??Chapter 206: Mountain Treasure
Lin Heng headed to Huangtan Town early to et Old Man Gao.
Around ten in the morning, so officials from the county ca to visit Old Man Gao. Taking the opportunity, Old Man Gao introduced Lin Heng to them.
Lin Heng greeted them with proper etiquette, neither fawning nor ingratiating himself.
He had no intention of doing so, nor was there any need.
Running his business normally and leveraging his foresight was enough to amass great wealth.
These two were high-ranking officials from the county. They showed Lin Heng a bit of goodwill but left after chatting with Old Man Gao for a while.
Still, it was good to make their acquaintance, establishing a channel for communication and networking, even though he couldn’t utilize this connection just yet due to insufficient capital.
After having breakfast with Old Man Gao, since it wasn’t a market day and there wasn’t much to do in town, Lin Heng rode his horse back ho.
On the way back, he encountered mbers of the Liu Family heading to town with mourning cloths to purchase items.
They were mostly buying paper offerings, incense, and burial clothes.
Back at Red Maple Mountain, Lin Heng visited Liu Lan’s house. Helpers had already set up a tent with tarpaulins and bamboo poles for the funeral feast.
So were helping to slaughter pigs, others were digging lotus roots, and so were buying vegetables like spinach and cabbage from households in the village.
Lin Heng learned that the person in charge of guest reception was Village Party Secretary Tian Dongfu.
The role of guest reception involved managing both internal and external guests during the funeral.
Lin Heng asked about his duties, and Tian Dongfu assigned him the task of heating the wine, a relatively easy job. His brother, Lin Yue, was responsible for pouring the heated wine into small pots for each table.
There wasn’t much to do today or in the coming days. The main event was scheduled for the day after tomorrow when guests would start arriving.
Due to inconvenient transportation in those tis, preparing the food for the feast, hiring a geomancer, and notifying relatives living out of town required a lot of effort.
Unlike in later years, when technology made it possible to handle notifications with a single phone call and buy vegetables directly.
Father Lin and others were helping with the pig slaughter, chatting and laughing. Even during a funeral, the village was bustling with activity.
In such events, only the imdiate family truly grieved, while others enjoyed the feast with smiles. The sorrows of others are not shared.
Lin Heng rely felt a sense of regret and lanted the unpredictability of life, but he continued to smile and enjoy his als.
Life is short, and death is inevitable, so it’s important to cherish the ti we have and enjoy life rather than becoming workhorses or corporate slaves.
For Lin Heng, money and career were never the top priorities; family always ca first.
“Daddy, it’s ti to eat!”
As soon as Lin Heng returned ho, Xiao Xia grabbed his hand, speaking in a sweet, childish voice.
In Lin Heng’s household, there was more at than grain, and every al included so at. Lin Heng had a particular fondness for braised at and mugwort tofu.
“This is the last bit of tofu. After this, we only have dried tofu and tofu skin left,” Xiulan said, pointing to the plate of tofu during the al. Today, there was not only stead mugwort tofu but also a cabbage and tofu soup.
Lin Heng nodded and said, “Then let’s have hotpot in a couple of days. Tomorrow, we can go to town and see if there’s any beef or mutton for sale.”
“Sure, I’ve been craving hotpot too,” Xiulan admitted.
After taking a few bites of rice, Xiao Xia ran outside to play in the snow, returning to warm up by the fire when she got cold.
After tidying up the dishes, Xiulan suggested, “The weather’s nice today. Want to go collect so wild walnuts?”
Wild walnuts, also known as mountain walnuts, are similar to dostic walnuts but have deeper grooves and extrely hard shells. The at inside is sparse but very flavorful, and they are abundant along the river, easy to collect.
“Sure, let’s gather a lot,” Lin Heng agreed. With nothing else planned for the day, he was happy to accompany Xiulan.
“Let’s head out now,” Xiulan said, grabbing two baskets.
Once Xiong Ba finished eating, they set off with Xiao Xia in tow.
They didn’t have to go far to collect the walnuts, as they were plentiful along the riverbank. Locking the door, they headed towards Shibadang Gully, where Lin Heng had noticed an abundance of walnuts during the honeysuckle harvest earlier that year.
On their way, they encountered Liu Lan, who remarked, “Hey, Xiulan, Lin Heng, why aren’t you joining the feast? It’s just starting.”
Although it wasn’t the main event, there was still a feast for the helpers, with a few at dishes. In those days, it was considered a grand al, and most people would make an effort to partake.
Lin Heng smiled slightly and said, “We already ate at ho, so we’ll skip it. We’re heading to the mountains to collect so wild walnuts.”
