Sure enough, upon discovering that wild mushrooms were appearing early this year, Shan Yan immediately sent private messages to his local wealthy clients, along with two photos of the red and white mushrooms he had just picked. To his surprise, he received several orders shortly after sending them out.
However, the wealthy father wasn't willing to wait and wanted to eat the first batch of wild mushrooms of the year tonight, without even asking the price.
Another restaurant owner in the city ordered 30 jin of red mushrooms from him in one go, saying he wanted them delivered that afternoon.
“You guys pick them up here first. Ah Hu will come with me to the city. Same as always, if you’re willing to take this batch of goods, we’ll still give you the purchase price.”
Shan Yan's words were clearly meant for Jiang Xiaoman. Everyone else was his apprentice. In the mountains, people sometimes valued the master-apprentice relationship even more than that of a father and son. How could the apprentices dare to question Shan Yan as their master?
"No problem! Thank you for your hard work, Brother Yan." Jiang Xiaoman poured the red mushrooms out of the basket without hesitation.
Everyone else burst out laughing when they saw it.
"Little Man, you're something else! You only pick the expensive ones!"
"No problem! This saves us from sorting. No wonder you graduated from a prestigious university, Brother Xiaoman is really amazing!"
...
As a mountain child who earned pocket money by picking mushrooms since childhood, Jiang Xiaoman knew that red mushrooms were the most expensive of all the wild mushrooms in the area! Next were chanterelles, pine mushrooms, and lichen, while the cheapest was this "white-headed mushroom".
So when picking mushrooms, Jiang Xiaoman put the red mushrooms separately in the largest basket on his back, while carrying a large plastic bag in his hand, specifically for white-headed mushrooms. Anyway, these things don't weigh much. Once the bag was full, he tied the plastic bag to the side of the basket.
This way, when you sell them, you don't have to do what they do: mix a bunch of random mushrooms together and spend time sorting them, since the prices of different mushrooms vary so much.
The most expensive red mushrooms are still in their first harvest this season, making them a luxury item for the wealthy, with a retail price of nearly 800 yuan per kilogram.
Even if they handed over the goods to Shanyan at the purchase price and sold them there, they could still get 500 yuan per kilogram...
"There's no time today. I'll go to the city to buy some clean plastic bags later. Starting tomorrow, everyone should pack the mushrooms according to Xiaoman's method."
Seeing that Jiang Xiaoman not only placed the most expensive red mushrooms separately in the bamboo basket, but also placed a few fern leaves between them to prevent the mushrooms from being scratched, Shan Yan nodded secretly and decided to have others do the same as Jiang Xiaoman.
After all, the first harvest of red mushrooms is all about freshness.
The red mushrooms that Jiang Xiaoman picked may not be the biggest, but they definitely look the best!
Everyone quickly helped to sort out the red mushrooms from the other people's baskets, making four large baskets. Shanyan and Ahu carried one in front and one on their backs, and hurriedly went down the mountain.
The others also continued searching for mushrooms on the hillside without stopping.
Jiang Xiaoman contributed all the spare plastic bags he brought, giving two to each person, so that the baskets could be used specifically for red mushrooms.
To be honest, although the price is not as high as that of expensive red mushrooms, locals actually prefer to eat white-headed mushrooms.
This white-headed mushroom is not the same as the monkey head mushroom. Although they differ by only one character, one is the "rich and beautiful" of the wild mushroom world, while the other is more like a "poor girl". Even the first batch that has just hit the market can only sell for a dozen yuan per kilogram at most.
Jiang Xiaoman actually prefers white-headed mushrooms, partly because they are cheap and she doesn't feel bad about eating them.
Another point is that white-headed mushrooms don't taste like red mushrooms. They actually have no flavor on their own; when cooked with meat, they taste like meat, and when roasted with chicken, they taste like chicken...
If there were an entertainment industry in the wild mushroom world, the white-headed mushroom would definitely be the director's favorite supporting actor. It has few roles, high output, and is simply a great value for money!
At three o'clock in the afternoon, after they finished harvesting the crops on this hill, Shan Yan's apprentices came to call Jiang Xiaoman to go back together.
"There are wolves here."
One sentence terrified Jiang Xiaoman, and she quickly followed the group down the mountain.
The red mushrooms picked in the afternoon were all stored at Shan Yan's house. Jiang Yu carefully weighed and recorded the weight for them, and then distributed the money to them after they were sold.
Since they were all family, everyone felt at ease. Even Jiang Xiaoman was too lazy to bring the goods home and simply asked Shan Yan to sell them for him.
"I really benefited from Brother Yan this time. I came here to film a video, but I didn't expect to earn more than a thousand yuan in pocket money." Jiang Xiaoman said to Jiang Yu while washing her hands. "Tomorrow we'll go fishing by the river. If we don't catch anything, I'll spend money to buy a few big fish and treat everyone to a meal."
