Chapter 138: It Really Is One—We Hit the Jackpot

Lin Heng walked over and picked the red lingzhi mushroom first. He glanced at the underside of the cap—it was still white, the spores hadn’t scattered yet. Still usable.

After harvesting the lingzhi, Lin Heng turned his eyes to the ground. The soil here was bulging up, and even with the rain, a crack had split open.

He crouched down and took a sniff. A unique aroma wafted up, instantly refreshing and invigorating him.

“Could I really have gotten this lucky?”

Lin Heng couldn’t quite believe it. He snapped off a dry pine branch and started digging.

He barely dug twice when a black ball popped out of the soil. He picked it up—it was dark brown, with tiny bumps on the surface and intricate patterns, like a devil fruit (From One Piece).

Lin Heng was so excited he couldn’t even speak. He had found a Black Truffle without even relying on Xiongba. This luck was unbelievable.

He brought it to his nose—it smelled strange. When it was still underground, it had a fresh fragrance with a hint of musk.

But now? It had a scent like hawthorn flowers. He sniffed again—now it smelled like bed sheets that hadn’t been washed in years.

He covered the spot with pine needles and stuck a branch in as a marker, then hurried off toward his wife.

Xiulan had already walked quite a distance with Xiongba. When she saw Lin Heng running over, she eagerly shared her haul: “Xiongba and I found another three or four pounds of matsutake mushrooms—over a hundred of them altogether. Come take a look!”

Lin Heng walked up and looked into her bag, then suddenly swept her into his arms and spun her around. But the pine needles on the ground were too slippery—they both toppled over.

“Hey, what are you doing? I mean, finding this many matsutakes isn’t that exciting, is it?”

Xiulan looked at him helplessly. He was acting like a child. Her hair was full of pine needles.

She sat up and picked them out, helping Lin Heng clean up too.

“Guess what I found?” Lin Heng looked at Xiulan, barely able to hide his excitement.

“What? A giant patch of matsutakes?” she asked, watching him.

Then she noticed Lin Heng’s expression. Her face showed a mix of hope and disbelief. “Could it be… Black Truffle? No way. I’ve been married to you almost three years and only ever heard of someone selling one once.”

Lin Heng grabbed her hand and placed the Black Truffle he’d been holding in her palm, smiling. “Then take a look—what do you think this is?”

Xiulan’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my god, it is Black Truffle.”

She picked it up, sniffed it, looked at it, looked again, then looked softly at Lin Heng and smiled. “It doesn’t feel real. Should I pinch you?”

“Pinch it instead.” Lin Heng grabbed Xiongba’s head and offered it to her.

Xiongba: “???”

“Just kidding. Hurry, let’s go dig up the rest. If someone else finds it first, we’ll regret it forever.” Xiulan gave the dog’s head a pat and stood up.

“Walk slowly—what did it smell like to you just now?” Lin Heng asked as they walked.

“It’s weird. Kind of musky, but also kind of sweet, like honey. Very complex.” Xiulan sniffed it again before answering.

“To me it smelled like dirty laundry!” Lin Heng laughed.

The two of them and the dog quickly reached the spot. “Right here. I was just picking lingzhi when I saw the soil cracking beside it.”

“Let me dig.”

Xiulan gently dug with her small hoe and uncovered five or six truffles right away.

“Oh my god, that’s so many. Honey, your luck today is unbelievable.” Xiulan was completely stunned.

“You don’t get it. When you find one of these, it usually means a whole cluster. The ones that smell strong are mature. If there’s no smell, they’re still growing.” Lin Heng grinned.

“Should we dig them all up?” Xiulan asked while continuing to dig.

“Truffle buyers take them whether they’re mature or not. The mature ones go to export, the immature ones are sold to high-end domestic restaurants.

But if we dig everything up, there might be none left next year.”

Lin Heng was pondering it too. He’d seen stories from his past life of people in other provinces finding truffles, and once they did, they’d dig up several acres nearby, stripping the place bare.

It was like the prisoner’s dilemma—you might leave the immature ones behind in good faith, but others won’t necessarily do the same.

And even if you leave them, there’s no guarantee you’ll be the one to find them again next year.

So most people choose to maximize profits and just dig everything out at once.

“Then let’s dig them all up. If we don’t, someone else will, and we’ll have nothing.” Xiulan didn’t hesitate.

“I was thinking the same, but let’s leave a few behind. Maybe we’ll be able to find some again in a year or two. We’ll cover it thick with pine needles—makes it harder for others to spot.” Lin Heng thought aloud.

“That works. Let’s leave a few,” Xiulan nodded.

