When Xia Huai'an returned to the Xia household, the villagers had already dispersed. Yufang had prepared food: wild vegetable cakes and a noodle dough-drop soup.
The three of them had not yet eaten; they were waiting for Xia Huai'an.
Xia Huai'an finished a bowl of soup and two vegetable cakes, then set to work preparing to cultivate straw mushrooms. Straw mushrooms were the fastest-growing edible fungi, and cultivating them artificially was not overly complex. However, they thrived in humidity and warmth; they grew best at around 32 degrees Celsius, and growth slowed or even stalled below 10 degrees.
It was early spring, and nighttime temperatures often dropped below 10 degrees. To cultivate the mushrooms, he first needed to build a greenhouse.
Xia Huai'an inspected the rooms of the Xia house and found that the west room had a heated brick bed (kang). He learned that it had been built by Xia Ping'an specifically for Mother Xia two years prior, as an act of filial piety. It was still functional, and they had fired it up a few times during the coldest stretches of the previous winter. Now that it was spring and the weather was milder, they hadn't used the kang for over a month to save on firewood.
"The west room has a kang," Xia Huai'an said. "With a little arrangement, it can serve as a greenhouse. Why don't Mother and Yufang sleep in the main room? Xiaomao and I can squeeze into the east room."
Xiaomao said excitedly, "Great! I'll sleep with Big Brother. You can tell me stories and teach me to read. If I can read, I won't be afraid of that scabby-headed man tricking me with fake IOUs again!"
Mother Xia shook her head repeatedly. "Absolutely not! What use is it for a girl to learn to read? The main room must be for you, Damao. How can the head of the household sleep in a side room? Tell you what—let Xiaomao take care of me, and you and Yufang can sleep in the main room."
Yufang’s face flushed as she prepared to feign a refusal, but she heard Xia Huai'an say, "That works, too."
Yufang’s heart began to pound wildly, and she let out a violent cough.
"What’s wrong, sister-in-law?" Xiaomao asked.
"Nothing, I just choked on my own spit," Yufang said, keeping her head down, not daring to look at Xia Huai'an.
Xia Huai'an was not concerned with such matters; his mind was entirely occupied with his plan to cultivate the straw mushrooms. The best substrate for straw mushrooms was material rich in cellulose, such as cottonseed. If that wasn't available, dried hay or sawdust could serve as substitutes.
"Mother, sit in the main hall and rest; we’ll help you clear the things out of the west room," Xia Huai'an said.
"Xiaomao, go boil a large pot of water, put the steamer on, and get ready to steam the hay."
"Yufang, take some split firewood and trade it with the villagers for some dry rice straw. Then, take these two silver coins and go to the village head again. Buy ten or so bamboo poles and some bamboo trays—the bigger and more numerous, the better. If the money isn't enough, ask to pay on credit and tell them I said I’d be able to settle it in half a month."
Xia Huai'an assigned tasks within their capabilities to each of them. Yufang readily agreed; it felt wonderful to have a backbone in the house, and it was good to have a purpose. Before Xia Huai'an had arrived, she had spent every day busy with chores, yet she had felt truly lost, seeing life only as an increasingly difficult struggle with no hope of survival.
Xia Huai'an used a dagger as a machete to chop oak branches into small pieces and cut the dry hay into segments. He scraped some lime from the outer wall, mixed it with the wood chips and hay, and steamed them in a basket for an hour. This served both to sterilize the substrate and to soften the raw materials.
The family busied themselves for the better part of the day, and eventually, things began to take shape. The west room was mostly cleared, save for one bamboo bed placed as far from the kang as possible. Inside the room, bamboo poles were used to construct a tiered shelving unit over the kang, with about 30 centimeters of space between each level. A dozen or so bamboo trays were laid flat across these tiers—some shelves held two or three, others four or five, depending on the size of the trays. Each tray was spread evenly with the steamed substrate.
Xia Huai'an carefully inoculated each clump of substrate with the spawn. The total surface area of all the trays came to about 15 square meters. Straw mushrooms were high-yield and fast-growing; from inoculation to maturity, it took about ten days to half a month, with a yield of over ten catties per square meter. Xia Huai'an calculated that if things went smoothly, in ten days he would be able to harvest about ten catties of mushrooms every single day.
However, this required a constant fire and the frequent addition of substrate. Firewood was going to be an issue.
"Big Brother, take a rest. Tomorrow I will go with you to chop wood," Yufang offered.
"Good!" Xia Huai'an nodded. "I’ll sleep in the west room tonight. It’s warm here, and I need to watch the kang, monitor the fuel consumption, and add water from time to time."
He needed to keep the temperature above the kang at around 30 degrees to ensure the fastest and best growth. He didn't have a thermometer, so he had to rely on his sense of touch. Fortunately, straw mushrooms weren't that delicate; a slight temperature difference wouldn't kill them, only affect the growth rate.
