Chapter 225

Lu Liu burst out laughing. “Of course that fence won’t hold. If a wild boar comes down the mountain, it’ll smash the whole yard to pieces!”

The thought amused him even more. “And if it runs into me, it’ll smash me to pieces too!”

Lu Yang flicked him on the forehead. “What’s so funny about being smashed to pieces?”

Lu Liu muttered, “I’m delicate.”

“Hm?” Lu Yang didn’t get it. “So what?”

Lu Liu said, “Da Feng could smash me to pieces too.”

Lu Yang couldn’t help but laugh. The two brothers joked their way up the mountain path, not daring to be too loud or the echoes would come back at them.

They squatted near the vegetable patch, looking at the tiny sprouts poking through the soil, talking about planting and fertile fields.

Lu Liu had tried it, and it was true. He earnestly told Lu Yang, “Brother, you have to take good care of your body. Only when your health is good can you carry a child. But the seed comes from your husband, so he needs to take good care of himself too. Good soil and good seed—that’s how you grow strong sprouts.”

Lu Yang was honestly stunned that his younger brother was lecturing him about such things. He heard him out, then teased him just to fluster him. “Wow, our Liu-ge really has experience now. You must’ve leveled up into a master chef.”

Lu Liu’s cheeks flushed. He whispered, “Brother, I’m not a master chef yet. And honestly…it’s miserable. I don’t even have anything to do at night anymore.”

He was too straightforward, and even Lu Yang felt his own face heat up.

Lu Yang told him, “Liu-ge, it’s fine to talk like this with me. But in the village, you can’t just say these things to anyone.”

People were nosy—smiling to your face, gossiping behind your back.

Lu Liu knew. These days he only chatted openly with Yao Fulang. Even around Miao Xiaohe and Chen Jiu, he rarely mentioned such topics. Everyone was married and had seen picture books; when the conversation drifted that way, he only talked about what was in the illustrations. His own thoughts or cravings—he’d never bring those up.

Lu Yang praised him for being sensible. Worried he’d strain his belly, he didn’t let him squat long. He helped him up, and they headed back home.

At home, Xie Yan had checked Li Feng’s hunting gear and wanted to compete in archery.

He’d learned horseback archery at the county academy, but after a few years without practice, he was rusty. They set up a target outside; he only hit it once.

Then he suggested pitch-pot.

That, he was good at. At home he usually wrote neatly, but back in private school, he used to crumple scrap paper into balls and toss them into the trash basket. With pitch-pot, once he adjusted to the weight, he was nearly perfect every time.

Li Feng got competitive.

Seeing the two having fun, Lu Liu pulled his brother inside, brewed him some sugar water, and took out his treasured rouge to let his brother try it.

Lu Yang wasn’t good with makeup. The two brothers timidly held the rouge case, and in the end only dabbed a touch onto each other’s pregnancy mark.

Since Lu Yang had to return to the county before the city gates closed, he prepared to leave as dusk fell.

Lu Liu hated to part with him and clung to him, unwilling to let go.

Lu Yang told him, “Take good care of yourself. Once Lin-ge and the others move to the county, I’ll have a few days free. I’ll come stay here and keep you company.”

Lu Liu agreed and asked what day—but there was no set date.

He remembered what they talked about at the dinner table and said, “This year we’ll save up silver. Next year we’ll open a shop in the county too, right next to yours. Then we can be together every day.”

Lu Yang humored him, asking, “What will your shop be called?”

Lu Liu already had a plan. His brother’s shop was called “Selling Food,” so his would be “Eat Till Full.”

Lu Yang laughed. “Perfect. Anyone can tell they’re sibling shops.”

No one knew whether the Li family mother and son would approve.

They parted today, hoping to reunite another day.

The feast at the Li household kept the village talking for days. Lu Yang and his husband had brought a cart overflowing with gifts—sugar, cloth—so dazzling that people were still discussing it long after. If you wanted to see which family could back you up, all you had to do was look at Lu Fulang’s side.

