Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 74 Won 100 Yuan, Coriolus versicolor
Seeing Yu Qiutang's slightly sad face, she smiled again:
"Then what can you do? You can only live an honest life. Compared with the cautious life in the past, you let me do things and live my own life now. I am so happy that I don't know what to say.

Don't think of me as a disabled person in the future. I may not be as fast as others in running, but I am not inferior to others in other things. If we compare strength, most people may not be as good as me, haha."

"That's right, uncle. Don't underestimate my third aunt. She is very strong, even stronger than me." Yu Xiaowei interrupted.

Yu Chunmei touched Yu Xiaowei's head and said, "You are also very capable. You and Yunyun are like little adults and have helped Auntie a lot."

Yu Xiaowei stuck out his tongue proudly.

Yu Xiaoyun was standing on the railing peeling garlic. When she heard this, she smiled.

Without Yu Dejin's intimidation, not only Yu Chunmei, but also the two children became much more cheerful. Yu Qiutang saw it and was happy in his heart.

"By the way, Qiutang, these two kids are going to register soon, right? I remember hearing someone say it's going to happen in the next few days."

Yu Qiutang thought about it and it was true.

He only remembered that he registered around the beginning of September, but he was not sure about the exact day.

"I'll ask Qiushi later."

"You ask first. We need to prepare what needs to be prepared in advance. I have already taken the cloth you bought a few days ago to Wang's sister-in-law and asked her to make a new set of clothes for each of the two children. I will find time to make a new pair of shoes for each of them. The soles are almost ready. I will find time to make the uppers..."

Yu Qiutang listened to his third sister explaining things like a mother. Although the two children had no blood relationship with her, she loved them very much.

Making tofu every day is tiring enough, but it’s really great that I can find time to make shoes.

Whoever marries my third sister in the future will definitely be very happy.

He secretly made up his mind that once he had enough money, he would bring his third sister to a big city for treatment. Even if the disease could not be cured, the impact would be minimized as much as possible.

Silent all night.

The next day, we woke up at the crowing of the rooster and did two sets of red boxing as usual. While the children were exercising, we put the magic tofu into the basket.

I tied four more wild boars to the edge of the basket and hung them up. The remaining dead one had been dealt with last night, so I asked my third sister to finish it today so that we could improve our lives in the evening.

Then go out into the morning mist.

Before going out, he saw that the kerosene lamp in his father's cave was off, but the whispers of his father and Chen Meidi could be faintly heard from inside. Although Chen Meidi's voice was not loud, it contained a kind of impatience that had been suppressed for a long time and was about to explode.

In less than an hour, Yu Qiutang arrived in town.

The sun had just peeked out from the east, and half of the roofs of the houses in the town turned red, but the base of the walls below was still grayish white.

There were few people on the street. Apart from some people selling breakfast and people from other places who came to buy vegetables and took up seats to chat, most of the shop owners were gradually removing the vertical boards blocking the doorways, and pushing the doors open completely while yawning.

For some who need to place their goods outside, they would slowly take out benches and stands while chatting with people on the street, sweep away the dust on the shelves with a short-handled broom, and find a stable balance on the stands.

After Yu Qiutang was reborn, he lived in the mountains without realizing it. The world in the mountains is always noisy yet a bit quiet. The flow of time in the mountains slows down. If life in the mountains can be compared to a painting, then this painting is rendered very slowly.

But once he stepped onto the street, he immediately switched from oil painting to ink painting.

Here, it seems that the painter is in a good mood and paints casually. Every time I come, there will be obvious changes. It is visible to the naked eye that many shops are constantly changing towards a more fashionable and trendy direction, and the outdated old way of buying and selling is being quietly wiped out and gradually disappearing from people's impression.

To the extent that every time he walked to the street corner, it was as if he had come to a historical fragment. It always seemed so unreal, and it took a long time of mental work to integrate his soul and body into the environment.

He first came to the "Mei Fen Hotel", and as he was familiar with the route, he went straight to the back door.

He has been supplying the magical tofu to the Mei-Fen Hotel for half a month and has become very familiar with the chefs in the kitchen, especially the head chef, Chef Liang, with whom he has a very close relationship.

