Chapter 58 A fox wanders leisurely along the banks of the Qi River.
Qin Suisui was so startled that she took several steps back, thinking she was still half asleep and dreaming, and rubbed her eyes again.
When she opened her eyes again, those smiling eyes were still looking at her, and they even spoke:
"Is this the little expert Auntie was talking about? He looks kind of familiar."
Qin Suisui screamed in her heart: No way, no way, how come after running all over China, I still run into that "boss", who is also Zhang Zhiqing's landlord!
She was dressed so well that even her own mother wouldn't recognize her that day. Could it be that this eldest brother really recognized her?
Wouldn't that expose her plan to catch spies? Wouldn't Zhang Zhiqing's accomplices find her?
Aunt Zhang then noticed that Qin Suisui had also gotten up, and hurriedly came to greet her apologetically: "Oh! Did we wake you up? I'm so sorry! This is Liang Qi, the distant nephew I told you about before. He was taken to the mountains by that naughty boy Chang He and got hurt by accident."
Chang He, who hadn't been home for days, was standing opposite his mother, frantically winking at Qin Suisui: Please, sister, don't tell Mom that I almost got eaten by a bear in the mountains during the day! Otherwise, I'm doomed!
Qin Suisui was surprised that she could actually understand Chang He's gaze. She returned Chang He's gaze without making a sound. She didn't want too many people to know that she, a weak woman, had gone deep into the mountains.
The two sides reached a consensus and quickly looked away.
Qin Suisui then realized that the person was still looking at her with a smile, as if he was waiting for her answer.
Qin Suisui forced a smile: "No, maybe I just have a rather common face."
Chang He couldn't help but interject, "This is the first time I've ever seen such a pretty, generic face."
Qin Suisui glared at him, glanced at the injury on Liang Qi's leg, and abruptly changed the subject: "Was this scratched by the claws of wild animals in the mountains? You need to get it treated quickly, or it will get infected."
She wasn't wrong; Liang Qi's legs were covered in scratches of varying depths, still bleeding. In some places, the flesh had been torn open, likely from the claws pulling the skin, a horrifying sight. It was June, the hottest time of year, and the wounds were indeed prone to infection if not treated promptly.
Upon hearing this, Aunt Zhang slapped Chang He on the forehead again: "You wretched brat! If it weren't for you, would Xiao Qi have been so badly injured? What are we going to do now? It's the middle of the night, where are we going to find a doctor!"
Liang Qi, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up: "Auntie, isn't the little expert a medicinal herb grower? Maybe he knows medicine too!"
Hearing him say that, Aunt Zhang also came to her senses and looked at Qin Suisui with pleading eyes. The other members of the Chang family looked at her with the same eyes as Aunt Zhang.
Qin Suisui swallowed hard, bearing the heavy gazes of the room, and nodded with difficulty.
She turned and went back into her room, actually into her spatial dimension, took out some commonly used disinfectant and some bamboo ginseng she had just picked from the mountain yesterday, handed the bamboo ginseng to Aunt Zhang and asked her to help crush the roots, while she herself began to clean and disinfect Liang Qi's wound.
Liang Qi's legs were much whiter than his face. Although she was very thin, she had muscles and was lean and strong. At this moment, the skin and flesh on her leg were torn apart, and there were several deep wounds where the muscle fibers could be seen to be broken. She had no excuse to take out anesthetic from her space, so she could only make him endure it.
Liang Qi remained completely silent throughout, as if nothing had happened, though his amorous peach blossom eyes occasionally drifted over Qin Suisui.
From the first moment Qin Suisui saw him in the town on Qiongtan Island, she felt that his face was somewhat fake, and she still felt that way now. But thinking of the group of "followers" he used to have, she figured it was normal for someone like him to wear some disguise on his face.
After treating the wound, Qin Suisui applied the ginseng that Aunt Zhang had pounded to Liang Qi's wound and secured it with gauze. She also took out an anti-inflammatory and detoxifying pill from her pocket and handed it to Liang Qi: "Take this, and the wound won't get infected."
