Chapter 1732
This old man's talk was all for nothing.
It's no wonder that Wang An and his three companions were so excited; the half-jin (250 grams) figure is like an insurmountable chasm for wild ginseng.
Wang An, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li had dug up and collected ginseng before, and had handled several sixth-grade ginseng seedlings. However, even the largest sixth-grade ginseng only weighed a little over 200 grams, and never more than half a pound.
In the Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains, there are a considerable number of ginseng gangs, but it has never been heard of any gang digging up ginseng weighing more than half a pound.
Furthermore, many veteran ginseng diggers who have spent their entire lives digging for ginseng have a lifelong wish to find a ginseng root weighing more than half a pound, but unfortunately, almost none of them have been able to fulfill this wish until their death.
There's no way around it, this is just how difficult it is, extremely difficult.
Therefore, in the eyes of many people, the maximum weight of wild ginseng is less than half a jin. If it exceeds half a jin, it cannot be called ginseng. Instead, it should be called "immortal herb", "ginseng baby" or "club spirit".
This is also the origin of the saying "Seven ounces is ginseng, eight ounces is treasure".
Of course, "seven liang" and "eight liang" here refer to the old system of weight units. If converted to grams, one liang in the old system is equal to 31.25 grams in modern terms.
One liang (两) is now equal to 50 grams.
In other words, eight taels in the old system weighed the same as five taels today.
Therefore, this ginseng seedling definitely reaches the level of a "treasure," truly exceeding the category of ordinary ginseng.
This is why Wang An and the other three were so agitated and lost their composure.
Unfortunately, ginseng that reaches the "treasure" level cannot be priced by the gram like ordinary sixth-grade ginseng. Instead, it is sold at a fixed price or through auction, with the highest bidder winning.
Most importantly, this is something you can brag about for a lifetime.
The four grown men shouted and yelled for a while before gradually quieting down. Mu Xueli then approached Wang An and said:
"Look, brother-in-law, I told you this ginseng seedling definitely weighed more than half a pound. See, I was right?"
Wang An patted Mu Xueli's shoulder heavily and said with a smile:
"Accurate! That's incredibly accurate! Hahaha, next time bring out a club weighing over half a pound! Hahahaha!"
As soon as Wang An said this, Mu Xueli's smile froze on her face, and she said sullenly:
“Brother-in-law, you’re just making a fuss. This thing isn’t some kind of clay dollop. Where am I supposed to get it?”
The main problem is that ordinary 6-leaf ginseng is already a very rare treasure. As for ginseng weighing more than half a pound, it is extremely lucky to find even one in your lifetime. How could you possibly get another one?
Wang An laughed and didn't mind. He carefully repackaged the ginseng seedling, glanced at the still-falling rain outside, and said:
"This ginseng is good, but we can't eat it as a meal. We need to figure out what to eat, otherwise we'll get hungry."
After Wang An finished speaking, Huang Zhong continued:
"We also have biscuits, baked goods, instant noodles, canned food, dried meat, canned meat, and other things in our bag. They're all ready to eat. What would you like to eat, brother? I'll go get it for you."
Wang An smacked his lips and said:
"Damn it, none of this stuff can be eaten. And who knows when this rain will stop? Even if it stops for a while, we can at least cook some instant noodles."
Strangely enough, as soon as Wang An finished speaking, the rain really did lessen, with only a few scattered raindrops falling on the tent, making a sparse pattering sound.
Upon seeing this, Mu Xueli immediately exclaimed in shock:
"Holy crap, brother-in-law, you're so awesome! You stopped the rain with just one sentence? I cursed once too, and a bolt of lightning almost killed me."
As soon as Mu Xueli finished speaking, the other three couldn't help but laugh. The main reason was that the muffled thunder that had sounded above Mu Xueli's head earlier was too coincidental, as if it were deliberately responding to Mu Xueli's cursing.
However, everyone believes that it was just a coincidence.
After all, thunder during rain is a normal occurrence; it's just that Mu Xueli's words were a bit inappropriate.
Gradually, the rain stopped completely, and Wang An stood up and said:
"Let's go out and cook some noodles. It's so late, we can just make do with this. We'll have to find some time tomorrow to get some meat."
After Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li immediately chimed in:
"Yeah, we've eaten all the roe deer meat, so we need to hunt some more. We really can't stand not having any meat in our stomachs."
As they spoke, the four of them stepped out of the tent, turned on their flashlights, and got to work.
Although it was raining, there was no need to worry about firewood at all, because after each tent was set up, the four of them would collect some dry firewood and cover it with plastic sheeting to protect against the unpredictable weather of the Lesser Khingan Mountains, where it can rain at any time.
In these mountains, without firewood, getting food would be a serious problem.
Although pine branches can burn even when wet, the thick smoke they produce when burning is unbearable.
The four men went out of the tent, lit a fire, and boiled water. They first cooked dried noodles and then instant noodles. Soon, a large pot of dried noodles mixed with instant noodles was cooked.
Each person served themselves a bowl of noodles, mixed it with the chili sauce they brought from home, and dinner was thus resolved in a simple yet delicious way.
There were no entertainment activities in these mountains, so after dinner, the four of them each smoked a cigarette and went to bed early.
The following day, it took Wang An and his three companions another full day to finally wade through the entire old embankment.
The four of them were very satisfied with what they found in this old village.
Besides the ginseng seedling with seven leaves, Wang An and his three companions had dug up a total of two seedlings with six leaves, seven seedlings with five leaves, 28 seedlings with four leaves, and a large pile of ginseng and ginseng in this old village over the past few days.
However, both the ginseng roots of the ginseng and the ginseng of the second eleventh ...
However, in order to improve efficiency, they could not care about the problem of these ginseng rootlets breaking.
Anyway, Wang An didn't plan to sell these small taro seeds; it wouldn't be a problem for his family to eat them.
The morning after they finished wading through the old embankment, Wang An and his three companions packed up and headed to the next old embankment, which was also their third.
However, as soon as they reached the hillside where the third old village was located, Wang An and his companions saw two dilapidated shacks on the hillside.
Wang An knew that this old embankment had already been waded through, and that it had been waded through in the first few years of its existence.
So Wang An called to the three of them and said:
"This old village is a waste of time, let's just go to the next one." (End of Chapter)