Master Liang is a bachelor with no children. It is said that he is a good brother of the boss Wu Meifen's father. Not only is he respected by everyone in the kitchen, but even the boss's wife Wu Meifen is polite to him.

"coming."

Master Liang was sitting at the back door smoking his pipe. When he saw Yu Qiutang coming over, he grinned, revealing a mouthful of pale yellow teeth.

It is a small miracle that Master Liang still has such good teeth at his age. Generally, at this stage, the teeth of an elderly person will fall out, at least most of them.

Yu Qiutang put down the carrying pole, and someone came out to carry the tofu in. He squatted at the door and chatted with Master Liang.

After walking for a while, take a rest here.

"What's in the bag?" Master Liang noticed the bag hanging outside the basket, and something was moving inside.

"Caught some badgers."

"Badger or badger?"

"Badger."

Upon hearing this, Master Liang's eyes lit up, he knocked the smoke out of the pipe on the leg of the bench, squatted down, untied the bag, looked inside, nodded and said, "Really, it looks like he's just grown up, not too old yet."

"About a year or so."

Master Liang tied the bag back together, sat back on the stool, and slowly refilled the pipe with tobacco leaves. Yu Qiutang watched his movements and suddenly thought of his grandfather, who did the same thing back then.

When he was a child, Yu Qiutang liked to sit on his grandfather's lap and smell the smell of the pipe.

My grandfather was a very gentle man who also understood culture, so the names of the Yu family for several generations were all very meaningful.

My father’s life has been represented by gold, wood, water, fire and earth, which represent the five elements.

In their generation, men are "autumn" and women are "spring". According to my grandfather, men should be like autumn, mature, stable, responsible and heavy.

Women should be as warm as spring, bringing vitality to the family. If men are like spring, they seem frivolous and not steady enough. If women are like autumn, they seem a little old and the family atmosphere is not peaceful enough.

Unfortunately, my grandfather was a good man but he didn’t live long. He died early due to liver cancer.

Thinking of his grandfather, he thought of his grandmother. Since Yu Qiushan said that his grandmother wanted to come back to live, it was basically a done deal. Most people could not disobey the decision made by the old lady.

Very stubborn.

Even if you tie up ten oxen, they may not be able to pull it back.

"You are quite capable. You were able to get so many live badgers. This guy is on guard."

Master Liang lit his pipe again, took a deep puff, and exhaled a long puff of thick smoke.

Yu Qiutang believed that people who could smoke pipes were all gods. When he was a child, he tried to secretly smoke his grandfather's pipe and almost was reborn immediately.

The smell was stronger than decades-old liquor, and it almost made his head pop.

Later, he started smoking too, but he never used a pipe because the trauma of his childhood could not be shaken off. A friend gave him a very good pipe, but he just put it in a drawer as a collection.

"It's just a matter of luck. Who would spend time and effort to catch this thing? You can't get much meat from it, and you can't sell it for much money." Yu Qiutang said with a smile.

I don't know why, but every day when he comes to deliver things, he is willing to squat here and chat with Master Liang. Most of the time, the two of them just talk about family matters and don't talk about anything truly meaningful and valuable.

"Well, it's a good thing to have this ability. We are at the foot of the mountain. The mountain is supposed to be full of treasures, but more and more people don't have the ability to make a living from the mountains. Look at how hard their lives are. It's actually because they don't have strong abilities."

Yu Qiutang smiled but did not comment.

"Oh, if you have the ability, you can talk to Meifen. I heard her say the other day that she wanted to cook some wild game in the store. If you can provide something, it can be a source of income."

Yu Qiutang nodded and said, "Okay, I'll ask some other day."

"Go get busy. You are young, just like the sun that has just risen. Don't waste your good time. Don't be like me, an old man. When I am old, I find that I have accomplished nothing and it is too late to do what I want to do."

Having said that, Master Liang stood up and walked inside.

Yu Qiutang heard his long sigh.