While she continued digging, Lin Heng held one up to let Xiongba sniff it. Just as he was about to say something, the dog chomped it down in one bite.

“You dumb mutt! Always stealing food. If you can’t find any truffles, I’ll let you starve for three days!” Lin Heng smacked its mouth twice.

He hadn’t even tasted it himself, and this guy already helped himself.

“Woof woof!!”

Xiongba barked, like he was saying, “I worked hard, I deserve a taste.”

Seeing Lin Heng raise his hand, the dog quickly pressed his nose to the ground and started searching.

Lin Heng ignored him and went back to digging truffles with his wife.

Every dig unearthed a bunch. They were absolutely thrilled.

After clearing out an area of about two square meters, the truffles started to thin out.

Xiulan kept digging while Lin Heng sorted them, separating the mature from the immature to avoid mixing them up.

After a bit more searching, Xiulan stopped and left some behind as seed stock.

She turned to Lin Heng. “This patch is done. How much did we get?”

“About thirty pounds, I’d say. This bag’s got ten pounds of mature ones, and the other has twenty pounds of immature ones.”

Lin Heng grinned as he hefted the two bags. That’s how it is with these things—

Either you don’t find any, or when you do, it’s at least ten or twenty pounds at once.

They grow underground in big clusters.

“Oh my god, that’s like three hundred bucks?” Xiulan was stunned. She’d never made this much picking wild goods before.

“More than that. That’s the price from the town’s buying station. In fact, fresh ones go for fifteen bucks a pound, dried ones for around a hundred and fifty to sixty.” Lin Heng smiled. This time, they really had struck it rich.

“This is amazing! Just one truffle haul and we’ve basically earned back what we spent on the Horse.” Xiulan opened the bag and kept looking at it.

“Now tell me, am I awesome or what?” Lin Heng tried to puff out his chest, practically glowing with pride.

“You’re awesome, super awesome.” Xiulan nodded enthusiastically.

After another look at the bag of black truffles, the two of them tucked it securely at the bottom of the basket and began restoring the land around them.

They smoothed out the dug-up soil, then covered it with pine needles until no traces remained.

“All done. That took another hour—it’s already two-thirty.” Lin Heng glanced at his watch. He had been so thrilled about finding the truffle that he hadn’t even felt hungry. Now that they were finished, his stomach growled loudly.

“Looks like Xiongba didn’t have much luck.” Xiulan glanced at the dog, still sniffing around.

“That’s how it is with these things—one pine tree might have them, but the next might not. Let’s eat first.”

Lin Heng couldn’t hold out any longer.

“Alright, let’s find a place to wash our hands first.” Xiulan nodded.

They weren’t far from the ravine. Down below were some rain-formed puddles but no flowing streams.

After washing up, Xiulan pulled out their food from the basket—soft pancakes she’d made the night before, along with fermented bean curd and spicy shredded potatoes.

The bean curd chili paste was in a glass jar, and the shredded potatoes were in a plastic bag.

Lin Heng used his tempered steel knife to whittle a pair of chopsticks. Xiulan cupped her hands together so he could lay a pancake on them, then he spread bean curd on it, added the shredded potatoes, and rolled it up.

“Open up!” Lin Heng held the rolled pancake to her mouth.

Xiulan brushed back a few stray hairs and took a big bite, her cheeks puffed out as she nodded. “Delicious!”

Lin Heng took a bite too and nodded. “My wife’s cooking is the best.”

Then he handed her another roll, and the two of them sat on a rock, leaning against each other, taking turns eating.

Xiulan pulled out a water bottle, gave Lin Heng a sip, then took one herself.

“Woof woof!!”

Xiongba came bounding down from the woods, sat in front of them, and barked once.

“Here, eat it yourself!”

Xiulan took out the rice they had brought for him and placed it in front of him.

After glancing at the two of them, Xiongba lowered his head and started eating.

Even though Lin Heng and Xiulan were covered in dirt, they were eating with such satisfaction.

After their meal, Xiulan leaned on Lin Heng’s shoulder to rest for a bit. Suddenly her eyes lit up and she pointed to a tree in the distance. “Hubby, look! Tons of August melons!”

“But they’re a little high up—I can’t reach them,” she added.

“I’ll chop the tree down for you.” Lin Heng stood up and led her over. The tree was about as thick as a bowl, and he chopped it down with just ten swings of his machete.

He stepped on the fallen tree and pushed it down, and the August melons came within easy reach.

“There’s so many! Must be twenty or thirty of them,” Xiulan said with a smile, putting on gloves to start picking.

She was now careful to protect her hands because Lin Heng said he loved her soft, delicate fingers.

