The grandfather and grandson set out from home and followed the small river ditch behind the village into the mountains.
This small river ditch is actually not small, but it is a bit small compared to the big river.
It is a river flowing from the Dripping Pond, with a large amount of water, which provides irrigation water for nearby farmland.
Along the way, the grandfather and grandson chatted, asking questions and answering questions. Xiaohu followed Zhang An honestly, walking behind neither fast nor slow.
Sometimes when I meet people in the village, they all say hello to Mr. Zhang.
Mr. Zhang's family has always picked various herbs and prepared them. Apart from the ones that are usually sold in the town or county, there are still a lot left at home.
Nowadays, when medical treatment is not developed, everyone goes to Mr. Zhang for some minor illnesses and pains, and takes herbal medicine home to eat.
And although Mr. Zhang is not the oldest among the group, he has a high seniority in the village.
Many people in the village already call Uncle Zhang An, so Mr. Zhang’s seniority must be higher.
Today's weather is quite decent. The continuous light rain for several days has ended and has been replaced by bright sunshine.
In the early morning, it was still quiet in the mountain forest, probably because the fish, insects, birds and beasts had not yet gotten up.
At this time, the sunlight shines through the sparse branches and onto the ground, which looks a bit like the lighting controlled by the lighting engineer on the stage.
Under the sunlight, the dew in the mountains slowly turned into mist, floating in the mountains and forests.
After walking all the way into the forest, the fresh and moist air woke up Zhang An's still sleeping brain.
Although it still smells like some rotten leaves on the ground.
Although the second grandfather is already over sixty, he still walks briskly with his strong legs in the mountains.
There is no sign of aging at all.
The further you go into the mountains, the denser the woods become, and the roads left by people walking in the mountains are covered with weeds after a period of time.
The road is not easy to walk, sometimes it is soft soil, sometimes it is exposed rock.
Anyway, there are ups and downs all the way, which is different from the mountains and forests in the Northeast.
Zhang An wouldn't feel tired if he walked by himself, but if he walked with his second grandfather, he definitely couldn't keep walking.
"Second Master, let's take a break, take a breath and drink some water."
Second Grandpa also agreed and found a stone to sit down on.
He is very calm now. When he was young, he could run in the mountains for a whole day without feeling tired. But now that he is old, he starts to pant after walking for a while. People still have to get old.
Zhang An handed the kettle to the second master. It was filled with tea made from space spring water to restore the second master's strength.
"The tea leaves at your house are so harmonious and fragrant, and your mother's tea-frying skills are also very good."
"This is from last year. Second Master thinks it tastes good. I will send some over when the new tea this year is harvested and roasted."
When it was time to pick tea at home a few days later, Zhang An picked all the tea leaves in the space, took them out and asked his mother to help fry them.
"Second Master, is there any ginseng in our mountains? Books say ginseng is very valuable."
"There must be ginseng. There is nothing in such a big mountain. It's just that the valuable ginseng is old, and the young ginseng seedlings are not valuable. If a ginseng wants to grow up from a ginseng seedling in the mountains, it not only needs
The land is good, and it can’t be eaten by the livestock in the mountains, so it’s hard to find old ginseng.”
Mr. Zhang patiently talked to Zhang An, and then told Zhang An some of the growth characteristics and main growing places of ginseng.
"Then, Master, have you dug ginseng before?"
Hearing Zhang An ask this question, Mr. Zhang began to recall the past.
"I have dug it, and I have dug it a few times. At that time, Grandpa You and the others were no longer around. Your grandfather took a few of our brothers to live in a mud house in the village. From the beginning, he relied on himself to earn money.
The work points supported us, and later I was able to earn work points, and the family felt a little more relaxed.
That's when I met an old Chinese medicine doctor who was sent to our brigade. He had a bad temper and many people couldn't get along with him. But I was thick-skinned. No matter how he cursed people, I would go to him every day.
As time went by, he stopped cursing, and I followed him for several years. Although I didn't know how to treat people and give them injections, I learned how to recognize flowers and plants.
Then one year, between July and August, wild boars came down from the mountains every year to destroy the corn in the fields, so the brigade organized people to hunt wild boars in the mountains. Your grandfather and I went together, carrying the gun given by the brigade.
Then we encountered a wild boar coming later. The wild boar was like a small hillside, weighing three to four hundred pounds, with a bunch of cubs behind it. If it reached the field of bracts, the bracts in the field would be gone in a few clicks.
At that time, I panicked and hit him from a distance. Unexpectedly, I was hit. As a result, I was so beaten that he went crazy and kept moving towards us.
Your grandpa said we should separate and let me run first and let him attract me from behind. But no matter how hard he beat the animal, he kept chasing me and it ran after me. We ran very fast at that time. Here
In the woods.
I just kept my head down and ran. I didn't know where I was running, but I slipped and rolled down the mountain, falling into a corner of a hill.
When I got up, I didn't see the wild boar chasing me, but I saw two ginseng sticks in the little corner. When I dug them up, I saw they were quite big. It was already late at night when I finally brought them back.
They searched for me for a long time but couldn't find me. They all thought I was gone. They were really scared that time. They had never been so scared before.
I waited until everyone was sleeping before I dared to take them out to show your grandpa the two ginseng sticks. But I couldn't take them out at that time. If I took them out, I would have to hand them over to the government. The family still owed a lot of debts, so I definitely couldn't hand them over to the government.
Yes, I stayed like this for more than ten years. After the opening up, your third grandfather went to serve as a soldier and failed to come back in the end.
Then at that time, everyone was still living in the old house now, and other families were building new houses. Finally, after everyone discussed it, they took two ginseng sticks to the county to sell them, and they were divided among everyone when they came back, so your house
Only then can I have the money to buy a new house.
It's just a pity that your father and grandma left not long after we moved into the new house. You were still young at that time, and when they left, they said they had to pay it back. But in fact, when they were young, they took a few of us with them.
I have suffered too much and my body is no longer good.
If I had known earlier, I would definitely have left one behind, but there is no use regretting it later."
This was the first time in Zhang An's two lifetimes that he heard his elders talk about the past. Those years were not easy for families in the mountains, especially those like his grandfather whose parents had long since disappeared.
The eldest brother is like father, the eldest sister-in-law is like mother, dragging several younger brothers with her, life is quite difficult, but they have not given up. Now, they can no longer find the sense of responsibility they had before.
After the second grandfather finished speaking, he fell into a somewhat gloomy atmosphere.
This was not good for the elderly, so Zhang An changed the topic.
"Second Master, do you think we can find a ginseng plant today? If we find it, our family will be rich."
After listening to Zhang An's words, Mr. Zhang did not hit him. Instead, he smiled and encouraged: "Then you can keep your eyes sharper today, otherwise I'm afraid it will be difficult."