Chapter 23: Harvesting Ginseng

lRed, flat fruits, roots stretching up to fifty centimeters, palmate compound leaves with serrated edges, wasn’t this unmistakably ginseng?

Lin Jiangmei ran forward, excitement bubbling up as she lowered her gaze to the three ginseng roots before her. She hadn’t expected such a lucky find today.

Wild ginseng was rarely seen. To not only spot it but find three at once, even someone like her, who had weathered countless hardships, couldn’t remain calm.

Quickly, she pulled out her small hoe from the basket on her back and carefully dug around the ginseng. When she finally saw the delicate rootlets beneath the soil, she handled them with the utmost care.

Ginseng was only valuable if the rootlets were intact from tip to tail. Lin Jiangmei spent nearly ten minutes carefully digging out a single complete root.

The moment she saw the full root, Lin Jiangmei gasped. The ginseng weighed at least three jin, and its shape was almost humanoid. Judging by its size and form, it had to be at least a hundred years old.

She broke off a leaf, wrapped the ginseng carefully, and then, her face alight with joy, began digging out the second root.

…

Today’s bounty wasn’t limited to just a few ginseng roots. After walking a short distance, Fang Mingxi and Tang Yao found another ginseng marked on the map.

Although there was only one, Fang Mingxi could tell from its roots and fruit that it must be large.

Nearby lay a patch of black fungus, dark green and moss-like from a distance.

Tang Yao squatted in front of the patch and picked up a small piece, sniffing it under her nose.

“Xixi, doesn’t this look like black fungus? It’s green and fresh, it shouldn’t be spoiled, right?” she asked Fang Mingxi behind her. After hearing a confirming sound, she used a small wooden shovel to carefully gather the fungus into her basket.

Fang Mingxi approached the ginseng. Luckily, Tang Yao still didn’t recognize it; otherwise, such a large root might have to be given away today.

In the medicine-scarce countryside, ginseng was a miraculous herb, almost like an elixir. Her eyes sparkled as she opened the panel and activated the engineer’s shovel.

But the moment she touched it, Fang Mingxi paused. She opened the map and carefully scanned the surrounding area for other food sources.

She could only gather three types of food per day. Giving one to Grandma for free, the fungus Tang Yao held counted as the second. If she dug up the ginseng now, today’s harvest would be limited to that patch of fungus.

The small cart was only ten percent full, and she hoped to fill it completely today.

The panel showed a watermelon one kilometer away, sweet potatoes two kilometers away, and a green dot flashing ten kilometers out.

Fang Mingxi clicked on the green dot and saw a group of rabbits appear.

No other items were visible. She wasn’t sure whether so much food had spawned today, or if the panel’s exploration feature only scanned within ten kilometers.

The rabbits were too quick for two children to catch. Watermelon wasn’t filling but could be planted. Sweet potatoes were large and productive, perfect to take without raising suspicion.

Without hesitation, Fang Mingxi selected the sweet potatoes and moved them near the ginseng.

Out of Tang Yao’s sight, the terrain in this patch quickly shifted. What had been green grass was suddenly replaced with a mass of leaves and vines, while the original grass appeared two kilometers away.

Fang Mingxi stared at the large watermelon on the panel, licking her lips but sighing at her empty stomach. Watermelon could wait; the priority was clear.

Closing the panel firmly, she focused on the ginseng and sweet potato vines, nervously activating the engineer’s shovel.

Please, please let this work…

The shovel dug into the soil, loosening it as usual, and worked through the ground to harvest the sweet potatoes.

It popped out, then sank back in.

With the shovel’s up-and-down movement, many small sweet potatoes were brought out, along with the ginseng Fang Mingxi had been hoping for.

Wrapped in soil, the roots lay on the ground, receiving Fang Mingxi’s awed gaze.

Mission accomplished. She instructed the shovel to leave just a few sweet potatoes and then recalled it. She ran over and sat down in front of the ginseng, gathering both the soil-covered sweet potatoes and the ginseng into her backpack.

A small pile of sweet potatoes was absorbed into the system panel. A black hole appeared above the basket, and then both the sweet potatoes and ginseng smoothly dropped in.

The ginseng safely settled in, and Fang Mingxi finally exhaled.

Thanks to heaven and earth, and thanks to the Mountain-Harvest Trading Game.

Dropped food didn’t count toward the harvest limit. From now on, she could exploit the engineer’s shovel to her advantage.

Having acquired the item she most wanted, Fang Mingxi turned to call out to Tang Yao, who was searching around: “Older… sister…”

Tang Yao, frantically searching and unable to find her, spun around at the voice and immediately saw Fang Mingxi sitting in the grass.

She let out a huge sigh of relief, patting her chest nervously. “Xixi, you scared me to death! Don’t run off like that again, or how am I supposed to explain to Grandma Tong?”

She ran over, scooping Fang Mingxi up from the ground. Then, looking down, she suddenly saw Fang Mingxi clutching a few sweet potatoes tightly.

“Sweet potatoes!” Tang Yao exclaimed with delight.

Although they had harvested on the mountain over the past few days, most of it had been mushrooms, fungus, and fruit. Aside from the previously found white sweet potatoes and wild potatoes, it had been a long time since Tang Yao had found anything that could replace corn porridge.

Today, without Grandpa Yu’s hoe, Tang Yao had to loosen the soil with a wooden shovel. She guessed there wouldn’t be many sweet potatoes, since some were already rotten.

Sure enough, when she carefully dug up the soil, the sweet potatoes underneath were small, only a few roughly fist-sized ones per vine.

Seeing this, Tang Yao wasn’t disappointed; some was better than none.

…

After digging up the sweet potatoes and heading down the mountain, three minutes of exploration still remained.

Fang Mingxi glanced toward the forest. Lin Jiangmei was no longer in sight.

Today had been a great harvest: black fungus, sweet potatoes, and most importantly, ginseng.

The malted milk brought by Grandpa and Grandma had been finished. These past two days, Fang Mingxi had eaten whatever the adults ate, leaving her taste buds dull.

At least the sweet potatoes were sweet, providing a small improvement to tonight’s meal.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t sneak food secretly today. Grandpa and Grandma had been finishing work before dark, and as long as the forest wasn’t completely dark, they couldn’t pull the sweet potatoes from their backpack unnoticed. Everyone’s eyes were sharp as hawks.

She couldn’t claim a mere ten or so sweet potatoes were twenty jin.

The sweet potatoes were too few; everyone would leave them overnight as seeds.

The white sweet potatoes brought down from the mountain in the past few days had been gradually eaten, along with wild potatoes and other fruits. After all the labor, everyone could finally enjoy a proper reward.

At the dining table, the group once again thanked Tang Yao and Fang Mingxi. During the busy harvest season, if it weren’t for them finding food on the mountain, no one would have had enough to eat, and they certainly wouldn’t have earned enough work points.

Tang Yao felt shy at the praise and turned to look at Fang Mingxi, but saw that she had fallen asleep in Grandma Tong’s arms.

Tang Yao smiled and gently hooked Fang Mingxi’s pinky with her finger.

All of this should be credited to Xixi. Grandma had told her to properly thank Xixi, because the family’s full meals were all thanks to Xixi’s luck.

Xixi, you’re the one everyone should really be grateful to.

Fang Mingxi, asleep, felt Tang Yao’s touch but didn’t open her eyes, pretending to still be asleep.

In front of her, the panel opened, and she hurriedly transferred all the sweet potatoes from her basket into her backpack.