I thought, this old man is also a man with a story. Perhaps only people like him who have experienced the vicissitudes of life can feel the complexity in Master Liang's sigh. Yu Qiutang left Meifen Hotel and went to the wild animal market with a bag.

He bypassed some vendors who came to him to ask for prices and went straight to Old Man Qin and placed the things at his feet.

"What baby?"

Old Man Qin was much more enthusiastic towards Yu Qiutang after their last interaction. He subconsciously took out a Hongtashan cigarette and lit it, but then he remembered that Yu Qiutang didn't smoke, so he put it back and casually stuffed the cigarette box into his pocket.

"Open it and take a look. What's the price?"

Yu Qiutang motioned for him to look for himself.

The few people who were chatting with Lao Qin were also dealers. Upon hearing what he said, they all leaned over and watched him open the bag. They immediately pinched their noses, but there was interest in their eyes.

Old Qin was naturally also surprised.

"Is it a wild animal... or is it alive?!"

"猹" is another name for the badger. People in the south usually like to call it that. Lao Qintou has traveled all over the country, so he brought names from other places with him.

"They are all, they look like a litter. Oh, this one isn't, this one should be an old female, the others look like they are less than two years old."

Old Qin is indeed experienced.

Yu Qiutang remembered that Master Liang had said something similar at that time. Could it be that Master Liang was also a hunter before?

Probably.

From the first moment he saw Master Liang, he felt that the old man had a kind of aura that he wanted to get close to.

Maybe it’s the feeling of walking in the mountains together.

Old Qin looked at the four badgers one by one, tied the bag again, and stood up with a smile on his face.

"Brother Yu, what do you think of this thing?"

Yu Qiutang was not polite and said directly: "Brother Qin, given our relationship, it would be awkward to bargain. Everyone is watching here. Just give me a real price. If it's okay, I'll give it to you. If not, let others see it. What do you think?"

Old Qin grinned and said, "Boy, since you've said that, what else can I say? How about this? I'll give you 20 for each one, and 80 for all four?"

Yu Qiutang said: "Take the 100, I will only say it once."

Old Qin saw Yu Qiutang's decisiveness, and after a slight calculation, he patted Yu Qiutang's arm and said, "Okay, we have a good relationship as brothers, so it's easy to talk. 100 is 100."

Yu Qiutang also considered this price and felt it was about right.

He couldn't guarantee that another buyer would be able to offer a price higher than this, and it would take a lot of time. The advantage of finding Lao Qintou was that he could sell it directly, which was simple and quick.

He watched Old Qin carry the things onto his bicycle and tie them up. Next to the bicycle stood a teenage girl with a dirty face and a pair of dark eyes that kept rolling around.

"My granddaughter is called Mantou, Mantou, and she calls me uncle~"

Old Qin said casually.

The girl stared at Yu Qiutang curiously, squinted her eyes, and called him "Uncle".

Yu Qiutang felt that at his current age, it would be great for a little girl to call him brother, but it would be inappropriate to call him uncle.

Besides, he and Old Qin are brothers, and now his granddaughter calls him uncle. The generation structure is so confusing.

He didn't think about why Old Qin was doing business with a granddaughter. Their relationship was not close enough to ask about such things.

After collecting the money, he was about to leave when Lao Qin stopped him and said, "Brother Yu, I think you are quite capable. Do you want to take this job?"

"What?"

"I know an old customer, an old Chinese doctor, who recently told me that he wanted to see if I could find someone to get him some Coriolus versicolor, and he wanted it for a high price."

"Mulberry yellow..."

Yu Qiutang repeated the sentence, often walking in the mountains, he knew about all kinds of precious and not precious Chinese medicines, Coriolus versicolor was one of the precious ones.

It is quite complicated to talk about Coriolus versicolor. Originally, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners believed that Coriolus versicolor was a kind of fungus that grew on trees and its shape was a bit like the Oyster mushroom.

Its main uses are related to promoting blood circulation, and it is also effective in treating dysentery. Research in recent years has found that it may also have miraculous effects on certain blood diseases.