Liang Qi smiled, took the pills without hesitation, and swallowed them without even drinking water.
Qin Suisui paused, and Liang Qi raised an eyebrow, looking at her with a puzzled expression. Qin Suisui blinked: "That medicine... is quite bitter." She had made this medicine with her grandmother before, and she knew better than anyone how much Coptis chinensis was added.
Liang Qi winked at her and smiled nonchalantly.
Qin Suisui shrugged. "Maybe some people are just born unafraid of hardship!"
She glanced at her watch; it was already past four in the morning. She decided to take a short nap before getting up for her run. So she yawned, waved to everyone, and turned to go back inside.
After she closed the door, Liang Qi, who had been sitting there calmly, suddenly opened his mouth and started panting heavily. Seeing Chang He standing there dumbfounded, he slapped him and said, "Quick! Get me some water! Get me some candy!"
Chang He: Huh? Weren't you not afraid of hardship?
He muttered to himself, but dared not complain a word, and happily went to fetch water and candy.
For the next two days, Qin Suisui followed her routine: in the morning, she would go to the ginseng base with Xu Shouquan and the others to conduct research, and at noon she would go directly to the mountain to meet up with Dahuang and Dahei. Under Dahuang and Dahei's guidance, she discovered many more medicinal herbs and collected a lot of wild mushrooms, such as matsutake, porcini, hazel mushrooms, and morels. During the mushroom collection, she also unexpectedly discovered a lot of blueberries and wild grapes, which she transplanted into her space, and the plants on the black soil multiplied.
She deliberately came back early in the evening. Perhaps because Liang Qi had been there these past two days, the food at the Zhang family's house was particularly good. Qin Suisui also noticed that the Zhang family members were exceptionally polite to Liang Qi, especially Aunt Zhang, who was almost always there to grant his requests, unlike a typical aunt and niece.
However, none of this affected her. She had returned early to learn cooking from Aunt Zhang. She had thought it over carefully; with so many things in the space, it would be a waste if she didn't know how to cook. Northeastern cuisine was delicious and easy to learn, such as braised goose in an iron pot, chicken stew with mushrooms, and pork stew with vermicelli—she could learn them in no time. Once she mastered these simple dishes, she would learn Sichuan cuisine from Sister Tang later.
Thinking about how she would show off her culinary skills to Pei Jiuyan and Zanzan when she returned to Qiongtan Island and amazed them, Qin Suisui couldn't help but laugh.
The ginseng research project is nearing its end and is expected to conclude in a day or two. That morning, after returning from the base, Qin Suisui did not go up the mountain but instead went with Aunt Zhang to collect mushrooms in the village. She discovered that dishes like chicken stew with mushrooms taste best when stewed with Northeastern-style mushrooms. Although she had also transplanted some mushrooms into her space, they were all fresh, so she needed to collect some dried mushrooms to take back and eat.
Chang He furtively pulled her aside, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and then took out a cloth bag from his pocket and handed it to her: "Sister, this is a thank-you gift from Cai Chen and me for saving your life. Please don't refuse!"
It felt a little hard to the touch, so Qin Suisui opened it directly. Inside was a complete deer antler! And it looked like a sika deer antler, even more precious than a red deer antler. Qin Suisui slammed the bag shut, looking at him in shock: "Where did you get this? Did you go to the mountains again?"
Chang He said with some pride, "Cai Chen and I got this on the black market. They have all sorts of things on the black market! Cai Chen said you would definitely like medicinal herbs, so we got this!"
Qin Suisui rubbed her chin. It seemed she had to go to the black market before leaving. There was no better time than today!
Mushrooms were a common sight in almost every household in Baihe Brigade. After visiting just a few households, Qin Suisui collected over twenty or thirty kilograms of dried mushrooms and over ten kilograms of dried fruits such as hazelnuts and chestnuts. She borrowed the brigade leader's bicycle and headed to town under the pretext of "mailing" the mushrooms.
As soon as she left the village, she found a secluded spot, put her belongings into her spatial storage, and then disguised herself inside. When she came out, she was a "little old lady."
