Great Tang Idyll

The ones that were the most excited by Er'niu's return were Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Yuan. Upon hearing the sound of happy greetings grow louder as they came closer, the two of them grabbed each other's hands and ran out. When they arrived at the door of the outermost yard, Er‘niu was walking with a crowd of people around him.

The curious farmers were asking him nonstop, inquiring all sorts of questions like what kind of place did the three of them went to? Were there any odd events? Other than a few people in the small village, no one knew about Er'Niu's departure before he left.

Er'niu was in a rush to meet his Young Master so he didn't bother to reply back. He walked more and more hastily until he arrived outside of his master's yard and saw that his Young Master and Young Miss Yuan'yuan came out to welcome him. Only then did he loudly shouted out, "Young Master, I have returned, I…"

"It's good that you're back, no need to speak now. Come on in and rest. Zhang Xiao'wu and Zhang Xiao'liu, stop standing out there. Ask some people to help move the load off the vehicle and just pile them up at the entrance." Seeing that Er'niu was so excited that he almost couldn't hold in his words, Zhang Xiao'bao was scared that he would reveal too much so he cut off his sentence, and called him and the other two to go over to the middle of the yard.

After the farmers watched them enter the yard, they didn't pester them anymore. They turned around and helped move the rocks off the vehicle. As they moved the rocks, there were pondering why did Er'niu brought back so many rocks even though he went out to handle some business. The quality of the rocks weren't even that good; they can't even be used to build houses.

"Young Master, have you seen them yet? I brought back the type of rocks that you wanted. All of those are the rocks. Young Master, what do you need all of these rocks for?" Er'niu no longer felt tired when he stood in front of Zhang Xiao'bao so he spoke with excitement.

"Not bad, you did a good job. Er'niu, have you disclosed this to anyone else?" Zhang Xiao'bao had a look at the rocks already and felt relieved that they were indeed Maifan stones. The production rate this year can be increased by a substantial amount. However, he was also worried that Er'niu and the other two would accidentally tell others about this so he observed the other two people as he asked the question.

Er'niu shook his head and took the water that Shi'liu brought over. He raised his head and poured the whole entire bowl of water into his mouth and then used his sleeves to wipe the corners of his mouth. He replied, "Rest assured, Young Master. No one knows why the three of us wanted those rocks. On the way back, we changed vehicles several times. The last coachman certainly had no clue where the rocks came from. Also, Young Master, we've spent money on everything else, but we didn't spend money on the rocks. The rocks were randomly picked off the ground so we saved a lot of money. Young Master and Young Miss Yuan'yuan, don't worry. We know that you're going to use these rocks for something great so we will never tell anyone about it. Even if we're beat to death, we won't say a single word."

While Er'niu was talking, Zhang Xiao'wu and Zhang Xiao'liu stood on the side nodding their heads. They felt that it was an honor to help protect Young Master's secret.

"Good, good. You haven't eaten yet, have you? The cucumber plants have been uprooted already but there are still a few cucumbers hanging from the trellises. They will probably go bad in a few days, so it's a good time to eat them. You will know the purpose of the rocks later on."

Zhang Xiao'bao looked at the three people covered with dirt and dust, and lamented in his mind,these people can be counted on, it's important to quickly arrange a meal for them.

Upon hearing that there's cucumber to eat, their eyes lit up. There was nothing as memorable as the experience of eating cucumbers in the village during the winters. Even though it was the spring ploughing period, there weren't any veggies other than the same ones that were eaten during winter.

Seeing the cucumber reminded Er'niu of something. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a paper package that was the size of a medium-sized bowl. He brought the package over to Zhang Xiao'bao and slowly opened the package to reveal a grey-coloured item.

"Young Master, this wood fungus was bought from that place. Coincidently, I stumbled upon a household that was getting ready to bask these in the sun. I gave them some of your pickles; in exchange for three jars of pickles, they gave me only this much. It should be enough after soaking them in water."

When Er'niu spoke, he licked his lips. Maybe he was craving for the wood fungus or maybe he was disappointed that he couldn't eat the three jars of pickles.

Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Yuan looked at the wood fungus in Er'niu's hands and they were baffled. Three jars of pickles were exchanged for this little amount of wood fungus? Those pickles were a nice green color; unlike the brownish ones that were made last autumn.

From the beginning, the two of them weren't able to eat diverse foods so they never demanded too many requirements. Now that they thought about it, they never actually ate wood fungus before. It would probably taste quite good if they braised the wood fungus with some pieces of meat and ate it with soft tofu.

"Er'niu, have you been tricked? Three jars of pickles in exchange for this little amount? Did you eat any of the pickles? Did you give them all of it?" The first thing Wang Yuan thought of was that despite being quite clever normally, Er'niu was still tricked so she questioned him.

The three of them and Shi'liu stared at Wang Yuan blankly, and after a moment, Er'niu continued, "Young Miss, if you and Young Master went to ask for it, of course the price will be lower, but the three of us are not as capable. Good thing green pickles are a raw commodity during this season, or else they wouldn't agree to the exchange even if we gave thirty jars, nevertheless three."

"Huh? Are wood fungus that expensive?" Wang Yuan felt confused.

After Er'niu and the other three others heard this, they realized that the Young Master and the Young Miss was oblivious to this area of knowledge. However, this was normal since they were still children.

