Old Xu and his son said to Li Xiangdong, somewhat embarrassed, "Kid, this thing is too heavy. Could you check now to see if you can exchange it for money?"

They didn't want to carry it back tonight and then bring it back tomorrow.

Luo Hongkai said unhappily, "Old Xu, how can you exchange a pig trough for money? Are you trying to take advantage of my son!"

Old Xu said sheepishly, "This isn't an ordinary pig trough; there are words on it!"

Li Xiangdong's heart stirred, so he took down the pine torch stuck under the eaves and went to look at the place where Old Xu had said there were words.

Li Xiangdong first looked around the entire pig trough. It was a rectangular stone trough carved from a single piece of bluestone. The outside of the trough was uneven. He squinted and looked more closely at the side with the words.

"Half... Autumn Moon over the Pool..."

These are four powerful and vigorous characters. Although the entire stone trough is worn, these four characters are still clearly visible.

There seemed to be another line of smaller characters in the upper left part of the character “月”. Li Xiangdong moved the torch closer and then he could see clearly that the four characters were “Meishan Su Shi”.

!!

Li Xiangdong's hands trembled as he stroked the four characters "Meishan Su Shi". For a moment, his mind was a little confused. What was such a large bluestone trough used for?

It must be said, it's quite suitable as a pig trough. Could this be what Su Dongpo used to raise pigs...?

His mind started racing with all sorts of random thoughts, while everyone around him held their breath and watched his every move.

After a long pause, Li Xiangdong finally grinned and asked, "How much money do you want to exchange?"

Old Xu immediately became happy, but when asked how much money to exchange, he was a little undecided. If he asked for too much, the person might run away; but if he asked for too little, he would be at a disadvantage.

He winked at his son, "Abao, how much do you want?"

He first let his son say a number to test the waters, and then he would adjust his approach based on Li Xiangdong's reaction.

Xu Abao scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "Um, that's twenty yuan?"

Twenty yuan is a lot. This is just a rock dragged down from the mountain, something to feed pigs. How much is it worth?

Old Xu looked at Li Xiangdong, nervously watching his expression.

Li Xiangdong had already seen through Lao Xu's intentions. He deliberately frowned and said with dissatisfaction, "Brother Bao, you're too greedy. The mountain is full of rocks. Even if there are four characters on this, it shouldn't be worth twenty yuan!"

Seeing that the deal was about to fall apart, Old Xu quickly kicked his son, yelling, "You little brat, what a big mouth you have! Aren't you afraid of biting off more than you can chew?"

After scolding his son, Old Xu said with a forced smile, "Kid, you decide how much to give me!"

Li Xiangdong found the Xu family father and son's act amusing, but his face remained tense. "This broken stone trough of yours, if I didn't want to take it back to the yard to plant lotus flowers, who would want it!"

First, he offered a comment, praising one thing and criticizing the other, then added, "Ten yuan is the most!"

Old Xu gritted his teeth and said, "Ten yuan it is! Deal!"

I'll go up the mountain tomorrow and get a stone to feed the pigs.

After seeing off the Xu family father and son, Li Xiangdong followed Luo Hongkai back to the house for dinner, neither of them glancing at the pig trough again.

Only Black Tiger and Black Panther seemed interested in the pig trough, and the two dogs kept playing around it.

Xu Abao, who had been watching the commotion in the yard from outside, said impatiently, "Let's go. If it were really a treasure, would they just leave it in the yard like this and let the dog treat it like this!"

Old Xu looked at the black tiger and black leopard jumping around in the pig trough, pondered for a moment, and said, "Let's go home!"

He figured that if there were words on the pig trough, what if it contained some incredible treasure?

Now it seems I was overthinking things. I swatted the mosquitoes off my face and the father and son slowly made their way home along the dark mountain path.

......

The antique-hunting event lasted for two days. Li Xiangdong took stock of the items and found that, in addition to the few Xianfeng Zhongbao and Xianfeng Yuanbao coins, there were more than thirty Zhibai Wuzhu coins, and the rest were copper coins that were not very valuable.

In addition, there is the "Half-Pond Autumn Moon" stone trough, and some folk kiln porcelain from the Republic of China or the late Qing Dynasty.

Li Xiangdong packed everything into boxes, preparing to transport it back to Lijiapo.

At this moment, He Chaochao also arrived, looking exhausted, but in good spirits. He was very excited when he saw Li Xiangdong. "Quanyechang wants big red mushrooms and flower mushrooms, as many as you can get, and 500 catties of each of the mixed mushrooms. Manager Yang said that if there are matsutake mushrooms, he will buy them for 50 yuan per catty!"

He Chaochao took a sip of the warm water that Li Lan handed her and excitedly stretched out a big hand to Li Xiangdong.

Li Xiangdong was also very happy, "Everything else is fine, but the matsutake mushrooms can't be preserved such a long distance!"

You should know that in later generations, people from other places who wanted to eat matsutake mushrooms had to be airlifted, and there was also advanced preservation technology. Now, that kind of condition is not available.

After resting for a night, He Chaochao dragged Li Xiangdong and Luo Yonggang to dig for seven clam shells early in the morning. Li Jiabao also insisted on going along when he found out.

Fully armed, they set off for Wild Boar Ridge with hunting rifles, shovels, and baskets.

Luo Yonggang led the way, using a bamboo pole to constantly push aside the lush grass, Li Xiangdong walked in the middle, and He Chaochao brought up the rear.

Luo Yonggang said, "Now Wild Boar Ridge is no longer worthy of its name, as the wild boars have almost been hunted to extinction."

He Chaochao chimed in, "It's a good thing that wild boars aren't damaging the crops anymore, but what about wolves?"

"The wolves are gone, but we've seen plenty of golden monkeys."

Li Xiangdong was thinking about the giant panda Gun Gun. "Has Gun Gun come back since I left last time?"

"Why haven't I seen it before? I've seen it twice in the bamboo forest behind the mountain, but it ran away before I could get close."

Giant pandas are extremely timid; they will immediately run away or climb high up a tree upon seeing strangers.

The group chatted as they walked, and they came across a large bunch of wild grapes. Li Xiangdong picked a purple grape and popped it into his mouth.

Hmm, eight parts sour, two parts sweet.

They stopped, cut off a few bunches of wild grapes that were mostly purple, and threw them into a bamboo basket, intending to bring them back for the children to try.

Walking to the edge of the cliff where Li Xiangdong had fallen and discovered the giant honey and the ebony, they indeed found a large patch of Sichuan fritillary bulbs, with slender, lush, and verdant leaves.

"Uncle, Brother Chao, let's dig up the fritillaria bulbs that have 'tree sons' on them!"

As we mentioned earlier, four-year-old fritillaria bulbs have the best medicinal effects. A characteristic of fritillaria bulbs at this stage is that the plant has already produced all the stems, which is what Li Xiangdong called "having a son tree".

The group quickly dug up all the four-year-old fritillaria bulbs in the area, and then filled all the excavated soil back in to ensure that the small fritillaria bulbs could continue to grow normally.

Luo Yonggang had scouted the area beforehand and led them to find a few small pieces of Sichuan fritillary bulbs. The quality of these fritillary bulbs was clearly not as good as the ones they had dug earlier, and there were not as many of them.

Li Xiangdong decided to sell the fritillaria bulbs he had dug up. His aunt was about to give birth, and having enough cash on hand would be essential for her.

The three of them walked, stopped, and dug, and by the time they got home, it was already dark.