Qin Junyao brushed the grass off her clothes after finishing the task of planting wheat, feeling a little regretful. She hadn't found any wood ear mushrooms in the mountains. Those small things would expand into large ones when soaked.
It seemed she'd have to find a way to cultivate some fresh wood ear mushrooms in her dimension next year.
Without wood ear mushrooms, Qin Junyao thought of regular mushrooms.
Not the large ones from the Gobi desert that required salting, but the ones gathered from the forest.
These mushrooms had initially spread slowly in her dimension. It was only after the last expansion that they began to grow under various trees, so abundantly that Qin Junyao had to harvest and dry them regularly.
The mushrooms used at Mother Qin's noodle shop now were dried mushrooms from Qin Junyao's dimension.
She couldn't bring out dried vegetables, but dried mushrooms should be acceptable.
Qin Junyao wasn't being a do-gooder. Soldiers, regardless of the era, deserved respect. Furthermore, if Zhao Liangcai could provide better food for his men, perhaps they would be more loyal.
Without overthinking, she decided to proceed.
Qin Junyao climbed the hay pile again to hide the dried mushrooms. She moved some horse fodder into her dimension before finding a place to store the dried mushrooms.
Like the wheat, the dried mushrooms needed to be hidden discreetly, and minimizing any anomalies was quite taxing on Qin Junyao's brain.
"Yaoyao, why are you climbing so high?" Zhao Liangcai's voice came from behind her again. Fortunately, Qin Junyao had reached the innermost part of the hay pile.
Qin Junyao looked up at the sun. She had been busy for over an hour and hadn't noticed the passage of time or the cold.
She turned around with a look of surprise. "Zhao Liangcai, guess what I found up here?"
"Don't move, I'm coming up."
Zhao Liangcai climbed onto the hay pile and saw a bag in front of Qin Junyao. It looked like it had been dug out from the hay.
"Look," Qin Junyao opened the mouth of the bag for Zhao Liangcai to see.
"Mushrooms?"
Zhao Liangcai's reaction upon seeing the dried mushrooms was a frown.
"Yes," Qin Junyao took a handful of mushrooms from the bag to show Zhao Liangcai. "See how clean these mushrooms are? Not a single blade of grass."
Zhao Liangcai crawled to Qin Junyao's side, also reaching out to grab a handful of mushrooms and sniffing them. Apart from the earthy aroma, there were no other scents.
"How many did you find?"
Qin Junyao could detect a seriousness in Zhao Liangcai's tone now.
"I'm not sure. I came up here to see when you'd be back and found them accidentally."
"What's wrong?" Qin Junyao asked cautiously.
These mushrooms were from the mountains further behind. Were there any taboos associated with them?
They were very popular at Mother Qin's noodle shop, and she hadn't heard of any problems.
Zhao Liangcai held the mushrooms and asked Qin Junyao, "Yaoyao, have you paid for this batch of provisions?"
Qin Junyao's mind raced. Recalling the price of grain from last time, she added a bit more and told Zhao Liangcai a figure.
"I gave him the silver notes and told him to arrange it, whatever he could get, as long as it was food. Can't we eat these mushrooms?"
"Sigh," Zhao Liangcai sighed. "They're edible, but too expensive. This bag of dried mushrooms could trade for five bags of corn."
"You," he continued, "might have spent money unnecessarily."
After speaking, Zhao Liangcai began digging through the hay to find more mushrooms.
Qin Junyao rubbed her nose and helped Zhao Liangcai move the mushrooms to the ground. She had hidden quite a lot, so spending money unnecessarily seemed unlikely.
As mushrooms were found amongst the hay, so was the wheat.
Zhao Liangcai squatted down, looking at the mushrooms and wheat spread out on the ground. He thought about the black beans buried under the hay and the unknown grains in the cave.
He had misjudged his wife. Yaoyao's money hadn't been spent in vain; it seemed they had even gotten a good deal.