Chapter 23: Harvesting the Ginseng

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Red, flattened fruit, a rhizome growing up to fifty centimeters long, palmately compound leaves with serrated edges—what else could it be but ginseng?

Lin Jiangmei hurried forward in delight. Lowering her eyes to the three ginseng plants before her, she had never imagined that she would make such an unexpected find today.

Wild ginseng was rarely seen. To come across not just one but three at once was enough to unsettle even someone as seasoned as she was.

She swiftly pulled a small hoe from her basket and carefully loosened the soil around the ginseng. When she saw the roots beneath, she became even more cautious, handling them with the utmost care.

Ginseng was valuable only when its roots and tendrils were kept whole. It took Lin Jiangmei nearly ten minutes to dig up a single plant intact.

The moment she saw the ginseng in its entirety, Lin Jiangmei drew in a sharp breath. The plant in her hands weighed at least three pounds, and its shape already closely resembled a human figure. There was no need to think twice—the ginseng had to be at least a hundred years old.

She broke off a leaf and carefully wrapped the ginseng. Then, her face alight with joy, she began digging up the second plant.

…

The day’s greatest haul was not limited to those few ginseng plants. After Fang Mingxi and Tang Yao walked some distance ahead, they found another ginseng plant on the map.

Although there was only one, Fang Mingxi could tell from the rhizome and the fruit above that it was sure to be a large one.

There was also a patch of wood ear fungus growing on the ground nearby. It was a deep, inky green and looked almost like moss from a distance.

Tang Yao crouched beside it, picked up a small piece, and held it beneath her nose to sniff.

“Xixi, doesn’t this look like wood ear fungus? It’s so green and glossy. It should still be good, right?” she asked Fang Mingxi behind her. Accustomed to hearing a simple “yes,” she began carefully gathering the patch into her shoulder basket with a small wooden shovel.

Fang Mingxi walked over to the ginseng. Fortunately, Tang Yao still did not recognize ginseng. Otherwise, they would have had to give away such an enormous plant today.

In the impoverished countryside, where medicine was scarce, ginseng was practically a miracle drug. Her eyes flickered as she opened the interface and activated the entrenching shovel.

The instant her hand touched the shovel, Fang Mingxi suddenly paused. She opened the map again and carefully searched for any other food in the vicinity.

She could gather only three kinds of food in a single day. The first had been given to the old granny, and what Tang Yao had gathered was the second. If she dug up the ginseng now, then the only food she would obtain today would be the wood ear fungus.

The handcart was still only ten percent full, and she had been hoping to fill it completely today.

The interface showed watermelons one kilometer away, sweet potatoes two kilometers away, and a green dot flashing ten kilometers away.

Fang Mingxi tapped the green dot, and an image of a nest of rabbits appeared.

There was nothing else. She did not know whether so much food had appeared today or whether the interface’s exploration function could only detect things within ten kilometers.

Rabbits were too nimble for two children to catch. Watermelons were not filling, though they could be planted. Sweet potatoes were large, highly productive, and inconspicuous if taken outside.

Without much hesitation, Fang Mingxi made her decision. She selected the sweet potatoes and moved them to the area around the ginseng.

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Where Tang Yao could not see, the landscape in this area changed rapidly. The ground, which had just been covered in green grass, was suddenly replaced by a mass of leaves and vines, while the original grassland appeared two kilometers away.

Fang Mingxi stared at the large watermelons on the interface and licked her lips. She could only apologize to her stomach. Watermelons could be eaten anytime; for now, the important matter came first.

She shut down the interface with some reluctance, then stared nervously at the ginseng and the sweet potato vines before activating the entrenching shovel.

Please, please—let me succeed just once.

The entrenching shovel bored into the ground. As usual, it first loosened the soil, then burrowed back and forth, harvesting the sweet potatoes.

One moment it flew out of the ground; the next, it plunged back in.

As the shovel rose and fell, many small sweet potatoes were brought to the surface. Along with them came the ginseng Fang Mingxi had been longing for most.

Wrapped in earth, they lay on the ground beneath Fang Mingxi’s delighted gaze.

Her goal achieved, she had the shovel gather nearly all of the sweet potatoes, leaving only a little behind, then recalled it. She ran over, dropped onto the ground in front of the ginseng, and gathered the dirt-covered sweet potatoes and ginseng into her backpack.

The small pile of sweet potatoes was absorbed into the system interface. A black hole suddenly appeared above the basket, and then the sweet potatoes and ginseng fell steadily inside.

