After crossing the mountain, you can see a large area of neatly arranged fields. Walking along the small paths between the fields, you can feel the age of the people in the painting.
After an hour and a half, Wang Shuning's knees and soles of feet were already sore due to the mountainous road. "Dad, how long will it take?"
Wang Jianguo replied: "Just cross the mountain ahead and you'll get there."
Another half an hour passed and we entered the mountain and started climbing. I could no longer ride the bike up and had to push it.
Wang Jianguo found that his little daughter was panting with exhaustion and her neck was covered with sweat. "You have been working in the countryside for half a year, but you still don't have the strength."
Wang Shuning exhaled: "I didn't do much work, otherwise how could I take the teacher exam?"
When we reached halfway up the mountain, we finally saw a few thatched houses.
Wang Jianguo stood at a distance and looked at it for a long time, but was unable to confirm it.
"Dad, what are you looking at?"
Wang Jianguo replied: "Your grandfather brought me here once when I was young. It's been so long that I can't quite remember which one it was."
"Ah, wasn't it just decades ago that they still did this?"
If I don't do this job, it would be a wasted trip.
Wang Jianguo: "The son follows in his father's footsteps. As long as the people in the mountains don't go out to work, they can only live on the mountains and the little fields outside. It should be that family. Let's go over and ask."
Wang Jianguo reached out and grabbed his little daughter's arm, asking her to follow closely behind him.
A middle-aged man carrying a bamboo basket came out of the door. He looked to be in his forties. He was a little surprised to see Wang Jianguo and his daughter. It was not easy to see strangers in the mountains, let alone such a beautiful young girl.
"What's up?"
Wang Jianguo stared at his face and asked uncertainly, "Is your father called Liu Mazi?"
The man opened his eyes wide and nodded, "You know my dad?"
Wang Jianguo smiled. "More than 20 years ago, my father and I went to your house to buy medicine. You were only a teenager at that time. Where is your father?"
Man: "My father fell into a ravine while collecting herbs in the mountains two years ago and died."
The atmosphere suddenly became silent.
"Oh." Wang Jianguo was too embarrassed to speak. His father died while picking herbs. Maybe he really didn't do this job anymore because he was afraid of being reminded of the past.
The man asked, "Are you here to buy medicine?"
When his father was still alive, the people who came to his house were all there to buy medicine, so it was not difficult to guess the purpose of the other party's visit this time.
Wang Shuning said, "I want to ask if you have any herbal seeds for sale?"
The man was surprised. "Yes, they are all wild. What kind of seeds do you want?"
Wang Shuning asked, "Can you show me around?"
The man put down the bamboo basket and said, "Luckily you came early. If you were later, I would have gone into the mountains."
Wang Jianguo blinked, "You still do this?"
Man: "The craftsmanship passed down by our ancestors must not be lost. My children are working in town, and his mother and I live at home. The house in town is small, and we have to spend money to buy everything we eat. Living here, we can live by the mountains and save some money without spending money."
He took Wang Jianguo and Wang Shuning to the left room, where many small sacks were placed on the shelves. "They are all here, Polygonatum, Gastrodia, Angelica, Chuanxiong, Panax notoginseng, Honeysuckle, Fritillaria, and Iris. Which ones do you want?"
Wang Shuning looked at him and asked, "Have you ever planted so many seeds?"
The man nodded. "It has been planted. It's in the backyard. I'll take you to see it."
Behind the thatched house there was a small piece of reclaimed wasteland, which was fully planted. At first glance, the variety of crops was not rich, not as much as he had just reported.
Man: "Some Chinese medicinal herbs require more stringent growing conditions, so I only grow a few, but these are also sold cheaply in pharmacies."
Wang Jianguo stood aside and asked, "Do you have any ginseng or ganoderma seeds?"
The man was stunned. “Those are not easy to grow. They will take more than ten years to be useful.”
Wang Shuning saw that his expression was not right, as if he had suffered a loss, "I just want to try it, do you have it?"
After hesitating for a moment, the man turned back to the room and took a small sack from the shelf, then took out a small wooden box from underneath.
He put them on the table and said to Wang Jianguo, "More than a decade ago, my father discovered ginseng and ganoderma in the mountains. With that money, my son was able to buy a house in town. These are the seeds and spores left over from that time. I tried to plant them later, but they didn't sprout. Now, only this much is left."
After counting, there were only a dozen ginseng seeds, and the Ganoderma lucidum spore powder couldn't even fill a spoonful, only about half a spoonful.
When Wang Jianguo heard the other party say that the seeds did not sprout after being planted, he no longer had any hope and thought that his younger daughter might not be able to grow them either.
Wang Shuning was very happy holding the bag and wooden box. It was better to have them than not. "How much are these two?"
The man hesitated for a moment and looked at Wang Jianguo. It would be hard to raise the price with him around. "Ten dollars for both."
Wang Jianguo was not satisfied. “You said that even you can’t grow it. My daughter is an amateur and the possibility of growing it is even smaller. I don’t know if the seeds are still useful after so many years. Ten yuan is too expensive, five yuan.”
Wang Shuning didn't say anything and left the bargaining to his father. Even though he is a man, the older generation is frugal and even men have strong bargaining skills.
The difference is that women take a long time to bargain, while men can usually close the deal with just one offer.
The man stared at Wang Jianguo's determined eyes, blinked a few times, and then nodded and agreed: "Okay."
He is not sure whether these two seeds can germinate after so many years, so they may be useless.
Wang Shuning took out five dollars from his purse and gave it to the other party, then rode back with his father.
It was already past one in the afternoon when I got home, and my stomach was growling with hunger.
Wang Jianguo quickly cooked two bowls of noodles. "Just treat it as something for fun. It doesn't matter if you can't grow any. That person's ancestors have been herbal farmers for three generations, and he couldn't grow any. That shows how difficult it is."
Wang Shuning nodded, "Yes, I know."
When Song's mother came home from get off work, she saw a brand new bicycle parked in the yard and wondered, were there guests at home?
Seeing her little daughter cooking in the kitchen and no one else in the house, she asked her husband directly: "Whose new car is that outside?"
Wang Jianguo's eyes flickered, he turned his head to look at the kitchen and raised his chin, "Xiao Ning bought it at the store today."
"What!" Song Guiying jumped up half a meter high. "Why are you buying a new car? Don't we already have one at home?"
The voice was so loud that Wang Shuning, who was making a fire in the kitchen, could hear it clearly.
Coming out of the kitchen, he looked at Song's mother with a smile on his face, "Mom, my sister-in-law is pregnant, and my brother wants to take her to work by bike. I see that it's too hard for you to walk to work every day, so I bought you a bike. You can ride your new bike to work tomorrow."
Wang Jianguo sat on the stool with his mouth wide open, looking at his little daughter in disbelief. Didn't he say that he would take Song's mother to work with the new car he bought for me? How come in the blink of an eye, he asked Song's mother to ride the new car to work by herself?
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