Shan Yan's apprentices cheered in unison.
Honestly, Jiang Xiaoman's cooking skills are so good that once you taste them, you'll never forget them!
Chapter 119
To Jiang Xiaoman's surprise, this trip to film videos earned him not just a little over a thousand yuan, but more than five thousand...
That evening, Shanyan and Ahu returned with good news: for some reason, the wild red mushrooms from outside the area hadn't hit the market yet, but their first batch of wild red mushrooms sold for an excellent price as soon as they were brought to the city!
"Today is the first day it's on the market, and it's 1,000 yuan per jin!"
"The boss said that we will deliver the goods again tomorrow and the day after, and the price may not be as high as today, but they will take as many as we have."
"Can a private restaurant really sell so many red mushrooms? It's not worth it to buy them and dry them, is it?" Jiang Xiaoman asked in surprise.
"Xiaoman, haven't you heard the saying? People who drink Moutai don't buy it, and people who buy Moutai don't drink it themselves." Shanyan smiled.
He made a fortune today and was in a good mood. He patiently explained to Jiang Xiaoman, "The owner of the private kitchen often asks us to get some good stuff from the mountains. I guess he resells it to people who need it, and they give it away as gifts."
Since it's a gift, the more expensive and rarer the better.
This year's first batch of wild red mushrooms sounds much rarer than Moutai or Wuliangye liquor. Even if you have money, it's hard to buy such authentic ones without connections!
Jiang Xiaoman suddenly realized!
Just like the city where he used to go to university, because it is famous for a certain kind of tea, the first batch of high-quality tea before the Qingming Festival each year is not even put in stores for sale. Basically, before the tea leaves are even processed, they are all pre-ordered by people who need to give them as gifts.
Red mushrooms are a high-end wild mushroom with nourishing properties. The first batch of wild red mushrooms on the market is rare and highly sought after, making them a perfect gift for high-ranking, older leaders or elders.
Moreover, fresh wild mushrooms are not like dried ones; the key is to eat the first harvest for freshness!
Just like the toon shoots every spring, you usually think the first meal is the best, and then you don't feel that same way anymore.
Fans who saw this exclaimed that they couldn't afford it, and some even questioned why it was so expensive when it's just wild red mushrooms, which don't sound as precious as matsutake or morels. They wondered if it was just a way to rip off customers.
Jiang Xiaoman had to quickly reply and explain that this was their first batch this year, and that once wild mushrooms are available in large quantities, their prices would plummet like a rollercoaster.
"Actually, we can only earn more in the first two days of the year. Later, when more red mushrooms come out, they can't be sold on the street. People are selling them for 100, 80, or 60 yuan."
Sure enough, when Shan Yan went to sell his wild red mushrooms again the next day, other people who regularly went into the mountains to pick mushrooms had also started selling them, and the price of wild red mushrooms suddenly dropped to 700 yuan per kilogram.
By the time Jiang Xiaoman and Jiang Yu went to his hometown village to buy fishing gear, the price of fresh red mushrooms had already dropped to 500 yuan per catty.
Because red mushrooms are selling well this year, Jiang Xiaoman even called his father to say he would be a few days late and would spend some time picking mushrooms at Shanyan's house first.
Rare wild mushrooms like wild red mushrooms can only be found in such large quantities in this old mountain valley.
Many people from Langshan Village go into the mountains to pick mushrooms, but there aren't many deep forests nearby, so the red mushrooms are picked before they can grow to maturity.
If it weren't for the fact that he still had two pigs at home, Jiang Youliang would have loved to run over and help him pick them up after hearing the price.
However, although Langshan Village doesn't have rare mushrooms like red mushrooms, it has plenty of other mushrooms. During this time, Jiang Youliang has been carrying a basket and running all over the mountains and fields.
The mushrooms we picked up, the good ones and the expensive ones, were sold at the market to make money, while the less desirable ones were dried and kept for our own consumption.
With this unexpected income of several thousand yuan, coupled with the decent number of video views and several thousand yuan in backend revenue over the past few days, Jiang Xiaoman was no longer in a hurry to urge the tea cake issue.
There's no rushing it. And who knows which big mouth spread the word that Shanyan and his group were selling red mushrooms for a thousand yuan a pound.
What kind of job can earn one or two thousand a day? People in the mountains wouldn't even dare to dream of it!
I heard that the surrounding villages have gone crazy these past few days. They've stopped picking tea leaves and weeding their potato fields. They're heading up the mountain before dawn with baskets on their backs to look for mushrooms!
What's there to be afraid of if there are wolves in the mountains? Wolves aren't as scary as poverty!
Jiang Xiaoman made a few phone calls and heard that they all wanted to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms in the next few days. She felt bad about delaying their money, so she could only put the tea cake making business aside for the time being. She and Jiang Yu, along with their two children, went to Jiang Yu's hometown, a village called Maoli.
