Chapter 190

“What? You want to set up a tea tree mushroom cultivation cooperative here in Shenwu Ridge?” Wu Qionghua could hardly believe her ears when she heard what Wei Sheng had just said.

What shocked her even more was that Wei Sheng actually wanted her to take the lead and serve as the local head of the cooperative in Shenwu Ridge.

“This… how about letting Wei Ping be the vice president instead? I’m not cut out for this. I didn’t go to school, I don’t have any education,” Wu Qionghua said, waving her hands repeatedly.

To her surprise, Wei Sheng reassured her, “Don’t worry, this position is perfect for someone without much education. The less schooling, the better!”

Wu Qionghua: ???

It’s not about being new, it’s about being effective!

When it came to dealing with the older generation in Yuan Stream Township who had long since given up on trying, Wei Sheng decided to fight fire with fire. And in his eyes, Wu Qionghua was a natural at this.

So what if she didn’t go to school? Some people, no matter how well-educated the poverty alleviation cadres sent from the county were, just couldn’t get through to them. But someone like Wu Qionghua—tough, sharp-tongued, and immune to gossip—could.

After all, when most women were dragged down by lazy, deadbeat husbands, who would’ve thought someone like Wu Qionghua would simply toss her useless man aside and go find herself two new ones?

If marriage brought no benefit, then why bother? Just live together and skip the formalities.

Wu Qionghua’s way of thinking was far more clear-headed than those high-income, highly educated women online who were still hopelessly obsessed with love.

Wei Sheng didn’t bring the tea tree mushroom cooperative idea to the county first. Instead, he chose Shenwu Ridge as a pilot site because he wanted to see if Wu Qionghua had what it took to rally a group of disillusioned “elders” and turn things around.

If she could pull it off, then Shenwu Ridge would become a successful case study he could use to persuade (or hoodwink) Nine Streams County into rolling it out on a larger scale.

He could also use this as a living example for all of Yuan Stream Township and even Nine Streams County—to show the mountain women who were still gritting their teeth and enduring miserable marriages that even without a man, a woman could still carve out a life of her own.

If all went well, the county would have a traditional Chinese medicinal herbs cooperative, plus a forest mushroom cultivation cooperative. For ordinary families, as long as they had a dozen or so mu of hillside land and a few dozen mu of forest, just growing herbs and mushrooms could earn them enough to live comfortably year-round.

The key was that the whole family had to work together. The elderly couldn’t just lie around at home waiting for their children and grandchildren to support them. Getting a daughter-in-law didn’t mean you suddenly became disabled and couldn’t even cook or feed the pigs. And the men couldn’t be like Wu Qionghua’s ex-husband, who thought that once he got married, he could hand over the entire household to his wife and just lie back and enjoy life.

Worried that Wu Qionghua still didn’t fully grasp his vision for the cooperative, Wei Sheng pulled her aside for a little “brainwashing.”

“Sister Qionghua, here’s how I see it—stolen or snatched things always taste better than what’s handed to you. So here’s what you’re going to do…”

After hearing Wei Sheng out, Wu Qionghua was momentarily stunned.

She had thought Wei Sheng was a typical domineering CEO, but she hadn’t expected this kind of “domineering”…

Still, she had to admit, after that little pep talk, the idea of running a cooperative didn’t seem as impossible as she’d first imagined.

“Perfect timing too. Isn’t Wei Ping still in training at the county? Once he’s done, don’t let him come back just yet. Have him wait for you in town. I’ll send both of you to Jiang Xiaoman’s mushroom cooperative to learn the ropes for a while.”

“Oh, and before you leave, find a few people you trust and drop a few hints. Get them to spread some rumors around the village—say your family got a secret path to wealth from me…”

Wu Qionghua: “…”

The first part sounded reasonable enough, but the second part—why did it sound so much like a scam?

What left Wu Qionghua and her whole family speechless was that, as ridiculous as the rumor was, the villagers actually believed it!

Not only did they believe it, they spread it like wildfire. Word was that Wu Qionghua had served the “God of Wealth” Wei Sheng a feast with the best food her family had, and in return, he had given her a secret path to riches. Now she and her “second husband” had quietly gone off to learn a new trade.

If it had been anyone else, the villagers might have questioned the story. But this was Wu Qionghua.

Oh, then it made perfect sense. This was the woman who had found herself two husbands—what couldn’t she do?

And just like that, the usual crowd of lazy, idle villagers suddenly snapped to attention.

Who didn’t want to make big money?

They used to lie around doing nothing because no matter how hard they worked, farming and raising pigs barely brought in enough to feed the family. If they could get the same income from government subsidies without lifting a finger, why bother working?

But now, things were different.

If the rumors were true and Wu Qionghua really had gotten a path to wealth from the God of Wealth, and if her business took off, then joining her—even if they didn’t become millionaires—could still make them rich.

If they could bring in a few hundred thousand or even a million yuan for their families, why would they keep lying around?

Forget being dragged out of bed by a rooster crowing at midnight—they’d be up working before the rooster even opened its beak!

After all, the ancestors were right: time is money!

Wu Qionghua never imagined things would unfold exactly as Wei Sheng had predicted. Before leaving, she had only asked a few of her girlfriends in the village to help look after her kids while she was away for training. But by the time she returned from Langshan, rumors about her impending fortune had spread like wildfire throughout Shenwu Ridge.

Villager A: “I heard that girl Wu Qionghua left so quietly, even her relatives didn’t know where she went. She must’ve found a way to get rich!”

