Chapter 48: Only Wants to Forage for Wild Greens

The man who entered was dressed in a Zhongshan suit. He casually sat down in the office and began making tea, tearing open the tea brick hidden deep in the cabinet. When the water boiled and was poured in, the light-green tea leaves in the pot immediately unfurled.

Qi Hongtao slowly poured himself a cup, took a light sip, and asked, “Is everything arranged?”

Luo Xi gave a short snort, sat down, twisted open the teapot lid, and poured himself a cup as well. “If it wasn’t arranged, would I even be here?”

Qi Hongtao’s eyes darkened as he tapped his finger against the rim of his cup. “You’re sure there isn’t a single loose end?”

The moment he spoke, Luo Xi nearly exploded. His face turned dark as he slammed his cup onto the table, irritation written all over him.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You insisted on taking the job, then turned around and dumped everything onto me. Now that I’ve done it, you’re questioning me? If you don’t trust me, go check for yourself.”

This shameless old man, relying on nothing but his smooth tongue to curry favor with that person, acted as if he could handle everything perfectly, yet never did any real work in private. All he did was order him around.

For a bit of money, Luo Xi must have been out of his mind to take this job. After this, he wasn’t doing anything for the old fox again.

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Ck Tsdtvys’p zkrp nwahle qykdvzu. Tl rwzzle y nsobkel ldhlzsrl qasx bkp nsyv rsnjlv yde vspple kv shla. “Ebyv R rasxkple usw. Uswdv kv uswaplzq.”

Nws Dk’p nsxrzykdvp hydkpble kdpvydvzu. Tl vsal vbl ldhlzsrl srld yde, wrsd pllkdt vbl vbknj pvynj sq ckzzp kdpkel, qkdyzzu zssjle pyvkpqkle.

“Pkalnvsa Ck, usw nyd alpv yppwale. Ebld R bydezl vbkdtp, vblal osd’v cl y pkdtzl xkpvyjl.”

Ohld kq vblal oyp, bl oswze xyjl pwal vbl rlapsd ekpyrrlyale.

Fllkdt Nws Dk’p lulp zktbv wr yv vbl pktbv sq xsdlu, bkp lyazkla bspvkzkvu hydkpble. Tl lhld cldv esod yde zknjle nzlyd vbl prkzzle vly oyvla sd vbl vyczl.

Ysdlu oyp xsdlu, byae vs nsxl cu. Gde vbkp vly, obknb bl’e blyae oyp hyzwyczl, bl byed’v lhld clld okzzkdt vs eakdj kv bkxplzq, ulv Ck Tsdtvys bye vsad kv srld okvbswv blpkvyvksd.

Rq dsv qsa vblka ryavdlapbkr, bl oswze byhl pzyrrle vbl sze xyd swv vbl essa zsdt yts.

Ck Tsdtvys: …

Suddenly, he no longer felt like drinking tea.

He set his cup down, disgusted. “Where were they sent? Some rundown backwater?”

Luo Xi paused mid-count, racking his memory for the list. “Don’t worry. They’ll never run into each other again.”

What was the Fang family’s destination again? Fengqi Brigade? Or Maple Leaf Brigade?

Either way, those two places would never cross paths.

Qi Hongtao visibly relaxed. “Good. As always, destroy the entire list and all destination records. Starting the next second, forget any of this ever happened.”

“You know my memory, I’ll forget everything by tonight.” Luo Xi smacked the stack of bills against his hand, pleased.

A clean profit of one thousand yuan. Not bad at all.

Qi Hongtao shot him a look of pure disdain, his miserly behavior was painful to watch.

Putting on his military coat, he headed out. Now that the threat was gone, he could return and report back.

---

After Tong Lingxian refused He Yu last time, He Yu truly didn’t come looking for Fang Mingxi again. However, as soon as the New Year celebrations ended, she showed up once more, squatting outside the cattle shed.

When Fang Mingxi woke up, she found He Yu crouched on the ground, counting ants.

Fang Mingxi tilted her head toward Tong Lingxian and, unsurprisingly, saw conflict in her eyes.

