46 Chapter 46: The Tree of Heaven

She had seen this kind of tree before in the mountains where her village people often go, but it didn’t look that special.

However, when she plucked the leaves of that kind of tree, they did not have such a strong fragrance. In fact, they were a little smelly.

So, this tree was not the same species as the ones she had seen before?

Qin Xiaoyao’s face was filled with joy.

!!

“This is a Chinese Toon shoot. You can stir-fry it with eggs or make a salad. It’s really delicious!” Qin Xiaoyao couldn’t help but swallow her saliva when she thought of the taste of scrambled eggs with Chinese Toon shoots.

Speaking of eggs, they had run out of pheasant eggs at home.

When she went home at night, she might be able to go to the village to buy some chicken eggs.

Hmm, that was a good idea.

“This… can be eaten?” Big Girl Li’s face was filled with surprise and joy.

After the incident with the Chinese yams, she now had complete faith in Qin Xiaoyao.

If her Sister Sanya said that the Chinese Toon shoots were edible, then this thing must be edible!

“Of course!” Qin Xiaoyao’s smile was very radiant.

From her predecessor’s memory, she knew that the Chinese Toon shoots were not common in Mountain Spring Town.

At least, her predecessor did not even know of the existence of such a vegetable.

Therefore, it was not strange that Big Girl Li did not know anything about Chinese Toon shoots either.

It was good that these people didn’t know. If it were something novel and tasted good, Fortune Mansion would like it even more, wouldn’t they?

The earlier Chinese yam was an excellent example.

“There are also some places on the mountains in front of us that have this kind of tree as well!” Big Girl Li immediately said.

Qin Xiaoyao was stunned, then she became very excited.

“But the smell of the leaves is different from this type,” Big Girl Li continued.

“How can the leaves of the same kind of tree smell different?”

Qin Xiaoyao immediately understood after pondering for a while.

“Different smell? The trees you saw there are not of the same species as this one.”

Qin Xiaoyao saw that Big Girl Li was still peering closely at the Chinese Toon tree as if she was looking for the differences between this tree and those she had seen before. Qin Xiaoyao continued, “The ones you saw before are most likely the Tree of Heaven.”

“The Tree of Heaven look similar to the Chinese Toon tree. Even the branches and leaves are not very different.”

“The only obvious difference is that the leaves of the Tree of Heaven smell bad and are totally different from the smell of the Chinese Toon tree leaves.”

Big Girl Li understood at once.

“That’s right. The leaves of those trees are indeed stinky!” she said.

Qin Xiaoyao nodded.

She continued, “You can’t eat the leaves of the Tree of Heaven. Other than chopping them down to use as firewood, that tree is not of much use. Don’t go and pick their shoots thinking they are edible Chinese Toon shoots, okay?”

Big Girl Li quickly nodded.

“Uh-huh, I know! Thank you for your reminder, Sister Sanya!” She quickly smiled and thanked her.

“Alright. Let’s not just stand around. Hurry up and pluck the Chinese Toon shoots.”

“With these Chinese Toon shoots, we can earn another fortune tomorrow!” Qin Xiaoyao’s eyes were ablaze with excitement.

Then, she taught Big Girl Li how to pluck the Chinese Toon shoots.

They could only sell the tender young Chinese Toon shoots, not the old ones.

However, when plucking the young Chinese Toon shoots, they had to remove the old shoots too. This way, the new shoots could grow again from the plucked points.

After hearing that, Big Girl Li and Qin Xiaoyao quickly got busy.

After struggling for a while, both of them finally plucked more than half a bamboo basket backpack worth of the Chinese Toon shoots.

“Let’s explore the surroundings and see if we can dig up some more Chinese yam.” Qin Xiaoyao said after placing the two backpacks in the shade.

“If we can’t find anymore, we’ll go back. Otherwise, these Chinese Toon shoots will wilt.”

“Okay!” Big Girl Li replied.

Holding the sickle and the small hoe, she split up with Qin Xiaoyao again to look for Chinese yam vines nearby.

In the end, she did find more Chinese yam vines.

The two of them worked together and dug out another 20 catties of Chinese yam.

