Yan Xue didn’t go through such meticulous efforts to dry the wood ear mushrooms just for aesthetics. She was well aware that having too much stock might raise suspicions that she had collected them to resell, so she had to prepare thoroughly.
The basket of wood ear mushrooms she presented now were perfectly shaped, neatly arranged, and even the curls were nearly identical—no one would doubt they were all processed by the same hands.
The other person was clearly taken aback. "What if... what if you collected fresh ones and dried them yourself?"
Before Yan Xue could respond, Shan Qiufang was already laughing in exasperation. "She collected fresh ones and dried them herself? You think she spends her days running around checking who’s picked mushrooms in the mountains? Even I, who don’t deal with this, know fresh wood ears don’t last—they dry out in a day or two. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that."
When it came to quick retorts, Shan Qiufang had never backed down. She cut the other person off before they could speak again. "And don’t even try saying she taught others to dry them this way. If you could dry them like this, would you share the method?"
After shutting the other person down twice, she smirked. "If you don’t even know these basics, I’d start wondering if the wood ears in your house were really picked and dried by you."
The implication was clear—the other person was the one reselling goods, engaging in speculation and profiteering.
Unaware that Shan Qiufang and Yan Xue were related, the woman had no comeback to the verbal onslaught. "Why are you being so ungrateful?"
"Grateful? If you were so kind, why is it fine for your parents to gather from the mountains, but not for others’ families to do the same?"
Shan Qiufang could easily guess why the woman had followed her—she’d seen Yan Xue with a basket on her back, exchanging glances with Shan Qiufang, and feared Shan Qiufang would buy from Yan Xue instead.
Shan Qiufang shooed her away. "Enough already. Everyone knows what you’re up to."
Not one to be bullied, Shan Qiufang left the woman no choice but to slink off, though not without a parting shot: "Whoever’s reselling knows it in their heart."
Infuriated, Shan Qiufang chased her to the door. "Do you even want to sell your wood ears anymore?"
Yan Xue stepped forward to steady Shan Qiufang. "Don’t get worked up. Be careful for the baby’s sake."
Shan Qiufang snapped back to reality. "Almost forgot I’m carrying one."
She then vented about the woman. "We’re neighbors—I thought I’d buy from her instead of going to the market. But she wouldn’t even give me a discount, then chased me into my own home. Who sells things like that?"
The woman’s behavior was certainly off-putting. Business was a two-way street—customers weren’t obligated to buy from her alone.
But Yan Xue had seen it all in her past life at the market, even vendors and customers shouting matches. After moving her business online, such scenes disappeared, replaced by the occasional bizarre customer—like the one who tried returning half-eaten honey, claiming it didn’t taste like pure linden honey.
Her eyes crinkled in amusement as she patted Shan Qiufang’s back. "Isn’t that better? Now she won’t compete with me."
Shan Qiufang paused, then brightened. "You’re right. Why let her sell everything?" She strode out. "Wait here for me."
Despite her five-month pregnancy, she moved swiftly. Yan Xue barely had time to call, "Take it easy!" before Shan Qiufang was already far ahead.
Soon, Shan Qiufang returned with two others—one who had previously inspected wood ears with her, and a new face.
Shan Qiufang pointed at Yan Xue’s basket. "Well? Isn’t my niece’s better than that woman’s mismatched batch?"
Yan Xue nearly laughed. Her aunt’s temper was something else—the woman had tried to pressure Shan Qiufang into buying, only for Shan Qiufang to steal her customers instead.
But these two likely hadn’t been satisfied with the other seller’s price or quality, or they wouldn’t have followed Shan Qiufang back. Seeing Yan Xue’s well-presented wood ears, one immediately asked, "How much are you selling these for?"
"Three yuan seventy per half-kilogram," Yan Xue replied earnestly. "These are autumn wood ears—not as high-quality as spring ones, so they’re cheaper."
Cultivated varieties were even cheaper, being quicker to grow and more abundant, though their texture and flavor paled in comparison to wild ones.
