Chapter 210 – Delicious Coral Mushroom
Ms. Zhong, seeing her pale face, hurried over and took her hand, “Why is your face so pale? Is your stomach ache getting worse?”
Yan Xiaosi’s paleness was due to the prolonged cultivation, and she would be fine after resting for a bit. “Mom, I just ate too much. I feel a bit weak after going to the bathroom a few times. I’ll be okay after lying down in the cave for a bit.”
Ms. Zhong, feeling her hand neither hot nor cold and doing the same with her forehead, was reassured. “Hurry back to the cave. We’ll eat something easy to digest tonight. Oh, today your sisters and I picked a lot of coral mushrooms, perfect for making soup for you.”
Hearing the words “coral mushrooms,” Yan Xiaosi’s eyes lit up. Coral mushrooms are a precious and nutritionally rich type of mushroom, similar to bamboo fungus in terms of price. In 21st-century star-rated hotels, a dish made with coral mushrooms could cost hundreds or even thousands of RMB. Spicy stir-fried coral mushrooms are especially delicious.
Yan Xiaosi licked her lips, looking eagerly at Ms. Zhong, “Mom, coral mushrooms are rare. Since we’ve come across them, can we make a spicy stir-fry? It should be delicious.”
Before Ms. Zhong could respond, Yan Shuqin, who had appeared beside her, smacked her on the head. “You were just complaining about a stomach ache at noon, and now you want to eat spicy stir-fried coral mushrooms.”
“Mom, don’t listen to her. Just make the coral mushroom soup tonight.”
Yan Xiaosi, rubbing her head, looked pleadingly at her second and third sisters, who both shook their heads helplessly.
Yan Shuxue said, “Xiaosi, just calm down a bit.”
Yan Shuyun added, “Xiaosi, coral mushroom soup should be quite delicious and very savory.”
Yan Xiaosi pouted, wishing she could tell Ms. Zhong that she had pretended to have a stomach ache at noon.
Seeing her sulking, Ms. Zhong smiled indulgently, “You’re the only one among your sisters with such a greedy mouth. Don’t be upset. I’ll chop up some lean meat, mix it with some flour to make meatballs, and cook them with the coral mushrooms. It won’t taste any less delicious than the spicy stir-fry.”
Coral mushroom meatball soup sounded incredibly delicious to Yan Xiaosi. “Thank you, mom.”
With that, she accompanied Ms. Zhong back into the cave, asking along the way, “Mom, do you remember where you picked the coral mushrooms today?”
Ms. Zhong replied, “I remember, but we’ve already picked all the coral mushrooms. Xiaosi, why do you ask?”
The coral mushrooms might have been picked clean, but the soil in that area should still contain spores. Mushrooms, being fungi, reproduce through spores rather than seeds. By taking some soil with spores to her Portable Space, where the temperature, humidity, and light are better than in the outside world, she might be able to continuously cultivate coral mushrooms. Just thinking about it seemed like a lucrative opportunity.
“That place produced coral mushrooms this year, so it should again next year. We need to mark the spot with a wooden stake to avoid forgetting it over time.”
Ms. Zhong and the Yan sisters all agreed that this was a sensible suggestion. Yan Shuxue nodded and laughed, “When it comes to food, our Xiaosi is always so diligent.”
Indeed, Yan Shuxue hit the nail on the head with that remark.
Yan Xiaosi, a bona fide foodie in her previous life, found her cravings even more intense in this life due to malnutrition and physical frailty. She chuckled, continuing Yan Shuxue’s remark. “As the saying goes, humans are iron, and food is steel; skip a meal, and hunger feels real. Of course, I have to think about delicious food.”
Yan Shuqin couldn’t help but laugh at her words. “Greedy is what you are. There’s no need for such elaborate excuses.”
Once inside the cave, Ms. Zhong washed her hands, ready to start cooking. Coral mushrooms are somewhat difficult to clean, so she asked Yan Shuqin and Yan Shuxue to wash them in the mountain stream outside, while Yan Shuyun helped with the fire.
Having practiced in her Portable Space for over an hour, Yan Xiaosi felt somewhat tired. Since she couldn’t be of much help with cooking, she decided to just lie down and sleep.
She wasn’t sure how long she slept, but the aroma of food eventually woke her up. Not only had Ms. Zhong made coral mushroom meatball soup, but she also prepared radish strip noodles, both of which were Yan Xiaosi’s favorites.
Without waiting for Yan Shuqin to call her for dinner, Yan Xiaosi quickly got up from the bed and, like a greedy cat, went to the stone table to watch Ms. Zhong set up the bowls and chopsticks. “Only Mom understands me, knowing I like radish strip noodles.”
After spending the afternoon practicing in her Portable Space, she felt quite drained and now, looking at the savory noodle soup, felt she could eat an entire bowl. However, Ms. Zhong only served her half a bowl, handing it to her. “Eat up, and then have some coral mushroom meatball soup.”
Yan Xiaosi held the half bowl of noodles and sulked, “Mom, why only half a bowl?”
Ms. Zhong responded without much patience, “You overate this morning and had a stomach ache. Now that it’s gone, you’ve forgotten about it.”
Worried Yan Xiaosi might overeat again, Ms. Zhong served herself a large bowl and divided the remaining noodles among Yan Shuqin and her sisters. Normally, the sisters would have looked out for her when it came to food, but after her complaint of overeating at noon, they ignored her pouting now.
Reluctantly, Yan Xiaosi finished her half bowl of noodles and then drank half a bowl of soup, barely filling her stomach.
In the middle of the night, her stomach growled loudly. Touching her hungry belly and seeing nothing but darkness around her, she sighed helplessly. There was no leftover food or noodles in the pot, and it was too dark to find food anywhere.
But with her stomach growling fiercely, she bit her lip in annoyance. In the future, she would pretend to have a leg or arm ache, or even a buttock ache, but she would never pretend to have a stomachache again. The consequence of pretending to have a stomachache was her mother not feeding her enough, leaving her hungry in the middle of the night.
Thinking it was still long until dawn and feeling too hungry to wait, she focused and entered her Portable Space, remembering that the water from the spiritual spring could fill her stomach. After drinking a few sips of water from the spring, the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach vanished.
Feeling better, she returned to the cave to continue sleeping. She woke up at dawn, earlier than usual, while Ms. Zhong and Yan Shuqin were still asleep.
Usually, she was the last to wake up. Hearing her getting dressed, Yan Shuqin opened her sleepy eyes, smiled, and asked, “Xiaosi, why are you up so early today?”
Seeing Ms. Zhong also getting dressed, Yan Xiaosi, smacking her lips, said with a pained expression, “Mom, I’m hungry. Let’s get up and make breakfast. We should make wild mushroom double-cooked pork and cook some rice this morning.”
