After fleeing the famine, my older sister and I married the brother next door.

"Sister, look at these wild celery stalks over here, they're so fresh! Let's pick a lot, dry them when we get home, and add a handful to soups in winter, it'll definitely make them delicious!" Su Xiaoqing said happily as she deftly pinched off the tender stems.

"Yeah, it's sunny here, and nobody comes around, so it grows really well." Su Xiaoyin replied, her hands still busy picking. The two of them got more and more excited as they picked, and before they knew it, they had moved a little further away from where Chen's father and the others had been cleaning.

As Su Xiaoyin was looking down, searching for a particularly plump clump of shepherd's purse, her peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of several plants that looked somewhat different hidden beneath a dense clump of ferns nearby. The leaves were palmate compound leaves, and the slender stems were topped with clusters of small red berries. An idea struck her, and she crouched down, carefully parting the fern leaves that were obscuring them.

The plant's shape... the more she looked at it, the more familiar it seemed, and her heart began to race. Back in Jiangnan, although her family was of modest means, her mother was quite knowledgeable about pharmacology and would occasionally guide them in identifying common herbs. These leaves... these red berries...

"Dad! Dashan! Xiaohe! Come and see!" Su Xiaoyin straightened up, her voice trembling slightly with excitement, and called out towards the valley.

Chen Dashan was swinging his pickaxe when he heard his wife's strange call. His heart tightened, thinking they were in danger. He immediately dropped his tools and rushed over with his father and younger brother. Chen's father and Chen Xiaohe also changed their expressions and followed closely behind.

"Xiaoyin, what's wrong? What happened?" Chen Dashan strode over to his wife, slightly out of breath, his eyes quickly scanning the surroundings.

Su Xiaoyin pointed to the plants on the ground, her voice low but filled with unbelievable surprise: "Look at this... it looks so much like... ginseng?"

"Ginseng?" Chen's father and Chen Xiaohe exclaimed simultaneously. Chen's father immediately squatted down, held his breath, and leaned closer to examine it carefully. The palmate compound leaves, the red fruit at the top of the stem, the overall shape of the plant... the more he looked, the wider his eyes widened. Suddenly, he remembered something and pulled out a small booklet carefully wrapped in oiled paper from his pocket—it was a picture book that Doctor Li had lent him to identify common medicinal herbs, with simple pictures and text descriptions.

His hands trembled as he turned to a page, repeatedly comparing the illustrations in the book with the plants before him. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, illuminating the plants and the yellowed pages.

"It's...it looks just like it..." Mr. Chen's voice trembled slightly. He looked up at his son and daughter-in-law, his eyes filled with immense shock and an almost reverent caution. "The shape of the leaves, the fruit...it's eight or nine tenths like the ginseng drawn in Doctor Li's booklet!"

Chen Dashan squatted down as well. Although he didn't know much about medicinal herbs, seeing his father's reaction, he knew this was no small matter. Ginseng! That was a legendary, life-saving, extremely precious medicinal herb! An ordinary family might never see a wild one in their entire life!

"Dad, is it really ginseng?" Chen Xiaohe also came over, his voice very low, as if afraid of disturbing the "treasure" on the ground.

"Most likely!" Mr. Chen took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He looked around and solemnly instructed his two sons and daughters-in-law, "No one is to tell anyone about this! Not a single word can be uttered! Understand?"

The three nodded emphatically. Wealth is tempting, let alone such rare and precious treasures. If word gets out, this family, which has just settled down, will likely be embroiled in trouble again.

"Let's search this area carefully again and see if there are any more." Mr. Chen stood up, his sharp eyes scanning the damp, fern-covered slope. "Watch your step, don't trample them."

The family immediately dispersed, searching intently around the discovery point. Sunlight moved through the woods, and time quietly slipped away. Suddenly, Chen Dashan found another plant under a nearby old tree, seemingly larger than the ones Su Xiaoyin had found, with thicker stems and more sturdier leaves. Then, Chen Xiaohe also found a small plant near a crevice in the rocks.

In total, they found three plants with obvious morphological characteristics that could be identified as ginseng, and two others that were suspected but not entirely certain.

Looking at these precious plants growing quietly in the humus, Mr. Chen was filled with excitement, but even more so with long-term considerations. He remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking, his voice low and firm: "Don't dig them up."

"Not digging?" Chen Xiaohe asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Yes, we won't dig them up." Father Chen's gaze swept over his son and daughter-in-law. "These ginseng roots have been growing here for who knows how many years; they are the essence of this mountain. Since we've discovered them, it's fate, but we can't sever this connection. Digging them up and exchanging them for silver would certainly be a windfall, but it would be gone. Let's leave them here and let them continue to grow. Let's remember this place, and every time we go up the mountain, we'll secretly come and check on them."

Su Xiaoyin's eyes lit up, and she chimed in, "Dad's right! We can observe when these ginseng plants will produce seeds. Once they do, we can carefully collect them and scatter them around here. That way, maybe a small patch of ginseng will grow here someday! That would be a truly lasting and precious place!"

Mr. Chen nodded repeatedly at the idea, a relieved smile on his face: "Xiao Yin has thought of everything! That's exactly right! We can't do something as foolish as killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."

Chen Dashan completely agreed: "Yes, we can stay here and live a long and steady life, guarding this mountain."

"Then let's..." Chen Xiaohe looked at the ginseng plants, still somewhat reluctant.

"Today, let's pretend we didn't see them." Mr. Chen's tone was firm. "Go about your business as usual. Besides these few ginseng plants, look around. Are there any other medicinal herbs that Dr. Li's catalog lists, that might not be as expensive but that we recognize? Pick the common ones if you see them. You can dry them and exchange them for some pocket money, or keep them for your own use."

So, the family suppressed their excitement at finding ginseng and began their search again. This time, they identified and collected some relatively common medicinal herbs, such as a few stalks of Bupleurum with small yellow flowers, some Plantago asiatica with thick leaves, and a small patch of Leonurus japonicus. Although these were not as precious as ginseng, they were still a real find.

The sun was rising higher, and it was almost noon. Chen's father glanced at the sky and said, "Alright, that's enough for today. The grass in the valley has been mostly cleared; we'll come back tomorrow to till it more thoroughly. Pack your things, let's go down the mountain."

Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing's baskets were filled with fresh wild vegetables and common medicinal herbs. Chen Dashan and Chen Xiaohe's baskets contained some sturdy wooden sticks that they had cut down while clearing the valley, which could be used as firewood or for building scaffolding in the future.

The family descended the mountain along the same path they had come from, their steps seemingly lighter than when they had gone up.