Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 319 Wild ginseng?
In the blink of an eye, Lin Heng had reached the top of the mountain. This place was quite high, and he could see most of the setting red sun casting a layer of fire on the distant dragon-like ridge, as if a divine dragon had revived.

Flocks of birds flew out of the woods and soared in the sky. The tall old trees with vines looked like strange human figures. From time to time, the cries of monkeys came from the distant mountains, telling of the depth and tranquility of the mountains.

"Let's go back and see if we can catch any prey. We seem to have heard the calls of golden roosters and bamboo partridges over there."

After taking a look at the huge red sun, Lin Heng pointed to the ravine in the front left and said.

The search in the afternoon was still fruitless, which made him a little bored. Ginseng was indeed not that easy to find.

"it is good!"

Lin Yue nodded and followed Lin Heng down the mountain.

"Are you coming to the remaining mountain tomorrow?" Lin Yue asked, pointing at the last mountain.

The plan when we came here was to search all the mountains adjacent to the mountain where the century-old wild ginseng was found. Now there is only one left.

"Come on, we won't be satisfied until we finish searching." Lin Heng looked at the not-so-high mountain and felt that the ginseng was among them.

"Okay then." Lin Yue nodded and walked forward.

They searched for a long time in the ravine where they heard the calls of the golden rooster and bamboo partridge, but to their dismay, they couldn't find them. They had no idea where those guys were hiding.

The leaves are already dense in the summer, and the light from the flashlight became dim after using it for a few days, so I finally had to give up.

It was already ten o'clock in the evening when we returned to the shelter. We ate roasted taro and boiled mullet soup. All the food was gone, not a drop left.

The bed for the two of them was made of mugwort. They had always wanted to make a hammock, but never had the time.

"It seems that I won't be able to catch any big prey this time when I go back." Lin Yue said with emotion as he was cleaning up Sanqi.

"Nothing comes without sacrifice. Our main goal this time is to find ginseng." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"I see you're a little depressed."

"I'm angry because I didn't find any ginseng." Lin Heng shook his head. The more hope he had, the greater his disappointment.

"I hope I can gain something tomorrow." Lin Yue said with a smile.

After eating, they lay down on the straw beds and fell asleep early. The next morning, they got up when it was just light, made a taro and plum fish soup, fed the dog, and went to the last mountain to look for it.

This time the two were particularly careful, but because there were not many plants under the forest on this last mountain, they finished their search at around two o'clock in the afternoon.

"Failed." Lin Heng shook his head speechlessly.

Lin Yue patted his shoulder and consoled him: "It's a common thing. Wild ginseng is hard to find. We don't have that kind of luck. Let's focus on hunting next time."

"Let's look for prey in the afternoon." Lin Heng said. In fact, Xiongba had also found some traces of prey these days, but he gave up because he didn't want to disrupt the rhythm of looking for ginseng.

The two discussed it and decided to go back and look for any prey.

After walking for a few kilometers, Xiongba seemed to suddenly smell something on the ground and walked in one direction.

Lin Heng hurriedly followed behind and looked around. After walking for a distance, he found some feces that looked like black beans.

Because he didn't find any footprints, he couldn't tell whether it was a muntjac or a roe deer. After walking for a distance, Xiongba looked around in confusion, obviously he had lost it.

"It's okay, let's look around." Lin Heng touched its dog's head. If Xiongba could find every trace, hunting wouldn't be so difficult.

Not long after walking, we found the wild boar feces we had found before, and after tracking it for a while, we still found nothing.

The eldest brother and Fengshou, who were not far away from Lin Heng, also gained nothing.

As the sun was about to set, Lin Heng felt a little tired on the way back. He walked to a gray-white basalt in front to rest and drink water, staring at the quiet forest in a daze.

Although I didn't find anything, the process of exploring the deep mountains and forests was still very enjoyable. It can be said that I felt relaxed both physically and mentally.

"Let's see if we can get some thicker rubber to make a bee-proof suit in a few days, and then we'll go teach these hornets a lesson." Lin Heng said, looking at a white hornet's nest on the opposite mountain.

I have encountered quite a few hornets these days, including the black-ringed hornets that build honeycombs on trees and the terrifying golden-ringed hornets that build nests underground.

They almost got tricked, luckily they discovered it from a distance.

Lin Yue said: "Then we need to make the seam thicker. These wasps can sting people to death."

"Yeah." Lin Heng nodded. He naturally understood this logic, but bee pupae are delicious, and adult hornets can be soaked in wine to cure rheumatism.

"Let's go." After resting for a while, Lin Yue stood up and said.

Lin Heng stood up and when he turned to leave, his eyes suddenly flashed, as if he saw something good.