The ginseng landed safely, and Fang Mingxi finally allowed herself to relax.

Thank heaven, thank earth, and thank the Mountain Foraging Trading Game.

Food that landed on the ground did not count toward her gathering limit. From now on, she could exploit this loophole with the entrenching shovel.

Having obtained what she wanted most, Fang Mingxi turned and called out to Tang Yao, who was searching everywhere for her.

“Sister…”

Tang Yao, who had been running around frantically after failing to find her, spun around at the sound of her voice. At once, she saw Fang Mingxi sitting in the grass.

She let out a huge sigh of relief and patted her chest in lingering fear. “Xixi, you scared me half to death! You mustn’t run off again. Otherwise, how am I supposed to explain it to Granny Tong?”

She ran over and lifted Fang Mingxi out of the dirt. Then, lowering her head, she suddenly noticed that Fang Mingxi was clutching several rotten sweet potatoes and refusing to let go.

“Sweet potatoes!”

Tang Yao was instantly overjoyed.

Although they had found something every time they went into the mountains these past few days, most of it had been mushrooms, wood ear fungus, fruit, and the like. Aside from the white sweet potatoes and wild potatoes they had found earlier, she had not come across anything that could replace cornmeal porridge in a long time.

They had not brought Grandpa Yu’s hoe up the mountain today, so Tang Yao could only use a wooden shovel to loosen the soil. She guessed that there probably were not many sweet potatoes, since quite a few of those already unearthed were rotten.

Sure enough, after she laboriously shoveled away the soil, she found that the sweet potatoes beneath were very small. Each vine held only a sparse handful, most no larger than a fist.

Tang Yao was not disappointed. Having something was better than having nothing.

…

By the time they finished digging up the sweet potatoes and headed down the mountain, three minutes of exploration time remained.

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Fang Mingxi glanced toward the woods in the distance. Lin Jiangmei was no longer anywhere in sight.

It had been a tremendous harvest today. They had found wood ear fungus and sweet potatoes, but most importantly, they had obtained ginseng.

The malted milk Grandpa and Grandma had brought was long gone. For the past two days, Fang Mingxi had simply eaten whatever the adults ate, and by the end of each day, her mouth felt so bland she could have grown feathers.

At least sweet potatoes were sweet. Tonight, they could improve their meal a little.

It was a pity that she could not muddy the waters and slip the fish through today. Recently, Grandpa and Grandma had been finishing work before dark. Unless the woods were completely black, she could not take the sweet potatoes out of her backpack and mix them in unnoticed. The villagers’ eyes were too sharp.

She could hardly point at a pile of barely ten small sweet potatoes and claim that they weighed twenty pounds.

As soon as the two of them reached the foot of the mountain, they saw Fang Bosong and the others waiting there after work.

The moment they saw the two children coming down, they immediately took the basket from Tang Yao.

“Yao Yao, what good things have you found this time?”

“Oh! Sweet potatoes and wood ear fungus. Both of these are hard to come by.”

Tang Yao caught her breath. “Grandpas, there were only this many sweet potatoes on the mountain. I don’t know if someone else picked the rest and left these behind.” She was still somewhat disappointed. This time, there were only enough sweet potatoes for one meal—not nearly as many as the white sweet potatoes they had found before.

With so many people, they could only have a taste each.

Fang Bosong brushed the dirt from Fang Mingxi’s clothes. “What’s there to worry about? Sweet potatoes can be planted. Once we have some time in the next couple of days, we’ll plant them in the ground. Next year, we’ll harvest a whole heap of sweet potatoes.”

Zhong Zhicheng chimed in, “That’s right. We buried the potatoes from a few days ago as well. Next year, we’ll have a whole heap of potatoes to harvest.”

“Really? Sweet potatoes can be planted without seeds too?” Tang Yao asked in astonishment. A few days earlier, she had already thought it miraculous to see sprouting potatoes buried directly in the soil. Could sweet potatoes be grown the same way?

Zhong Zhicheng confidently promised, “Of course. Don’t underestimate Uncle Zhong, Yao Yao. Just wait until next year and see!”

The others teased him, laughing. “Ha-ha, then we’ll leave this matter to you, Old Zhong.”

“That’s right, Yao Yao. Just rely on your Uncle Zhong.”

“No problem…”

The whole group burst into laughter, and Fang Mingxi laughed along with them.

Plant them, by all means. The food was already in her backpack. As long as the sweet potatoes produced a good harvest, she would find a chance to slip them in somehow.

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