“Did you get hurt from the fall just now? Let me take a look.”
Lin Guozhi thought that Lin Jiaojiao had injured herself without telling him, which was why she had stopped and wasn’t walking.
His little sister must be in pain—how could he be so careless?
“Second Brother, I’m really fine.”
“I just thought of something happy, so I got distracted for a moment.”
The joy on Lin Jiaojiao’s face couldn’t be faked. Her smile was radiant, her brows relaxed—she didn’t look hurt at all.
Only then did Lin Guozhi let out a sigh of relief.
“Come, I’ll hold your hand.”
Lin Guozhi extended a hand, intending to walk with his sister.
“No need, Second Brother. You just lead the way.”
Lin Jiaojiao had just obtained a hundred-year-old ginseng and wanted to see if there were any others nearby.
She didn’t want to be led by the hand.
If she were, she wouldn’t be able to look around freely.
“Alright then.”
Seeing his little sister insist, Lin Guozhi could only continue leading the way.
This time, Lin Jiaojiao didn’t fall behind, but her eyes were darting around everywhere, hoping to spot another ginseng plant.
She knew that with ginseng, where there was one, there was bound to be a second.
After all, the seeds that had fallen couldn’t have been just a single one.
Although she couldn’t be sure about the germination rate, it definitely wouldn’t be just one plant.
With that thought in mind, Lin Jiaojiao scanned the area with extra care.
Perhaps the heavens had sensed her sincerity, because before they left the area, she managed to find another ginseng plant.
This one was nowhere near as big as the one before—you could tell just by looking at the stem poking out of the ground.
If she hadn’t just pulled one out moments ago, Lin Jiaojiao wouldn’t have recognized it.
She might have mistaken it for a weed and walked right past it without a second glance.
But having gone through it once before, she recognized the ginseng plant at a single glance this time.
“Second Brother, stop.”
She quickly called out to her brother, who was still walking ahead.
Lin Guozhi halted and came over to stand beside Lin Jiaojiao.
“What’s wrong, little sister?”
Looking at his beaming sister, he wondered what happy thought she’d had this time.
Was his sister this happy today?
If she liked it, he’d bring her up the mountain to play again on his next day off.
“Second Brother, look at this—what is it?”
Lin Jiaojiao was worried that the moment she touched the ginseng, it would be absorbed into the Space like before.
With a Space that devoured medicinal herbs, she didn’t dare touch it lightly.
In reality, Lin Jiaojiao was mistaken.
Although the Space would devour treasures, when it came to medicinal herbs, it only picked those with long growth years.
Take this small ginseng in front of her—at most, it was ten years old.
It didn’t even come close to meeting the Space’s standard for absorption.
But Lin Jiaojiao didn’t know that, and for a long time afterward, she wouldn’t dare touch any medicinal herbs.
She was afraid they’d be swallowed by the Space, and then she wouldn’t be able to explain herself.
The secret of the Space—no matter who it was, she would never tell.
It was her foundation for surviving in this world.
Some things could be shared, but some secrets had to remain secrets.
“What kind of weed is this?”
Lin Guozhi looked at the ginseng plant with some disdain and made as if to pull it out.
It wasn’t even pretty to look at—what use was it?
“Second Brother, don’t!”
Lin Jiaojiao immediately stopped her second brother’s rough movements.
“This is ginseng.”
“It should be worth quite a bit of money!”
Upon hearing the word “ginseng,” Lin Guozhi instinctively slowed his movements.
In the end, his hand stopped at the base of the ginseng, not pulling it out.
Although she had never picked ginseng before, she had heard stories about it.
It was said that when ginseng reached a certain age, it would grow legs and run away like a person.
She had also heard that when digging up ginseng, one had to be extremely careful not to damage its root hairs.
Only a perfect specimen could fetch a good price.
If the root hairs suffered too much damage, it would affect the medicinal efficacy and quality.
She didn’t know whether these tales were true or not, but she understood that caution was essential.
Lin Guozhi set down the basket on his back, took out a shovel from inside, and began to dig into the soil bit by bit, doing his best not to harm a single ginseng root hair.
Seeing her second brother’s gentle movements and confident expression, Lin Jiaojiao finally relaxed.
She didn’t go up to help but stood to the side watching.
Only when Lin Guozhi had dug the entire ginseng out of the ground did he find some large leaves and wrap the ginseng together with the dug-up soil, carefully placing it at the bottom of the basket.
“Little sister, you’ve really made a great contribution today.”
“Let’s take this ginseng back and see how Dad wants to handle it.”
“If we sell it, I’ll find a way to get you a work position.”
In these times, working in the fields wasn’t as good as having a stable job.
Even though both involved labor, workers were treated far better than farmers.
Not only did they receive a monthly salary, but they also got rationed grain.
Ginseng was rare, especially wild mountain ginseng like this.
Using it to trade for a work position would at most require a bit of extra money on top, and there would surely be opportunities.
Lin Guozhi was already calculating in his mind what kind of work would suit his little sister.
“Second brother, I don’t want to go to work just yet.”
“If we really can trade it for a work position, let the other brothers have it instead.”
Lin Jiaojiao had been a workhorse in her previous life. Now that she had found her family in this one, she didn’t want to send herself off to a factory so soon.
Even though workers were honored in this era, they still had to do plenty of work.
How nice it was to stay in the countryside!
Her father was the Daduizhang, so even if she slacked off a little, as long as she didn’t go too far, no one would say anything.
At worst, she could do what some female Zhiqing did—pick lighter tasks and earn fewer Gongfen.
She knew that lying flat wasn’t ideal, but she still wanted to enjoy her family’s affection a while longer.
As for work.
Lin Jiaojiao had thought about it.
She was a college student after all, so she could do what the heroines in those time-travel novels did—write articles to earn royalties.
Her writing wasn’t bad either. Back in school, she had participated in many essay competitions.
And she had won awards every time, with second place being the lowest she ever got.
Most of the time, she took first place.
Her essays were often praised by her teachers for their spark of inspiration.
Lin Jiaojiao believed this path would surely suit her.
If writing articles didn’t work out, she could write serialized novels.
Newspapers had sections for that, and they also held writing contests for such content.
As long as she put her mind to it, earning money with her brain was better than earning it through manual labor.
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea either.”
“Whoever wants the position can give you half their salary.”
“Until you’re ready to go to work, then the position can be transferred to you.”
Lin Jiaojiao thought her second brother was being far too fanciful.
She wasn’t some wealthy landlord—how could she exploit her own family like that?
Even if they gave her half their salary, it would only last a year or two at most.
She couldn’t very well take someone’s money for the rest of their life.
Even with her own brother, that wouldn’t be right—it was too immoral.
“Second brother, let’s talk about this later.”
“Let’s hurry over to the fruit trees—it shouldn’t be far now, right?”
Today had been quite a bountiful harvest.
Not only had there been new progress with Space, they had also obtained a ginseng.
This was a work quota!
Both of them were in a beautiful mood, and their pace gradually quickened.
It was just that the two of them didn’t know that an uninvited guest was waiting for them by the fruit tree.