I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 139: Chapter 139: Come On, Everyone, Take a Look

The two continued their search, heading further up the mountain.

Along the way, they kept making new discoveries.

Before long, they entered a pine forest.

Pine forests were ideal places for many types of mushrooms to grow, so the two decided to search this one thoroughly.

After they were done, they could head back down the mountain.

The ground was covered in a layer of fallen pine needles, with some pinecones scattered about.

However, there were still very few pinecones at this time of year.

They would have to come back in the fall, when large numbers of pinecones would have dropped.

Ye Shengge picked up a pinecone and said, ”There’s a type of pine nut on the market called ’water-harvested pine nuts.’ They come from these cones, don’t they?”

”Hm?” Li You said, surprised. ”You know about water-harvested pine nuts?”

”Of course! Boss, you seem very surprised?” Ye Shengge said.

Li You said, ”It’s just that I didn’t think they were that famous. Most people only know about Northeastern pine nuts.”

Ye Shengge said, ”Water-harvested pine nuts aren’t as famous as the Northeastern ones, that’s true. But they’re not unknown, either; plenty of people know about them. Besides, they have their own advantages compared to the Northeastern variety and are by no means inferior.”

Li You nodded with a smile. ”Well said. And yes, water-harvested pine nuts do come from this type of cone. But they aren’t ripe yet.”

Ye Shengge nodded. ”What a pity. If they were ripe, we could have gathered some to take back with us.”

Li You said, ”Pine nuts aren’t easy to get. But if you just want to experience it, that’s fine. Come back in another two or three months. They’ll be ripe then.”

Ye Shengge nodded. ”Okay. Then we’ll come back then.”

”Sounds good!”

The two continued their careful search while talking about pine nuts.

A short while later, Ye Shengge let out a cry of disbelief, shouting, ”Boss, come quickly! Look at this!”

’Did she find something good?’

Li You ran over in a few steps. Following the direction she was pointing, he too felt a sense of disbelief.

A coral-shaped fungus was peeking out from beneath a cover of pine needles and dry grass.

It was a Dried Beef Mushroom.

”There are Dried Beef Mushrooms here? I always thought they only grew in Yunnan Province,” Ye Shengge said, incredulous.

Li You said, ”It’s true that Dried Beef Mushrooms mainly come from Yunnan Province. However, a small number can also be found here in Chuansheng Province. I just never expected to find them here. This is a real surprise.”

”This just proves how incredibly lucky we are today,” Ye Shengge added, overjoyed.

She then took out her phone and started taking a flurry of pictures and videos.

”Ingredient: Dried Beef Mushroom.

Quality: Medium.”

Although it was only of medium quality, just finding a Dried Beef Mushroom was a wonderful surprise.

Li You was also very happy. This was his first time finding a Dried Beef Mushroom in the wild.

This type of fungus was extremely rare, with a delicious flavor and rich nutritional value.

It also possessed a unique, exotic aroma that closely resembled cured beef jerky.

Its fruiting body is annual, caespitose, coral-shaped, with fan-shaped branching lobes.

It looked dry and shriveled.

Judging by its appearance alone, you would never guess it was such a delicious ingredient.

But in the world of fungi, you can’t judge many of them by their looks.

The Dried Beef Mushroom was definitely one of the most delicious fungi in existence.

Furthermore, because Dried Beef Mushrooms cannot be cultivated artificially, they can only grow in the wild.

Therefore, they were expensive.

A higher-quality specimen could sell for over a thousand yuan a pound.

A fungus like this was a rare find, something you couldn’t seek out but only stumble upon.

For Ye Shengge to have actually discovered one, her luck was truly extraordinary.

After she finished taking photos, Ye Shengge carefully pulled the Dried Beef Mushroom from the ground. Then she said, ”Let’s look around some more. Maybe there are others?”

Li You nodded.

’If there’s one here, there might be more.’

After another thorough search, they actually found three more.

The four of them together weighed over two pounds.

What an incredible surprise!

By now, it was already 11:00 AM, and the two decided to head back.

Today’s haul was a magnificent bounty.

