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29. Chapter 29
In the Northeast, the older generation of ginseng diggers have a lot of attention. Like the professional ginseng diggers, they must first pay homage to the mountain gods, and also tie a red rope with a big money to the Solo stick and the other end to the ginseng. .
The old Li family is not a special ginseng digger, and there is no so-called Solo stick. The branches in his hand can be replaced, but the red rope and all kinds of ginseng digging tools are not available. Mrs. Li took it. The branch drew a boxy frame around the ginseng leaves, and then found four sticks and inserted them into the four corners, and stood there dumbfounded.
Zhen Zhen looked at Old Lady Li's strange behavior in confusion, Wang Sufen was also confused: "Mother, what are you doing?"
Mrs. Li looked at the ginseng leaves and said, "I used to go up the mountain with your father-in-law to pick ginseng when I was young, so it's a lot more old. What should I do if I dug for ginseng one by one and ran away?"
Wang Sufen has heard legends about ginseng since she was a child. At least the story of ginseng turning into a doll wearing a red belly pocket was heard from a young age. In the Northeast, it has become a common sense for women and children to tie a red thread to dig ginseng. When she thought of this, she panicked. She groped for her pocket, but couldn't find anything. She could only look at Mrs. Li at a loss: "How about I go home and get the red thread?"
Zhen Zhen stood beside her with a speechless expression, she originally wanted Madam Li and Wang Sufen to dig out the ginseng by themselves, so that they could spend some time and increase their sense of accomplishment, but she didn't expect that the ginseng they had obtained would be so complicated. Zhen Zhen looked at Mrs. Li's posture, she still didn't seem to dare to dig ginseng just like that, she could only use her consciousness to hold it under the ginseng.
Wang Sufen was worried about the ginseng and didn't know what to do when she suddenly saw the leaves of the ginseng move, and the ginseng in the ground came out slowly, which immediately frightened her. Wang Sufen turned around and hugged Zhen Zhen in her arms to protect her, and pointed at the ginseng leaves and trembled: "Mother, take a look, the ginseng climbed out and was about to run away."
Mrs. Li was furious with this stupid daughter-in-law from time to time. She hurried over to cover Wang Sufen's mouth and twisted her waist. Only then did Wang Sufen come back to her senses. She looked around, closed her mouth and listened quietly. Seeing that no one was coming, she wiped the sweat from her forehead with a guilty conscience. Mrs. Li has experienced a lot in her life, and her head is turning fast. She has a granddaughter who is capable of her own. She doesn't believe that ginseng can run under your nose.
Sure enough, with the emergence of ginseng, more than half of the whole ginseng has come out, and a root is trying to move out. This ginseng whisker can be said to be the most delicate part of the ginseng body, and it is particularly easy to break. Professional ginseng pickers use deer bone needles to peel them off with soil and carefully take them out. Mrs. Li didn't have these things on hand, which was why she didn't dare to dig ginseng.
But this kind of thing is no longer a problem in Zhen Zhen, it only took a minute or two for the ginseng to come out of the soil by itself, with all the beards and tails, and not even a single fluff on the body.
"Mother!" Wang Sufen stared at the ginseng on the ground, her tongue knotted in a knot: "Why do I see this ginseng looks like a human being, won't it be fine?"
"How can it be so easy to become fine." Mrs. Li raised her head and glanced at her, carefully picked up the ginseng with her fingers and let it go, and her face suddenly showed a happy expression: "This ginseng is not light, but it is not enough for a pound. Not much."
As the saying goes, "seven liang is a ginseng, and eight liang is a treasure." The ginseng made by Zhen Zhen is a pound in weight, and it can be said to be a treasure. Looking at it, there are six main whiskers, and the longest must be fifty centimeters, which is really rare. The thing is a good thing, but how to take it home, Wang Sufen was a little worried: "The beard is so long and can't be broken, how can we take it back? If the beard is broken, how can it be fixed?"
Mrs. Li has experience with this. She found a shovel from the wicker basket she brought, and a thick birch tree from the side, and carefully peeled off a large piece of bark from the top and spread it on the ground . She first spread a thick layer of moss and black soil next to the ginseng, and then called Wang Sufen. The two of them held the head and the whiskers, carefully placed the ginseng on the bark, and found some long and tough ones. The straw was bundled, and the ginseng was tightly wrapped so that it was not exposed at all, and then it was safely placed in the wicker basket.
Zhen Zhen saw that Mrs. Li had finished cleaning up, so she threw the last wild fruit in her hand into Li Mingzhong's mouth, then stood up and continued to run forward.
Seeing this, Mrs. Li hurriedly followed, seeing that Zhen Zhen was leading the way, she couldn't help but ask her: "Bao, where are we going? If you have this person, you won't be a fool, don't do it anymore. I dug it, and I don't know how to go back and fix it."
