Yan Fei preferred to venture into the woods looking for trees, not because he was reluctant to spend money.
The reason was these mountains, although not big, lacked proper roads. It would be troublesome to transport out the trees even with enough money under everyone's gaze. Despite the tree's small appearance, its thick trunk, along with the roots and some soil, would require several dozen people to carry. And even if there were people capable of carrying the trees, the surroundings were all woods - there was no way to transport them down the mountain.
Trees of such size were still rather plentiful in this large mountain. As he ventured further in, he indeed found quite a few more trees like this.
