Chapter 210 Ginseng

Aunt Zhang raised her hand and pointed at her, so angry that she could hardly speak. Lin Yue noticed that something was wrong, but he didn't care about it anymore. He quickly took a bowl from the stove, took out the long kettle on the stove, poured some hot water into the bowl, and squeezed past the people blocking the door with the water, and rushed to Aunt Zhang to support her.

Aunt Zhang's hands and feet were a little weak. She was supported by someone and leaned on Lin Yue subconsciously. Lin Yue asked in a low voice: "Auntie, are you feeling unwell?"

Aunt Zhang took two quick breaths and whispered, "No, my back is uncomfortable and a little stuffy, nothing serious."

She said that her back hurt, but her hand was covering her heart. Although Lin Yue was not a doctor, he knew that she was old and had suffered a serious illness before. He did not dare to be careless and advised her to give her some water.

Aunt Zhang was actually very scared at this time. She couldn't even tell where she felt uncomfortable. She thought there was no need to make a fuss and just endured it. Unexpectedly, Lin Yue noticed it.

She supported Lin Yue and slowly moved to the edge of the kang and sat down, questioning: "Second brother, don't be so vague when you talk, what treasure did I hide?" But she couldn't raise her voice and sounded a little weak.

Everyone then realized that something was wrong with Aunt Zhang's expression, and everyone in the room fell silent instantly. Even Liu Cuixia didn't dare to say anything more at this time. Even when she heard the questioning, she just curled her lips and didn't dare to make any more trouble.

Uncle Zhang said angrily, "You are not in good health, why are you still angry with them? You care too much about your children and have to consider everything for them, but look, how many of them are truly filial! Why don't you just not divide them? It's good for the whole family to live like this, and no one should make a fuss!"

The three brothers were somewhat ashamed. They didn't want to split up the family, but their parents and daughter-in-law didn't think so, and they had no right to make a comment. Lin Yue even saw the third brother secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Even the second sister-in-law, who had been complaining, hesitated for a moment.

The eldest sister-in-law tried to smooth things over, saying, "Alright, alright, we're all family, why are you making such a fuss? If there's any misunderstanding, just talk it out slowly and it will be fine!"

The third sister-in-law glanced at her and said, "That's right. We are living a good life. Why should we divide the family? Second sister-in-law, stop making a fuss. What treasure is there? Even if it really exists, it belongs to my parents. What does it have to do with me? Don't worry about it!"

Lin Yue took a deep look at his third sister-in-law, and saw that she had a frank expression, as if she was really a good sister-in-law who was kind enough to advise her younger siblings.

Liu Cuixia couldn't stand the provocation and exploded in an instant: "Wang Da Niu, stop pretending to be a good person here! You live well, you two have a room to yourself, you don't need to squeeze with others, of course you can pretend to be generous here! If you have the guts, come and exchange with me, and see if you are still in a hurry!"

The eldest and second brothers slept in the same room, separated by a curtain, which made it inconvenient to do anything. As for the third brother and his family, since they were still young, Aunt Zhang was afraid that it would hinder their growth, so she let them live in the farthest west room with their younger children.

The third sister-in-law said anxiously, "What are you talking about? Who do you think I am? Are we the only two sleeping in our room? Aren't the children in the family all sleeping on our kang?"

"You know who you are. Don't think that we are all fools and can't understand what you mean. If you want to use me as a gun, you have no chance!"

The third sister-in-law said "you you you" several times, but was blocked by the second sister-in-law. She looked at Zhang Sange with grievance and stamped her feet, saying: "You are a dead man, you don't even know how to say a word!"

Brother Zhang San looked at his wife, then at his second brother and his wife, with a look of helplessness on his face.

Aunt Zhang had calmed down by now. She sat up straight and said, "Okay, stop arguing! I can see that everyone is thinking about my things. Your father and I are still capable. Originally, all the things in this house were left for you. We didn't plan to keep anything for ourselves. You guys are making it sound like we have secretly hidden a lot of good things! His father, take out that box!"

Uncle Zhang sighed, took out a long wooden box from the kang cabinet and handed it to Aunt Zhang.

Aunt Zhang stroked the red string tied to the box and said, "Your father picked these last fall on the cliff behind the mountain. He almost broke his leg because of these ginsengs."

She looked up at her children and continued, "You know, this thing is not common in my hometown, and it has always been passed down as a sacred thing. I couldn't bear to sell it, so I wanted to keep it for you as a family heirloom or something."

She opened the box, revealing several ginsengs of different sizes. She touched them one by one and said, "Later, your father thought that there were many children in the family and it would be bad if any of them were separated. He went up the mountain to look for them several times but couldn't find them. He thought he would look for them again this year and tell you when he found all of them. But he didn't expect you to be so impatient."