But Yan Xue used log cultivation—aside from the initial inoculation, the mushrooms grew naturally, making them nearly as good as wild ones, even more tender in some cases.
The buyers couldn’t tell spring from autumn wood ears, but Yan Xue’s honesty won them over more than the other seller’s exaggerations.
One of them bargained, "Can you go lower? We’re neighbors with Little Shan here."
Yan Xue had plenty in stock and hadn’t planned to overcharge—hauling goods back and forth wasn’t worth the effort or travel costs.
Still, she feigned hesitation. The buyer pressed, "I’ll buy more if you can discount it."
"If you take at least half a kilogram, I can do three yuan sixty per half-kilogram," Yan Xue conceded. "I had to take the train down from the valley, after all."
Shan Qiufang chimed in, "Exactly. It’s not easy for her to come all this way. Three sixty is fair."
The price was indeed lower than the other seller’s, so the buyer agreed. "Then give me half a kilogram."
"Of course, Auntie." Yan Xue quickly weighed out the portion. "This is exact—you can borrow a scale to check if you’d like."
She then asked, "Is this for yourself or as a gift?"
"What’s the difference?" the other buyer interjected.
"For personal use, I’ll wrap them in newspaper. For gifts, I have paper bags." Yan Xue produced the handmade bags.
Given the choice, who’d pick newspaper? The first buyer opted for the bag, and the second decided, "Give me a kilogram—half in each bag."
Soon, Yan Xue had sold one and a half kilograms. A neighbor, hearing the commotion, came over and bought another half-kilogram.
Clearly, this neighborhood was better off—unlike the time she’d sold frozen mushrooms at the market, where customers bought in tiny increments.
Shan Qiufang kept busy, fetching more buyers. By the time Yan Xue left her house, the basket was a third lighter.
Shan Qiufang added, "If you have more, let me know. Many households here have two working adults—no one’s home during the day."
Yan Xue thanked her again before heading to the market. By the time she returned, only about one and a half kilograms remained.
At home, she was startled to see the Second Old Lady retrieving wood ears from the rooftop. Yan Xue rushed to steady the ladder. "Grandma, why are you up there alone? Where’s Qi Fang?"
She wondered if all researchers were like this, but Qi Fang was particularly reclusive—avoiding outings and crowds unless necessary.
The Second Old Lady reassured her, "I’m being careful—won’t fall." Then explained, "The field office sent Qi Fang to fetch some poetry recital scripts. The sky looked ominous, like rain, so I came up to gather the things."
"Then you should come down too. My heart is about to leap out of my chest with you up there." Yan Xue quickly took the items from the elderly woman's hands.
The old lady had no choice but to let Yan Xue help her down, then watched as Yan Xue climbed up to gather the wood ear mushrooms.
By the time everything was stored in the shed, the sky had grown even darker, yet Qi Fang still hadn't returned. Yan Xue couldn't help but ask the old lady, "How long has he been gone?"
"Must be over half an hour." The old lady peeked at the small clock inside the house.
It was a clock she and Yan Jigang had bought after arriving at the forestry station, worried they wouldn’t be able to tell time without watches.
With rain imminent, the old lady grew concerned. "Qi Fang didn’t take an umbrella. I hope he doesn’t get caught in the downpour."
The rain had come suddenly—when Yan Xue left that morning, the sky had been clear.
Luckily, just as the first raindrops began to fall, Qi Fang returned, his handsome features only slightly damp, a faint sheen of moisture clinging to him.
"Did you gather all the wood ears?" he asked as he stepped inside, glancing up at the roof.
"Yes, Yan Xue came back to do it," the Second Old Lady replied.
Qi Fang then handed Yan Xue two sheets of paper. "The script for the poetry recital. We’re supposed to review it first, then divide the parts when we go to town for rehearsals in a couple of days."
"We have to rehearse in town?" Yan Xue took the papers and skimmed them, realizing it wasn’t any familiar poem—likely something newly written.
"Yeah," Qi Fang said. "We’ll need to go three days early—not just to assign parts but also to arrange the staging."
