The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man-Chapter 173 - 172: Paying Wages

Seeing that the two of them genuinely didn’t want the mushrooms, Gu Jiaojiao didn’t insist.

These lion’s mane mushrooms weren’t very tasty on their own and needed to be prepared carefully.

They required other ingredients that an ordinary family wouldn’t have.

While they could be sold for money, getting caught would be a huge hassle these days, so Gu Jiaojiao didn’t mention it.

However, she didn’t want them to help for free, so she decided to give them each one yuan.

At that time, a worker at the textile factory only earned seventy cents a day.

The one yuan Gu Jiaojiao was offering was a significant amount of money.

Sweet Girl and Chen Erniu were stunned. When they came to their senses, they hurried to refuse.

"We can’t accept this," they said, one calling her "Sister" and the other, "Sister-in-law."

But Gu Jiaojiao insisted, "No, you have to take it. If you don’t, I won’t let you help me anymore."

The two had no choice but to agree.

But if they were going to take the money, they had to do a good job. Both of them started working much faster.

This single patch of lion’s mane mushrooms filled two whole burlap sacks.

Gu Jiaojiao was definitely not as fast as Sweet Girl and Chen Erniu. ’This one yuan is more than worth it,’ she thought.

After picking the lion’s mane mushrooms, Gu Jiaojiao looked for some other mountain goods.

There were pine nuts.

Hickory nuts and hazelnuts.

Daqing Mountain was a real treasure trove, full of all sorts of things and rich in resources.

Unfortunately, Gu Jiaojiao wasn’t skilled enough to climb trees, so she could only pick up the ones on the ground.

When it was about time, Gu Jiaojiao’s group went to find Leng Yuan and the others.

By then, Leng Yuan and his group had already filled all the burlap sacks; even Gu Jiaojiao’s back basket was stuffed full.

The group moved quickly, but even so, it was already past five o’clock by the time they started down the mountain. Halfway down, they could see smoke curling from the chimneys of every household in the Qingshan Team.

By the time the group got home, the sky had already grown dark.

Gu Jiaojiao looked at the cart full of goods, then turned to the others.

"Sweet Girl, Second Girl, if you’re free tomorrow, could you come help me again?"

Sweet Girl agreed without a second thought.

Chen Erniu also nodded.

Gu Jiaojiao gave each of them one yuan. Sweet Girl tried to refuse and slip away, but Gu Jiaojiao grabbed her by the arm.

"Sweet Girl, you have to take it. Otherwise, I won’t let you help me tomorrow."

Only after Gu Jiaojiao said this did Sweet Girl accept the money.

Holding so much money, Sweet Girl’s entire hand was trembling.

She hadn’t seen any money since her parents left.

Because she was young and didn’t earn enough work points, the Team had taken pity on the two of them and allocated her some coarse grains.

Sweet Girl had no other source of income. This was the first time she had touched money since her parents were gone.

Because she had no money, she rarely even ate salt.

Sometimes, when she felt weak from lack of energy, she would trade some of her coarse grains with others for a little salt and then eat it sparingly.

Now, looking at the one-yuan bill, Sweet Girl’s eyes couldn’t help but redden as she gazed at Gu Jiaojiao with a face full of gratitude.

After taking the money, Sweet Girl no longer tried to leave and instead stayed to help Gu Jiaojiao.

Chen Erniu did the same.

Although she wasn’t short on money, her healthy, sun-tanned face still showed excitement at having earned money for the first time.

As for Chen JianShe and Chen Sandan, it was simpler: she gave each of them a wild rabbit.

Leng Yuan kept two wild pheasants for himself.

Once the courtyard was tidied up, Chen JianShe and the others left.

Looking at the flatbed cart full of mountain goods, Gu Jiaojiao was so happy she wanted to roll around on top of it all.

’This stuff isn’t worth much now,’ she thought. ’People only eat it when they run out of grain; it’s just an everyday snack. But in the future, this stuff will be incredibly expensive.’

’Especially the wild hickory nuts.’

’They’ll be unbelievably expensive.’

Besides the mountain goods, Leng Yuan had also bought a lot of fine grains from others recently.

Some thrifty families would trade their allocated fine grains for coarse grains so they would have more food to eat.

When those people learned that Gu Jiaojiao was buying fine grains, they sold them directly to her.

However, it was all done secretly; no one sold them openly.

Even so, their family now had no worries about having enough fine grains to eat.