PDLP Chapter 363 The Wind and Thunder Rise, Success is Imminent
Chapter 363 The Wind and Thunder Rise, Success is Imminent
"Five thousand yuan! A lot of hard-earned money... gone without a trace!" Sizi's mother pounded her chest, her voice trembling with tears.
“Master…I…I’m sorry to the Du family…I’m sorry to the Mountain God…” Shengzi Zhi Xiaoye’s voice squeezed out from the clod of earth, trembling and out of tune.
Old Du took the ginseng root that had been "gutted and disemboweled," and held it in his hands; it felt heavy.
He stared intently with his cloudy old eyes, as if he were looking at his own grandson whom he had raised with great care but who had now passed away.
For a fleeting moment, Sizi felt that Grandpa wished he could tear open his own belly and bring back the spirit of that wild ginseng!
"Eighty-one tribulations... eighty-one tribulations! I was just about to achieve enlightenment... but at the very end, I still couldn't escape this final calamity!" Old Du stamped his feet repeatedly, shaking his white head like a rattle drum. Finally, Sizi tugged at her grandfather's clothes with heartache, but he could only wave his hand weakly. Sizi took her grandfather's big hand and found that the veins on the back of his hand were bulging.
The energy and spirit that had been with Zhi Xiaoye after giving birth surged back to his dantian! He arched himself up from the ground using both hands and feet, just like a spring that had been flattened and then suddenly bounced up.
Looking at his once crisp shirt and trousers, they had long since been turned into a playground by the mud—his shirt collar was drooping, he looked like a little rooster soaked by the rain, and the mud clods on his trousers were so hard they could be used as clods of dirt. He looked exactly like a mud doll pulled out of a mud pit!
He had no interest in patting it down. He grabbed the tool bag containing the deer bone skewers and quick rope, his head drooping more listlessly than a frostbitten eggplant. He staggered and fled down the hillside as if he were escaping.
"Pah! What do you mean, 'giving birth to Zhi Xiaoye'? I thought he was being modest. He's just a half-baked, broken blockhead!" Du Laozhao stared at the hurried figure, his teeth clenched as he hissed cold air.
The "Old Hawk," who was watching the commotion from the sidelines, clicked his tongue and said, "He's finished! His name is now famous! From now on, which ginseng guild in the Changbai Mountains will dare to hire him to 'quickly make ginseng sticks'? They'll be starving!"
"Quickly, become a lottery ticket?"
Sizi explained to the child next to him who didn't understand:
"It's using those little deer bone sticks to dig for ginseng! Look, those sticks are smooth and cool to the touch, like a magic wand made from a deer's leg."
When digging for ginseng, you must gently remove the soil, like taking off a baby ginseng's coat, being careful not to hurt its little whiskers. If you use something else to dig, you might break the baby ginseng's whiskers, and that wouldn't look pretty!
The uncles and grandfathers who hunt ginseng will shout "Bangchui! Bangchui!" when they find it, as if greeting the baby ginseng. They'll also say "Kuai dang! Kuai dang!" to bless the ginseng digging with a smooth process. This little deer bone skewer is specifically for this purpose, hence its name "Kuai dang skewer," isn't that amazing? So Grandpa, please don't blame Little Wild Brother, okay?
Old Du stroked the end of his beard, hesitated for a moment, and said in a low voice, "Everyone, keep your mouths shut about this! Things change, so leave the young man a way out!" The ginseng gang members nodded in agreement and dispersed to do whatever they were doing.
Afterwards, the "King of Ginseng" that was dug up was of average quality and size.
Old Du wrapped it up in layers of fresh moss and dewy weeds, making it airtight, with only the top few decent seedlings and red agate-like ginseng seeds showing, just to make it look presentable.
"The rain was so heavy that it filled the ginseng fields with water. Once they left the earthen mounds and were exposed to the wind, they were like boiling pots that couldn't hold in and would burst open!"
Sizi, the other day, your parents were in a rush to harvest ginseng for the 'Ginseng Baby Festival' market, but I absolutely refused to let them! These past few days, the heavens have been merciless, the sun is scorching, the north wind is howling, and the ground is so dry it's cracked. I went around to different places, testing the soil with my fingers, and only when I felt it was ready did I let them go..."
Sizi blinked: "Then how did things go wrong? Grandpa, everyone else is fine, isn't she?"
“Hey! What do you know, little girl? On a hill, the soil changes every three steps! They all look like they’re thirty-seven years old, but some are as strong as calves, while others are as withered as tuberculosis patients. They’re of different generations! I could tell right away that the soil in that clump was weird. It was damp, sticky, and gave off a chill! I was a beat slow to speak, so…” Old Du pounded his thigh.
"Grandpa, what should we do? How can we avoid 'bursting into a belly'?" Si Zi asked, pressing for answers.
"Once the ginseng is removed from the soil, it must be immediately stuffed into that insulated ginseng box. At the very least, it must be wrapped tightly with moss and weeds like Grandpa did, like wearing a thick cotton-padded coat, so that not a single wisp of wind can get in, and that's it! That kid Zhi Xiaoye, his hand gestures when lifting ginseng are like an old hand, but his 'covering' skills... are too inexperienced! Too inexperienced!" Old Du shook his head.
Sizi stretched out her little finger and gently touched the snow-white and tender "flesh" that had been rolled out by the ginseng remnants.
She felt a faint, almost living tremor at her fingertips, and her heart ached with a sharp, stabbing pain.
Sizi squatted down, plucked several handfuls of damp, soft grass, and carefully covered the ginseng baby's terrible wounds, layer upon layer, as if bandaging a seriously injured "little person"...