The news was exhilarating. The whole room seemed to brighten. By the time Lu Yang finished pouring tea and looked up at the other three, he sighed, “So this is what ‘glowing with happiness’ really means.”
Lu Liu took the cup, holding it without drinking. Curious about the deal, he asked how it had been negotiated. “What price did you settle on? Are they coming to pick it up, or are we delivering? Which mushrooms do they want?”
Since he asked, Li Feng and Shun-ge both turned to listen.
Lu Yang explained everything in detail.
“The negotiations went very smoothly. We agreed to eat together—before all the dishes were even served, each of them had already said how much they wanted. Part of it was the God of Wealth’s favor, getting us the meeting in the first place. The other part was Ah Yan’s exam results; they wanted to get on good terms early. Based on our output, the five of them combined only want a little over a thousand jin. That’s actually quite low. Under normal sales, we’d move that much in at most two or three months. So there’ll definitely be follow-up business.”
Since he intended to do this trade, Lu Yang had learned quite a bit about wild mushrooms.
Around the Dragon Boat Festival, the rainy season arrived, and that was when wild mushrooms truly began their growth cycle. July, August, and September were the real peak harvest months, and more varieties would enter the market then.
In early spring, the selection was limited—there were some, but not enough to satisfy the range of goods he wanted.
In March, there were bamboo fungus, which were premium goods.
From winter into spring, there were black truffles—also premium.
On top of that, Li Feng’s side had been collecting mountain goods for a long time. The village head had spoken up, so many households brought out their stored goods to exchange for cash. They’d even received some mushrooms that weren’t yet in season, enough to meet the needs of this first batch.
On the way back, they’d run the numbers several times. This shipment would bring in one hundred thirty-eight taels and four qian in payment.
Goods shipped to the prefectural city were subject to customs tax at two percent, which came to a bit over two taels and seven qian.
After deducting customs and adding the commercial tax—one in thirty, or a bit over four taels and six qian—
The remaining costs were about sixty taels, leaving roughly seventy-one taels in profit.
With this deal secured, the two families needed to talk about partnering up.
Lu Yang couldn’t personally manage things too far afield. He bought goods from Li Village, then had Li Village people deliver them to the prefectural city and handle the delivery—it all felt wrong.
If the two families partnered, things would be much easier. Li Feng’s side would contribute manpower and labor. Lu Yang would make the connections and provide the network. Xie Yan would put in extra effort to keep this side stable. Then the profits would be divided.
Lu Yang didn’t like things vague or tangled, especially when it came to money. Everything had to be made clear before doing business. Once set, they shipped goods, collected payment, and settled accounts—no extra words needed.
Collecting mountain goods was tiring, especially for long-distance sales. Ideally, they’d ship dried mushrooms, which meant time spent on drying and processing.
Some dried mushrooms also needed to be sliced before drying—another step.
With such volume, there was no way their family alone could handle it all.
And going to the prefectural city clearly meant hiring people.
Lu Yang had calculated it out: taking thirty percent was enough for him.
All the miscellaneous expenses should take about twenty percent. That left just over fifty percent for his brother and Li Feng.
When Lu Liu heard that his share plus Li Feng’s was larger than his brother’s, he immediately sat up straight and looked at Li Feng.
“Da Feng, you calculate it.”
From the start, when they began supplying the shop, Lu Yang had never pressed prices down—especially for game and mushroom paste. He’d basically just charged a stall fee and built popularity.
If the mushroom business could grow this big, why was his brother taking so little?
Lu Yang climbed off the kang, fetched an abacus and paper, handed them to Li Feng to calculate at his leisure, then sat back down and explained to Lu Liu in more detail.
“Silly little brother, haven’t you heard a saying? Even close brothers should keep clear accounts. In this deal, me taking thirty percent is exactly right. You’re the ones collecting, sorting, drying, and processing—putting in the labor and manpower, and even hiring helpers. And for sales to the prefectural city, you’re the ones delivering. I broker the deal here and, relying on connections, take thirty percent—I think that’s just about fair. Any more, and it would hurt our brotherly feelings, and I wouldn’t feel right taking it. Any less, and maintaining these relationships would feel exhausting and not worth it. Thirty percent is perfect.”
