Li Xiangdong thought that it might be a wild ginseng!

That cluster of red berries is the fruit of ginseng.

And this is indeed the time when ginseng bears fruit.

With an excited heart and trembling hands, I took a step forward.

He walked toward the red berries, but in the blink of an eye, the little red spots disappeared!

Li Xiangdong rubbed his eyes hard with his hands, and exclaimed, "Huh!"

What happened? It's gone.

He is now extremely confident in his eyesight; he can see every detail from a hundred meters away, and nothing can escape his gaze.

But now, that splash of red has vanished before his eyes!

He shook his head, a little hesitant. Could it be that he had been thinking about it during the day and dreaming about it at night, and was seeing things wrong?

He frowned, carefully recalling the scene just now, and it seemed that along with that flash of red, there was also a flash of yellow.

Could it be that something ate the ginseng fruit?

It can't be that the wild ginseng has become a spirit and can run around in the ground by itself!

He lifted his leg to walk in that direction, intending to find out what was going on.

"Dongzi, what are you doing? Let's go!"

Niu Santiao tugged at Li Xiangdong's arm and pointed ahead, "They've all gone over there to check the wild boar snares."

Li Xiangdong looked up and saw that, as expected, Lao Cui, Li Jin, Zhou Hongsong, and the others had all gone to the front, leaving only him and Niu Santiao behind.

"Brother San Tiao, I need to poop. You guys go ahead. I know where that wild boar snare is. I'll come find you guys after I'm done!"

Niu Santiao had witnessed Li Xiangdong's marksmanship over the past few days, and had shot down dozens of pheasants and flying dragons. However, he still gave him a warning: "Hold your gun safe. Be careful of wild boars and bears when you're taking a dump!"

"Okay! Go ahead and do it!"

Li Xiangdong agreed and jogged towards the spot where the red mark had disappeared.

Niu Santiao hurried off to catch up with Lao Cui and the others.

Li Xiangdong walked quickly to a patch of wild grass and carefully searched for ginseng leaves among the grass.

However, after searching an area of ​​five meters, no palm-sized leaves, characteristic of ginseng, were found.

A sense of disappointment welled up in his heart. Oh well, old ginseng isn't so easy to find!

After all, these mountain people can turn the Xingan Mountains upside down every day, and this land is right next to the mountain path. If there were wild ginseng, it would have been discovered by others long ago!

Just then, his stomach rumbled loudly, followed by a sharp abdominal pain; he really had diarrhea!

Li Xiangdong looked around, but there was no one in the woods, so he simply took off his pants and started to defecate.

"Ugh! It stinks!"

Li Xiangdong pulled while covering his nose and moving to the side.

He squatted there bored, using a small stick to sift through a clump of wild vegetables that looked like wild celery.

Suddenly, Li Xiangdong's eyes widened!

He saw the clump of wild vegetables with a short, thick stem in the middle, bearing fresh marks of being gnawed by animals.

Could it be that those red berries were really eaten by small animals?

No wonder I can no longer see it.

But these leaves don't look like wild ginseng leaves at all; they look more like mutated wild celery.

Oh well, I'm just idling around anyway.

Li Xiangdong began digging in the soil with the wooden stick in his hand.

In the summer, the black soil of the Xingan Mountains is moist and fertile, covered with layers of humus from fallen leaves, making it easy to pry a wooden stick into it.

Li Xiangdong dug slowly, and soon he dug out a small pit!

"Knock knock knock..."

In an instant, Li Xiangdong's heart pounded like a drum.

Before my eyes appeared a round reed with tightly packed ring-shaped ridges!

This is wild ginseng!

Moreover, it's a wild ginseng that has been growing for a very long time!

These days, Li Xiangdong spends his free time following Old Cui, the old foreman, to inspect ginseng, and now he knows all about the structure of ginseng.

The "lu" of ginseng refers to the underground stem of ginseng, which is the slender part at the top of the main root, commonly known as the "lutou".

Every autumn, the above-ground parts of the ginseng plant fall off, leaving a stem scar on the rhizome, which is called the "rhizome bowl".

The reed rings are like the annual rings of a tree, and the number of reed rings increases with the age of the ginseng.

Based on the shape of the rhizome, people divide them into many types, such as round rhizome, piled flower rhizome, horse tooth rhizome, two-section rhizome, three-section rhizome, shrunken neck rhizome, and rubbing rhizome.

The most typical characteristic of old wild ginseng is that it has a "round reed" with a long and dense stem.

The round reed is formed because wild ginseng has a long growth period, and the early reed bowls gradually degenerate and disappear.

Li Xiangdong no longer dared to casually dig here and there with the wooden stick in his hand, but instead carefully scraped the soil out little by little.

He was digging intently when suddenly a loud voice came from behind him.

Is that Dongzi?

Li Xiangdong was startled, but he was, after all, a man who was seventy or eighty years old in total from his two lifetimes. His expression remained unchanged, and he replied, "It's me, Uncle Hai'er."

What are you doing squatting in the woods?

As he spoke, Old Hai'er led the men behind him toward them.

Li Xiangdong's heart tightened. If they came over and saw the old ginseng, it would inevitably cause some unnecessary trouble.

Perhaps due to nervousness, his stomach rumbled again, followed by a foul odor.

A gust of wind blew, and the stench went straight to Lao Hai'er and the others' noses.

"Good heavens, why does it smell so bad!"

Old Hai'er walked at the front and was the first to smell the freshly baked stench of excrement.

The others also took several steps back and covered their noses with their hands.

Li Xiangdong said awkwardly, "Uncle Lao Hai'er, I have an upset stomach. You guys should go first, it really smells terrible."

Old Hai took a few steps back. "Alright, I'm glad you're alright. Then we'll head over to the wild boar traps first!"

"Go ahead, go ahead, I'll come find you guys after I'm done!"

Old Hai led a few people away in a hurry. Even after they had gone quite a distance, Li Xiangdong could still hear someone muttering, "Damn, what did they eat? Their poop smells so bad!"

"Just like the stink bomb of daily life!"

Hahahaha~

After watching them walk away, Li Xiangdong carefully began digging for ginseng again.

Thank goodness for this pile of shit!

This time he sped up his work, knowing that someone else might come at any moment.

A gentle breeze blew by, carrying the stench of feces to Li Xiangdong and the old ginseng.

Perhaps because it smelled so bad, no one or any animals came to disturb Li Xiangdong, who was digging for ginseng.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Xiangdong's forehead was covered in sweat.

"call--"

A whole old ginseng root with iron-like markings and golden skin was dug out.

Li Xiangdong breathed a sigh of relief; they had finally dug it out.

Without professional tools, Li Xiangdong dug mud into his fingernails to avoid breaking the ginseng roots.

Huh?!

Why can't I get it out?