Villager B: “Right? I heard that when Boss Wei from the cooperative came to Shenwu Ridge, even the village officials couldn’t get him to their homes. But Wu Qionghua managed to drag the God of Wealth into her house and even served him the pig trotters they usually save for the New Year! Of course he gave her some tips!”

Villager C: “Tch! That’s nothing. My little uncle’s classmate’s mom works at the county bus station. She saw Wu Qionghua and her second husband sneak onto a long-distance bus heading out of province!”

Wu Qionghua overheard all this and couldn’t help but grimace.

They even used the word “sneak”? If she didn’t sneak around a little, wouldn’t that be a waste of their wild imaginations?

So, when she got home, Wu Qionghua acted like nothing had happened. She went back to tending her vegetables, feeding the pigs, and taking care of the kids. But starting that very night, the villagers noticed something strange—the Wu family began shutting their doors early every evening, and no one knew what they were doing inside.

Even more suspicious was the cactus wall.

When she built the house, Wu Qionghua, worried about safety with no man at home, had taken her kids back to her mother’s place and brought back loads of cacti from the mountains to plant along the courtyard wall.

Over a year later, the cacti had grown thick and tall, bristling with tiny spines that didn’t look like much but hurt like hell if they got into your skin. So no one dared climb the wall to peek.

They couldn’t see a thing, and that only made them more curious.

Finally, a few of the village elders—some relying on their seniority, others who had once helped Wu Qionghua or her mother—showed up at her door with gifts: a dozen eggs, or rare wild fruits picked from the mountains, hoping to get some inside information.

Wu Qionghua had been waiting for them.

By now, she had a pretty good idea of what Wei Sheng’s “brilliant plan” was. So when the aunties and grannies came knocking, she first pretended to be reluctant, refusing to say a word.

Only when they started invoking “old times” and past favors did she finally act like she couldn’t say no. After glancing around, she lowered her voice and let slip a few vague details about her training in Langshan.

She didn’t go into much detail—just vaguely mentioned that Wei Sheng had given her some pointers and introduced her to a big boss over in Langshan who had made a fortune doing this particular business. She and Wei Ping had gone to learn a bit of the trade from him.

As for what kind of trade? Wu Qionghua refused to say, no matter how much people pried.

But word got out that this big boss in Langshan was pulling in over a hundred million yuan a year from this business alone. That was more than enough to send shockwaves through the entire Shenwu Ridge.

“I told you, didn’t I? Wu Qionghua got guidance from the God of Wealth himself. Of course she was going to strike it rich!”

Now it wasn’t just Shenwu Ridge—everyone in Yuan Stream Township who could still draw breath had their eyes glued to every move the Wu family made.

Before long, they found out that Wu Qionghua had spent money to rent over 200 mu of mountain land from the village.

Her second husband personally went to the county to escort back not one, not two, but three full truckloads of mushroom cultivation bags!

Her first husband was running all over the village recruiting workers, offering eighty yuan a day to hire people to go up the mountain and help plant tea tree mushrooms for their family…

Mystery solved! So they were growing tea tree mushrooms!

No wonder Wu Qionghua said the folks in Langshan made a fortune growing them. Wild tea tree mushrooms were a rare delicacy around here. Every year, people would only manage to forage a small amount from the mountains. Once dried, they were so precious that no one could bear to eat them casually. They were saved for Chinese New Year or served when especially important guests came over—just a small handful stewed with meat.

These days, there were cultivated versions available, but even a small bag cost over ten yuan. Mountain folk still couldn’t bring themselves to spend that kind of money.

So when the villagers saw truck after truck of mushroom bags being hauled into the mountains by the Wu family, their eyes turned green with envy.

With that many mushroom bags, how many tea tree mushrooms could they harvest in a year? The Wu family was really going to make it big!

Some of the older, more traditional elders in the village had once criticized the Wei brothers for sharing a wife just to be with a woman. But now, looking back, it seemed the Wei brothers had made a brilliant choice!

If their own families could bring home a daughter-in-law as capable and lucky as Wu Qionghua, forget two sons—letting four sons marry her wouldn’t be out of the question.

Ahem, getting off track here.

No point dwelling on that now. The real question was how to cozy up to Wu Qionghua and the Wei brothers. If they could get in on this money-making venture with the Wu family, that would be ideal.

They weren’t greedy. They couldn’t afford to rent hundreds of mu of land, but if they could just grow some tea tree mushrooms in the forest plots assigned to their own households, even earning a hundred thousand yuan a year would be amazing.

Don’t be fooled by how lazy this bunch usually was. When there’s money to be made, they could run faster than rabbits.

Word got around that Wei Fang was hiring people in the village to help plant mushroom bags on the mountain. Suddenly, a whole bunch of relatives came crawling out of the woodwork, along with some so-called friends of Wu Qionghua’s parents’ generation, and even friends of the Wei brothers’ parents’ generation. One by one, they pounded their chests and declared, “Why spend money hiring outsiders? Isn’t it enough to have family lend a hand?”

And cooking? No need for your wife to do that. Qionghua is going to be a big boss—how could she be stuck at home cooking for us? Just buy a couple of bags of flour and throw together some vegetables. Let the aunties and grannies handle the meals.

Wu Qionghua: “…”

Was Boss Wei some kind of reincarnated immortal? How did he predict this so perfectly?

Wei Sheng had told her before: as long as she didn’t take the initiative, people would come flocking to help them on their own. At the time, Wu Qionghua didn’t quite get what he meant, but she followed his advice anyway.

Now, looking at the sudden surge of relatives and friends crowding into her home, she finally understood.

(End of Chapter)