That made sense. Since the recital was a joint effort by several forestry stations, rehearsing beforehand was necessary for a polished performance.
The Second Old Lady didn’t understand much about poetry recitals, so when the two began discussing official matters, she turned to prepare dinner, glancing at the sky again. "I wonder if it’ll still be raining when Jigang gets home from school."
"I don’t think this rain will last long," Yan Xue said, also looking outside. Once they were inside, she lowered her voice and asked Qi Fang, "Is there something else?"
If it were just about fetching the script, it shouldn’t have taken so long, and the man wouldn’t have entered with such a serious expression.
Sure enough, Qi Fang leaned against the writing desk and glanced toward the outer room before answering quietly, "Secretary Lang just spoke to me. Someone’s been spreading gossip."
His voice was hushed, clearly to avoid worrying the Second Old Lady.
Yan Xue moved closer. "What did Secretary Lang say?"
It wasn’t as if they had no adversaries in the forestry station. Their recent harvest of wood ears couldn’t be hidden, so it was natural for some to harbor ill feelings.
But since it was just gossip and not an official complaint, it seemed no one had yet figured out what to accuse them of. The real question was the station’s stance.
As she leaned in to ask, Qi Fang looked at her, then wrapped an arm around her waist. "Secretary Lang advised us to keep a low profile—not to sell openly within the station."
Everyone in the forestry station had side businesses—who hadn’t sold wood ears or mushrooms in town?
Though theirs were cultivated, wood ears were still listed among the procurement station’s accepted goods, making it hard to draw a clear line. Secretary Lang’s message was clear: keep quiet and avoid drawing too much attention.
Yan Xue had chosen to grow wood ears precisely because they were classified as mountain products, which were legally recognized as a legitimate side income for locals, with official procurement channels.
Still, they owed Secretary Lang for the warning.
"Once this blows over, I’ll take some wood ears to Sister Yue’e," Yan Xue said, patting Qi Fang’s arm around her. "Alright, let go before Grandma sees."
Yan Xue’s prediction was right—the rain didn’t last. It stopped before Yan Jigang returned from school, leaving only a thin layer of dampness on the ground.
But since the wood ears were already stored in the shed, they decided to leave them there and check the weather the next morning before deciding whether to sun-dry them again.
Unexpectedly, not long after the lights were turned off that night, the two dogs in the opposite room suddenly started barking, waking the Second Old Lady and Yan Jigang.
Yan Xue and Qi Fang, however, were still awake—preparing to unlock a new chapter in The Lady General and the Sword-Bearing Guard: "The Dashing Guard Hones His Blade, Battling the Lady General Once More in the Dead of Night."
At that moment, the two were locked in a battle of wits, having already exchanged a round of verbal sparring that ended in a draw. Now, they were testing each other’s limits.
The dashing guard, confident in his skills, even dared to gauge the lady general’s depths with his bare hands. The lady general, unwilling to yield, parried each move, both soon breathless and glistening with sweat.
Just as the guard unsheathed his blade, ready to demonstrate his prowess, a knock came at the door. "The dogs won’t stop barking at the backyard. Something’s not right."
The guard’s poised strike froze mid-air, and the lady general, equally startled, scrambled to retrieve the armor she’d lost in their earlier skirmish.
Fortunately, the guard had trained himself to remain composed under pressure. His voice betrayed nothing as he replied, "You and Jigang stay inside. I’ll check it out."
But when he turned back to the lady general, his expression darkened with frustration at their interrupted duel.
Yan Xue had no choice but to hand Qi Fang the trousers he’d discarded earlier. "Go see what’s out there—could be a person or something else."
With a low grunt, Qi Fang took them, yanked them on with visible difficulty, and—after a brief, awkward struggle—managed to fasten his shirt haphazardly before slipping into his shoes and heading out.
The two small dogs in the opposite room were indeed barking incessantly at the back window, though their tiny voices—barely two months old—held little threat.
But in the quiet of the night, the noise carried. Qi Fang looked outside just in time to see a section of the wooden fence sway.