He stopped in confusion, walked in that direction, pushed aside the branches of the bushes above, and found the good thing he had just seen among the green leaves below.

The six petals and four hexapetaled compound leaves form a hexagon, like a lotus flower. The stem in the middle has a white pedicel, and the red fruits that were supposed to be on it are gone.

Could this not be the ginseng that Lin Heng has been looking for for five days?
"Hey, what's wrong?" Lin Yue turned back curiously.

"Brother, look what this is?" Lin Heng pointed at the plant in front of him and couldn't help grinning.

"That's impossible. We've clearly searched this place before."

Lin Yue ran over and said with his eyes wide open.

Lin Heng laughed and said, "I also thought it was impossible, but I just happened to see that leaf and the stem in the middle and thought it looked a bit like it, so I came over to take a look."

Lin Yue took a closer look and gave a thumbs up: "It seems that you are lucky, brother."

"Brother, please look around, maybe there are more." Lin Heng said as he took out the red string to tie up the ginseng.

Wild ginseng is really amazing. You may miss it even if you look carefully. Sometimes, even if you pull out every plant this year, it may appear again next year.

Because this thing will go dormant, it is normal for it not to produce plants for a year or two.

"I'll go look for it." Lin Yue searched carefully around.

Lin Heng took out a knife and cut down all the other plants around, and then used a wooden stick to sort out the root veins of the ginseng bit by bit.

After searching for a while without finding any, Lin Yue came over to help him dig ginseng. This was an extremely delicate job, as the value of the ginseng would be greatly reduced if even a piece of the root was missing.

They started digging at around six o'clock and continued until half past seven. Neither of them dared to breathe and worked very carefully until they took out the ginseng intact.

"Huh, we finally dug it out!" Lin Hengshen breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Yue looked at the ginseng in front of him and exclaimed: "This ginseng is not simple. It must be seventy or eighty years old, right?"

Although he had never dug ginseng himself, he knew how to identify the age. The upper part of this ginseng was densely packed with ginseng, and there was also a "jujube core" that only 70 or 80-year-old ginseng had.

"Yes." Lin Heng nodded with a smile. The ginseng dug this time was smaller than the hundred-year-old ginseng last time. It was less than a hundred years old, but it must have been seventy or eighty years old.

The ginseng's appearance is also completely different. The 150-year-old wild ginseng last time had two 'legs' and looked like a human, but this ginseng has four 'legs' and more ginseng whiskers.

But because it was summer and the soil was soft, the digging was much faster than the last time when the 100-year-old ginseng was dug. "Congratulations, brother, this can be sold for tens of thousands, right? It's really a one-time fortune." Lin Yue said with envy. He didn't know that the wild ginseng that Lin Heng dug last time was 150 years old.

"Not sure. I plan to save it for now and see how the situation develops." Lin Heng said with a smile.

This kind of good thing will only become more and more precious, so it is best not to sell it unless it is absolutely necessary.

"That's right. Ginseng of this vintage is extremely rare." Lin Yue nodded, feeling genuinely happy for Lin Heng.

After putting the ginseng into a plastic bag for preservation, the two men walked back with flashlights.

"Let's go back and catch some fish tonight to celebrate." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"Okay." Lin Yue nodded, then shook his head and sighed, "It seems like I'm not destined to dig ginseng."

Lin Heng patted his eldest brother on the shoulder and said, "This forest should be more suitable for ginseng growth. Come back and have a look when you have time. Maybe you will find it."

"But my harvest this time is pretty good. Panax notoginseng can be sold for three or four hundred." Lin Yue said with a smile. He was content with the harvest this time.

Carrying their things, the two men returned to the shelter under the guidance of the flashlight which was no longer very bright. Unfortunately, they did not encounter any prey on the way.

It is difficult to hunt pheasants and golden pheasants at night in the summer because the leaves are too dense and they hide in them and cannot be seen at all.

Back at the shelter, the two of them grilled four half-pound plum fish, and they even smeared the last bit of broad bean sauce on the two they ate.

After eating it, I was still not satisfied, so I went to catch another one. This time, the only prey I had left to take home were the big turtle and the black fish.

After eating and drinking, the two of them lay on the straw bed, smelling the fragrance of mugwort and fell asleep.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next morning. When Lin Heng woke up, the first thing he did was to look at his ginseng. If it was eaten by rats or something, he would be heartbroken for half his life.

He was relieved when he found everything was intact. He looked at his elder brother who had just gotten up and said, "Pack up and go home."

"Let's go up to the big pond and check out the fishing traps first." Lin Yue nodded.

Grabbing a net bag, the two men walked upwards. Just as they arrived at the place where the fish traps were set, they heard the sound of splashing water.

