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The Imperial Guards stormed in with force, swarming every corner of Wen Yanpei’s residence like a tidal wave.

Wen Yanpei’s face was deathly pale. He disregarded his unconscious wife and panic-stricken daughter, and hurriedly ran to assess the situation.

He saw the Empress’s brother, Xiao Weiliang, walking among his guards with a smile on his face and his hands behind his back. He was strolling leisurely, looking around the scenery of the Wen residence as if enjoying a garden tour.

“Commander Xiao, what is the meaning of this sudden intrusion into my home?” Wen Yanpei stepped forward to bow in greeting before questioning.

Xiao Weiliang looked at him with a contemptuous expression. “Imperial Physician Wen, you’ve got quite the nerve, daring to deceive His Majesty and take the life of the Prince as a joke.”

He tidied his sleeves and chuckled softly, “His Majesty ordered us to take you to the Sky Prison and await trial by the Ministry of Justice.”

A buzzing sound filled Wen Yanpei’s head. He felt as if the sounds around him were getting further away, “How can this be? I had just returned from the palace and His Majesty had ordered me to hasten the preparation of the medicine…”

Xiao Weiliang sneered, “I am merely following orders. I know nothing of the rest. If Imperial Physician Wen has anything to say, you can explain yourself at the public court of the Ministry of Justice.”

With that, he waved his hand and two Imperial Guards quickly advanced, one on each side of Wen Yanpei, locking his neck and wrists with chains.

“No! Commander Xiao, please listen to me. The Empress herself did ask me to hasten the medicine. No, no, the ingredients have already been sent. They should arrive in a few days. I swear that I can cure the Prince,”

Wen Yanpei frantically repeated his explanation: “Commander Xiao, I did not deceive His Majesty. I genuinely can cure the Prince. Please report to Teacher Xiao on my behalf, considering our past relations…”

“Enough, I don’t want to hear your rubbish.”

Xiao Weiliang curtly interrupted him and ordered the Imperial Guards: “Gag him.”

One of the guards bent down, took off Wen Yanpei’s shoes, pulled off his cotton socks, balled them up and stuffed them into Wen Yanpei’s mouth.

Wen Yanpei struggled desperately: …mmmm…

Fifty miles away, Wen Hengchuan was riding his horse at full speed towards Beijing. His several horse-riding servants were following him closely, all of them were at the end of their wits.

Along the way, everyone had developed friction burns on their thighs. They didn’t even have time to apply the medicine. They couldn’t understand why their young master was in such a hurry.

Meanwhile, amidst the turbulent storm ravaging the Wen family from afar, Dongchen Village in Chuanhe Town was experiencing a tremendous harvest.

However, this harvest was not of grains but a significant yield of golden and snow mushrooms.

Now, among the twenty-eight households in Dongchen Village, ten of them were growing golden and snow mushrooms.

These included the households of Wang Ke, Li Dayong, Li Eryong, Wang Ershen, the three sons of Clan Leader Chen Sanyou, and the Chen Clan Leader’s family.

There were also a few other households in the village facing difficulties. They had bought mushroom seeds on credit from Jiang Sanlang, promising to pay him back when the golden mushrooms were sold.

This was the last harvest of the autumn, and everyone was filled with anticipation.

Those villagers who didn’t manage to reserve seeds last time were now itching to try. They waited secretly at Jiang Sanlang’s doorway, and when they saw him returning, they immediately surrounded him.

“Sanlang, it’s my turn this time, isn’t it? I made a deal with you before,” “Brother Jiang San, it’s my turn now. It should be my turn this time.”

“And me, I’ve been waiting for two rounds.”

The villagers were all speaking simultaneously, fearing that they might miss out on the mushroom seeds.

Jiang Sanlang said helplessly: “The weather is cold now, and I can’t give you the seeds yet. If they are not properly stored, they won’t sprout next year. How about this, you all queue up and I’ll distribute them in order when it’s time.” The villagers nodded in agreement: “Alright, we’ll do as you say.”

Everyone was bustling around trying to figure out their order, and it almost started a fight over who would be first.

Yingbao peeked out from a window and counted the number of people.

Wow, there were more than twenty people, each representing a household, so, more than twenty households.

With this many households wanting mushroom seeds, if each household needs fifty plants, that would be over a thousand plants.

If her father was to give away all his mushroom seeds, they probably wouldn’t be enough to go around.