The room was quiet in an instant. Zhang Da Ge called out "Dad, Mom" ​​in a low voice, tears welling up in his eyes. The second and third sisters-in-law stopped arguing and lowered their heads and stopped talking.

Lin Yue was close by, and she carefully examined the ginsengs. There were four ginsengs in the box, tied with red ropes. They were not very big, and all were wrinkled. They must have been exposed to the sun beforehand, so at least they were not moldy.

Although the old couple knew little about ginseng, they took good care of it. They preserved all four ginsengs very well. Some of them had only the ginseng body, a short section, but the ginseng roots were very neat. Some of them had both the ginseng body and the ginseng bowl preserved, and one even had the ginseng stem, with some brown seeds carefully preserved next to it.

Uncle Zhang sat at the table and sighed, "I have five children. My original idea was that it would be great if everyone had one, regardless of whether they were sons or daughters."

He said this with great pride, but none of his children and wives believed it. Not to mention that there were already four trees in the box. Brother Zhang remembered how often his father went to the mountains last autumn, and he knew that he was determined to get a full share for them and his siblings.

Zhang Huilan considered herself a married woman, and to avoid suspicion, she had not spoken for a long time. When she heard that her parents still remembered her, she was moved and said hurriedly: "Dad, Mom, I don't want it!"

Uncle Zhang said, "I'm not just thinking about you. I also have your eldest sister. She stayed in my hometown, but I can't forget about her. And Xiao Huizi, you're just like my own child. I originally planned to go into the mountains again this year to look for it, and it would be great if I could dig up two more. Unfortunately, I'm old and useless, and I don't have that much luck to come across such a good thing again."

Aunt Zhang continued, "You should calm down a bit. This is not cabbage. You can have as much as you want. I think you should just exchange it all for money and share it among the children. Maybe you can even make enough to build two more houses!"

The brothers and sisters were all very moved and felt extremely guilty. Zhang Yuandong said, "I heard a story from a comrade-in-arms. A relative of his in his hometown dug up some ginseng but was reluctant to sell it. It went moldy in less than half a year. It's expensive and we don't know how to preserve it, so we might as well sell it to a pharmacy. Auntie is right. If we sell these ginsengs, we can almost have enough money to build a house. It's not a good idea for so many people to live together."

Aunt Zhang and Uncle Zhang raised their heads to look at him, Zhang Huilan stopped wiping her tears, and the three sisters-in-law also raised their heads in unison.

However, the three brothers of the Zhang family were not surprised. This cousin has always been a man with many ideas since he was young. Although he is much younger than them, they really followed his ideas unconsciously at that time. Now when they heard him speak, it seemed that the feeling came back to them.

Lin Yue winked at him vigorously. After all, this was someone else's family affair. No matter how close they were, it was not appropriate for them to butt in.

Zhang Yuandong did not receive her signal, and continued: "The money is still not enough, I will pay the rest first."

As soon as these words were spoken, before anyone else could react, the third sister-in-law swallowed her saliva.

Aunt Zhang retorted: "No, I can't ask you to pay for this. There is no such thing!"

The third sister-in-law smiled awkwardly and agreed, "That's right, mother is right."

Zhang Yuandong explained: "I didn't pay for it, I paid first. When my family has money, it won't be too late to pay me back."

After hearing what he said, Uncle Zhang breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand, saying, "There's no rush. Life has been good in recent years and the family has saved a lot of money. It's enough to build one house first, and the rest can be done slowly. It shouldn't take long."

This means that we must split up and build a house.

This time, with tangible benefits, the brothers' eyes lit up and none of them were reluctant anymore.

Having said that, the matter was settled and no one was making any more noise. Liu Cuixia said awkwardly, "It's getting late. I'm going to cook!" and hurried out.

Aunt Zhang sighed and waved to her other two daughters-in-law, "Go and help her. With such a big family, she can't finish it all by herself!"

The eldest and third sisters-in-law went away in response. Aunt Zhang patted Zhang Huilan on the back again and said, "Are you staying here tonight? If not, leave quickly. It will be dark by then!"

Zhang Huilan's emotion was gone in an instant, and she said angrily, "Every time I come back, you rush me around the most. You won't let me stay home for even a moment longer!"

Aunt Zhang slapped her on the back twice and scolded her, "You are such a heartless person. It's so cold. Why don't you hurry back while it's still light? When it gets dark, be careful of wolves! If you really want to stay, why don't you bring your children back with you?"

Zhang Huilan was just indignant. She had a child at home, so she didn't really want to stay. She got off the kang and said angrily, "He's just a little kid. Do you think my mother-in-law would let him walk such a long way in the middle of winter? Okay, okay, I'll leave now! I'll take this and give it to my son when I get home!"