Lin Heng quickly blocked the exit, and then removed the water plants covering the surface. If it was not covered, the small fish would be eaten by the early birds.

He looked at the fish and smiled, "Although there are not as many as before, it's still not bad. There's even a big mandarin fish. I can make stinky mandarin fish when I get home."

Lin Yue nodded: "I can catch five or six kilograms of fish."

The two men started catching fish. The largest one was a salmon weighing more than one kilogram. The rest were two mullets weighing more than half a kilogram. There were also quite a few mullets weighing one or two ounces and small mandarin fish. Then there were brook grouper, black carp, and minnow.

The mandarin fish and black carp that were too small were released, but all the stream grouper and black carp were collected. After they were killed by falling to the ground on the shore, they were directly dissected and their internal organs were fed to Xiongba and Fengshou who were accompanying them.

It is destined that you cannot bring the plum fish and mandarin fish back alive, so just kill them here, clean them, sprinkle them with salt and throw in some wild peppercorns to marinate them, and they will be very fresh when you take them back.

There are a lot of wild peppercorns in this mountain. There is one next to the pond, and you can smell the rich fragrance of the peppercorns from afar.

After finishing, the two went back. The fishing trap at the entrance of the camp caught relatively small fish. They ate some and fed the rest to Xiongba.

Then they packed up and went back. The mushrooms, herbs and other things were almost dried. The Panax notoginseng dug by his elder brother was not dry yet, but it was also half as light.

In addition, since there was no rice or flour, it would be much easier to go back than when we came here.

At six o'clock, the two took one last look at the shelter, made sure there was no rain, unpacked everything and set off for home.

The two of them walked carefully along the stream, as they were likely to encounter pheasants, donkey-headed ducks, etc. here, which was their last hope.

In a blink of an eye, they arrived at the shelter above Sanchagou. They didn't see a single chicken along the way, as if they had no chance of catching any prey.

"Are you going to collect honey by carrying your things on your back?" Lin Heng asked his elder brother.

Lin Yue nodded: "Carry it on your back. I'm afraid it's not safe here. If it gets stolen, I'll cry to death."

"really."

Lin Heng thought so too. Other people in the village would come here from time to time.

Carrying their things, the two men climbed over the mountain and went down to the halfway point. Soon they found the mark they made last year.

Putting the things down, Lin Heng put on a bee-proof hat and walked towards the location of the beehive.

This time he directly lit a fire and fanned the smoke into the nest, and Lin Heng quickly harvested the honey while holding his breath.

This bee colony has not changed much from last year, and it seems that the number is a little less.

After the harvest, Lin Heng roughly estimated that there were about three kilograms of honey, all of which were relatively pure locust tree honey. There are quite a few locust trees nearby.

"You didn't get stung this time?" Lin Yue asked.

"It's inevitable that you will get stung, and it still stung me." Lin Heng said, pointing to the base of his right hand.

Then he added with a smile: "But it's okay, I got stung a lot, the pain will go away after a while."

"Then I'll come next time and learn it too." Lin Yue said after taking a look at the beehive.

"Sure, there's no harm in learning it." Lin Heng didn't refuse.

After harvesting the honey, the two men took their things and walked back. When they turned around, they saw that the two dogs Xiongba Fengshou were walking down the mountain, as if they had discovered something.

"Come back, we won't explore this time." Lin Heng shook his head and called the two dogs back.

Today is already the 18th. We can’t delay any longer and I don’t want to delay any longer. It’s better to wait until autumn to hunt large prey.

After calling the two dogs back, they crossed the mountain and returned to the camp above Sanchagou, then crossed the stream and walked back along the ridge.

As they walked, Xiongba and the two dogs stopped and looked ahead.

"There's someone talking in front, seems like they've caught some prey?" Lin Yue asked curiously.

"You'll know after asking." Lin Heng said, cleared his throat and shouted to the front: "Did you kill any prey?"

When Lin Heng's voice was heard, someone immediately responded: "Lin Heng, you are also in Sanchagou!"

Then everyone stopped and waited for him. Lin Heng's words now carried weight, and the villagers would unconsciously respect him.

Lin Heng and the other person walked over and saw that the team was led by Wang Kaidian and Tian Baishun, together with eight other people from the village, forming a hunting team of ten people. The prey they caught were two wild boars, one big and one small.

The big ones weigh about 150 to 160 kilograms, and the small ones weigh only 40 to 50 kilograms at most. In addition, some people also have golden roosters and bamboo chickens tied around their waists.

"You guys are really awesome, catching two such big ones." Lin Heng praised while looking at the wild boars.

Lin Yue asked curiously: "Where did you fight?"

(End of this chapter)