Lin Heng joined in. Most of the August melons were already purple. A gentle twist and they came right off.

“Twenty-five in total. This tree really delivered.” Lin Heng laughed.

Xiulan took off her gloves, opened one, ate half, and stuffed the other half into Lin Heng’s mouth.

“Ptoo!!”

Before long, the two of them were spitting out a pile of August melon seeds together.

“August melons are just as sweet as ever,” Xiulan said with a sigh.

“Too bad there’s no Schisandra berries—I’m kind of craving them.” Lin Heng smiled. Schisandra berries were sweet and sour, with a more layered flavor.

“Let’s dry some for a couple of days and head to Sanye Ravine to pick them. There’s a lot over there.” Xiulan said as she popped another one into her mouth. She had a definite sweet tooth.

“Woof woof!”

Xiongba, having finished his rice, ran over to sniff the August melons, clearly wanting a taste.

“Here!” Xiulan tossed him a piece of the fruit.

Xiongba chomped it down, seeds and all—he didn’t bother spitting anything out.

After resting for a while, the two of them packed up and resumed their search.

“Xiongba, see if you can sniff out more. There might be something nearby.”

Lin Heng took out another ripe black truffle and let the dog sniff it. The pine forest was vast—they could take their time looking.

While they searched, Lin Heng and Xiulan picked some Lactarius mushrooms. Once they had enough, they weren’t in a hurry.

Whenever they spotted a suspicious patch, they used their small hoes to dig a little.

After three hours of searching, Lin Heng, Xiulan, and Xiongba had scoured the forest. Aside from finding another half a pound of matsutake mushrooms, there were no more black truffles to be found.

“This doesn’t make sense!”

Lin Heng was puzzled. In videos he’d seen in his past life, people would dig up several hundred pounds of black truffles by covering a few acres of nearby land.

“Be satisfied already—we’ve hit the jackpot.” Xiulan, on the other hand, was quite content.

“Alright, let’s head home. It’s getting late.”

Lin Heng nodded. There wasn’t much they could do about it. But autumn was long—they’d have plenty of chances to search again.

They took their things and started heading back along an unexplored mountain path.

As they passed through an oak forest, they came across a bunch of brown Russula mushrooms. These tasted pretty good and were plentiful, scattered all over the place.

But after picking a dozen and cracking them open, they were all hollowed out by bugs, and the mood to keep gathering them quickly vanished.

“Well, I think we’ve collected enough for today anyway.” Lin Heng said with a laugh.

A few steps later, they spotted a couple of chestnut trees. Xiulan walked under them, looked around, and turned back with surprise. “There are chestnuts—lots of them!”

“Let’s pick some then.” Lin Heng set down the basket and walked over with a sack.

Wild chestnuts were much smaller than regular ones. Most were about the size of a thumb tip—half the size of cultivated chestnuts, or even a third for the smaller ones.

Still, there were many wild chestnut trees. The flavor was good, and they sold well—people in the countryside always picked them.

Chestnuts were delicious no matter how you prepared them—roasted, boiled, or stewed with chicken or pork. No one could resist.

While picking, Lin Heng even spotted a red-furred squirrel squatting in a tree, holding a chestnut in its paws.

He could only watch—it was a mushroom-picking day, and he hadn’t brought his bow or slingshot.

After half an hour of picking, the two of them lay back side by side. Xiulan estimated, “We’ve got over ten pounds, easy.”

“The chestnuts on this tree are just starting to fall. Give it a bit more time and there’ll be tons more.”

Lin Heng glanced at the thick, sturdy tree. If they looked more carefully, they could easily gather another ten pounds off the ground.

But it was already six-thirty. If they didn’t head back now, they’d be walking in the dark—and neither of them knew if Xiaoxia had cried yet. Both were starting to get a little worried.

Lin Heng took this path hoping to find some Schisandra berries, but after walking for a while and running into a dead end without finding anything, he had no choice but to climb up to the ridge and take a smaller trail back.

At this time, quite a few people were heading back down the mountain after foraging for mushrooms. As Lin Heng and Xiulan walked along the trail, someone suddenly called out from behind, “Lin Heng, you’re still out here picking mushrooms?”

Lin Heng turned around and saw it was Uncle Li Baigen from the village, the one known for his weaving skills. Walking beside him were his second son Li Shixing and his youngest daughter Li Shixia.

“Uncle Li, even a wealthy man like you is out picking mushrooms?” Lin Heng chuckled casually. He wasn’t all that familiar with the man.

“I’m nowhere near your level,” Li Baigen laughed, then added, “I see your baskets are full. What kind of mushrooms did you pick?”