He wasn’t particularly interested in the village feast, especially since the helper’s al wasn’t as lavish as what he had at ho that morning.
“Alright, but make sure to join us for dinner,” Liu Lan said, smiling warmly as she left, showing no signs of sorrow.
Lin Heng said nothing more, walking hand in hand with his daughter and Xiulan along the dirt road. With no wind today, the sky was clear, and the sun was warm, making the walk quite enjoyable.
The landscape was a hazy gray, the mountains resembling giant dragons, and the leafless trees like the dragons’ bristles.
As they entered Shibadang Gully, they could see farther and higher mountains in the distance, still capped with snow, creating a scene reminiscent of a fairyland.
“There’s plenty here. These must be the wild walnuts that fell this year.”
Lin Heng looked at the overgrown field in front of him and said, “The ditch here doesn’t get any sunlight, and there’s still snow.”
Xiulan glanced around and suggested, “Let’s head up the mountain first and start collecting from the top down.”
“Alright.”
Lin Heng had no objections, so the three of them continued onward until they reached the midpoint of Shibadang Gully.
“Dad, there’s a mouse!”
Xiao Xia suddenly exclaid, pointing at a gray squirrel on a distant rock.
Lin Heng turned to look and saw the gray squirrel clutching a chestnut. As soon as it noticed Lin Heng watching, it darted away.
“Let’s go and see if we can find the squirrel’s treasure.”
Lin Heng said with a smile, holding his daughter’s hand.
With Xiong Ba in tow, they searched the area and eventually found a stash of chestnuts and acorns in a tree hollow, thanks to Xiong Ba’s keen nose.
“The squirrel’s treasure!”
Xiao Xia’s eyes widened in amazent as she began stuffing chestnuts into her pockets, thrilled by the small treasure trove.
Xiulan was also a bit surprised; she hadn’t expected to actually find anything.
“Woof woof!”
Just as they finished gathering about half a pound of chestnuts, Xiong Ba barked from a distance.
“Another treasure!”
Xiao Xia exclaid, running towards Xiong Ba with her short legs.
“Are there really that many?”
Xiulan followed with Xiao Xia, discovering another pile under a rock, though so had been nibbled by mice.
Lin Heng chuckled and nodded, “Squirrels have poor mories; they often forget where they’ve hidden their stash.”
Squirrels work hard in autumn to hide various nuts, storing them in over a dozen places, but often forget where they put them.
After this find, they didn’t discover any more treasures, but Xiao Xia, inspired by fairy tales, kept murmuring about continuing the search.
“Let’s gather so walnuts!”
Lin Heng carried her to a walnut tree. The wild walnuts that had fallen in autumn had their outer shells rotted away, revealing the yellowish-brown or black nuts inside.
The walnut trees were incredibly productive; just one tree yielded enough to fill a basket, weighing about thirty to forty pounds.
The three of them, along with the dog, walked a bit further down to a massive walnut tree. This tree had a trunk diater of thirty centiters and stood over ten ters tall. Beneath it, the ground was littered with walnuts.
There were so many walnuts that they couldn’t possibly gather them all.
As Lin Heng was collecting, Xiao Xia brought over sothing that looked like an orange and asked in her sweet voice, “Dad, what is this?”
“That’s a trifoliate orange, not edible.”
Lin Heng recognized it imdiately as the fruit of a small thorny tree nearby.
There’s an old saying that oranges grown south of the Huai River are sweet, but north of the river, they beco trifoliate oranges. However, oranges and trifoliate oranges are entirely different species.
The trifoliate orange isn’t useful; it’s full of seeds and inedible, typically used in traditional dicine.
Despite being told it wasn’t edible, Xiao Xia sneaked a bite and then spat it out, sticking out her tongue and stomping her feet in frustration before tossing it away.
Lin Heng laughed and continued collecting walnuts, letting her and Xiong Ba play nearby.
“Honey, look at this walnut!”
Just then, Xiulan ca over with a walnut.
Most wild walnuts are oval and elongated, but the one Xiulan held was round and significantly larger than typical wild walnuts, with a diater of over three centiters, about the size of Xiao Xia’s fist.
“This is a good find, see if there are more.”
Lin Heng imdiately recognized its value as a perfect ornantal walnut.
“What’s the value?” Xiulan asked, still a bit clueless.
Lin Heng explained about ornantal walnuts, and Xiulan was surprised. “City folks really have nothing better to do, treating these as treasures.”
She had just thought it was large and would have a lot of walnut at inside, not realizing it had such value.
“Of course, wealthy people have all sorts of hobbies.”
Lin Heng grinned, and he and Xiulan began searching more intently.