"Understood," Yufang said, lowering her head. *No wonder he so readily agreed to let me sleep in the main room,* she thought. *It turns out he planned to sleep in the west room by himself.*
Yufang felt a slight tinge of disappointment, but she wasn't truly upset. Things were already starting to feel like a real family, and she believed that Xia Huai'an would eventually accept her.
After a day of work, Xia Huai'an was hungry and asked Yufang to prepare some food. Xiaomao quickly piped up, "Sister-in-law, I'm hungry too."
Mother Xia scolded her, "You little glutton, why do you need to eat so much? Look at these times—it's a blessing just to have one meal a day!"
Xiaomao felt wronged but didn't dare argue back.
Xia Huai'an laughed. "Let everyone eat a little. Once we’ve grown the straw mushrooms, food won't be a problem anymore—we can even have three meals a day! For these next few days, we'll just have to ask the village head for some help, and we can pay him back double later."
"Absolutely not!" Mother Xia interjected. "A young girl with a spoiled appetite won't be able to endure hardship. If she marries into a family and hits a rough patch, how will she cope?"
Xiaomao pouted. "Then I won't get married! Big Brother, will you support me?"
Xia Huai'an burst into laughter and patted her head. "Fine! If you don't marry, you don't marry! Big Brother will look after you for the rest of your life!"
As they were talking, someone shouted from outside: "Big Brother Damao, my fifth brother has woken up. Father asked me to invite you over to take a look."
"It's Zhongping. You all go ahead and eat, don't wait for me," Xia Huai'an said, recognizing the voice. He gave instructions to Yufang and walked out the door, setting off toward the village with Zha Zhongping.
When they arrived at Laowu's house, Xia Huai'an found that not only was the village head there, but many of the other Zha brothers were present as well. It was said that the Zha family's ancestors were generals who had performed meritorious service, only to be disgraced and exiled here by a villain. While they had no noble titles or official positions, they held the blessing of having three generations of descendants exempt from corvée labor. Consequently, the men of the Zha family had not been conscripted into the army and remained in the village, with the exception of those studying in the county or out trying to make their way in the world. Naturally, the Zha family was the most prominent clan in Zushang Village.
They had assumed Laowu, Zhonggao, was not going to make it, so they had gathered today to bid him a final farewell and discuss funeral arrangements. They hadn't expected that a single dose of medicine from Xia Huai'an would bring him back from the brink of death. Not only was he awake, but his fever had broken, his spirit had returned, and he was even able to sit up and eat.
The Zha family greeted Xia Huai'an warmly, and the village head introduced him to everyone.
"Damao, I never imagined you had such formidable medical skills!" Zha Zhonghe, the third brother of the Zha family, clapped Xia Huai'an heavily on the shoulder. "From now on, the affairs of the Xia family are the affairs of the Zha family. If you have any trouble, don't hesitate to speak up!"
As he spoke, he took out two small silver ingots and pressed them into Xia Huai'an's hand. "My family has just been raided by bandits, so these are difficult times. This is only two taels of silver; please don't be offended, Damao. Once things are better, we will pay you more for today's consultation."
Xia Huai'an did not stand on ceremony. He accepted the silver and said, "Forget the consultation fee. As neighbors, it was just a small favor, and I shouldn't charge for it. However, the medicine itself is a rare treasure; a little used is a little lost. If it weren't for the fact that Fifth Brother’s life was at stake, I would never have brought it out."
Zhonghe asked, "I was just about to ask about that medicine. How could something so miraculous exist? It wasn't a brewed decoction, just some granules, yet the effect was astonishingly good!"
Xia Huai'an explained that he had once encountered a traveling divine doctor. Through a stroke of fate, he had been able to do the man a great favor, and in return, the doctor had taught him some simple medicine and gifted him those pills. As for how the pills were made, Xia Huai'an had no idea, so each one used was one less in his possession—worth more than a thousand pieces of gold!
"By the way," Xia Huai'an said, shifting the topic. "Third Brother, you mentioned the bandits earlier—has there been any progress?"
"What do you mean, Damao?" Zhonghe's expression shifted slightly.
Xia Huai'an voiced his suspicions. "Surely you have realized, Third Brother, the timing of these bandits' appearance was far too suspicious! Why did they only raid our village and not the neighboring ones? Especially regarding the Zha family—you have plenty of able-bodied men and are very united. If you had been prepared, the bandits wouldn't have gotten away with it so easily!"
"Yet, the bandits chose exactly the time when the Zha men were out drinking to raid the village. I suspect there was an informant inside providing them with information!"
Zhonghe nodded. "You are right. I am investigating the matter of a traitor carefully. Do you have any clues, Damao?"
Xia Huai'an shook his head. "No clues. However, keep an eye on which households in the village or the neighboring ones suddenly start living well or eating and drinking lavishly after the raid. That might just have something to do with it!"