「On the way back.」

Ye Shengge said excitedly, ”Boss, I never expected the wild mushroom resources on your mountain to be so rich. This haul is so much better than I anticipated.”

Li You said, ”The resources are indeed rich. But the main thing is that we were lucky. We won’t have a haul like this every time. If our luck is bad, it’s even possible to come back empty-handed.”

Ye Shengge nodded. ”You need both resources and luck.”

Li You said, ”That’s exactly right.”

...

When the two returned to the restaurant, it was already 12:00 PM.

A good number of customers were already waiting inside and outside the restaurant for lunch.

Of course, Li You already knew customers were waiting, thanks to feedback from Da Bai and Xiaohai.

But there was nothing to be done about it; the trip back took time, so they had no choice but to make the customers wait a little longer.

And from Da Bai and Xiaohai, the waiting customers also learned that Li You and Ye Shengge had gone into the mountains to look for mushrooms.

They were all quite envious of this.

It wasn’t that they were envious of Li You being able to go into the mountains to look for mushrooms.

They could go into the mountains to look for mushrooms whenever they wanted.

What they envied was that Li You got to take Ye Shengge with him.

With Ye Shengge’s looks and figure, which of the customers wasn’t completely charmed?

But all they could do was admire her from afar.

The Boss had all the luck with women.

The customers could only be envious.

”By the way, do you guys think the Boss and his companion found anything?” a customer asked.

”It rained last night. They definitely found something; it’s just a matter of how much.”

”They probably found a few termite mushrooms, and some chanterelles too. As for anything else, it’s hard to say.”

”Come on, let’s all make a guess. What do you think they brought back?”

”Alright! Let’s do it.”

”...”

The customers were all very interested in this.

Waiting around was boring anyway, so they might as well make some guesses for fun.

Just as they were guessing, they saw Li You and Ye Shengge returning in the distance.

Ye Shengge was as beautiful as ever, and her figure was just as stunning.

After sighing with admiration in their hearts, the customers all went up to greet them.

”Boss, how was the haul? What kind of mushrooms did you find?”

Seeing the customers all crowd around, Li You’s eyes lit up. This was the perfect chance to show off today’s haul.

The harvest was so good today. It would be a waste not to show it off and do justice to their luck.

So, he said with a broad smile, ”It was decent enough. Come, come, everyone, take a look.”

As he spoke, he opened up all the bags he and Ye Shengge were carrying for the customers to see.

Ye Shengge knew Li You wanted to show off, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

When the customers saw the contents of the bags, they were all slightly taken aback. ’There’s so much?’

This was way more than they had imagined!

’And he calls this ”decent enough”?’

’That guy, the Boss, has learned how to humblebrag!’

”That’s way too many chanterelles, isn’t it? I knew you’d probably find some, but I never expected this many. Boss, did you guys find a chanterelle patch or something?”

”There are a lot of termite mushrooms, too. And one of them is huge! You rarely see a termite mushroom that big!”

”And there are so many Green-head mushrooms, too. I didn’t expect that. Aren’t Green-head mushrooms pretty rare? I’ve never found one, anyway.”

”What’s this one? Holy crap! It looks like a Dried Beef Mushroom. Do we even have those around here? For real?”

”Damn! It really is a Dried Beef Mushroom. Boss, where did you find these?”

The Dried Beef Mushrooms left all the customers completely surprised, delighted, and excited.

”Dried Beef Mushrooms are found in small quantities here in Chuansheng Province, it’s true. But Chuansheng is huge, and to think they’d pop up right here... That’s awesome!”

”I wonder if anyone’s ever found Dried Beef Mushrooms here before? Not that I can remember. Don’t tell me the Boss is the first person to discover them in this area?”

Hearing the customer say this, Li You replied, ”To be precise, it was Miss Ye who found them first. But since Dried Beef Mushrooms grow in this area, someone has probably found them before; we just don’t know about it.”

The customers all nodded. That did make sense.

But even so, the fact that the Boss and Miss Ye had found Dried Beef Mushrooms now was still exciting enough.

The customers were all very excited.

...