Lu Liu had been glowing with happiness. His pregnancy symptoms were strong, and he couldn’t keep up with frying sauces anymore, so he only did the chores he could manage, keeping his hands busy.

After feeding the chickens and rabbits and tending to Erhuang, he noticed the forage supply running low and went to chop more to store for the mule. When that was done, he checked on the little shop and arranged the long table facing the door. He laid out the new abacus, ledgers, and brush-and-ink set.

They couldn’t bear to actually use these new items yet, but just displaying them made the shop look proper—just like those small shops in the county!

With the four scholarly treasures in hand, Lu Liu studied even harder. Whenever he had a moment, he’d use a stick to write characters on the ground.

Not long after the feast, mid-March arrived—the “Wild Game Day” Lu Yang had mentioned.

Li Feng walked through the village to collect a batch of game to sell in the county, helping liven up the event.

When he arrived at the county, Xie Yan mysteriously handed him a reading booklet—really a “praise-your-husband” book.

It began: “I, my husband, my husband is good, my husband is very good, my husband is not good, my husband can do…”

Xie Yan told him to praise himself as he went, writing a whole string of phrases afterward.

There were repeated words and variations in sentence length. Even if a sentence was mixed up, it didn’t matter—he could use the earlier ones as reference and puzzle it out.

“If you can’t figure it out and say it wrong, that just means you don’t love your husband enough,” Xie Yan said.

Li Feng: “…”

No matter how hard it was to memorize, he learned it.

Since coming here wasn’t easy, he also wanted to learn some everyday words. He recited many of their hunting chants to Xie Yan and asked him to write them down. If he could say the chant, then once home he could read it, lining them up in order—his vocabulary would shoot up fast.

Xie Yan also made another list of common wild game with prices beside each.

Li Feng and Lu Liu could both read numbers, so they matched the prices to the names and practiced reading them. With more use, they’d soon be able to write them too.

Those materials kept them busy at night.

By lamplight, the two read together. When they couldn’t memorize anything, they took turns reading aloud until sleepiness washed over them. Honestly, studying was soothing—they slept straight till morning, refreshed.

The village was large. After their family started buying mountain goods, other households saw the profit. Some carried their goods to sell directly in the county; a few even put up signs to buy mountain goods themselves.

But since their house was at the base of the mountain, people naturally stopped by first on their way down. That geographic advantage kept business flowing to them.

And Lu Yang offered good prices—he never undercut them—so sellers preferred his rates.

Other families had to negotiate rates with county shops, usually buying for only three to five coins per catty, maybe up to five or six at best. The profits were low, and after a while, those families sighed and gave up.

So once again, everyone talked about Lu Yang—how he chased after his brother to feed him. With that kind of financial backing, even more people came to sell mountain goods.

Among the goods were the expensive mountain mushrooms Lu Yang wanted. Once most of the supply flowed in, Li Feng felt the timing was right. He and his mother carried gifts, sugar, and wine to visit the village chief and explained their mushroom-collecting plans.

It was an easy sell. The chief’s family beat the gong as they sent the kids around the village with a cart, announcing that anyone with premium mushrooms should send them to Li Feng’s house.

No need to spell out the whole strategy. If they said too much about controlling supply to raise prices, villagers might get wrong ideas and start trying to hoard for themselves.

Just telling them Li Feng offered good prices was enough.

After one round of announcements, their yard was too small for all the incoming goods.

Chen Guizhi had long said they should hire help. Now she didn’t even bother being picky. Chen Jiu’s aunt, who also lived at the foot of the mountain and helped with frying sauce—a low-margin job—was invited to help with collecting and drying mushrooms. This time she’d be paid by volume.

To encourage enthusiasm, Chen Guizhi set pay tiers: one rate for 300 catties, another for 500, another for 1,000. The more you worked, the more you earned.