The next day, Luo Xiuyan came to find Tian Cai early in the morning and asked her to go to the mountains to dig wild vegetables together in the morning.

Tian Cai also had the same idea. The reason why he did not choose to go early in the morning was because there was too much dew in the morning. His shoes were wet before he even reached the mountain, and it was uncomfortable to wear on his feet.

Tian Cai carried a bamboo basket with a smaller hand-held basket inside. She planned to check out the medicinal herbs while she was there so that she could pack them separately from the wild vegetables.

It was the beginning of summer at this time, and wild vegetables were everywhere on the hillside. Tian Cai also knew several kinds of them. In the past, my grandparents’ favorite was Artemisia selengensis sprouts. They would buy a few pounds of them at the morning market every year. If they couldn’t finish them, they would freeze them and eat them in winter.

As they walked in, they discussed which aunt in the village made the best soybean paste. When the time came, they would blanch it in water and dip it in the sauce. It would be so delicious.

Luo Xiuyan taught Tian Cai how to identify shepherd's purse, prickly ash, Acanthopanax senticosus, and celery one by one. Many of these wild vegetables sounded familiar to her before, but she had never seen them grown abnormally.

Tian Cai picked some of each kind so that she could have a different taste. She was the only one at home, so she couldn't eat too much, and she didn't have a refrigerator to store them.

Luo Xiuyan said, "Pick more and I'll come back to help you sort them. Blanch them and dry them. You can eat them in winter by just soaking them!"

"...Let's talk about it later."

After filling the small basket, Tian Cai started digging herbs in the forest. Spring is a good time to dig some root herbs.

She saw several plants of Smilax glabra, which is an anti-rheumatic medicine with the effect of removing rheumatism and unblocking meridians. Tian Cai took the medicine hoe and dug for a long time before digging out the large rhizomes underneath. There were already small white flower buds on them. She removed all the stems and leaves, and the medicinal part was the rhizome.

This thing is one of her commonly used medicinal herbs. The mountains are already very humid, and most of the elderly people in the village suffer from rheumatism. Tian Cai found three more trees nearby, cleaned them all and put them in her backpack.

I walked a little further in and came across another Atractylodes lancea. Judging from the variety, it should be Atractylodes lancea, which has the effects of strengthening the spleen and drying dampness, dispelling wind and dampness, and can treat abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, malaria and other diseases. I continued to dig with the medicine hoe. There was a wound on the large rhizome I dug out. It was caused by accidentally digging on it just now.

Afterwards, he dug up several plants of Cimicifuga foetida, which can treat wind-heat headaches, sore throats and other diseases. One of the rhizomes had already sprouted seven or eight buds. Tian Cai felt that he could try planting it directly in the garden. If he watered it with dew, maybe it would survive. It is also a commonly used medicine.

She carefully placed the large rhizomes of the herbs in her backpack and continued searching in the forest.

Suddenly, I saw a straight orange stem among the green leaves, with some yellow ears on it.

Tian Cai was stunned for a moment, then his eyes suddenly widened. It was Gastrodia elata! He quickly squatted down and used his hands to dig away the soil underneath bit by bit.

Digging down along the rhizome, a large potato-like tuber appeared in sight, with an upright stem connected to it.

If you clear the soil, you will see that the shape of Gastrodia elata is similar to a spindle. Tian Cai thinks it is more like a potato. They all grow underground, and some years they even grow in many layers.

This thing has no roots or leaves and cannot carry out photosynthesis. It relies on the accompanying honey fungus to provide nutrients for growth and reproduction.

Gastrodia elata is a medicine for calming the liver and relieving wind. It has the effects of calming wind and stopping convulsions, calming liver yang, and dispelling wind and unblocking meridians. It is generally used for children's convulsions, epilepsy, tetanus, rheumatic pain and other diseases.

Because of the unique reproduction method of Gastrodia elata, no one had been able to successfully cultivate it at that time, so the price of wild Gastrodia elata was very high. Even after so many people successfully cultivated it in later generations, the price of wild Gastrodia elata remained high.

Tian Cai pulled aside the half-man-high weeds and found several Gastrodia elata seedlings. These had just emerged from the bottom and their stems were relatively short, so they were not easy to find.

Most of the time, there will be large and small cubs under a Gastrodia elata seedling. If there are three or four growing together, there will be even more cubs. Maybe half of the small basket of space today will have to be given to it.

Tian Cai suppressed his excitement and carefully dug up the soil bit by bit. He picked up all the Gastrodia elata seeds and took them away, leaving only a few small ones.

Today's trip was not in vain at all. She had only found Gastrodia elata in the area near the cabin before, but she didn't expect to find it here too, and there were more of them than over there. Tian Cai looked around the forest and there was nothing special. She could be said to have hit the jackpot.

Luo Xiuyan's bamboo basket was also full of wild vegetables. She just walked into the meadow inside and picked half a basket of wild vegetables, smiling from ear to ear.

"Let's go back first and come back tomorrow."

Tian Cai had the same idea, so he took advantage of the good weather these days to go up the mountain several times. He could get free medicinal herbs, which could be made into pills and exchanged for money!

The two of them walked down the mountain chatting and laughing. Tian Cai thought of Luo Juan whom he saw yesterday and asked a few questions.

"Anyway, she was sick for a while before, and it was my mother who took her to the clinic. She came back and lay down for a few days, and now she's fine. Maybe she got sick because of that family!"

Luo Xiuyan casually plucked a morning glory and stuck it into her braid, fiddling with it for a while before continuing, "My second aunt still hasn't said what she did with the money. I only got half back from her cousin. This time, Luo Juan spent more on getting married than my brother did. The key is that my brother still got a wife, but she got nothing and got into trouble."

When Tian Cai heard this, he knew that Xiuyan had no idea that Luo Juan was pregnant.

She guessed that Aunt Du must have taken Luo Juan to the county to have an abortion. This was a good thing. She also thought that if the news that Luo Juan was four or five months pregnant got out, her reputation would be ruined. If any Red Guards came to the village in the future, she might be singled out as an example.

On the way back, they came across a mountain stream with clear water. Tian Cai was sweating and wanted to wash her face. She put the bamboo basket aside and just put her hand in the water when she saw something flash by.

Tian Cai quickly pulled his hand back and looked over. Next to the rock at the bottom of the water, a bluish-brown figure revealed two large pincers. It was a crayfish.

Crayfish, also known as big-headed shrimp and Northeast crayfish, looks very similar to crayfish.

However, the difference is also obvious. First of all, the colors of the two are different. Crayfish is bluish-brown, while crayfish is dark red. The shell of crayfish is not thick, but the shell of crayfish is thick and has hard thorns.

Crickets like to grow in clear streams and have extremely high requirements for water quality. There are no such things in the river next to Tian Cai's house because many people wash clothes there.

Tian Cai had heard from his grandfather before that crayfish had a delicious and unique taste, but was difficult to cook. Its delicious taste led to it being hunted in large numbers. In addition, due to environmental pollution in later generations, the water sources that met its growth conditions became increasingly scarce, and this creature was considered to be on the verge of extinction.