Lu Liu also counted on his fingers. His mental arithmetic wasn’t great—once there were odd bits, he’d lose track. After a while, he arrived at a rough number. This deal made seventy-one taels; thirty percent was around twenty taels.
Twenty taels sounded like a lot, but compared to what they’d get, it really wasn’t that much.
He held onto his brother’s hand without speaking, quietly waiting for Li Feng to finish calculating.
After Li Feng finished, he wanted to give up another ten percent—make it a forty-sixty split.
Lu Yang smiled.
He was the kind of person who yielded to softness, not force. If someone cared for him, remembered him, and wanted what was best for him, he’d happily hand over money. But if it went the other way, he had to calculate carefully.
Seeing them willing to уступ, Lu Yang said again, “Are you going to stay in that little mountain village forever? What I told you last time—did you take it to heart?”
Lu Liu had taken it to heart. He’d already planned it out: this year definitely wouldn’t work.
They needed to save money, tend to the pregnancy, and wait until the end of the year. Once the child was born and they had money in hand, they could move around the New Year.
So Lu Yang asked, “When you move to the county, who’s going to collect goods in the village?”
Lu Liu had been learning a lot lately and thinking things through. He was quite practiced when it came to partnerships.
“Find people to partner with. Let them collect.”
As he spoke, his smile widened.
Not long ago, he and Da Feng had already talked about how to arrange things with their brothers.
San Miao and Wang Meng and the others hadn’t come down from the mountain yet. After the Dragon Boat Festival, they waited two more days, still didn’t see anyone, and decided to come to the county first to have a look.
They hadn’t expected things to fall into place so neatly. When the time came to host a feast, it would be even easier to talk things through.
One question led to another—Lu Yang prompted, Lu Liu answered, and Li Feng immediately understood.
Recalculating the profits, he saw that for this round, Lu Yang taking thirty percent really was the most reasonable.
His own seventy percent would still have to give up about thirty percent to others.
Thirty percent of the profit was roughly twenty taels. If he brought four brothers into the partnership, each family would only get five taels.
That was a bit more than being a hunter—unless you caught something big. Since it was a shared account, their families could also help collect mushrooms, saving manpower and making everyone work harder.
That made the split: Lu Yang thirty percent, the four brothers thirty percent, Lu Liu and Li Feng forty percent.
Once they moved to the county, the brothers back in the village would handle collecting. The supply would be stable.
Lu Yang painted them a rosy picture. “This is just the beginning. At our current volume, we can make two to three hundred taels a year.”
He’d take two hundred, his brother three hundred. The remaining few would get about fifty each—more than hunting was fine.
Plus, mushrooms had off-seasons. This group could keep hunting too, making around seventy taels a year in total.
Hearing those numbers, Lu Liu finally felt it was right. The best thing was that his brother could make money!
He thought of a saying and said with a grin, “When one person ascends, even the chickens and dogs rise with him.”
Lu Yang thought about it, then said to Li Feng, “Hear that? He’s talking about you.”
Li Feng made money and brought his brothers along to make money too—chickens and dogs rising together.
Who knew Lu Liu would lean in, rubbing against him affectionately, smiling as he said, “Brother, I wasn’t talking about Da Feng. I meant you. You’re capable—you make money, and Da Feng and I get rich too.”
He was the little chick; Da Feng was the big dog. That counted as chickens and dogs too.
Lu Yang froze for a moment, then scolded him lightly. “Who talks about themselves like that?”
Lu Liu didn’t think it was insulting at all. Chickens were good—alive they laid eggs, dead they made soup. You could eat them and sell them. Dogs were good too, like their Er Huang. And his dog-daughter-in-law, San Liang.
Changing the subject, he said to Lu Yang, “Brother, San Liang had puppies. Da Feng says they’ll raise them a bit longer and send one to you in June. All the female dogs will stay in the village; there’s only one male left, so there’s no choice. But he’s very clingy and pretty cute. No idea if he’ll grow up fierce or not.”
Lu Yang said, “Then name him ‘Fierce.’ That way he’ll grow up fierce.”
Lu Liu froze. “Huh? Then what’s his surname?”
Lu Yang: “…”
A dog son—of course he takes Xie Yan’s surname.
