The night passed without incident, and Li Yi was up bright and early the next morning!
Since he had to not only set up his stall to sell liangpi but also go into town to sell mushrooms today, he had to get up early.
Given how booming business had been yesterday, Li Yi had made sure to prepare extra flour today.
With practiced ease, he kneaded over 30 pounds of flour, made more than 150 sheets of liangpi, packed the washed and chopped toppings, and once again set off for the county seat on his bright red mule.
Since mushrooms lose a lot of moisture once they’re exposed to the sun, Li Yi decided to sell them in the town center first before setting up his stall outside the sugar factory.
Instead of selling the mushrooms at the street market, Li Yi headed straight for the state-run restaurant in the center of the county town.
As far as Li Yi knew, in this era of scarcity, the vast majority of ordinary people still preferred slices of meat packed with fat; very few people liked to eat mushrooms.
If he sold these mushrooms at a street stall, he wouldn’t make much money at all.
But the state-run restaurant was a different story. It usually catered to officials or the wealthy, and these people considered wild mushrooms a rare delicacy.
In recent years, the state-run hotel had been making occasional trips to the countryside to buy mushrooms, and they paid quite well—at the highest, as much as 50 or 60 cents per pound. The only catch was that they didn’t buy mushrooms from just anyone.
So, Li Yi decided to try his luck at the guesthouse first—who knows, he might just become one of their mushroom suppliers!
The state-run restaurant was located on Xinglong Street, not far from the county government building—the busiest street in Qing Shan County.
Although it was only a little past ten in the morning, the street was already packed with people. It was hard to believe such a tiny county town could attract so many people.
Arriving at the State-Owned Restaurant, Li Yi tied his mule to the large poplar tree by the entrance and walked toward the restaurant.
As soon as he reached the entrance, he was stopped by a girl with two braids: “Comrade, who are you looking for?”
Li Yi hurriedly replied, “Hello, I’m from a nearby village. I heard your guesthouse is buying mushrooms, so I came to ask about it!”
“Buying mushrooms? I haven’t heard anything about that,” the girl said, furrowing her brow.
“It’s no big deal if you don’t know. You can ask your boss. If you really aren’t buying them, I’ll just take them somewhere else—it’s just a matter of a word, don’t you think?”
The young woman was kind-hearted. She looked at Li Yi, who was covered in dust from his long journey, hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.
She first asked Li Yi to wait at the front desk and poured him a cup of hot water before hurrying upstairs.
Soon, the girl returned with a middle-aged man wearing a Zhongshan suit.
Standing before Li Yi, the middle-aged man spoke directly: “Comrade, my name is Liu Jingshan. I’m the director of the state-run restaurant. I hear you’re here to sell mushrooms?”
“Yes, authentic wild pine mushrooms, and some trumpet mushrooms!” Li Yi replied.
“May I take a look at your goods?”
“Of course!”
With that, Li Yi led Director Liu over to his mule-drawn cart and lifted the straw mats covering two large wicker baskets.
Upon seeing the mushrooms in Li Yi’s baskets, Liu Jingshan was slightly surprised.
It wasn’t that Li Yi had a large quantity of mushrooms, but rather that the ones in his baskets had clearly been processed—every trace of dirt and debris had been removed from each mushroom, making them look incredibly appetizing.
Over the years, people had occasionally brought wild mushrooms to the restaurant to sell, but the mushrooms they brought were covered in dirt and weeds, looking filthy, and were a hassle for the kitchen staff to clean up.
“How much are you asking per pound?”
“How much are you willing to pay?” Li Yi asked in return.
Liu Jingshan thought for a moment and said, “Currently, the market price for fresh mushrooms is mostly between 40 and 50 cents per pound, with fluctuations not exceeding 5 cents. Your mushrooms look great—clearly handpicked. I’ll give you 70 cents per pound. What do you think?”
“That high!”
“I’d say these mushrooms have been processed. They’re all uniform in size, and all the dirt and impurities have been removed. You probably wouldn’t get even a pound of premium mushrooms from two pounds of raw ones, would you?”
Li Yi smiled and said, “You really have a keen eye for quality!”
“Let’s weigh them!”
With the help of several restaurant staff members, the two large baskets of mushrooms were weighed directly.