Without hesitation, he scooped up one of the dogs and gave chase, bursting through the door and rounding the fence. A shadowy figure darted ahead.
The intruder clearly hadn’t expected to be pursued so quickly. After ducking out of sight, he slowed to catch his breath—only for the barking to close in again, sending him sprinting once more.
As far as he remembered, this household didn’t even have a dog.
And if they did, they’d only moved in a few months ago—where would they get a big, fast dog?
Confused, the figure risked a glance back.
A tall silhouette was hot on his trail—but it wasn’t a dog. The man was downright shameless, letting the dog do all the barking instead of shouting "Stop!" himself.
Before he could steady his breathing, his foot caught on something, sending him sprawling with a pained gasp.
But whether it was man or beast, the pursuer was gaining ground, and the commotion had roused the neighborhood dogs into a chorus of barks.
Seeing lights flicker on in nearby houses, the intruder panicked. He bolted, losing a shoe in his haste, and fled through the agricultural team’s manure pile.
That was where Qi Fang drew the line. Though the fields hardly needed fertilizing at this time of year, the area was still foul and filthy.
In the end, he only brought back a liberation shoe. He had initially carried it into the main room but then, with a dark expression, tossed it back into the yard.
Yan Xue had already changed her clothes and was waiting for him with the Second Old Lady and Yan Jigang. Seeing the shoe, she asked, "Did you even lose a shoe while chasing them?"
"Yeah." Qi Fang set the dog down, and the little pup immediately scampered over to circle around Yan Jigang's legs.
"Did you see who it was?" Yan Xue wanted to go take a look at the shoe, but Qi Fang stopped her. "Probably Old Man Wang, Wang Lianfu's father. He runs slow, and when he panics, his neck tilts slightly to the left."
It was actually Old Man Wang. Yan Xue was speechless. "I ran into him this morning when I went to take the small train, but he didn’t even board. We didn’t speak."
"Let’s check the fence in the backyard." Qi Fang went inside to grab a flashlight.
The two of them headed to the rear of the yard, with the Second Old Lady following. The whole family went straight to the spot where Qi Fang had seen movement earlier.
That area was far from the main house and tucked in a corner. If they hadn’t raised two dogs, they might not have noticed anything amiss.
Upon inspection, they found that part of the wooden fence had been tampered with.
Locals usually built these fences by digging holes at intervals, fixing yellow pine poles as vertical posts. Then, they’d nail horizontal beams about thirty to forty centimeters above the ground, one in the middle and another at the top, attaching the wooden planks to these beams.
But here, the planks were noticeably loose, with only the middle nails still holding. If a couple more planks were removed and pushed aside, there’d be enough space for an adult to squeeze through from the outside.
"Did they think we were all asleep? Were they trying to steal or do something else?" The Second Old Lady had never seen someone so bold as to sneak in while the family was still home.
Yan Xue wasn’t sure either, but it didn’t take a genius to guess it was nothing good—most likely related to the wood ear mushrooms they’d been cultivating.
"Let’s just nail this back for now." She steadied the loose planks while Qi Fang silently went to fetch tools and secured them.
Once done, he inspected the surrounding area for any other weak spots. "Grandma, you and Yan Xue should go back to bed."
The Second Old Lady was wide awake after the commotion, but since Yan Jigang had school the next day, she headed back, worried about her grandson.
Yan Xue stayed, holding the flashlight for Qi Fang as he worked. He glanced up at her but said nothing, only speeding up his movements.
After finishing, they locked the door behind them. Qi Fang washed his hands before saying to Yan Xue, "We’ll get some anti-theft chains later."
Yan Xue knew what he meant—thick wires with spikes at intervals, hung over fences to deter intruders.
A brick wall with shards of glass embedded on top would’ve been safer, but their yard was large, and building such a wall would require too many bricks. Besides, hardly anyone in the forestry settlement used bricks for construction. Doing so would draw too much attention.