However, as the number of wild mulberry trees decreased in later generations, Coriolus versicolor gradually became artificially cultivated varieties. The effectiveness of artificial varieties is naturally not as good as that of wild varieties. Just like Ganoderma lucidum and ginseng, once they are artificially cultivated, their effectiveness is far less than before.

What's more, some experts believe that Coriolus versicolor is not a separate category, but a combination of a series of similar fungi. Based on this theory, they also cultivated new varieties on poplar trees, called "Poplar versicolor".

However, the prices of both artificially cultivated Coriolus polyphylla and Populus polyphylla cannot be compared with those of early Coriolus polyphylla.

In the 80s, the price of a pound of wild Coriolus versicolor was two to three hundred yuan. In the 90s, when the price was the highest, it rose to more than 2000 yuan per pound, making it one of the most valuable raw materials for traditional Chinese medicine.

But the main reason why Coriolus versicolor is so expensive is because it is not easy to find.

The living conditions of Coriolus versicolor are relatively harsh. Mulberry trees generally live in relatively cool places, but Coriolus versicolor can only develop in sunny places. However, once it grows, it likes a mild environment and cannot be exposed to direct sunlight, otherwise it will dry up.

Under such circumstances, there are not many Coriolus versicolor that can grow to maturity. The key is that there are many rodents, weasels and even some birds in the mountains and forests that like to eat it, which makes the maturity of Coriolus versicolor even more difficult.

Of course, in addition to the above reasons, another crucial factor is that Coriolus versicolor generally lives in the Qinling Mountains at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, unlike the Northeast, where it exists in an environment with lower altitudes.

This is mainly because the climate in Qinling Mountains is warmer. Unless it reaches a certain altitude, the conditions for Coriolus versicolor to survive are not met.

Most people would not go up to this altitude, not only because it is physically demanding and the conditions are harsh, but the most important thing is that there are many dangers on the mountain, and all kinds of ferocious beasts generally gather at high altitudes.

Without the necessary skills, let alone getting Coriolus fungus, you might even become fertilizer for the forest.

So, in general, Coriolus versicolor is like ginseng. If you come across it occasionally, you can make a small fortune, but if you want to pick it just for the sake of picking, you need a professional, otherwise you won’t be able to get it.

"I'm afraid it won't be easy." Yu Qiutang sighed, thinking that he had no equipment now. It would be ok to make some trouble near the foot of the mountain, but running to the middle of the mountain would not be cost-effective.

"It's great that I can find you. I think you are quite capable. Why don't you give it a try? I won't charge you the middle price. I will directly introduce you to my brothers. It's considered as doing you a favor."

"It's really hard to do," Yu Qiutang smiled bitterly. "To pick Coriolus versicolor, you need to go to the middle of the mountain. I recently saw jackals and wild boars on the mountainside. There must be wolves or leopards in the middle of the mountain. It's too dangerous."

"It's a bit dangerous, but once you get one or two kilograms, it will be several hundred yuan. My buddy said he would give you 250 yuan per kilogram..." As he said that, Lao Qin suddenly felt that this number was not good, and smiled and said, "I'll make the decision for you. As long as you can get it, 260 yuan per kilogram."

Two hundred and sixty.

Yu Qiutang was moved.

He quickly did the math in his head and realized that if he could get rid of four or five kilograms, that would be more than a thousand yuan, which could immediately solve his current big problem.

As for the places where Coriolus versicolor appeared, he knew a few of them.

After all, few people are more familiar with this mountain than him. Others may need to search for a long time, looking among thousands of mulberry trees, but because of his experience, he can directly find the area where it has appeared.

As long as he can solve the danger of wild beasts, he is confident that he can get Coriolus versicolor back.

"Well, think about it. I'm not able to do it now. If I were as young, energetic and vibrant as you, I would do it myself. There would be no chance for you to take the turn."

Lao Qin continued to persuade and persuade.

Yu Qiutang thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "Old Qin, can you sell me that gun?"

Old Qin subconsciously shook his head and took two steps back, as if he was worried that Yu Qiutang would just snatch something away. In fact, the gun was not on him at all.

"Okay, Brother Yu, I'll introduce you to some business, but you're talking about my old brother."

(End of this chapter)