Selling Mushrooms

Shopkeeper Zhao looked at Liu Xiaolan and asked, "Let's do this, I'll take all of the fungus you brought today. As for the price, let's be fair, the market price?"

Liu Xiaolan was a little hesitant. After all, she had no idea what the market price for mushrooms was. However, thinking that Shopkeeper Zhao looks like a fair person she agreed in the end. "Alright, let's calculate our accounts."

Shopkeeper Zhao asked his chef to weigh the mushrooms without the baskets and soon knew how much Liu Xiaolan picked up. He said to her: "Well, I'll round it up to 5 pounds for you", and then went to pick up the money.

When he returned, he handed 50 silvers to Liu Xiaolan and said, "Here you go. If the lady has any more fungus in the future, I would like to buy them as well. Is it alright?"

Liu Xiaolan was still in a little shock. While before this she didn't know the price of mushrooms, from the memory of the original soul she did know some prices. Right now, 50 silvers are a massive amount for her.

To compare it to something, she could probably buy 2 acres of good, fertile land near Shenyang. And that's the price now, after the prices of land multiplied because of the popularity boom caused by the port. If she was to take that silver to some rural land that wasn't well developed, she could get even more.

Thinking about this quick of a profit, Liu Xiaolan smiled towards Shopkeeper Zhao.

"No problem, Shopkeeper Zhao. As long as I pick some mushrooms in the future, I'll come with them first to your restaurant."

Since she needed to sell them anyway, why not sell them to Shopkeeper Zhao, right? At the very least he seems like a nice person, who knows if she wouldn't be kicked out if she tried selling them in a different restaurant again.

"Alright, I'm short on time today. I'll visit you again some time in the future, Shopkeeper Zhao."

Once outside the restaurant, Liu Xiaolan finally calmed her mind. Now thinking about it, she couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to own her own restaurant.

'If people can buy them at 10 silvers per pound, then they probably sell at least at twice that price? It's so easy to make money…' She thought to herself.

- - - - -

Meanwhile, Liuojia village, Liu family's house.

Grandma Liu was sitting at the table, waiting for her daughter-in-law to finish cooking dinner. Looking at her, she asked, a little annoyed: "How much longer will it take? I've already waited for so long…"

Shen Meijing looked towards her mother-in-law and gritted her teeth. "I'm almost done, mother. Just a moment."

She couldn't help but feel hatred. Previously, she never really needed to do things like cooking or even helping out in the house. Her husband, Liu Weixin, was Grandma Liu's favourite son, so he could lazy around all the time.

After spending enough time with him, she picked up his habits and pushed all the housework towards Liu Weihao's wife, Guo Ying.

While Guo Ying wasn't happy about that, she couldn't really do anything about it. Till a year ago, most of the time she just pushed most of these jobs to Liu Xiaolan. However, after Liu Xiaolan was kicked out by the Liu family, all the hard work fell down on her again.

The longer she had to do it, the more she was annoyed. Finally she couldn't keep her composure and started complaining to her husband.

Liu Weihao tried talking about it to his brother, but it was futile. All Guo Ying could do was to grit her teeth and somehow push through.

Luckily for her, Liu Weihao managed to find a job inside Shenyang city. As a clerk with literary background, his pay is good and his family moved to a house in the city. However, now that they moved away, someone had to take care of the housework.

And that someone turned out to be Liu Weixin's wife - Shen Meijing.

Looking at Grandma Liu, Shen Meijing couldn't help but complain under her nose. "If you want it faster, do it yourself next time… Are you treating me as your maid or what…"

Just as she was about ready and was prepared to move the food to the table, her daughter, Liu Xueyue run towards them from outside.

"Mother, Grandma! I saw that nemesis outside…"

Before she even finished her sentence, Grandma Liu stood up so fast that she almost pushed down her chair. "I knew it, there was nothing wrong with this evil girl. How could I kill her by just kicking a few times. She must have pretended to be dead…"

"Come, help me over. Where did you see that girl? Take me there, I'll take care of her, evil girl dared to lie to me…" She added.

"Grandma, I saw her talking with Zou Xinghe. She seemed to go to the city with him…" Liu Xueyue said.

"Go to the city? What for, is she escaping from us?" Grandma Liu thought that Liu Xiaolan got scared after lying to her, so now she escaped.

"No, grandma. I saw her going with two baskets full of these weird things growing on the mountains. It seems she wants to sell them…"

Shen Meijing asked her, "Weird things? What weird things?"

"Mom, it looked the same way as that red plant that Gu Widow's husband has eaten and later died. It just had a diffrent color."

Grandma Liu almost shouted, "That stupid girl, she wouldn't really try to sell that? What if she kills someone? Even if we kicked her, if she kills someone wouldn't it be bad? How can anyone in our family become an official if we have a murder on our heads…"

"I knew it, that evil girl. I should've just drowned her quickly and pretend she died by herself…" Grandma Liu muttered to herself, thinking back to the day they kicked her out.