Chapter 2 (continued)

After making a round of the fields and filling half a bag with wild vegetables, Qing Mengzhu decided to go digging on the mountain.

The climate here was good, so there were bound to be plenty of bracken shoots on the mountain. He might even find more there than in the fields.

The mountains near the village weren't particularly high, and there wasn't much danger in them.

Qing Mengzhu crossed the fields, found a relatively gentle mountain path, and started climbing.

The mountain allotted to his family was farther away, and he didn't really feel like walking that far.

The vegetation on the mountain had only just begun to sprout, and there were indeed plenty of bracken shoots.

As for the wild garlic and mushrooms the aunties had mentioned, Qing Mengzhu hadn't seen much of either yet.

Bracken shoots were enough.

The bracken shoots were tender and hefty. Qing Mengzhu reached out and snapped them off, one pop after another, and soon had a huge bunch in his hand.

Worried that the bracken shoots might not sell, Qing Mengzhu had made a point of scanning them. The Interstellar Mall offered about 0.019 star coins per 500 grams, which was a decent price.

In theory, he would have to pick over five hundred jin of bracken shoots to make 10 star coins.

After doing the conversion in his head, Qing Mengzhu felt a sense of despair, but he had no choice but to roll up his sleeves and run up and down the mountain.

Several hundred jin of bracken shoots sounded like a lot, but if he added bamboo shoots and the like, it wasn't entirely hopeless, right?

"It's too hard."

Qing Mengzhu sat on the mountainside, fanning himself with his hat and gulping down the water he'd brought. He looked down the mountain and muttered to himself.

Bracken shoots grew in patches. Sometimes he could find a whole bunch at once; other times he could search an entire mountain without finding a single one.

While picking them, he also discovered that the mall only wanted fresh, tender bracken shoots. The price dropped terribly if they were a little older.

And he wasn't the only one who had come up the mountain to pick them. Judging by the broken stalks, several groups must have been there in the past few days.

There was no way he could pick the theoretical five hundred-plus jin of bracken shoots, and even adding other wild vegetables probably wouldn't be enough.

Qing Mengzhu trudged up and down the mountain for most of the day. Wild grass left quite a few cuts on his body, and his face was hot and itchy.

He wiped his face with his sleeve and didn't want to move a muscle.

As Qing Mengzhu sat resting, voices came from the woods.

He looked in their direction, and before long saw several aunties—it was the very same ones he'd met that morning.

The aunties saw him too and greeted him cheerfully. "Young man, you're still here?"

Qing Mengzhu smiled and made room for them. "Yes, I'm taking a break."

"How many wild vegetables have you dug up? That's a big bag. Are you going to sell them?"

"Something like that. Aunties, how many wild vegetables have you picked?"

"Not as many as you. We just picked a few."

The aunties showed Qing Mengzhu their baskets. Sure enough, they hadn't picked much, but everything was fresh and tender-

The wild garlic was clean, without a single withered leaf; the bracken shoots were neatly arranged and plump and tender; the mushrooms rested on broad green leaves; and the little bamboo shoots, each two fingers thick, had all been peeled and carefully tied with vines.

Qing Mengzhu looked them over and couldn't help saying, "You've cleaned them up so nicely. There are still that many mushrooms on the mountain?"

"Of course. Look under the trees and in the grass. It rained just a couple of days ago, so now's exactly when there are lots of mushrooms and bamboo shoots."

"Hey, you can't just pick mushrooms at random. People who don't pick them often can't tell them apart. You'd better pick water bamboo shoots instead. There's a patch of water bamboo on the other side of the mountain that we didn't finish picking."

"There's also some artemisia there."

Qing Mengzhu thanked the helpful aunties again and decided to take a look at the place they'd pointed out.

He really couldn't carry the wild vegetables he'd picked anymore. After coming down the mountain, he hid the bag in the bushes, then took an empty one to pick water bamboo shoots and artemisia.

Artemisia grew in patches and was easier to pick than bracken shoots. Although the price was a little lower, it was much easier to gather.

Gathering it didn't take much time, but getting there took quite a while.

By the time the sun was nearly down, all the wild vegetables he'd gathered today were worth only 3.44 in total. Even adding yesterday's haul, he still couldn't reach 10 star coins.

