At this moment, Zhou Laoda had only one thought: his daughter was indeed reliable. The Ganoderma lucidum here was large and plentiful, enough to fill half a basket. But he was worried that if he put too much in the basket, it would arouse suspicion. When he returned, he would have to hand over the herbs. Did he have to hand over the Ganoderma lucidum as well?
His arms and sleeves were already full, so he could only put the rest in his basket. Luckily, the clothes he wore this time were large enough, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to hide much.
The village chief was also quite worried. He had hidden a lot of Ganoderma lucidum on his body, including the large ones. There were still quite a few left, but if he left them to pick next time, they might be discovered and taken by others. It would be safer to pick them all at once.
"Village chief, what are you doing crawling down there, boss?" Zhou Fagen walked over at some point and bent down to look at the two of them.
"How about it? Are there many herbs down here?" Even Zhang Facai came over.
Zhou Shugen and a few others followed. Their small group had all come over. The village chief and Zhou Laoda looked at each other at the same time, knowing that they couldn't hide it anymore. Oh well, they were all on the same side. Everyone who saw it would get a share, and the rest would be divided among everyone.
We can cover for each other then.
"Shh, all of you shut up. Don't lie there and attract attention. Wait until we and the village chief go out, then you can come in one by one," Zhou Laoda said with a stern face.
Hmm, something's up.
We all grew up together and know each other very well. Just by looking at Boss Zhou's expression, we knew things weren't that simple.
The group's expressions were subtle, but no one held them back. They each took on their assigned tasks and cooperated. Some were on guard, while others waited for Boss Zhou and the village chief to come out before climbing in.
They had a rule: if they found something good but it wasn't enough to go around, they would keep it for themselves; if there was any left over, they would share it. However, the person who found the treasure would get the lion's share, while the others would have to split it equally.
So Zhou Laoda and the village chief tacitly agreed to take the lion's share. Once they got their hands on it first, the others wouldn't have any ulterior motives. Zhou Fagen, Zhou Shugen, and Zhang Facai went in to dig, and when they came out, the six of them would split the spoils equally. No one was allowed to keep anything for themselves.
With everyone working in perfect harmony, they quickly dug up all the Ganoderma lucidum under the vines. At this point, they weren't in a hurry to divide the spoils; they had to pretend to continue searching for herbs.
When they reached a secluded spot, they took out the Ganoderma lucidum and counted them. There were a total of eighteen, and each of the six people could get three.
"Hide them well, don't let anyone find out, or all our work today will have been for nothing," the village chief warned.
“I know, it’s all money. How can we turn down money?” Zhou Fagen said calmly.
"Hey, what are you guys doing over there?" Suddenly, an officer stood not far away, staring at them. "Don't stray too far, or you'll be responsible for the consequences if you fall behind."
The group of people all tensed up. Luckily, they had just hidden the Ganoderma lucidum when people arrived, and they were almost discovered.
"Everyone, act naturally and don't cause trouble," the village chief warned in a low voice.
The group then continued searching for herbs on their way back. Strangely enough, the place where they found the Ganoderma lucidum was also unusually rich in herbs. Before long, they had filled more than half a basket, which was much better than their previous two harvests. It used to take them three days to find a basketful, but now they filled almost a basketful in half a day.
"Hey, boss, what are you digging for? Is this herb some kind of medicine for injuries?" Zhou Fagen watched as his boss, Zhou, dug for a long time with a hoe, just to find a herb that was knee-high.
But these herbs were clearly not the kind they usually dug up to treat epidemics. However, since Boss Zhou knew a lot about medicines for treating injuries, he assumed that these herbs were for treating injuries.
Old Zhou wiped the sweat from his forehead and mumbled, "Yeah, if you see it, just dig it back."
Zhou Fagen didn't say anything more. Who among those who came in to dig for medicinal herbs wouldn't hide some of their own? Especially those who could identify medicinal herbs, and a few hunters, every time they went into the mountains, besides the herbs they had to hand over to the government, they would also take some of their own herbs back with them.
Even if all else fails, you can still take a nest of bird eggs or a few wild rabbits back with you. However, if it's something valuable, you might not be able to keep it and it will be taken away by the officials.
However, no one has found anything particularly valuable yet, except for the Ganoderma lucidum that Boss Zhou and his group found today. It is estimated that one of them can be sold for a few taels of silver, but the exact value will only be known after asking at the pharmacy.
Just as he was about to dig out the familiar-looking herb, Boss Zhou frowned deeply. The roots of this thing grew too deep; it took him a long time to dig to the bottom. It was only because the roots were so thick and extremely tough that he could have easily torn them off with one hand.
"This herb root is like an iron rope. We tried to pull it hard several times but couldn't break it. Strange, it looks familiar but I've forgotten what its effects are. Never mind, let's dig it up first." Old Zhou muttered to himself, feeling a little impatient but not thinking of giving up.
"Boss, boss, look up there, look up there." Zhou Fagen stared wide-eyed, his face pale, and he swallowed hard.
Less than an inch above Zhou Laoda's head was a small tree, and on the tree was a snake about the size of a thumb and a foot long, gleaming with golden light. Yes, it was a golden snake.
The golden snake didn't look very big. Its tail was coiled on the treetop, its upper body was upright, and it was hissing and flicking its tongue. When Zhou Fagen spoke in a low voice, the golden snake looked at him, and Zhou Fagen's scalp tingled instantly.
It wasn't that he was cowardly, but rather that the golden snake's eyes were so real, as if a demon crawling out of hell was staring at him, which made him feel inexplicably cold.
"What's up there? We're busy, we don't have time to look around." Old Zhou didn't even look up, he was only focused on digging up medicinal herbs.
"A snake, a snake is above your head!" Zhou Fagen seemed to use all his strength to say these words.
At this moment, Boss Zhou had already dug out the herbs and was carefully holding them in his hands, as if he hadn't heard Zhou Fagen's words. However, if you looked closely, you would notice that his back was stiff and his movements were much smaller.
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