“I found another one.”
Soon, Xiulan handed another walnut to Lin Heng.
“These two are about the sa size, very nice. I can keep them for myself.”
Lin Heng played with the two walnuts in his hand, finding their texture quite pleasing.
Once polished, their value could increase, but he had no intention of selling them. They would make great personal keepsakes or gifts, as so people enjoy such things.
Lin Heng speculated that one branch of the large walnut tree must have mutated, producing these large walnuts.
“Wait, it’s actually this small walnut tree producing them.”
After a bit more searching, Lin Heng discovered the source: a small tree nearby, as thick as a wrist, was bearing these fruits.
There were none under the large walnut tree, but plenty under the small one. The walnuts from this tree were all quite large, though not all were perfectly round and smooth.
After so picking and choosing, they found eleven more that were decent, each about three centiters in diater.
The two in Lin Heng’s hand were exceptional—smooth, with beautiful patterns, and about four centiters in diater, large and attractive.
Xiulan played with the two walnuts for a while and smiled, “You know, this is actually quite fun.”
“Of course.”
Lin Heng smiled slightly and set these items aside for safekeeping.
There was no need to go elsewhere; the large walnut tree still had plenty left, and their baskets were full, with two burlap sacks tied on top.
Once everything was packed, Xiulan wasn’t ready to head back just yet. She looked at Lin Heng and said, “Let’s gather so wild garlic too.”
“Sure.”
Wild garlic is useful in winter, and it always grows on sunny slopes.
After picking a couple of bags, the two of them carried the mountain walnuts on their backs and led Xiao Xia back ho. Although there were more walnuts along the way, it was difficult to pick them while carrying things.
“Lin Heng, were you out collecting wild walnuts?”
As they approached the house, a voice called out from a distance.
Lin Heng looked up and, to his surprise, saw Carpenter Liang. He was curious. “Carpenter Liang, where are you headed?”
“I’m off to Shin Village to make so furniture for soone,” Carpenter Liang replied with a friendly smile toward Lin Heng.
Noticing Xiao Xia, he took a small wooden carved mouse from his basket and gave it to her.
Lin Heng smiled back at him. “I see. Carpenter Liang, are you in a hurry? I have sothing I’d like to discuss with you.”
“What is it?” Carpenter Liang asked, intrigued.
Lin Heng explained, “The river flooded recently, and I picked up so bog wood. I was hoping you could make it into furniture.”
“Bog wood?”
Carpenter Liang was taken aback, clearly surprised. This was valuable material. In all his years as a carpenter, he had only co across it once or twice. Lin Heng had actually found so.
“Well, I must see it for myself.”
Carpenter Liang chuckled, swallowing a bit as he recalled the delicious als at the Lin household. Back when he worked for Lin Heng, they weren’t yet a Ten-Thousand-Yuan Household. Now, the als were likely even better.
“Then please co by.”
Lin Heng smiled, thinking that he should first enjoy the furniture made from the bog wood himself. If he ever decided to sell it, bog wood furniture would fetch a high price.
With Carpenter Liang in tow, Lin Heng quickly returned ho.
“So much at!”
Carpenter Liang was astonished to see the pork hanging on Lin Heng’s balcony. How many wild boars had they hunted?
“Haha, we hunted a few wild boars the other day.”
Lin Heng casually remarked, leading Carpenter Liang upstairs to show him the bog wood.
Carpenter Liang examined it and nodded in confirmation. “This is indeed bog wood. The pieces from the red cedar are the best. They make beautiful blood-red furniture. The rest seems to be camphor, but I can’t quite tell for sure.”
With envy, he added, “You’ve got good luck. This stuff is worth a lot, and you just found it.”
He admired Lin Heng even more. In the wild, this wood looks like rotting timber, yet Lin Heng recognized and brought it ho. No wonder he beca a Ten-Thousand-Yuan Household.
Lin Heng laughed and asked, “Haha, I was lucky. Do you think this can be made into a set of dining tables and chairs?”
Carpenter Liang nodded. “There’s enough. I suggest you keep the red cedar root. Find soone skilled in carving or make a tea tray later. Cutting it into boards for a dining table would be wasteful.”
Lin Heng smiled at him. “That sounds good. I have a diesel chainsaw, so cutting the boards will be quick. Please make it for
when you return from Shin Village. I’ll pay you one and a half yuan per day.”
“Alright.” Carpenter Liang agreed happily, unable to hide his grin.
He thought to himself, no wonder Lin Heng is the youngest Ten-Thousand-Yuan Household in Huangtan Town. He’s quite generous.
Reviews
All reviews (0)