“Just pine mushrooms and broom mushrooms, and a few chestnuts,” Lin Heng replied with a smile. He had already tied up the bag with the Black Truffles, so they shouldn’t be noticed.

“I smell something delicious. I thought you’d found some Matsutake mushrooms,” Li Baigen said with a laugh.

Lin Heng paused for a moment, thinking, does this guy have a bloodhound’s nose? He can smell that?

“No, must be a mistake,” Lin Heng shook his head, then looked at him and asked, “What kind of mushrooms did you guys find?”

“About the same as you, but I did come across a wild grapevine. Want some?” Li Baigen stepped over with a bamboo basket full of wild grapes.

“That’s a great find! I’ve been looking all over and couldn’t find any,” Lin Heng said in surprise, eyeing the beautiful wild grapes in the basket.

He reached out, took a bunch, tasted a few, and nodded. “Really good, thanks.”

“Here, take some of our chestnuts,” Xiulan offered, handing over a few.

“No need, we have some at home,” Li Baigen waved it off.

“That smell is definitely coming from your baskets. You really did find some Matsutake mushrooms, didn’t you?” said Li Shixia, her voice clear and curious as she sniffed the air.

“You…” Li Baigen gave his daughter a helpless look.

You can know, but don’t say it out loud!

“Hahaha, we did find a few, but not a lot,” Lin Heng laughed, glancing at the fifteen-year-old girl.

Li Shixia was curious—she’d only found Matsutake mushrooms once, and hadn’t seen any today. But her nose was sharp, and she sensed the scent coming from their baskets wasn’t just Matsutake—it was odd.

Still, with her father’s warning, she didn’t say anything more.

“Really lucky, I’m jealous,” Li Baigen said, visibly envious now that it was confirmed.

“Haha, we better get going. Need to get home and check on the baby,” Lin Heng quickly found an excuse to leave—clearly, the snakeskin bag wasn’t doing a good job at blocking the scent.

Maybe he and Xiulan had gotten too used to the smell to notice.

“Here, take some more grapes for your kid at home,” Li Baigen said, pushing several bunches of wild grapes into Lin Heng’s hands.

After a few polite exchanges, Lin Heng and Xiulan hurried off.

“Dad, they definitely found a lot of Matsutake mushrooms,” Li Shixia said, sniffing again.

“I think so too. Must’ve found a whole patch of them. Otherwise, where’d they get the money to buy all that sanghuang?” Li Baigen said with a bit of envy. But when people keep things secret, there’s no way to find out.

What none of them guessed was that what Lin Heng found wasn’t just Matsutake mushrooms—it was the far more valuable Black Truffle.

The two hurried home, and Father Lin looked on curiously. The two didn’t even greet him, rushing into the house. Had they found something big?

Thinking about it, he followed them to Lin Heng’s yard and asked, “What did you two find?”

“This stuff’s so good we didn’t even want Dad to see it,” Lin Heng said with a cheeky grin.

“Matsutake mushrooms, right?” Father Lin shut the courtyard door behind him and walked closer.

“We did find some Matsutake, but that’s not the best part,” Lin Heng replied with a smile.

“Huh? Then what else?” Father Lin asked, puzzled.

Xiulan pulled out the bag and opened it. One glance, and Father Lin plopped onto a bench in shock. “Heavens! How did you two find this?”

“Lin Heng was just wandering around and got lucky,” Xiulan said with a smile.

It took Father Lin a while to recover. When he did, he clapped Lin Heng on the shoulder. “You really are blessed by the mountain gods. You better go burn some incense and start calling the mountain deity your godfather.”

“Dad, that’s too much,” Lin Heng said helplessly.

Most of their luck came from Xiongba, their dog, and his own skills with a bow. Honestly, even if he hadn’t seen the truffles, Xiongba probably would’ve found them.

“I’m taking you to pay respects someday for sure. This luck is unreal,” Father Lin said, shaking his head.

Just as the three were still happily talking, the courtyard gate was suddenly knocked on loudly. Caiyun’s voice called from outside, “Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, are you home? Something big’s happened!”

Hearing that, the three of them froze.

What happened to get Caiyun so worked up?

They hurried to the gate.

(End of chapter)

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—A Devil Fruit in One Piece is a magical fruit that gives the eater special powers, like controlling fire or turning into animals. The downside: they lose the ability to swim. There are three types—Paramecia, Zoan, and Logia.
—Black truffle is a rare, aromatic fungus that grows underground near tree roots. It’s expensive because it’s hard to find, only grows in specific conditions, and has a short harvesting season. Its rich, earthy flavor makes it a luxury in fine dining.