EHCR 9

The Encyclopedic Harvest: Cultivating Riches in Lean Years

Chapter 9: Shen Che

'Wash the mushrooms and slice them into even, uniform thickness, while preparing plenty of sliced garlic and chili peppers. Heat up a wok, add animal fat, drop in the garlic slices to stir-fry, and then add the mushrooms to stir-fry together for about 8 minutes. Add the chili peppers and stir-fry, followed by soy sauce, salt, and MSG. Once evenly stir-fried, it's ready to be served and taken out of the wok! The entire cooking time must not be less than 10 minutes. Remember to make sure they are thoroughly cooked, thoroughly cooked, and thoroughly cooked!'

Important things must be said three times. It seems that if you want to eat wild mushrooms without getting poisoned, the absolute key is making sure they are fully cooked!

Such wonderful goods—it would be an absolute waste not to take them away.

Song Zhaodi carefully harvested the mushrooms, cradling them in the palm of her hand as she inspected them closely. Imagining their delicious flavor, she couldn't help swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

Seeing her looking so utterly greedy, Song Pandi grabbed her hand and yelled as if trying to save her life, "Big Sister, snap out of it! These are poisonous lumps! Eating them will give you food poisoning—mild cases make you lose your mind and go crazy, while severe cases cost you your life!"

In Shuangping Village, past harvests were good enough that people looked down on eating wild vegetables. On the rare occasion someone touched unfamiliar greens just to try something new, it always ended in a bloody, agonizing lesson.

Ever since the Song family started eating wild greens, the elders constantly drilled it into them: never touch anything you haven't eaten before.

Even five-year-old Song Pandi was all too familiar with those gory cautionary tales.

Song Zhaodi nodded and said, "They are poisonous, but they can be eaten."

With that, she kept walking, foraging all along the way and even getting Song Pandi to help.

Pandi was so anxious beads of sweat broke out across her forehead. When they first stepped out, her big sister had led her straight up into the mountains; she thought they were just coming out to dig for wild herbs, never expecting her big sister to get completely bewitched by poisonous lumps halfway through.

She had heard Grandpa say before that people who went up the mountain and got bewitched by brightly colored poisonous lumps would pick them, bring them home, and after eating them, either go insane or drop dead.

Wasn't Song Zhaodi's current look—eyes glowing with excitement—the exact definition of being possessed by an evil spirit?

This mountain wasn't clean!

Right! Dad said that urine could drive away evil spirits!

But as a young girl, squatting to relieve herself out in the open was a bit embarrassing...

Just as Song Pandi was torn with indecision, she watched Song Zhaodi walk further and further away with an excited smile...

Forget it! How could a bit of reputation ever compare to Big Sister's life?

Over on her side, Song Zhaodi had casually gathered a few Jian Shou Qing mushrooms and over a dozen termite mushrooms (Jiayong mushrooms). Just as she straightened her back, she saw Song Pandi walking over carrying a wooden ladle.

"Pandi, I'm not thirsty right now, you should drink it yourself," she said.

Song Pandi stopped a few steps away, raised a ladle full of yellowish liquid, and frowned, "Big Sister, don't blame me, I'm doing this to save you!"

"Turn your face over here, I'm going to help you exorcise the evil spirit!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she flipped the ladle over, and that liquid—carrying an indescribable, pungent odor—came splashing straight toward Song Zhaodi’s face.

At the very last split second, Song Zhaodi’s foot slipped and she swiftly sidestepped out of the way.

With a splash, the liquid that was supposed to land on Song Zhaodi’s face scattered all over the ground.

Song Pandi’s face scrunched up into a bun of frustrated regret. "Aiya! What a total waste."

Looking back at Song Zhaodi, she added, "Big Sister, hold on a little longer, wait for me just a bit more, I don't have any pee left right now..."

Urine?

Exorcising evil spirits?

A loud boom went off in Song Zhaodi’s head. Staring in utter disbelief at the puddle on the ground, her lips trembled as she asked, "You threw piss at me?"

Even her very last syllable was shaking.

No wonder that smell...

Seeing her face turn pitch black with rage, Song Pandi scratched her head and awkwardly apologized, "Big Sister, Dad said that boy-child urine can drive away evil spirits, so you..."

"I'm not possessed!" Song Zhaodi roared. "I'm perfectly fine!"

Being so young, how could Song Pandi wrap her head around all of that? She only remembered what the adults had told her and insisted, "Grandpa said poisonous lumps are toxic and can't be eaten, and they can trick people's minds. Big Sister, please snap out of it."

So the little girl thought she had been poisoned by toxic mushrooms.

Song Zhaodi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but she also understood the villagers' deep-seated terror toward these wild fungi on the mountain.

Shuangping Village was tucked deep inside the southern mountains; the terrain was rugged and wild mushrooms were abundant, but people losing their lives or getting severely poisoned from eating wild fungi happened time and time again.

Therefore, even though the mountains held countless mushrooms, people didn't know how to tell which ones were edible from the poisonous ones, nor did they know how to cook them properly. For the sake of preserving their own lives, people simply stopped touching wild mushrooms altogether.

Wild mushrooms had thus become labeled as "poisonous lumps," cursed objects that must never be touched, and the tales surrounding them grew increasingly bizarre.