Zhen Zhen tilted her head and looked at Mrs. Li, revealing a few small white teeth: "Make some wine for Dad."
"You can pull it." Wang Sufen couldn't help roaring out: "I tell you, girl, this ginseng you are looking for is a treasure. How can it be a hundred years old? Is it a mother!"
Mrs. Li nodded: "No problem for four or five hundred years."
Wang Sufen slapped her thigh, her face full of pain: "It's just such a baby, let's take it home and keep it well, if you give it to your father to make wine, it will be a waste, just a little bit of beard on the ginseng. I'm afraid to make up for his nosebleeds."
"It's not that bad." Mrs. Li nodded again and again: "I'll put it on the beam of our house when I get home, and watch it three times a day. If I don't want to burn incense now, I'll have to offer it. "
Zhen Zhen looked at Mrs. Li helplessly, but she was young now, so she couldn't say many words to persuade her, so she could only search around, and found another ginseng of 40 or 50 years old. With a hook, the ginseng jumped out of the soil and landed directly on Zhen Zhen's hand.
Zhen Zhen handed the ginseng to Mrs. Li and insisted: "Make wine for dad."
Mrs. Li looked at the ginseng in Zhen Zhen's hand with a speechless expression, she could only cut another piece of bark and wrap it up: "Okay, okay, just use this ginseng to make wine, don't dig any more, we don't have any. So many beams, I have nowhere to hide."
Zhen Zhen remembered that she didn't have bicycles and sewing machines yet, these are the three most popular items now, she quickly suggested: "Take the money to buy bicycles and sewing machines."
"Are you jealous of your grandmother Zhao's big bike?" Mrs. Li and Wang Sufen smiled and put a thick layer of moss and black soil into the bark: "Let's keep the big ones and keep the small ones. If it’s sold, I’ll ask it later to see if the supply and marketing cooperative will accept it, and if you can sell it, I’ll buy a radio first, and you can listen to it during the day, so you don’t have to be bored.”
Only then did Zhen Zhen grin, while the two of them were tying ginseng, she walked to the birch tree that had been stripped of two pieces of bark one after another, and put her little hand on the trunk of the tree, and in an instant, the old tree grew again. The new bark was growing, and the towering branches were a little green.
Li Mingzhong followed the mountain road for over an hour, although he ate some wild fruits with Zhen Zhen, but after all, he was only a few months old, and the mountain road that he had run so far was his limit. Li Mingzhong stretched out his tongue and gasped for a few breaths, then barked a few times, Zhen Zhen heard him say that she was tired, so she stopped quickly, squatted down and stroked his back with her small hands.
"Is it better?" Zhen Zhen tilted her head and looked at Li Mingzhong.
Li Mingzhong felt that his back was warm and his four legs had regained some strength, Wang Sufen saw that Zhen Zhen was not leaving, she just thought she was tired, and hurriedly went over and hugged the dog and the dog in her arms: "Treasure, We've been out for a long time, why don't we go home earlier?"
Zhen Zhen looked into the deep mountain and looked a little unfinished: "But I haven't played enough yet."
"I'll be here tomorrow." Wang Sufen said quickly, "Why don't you have to pretend to turn the floor over? You have to do it ten or eight times."
Only then did Zhen Zhen smile: "That's fine, I'll come back tomorrow."
Wang Sufen adjusted her posture in her arms and let Zhen Zhen sit with her arms around Li Mingzhong. Old lady Li followed behind with a wicker basket on her back. She walked for about ten minutes, and suddenly two pheasants flew out from nowhere. He fluttered his wings and fell into the wicker basket carried by Mrs. Li. Mrs. Li hurriedly took off the basket and grabbed the pheasant: "My ancestors, we still have ginseng in the basket. What if the pheasant is broken?"
Zhen Zhen smiled at Mrs. Li: "Then it's all stewed."
Mrs. Li grabbed some wild vegetables from the side and held a bundle of pheasant legs upside down in her hand, she still didn't forget to explain to Zhen Zhen: "Don't look at ginseng as a good thing, but this thing can't be eaten easily, like the one we got today. This old ginseng is a treasure used by big families to hang their lives in the past."
Wang Sufen looked at Mrs. Li with chicken in her hand and ginseng in her basket, and she felt a little happy in her heart: "Mother, you said that our family Zhen Zhen will not be a mountain god in her previous life, or where is there ginseng or something on this mountain? Does she know it? That pheasant, wild fruit, etc. also listen to her."
Mrs. Li shook her head hesitantly: "Then the fish in the river also listen to Zhen Zhen, and the mountain god can still manage the affairs of the water? I think Zhen Zhen was previously designated to be bigger than the mountain god."
