Chapter 1726
The Legendary Ginseng
Wang An walked closer, pulled out a red rope, tied it to the ginseng seedling, and then stood up and said:
"Good, good, that's great! Xiao Zhong, you and your fifth brother keep practicing with the sticks. I'll carry the bamboo stick, hahaha!"
After Wang An finished speaking, Huang Zhong suddenly said:
"Brother, can I carry this bamboo shoot?"
You could see from Huang Zhong's eyes that he longed to dig for ginseng himself.
Wang An was taken aback upon hearing this, and was about to speak when Huang Zhong continued:
"Brother, it's just that, just in case, what if someone says I bumped into something like Xu Zi, brother, please don't..."
Before Huang Zhong could finish speaking, Wang An interrupted him with a speechless expression:
"No, Xiao Zhong, carrying a wooden club is no easy job. You have to squat or kneel there for several minutes at a time. Can you handle it?"
Upon hearing this, Huang Zhong immediately replied with a determined expression:
"Brother, I can, I can handle it." Looking up at Wang An, Huang Zhong said, his voice lacking confidence.
"I'm afraid I'll damage the whiskers, and then the club will be worthless."
Wang An and Wang Li exchanged a smile, then subconsciously glanced at Mu Xueli, who was intently digging for ginseng not far away.
The main reason is that Wang An and Wang Li now have almost the same idea: that there really is a second person like Mu Xueli who likes to dig for ginseng.
It's important to know that ginseng digging is a really tough job. It's incredibly tedious, requiring constant attention to the distribution of the ginseng roots and careful control of the force applied. In short, impatient people simply can't do this job.
Wang Li suddenly said:
"Fourth Brother, Xiao Zhong wants to give it a try, so why don't we let him try? Anyway, neither of us is very good at lifting the club, maybe Xiao Zhong is better than both of us."
Wang An nodded, then turned to Huang Zhong and said:
“Alright, then you can do it. Let me tell you, Xiao Zhong, don’t worry about breaking the whiskers. No matter who lifts this thing, he can’t guarantee that he can lift it out intact.”
"Once you're done, just go all out and do it. If you mess it up and things go wrong, I'll take responsibility. It's okay."
As he spoke, Wang An patted Huang Zhong on the shoulder encouragingly.
It is foreseeable that there must be a lot of ginseng in this old gully that no one has waded through for more than a hundred years, and with a lot of ginseng, the probability of finding fifth-grade and sixth-grade leaves will greatly increase.
Therefore, if Mu Xueli were to dig up high-grade ginseng by herself alone, she would definitely not be able to do it all. Since Huang Zhong wanted to take the initiative to take on part of the ginseng digging work, Wang An naturally had no reason to stop him.
And Wang An would not only not stop him, but would be very happy about it.
After Wang An finished speaking, Huang Zhong nodded heavily, then raised his head and said to Wang An with a determined expression:
"Don't worry, brother. I'll be extra careful before I lift the club, and I'll try my best not to break a single hair."
Wang An smiled slightly, patted Huang Zhong on the shoulder again, and said:
"It's alright, just take your time. No one will blame you if you break it. Besides, a fourth-grade leaf isn't worth much, it doesn't matter, hehehehe."
Huang Zhong, with a serious expression, squatted down and began digging for ginseng, while Wang An and Wang Li continued wading through the grass and using sticks.
After walking only a few meters, Wang An and Wang Li whispered almost simultaneously:
"wooden club!"
The two were not far apart, so they naturally heard each other's voices. They both looked up almost simultaneously and asked each other:
"What grade of leaf?"
"Two Jiazi".
"Three-grade leaf".
Wang Li was the one who mentioned "second-grade leaves," while Wang An was the one who mentioned "third-grade leaves." However, with the outstanding sixth-grade and fourth-grade leaves already established, these second-grade and third-grade leaves did not attract much attention.
Then Wang An waved his hand and said with a smile:
"Just lock it with the mallet lock, and we'll continue with the baton arrangement."
Wang Li agreed, and the two of them each pulled out a red rope, squatted down, and tied it to the sapling.
They stood up, exchanged a smile, and continued their search.
Before I knew it, the afternoon had passed.
All afternoon, Comrade Mu Xueli was struggling with that six-leaf seedling. It wasn't until after 6 p.m. that Mu Xueli finally dug out the seedling, which weighed more than four ounces, completely intact.
Actually, compared to ginseng from Changbai Mountain, ginseng from the Lesser Khingan Mountains is relatively easier to dig up.
Because the Lesser Khingan Mountains are mostly black soil with relatively loose texture, and because the temperature is lower here, the wild ginseng has far fewer hairs than the ginseng from the Changbai Mountains. Apart from some at the very root, there are very few hairs on the ginseng body.
Therefore, Mu Xueli dug out the seedling with 6 leaves in less than 6 hours, which can only be considered a normal speed.
If you were to dig up a single seedling with six leaves in the Changbai Mountains, it might take a whole day to find it.
It took Mu Xueli more than 5 hours, but Huang Zhong only took more than 2 hours to dig out the whole seedling with four leaves.
It has to be said that with his perfect record of digging up this fourth-grade ginseng seedling, Huang Zhong can be considered to have officially graduated from his mastery of ginseng digging.
Wang An and Wang Li were also busy that afternoon. Although they didn't dig up a single ginseng seedling, they found quite a few and tied them up with a stick lock, which is a red rope.
Wang An found 1 seedling with 5 leaves, 2 seedlings with 4 leaves, 4 seedlings with 3 leaves, and 14 seedlings with 200 leaves.
Wang Li found 3 seedlings with four leaves, 3 seedlings with three leaves, and 12 seedlings with two leaves.
Wang An also saw quite a few horsehair buds and three-flowered buds, but he had no intention of digging up these small buds.
The main problem is that there are still 11 old ginseng burrows that we haven't visited yet. If these small ginseng seedlings aren't transplanted in time, they will all die in the end. It's better to leave them alone.
It is foreseeable that in a few decades, a large number of third- or fourth-grade leaves, or even fifth-grade leaves, will reappear in this old village.
As for the more valuable sixth-grade leaves, the two brothers couldn't find a single one. It's unclear whether it was because they were unlucky or because the places they searched in the afternoon simply didn't have sixth-grade leaves.
Back at their lodgings in the evening, the four of them, who had been busy all afternoon, quickly ate dinner and went to bed early.
The next morning, after practicing martial arts and having breakfast, the four of them returned to the old village.
This time, however, Wang An asked Wang Li to bring a digging tool: a shovel.
That's right, it's an iron shovel.
To improve efficiency and complete the wading through the remaining 11 old hamlets within a month, Wang An decided to dig out all the ordinary second-grade hamlets directly with an iron shovel.
Anyway, Wang An didn't care about the small amount of money that was worth of two Jiazi. He could dig up one or even a whole bunch with just one shovel. It was so convenient!
Upon arriving at Lao'anzi, Mu Xueli and Huang Zhong continued digging for ginseng, while Wang Li and Wang An continued arranging sticks.
However, just as he was about to return to his lodgings to cook and eat lunch, Wang An's eyes glanced around and his expression widened. Then, he smirked and burst into laughter.
A day and a half later, Wang Anke finally discovered a seedling with six leaves.
But when Wang An took a few quick steps, intending to tie it up with a red rope, he suddenly froze.
Wang An discovered that this sapling actually had seven branches, not six.
In other words, Wang An had actually found the legendary ginseng, specifically the seven-leaf ginseng. (End of Chapter)