Chapter 12

Then, a screen appeared before Shuiqing, similar to that of Pinduoduo, clearly showing the price and weight of each item.

Even though Shuiqing had read many novels, she was still pleasantly surprised!

She stared dumbfoundedly at Fan Jin and Xinghui, who were looking at mushrooms by the bamboo basket, confirming that only she could see and hear the screen and the voices.

She quickly focused her attention and looked closely.

Wild umbrella chicken mushrooms, 167 yuan per jin, totaling three liang, 50.1 yuan.

Wild premium unopened umbrella chicken mushrooms, 187 yuan per jin, totaling one jin and one liang, 205.7 yuan.

Fresh wild premium bamboo fungus, 180 yuan per jin, totaling two jin, 360 yuan.

The total was 615.8 yuan. Would you like to sell?

Shuiqing was more than willing, but just as she was about to sell, she overheard the conversation between the three.

“There are so many old bamboo mushrooms. If we had gone in the morning, they would all have been unopened, tender, and more delicious.”

“I thought the opened bamboo mushrooms were too old, so I only picked the less old ones. But fortunately, the skirt mushrooms are just right. Look at how many skirt mushrooms I picked.”

“Yeah, a big basket full, enough for our family to eat tonight with leftovers.”

Shuiqing: …….So the bamboo mushrooms they mentioned are actually umbrella chicken mushrooms!

And the bamboo fungus, with its white net-like veil, looks like it’s wearing a skirt, so the villagers call it skirt mushrooms.

And to think, these two items are nearly 200 yuan per jin!

Wait, according to what Yanqiu said, there are still a lot more?

She anxiously asked, “Yanqiu, there’s more over there? How much?”

There was no way for someone like her, who had never picked mushrooms before, to understand any of this.

“Mom, of course there’s more. The mountains are full of them, and we can’t possibly pick them all. Although skirt mushrooms only appear after rain, bamboo mushrooms keep sprouting season after season. Who knows how many there are?” Yanqiu replied with a smile.

Xinghui thought her mother was considering drying them for winter vegetables. Since there weren’t enough vegetables, drying the bamboo and skirt mushrooms for winter consumption would also be a good idea.

She asked, “Mom, are you planning to dry them for winter? The sun hasn’t set yet. I and big sister will go pick some more mushrooms. It’s just that it’ll be a bit troublesome for you to cook dinner alone.”

If she and her elder sister were there, they could help with miscellaneous tasks like picking firewood or setting up the stove.

Shuiqing had been wanting to send them all away so she could carefully study the online shopping mall.

Hearing her second daughter worried about her doing all the cooking alone, she smiled and said, “It’s okay, cooking isn’t tiring.”

She glanced at her tall and handsome husband standing beside her, smiling as she instructed, “You go with them, and also take Jiang, He, and Hu with you.”

What a joke! Umbrella chicken mushrooms cost nearly 200 yuan per jin! Were the mountains really filled with mushrooms?

No, that’s just money lying around!

Although a puzzled look flashed through Fan Jin’s dark eyes, he obediently agreed and reminded them with concern, “Don’t do too much work alone at home. Be careful not to tire yourself out.”

Of course, Shuiqing wouldn’t do too much work. She just wanted to see what the online shopping mall was all about!

She quickly found all the bamboo baskets and bamboo baskets she had received, and quickly sent the six of them away with instructions that they could pick both old and tender bamboo mushrooms.

Only after the six of them were out of sight did Shuiqing call up the screen she had just seen in her mind and clicked the ‘sell’ button.

Suddenly, the chicken mushrooms and bamboo fungus disappeared from the ground, replaced by the pleasant sound of money being deposited.

The balance, which was previously 0 yuan, had now become 615.8 yuan.

Shuiqing breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness she managed to send them all away.

Otherwise, although they couldn’t see the screen of the online shopping mall, they could definitely see the items disappearing into thin air!

Fan Jin trusted his two daughters, but children couldn’t be trusted to keep secrets. If they accidentally leaked something, the danger would be too great. Better to wait.

Now that she had money, Shuiqing quickly found the rice options.

Ten kilograms for thirty yuan;

Twenty kilograms for fifty yuan;

Fifty kilograms for one hundred yuan.

Shuiqing chose the option for fifty kilograms without hesitation.

“Confirm purchase?” The system prompted.

Shuiqing decisively clicked confirm.

In the next instant, fragrant rice flowed into the rice bag specified by Shuiqing~

Shuiqing then went to look at the iron pots.

There was only a soup pot at home, so they couldn’t fry anything. Even if she couldn’t buy an iron pot today, she could make an excuse to go to the market tomorrow and bring one back.

Even after flipping through to the last page, she couldn’t find any pictures of iron pots. Shuiqing clicked on search, but all she got were blurry images of iron pots.

Strange.

What’s going on?

Shuiqing studied for a while and finally understood.

Iron pots belonged to the category of household items, and purchasing household items required an additional one thousand yuan activation fee!

She checked other options.

For essential items needed by women every month, the activation fee was two thousand yuan;

Three thousand yuan for clothing;

Five thousand yuan for condiments;

Eight thousand yuan for medicine…

You had to pay an activation fee to buy things?

Shuiqing, who had a rough idea of the prices, just wanted to curse the merchants at this moment!

But cursing aside, she was grateful.

As long as they worked hard, eating well and dressing warmly wouldn’t be a problem.

With a grateful attitude, Shuiqing returned to the food category.

She first went to look at the eggs.

Fortunately, eggs were classified under food.

Foreign eggs were six yuan and eight jiao per jin, with big ones averaging seven to eight mao each.

While local purebred eggs were priced per piece, two yuan each, and they were much smaller.

Without hesitation, Shuiqing chose the foreign eggs—large in quantity and cheap in price. Who needs anything else!

Save where you can, spend where you should, ensuring quality and quantity of life.

After buying eggs, she looked at flour.

Since there was no iron pot, she could only make pancakes on a stone slab.

Fifty kilograms of freshly ground wheat flour cost one hundred and fifty yuan, with ten small packets of yeast included.

Shuiqing deliberately chose flour with a slightly darker color, mixing it with the existing wheat flour at home. The color difference wasn’t too significant.

With an additional hundred kilograms of grain, and still having leftover money, Shuiqing didn’t skimp on the flour at all.

She first used a large rough pottery basin used for soup to hold most of the flour, tore open a small packet of yeast, added water, and kneaded it into dough before setting it aside to ferment.

Then she took out the pine needles and firewood they had brought back from the mountain when they found the stone slab, and lit the dry pine needles with a fire stick. She placed small dry branches on the rack and finally put on thick branches.

After one hearth was lit, she pulled out a burning stick to light another hearth.

She filled the pot with water to eight-tenths full and placed it on the hearth to heat.

Without a scraper, Shuiqing peeled the loofah with a kitchen knife, cut it into thick slices, and threw it into the pot to cook.

While beating the eggs, Shuiqing, in order to avoid making it too obvious, used seven foreign eggs and took out five from Fan’s mother’s stash.

There was no other way. With seven people in the family, taking out one egg per person was already lacking in nutrition.

With twelve eggs divided among them, each person got less than two.

On the other side, the pot was simmering with loofah and egg soup.

Meanwhile, Shuiqing began making pancakes on the stone slab.

The dough had fermented to twice its size, fluffy and soft. She gently kneaded it to release the air.

Then she tore it into small round balls and flattened them with a “pat” before throwing them on the stone slab to cook until both sides were golden brown.

The crust was fragrant, the inside soft, and the aroma tantalized Shuiqing, making her salivate.

The six people returned with a full pot of egg drop soup and thin pancakes.

They were stunned.