After the medicinal herb company's selection process, the villagers were left with mostly third-grade or lower ginseng.

Even so, it costs 11 yuan to buy one pound of third-grade ginseng.

After several days of intensive purchasing, a total of 1,000 jin of third-grade ginseng, 500 jin of red ginseng, and more than 200 jin of fourth-grade ginseng of less desirable quality were collected.

With boxes of neatly stacked ginseng in hand, Luo Yonggang and Bai Yulong's large sum of money was almost gone.

Having seen many ginsengs recently, Zhou Hongsong no longer felt the same awe as before towards this magical king of herbs. He casually picked up a ginseng and brought it to his nose to smell it. A smell of earthiness mixed with a bittersweet taste hit him right in the head.

After putting the ginseng back in its place, he asked Li Xiangdong, who was standing next to him, "Xiangdong, we've been in Northeast China for over a month now, isn't it about time we went home?"

I arrived in the height of summer in July, and now it's already the tenth day of the eighth lunar month.

In August, Zahatun already had the chill of autumn, with a gust of wind whistling and piercing the neck.

They've been afraid to open the windows at night lately, and they have to cover themselves completely with blankets from head to toe.

Even the clothes they wear now are made from fabric specially purchased from the supply and marketing cooperative, with trousers and long coats made for them by Aunt Cui and Cui Xinni.

Feeling the cool breeze from the Xing'an Mountains, Li Xiangdong nodded. "It's time to go back."

If things go smoothly, I might be able to... well, I still won't make it home in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

While chatting, Li Xiangdong and Zhou Hongsong strolled to the backyard to find Bai Yulong and others who were buying hazelnuts, wild walnuts, and pine nuts.

"Uncle Yulong, how much did you collect?"

From a distance, you could see Bai Yulong with a pencil tucked behind his ear, his right hand gripping the weight, head down as he weighed the scale!

"Seventy-eight jin, one mao per jin, that's seven yuan and eight mao in total!"

Bai Yulong announced the amount, and then asked the villager selling the goods to check the scale himself. Once both parties agreed that there was no problem, He Chaochao, holding a stack of bills, counted out seven yuan and eighty cents and handed it to the villager who was holding an empty basket.

Luo Yonggang poured the weighed hazelnuts into his own sack, while Li Jin and Li Jiabao helped him.

Upon hearing Li Xiangdong's question, Bai Yulong straightened up and said with a smile, "About three thousand catties of hazelnuts, two thousand catties of pine nuts, and a little less, two hundred catties of hickory nuts."

Wild hickory nuts have thick shells and little kernel. Their surface is crisscrossed with grooves and scars, and the shells are so hard that even a brick cannot crack them open. There is only one trick to getting the kernels out of the hickory nuts.

That is to insert the pointed end of the hickory nut into the hot ashes where there is still residual heat, and wait for the residual heat to crack the hickory nut.

When the time comes, use a screwdriver to poke through the opening of the walnut, split it in two, and then pick out the walnut kernel, and it's ready to eat.

These walnuts are hard to sell, but they taste delicious. I'll take these 200 jin back and share them with my relatives and friends so they can try them.

As for hazelnuts and pine nuts, although they are not worth much in these mountains, they are top-quality nuts in Yanjing City, where they can sell for one yuan per kilogram!

Making a single trip just to collect hazelnuts might not be worthwhile, but since I'm already here, I have to fill the whole truck!

Luo Yonggang spoke up: We must make back the money for this trip's fuel!

Li Xiangdong grabbed a hazelnut, threw it into his mouth, cracked it open with his teeth, nimbly twisted his tongue a few times, and spat out the hazelnut shell, leaving the kernel in his mouth.

Chew and chew, it's bittersweet!

When Li Xiangdong went up the mountain, he saw hazel trees, which grew in clumps along the mountain road. They were only about a meter tall, and hazel mushrooms grew under the hazel trees.

The hazel tree is smooth and straight, with a brittle trunk that is hollow inside when broken open.

Hazelnuts grow at the top of hazelnut trees, in clusters. The hazelnuts are half-encased in green shells; peel off the shells and you'll find the hazelnut kernels inside.

Unripe hazelnuts contain a sour, bitter pulp. Once the green shell turns dark brown, the hazelnut kernels are ripe and taste delicious.

The local people go up the mountain to pick hazelnuts. They grab the branches with one hand and pull them down the branches with the other, and the plump hazelnuts fall into their baskets with a crackling sound.

Once you get home, spread it out in the yard to dry, then tap it with a wooden stick to remove the dry outer shell, and you can put it in a bag for storage.

The villagers in Zahatun love to go up the mountain to pick hazelnuts, but there are too many hazelnuts, every household has a lot, and no one will buy them. They can't get a good price at the mountain market, so they can only keep them for themselves.

Pine nuts are more expensive than hazelnuts; Bai Yulong bought them for 15 cents a pound.

Why is it priced this way? First, compared to pecans and hazelnuts, Northeast pine nuts are more famous and widely recognized in other provinces and cities. Second, pine nuts are delicious, but the pine cones are difficult to harvest.

Pine cones hang high on the tips of pine trees, some ten or twenty meters high. If you wait to pick up a fallen pine cone, it's likely that the squirrels have hollowed it out, leaving only an empty pine cone!

However, this did not deter the young men from the Northeast who were going to the mountains. Every household had some pine nuts stored up, which they originally kept for their own consumption. But when they heard that someone was buying them at a high price, they emptied their baskets and took them out to sell!

By the time we finished serving the last customer, it was already 4:30 PM, and it was dark.

Li Xiangdong said, "Dad, Uncle, Brother Chao, let's get ready to go home! We've almost finished harvesting the mountain produce."

Li Jin was also a little homesick, so he immediately nodded in agreement, but said, "It's cool at home now, so I don't need to escape the heat anymore."

Luo Yonggang agreed, "We're almost out of money, it's time to go. We can take these mountain products to Yanjing City and sell them during the National Day holiday!"

"By the way, Uncle, have you set aside money for gas?"

"Yes, don't worry!"

There wasn't enough room for everyone in the truck, so they decided that Li Jin would take Li Jiabao by train first, while Li Xiangdong and the others would follow the truck until they were on the main road and safe to go, and then transfer to the train.

That evening, I told Lao Cui that I was leaving the day after tomorrow. Lao Cui looked reluctant to let me go, and he held Li Jin's hand and said repeatedly, "It's only been a month, Class Monitor, stay a little longer! Xin Ni and San Tiao are getting married in two months, and we were hoping you would be the officiant!"

Li Jin patted his old friend on the shoulder, "I already feel bad for troubling you for a month. I probably won't be able to come to Xinni's wedding, so I've prepared a red envelope for the child. Please accept it on her behalf!"

As he spoke, Li Jin took out a red envelope he had prepared beforehand from his pocket and handed it to Lao Cui. The red envelope was thick, and he knew without even opening it that there was a lot of money inside.

Old Cui quickly declined, saying, "Why are you giving me so much, squad leader! I can't accept it!"