Selling Mushrooms

Lily Evans glared angrily at Lucky, grabbed his hand, and hurried away.

At the entrance of Clearwater Village, a group of villagers gathered around the ox cart, all preparing to head to town.

When the villagers saw Lily Evans and Lucky approaching, they all greeted them with friendly smiles.

Lucky placed the bag of mushrooms onto the ox cart. A curious villager asked, "Lily, what are you taking to sell?"

Lily tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, not intending to reveal the mushroom business to avoid unnecessary trouble. She simply smiled and said, "Nothing special, just some coarse grains. We're hoping to trade for a bit of salt."

Soon, Helen Parker arrived with a burlap sack on her back, also planning to sell mushrooms in town.

Helen Parker sat down on the cart, clutching her sack. Mr. Carter, the cart driver, tapped his pipe and asked, "Helen, what's in your arms that's so precious?"

"Good stuff, it'll fetch a nice bit of silver!" Helen hugged the sack tightly, thinking to herself that these mushrooms were worth more than meat and couldn't be carelessly handled.

"Tsk, what good stuff could your family possibly have?" Mr. Carter clearly didn't believe her.

Just a few days ago, the Evans family nearly sold Lily Evans for fifty taels of silver. How could they possibly have a whole sack of valuable goods now?

"What do you know? Just drive your cart!" Helen Parker snapped at Mr. Carter.

Mr. Carter didn't bother arguing with the shrew. Seeing the cart was full, he drove everyone toward the city.

After a bumpy hour's ride, they arrived in town and got off the ox cart. Lucky asked, "Wife, where should we sell the mushrooms?"

Lily thought for a moment and replied, "Let's go to Xiangmanlou."

Xiangmanlou was the most upscale restaurant in town.

Helen Parker tailed Lily Evans and her husband, carrying her own sack all the way to Xiangmanlou. She wondered why that silly girl wasn't going to the market but instead headed to a restaurant.

Lily was so poor, she couldn't even afford a cup of tea at Xiangmanlou!

Lily entered the main hall, but the waiter took one look at the two shabby country folk and couldn't be bothered to greet them.

Lily walked up to the counter, smiled politely at the waiter, and said, "Excuse me, we're here to sell goods. May we see the manager? Could you please let him know?"

The waiter looked up and saw Lily's warm smile. Despite her plain clothes, she carried herself with remarkable poise. Then he glanced at the man beside her—he was surprisingly handsome.