Maoli Village is located near the river, and the villagers have relied on the water for their livelihood for generations. Some make boats, some make various fishing gear, and of course, most of them are fishermen.
Jiang Yu's father has passed away. There are only his eldest brother's family and his elderly mother at home. It is said that he also has a second sister. Because his eldest brother could not afford to get married, his parents used her to exchange for a wife.
Jiang Xiaoman felt quite uncomfortable after hearing this.
Exchanging brides was a bad custom in their area in the past. Some families couldn't afford the bride price or the wedding, so they would exchange their daughters with other families in similar circumstances.
Simply put, Jiang Yu's parents married off his second sister to someone else's brother or sister, and then swapped the other person's sister or sister for her brother's wife.
"Otherwise, why do you think my parents agreed to let me be with Yan Ge?" Jiang Yu sneered as she talked about her family's messy affairs. "It's just because my family can't afford to get me a wife, and there are no other sisters to arrange marriages for me, so I have to marry myself off."
Jiang Xiaoman didn't know what to say to comfort him. After a while, she could only pat him on the shoulder and say, "Forget it! Think about it from a different perspective. It's a good thing you don't have any older or younger sisters, otherwise your parents definitely wouldn't let you be with Yan Ge."
This is how it is in their rural areas. Not to mention the previous generation, even in their own generation, the preference for sons over daughters is still very serious.
Unless a family is so poor that they can't afford to marry off their son, they will do anything, even sell their daughter, to ensure their son gets married and continues the family line.
Because of this incident, Jiang Xiaoman had a bad first impression of Jiang Yu's family.
When Jiang Xiaoman arrived at the Jiang family home and saw the entire family ordering Jiang Yu's sister-in-law around to do chores, she felt like she was suffocating.
Jiang Yu's sister-in-law was a short and thin woman. Like most married women in the mountains, she had children and took care of the whole family. Even so, Old Lady Jiang still complained that her daughter-in-law was too dull. When her brother-in-law came home, he didn't even know to go to the market to buy some vegetables.
"Mom, can you be reasonable? I didn't even call my sister-in-law when I got back. Let her rest. Just eat whatever you have at home." Jiang Yu impatiently interrupted her mother's nagging of her eldest daughter-in-law.
Jiang's sister-in-law went out wiping away her tears.
Putting aside whether her mother-in-law had informed her beforehand, even if she had, the money in the house wasn't in her hands, and no one was giving her money. How was she supposed to go to the market to buy groceries?
In front of Jiang Xiaoman, Grandma Jiang was too embarrassed to argue with her youngest son. She could only ask him, somewhat resentfully, why he had adopted and raised the child without telling the family. After all, the three Camellia sisters should now be calling her "Grandma."
"I'm trying to save you money, aren't I? Three children means three red envelopes. And then I'll bring them to wish you a Happy New Year during holidays. You'll regret giving away those red envelopes later."
Jiang Yu didn't want his three adopted daughters to have anything to do with his family.
He was truly terrified of this custom of "marriage exchange".
Moreover, the three Camellia sisters were not related to him by blood. Based on his keen intuition and his mother's stubborn preference for sons over daughters, Jiang Yu had good reason to suspect that his mother's concern for these three sisters for no reason might be for some other purpose.
really!
Perhaps she was carried away by the joy of having a grandson, but as she looked at the wild fruits and flowers eating melons in the yard, Grandma Jiang's eyes almost squinted with laughter.
He laughed and praised the river fish all the while.
"I knew you were quick-witted, Xiaoyu. These three girls need to be raised well; they'll be very useful in the future!"
"The older one's almost in junior high, right? After she graduates, go to the village and find someone to bring her into the factory so she can earn money for you!"
“Those women in our village who have had several daughters are really rich now! They send their kids to the factory and they can send money home every month! They send at least 50,000 yuan home a year, and that's 500,000 yuan in ten years!”
"Once the eldest daughter reaches marriageable age, she can marry out and receive another two or three hundred thousand in dowry! What a bargain!"
"However, you must take good care of your second son! Little Yu, let me tell you, your eldest brother's son is about the same age as your second son. Let me make this clear first, I'm going to bring your second son back to be your nephew's wife. At least we have to support her until she graduates from high school, otherwise where will our family's reputation stand?"
"For the younger one, just do it the same way as the eldest. I think you should just stop letting her marry out. It's not worth taking two or three hundred thousand in dowry!"
"Let her continue working at the factory to earn money for you and Shanyan! When she gets older, we can find a son-in-law to live with you, so that the couple can support you and Shanyan in your old age, and you'll have someone to rely on for the rest of your lives..."
As soon as they met, Grandma Jiang made clear plans for the future of the three Camellia sisters.