According to Chang He, after arriving in town, she quickly and easily found the entrance to the black market, gave the gatekeeper two cents, and was able to enter smoothly.
As soon as I entered, my eyes widened in surprise. The black market in Northeast China was nothing like a black market; it was more like a marketplace. It had everything: dried mushrooms, dried fruits, medicinal herbs, flour, rice, and even wild boar and roe deer meat.
Qin Suisui acted as if she had never seen the world before, wanting everything she saw. Before she knew it, she had bought more than ten kilograms of various dried mushrooms and dried fruits. The rice and wheat flour from Northeast China were of excellent quality, and she bought fifty kilograms of each. Still feeling that it wasn't enough, she arranged with the stall owner to have them delivered to her place and ordered two hundred kilograms of each.
We didn't buy any wild boar meat, but the roe deer meat was fresh, so we bought a leg. We'll have to ask Aunt Zhang for advice on how to cook it when we get back.
Many of the medicinal herbs sold here were available in Qin Suisui's space. She only picked out some that she didn't have in her space and bought them, and also managed to buy a few good hides.
Seeing that the agreed time with the delivery person had arrived, Qin Suisui did not linger and left the black market directly.
The delivery location was an abandoned factory not far from the black market. After successfully handing over the goods to the delivery person, Qin Suisui put everything into her spatial storage when no one was around, changed back into her own clothes, and prepared to head home.
As she walked, she remarked that the people of Northeast China were truly honest and simple, and even the black markets there were bustling and lively, unlike the black markets in Jiangcheng, where everything had to be done furtively.
The next second, a gust of wind suddenly rushed in from the wall next to her, and soon, a sharp knife was pointed at her throat from the side.
The masked man's voice was rough and unpleasant: "Hand over all the refined grains you just bought!"
Qin Suisui: ...
It’s too early to say that!
She glanced around out of the corner of her eye and saw that there were actually two or three other people behind the man. They had been waiting here to ambush her! She was very careful when buying things on the black market, and she would change her clothes in a secluded place after each purchase. So, it could only be the man she had traded rice with who had betrayed her!
Qin Suisui cursed inwardly, realizing she had been too careless. She then spoke to the man, saying, "Good sir, I'm just a contact. The goods have already been taken. Go ahead and chase after them; those two haven't gone far!"
Hearing her say that, the man not only did not react, but pushed the sharp knife towards her throat, and a rough hand also grabbed her hand that was about to reach into the cloth bag to take out the medicine powder.
The pain in her throat made Qin Suisui shudder involuntarily. She wondered if she should hide in her spatial dimension, otherwise she might not be able to escape today.
The next second, the men behind the man suddenly cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground in the blink of an eye. The man seemed startled, and before he could react, the dagger in his hand was knocked away, and the hand that was holding Qin Suisui was broken off.
Qin Suisui turned her head and realized that Pei Jiuyan had appeared out of nowhere! He was currently holding the man's hand that was holding the knife, and the wrist had been bent into an abnormal arc, clearly broken.
The man's other broken hand was being held by Liang Qi, clearly indicating that he was the one who did it.
The man was in so much pain that he was almost fainting, but his two limp hands were being held by Pei Jiuyan and Liang Qi, one on each side. He couldn't fall down or faint, and he was swaying in the air like a rootless duckweed.
Pei Jiuyan was the first to shake off the man's hand. He glanced at Liang Qi, his face expressionless, but quickly pulled Qin Suisui into his arms: "Thank you for saving my wife, comrade. May I ask your honorable name, comrade? My wife and I will repay you in the process."
Liang Qi shook off the man's arm, clapped her hands, and smiled slightly: "My surname is Liang, and my given name is Qi, Liang Qi from 'Zai Bi Qi Liang'."
Pei Jiuyan's expression instantly turned cold, but his voice was filled with utter sarcasm: "What a fine 'A fox roams leisurely on the banks of the Qi River.' Doesn't he know that the flowing water has its own intention, but the fallen flowers already have their owner?"
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