These past few days, the adults had been busy working and hunting down human traffickers, and Jiang Tangtang hadn’t been idle either.
She realized that she had been a bit slack lately. Since she was still a child, she had to rely on her parents to take her deep into the mountains to find quality mountain goods, but her parents were busy working most of the time. Therefore, completing system tasks was currently her main source of gold coins.
Jiang Tangtang discovered that by working hard at her tasks every day to the limit, she could earn over 4,000 gold coins a day. Over the past ten days or so, she had saved up more than 50,000 gold coins.
With the autumn harvest approaching, Jiang Jianguo and Lin Wanting would have to work every day. So, before the harvest began, Jiang Tangtang prepared to have her father take her into the mountains one more time.
That night, the family of three lay in bed, preparing to sleep.
“Dad, can we go to the mountain tomorrow? It’s been so long since we last went,” Jiang Tangtang asked Jiang Jianguo in a soft, sweet voice.
Jiang Jianguo thought for a moment. Now that the human traffickers had all been caught, there was no fear of any remaining ones hiding on the mountain. Plus, Tangtang hadn’t been traumatized by being kidnapped into the mountains by them. Since she wanted to go, they would go.
“Alright, we’ll go tomorrow,” he said, then turned to consult with Lin Wanting: “Wanting, let’s not go to work tomorrow and head into the mountain to take a look.”
Lin Wanting naturally had no objections. The family reached a consensus and happily made the decision.
Early the next morning, the family got up before anyone else in the main house was awake. They strapped on their baskets, grabbed their small hoes and firewood axes, brought some seasonings, and set out.
The morning air in the mountains was quite cold. Jiang Jianguo pulled his daughter’s clothes tighter and hugged her closer, as if he could shield her from the biting wind.
Suddenly, Jiang Tangtang’s gaze swept over a thicket, where she was attracted by a few clusters of small, blood-red berries.
“Dad, what is that?” Jiang Tangtang asked, pointing to the object in the shrubbery.
Jiang Jianguo hurriedly set his daughter down and walked over to the thicket to investigate. He now had absolute faith in his daughter’s luck; every time they came to the mountain, they found something good.
“Five-leaf plant? No, this appearance…” His heart skipped a beat. He held his breath and gently brushed aside the branches and leaves. When he saw the elegant stem and dense textures, his breathing even stalled. “It’s a six-leaf plant! A wild ginseng that’s over a hundred years old!”
Jiang Jianguo hadn’t expected his daughter to find such a treasure with a casual point.
He lay on the ground, extremely gently brushing away the dirt around the ginseng root hairs, bit by bit. He was completely focused, terrified of breaking any of the delicate fibers.
When the wild ginseng—with its perfect form and intact root system—was finally lifted from the ground, he let out a long sigh of relief, only then feeling the soreness in his arms.
Jiang Jianguo had never seen such high-quality wild ginseng in his life. He dug up some moss, carefully wrapped the treasure, and placed it in his basket, worried that damaging even one root would affect its value.
He couldn’t wait to go down the mountain, but it was still early, and they hadn’t yet gathered enough regular goods to appease Old Mrs. Jiang.
They wandered around the mountain, digging up some shepherd’s purse, purslane, and plenty of bupleurum (hare’s ear), and even found a nest of wild eggs.
Only then did they head to their “secret base” to rest and discuss how to handle the ginseng.
Upon arriving at the secret base, they checked their surroundings as usual, and only felt relieved to enter after finding nothing unusual.
The family sat together, and Jiang Jianguo said excitedly, “This thing is valuable. A few years ago, someone found one that was twenty or thirty years old and sold it to Old Mr. Qi, who gave them two hundred. This one must be worth at least five hundred yuan.”
Lin Wanting was pleasantly surprised. “It’s worth that much?” But then she thought, if they sold it to Mr. Qi, it was highly unlikely they would be able to keep the money.
She said to Jiang Jianguo, “Dear, perhaps we should return it to the old gentleman, or take it to town to handle it. If we do it in the village, I’m afraid Mother will find out.”