"Mother is right." Wang Sufen thought for a while and then said, "Is it the land god? That river is also on the land, and it is also within the jurisdiction of the land god."
Madam Li pouted and wondered, "But the Earth God is as big as the Mountain God."
Zhen Zhen buried her head in Li Mingzhong and listened to the joy: In her last life, she was a student from a small house to a big one. Her biggest dream was to open a flower shop. Every day, she could sit in the flower shop drinking coffee and chatting about dramas and gossip. It's a pity that this dream It's only one step away. But now it's not bad, Zhen Zhen looked around at the towering trees around her: They are all mine!
As she went to the mountains to dig the ground every day, Mrs. Li had more and more good things in her house. She hid a small pound of ginseng on the beam of her house, and on the top of the kang qin put a bigger one than a washbasin. Ganoderma lucidum, there is half a bag of small ganoderma lucidum in the box, Zhen Zhen told her to drink water to prolong her life.
The granddaughter's heart is full of love, although Mrs. Li's liver hurts, but every day under the supervision of Zhen Zhen, she has to boil water and start soaking Ganoderma lucidum. Fortunately, this thing is hard. How can a piece of Ganoderma lucidum the size of a fingernail be soaked for a month. Mrs. Li reckons that this bag will be enough to drink until she is a hundred years old, if she can live that long.
The granddaughter became more and more capable. When the old lady Li and Wang Sufen were alone, they ordered her to die. Fortunately, although Zhen Zhenren was small, she was very reliable in this aspect and never showed anything strange in front of others. Even if Lao Li's family often has wild animals eating and growing crops, the neighbors all think that her family is lucky, and no one will think about a child.
In the blink of an eye, spring and winter came, and Osmanthus gave birth to a son when the first snow fell. The first child of the fourth generation was loved by both men and women. Mrs. Li happily wrapped the baby in the quilt that Zhen Zhen used when she was a child. Seeing that Wang Sufen had already helped Osmanthus clean up, she quickly put her great-grandson in Osmanthus' arms and asked her to breastfeed.
Zhen Zhen was wearing a red corduroy padded jacket, she was lying on the kang curiously looking at her eldest nephew who was two years younger than her, while touching his little hand, she asked Mrs. Li: "Nanny, what is the name of the eldest nephew? Shouldn't I get him one?"
Li Mingdong, who came back from leave early, shivered in fright, he subconsciously glanced at Li Mingzhong, who was lying at Zhen Zhen's feet, his cheeks twitched: "Old girl, your nephew's father is here, so you don't have to worry about it, okay? "
Zhen Zhen puffed out her chubby little face: "Then you have given me a name, so you don't want me to name my eldest nephew?"
"Aren't you still literate?" Li Mingdong didn't dare to say anything serious, because he was afraid that one would not make this little ancestor cry. At that time, he would have to pick up the broom on the kang and knock on it regardless of whether he just became a father or not. He couldn't stop.
He saw that Zhen Zhen was not very satisfied, Li Mingdong gritted his teeth and prepared to sacrifice the name of his next child: "How about waiting for your sister-in-law to be reborn, then let you name it."
Seeing Li Mingdong's aggrieved appearance, Zhen Zhen pursed her lips and said happily, "I'll give you a nickname, not a big one."
Li Mingdong breathed a sigh of relief. Now raising children likes to marry a local name, as the saying goes, it is easy to support. Li Mingdong pondered that it would be fine no matter how unpleasant Zhen Zhen Qi was. Anyway, it has been called it for a few years. When he is older and goes to school, no one will call him a dirty and ugly nickname. He just needs to give him a good name. He glanced at Zhen Zhen who had a look of anticipation on his face, and stretched out his hand to hug her on his lap: "Well, tell me what name do you want to name your eldest nephew?"
Zhen Zhen glanced at the swaddling clothes in Osmanthus's arms, her body was wrapped in blankets and she couldn't see anything, but her head was not small when it was exposed, Zhen Zhen looked at her eldest brother and asked him a little embarrassedly, "If What if it doesn't sound good?"
"It's okay." Li Mingdong squeezed Zhen Zhen's chubby little chubby hand: "A nickname can make a bad name, and it will make a living."
"Then I can rest assured." Zhen Zhen breathed a sigh of relief: "Let's call it Meat Bun."
"Meat Bun?" Ming Dong glanced at Zhen Zhen and asked her hesitantly, "Are you hungry?"
"A little bit!" Zhen Zhen rubbed her stomach and looked at the little nephew in Osmanthus Hua's arms with a serious face: "I just felt like I was thinking of a meat bun when I looked at my little nephew's face just now."
Li Mingdong couldn't hold back, and pinched Zhen Zhen's face: "There is no one in our family that looks more like a meat bun than your face!"