Xie Yushu hesitated for a moment in front of the stone, but decided to dig open the hole to see what was inside.
Without hesitation, Xie Yushu put down her basket, picked up a pickaxe, and began digging from the entrance of the hole. The hole extended inward along the large rock, so Xie Yushu had to move the soil out every now and then.
After digging about a person's depth, the hole started to widen. After digging for a while longer, they finally saw something: a shriveled, dead field mouse, emitting a pungent stench!
Did I guess wrong?
No way! How could a mouse steal such a big hole?
Or maybe this isn't the real one! The real one is still inside!
Thinking of this, Xie Yushu's hair stood on end! She instantly became alert! But after staring for a quarter of an hour, there was no movement at all!
We've dug this deep; how can we be satisfied without finding out what's going on?
Xie Yushu used her pickaxe to pry open the dead rat, climbed into the hole, and used the pickaxe to hook it in. Sure enough, she felt something soft. She hooked it and backed out. When she was out of the hole, she used the pickaxe in her hand to hook it and pull it out with force. A huge, red snake as thick as an arm rolled out!
Xie Yushu was terrified! She jumped several meters away in an instant! Instinctively, she held the knife horizontally in front of her chest!
"Oh my god!"
But the snake remained belly up for a long time without moving. Xie Yushu poked it with her knife, but it still didn't move. Only then did she muster up her courage and go over to check it out!
She had never seen this kind of snake before, not even online. It was fiery red all over, with a sharp triangular head and two long, sharp fangs at the corners of its mouth. It was clearly extremely venomous, but it was already dead.
Strangely, the dead snake did not smell bad, indicating that it had only recently died. Xie Yushu looked at the shriveled dead rat over there and guessed that the snake might have survived until now by sucking the rat's blood in a place without water!
Although I dislike snakes, snake venom and snake gallbladders are indeed effective medicines.
Snake venom can be made into highly effective antivenom serum, as well as analgesics and hemostatic agents, with effects superior to morphine and pethidine, and without the addictive properties. Snake bile can dispel wind and calm the nerves, resolve phlegm and stop coughing, cool the liver and improve eyesight, and detoxify.
Xie Yushu suppressed her discomfort and deftly removed the venom glands and gallbladder from the snake. Thinking that the snake had left behind two good medicines even after it died, she considered it a great deed. So she pushed its body back into the cave and buried it. Then she carefully searched around the cave entrance.
Sure enough, dried ginseng leaves were found two or three meters away from the cave entrance!
Xie Yushu first cleared away the nearby weeds, withered branches, and fallen leaves. Then, using a stick, she gently parted the soil from a distance, carefully locating the main root and determining the size of the digging area. She dug little by little until she reached the bottom of the ginseng root, hollowing it out. Until the main ginseng root was exposed, it was as big as a palm, and there were two plants right next to each other! Two plants!
She had seen wild ginseng that was about a hundred years old, only the size of two fingers, and its market price reached hundreds of thousands. This one was several times larger than that hundred-year-old one. The main body of the ginseng was longer than her hand, and the ginseng roots were almost as long as her arm. It must be a thousand years old!
Xie Yushu was overjoyed. While thanking the great god of time travel for his special care and good luck, she carefully and slowly removed the soil from the ginseng roots to ensure that the ginseng she dug out was intact.
By the time she had dug out both ginseng roots intact, the sun was almost setting!
Xie Yushu breathed a sigh of relief, tore off two pieces of her inner garment, carefully wrapped them up, and tucked them into her bosom before packing up her basket and hurrying back!
When she returned to the camp, Xie Tianqi and the Liu brothers had already returned. Xie Tianqi dug up three large bundles of yams, making a total of four bundles including hers, which were neatly stacked to the side. The Liu brothers dug up twelve bundles. It was unclear how many trips these people had made to transport these yams back!
Xie Tianqi was delighted to see Xie Yushu.
"Sister, you're finally back! Brother Liu and I were just about to look for you! Did you step on the medicine your brother-in-law was using?"
"Yeah! I stepped on a landmine! I got back a bit late, sorry to have worried you!"
"Sis, look at what we've reaped this afternoon!"
"good!"
Xie Yushu asked as she unloaded the basket.
Where is Liu Nan?
"He went hunting; eating only yams won't keep him full!" Liu Qiang said when Xie Yushu asked.
"You went by yourself?"
"Yes, he's a good archer. As long as he doesn't provoke those big guys, he'll be fine!"
To keep wild animals out, the fire couldn't be extinguished at night, so Xie Tianqi and Liu Qiang went to chop firewood again!
Xie Yushu found a smooth, large stone slab and placed it over the fire to dry the snake's venom glands and gallbladder. The weather was so hot; if they didn't act quickly, the snake would spoil and all their efforts would be wasted!
Once the stone slab was heated, Xie Yushu threw the venom gland and snake gallbladder onto it, roasting them little by little until the venom gland was slightly charred and the venom inside turned into pale yellow crystalline particles, and the snake gallbladder had all its moisture evaporated, becoming a dried snake gallbladder the size of an egg. Only then did she find a handkerchief, wrap them up separately, and put them away.
After she finished dealing with these matters, Xie Tianqi and the Liu brothers returned one after another. Xie Tianqi and Liu Qiang each carried back a dead tree as thick as a person, while Liu Nan carried back a half-grown wild deer.
"Wow, what is this? Its horns are so beautiful!"
Xie Tianqi had never seen a wild deer before and asked curiously.
"This is a wild deer, very clever, and quite difficult to hunt. Unless it's a dry mountain where animals congregate, it's almost impossible to find one! I've only ever seen another hunter sell pelts once, when I went to the city to sell them!" Liu Nan explained.
For a moment, Xie Yushu was surprised that Xie Tianqi didn't recognize a deer!
But thinking about it, it's not surprising. This isn't the future, after all, where there are picture books for children, mobile phones, TVs, and so on. Even kindergarten kids can recognize all the animals here. Unless you see them with your own eyes, you really have no chance to recognize them!
"I heard that deer antlers are also a medicinal material! I wonder how much they're worth? Sister Xie, don't you know about medicinal materials? Do you know anything about them?" Liu Nan asked while helping Liu Qiang prepare the wild deer.
"Yes! Deer antler is sweet and salty in taste, warm in nature, and enters the kidney and liver meridians. It can strengthen muscles and bones, tonify kidney yang, benefit essence and blood, regulate the Chong and Ren meridians, and promote the healing of sores and toxins. It is also used by wealthy families to make health-preserving pills!"
As for its value, that depends on chance and market conditions! A single deer antler should be worth between five and twenty taels of silver!
"Five to twenty taels! Does that mean my pair can buy at least one acre of land? Brother! Our family will have another acre of land!" Liu Nan said happily.
Upon hearing this, Liu Qiang's face broke into a rare smile! Even at the lowest price of five taels for a single deer antler, it could still sell for ten taels of silver! A mu of fertile land would also cost ten taels of silver, though land near a water source would be more expensive, at twelve taels per mu.
If they buy wasteland and cultivate it themselves, it will only cost five taels of silver per mu. Moreover, the wasteland will not yield much grain in the first two years, so there is no need to pay taxes. Anyway, their family has a lot of laborers and is not afraid of hardship. If they buy two mu of wasteland and cultivate it, it will be good if the family can have two meals of thin porridge a day!
At this time, Liu Qiang had never seen the sky. He was content to survive and have porridge to drink every day!
However, Xie Yushu said
"Today is your chance to make a fortune, brothers. Your luck is unstoppable. This deer of yours is worth more than just these antlers!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