She picked up an opened bottle of maltose from the table, shook it, and put it into her backpack.

The bottle of malted milk was almost empty. It was placed on the table at lunch time to give it to the children. There was a new bottle next to it, but Zhang Huilan avoided it and only took the bottle that was almost empty.

Aunt Zhang said unhappily, "I just owe you!" As she said that, she got off the kang, found something for her and asked her to take it back.

Lin Yue also quickly found a cloth bag from his travel bag and stuffed it into Zhang Huilan's hand. The cloth bag was quite large, larger than the bag she was carrying, and inside it were some snacks and a few children's clothes, specially prepared for her.

Zhang Huilan pursed her lips, but didn't say no. She held the bag and said unhappily, "You are with the army now, so you must be more careful and don't be like a dough that anyone can knead!"

Lin Yue smiled and nodded, "Don't worry, the neighbors in the family compound are all very nice."

Zhang Huilan said with disdain, "Look at your silly look. People are nice to you because Brother Huizi is a high-ranking official. You can't take it seriously! You have to be tougher too, and let others know that you are not someone who can be easily bullied. Only then will they really not dare to mess with you!"

Zhang Yuandong stood up and interrupted her: "Where is your in-laws' home? I'll take you there."

Zhang Huilan was very happy, but still refused, saying with a smile: "You've only been here a few times, can you still come back after sending me home?"

Brother Zhang also said: "Far East is not familiar with this place, so I'll go deliver it. I'll go to the brigade and borrow a mule. It will be there in less than half an hour."

Zhang Yuandong still insisted: "I'll go with you."

Zhang Huilan joked: "Why, do you want to come to my house for dinner tonight?"

Zhang Yuandong just smiled. He had listened to what Aunt Zhang had just said and was worried that he might really encounter a wolf on the road.

Although Lin Yue didn't know what Zhang Yuandong was thinking, he also agreed: "Just let him go. As your brother, he doesn't even know where you live. It's a good opportunity for him to go and get to know your family."

This would save her face, so Zhang Huilan was happy to agree.

Before Brother Zhang could go and borrow the mule, the captain showed up first.

He came to look for Zhang Yuandong, and as soon as he entered the room he asked, "His nephew, when are you going back?"

Zhang Yuandong's facial muscles twitched. Uncle Zhang said angrily, "Uncle Liu, how can you talk like that? My nephew just came today and you asked him when he will leave!"

"Hey, I don't mean that. I just want to trouble him for something!" He came here again for that erotic matter.

The captain turned to Zhang Yuandong and explained, "I called the county public security bureau, and they don't know how to deal with this kind of homeless population. They don't know where the person's registered residence is, and it's troublesome to find a place to receive him. They said we could send him over first, and they would make the arrangements. I just wanted to ask if you could take him with you on your way!"

When Aunt Zhang heard this, she rushed in and asked, "Uncle Liu, what did the police say? Didn't they say there was nothing they could do? Why did they say they would make arrangements?"

The captain explained: "They can't find a commune to accept them for the time being, but they can arrange for them to live in farms or forest farms first."

Aunt Zhang asked anxiously, "Why is there no commune willing to accept us? There are so many bachelors in our village, why don't you give it some thought?"

The captain thought this was nonsense, "She is a fool. Who would want a fool as their daughter-in-law?"

He suddenly remembered that Liu Dagen almost dragged the person away, and it looked like he wouldn't mind.

Aunt Zhang also said: "What's wrong with a fool? Some people in our village can't even marry a fool!"

The captain shook his head vigorously, "Let me think about it..."

Aunt Zhang stopped the man and said anxiously, "What are you thinking about? You might as well get them together and let them see each other. Let them decide for themselves whether they are willing or not!"

"See for yourself... Liu Dagen is willing to do it, but he is such a person, isn't this just pushing him into the fire pit?"

"What are you mumbling about? Who said Liu Dagen? What good girl would not be bullied if she followed him? I'm talking about Zhao Feng! His mother asked me to find him a partner. She doesn't have any other requirements, just that she can always accompany him in the future!"

Zhao Feng is a deaf-mute man. He is almost forty years old and still can't find a wife. His mother is also old and can't accompany him for a few more years. What she worries about most is her son.

The captain thought about it and thought that this could be done. A fool and a deaf man, no one should be disdained. He was in a hurry and did not stay any longer. He turned around and went to Zhao Feng's house to find someone and arrange for the two to meet.

Brother Zhang called out from behind, but he said without turning his head, "Don't worry, this is done, and the matchmaker is still your mother's. I won't take the credit!"

Brother Zhang shouted, "Uncle Liu, that's not the case!" Unfortunately, the person had already walked far away, and in the end the matter of borrowing the mule was not discussed.