Chapter 1724
Rank 5
After Wang An finished asking his question, Huang Zhong raised one finger and said:
"One, just one seedling, I'm only watching over one seedling."
Upon hearing this, Wang An walked over, saying with a mixture of amusement and exasperation:
"That's not right. No matter how many seedlings you see, you should say the whole mountain is covered in them, hahaha."
Huang Zhong scratched his head awkwardly, looking embarrassed, and said:
"I...I forgot, brother, I..."
At this moment, Huang Zhong's face was filled with tension, because he knew the rule that one should not speak carelessly when calling out to the mountain, but he forgot about it in his excitement.
Wang An waved his hand dismissively, interrupting:
"It's none of your business. We're not here to respond to every call to arms. Besides, we're not from the Ginseng Gang, so we don't have all those rules."
Hearing Wang An say this, Huang Zhong's expression brightened again, and he pointed to a ginseng seedling in the weeds and said to Wang An:
"Brother, look, this is the seedling."
Wang An nodded with a smile, took out a deer bone skewer, and squatted down.
After rummaging through the soil under the ginseng vine a few times, Wang An discovered that the ginseng's rhizome was very short and showed no signs of mutation; it was just an ordinary ginseng root. He then stood up and said:
"Xiao Zhong, you can carry this Miao Erjiazi. Get some practice. We're sure to run into a lot of big cargo soon. If it's just your brother Mu carrying it all by himself, he won't be able to handle it."
Upon hearing this, Huang Zhong nodded heavily, took out his tools, and squatted down.
A little while later, Wang Li and Mu Xueli, those two idiots, came over with Xiao Hei.
Upon meeting, Mu Xueli excitedly said:
"Brother-in-law, have you found that old Zhao? Where is he? Let me see him."
Wang An raised his head slightly, pointed with his chin to the auspicious tree, then pointed to Huang Zhong, and said with full confidence and ambition:
"Not only did we find the omen, but Xiao Zhong also found a key to open the mountain! I think there must be a lot of good stuff in this old village. Let's work hard and try to bring out every single one, hahaha!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Li and Mu Xueli's faces lit up with joy, and they laughed along with Wang An.
In the ginseng digging business, there's a saying that if the first ginseng seedling you encounter is the "key to unlocking the mountain," it means the ginseng digging will go very smoothly.
Even in the eyes of some older ginseng diggers, the first seedling to encounter the second Jiazi is much better than the first seedling to encounter the fourth leaf.
Although the 200-year cycle is not worth much money, it has a very good meaning and is also known as the "key to opening the mountain".
While the fourth-grade leaves are more valuable, the number "four" sounds like the word for "death" in Chinese, so if the first ginseng seedling has a fourth-grade leaf, it is considered unlucky.
It's important to know that the older generation of ginseng diggers were very superstitious.
Even when shouting "Shanshan" (a type of ginseng), if you see a four-leaf ginseng, you can't just shout "four-leaf ginseng." Instead, you have to shout "Four seasons of peace" or "Steady and secure." They are racking their brains to avoid saying the word "4" alone.
However, in Wang An's view, these are completely unnecessary. To put it bluntly, they are just a bunch of useless formalism.
After laughing, Wang An called to Huang Zhong and said:
"Xiao Zhong, leave Miao Erjiazi there for now, come here."
Huang Zhong agreed and stood up.
Wang An pointed his staff forward and said:
"This time, let's start with this big tree and first spread out the poles to the east. After we've finished wading through the east side, we'll wade through the west side."
"Now look at the stalks. If they're the ones below the lampstand, don't lift them yet. Just tie the red rope to the stalks and that's it. We'll deal with that later. Let's find the big ones first and lift the big ones. Put the less valuable ones aside for now, understand?"
After Wang An finished speaking, Mu Xueli immediately agreed:
"Okay, brother-in-law." Wang Li nodded.
"Yes, I know, Fourth Brother."
Huang Zhong, however, raised a question:
"Brother, what if we accidentally hit a tire-spinning stick? If we don't lift it, won't it fall down?"
Wang An shook his head and said:
"The number of tire-spinning tools is limited, and it's not that easy to come across them. Besides, it's not that we won't lift the second tire, we can't afford to miss them, but we have to leave them for last, you know? Let's get the big truck out first."
Huang Zhong nodded, indicating that he understood.
Seeing that the three men had no further questions, Wang An took a few steps and stood to the east of the large tree that seemed to have auspicious signs, and said:
"I'll be the first stick, Lao Wu the second, Xiao Zhong the third, Xue Li, you stay on the side, everyone slow down and watch carefully, don't forget the big goods. Okay, let's start arranging the sticks."
After saying that, Wang An used a stick to clear away the weeds in front of him, and started walking forward while looking around with his head down.
Mu Xueli and the other two agreed and moved forward almost simultaneously, making the same movements.
Although the four of them walked very fast, each step forward was only a small distance of less than 30 centimeters, basically walking with the heel of one foot touching the toe of the other.
Only in this way can the rope stick in hand completely clear away the weeds in front of you each time, allowing your eyes to see the various plants inside.
After walking only three or four meters, Huang Zhong spoke first:
"wooden club"
Although Huang Zhong's voice was not loud, the excitement and surprise it contained were undeniable.
In a short period of time, Huang Zhong discovered two ginseng seedlings. How could Huang Zhong, a novice, not be happy with such incredible luck?
Wang An and the other two were also very happy, when they heard Mu Xueli, who was next to Huang Zhong, ask:
"What grade of leaf?"
As Huang Zhong used a stick to pry open the ginseng vines, he said in a rather excited voice:
"First, second, third, fourth, fifth, fifth rank, no, fifth and a half rank, it's fifth and a half rank."
After saying this, Huang Zhong turned to Wang An and said excitedly:
"Brother, I've found a seedling of grade 5.5."
Upon hearing this, the smiles on Wang An's and the other two's faces froze instantly, and their minds went completely blank.
The main issue is that ginseng has five-grade leaves, six-grade leaves, and even seven-grade leaves, but what level is this five and a half grade?
Wang An forcefully planted the stick in the ground to make a mark, and as he walked towards Huang Zhong, he frowned and said with a puzzled expression:
"A fifth-and-a-half-rank official? How can a fifth-and-a-half-rank official even exist?"
Mu Xueli and Wang Li, who were closer to Huang Zhong, also planted their ginseng sticks in the ground and went to look at the so-called fifth-grade ginseng with curiosity.
When Wang An got closer, he finally understood what Huang Zhong meant by "a fifth-and-a-half rank".
It turns out that this is a true six-leaf ginseng seedling. However, the ginseng seedling was probably bitten by insects or trampled by other mountain animals when it first sprouted in spring, which caused one of the forks of this ginseng seedling to grow very small.
Therefore, in his excitement, Huang Zhong blurted out, "Fifth and a half rank!" (End of Chapter)