Back inside, as she took off her shoes to climb onto the heated bed, Yan Xue remembered Old Man Wang’s lost shoe.
Qi Fang, who was usually so meticulous about cleanliness, had gone out of his way to retrieve it. He certainly wasn’t trying to play Prince Charming searching for Cinderella—Old Man Wang was probably in for trouble.
Her suspicions peaked after they’d both settled in bed. Unable to hold back, she nudged the man. "Did you take a knife with you when you went out?"
He didn’t answer, but his breath hitched for a second when her elbow accidentally bumped something sensitive.
The next moment, her foot was caught under the blanket, lifted, and lightly bitten on the instep. "Keep going."
Yan Xue’s guess was right. Though Old Man Wang hadn’t been caught red-handed, he was indeed in trouble. The next day, Qi Fang took the shoe straight to the administration office.
No one knew exactly what Qi Fang said, but the moment he stepped inside with his usual indifferent expression, the broadcast speakers crackled to life—
"Attention, comrades! Attention, comrades! This is an urgent announcement! Last night, a highly disturbing incident occurred. Under cover of darkness, an individual trespassed onto a comrade’s property with malicious intent. Fortunately, the household’s dogs alerted them in time, preventing any harm. The intruder fled in such haste that he left behind a shoe. The affected comrade has reported the matter to the authorities. We hereby remind all households with female members: men, stay home if you can. If you must go out, keep a dog at home. Do not give opportunists any opening!"
The wording was deliberately vague—what exactly was the "malicious intent"? And why specifically warn households with women? It was impossible not to read between the lines.
Gossip spread like wildfire. Those who’d heard the commotion the night before confirmed it, though they’d only heard barking, no voices. They’d assumed it was just loose dogs—no one knew which unfortunate household had been targeted.
By afternoon, Liu Weiguo returned from his parents’ place with news: Old Man Wang’s family was in an uproar.
Old Man Wang’s wife was beating him with a broom meant for chicken droppings. "You shameless old fool! Is there anything you won’t stoop to?"
Having fallen the night before and run half the way barefoot, Old Man Wang could barely dodge as he hissed, "Keep your voice down! Do you want the whole settlement to hear?"
"Oh, now you’re worried about shame? Everyone knows you were peeping through windows and got chased by dogs until you lost a shoe!"
"I told you, I wasn’t! I just wanted to see how they grew so many wood ears—"
"Then why’d the announcement warn about protecting women? And why did you come home reeking of manure with one shoe missing?"
His wife wasn’t buying it. "You useless old pervert! Can’t even perform, yet still can’t keep your eyes to yourself!"
For days afterward, Old Man Wang didn’t dare show his face, terrified someone would connect him to the shoe.
After all, stealing wood ears might’ve been shrugged off—not many households had them in such quantities. But every family had women to protect.
The entire forestry settlement was now on high alert against perverts. Even Liu Weiguo fetched a hunting dog from his parents’ place and tied it in his yard. He even dropped by to warn Qi Fang and Yan Xue, "Can you believe the nerve? Breaking into a house with dogs! Pity they didn’t catch him—he’d have gotten what he deserved."
He was already getting it, judging by the scratches on his face...
Yan Xue glanced at Qi Fang, who looked utterly disinterested, as if the matter had nothing to do with him.
"Anyway, stay careful." Liu Weiguo had come specifically to warn them. With that done, he turned to leave. "I’d better check if my wife’s back. She’s been hitching rides to town on the supply truck lately."
But as he stepped out, he nearly collided with Zhou Wenhui entering the yard.
The couple froze.
"You’re back?"
"You’re here too?"
Then Zhou Wenhui promptly dismissed her husband, brushing past him to head inside. "Yan Xue."
The young woman's eyes sparkled, her demeanor less bashful and more spirited than the last time she visited. "How many pounds of wood ear mushrooms do you have left?" she asked.
Yan Xue found Liu Weiguo's bewildered expression amusing and teased, "Got some good news?"
Qi Fang remarked lightly, "Perhaps I'm younger than Engineer Qi from Little Gold River."
