Chapter 15 : The Poke

For breakfast, Mother Xiao steamed some soy sauce pork belly, cut it into thick, long slices, and placed pickled vegetables on top. It tasted rich but not greasy, and was very satisfying.

There was also a plate of stir-fried pork served with corn cakes and cornmeal porridge, which made for a very fulfilling meal.

Xianhe Village is located under the jurisdiction of Huaxi County, Jeju Prefecture. The soil here isn’t ideal for growing rice, so the villagers grow wheat instead. Almost every household eats coarse grains.

There is rice for sale in the county, but it’s divided into brown rice and japonica rice, both of which are quite expensive. Brown rice, in particular, costs far more than white flour.

Every household in the village grows wheat, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. This is the staple food they live on throughout the year.

Sometimes, if the family has some extra money, they’ll buy a bit of brown rice to satisfy their cravings.

After breakfast, Jiang Sui and Xiao Lanlan went up the mountain to pick mushrooms, while Xiao Hechuan stayed behind and didn’t go to play with Dazhuang and the others.

The little nephew, Goudan, had been sent to a private school run by an old scholar in the village. He went there early every morning and didn’t have time to play with Xiao Hechuan.

But the little boy was very sweet-talking. When he saw Jiang Sui, he affectionately called her “Fourth Aunt.”

Just by looking at Xiao Hechuan. All of his brother were tall and good-looking young men.

It’s just that they had been working hard since they were young, exposed to the wind and sun, and their skin was a healthy, wheat-like color. In contrast, Xiao Hechuan’s main task since childhood had been studying, so he didn’t work much. His skin was fair and clean, and he had inherited all the best traits from his parents, which made him the most attractive.

Today, the three of them went to a different area to pick mushrooms. There weren’t as many as in the chestnut forest the day before, but they still found quite a few. The area was wider, and they managed to fill their baskets by the morning.

At noon, Mother Xiao cooked lunch at home. After eating, Zhou and Liu took the meat back to their parents’ home. They were both married to men from villages just a few miles away from Xianhe Village, but they estimated they would have to stay the night and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.

For lunch, there were steamed buns and leftover meat from the morning. Since there was nothing to do in the afternoon, Mother Xiao decided to go up the mountain with the children to pick more mushrooms.

On their way out, they ran into a few aunts from the village. They joked that the best thing about the Xiao family was how large it was. Their tone was a mix of envy and a touch of bitterness.

Mother Xiao had given birth to four sons in a row, which made her very well-known in the village back then. Those who couldn’t have sons were extremely envious of her, and some even came to ask her for the secret to having sons.

They continued picking mushrooms in the spot where they had been earlier, this time in a pine forest. Mother Xiao took a look and told the children not to go in, explaining that someone had once seen a tiger in this area during a snowstorm, which made her feel uneasy.

Because of this, no one dared to come here, and Mother Xiao hadn’t been paying attention and actually ended up following the children into the woods.

It was also because she hadn’t been up the mountain for a long time that she had become distracted.

Just as she was about to tell the children to head back and find another place, she suddenly heard her silly son shouting

“Mom, Lanlan, come here quickly.”

Mother Xiao thought something had happened and hurried over, followed by Xiao Lanlan.

When they arrived, they saw Jiang Sui and Xiao Hechuan standing in front of a fallen pine tree.

The pine tree must have been struck by lightning and had become a dead tree. However, what was surprising was that this dead tree was covered with wild wood ear mushrooms, densely packed.

“Mom, this was also discovered by my wife. She said it was wood ear mushroom, and it would be most delicious if you stir-fry it with meat.” Xiao Hechuan quickly credited his wife.

When Mother Xiao saw this, she thought that if all the mushroom were collected, there would probably be a lot. Was her fourth daughter-in-law’s luck really this good?

“Wow, what luck you have! Yesterday we found wild boars and robes, and today we found so many mushroom. This is really strange.”

Mother Xiao realized that their family had never had such good luck before. It had happened twice in just two days since Jiang Sui had joined the family.

Jiang Sui smiled awkwardly. She herself wondered why she was so lucky. She hadn’t had such good luck in modern times.

Could it be that her luck really changed after she traveled through time?

“Mom, it must be just a coincidence. Let’s quickly collect these mushroom.” Jiang Sui felt she wouldn’t be at ease until she brought the muchroom home.

Xiao Lanlan felt the same way. She didn’t hesitate and immediately started collecting them.

Mother Xiao nodded and began to work as well. By the time they finished picking, two of the three baskets they had brought were full.

The price of dried wood ear mushrooms is twice that of mushrooms.

Dried mushrooms are common, but wood ear mushrooms are not easy to find. After picking them, Mother Xiao wanted to leave the area quickly. She became scared when thinking about the tigers that had been spotted here.

But Jiang Sui had a hunch that there were more wood ear mushrooms in this area. Once they appeared in a place, they were likely to continue existing there.

While chatting earlier, Mother Xiao had also mentioned that wood ear mushrooms are much more valuable than mushrooms. Being a money-grubber, Jiang Sui felt an urge to find more and became bolder.

“Mom, I feel like there must be many more around here. Let’s look for them. As for the tigers you mentioned, they live in deep mountains and wild forests. Although there are many mountains in our area, there are villages nearby. Villagers often go into the mountains, so these wild animals mostly stay up high, except in winter when food is scarce. In this season of revival, they have already returned to the mountains because many hibernating animals are waking up, and there is no shortage of food. So they won’t come near the villages. Now that we’re here, don’t you want to pick more ear muchroom before we go back? That’s all money.”

Jiang Sui wasn’t relying on luck, what she said was true, based on facts.

Xiao Lanlan had similar thoughts. She didn’t want to leave either, thinking that there must be more, so she supported Jiang Sui’s opinion.

“Mom, I think what Fourth Sister-in-law said is right. There must be more left. Since we’re here, why not gather all of it before we leave?”

Mother Xiao thought about it and realized that she couldn’t deny she was tempted, but when she thought about the copper coins, she was even more moved.

“Okay, let’s look for them again, but we have to stay together and not separate. Do you hear me?”

Jiang Sui and the others nodded quickly, especially Xiao Hechuan, who nodded vigorously. He hadn’t yet satisfied his desire to pick wood ear mushrooms and didn’t want to leave.

So, the four of them started searching again. They didn’t care about the mushrooms anymore and focused entirely on picking wood ear mushrooms.

As Jiang Sui had predicted, there were still plenty of wood ear mushrooms in the pine forest. Several pine trees had been knocked down by spring thunder, and after a few rains, their trunks were covered with wood ear mushrooms. It seemed like they wouldn’t finish picking them in one trip, so they’d have to make another visit.