Whenever people bumped into them, they gave them a wide berth.

"Pandi, come here."

Song Zhaodi decided to explain it clearly to her little sister—after all, she was planning to make a massive fortune off wild mushrooms, so she needed to get her family's mindset prepared in advance.

She pointed to a few unpicked mushrooms on the ground and said, "Look, this kind is called Jian Shou Qing. It is somewhat toxic, but as long as it's processed properly, it can be eaten safely without poisoning you."

"And this kind here is called a termite mushroom; it's completely non-toxic."

"That red-umbrella-white-stem one over there is violently poisonous. Don't touch it, and definitely don't eat it. Whenever we see it, we should just stomp it to pieces."

Song Pandi followed the direction of her finger, looked closely, and asked half-convinced, "Big Sister, can these really be eaten?"

Song Zhaodi nodded heavily with absolute certainty. "These are all written down in books! Can the knowledge inside books ever be false?"

People who could read books were all smart folks; naturally, whatever books said had to be true.

Song Pandi was finally convinced and said, "Then I'll help Big Sister pick them too."

Song Zhaodi nodded, though she still carefully taught Pandi how to tell them apart.

Passing by a tree trunk, she stopped and reached out to touch a black mass growing on the bark.

"Big Sister, that's a black bat fungus, you really can't eat that," Song Pandi said with absolute conviction. "Someone ate it before and their whole body started itching until their skin rotted away."

Song Zhaodi nodded. Looking at the floating system text, she explained, "This is called black wood ear (cloud ear fungus). It contains a photosensitive substance called porphyrin. Eating it fresh and then exposing yourself to the sun can cause skin itching, edema, and other uncomfortable symptoms. It's not good to eat fresh directly—if you dry them in the sun, soak them to rehydrate, and then cook them thoroughly, it's much safer."

Song Pandi listened, half-understanding, and widened her eyes as she said, "So they have to be dried first! No wonder those people got poisoned when they ate them."

In Pandi and the villagers' eyes, any kind of physical discomfort caused by eating something was classified as "getting poisoned".

She looked up at Song Zhaodi again, her eyes glowing with absolute, worshipful admiration. "Big Sister, you know so much!"

After the two sisters finished picking all the black wood ear off the tree trunk, seeing that the day was getting late, they shouldered their baskets and headed down the mountain to go home.

Upon returning, they found out that neither Song Yaozu nor Sun Xiuhe was home.

"Yaozu threw a tantrum and went over to his eldest brother's house, and Mother went over to coax him."

Because of his injured leg, Song Yaodong had returned from the fields early; right as he got back, he happened to catch Sun Xiuhe hurrying toward Li Youcai’s house carrying pork and a big rooster.

Well, they already knew there was no way they were getting a taste of that chicken meat.

Song Zhaodi laid the black wood ear out neatly across the low courtyard wall to dry, and just as she was about to go cook dinner, Song Dachuan and Zhao Lanzhi returned as well.

Hearing that Sun Xiuhe had taken pork, a big rooster, and newly bought coarse grain over to Li Youcai’s house, Song Dachuan’s face instantly darkened.

Song Dachuan wasn't very fond of this brought-along stepson, not only because he never contributed anything to the household, but also because he had drained a substantial amount of money from him.

Furthermore, Li Youcai himself was lazy, and the wife he married was equally idle and gluttonous, yet Sun Xiuhe constantly subsidized them behind the scenes, both overtly and covertly.

Song Dachuan had long been discontent with this. Hearing Song Zhaodi’s exaggerated retelling, he kept his face dark, put his hands behind his back, and ordered, "Zhaodi, go boil that half-fish left over from last night for dinner."

That entire evening, neither Song Yaozu nor Sun Xiuhe came back. Furious, Song Dachuan went to bed early.

Figuring that she would be away from home for half the day tomorrow to sell the water celery, Song Zhaodi needed to inform Song Dachuan in advance, so she used the excuse of going to town to buy medicine for Song Yaodong.

Hearing this, Song Dachuan nodded and muttered in a muffled voice, "Your uncle works at the carpentry shop in town; go see if you can borrow a bit more money from him."

Song Zhaodi didn't argue with him and quietly left in silence.

Before dawn even broke, the mother and daughter had already harvested two large bundles of water celery.

Because no one had ever sold or eaten it in the local market before, Song Zhaodi was worried that bringing too much would make it hard to sell, so she decided to take just two bundles to test the waters first.

Taking advantage of the dim morning light, the mother and daughter were about to set off when an ox-cart approached and came to a halt right in front of them.

Song Zhaodi looked up and saw the man on the ox-cart: his gaze was sharp and piercing, and his stern, rugged face exuded a steady, decisive calmness. A scar cutting across the outer corner of his brow gave off an unapproachable, fierce, and intimidating aura.

This person—she felt like she had seen him somewhere before.

Right as that thought crossed Song Zhaodi’s mind, her mother had already stepped forward, repeatedly bowing and expressing her gratitude.

"Thank you so much for saving our Zhaodi yesterday. If it weren't for you, our Zhaodi wouldn't have made it. Thank you."

Ah, she remembered now.

This person was Shen Che.

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