These past few days, the Brigade Leader had secretly sent them more things. Previously, it was just food. Now it was cotton-padded clothes and even quilts made from flawed fabric, becoming more and more outrageous.

This made Fang Mingxi even more curious. What was the relationship between their family and the Brigade Leader, for him to keep sending gifts like this?

Cotton wasn’t cheap. Even if the clothes were made from “flawed fabric,” the dense stitching and thick cotton clearly didn’t belong in that category.

Fang Mingxi had asked her grandparents several times whether the mysterious person was a relative, but the answer was always no.

So when He Yu came again today, she immediately decided to take the initiative. Any clue, even a single phrase, would be helpful.

Fang Mingxi trotted over to He Yu, squatted in front of her, and pulled out a piece of candy. “Older sister, Grandma agreed to let me go up the mountain to pick mushrooms. Let’s go together later!”

He Yu looked up in disbelief. “Really? I can go into the mountains with you?”

Fang Mingxi glanced back at Tong Lingxian. Seeing she didn’t object, she nodded. “Yes! I’ll go call older sister Yaoyao.”

She pushed the candy into He Yu’s hand, darted into the next room, climbed onto the bed, and woke the still-sleeping Tang Yao.

Tang Yao was clearly half-asleep, but the moment she heard “go up the mountain,” her drowsiness vanished. Wearing her no-longer-drafty cotton coat, she jumped out of bed and rushed outside.

She had been miserable these past few days. She hadn’t gone up the mountain for so long, who knew how many mushrooms she had missed? Her heart practically ached.

Fang Mingxi grabbed two small bamboo baskets, one for He Yu and one for herself. “Let’s go!”

“Go, go, go!”

He Yu was all smiles. She tossed aside her twig, grabbed the basket, and happily followed the two girls toward the mountain.

As soon as the three left, Wu Meixia walked over to Tong Lingxian and sighed. “The moment someone mentions going out to play, these little ones smile brighter than anyone. Yaoyao’s been miserable these past two days.”

Before Tong Lingxian could speak, Fang Bosong continued, “Of course. Lingxian’s been watching Xixi so strictly these days that Xixi refuses to sleep next to her.”

Tong Lingxian clicked her tongue and glared at him. “Are you ever going to let this go? I didn’t want to be the villain. Now that the New Year is over, didn’t I let Xixi go out?”

Fang Bosong quickly apologized. “Alright, alright. My mistake.”

“It is your mistake. I never said I was forbidding Xixi. Don’t twist my words.”

---

After several days away from the mountain, the wild greens had grown quickly.

The moment they climbed up, even before Fang Mingxi activated her “golden finger,” she saw wild greens everywhere, especially small garlic shoots.

Seeing the mountain full of them, she finally understood. Maple Leaf Mountain naturally had small garlic shoots. So why had she wasted two harvesting chances in the Mountain-Harvest Trading Game?

Had she been scammed for nothing?

The garlic shoots here weren’t as large as the ones in the game, but they weren’t small either. And there were huge patches of them, much more than in the deeper forest. Even a whole afternoon wouldn’t be enough to dig them all.

Once they reached their destination, the three split up to work.

He Yu hadn’t been lying before. She often came up the mountain to collect firewood, but she had never found any mushrooms.

Every time her family ate mushrooms, it was always her great-grandmother or grandmother who had found them. She wanted to pick mushrooms herself, but she simply had no luck. She had never found anything, not even wild greens.

Whenever Da Gao and the others went foraging or chopping wood, they never invited her. She only followed when she happened to run into them.

But even then, she never found a thing, not a mushroom, not a wild green.

Yet whenever she didn’t go, she would hear He Xi and the others talking about their latest finds. Over time, she understood she wasn’t welcome and stopped asking.

This time, she came sincerely to find Fang Mingxi, one last attempt. If she couldn’t find anything today, she would give up completely.

But today, her gamble finally paid off. The moment she reached the mountain, she saw wild greens everywhere. As she dug up the garlic shoots, she nearly cried.

Xixi’s grandparents weren’t just her family’s benefactors. Xixi herself was her savior.

She finally got to forage for wild greens.