This time, Er'niu didn't have to respond since Shi'liang began to explain, "Young Master, Young Miss, wood fungus is not something that just anybody could eat. Even when the two of our villages are celebrating new years, the master's household can't eat it."

"That's right, it's not eaten; there's none to eat." Zhang Xiao'bao confirmed this as he moved his eyes around.

Wang Yuan slightly opened her small mouth and looked at the wood fungus in Er'niu's hands and then looked at Zhang Xiao'bao. Almost as if she stumbled upon something nice, she started smiling sweetly.

"It's a surprise that our family was never able to eat this. Er'niu, you all have worked hard. Quickly, go eat. Shi'liu, follow us inside."

Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Yuan told the three of them to go eat and they brought Shi'liu, whose face appeared confused, into the innermost room.

"Do you know how to plant wood fungus?" Wang Yuan asked Zhang Xiao'bao the moment she entered the room.

"I know the general steps, but the exact details are a bit hazy. It will be fine if I experiment a few times; wood is inexpensive anyway." Zhang Xiao'bao boasted with confidence.

"You know quite a bit." Wang Yuan muttered.

"Of course. Think about what my profession is. My career doesn't require that we master all types of tasks, but it is a requirement to know a bit of everything."

"Shi'liu, I'll hand over a very important task to you. Within one day, find some bassword and shave them into wood shavings. Also, find some wheat bran. Take these dried fungus and soak them in water. Make sure the temperature, no, not temperature. Just make sure the water is slightly cooler than the warmth of your body…Steam the wood shavings and wheat bran in a tin bucket. When the soaked wood fungus has some fur like growth, remove the fur. Let me tell you how to remove the fur. Place the fur covered fungus into a mesh bag and massage it in boiled water that has cooled down. The water that runs off when washing is what we want to use. After you're done with this, chisel out rows of small holes in some wood pieces… As for sterilization, buy some lime powder. Mix some of the powder in a bowl of water and brush the wood with thesolution. That is perhaps, probably it. Do you understand?" Zhang Xiao'bao tried really hard to recall the things that he occasionally had a glance at and tried his best to explain it in a way that Shi'liu could understand but he ended up speaking in a nonsensical order.

Shi'liu was listening closely so she was able to verbally repeated the procedures. As for the areas she was still confused in, Zhang Xiao'bao explained in detail. In the end, Shi'liu had a clear understanding of what to do.

However, she didn't understand the purpose of doing all of this. "Young Master, are you not going to eat this wood fungus? Am I supposed to use all of them? How about I leave portion of it behind so that the two heads of both families can try some."

"I can't bear eating them. If I eat them, where would I find more. They're so expensive; even a household as rich as mine are unable to eat it. If we eat some now, then that's one portion less. I still don't know which method is the best one, what if we run out?" Looking at the wood fungus in his own hands, Zhang Xiao'bao felt that the wood fungus were not grey-colored but were instead silver and gold colored.

"All you need to do is to explain it clearly to Shi'liu. Shi'liu, if you follow Xiao'bao's method, we can grow our own wood fungus. Once we do that, we can eat it however we want. You musn't tell anyone about this." Wang Yuan chimed in to explain to Shi'liu.

"Huh?" Shi'liu widely opened her mouth in shock and looked at her two masters and then looked at the wood fungus. She nodded her head like a robot and suddenly kneeled on the ground. She pointed one hand to the the sky and the other to the ground. "I, Shi'liu, swear that I will never speak of this method to any other person other than myself, Young Master and Young Miss; no fourth person will know. If I were to tell this to others, then let god smite me with lighting and turn me into dust."

Before Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Yuan could help her up, Shi'liu stood up by herself and took hold of the wood fungus. She heaved out two breaths, turned around and ran off.

"We're rich, this time we're really going to become rich. Xiao'bao, do you know how to grow mushrooms?" Wang Yuan asked Xiao'bao excitedly. Shethought about the large field that she will share with Xiao'bao in the future and how the farmers will work happily on it.

"Sort of? Mushrooms can be eaten on a normal basis; there are quite a bit on the mountains so they're not worth a lot of money. Why should we grow them?" Zhang Xiao'bao wasn't too concerned about money but he asked this out of habit.

"There aren't a lot, majority of the people who go to the mountains to pick mushrooms end up selling them. Our family doesn't eat a lot of mushrooms. Mushrooms are usually cooked together with meats, but if we want to eat it, we would have to wait for a week or two. Eating mushrooms is good for the body. We can feed the farmers mushrooms. They're inexpensive, and if we grow them, we can have baskets and baskets full of them."

Wang Yuan was determined to build a large heart-warming farm where every farmer can live healthily.

Zhang Xiao'bao could only cooperate with her since having a person supporting him can drive away many of his troubles. He nodded his head, "Fine, after we succeed in growing wood fungus, we will grow mushrooms; pine mushrooms and hazel dell mushrooms might not work. When the time comes, we will pick one type. This would be harder than growing wood fungus."

"No rush, we can wait a few days. Let's go, let's go have a look at how our garlic chives are growing. If they're ready to eat, let's make some garlic chive soup for the farmers."

Wang Yuan was temporarily not impatient anymore. A farmer brought some garlic chives to their house the other day, so she and Xiao'bao decided to grow some of their own. Garlic chives were good since they can be harvested several times and they tasted better than onion chives.