Yingbao counted the terracotta jars she collected in her cave, thirty in total, filled with fungal spores. She estimated a yield of around four hundred golden ears and two hundred snow ears.

That was still too few.

Of course, these premium mushrooms she cultivated weren’t for the villagers, but for her own use.

She wanted to improve the grade of her own golden ears and snow ears, and let her father hand the regular variety over to the villagers for cultivation.

That way, even if an increasing number of people grew golden ears and snow ears, the selling price of her own batch wouldn’t be affected.

It seemed that she would have to cultivate another batch of premium ones. Only then would there be enough to replace the stock her father, uncle and their families were using by next spring.

The September sun was still warm, and the weather had started to dry up. The autumn taxation was mostly complete, the winter wheat had been sown, and the paddy fields had been turned over once. They were now waiting for the winter snow to kill off the pests in the soil.

Typically, it indicated that the busy farming period had come to an end, and the locals could finally relax.

Only a handful of homes would go up the mountain to dig up kudzu root that was three or four years old, and bring it back to be crushed into powder.

However, the villagers of Dongchen Village were exceptionally busy. Each household was building bamboo sheds, using stone mortars to mash rice husks, wheat bran, and wood chips. They were working round the clock.

Carts loaded with terracotta jars were hauled in, one by one, and distributed to every household.

Many households had bamboo drying racks set up at their front doors. On these racks were clean reed mats, and on the mats were yellow mushrooms, their golden colors dazzling, causing neighboring villagers to stop and stare in fascination.

“What are you drying there?” Village Chief of West Village, Chen Changsheng, came over, hands clasped behind his back, asking Village Chief of East Village, Chen Sanyou.

Chen Sanyou, while flipping over his golden ears, didn’t raise his head and responded, “Mushrooms.”

Chen Changsheng retorted, “I know they’re mushrooms. I’m asking why you’re growing them. Can you make money from them?”

He was deliberately playing dumb.

Chen Sanyou rolled his eyes at him, “If we can’t make money from it, we can eat them ourselves.”

He had always been annoyed with Chen Changsheng since they were little. Although they were of the same Chen clan, they were distant cousins and rarely interacted. They would pass each other without even greeting.

The reason? It was all because both of them were smitten with a pretty young maiden from another village, but Chen Changsheng won her over.

In reality, it wasn’t a case of winning her over. The young maiden hadn’t exchanged more than a few words with Chen Sanyou, and she wasn’t close with Chen Changsheng either.

What infuriated Chen Sanyou was that Chen Changsheng took the underhand route and secretly found the maiden’s older brother, telling him that a boy from Chen Village had taken a fancy to his sister.

Needless to say, the older brother was immediately filled with rage.

So, one day, Chen Sanyou was cornered by the maiden’s brother and received a couple of hard punches to the face.

Of course, it didn’t go well for Chen Changsheng either. The maiden’s brother warned him to stay at least ten feet away from his sister, otherwise he would break Cheng Changsheng’s legs.

Every time Chen Sanyou remembered this incident, he felt a surge of anger. But back then he was only nine years old, two years younger than Chen Changsheng, and knew he couldn’t beat him.

And he wasn’t as cunning as Chen Changsheng, unable to think of any way to get back at him.

After they grew up and married their respective wives, the incident was forgotten.

However, since then, it had been a constant thorn in Chen Sanyou’s side. Every time he thought about it, he felt irritated. In his dreams, he wished he could give Chen Changsheng a good beating.

Chen Changsheng shrugged his mouth and glanced at Chen Sanyou as if looking at a fool, “Since when did your household become so poor that you need to use mushroom as food? I see there are several hundred of them here.

Would it be enough to feed your family for two months?”

“None of your goddamn business!” Chen Sanyou responded irritably. “If you have nothing better to do, return to West Village. Our village doesn’t need your concern, better to keep an eye on Chen Ergou from your village.”

Chen Changsheng brushed off his comment without getting angry, hands behind his back and said, “Don’t think I don’t know this was started by Jiang Sanlang from your village. His family is getting rich off this. No one in West

Village is blind.”

Chen Sanyou retorted, “You certainly act like a blind fool. If you’re so aware, why are you bugging me here?”

“Isn’t it because I can’t find him around?”

Chen Changsheng picked up a golden ear and looked at it, then leisurely said, “We are from the same village, why would you hide good things? We are still blood-related brothers after all, Chen is the common character of our names. Don’t be so petty, you need to change this old habit of yours….”