“It’s such a big mountain. We won’t be able to cover the whole mountain within a short time.” Qin Xiaoyao wiped the sweat off her forehead.

“Why don’t we stop here for today? Go back and get the stuff ready. We still have to go to town early tomorrow morning.”

“Alright!” Big Girl Li replied.

She was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.

However, even though she was tired, she felt very happy when she thought of today’s harvest.

Thus, the two of them gathered up the Chinese yams and returned the way they came.

After locating the Chinese yam that they had hidden by the roadside, they quickly returned to the foot of the mountain.

Thereafter, they went home.

At the Song family’s house.

...

When the two arrived, Madam Liu and Song Yun were still busy weaving straw sandals.

Seeing that the two of them had brought back another big load of Chinese yam, Madam Liu’s face lit up with joy.

She quickly stopped what she was doing and went to the kitchen to make sugar water for the two after welcoming them.

After entering the kitchen and gulping down two bowls of sugar water, Qin Xiaoyao and Big Girl Li finally heaved a sigh of relief.

“Didn’t you say that all the Chinese yams had been dug out? How did you get so many Chinese yams again?” Madam Liu looked at the Chinese yams that the two of them had brought back with a beaming face. She was absolutely overjoyed.

“We’ve finished excavating the previous areas, but there are still more on that mountain. And I think there are quite a few more areas.”

“But there’s no hurry. The deep areas of the mountains aren’t as conspicuous as the foot of the mountain. Other than us, there shouldn’t be anyone else who would go up that mountain. We can dig slowly later.” Qin Xiaoyao said.

Madam Liu nodded with a smile.

“That’s right. Take it slowly. There’s no rush.” She responded.

Suddenly, Madam Liu saw the Chinese Toon shoots in the backpacks they were carrying.

“What are those?” she asked, puzzled.

...

Aren’t those leaves? Was there something hidden underneath?

Qin Xiaoyao followed Madam Liu’s line of sight and saw the Chinese Toon shoots. Her eyes lit up at once.

“Chinese Toon shoots, a treasure found in the mountains!” she said happily.

Then, Qin Xiaoyao told Madam Liu how she and Big Girl Li found the Chinese Toon trees together.

She also talked about how the Chinese Toon shoots were edible and expensive.

Madam Liu was shocked to hear this, and at the same time, she admired her daughter-in-law even more.

“Alright. Mother, help me get the scale. I’ll weigh today’s gains first,” Qin Xiaoyao said quickly.

“Oh, alright.” Madam Liu quickly agreed and went to get the scale.

After a while, she brought a scale over.

Thereafter, Qin Xiaoyao and Big Girl Li weighed what they had obtained today.

As the range of the scale was insufficient, they had to split up the goods to weigh many times before they could tabulate the final result.

“The Chinese yams are 78 catties in all, and the Chinese Toon shoots are 18 catties.” Qin Xiaoyao said.

“According to our previous agreement, I’ll take 60%, and you’ll take 40%. If it’s 78 catties of Chinese yams, you can get…”

“Yes, 31 catties and 2 taels.”

“Then, at 5 copper coins per catty, that’s…” Qin Xiaoyao continued to calculate in her heart.

“156 copper coins,” she said afterward.

Big Girl Li’s heart skipped a beat.

“So… so much?” she said in surprise.

Qin Xiaoyao did the math in her head again. After making sure that her calculations were correct, she nodded.

“This is the money for the Chinese yams. As for the Chinese Toon shoots, I don’t know the price yet, so I can only calculate your share after selling it tomorrow.”

Big Girl Li’s face was full of smiles.

“Hehe! It’s fine, it’s fine… There’s no rush.” She was smiling a little foolishly.

In just half a day, she had earned 156 copper coins just from the Chinese yams. It was even higher than her man’s salary for a day’s work in town…

Hehe! If she could do this every day in the future, she would be rich in no time.

Qin Xiaoyao was inwardly very happy to see Big Girl Li’s reaction.

“Wait here. I’ll give you the money for the Chinese yams first,” she said following this.

Big Girl Li quickly came back to her senses and pulled Qin Xiaoyao back.