Since we were staying at someone else's house, it would be awkward to ask the host to get up in the morning and prepare breakfast for such a large group of people.
Shen Anning opened her eyes when the other sisters got up. She checked her watch and saw it was almost half past five. Seeing her get up, Third Sister Fan Wenhui said, "Anning, you should get some sleep with Fang Yuan. You young people tend to sleep a lot. We'll just go cook. Go get some sleep. Look at the blue under your eyes. Did you not sleep well last night? Fang Yuan, that little piglet, started snoring as soon as he fell asleep. He must have disturbed you."
Shen Anning touched her nose. She seemed to have snored when she slept last night.
"No need, Senior Sister. I can't sleep either. I'll get up and join you. Let Fang Yuan sleep a little longer. I guess the work he's done in his life isn't as tiring as what he's done in the past few days."
"Okay, here are your shoes..."
When fetching water for washing, Shen An Ning found that the second brother and the others had already filled the water tank with water. Zhao Dayou's family was making a fire in the kitchen. It was necessary to eat a full meal in the morning, otherwise they would not be able to make it to noon after climbing the mountain and working. Eating too much sweet potato would cause bloating, so most people in Sichuan eat potatoes, mixed rice and sweet potato porridge, cornmeal cakes and steamed potatoes, plus spicy pickles made by Aunt Zhao.
The peppers here in Sichuan are different from those in other places, and the pickles made from them are also more delicious. Shen Anning and Fang Yuan had a bowl of porridge and a potato with spicy pickles, and they ate it very comfortably.
We were busy on the mountain for another morning. Today, because we walked up a little further, we got more medicinal herbs. A few lucky kids even found a few Gastrodia elata and Fritillaria cirrhosa. However, it was not a deep mountain after all. After seeing them, Old Cheng said that they were not very old. However, compared with the medicinal herbs they found yesterday, they were already valuable.
Fang Yuan walked back and forth in the area she was responsible for, digging in the grass with a small branch in her hand. She was really puzzled. How come Sun Zimu and Guo Haochen could find Gastrodia elata, but she couldn't?
Luck is sometimes very unpredictable. Fang Yuan changed places one after another and was so tired that he carried a basket of ordinary medicinal herbs when he was about to go down the mountain. But Sun Zimu was the lucky one first, as he filled a small cloth bag with expensive medicinal herbs. Old Cheng looked at this silly disciple and couldn't help but sigh that this kid was really lucky!
Shen An Ning took a look and thought that if the small bag of medicinal materials was processed well, even if it was sold to a purchasing station, it could probably be sold for twenty or thirty yuan. After working hard for a morning, it would be as much as a factory worker's monthly salary.
After returning to the Zhao family, the group of people did not rest either. The senior sisters and brothers were responsible for cooking, and Shen Anning brought a group of students to follow Mr. Cheng to help process the herbs.
Although these are all basic skills, everyone can still see the difference when Mr. Cheng takes action. This is the experience accumulated over the years. When he gets a medicinal herb, he knows how to remove the roots, how many roots to remove, and how big the pieces should be. Watching Mr. Cheng do these things is quite pleasing to the eye.
Shen Anning thought of the few people he saw on the mountain in the morning. They were always surrounding them not far away. They didn't look like they often went up the mountain to work.
Because of them, Shen Anning didn't find a chance to tell the master about what happened last night.
While preparing the medicinal materials, Shen Anning looked around the Zhao family. After a quick scan, there was no one in sight. It was probably the people who were monitoring them in the morning who saw them collecting herbs and talked about things related to medicine.
After lunch, the sun was too strong and everyone was tired after working all morning.
Cheng Mingli saw that the children were a little depressed. "Alright, alright, stop being so bitter and resentful. You still think that an old man like me is abusing you. Take a rest. We will go up the mountain in the afternoon when the sun is smaller."
"Really? Master, you are so kind. My feet are all blistered from walking this morning."
Seeing Fang Yuan starting again, Cheng Mingli had gotten used to this little girl. His eldest disciple was a very serious person, so how could he give birth to such a quirky little girl?
"Alright, alright, I'm not a jerk, but let's make it clear, if we go later, we have to come back later. It's getting dark now, so you're not allowed to complain about being tired or hungry!"
"Okay, okay, Master, don't worry!"
While everyone was cleaning up outside, Shen Anning pulled her master and second brother into the kitchen and told them what she had heard last night.
As expected, the master and senior brothers were also very angry.
“People’s hearts have changed!”
Xu Wenzhou clenched his fists tightly. "I thought so. When I first arrived here yesterday, I felt that the village chief's attitude towards us was a little strange. I thought it was because we were far from the city and didn't see many strangers, so he acted like that."
The three of them stayed in the kitchen for a few minutes. Old Cheng looked at his young apprentice and asked, "An Ning, have you figured out what to do?"
"Master, I'm going to call Beijing later and tell my grandfather and the others to keep quiet. It's best to contact the armed forces here first. It's safer to have military support. Besides, these people are all refugees from famine who have settled here. It's hard to tell where they came from. They're so ruthless, who knows where they came from."
"An Ning, you're right. We're all strangers here. Even if I use my position to report to the provincial government, they won't handle the matter any more cleanly than the military."
"Well, take Fang Yuan and the other kids with you to the village office to make a phone call. Tell them you're homesick and want to let them know you're safe. You're all just little kids, and it's dinner time now. Go straight to the village chief's house. At most, one person will take you there. Tell Fang Yuan and the others to be smart..."
When Shen Anning went out and talked to Fang Yuan and the others, several of them also wanted to call home. There were also a few people from the Medical University who had been away from home for a few months and also wanted to call home. They immediately expressed their desire to go together.
There were six people, three boys and three girls. When they arrived at Li Dazhu's house, they had not yet had their meal.
"Uncle Village Chief, Uncle Village Chief, are you home?"
Li Dazhu heard the voice and walked out to see several people standing there. "Hey, is that you? What's wrong? What happened?"
Shen Anning smiled and said, "Uncle Village Chief, we came here by train from Beijing. We went to school right after we got off the train. We were so busy that we didn't have time to call home, so we wanted to borrow the village committee's phone. Don't worry, we will pay the village according to the length of the call. What do you think?"
Several students looked at Li Dazhu with hope in their eyes. They were just a bunch of kids, so he didn't take it seriously. "What's wrong with that? Hey, have you eaten yet? Just eat at my house, and it will be over in no time."
"Uncle, we've all eaten. Aunt Zhao and Xiaofeng helped to cook the meal, and it was almost done when we came back. Luckily, they helped, otherwise we probably wouldn't have eaten yet."
Shen Anning pretended to be embarrassed, "Uncle Village Chief, why don't we wait for you outside for a while, and then we'll go over after you finish your meal."
"Hey, no, no, my meal isn't ready yet. Wait, I'll get the key and open the door for you."
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