Jiang Jianguo pondered this. It was true; there were no secrets in the village. Every little trivial matter became known to the whole village immediately. If they exchanged it for five hundred yuan at Mr. Qi’s place in the morning, even the village dogs would know by noon, let alone Old Mrs. Jiang and the eldest branch of the family who were constantly watching the third branch.
He immediately asked Jiang Tangtang, “Tangtang, can the old gentleman take this?”
Jiang Tangtang thought for a moment and decided it was better to turn it into money. She had just secretly touched the ginseng and used her system to check the “buy-back” price: [100-year-old wild ginseng x1, value 50,000 gold coins. Do you wish to recycle?]
Although 50,000 gold coins was a lot, she could only exchange it for items in the mall and then sell them elsewhere, or go to the black market.
She also had to consider items that were small and easy to carry. She checked the price of watches in the mall. A modern electronic quartz watch was 8,000 gold coins, but the appearance was a bit too fashionable and inconvenient to reveal right now. A locally available Shanghai or Meihua brand watch cost 15,000 gold coins, which was too expensive.
She pretended to think for a moment and said to Jiang Jianguo, “Dad, the old gentleman said last time that he could trade, but only for items.”
Jiang Jianguo remembered the eggs and pork belly from last time, assuming it could only be traded for food. He felt that trading for food was inconvenient; they lived in the main house, and hiding a little was fine, but hiding too much would lead to discovery, and sneaking extra meals was also troublesome.
They decided that this time, they would head to the black market to sell the century-old mountain ginseng.
They felt that keeping the wild ginseng on them while returning to the old family home was too risky; if it were discovered by Old Mrs. Jiang, the loss would far outweigh any potential gain.
Consequently, they decided that Jiang Jianguo would head straight to town with the wild ginseng, while Lin Wanting would take Tangtang back home. If Old Mrs. Jiang asked, they would say they had caught two wild rabbits—one was eaten, and the other was sold for money to buy hair ties and candy for Tangtang.
The black market usually operated between 3:00 AM and 7:00 AM, so it was still early. Jiang Jianguo avoided the crowds and slowly made his way toward town.
Meanwhile, Lin Wanting brought Tangtang back to the old house. As expected, they ran into Old Mrs. Jiang and were immediately berated: “You two lazy bums, nowhere to be seen all day! What have you been doing? Not working, just waiting to starve to death! Don’t even think about eating dinner tonight.”
Lin Wanting didn’t reply. She turned, picked up her wicker basket, and pulled Jiang Tangtang into their room. Only then did Old Mrs. Jiang notice the basket. She grabbed it and demanded, “What’s in here?” As she spoke, she started rummaging through the contents.
Only then did Lin Wanting speak up, unhurriedly: “Just some wild vegetables and medicinal herbs I dug up today. I was thinking of taking them to Mr. Qi tomorrow to trade for a bit of money so I can buy Tangtang some eggs to help her recover. You all don’t care that Tangtang was traumatized by those human traffickers and won’t give her anything nutritious, but as her parents, our hearts ache. For the past ten days or so, it’s been nothing but thin vegetable porridge; we have to find a way to fill our stomachs.”
Upon hearing this, Old Mrs. Jiang exploded: “What kind of talk is that? It’s as if I’m abusing you! With the few work points you two lazy things earn, you’re lucky to even have vegetable porridge.”
Lin Wanting didn’t yield to her, retorting: “No matter how many work points we earn, we only ever get vegetable porridge anyway. Why should we work so hard? We aren’t taking advantage of you—our points are enough to cover the porridge we drink. Who knows whose mouth the extra points go into anyway?”
Having said that, she shut the door, refusing to listen to any more of the old woman’s screaming and insults.
Old Mrs. Jiang was furious. She pounded on the door like she was trying to tear it off its hinges, cursing, “Lin Wanting, you unfilial wretch! Where is the third one? Where did your husband go? Make him come talk to me!”
Lin Wanting didn’t open the door, fearing that the enraged Old Mrs. Jiang might resort to violence. She shouted back, “How would I know? Maybe he went for a walk just so he wouldn’t have to listen to you scream!”
Seeing that she couldn’t break down the door, and not wanting to actually destroy it, Old Mrs. Jiang stomped off in a rage, taking Lin Wanting’s basket with her.