Important Task

When they came home, Liu Xiaolan left a part of mushrooms for them to eat and prepared the rest to be sold, washing them and cutting all unwanted things off them.

Looking at her sack, Liu Xiaolan had a slight smile on her face. "Little fool, look how much we picked. There should be at least 15 pounds of mushrooms here, if we sell them at 10 silver per a pound of mushrooms, we will get another 150 silvers…"

Earning money in ancient times was truly easy for her. Compared to modern times where starting a business would be an almost impossible thing without a starting capital, here in ancient times she could just pick some things randomly from the mountain and make a fortune…

Mu Yuchen looked at her with admiration. "It's all thanks to my lady, otherwise who would know which mushrooms are good to be picked?"

Somehow, Liu Xiaolan already got used to her title as his lady. After trying to change the way he called for some time, she simply decided to give up and let him call her however he wants.

Seeing the admiration coming from Mu Yuchen, her face was slightly hot. "Alright, don't talk anymore. I need to go to the city, during this time you will stay inside the house and don't go outside."

"Stay inside? Why can't I go with my lady? Does lady want to abandon me?" Mu Yuchen asked pitfully.

"Who said anything about abandoning you, little fool. Just stay here and help me watch my house, what if someone tries to steal something from us? That's why I don't want you to come with me…"

Liu Xiaolan sighed. She was sure that if she told him the truth he would blow up the issue and wouldn't let her leave alone. But how can she just take a random man with her? She needs to think about how to explain it to other people…

Hearing that his lady entrusted him with the task of protecting their home, Mu Yuchen was really happy. "Then the lady should be careful outside. If I'm not coming with lady, I can't protect my lady in case something happens…"

"Alright little fool, I'll be going now. I'll be back before the sunset today."

- - - - -

Later on that day, inside Shenyang, Liu Xiaolan took her sack from Zuo Xinghe's ox cart and started walking towards Xingmenlou.

Looking at Xingmenlou from the outside, it seems like the last few days were pretty good for their business. At the very least, it didn't seem empty as last time, but some people could be seen coming in and out of the restaurant.

Once she came inside, she saw Xiao Su standing at the reception and talking to some customers before taking them away to their table.

Xiao Su saw her and said, "Miss Liu, you're back here again."

"Yes, Xiao Su. I've come again with some fungus, please call your shopkeeper here." Liu Xiaolan smiled towards him.

"Just a second, Miss Liu. I'll be back right away." Xiao Su quickly moved towards the back.

A moment later, Xiao Su run back towards her and asked her to follow him. "Shopkeeper Zhao asked me to take Miss Liu towards one of our private rooms, he'll come to talk with you shortly...:"

"Would you like some tea and refreshments, Miss Liu?" He asked once she was inside the room.

Liu Xiaolan thought about it and said, "Just some tea to drink, thank you."

A few minutes later, Shopkeeper Zhao pushed the door open from outside and came in. Looking at the sweet falling down from his head, he looked like he was pretty busy today.

"Shopkeeper Zhao, it seems that your business picked up since the last time I was here…" Liu Xiaolan said while smiling.

"Yes, it's all thanks to the fungus miss sold to us. We were the first restaurant to sell a special dish with fungus this year, so a lot of new clients started coming in. If Miss Liu came yesterday, the amount of people seen inside the restaurant would be bigger." Shopkeeper Zhao laughed.

"Oh? I'm really happy for you, Shopkeeper Zhao." Liu Xiaolan said, and later added, "I've picked some more fungus again, so I'd like to sell it once more."

Shopkeeper Zhao smiled. "I'll take them for sure, but the price will be much lower than last time."

Seeing Liu Xiaolan's perplexed look, he quickly explained. "Last time, I've bought them at a price of 10 silvers per one pound of fungus. The price was so high because the season for fungus just started and there was practically none of it on the market…"

Liu Xiaolan quickly understand what he meant. "So, did someone start selling fungus as well?"

"Well, that's also the reason why today we have less clients than yesterday. Since this morning, some of the big fungus sellers came inside the city with their product. They pick a lot of fungus each day, and they can satisfy most of the market. Their price is about 1 silver per 1 pound of fungus…"

Shopkeeper Zhao hesitated a little, after all last time he buyed them from her, he paid 10 silvers. Now pushing the price to one tenth of the original, he wasn't sure if Liu Xiaolan would sell to him.

Liu Xiaolan was a little sad, but she still wanted to trade with Shopkeeper Zhao. "Well, 1 silver for 1 pound of fungus is 1 silver. I won't rip you off, let's trade at the market price."

Shopkeeper Zhao quickly called his own chef and asked him to check the quality of mushrooms. After all, he only traded with Liu Xiaolan once. He still needs to make sure that she sells him edible mushrooms, otherwise he would lose money and could only cry.

Once the chef nodded, they quickly weighted the mushrooms. In the end, Liu Xiaolan brought them mushrooms with a total weight of 16,5 pounds. Shopkeeper Zhao rounded it off and paid her 17 silver.