The old man sheepishly withdrew his hand from the scale, muttering, "Five cents it is, the female leopard had more meat in her belly today, so it's a bit more expensive..."

Cui Xinni grabbed Li Xiangdong and pulled him away, saying, "We're not buying from him! He's a rip-off!"

"Uh... okay..."

Cui Xinni was quite strong; with a sudden pull, Li Xiangdong stumbled two steps.

"Hey, forty-nine cents a pound, want some?"

Seeing that the business was about to fail, Grandpa Forest Frog called out from behind, unwilling to give up.

"No! Keep it for yourself!"

Without turning her head, Cui Xinni said angrily, "They're a disgrace to Northeasterners! They actually raised prices on the spot!"

After Cui Xinni made a scene, everyone else stopped shouting and watched the spectacle with great interest.

The group then walked up to the crayfish stall. Before they could speak, the owner grinned and said, "I'm an honest man, no markup, one cent a pound, the same price for locals and tourists alike!"

The crayfish in the basin resembled small lobsters and lay quietly in the clear water.

Cui Xinni pulled a small handkerchief from her bosom, counted out five one-mao bills, and said, "Okay, this price is fair! Boss, give me about five jin!"

She turned to Li Jiabao and said, "I'll make crayfish tofu for you guys when we get back!"

Li Jiabao had never eaten this dish before. "What is crayfish tofu? You stew tofu with this?"

Cui Xinni explained to him, "Grind the crayfish into juice, filter it with gauze, add scallions, ginger, oil, and salt, stir well, and then pour it into a boiling pot. The crayfish juice will immediately turn into pink, egg-flower-like things. This dish is called crayfish tofu."

Crayfish only live in the waters near the Songhua River, Tumen River and Yalu River, and they can only grow in clean water. They will die immediately if the water is even slightly polluted. As a result, wild crayfish became less and less common in later generations and eventually almost disappeared.

So it's normal that Li Jiabao and Li Xiangdong had never tried this Northeastern specialty snack.

"You guys haven't tried this before, have you? Hey, you should try it when you get back. I guarantee you'll want to eat it again and again!"

As the shopkeeper spoke, he deftly ordered five catties of crayfish for them, the scale tip pointing high. "Five catties and four ounces, I'll charge you five catties!"

Cui Xinni leaned over to look at the gold stars on the scale, nodded in satisfaction, and handed over the money and goods.

Continuing on, we saw vendors selling wild astragalus, with thick rhizomes and numerous rootlets, all dug up from the mountains.

There are also vendors selling Ganoderma lucidum, small and with bright red caps, genuine Northeast Red Ganoderma lucidum. This type of Ganoderma lucidum is an annual and has medicinal value. The Ganoderma lucidum next to it, which is as big as a washbasin, has a woody cap and has no medicinal value at all. It can only be taken home as an ornamental decoration.

Seeing these Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms, Li Xiangdong couldn't help but recall the two particularly large Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms that he had found between the two rivers in Huichuan, which still possessed medicinal properties. Now that he thought about it, those things were truly natural treasures—because they defied common sense!

Reishi mushrooms older than one year have no medicinal properties, and reishi mushrooms with medicinal properties simply cannot grow that large in one year!

After much deliberation, Li Xiangdong spent twenty yuan to buy all five small, crooked Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms from the stall.

The shop owner also wanted to sell him the large Ganoderma lucidum, saying, "Take it back and put it in the old man's room to bring him good fortune and longevity!"

However, the Ganoderma lucidum's cap was white, like withered wood ruined by rain, and looked completely unfestive, so Li Xiangdong refused it.

He also bought some elm and linden honey, intending to use them to make medicinal wine.

Looking at the basket full of things, Zhou Hongsong couldn't help but sigh, "The Northeast is truly a land of outstanding people and abundant resources. The black soil is so fertile that even a dead branch can sprout!"

He Chaochao nodded, "That's why everyone was going to migrate to Northeast China back then. I heard that my grandfather was also going to migrate to Northeast China, but he missed the train and came back."

"Well, didn't people who ventured to Northeast China walk there? How could your family buy train tickets?"

"Hehe, in the end I refunded the train ticket, used the money to buy some food, and managed to get by!"

The group chatted idly and quickly finished exploring the entire mountain produce market.

Li Xiangdong was a little frustrated because after going around in circles, he hadn't seen what he was looking for.

He quietly asked Cui Xinni beside him, "Sister, why don't I see anyone selling ginseng?"

Ginseng, a precious medicinal herb, only grows in the Northeast region of China, at an altitude of several hundred meters in deciduous broad-leaved forests or mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests.

Cui Xinni raised an eyebrow. "You want to buy ginseng?"

"Yeah, I guess. It's an eye-opener, since this kind of thing is only found here."

"Wild ginseng sells for a high price here. People who dig it up keep it at home without saying a word, waiting to sell it at a high price later. Nobody would put it at the market to sell!"

"Oh! I see!"

Li Xiangdong was disappointed, but then he thought about it and laughed. Wild ginseng has been so precious since ancient times, how could it be sold by people standing on the street?

"However, the forest-grown ginseng here is cheaper, and its effects are actually not much different from wild ginseng!"

The history of ginseng cultivation under forest cover in my country dates back four to five hundred years, especially in Zahatun. For generations, local families have cultivated ginseng under forest cover, resulting in a large-scale ginseng cultivation area in Zahatun and relatively cheaper prices.

According to Cui Xinni, wild ginseng is also divided into several categories, including seed ginseng, transplanted ginseng, and ginseng from old ponds.

Among them, seed-grown ginseng is ginseng seeds scattered in the mountains and then left unattended. Ginseng grown in this way has almost the same growth habits as pure wild ginseng, and is the closest to wild ginseng in terms of the five elements and six constitutions. It is also the most expensive among forest-grown ginseng and the most popular among pharmaceutical companies.

Transplanted ginseng refers to ginseng seedlings that have been artificially cultivated and then transplanted to the mountains. This type of ginseng involves a large degree of artificial intervention and is therefore less expensive than seed-grown ginseng.

The old pond bottom consists of leftovers from the ginseng fields under the forest. These are old ginseng that have grown in the wild for decades or even hundreds of years, and they are expensive and rare.

Cui Xinni continued, "Since the contracting of land to individual households began last year, some people nearby have also started growing ginseng, which is even cheaper."

Garden ginseng is ginseng grown in greenhouses on flat land. The growing environment is different from that in the mountains and forests, and the effect is not as good as that of forest-grown ginseng.

"Sure, Sister Xinni, take us all to see it!"

"Then let's go home!"

"Why go home? Aren't you going to see the ginseng growing in the forest?"

"My family owns ginseng fields, so why would I go home?"

Li Xiangdong was stunned. After all that fuss, he suddenly looked back and found the ginseng right there in the dim light!

Crayfish, a close relative of crayfish

Crayfish tofu

annual wild Ganoderma lucidum

Wooden Ganoderma lucidum ornament