Qing Mengzhu's knees had gone weak from climbing, and he really couldn't take it anymore. This was far too hard!

He found a shady spot to sit down and catch his breath, considering where he could get the remaining one or so star coins.

Would he have to go up the mountain again tomorrow?

After resting for quite a while, Qing Mengzhu wearily got to his feet, intending to make another effort.

He wanted to make a sale of vegetables today, save up 10 star coins, and see what would happen to the Interstellar Mall.

If nothing changed, he would stop struggling, rest for a while, and find another company to keep grinding away at.

Qing Mengzhu carried his bag along the roadside, looking for wild vegetables.

He didn't find many wild vegetables, but he did see quite a few mushrooms.

He didn't recognize most of them and didn't dare pick them.

When an exhausted Qing Mengzhu found a patch of bracken shoots and was about to pick some, he discovered that someone had already been through it. Most of the remaining shoots were either too old or too small, making them impossible to pick.

There was, however, a patch of mushrooms growing beneath the bracken. They looked plump and tender, a lovely sight, but he didn't know whether they were poisonous.

Qing Mengzhu stared at the mushrooms he didn't recognize and took a deep breath, feeling utterly worn out.

He stood up and prepared to head down the mountain.

After a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

Wait!

Something's not right.

He might not know the different kinds of wild mushrooms, but the Interstellar Mall did!

Besides, he wasn't picking them to eat. He only wanted to pick some to sell. He wouldn't be selling them to a particular person either, but to a strange Interstellar Mall. Surely no one would be poisoned, right?

Having thought it through, Qing Mengzhu felt his spirits lift and ran back.

This time, he pushed the bracken aside and, without worrying whether the mushrooms were poisonous, picked all the ones nearby, big and small. Then he put them on the ground and scanned them with the app.

The results soon appeared. A large pile of shaggy ink caps was worth 0.27 star coins, while a few scaly-stalked white amanitas beside them were worth 0.03 star coins.

He made a point of looking them up on his phone and found that the first kind was mildly poisonous but edible when young and tender, while the second was highly poisonous.

Apparently, poisonous mushrooms could be sold to the Interstellar Mall too.

Qing Mengzhu looked at his phone screen and decided that from now on, he would pick and scan every mushroom he saw.

Qing Mengzhu kept searching the mountain. The sun slowly set, and the temperature dropped.

After a full day of hard work, he finally gathered wild vegetables worth 8.13 star coins.

There were still the wild vegetables he'd picked yesterday at home. He was worried that if he didn't sell them together, the ones left over wouldn't sell, so he carried the vegetables down the mountain in batches.

On his way home, Qing Mengzhu also saw a villager.

The villager rode past him on a motorcycle, then backed up after going several meters and asked, "You're Qing Yan's son, aren't you?"

Qing Mengzhu set down the two big bags of wild vegetables he was carrying over his shoulder. "Yes. Uncle, did you just get back from the fields?"

"Something like that. When did you get back? Did you go up the mountain to pick wild vegetables?"

"I got back yesterday. I picked some wild vegetables to try, and a few to bring to my boss and colleagues."

"You don't come back often. Aren't you going to stay home a while longer?"

"I am. I can just mail the wild vegetables. My family's fields were only just returned to us, so I need to see what to do with them over the next couple of days."

Qing Mengzhu exchanged a few pleasantries with him and felt quite at home.

The villager probably felt the same way. After chatting for a bit, he kindly offered to help carry the wild vegetables home on his motorcycle.

Qing Mengzhu's legs had gone weak from carrying the vegetables. He wiped away his sweat, thanked the man gratefully, and accepted the offer.

After finally getting home, Qing Mengzhu didn't even stop for a drink of water. He hurried to bring out the wild vegetables he'd picked yesterday, intending to sell them all together.

After two days of figuring things out, Qing Mengzhu had become quite adept at using the Interstellar Mall app.

He aimed it at yesterday's wild vegetables and scanned them, then quickly discovered that the vegetables valued at 4.3 star coins yesterday were worth only 3.1 today!

Today's price was only a little over seventy percent of yesterday's!

Qing Mengzhu stared open-mouthed at the price the mall offered, filled with regret.