Chapter 1751
The First Old An
Wang An didn't continue the discussion with Yang Shuwen, but pointed into the distance and said:
"Alright, let's go straight to the next old village and see what's going on. Let's just leave this old village as it is."
Yang Shuwen and his six companions were taken aback by his words, and then Yang Shuwen asked with a look of shock on his face:
"I'm not kidding, bro, but how many old houses do you know?"
After asking the question, Yang Shuwen immediately realized that it was inappropriate of him to ask it. The main reason was that Wang An would never tell him such a thing, and more importantly, he shouldn't have asked it in the first place.
Just as Yang Shuwen was about to explain, Wang An smiled slightly and said meaningfully:
"I can't tell you about this, but if we ever come across another untouched spot, you're definitely going to get a lot of beatings, hahaha."
After saying that, Wang An didn't pay attention to what Yang Shuwen wanted to say, and turned around to lead the way towards the eleventh old house.
Because the old mounds were all quite close together, the group quickly reached the vicinity of the eleventh old mound. Wang An turned to Yang Shuwen and asked:
"Brother Yang, how's this place? Do you recognize it?"
Wang An's question was essentially asking whether the old embankment had been waded through, or whether Yang Shuwen and his group had ever been there.
Yang Shuwen simply glanced around and then said excitedly:
"No one should have been here before, at least none of us have."
When Yang Shuwen said that no one had ever waded through this old embankment, Wang An felt a slight sense of disappointment for some reason.
Composing himself, Wang An waved his hand and pointed to the hillside ahead, saying:
"It's that hillside. Let's find Lao Zhao first, and then we'll hurry up and use our sticks to clear the hill."
After Wang An finished speaking, Yang Shuwen and the other six all showed expressions of shock and envy.
The main problem was that the seven of them had been wandering around the mountains for more than half a month without finding a ginseng nest, while Wang An was fine with it, as if the mountains were his own vegetable garden, and he could just go to Old Zhao's ginseng sticks whenever he got there.
The difference is just too big!
The key point is that Wang An and his group let Yang Shuwen and his ginseng gang dig up the lampstand and the second Jiazi. If the positions of the two sides were switched, Yang Shuwen and his gang would not have been so generous.
It should be noted that the two sides had no prior relationship, and did not even know each other. Moreover, they had already waded through the previous old embankment, but Wang An and the others led them to the next old embankment to continue playing with sticks together.
Therefore, it is truly remarkable that Wang An and his colleagues could do this for strangers.
However, what Yang Shuwen and the others did not know was that Wang An was not really generous; he simply wanted to get down the mountain and go home as soon as possible!
Furthermore, Wang An and his group already had far too many lampstands and two Jiazi (a type of seedling). Even if they had dozens or hundreds more seedlings, it wouldn't have made much difference to them; in fact, it would be dispensable.
Without delay, the group began searching for the old burial mound left behind from who knows how many years ago.
This time, however, before Lao Zhao could find it, the group discovered ginseng in different places.
In an instant, the sounds of people calling out to the mountain echoed back and forth.
That's right, the ginseng appeared before the omen, and it wasn't just one seedling, but many. Wang An actually disliked shouting from the mountain, because in his view, shouting from the mountain was tantamount to telling the surrounding people that there was ginseng here, which could easily arouse evil people to have evil thoughts.
However, after Yang Shuwen and others joined, in order to prevent anyone from using excuses such as "I forgot to say it," "I forgot to tell everyone," or "I was thinking about saying it later" to hide private ginseng, Wang An had to instruct Wang Li and Mu Xueli to continue shouting at the mountain.
After all, many things can only be prevented from being found by some people to find various excuses if they are made public.
The discovery of ginseng before any signs of life were found made everyone extremely happy, because it meant that there must be a very large quantity of ginseng in this old village.
After everyone finished shouting and responding, Yang Shuwen suddenly asked Wang An:
"Brother, should we worship the mountain god now, or wait until we find Old Zhao before we worship him?"
There's an unwritten rule in ginseng digging in the mountains: if you know there's an omen, you must first find the omen, then set up a "Lord's Mansion" under the big tree where the omen is located, and perform a ceremony to worship the mountain god.
The so-called "Lord's Mansion" is actually a simplified version of a "Mountain God Temple". It is usually made of three stones or three pieces of bark to form the shape of a door, and then a red cloth is covered on the door.
The so-called "worship of the mountain god" involves placing offerings, burning paper money and incense in front of this "gate," with members of the scavenging group kowtowing and praying, asking the mountain god to bless everyone with peace and safety, and to successfully dig up big catches.
After worshipping the mountain god, one must burn paper money and incense again under the omen, to pay homage to the ginseng gang elders who cut down the omen, in order to express gratitude to them, since it was because of their cutting down the omen that later generations had clues to find ginseng.
However, if it's a normal ginseng digging expedition, that is, if no one knows that someone has cut down ginseng in this area, then when the first ginseng seedling is found, a "Lord's Mansion" is built not far from the seedling to perform a ceremony to worship the mountain god.
Of course, Wang An and Mu Xueli and the other three had never performed such a ceremony before, mainly because no one had ever guided them or explained these things to them in detail, so they simply didn't understand them.
As the saying goes, "If you believe in the gods, they will be there; if you don't believe in the gods, they won't blame you." There's no need to learn all the rules and regulations for things you don't understand, and then act according to those rules.
Moreover, in Wang An's view, ginseng digging in the mountains and medicinal herbs digging for wild vegetables are the same thing, so why are there so many rules?
After scanning his surroundings, Wang An said:
"Whoever finds the club, lock it up first. Wait until you find the old man before lifting the club. Put away all the divination sticks and find the omen first."
Wang An's idea was to use the omen as the center and spread outwards like a pancake to find ginseng.
Only in this way can efficiency be maximized, avoiding a haphazard approach that might overlook certain areas.
After Wang An finished speaking, everyone agreed and took out red ropes from their pockets, squatted down and began to tie "club locks" on the ginseng seedlings.
In Wang An's view, the so-called "club lock" is not so mysterious, because according to rumors, if you don't lock the ginseng with a club lock after finding it, the ginseng will grow legs and run away on its own.
In reality, this thing was just a conspicuous marker made of red string, so that the ginseng wouldn't be lost in this overgrown, weedy place. (End of Chapter)