Shufang were teaching Lin Lan how to identify different varieties of dried mushrooms and what qualities to look for in good ones.

Wu Shufang told Lin Lan that selecting dried mushrooms was trickier than selecting fresh ones. Someone unfamiliar wouldn’t know which were dried from young mushrooms and which were from overripe ones.

She picked up the dried mushrooms from Zhou Xiangui’s family, remarking on their high quality. She explained to Lin Lan that good dried mushrooms have thick, uniform caps with a smooth surface.

"They should be uniform in size," she continued, "with neat, dense gills and thick edges that curl inward. The stalk should be short and stout, feeling as hard as a dry twig when you pinch it. Properly dried mushrooms won’t have any mold, broken pieces, or scorched spots."

"Thick-capped dried mushrooms are better, as they have a richer aroma. Caps with inward-curling edges were dried when they were young. If the edges are straight, they were dried from old mushrooms."

"As for color, a bright yellowish-brown or blackish-brown is best..."

Lin Lan hadn’t realized there was so much to know about dried mushrooms. She carefully committed it all to memory.

After finishing the lesson on dried mushrooms, Wu Shufang taught her how to inspect dried Szechuan peppercorns. The aroma of the local peppercorns was intense. After sniffing them for a moment, Lin Lan felt her tongue begin to go a little numb.

They weren’t even finished weighing Zhou Xiangui’s goods when a few more families arrived, including the two that lived closest to Zhou Dashan’s house.

Lin Guoliang and Zhou Shitou also came out to help sort the mature pumpkins and dried mushrooms.

Zhou Xiangui even went home and brought back his own family’s steelyard scale to help with the weighing.

Lin Lan noticed that most of the commune members had already pre-selected their best mature pumpkins. Having cut so many herself, Lin Lan knew that the ones with darker rinds and deeper stripes were the most well-ripened.

When the commune members selling their goods saw Lin Lan pay cash on the spot after weighing, their anxieties were finally laid to rest.

Word spread, and soon everyone was showing up with their household’s dried goods. Zhou Dashan’s courtyard became as bustling as a market day.

Aunt Zhou arrived with her daughter-in-law and Zhou Qiaoyan, who was carrying pumpkins on her back and holding bags of dried mushrooms and peppercorns. She gave Wu Shufang an awkward smile. "Sister-in-law, our pumpkins are sweet and starchy. Delicious."

"As long as they’re good, we’ll buy them." Wu Shufang gave her a cool glance before picking up the mature pumpkins from the basket to inspect them. She then had Li Xiangyang and Lin Guoliang weigh them.

Meanwhile, Xu Hongju was sorting through the dried mushrooms Zhou Qiaoyan had brought, picking out the moldy and scorched ones and setting them aside.

Xu Hongju looked up and saw Zhou Qiaoyan, her face red, sneaking glances at the busy Li Xiangyang. She shot her a glare. "Qiaoyan, my cousin won’t take these. You’ll have to take them back with you."

Zhou Qiaoyan’s face turned crimson. She nodded and put the rejected mushrooms back into her sack.

Seeing this, Aunt Zhou complained to Lin Lan, "Young lady, what’s wrong with our mushrooms? Hong Ju picked out all of these."

Lin Lan gave her an indifferent look and pointed to the basket of rejected mushrooms. "Ma’am, if you can find a single good mushroom in that basket, I’ll buy this entire lot."

A commune member behind her spoke up. "We all saw it. The ones Hong Ju picked out weren’t dried properly. Hurry it up, don’t hold up the rest of us."

Aunt Zhou, still stubbornly refusing to admit fault, muttered, "If I’d known you’d be this picky, we wouldn’t have bothered coming."

Lin Lan and the others didn’t even bother to respond, turning their attention to the next person’s goods.

After a busy morning, Lin Lan tallied up the purchases. She found they had bought the most mature pumpkins, dried Szechuan peppercorns, and dried mushrooms.

Each household had twenty to thirty jin of dried mushrooms. Nearly all of the dozens of families in the Shishanling Production Brigade had come. They had collected several hundred jin each of black wood ear fungus and dried Szechuan peppercorns, as well as katsumadai seeds and black cardamom.

Luckily, dried mushrooms and peppercorns weren’t very expensive back then. It was also a good thing Li Xiangyang had brought extra cash, or they wouldn’t have had enough to pay everyone.

After the work was done, Xu Hongju told Wu Shufang about Zhou Qiaoyan sneaking glances at Li Xiangyang. "Mom, I saw her face turn bright red."

Wu Shufang pursed her lips in disdain. "That family has been getting more and more out of line ever since Third Brother passed. They’re banking on Qiaoyan’s good looks, being so picky about her prospects. That girl’s got wild ideas, too. She’s heading for trouble sooner or later."

Xu Hongju nodded. "I agree, Qiaoyan is the restless type. It’s a good thing my cousin and her friends are leaving tomorrow."

Wu Shufang snorted. "Even if they weren’t leaving, so what? Does someone like Zhou Qiaoyan really think she can compete with our Little Lan?"

Xu Hongju glanced over at Lin Lan, who was talking with Li Xiangyang, and grinned. "Exactly!"