The whole mountain is my hunting ground.

Chapter 1900 Marketing King
The conditions in the mountains are nothing like home. Today, Zhao Jun went home to sleep on a heated kang bed and cuddle with his wife. The feeling of peace and comfort made him sleep soundly until after five o'clock the next morning.

Knowing that Zhao Jun had been having a tough time lately, Ma Ling didn't wake him when she got up. By the time Zhao Jun woke up, the blankets next to him were already cold.

Zhao Jun sat up from the kang (a heated brick bed) and started getting dressed when he heard clanging and banging noises coming from the backyard. Without a doubt, it was Zhao Youcai feeding the dogs.

After Zhao Jun finished dressing and came out of the house, he walked through the corridor to the outer room but did not see anyone there.

There was a thermos on the windowsill of the north window, and Zhao Jun mixed some warm water to wash up. After washing up, he went out of the room and saw Ma Ling carrying a small basin, hurrying towards him.

Zhao Jun could tell at a glance that his wife had gone to exchange the tofu.

Zhao Jun wanted to talk to Ma Ling, but Ma Ling didn't look at him. Instead, she looked to her right and asked, "Mom, are you feeding the donkey?"

“I don’t want to feed him anymore.” Wang Meilan’s voice came from the east wall: “I was thinking of going to Yongli later to find that Master Xu.”

"Huh?" Hearing Wang Meilan's words, Ma Ling paused and asked, "Mom, what do you want with him?"

The person who wields the knife is a local dialect term; to put it bluntly, they are butchers.

"Then why don't we go find him?" Wang Meilan didn't say what she wanted to do with the butcher, only saying, "If we don't go find him, we can kill him ourselves."

As she said this, Wang Meilan glanced at the little donkey out of the corner of her eye, and then said, "Then I have to go get the sledgehammer. Our sledgehammer was borrowed by Old Liu's family in Qiantanggan, and they haven't brought it back to me yet."

"No?" Ma Ling looked confused upon hearing Wang Meilan's words: "Mom, what are you doing?"

At this moment, Zhao Jun also walked towards the east wall, wanting to know what Wang Meilan was up to.

"Oh, son." Seeing her son come over, Wang Meilan asked with a smile, "Why didn't you sleep a little longer?"

"Ah, Mom, I'm awake," Zhao Jun replied, then asked Wang Meilan, "Mom, why are you getting the sledgehammer and looking for the knife wielder? What are you going to do?"

"Ah." Wang Meilan gestured towards the donkey shed next to her, pointing to the little donkey standing in front of the trough waiting for food, and said, "I'm thinking of killing this donkey."

Before Wang Meilan said this, the little donkey squinted its eyes and wagged its tail, waiting for Wang Meilan to feed it.

As soon as Wang Meilan said this, the little donkey stopped, its eyes widening in disbelief as it stared at her.

"My God, why are you killing the donkey?" Zhao Jun asked the question the little donkey wanted to ask as well.

“Yesterday…” Wang Meilan sensed something was wrong at first. She glanced at the innocent-looking little donkey and said, “I had a dream last night that I was grinding tofu for the New Year, and then this donkey pulled the millstone and tripped me.”

At this point, Wang Meilan clutched her chest and said, "My chest area still hurts when I wake up this morning."

"Ugh! Ugh!" Hearing Wang Meilan's words, the little donkey could no longer remain silent and shouted loudly that it was wronged.

"Mom...aren't you kidding me?" Zhao Jun stepped forward and asked Wang Meilan with concern, "Can you really take a dream seriously? If you ask me, are you feeling unwell? Um...after we finish eating, let's pack up and go down the mountain, and I'll take you to the hospital to get checked out."

"Come on, stop it." Wang Meilan waved her hand and said, "I'm fine, don't make a fuss."

After saying this, Wang Meilan pointed to the braying little donkey and said to Zhao Jun, "Son, you've brought a treasure up the mountain, let's celebrate properly today."

“We can’t celebrate with this,” Zhao Jun said with a wry smile, pulling Wang Meilan aside. “I’ll go to the market later and see if they sell meat. I’ll cut some for myself. If that doesn’t work, I’ll see if anyone raises chickens and buy a couple of big roosters.”

"The other day a rooster stepped on its back, so the meat won't taste good," Wang Meilan muttered, somewhat reluctantly following Zhao Jun and Ma Ling into the house.

There aren't many vegetables to eat this season, so the Zhao family stir-fried some dried tofu and fried some egg sauce for breakfast, which they then ate with dipping vegetables and tofu.

After breakfast, Li Baoyu accompanied Liu Mei back to her parents' home. Zhao Jun then rode his motorcycle, carrying Ma Ling, to the market.

That little donkey was quite hardworking, and Zhao Jun wanted to save its life.

There are fewer meat vendors at the market this season. There are a couple of stalls selling daily necessities, and then there are many selling chicken, duck, and goose eggs, since it's the best time for poultry to lay eggs.

Zhao Jun rode his motorcycle slowly, taking Ma Ling with him around the market, and saw two women from Yongsheng selling roosters.

These roosters, which are kept for breeding, are now useless because the chicks have all been hatched.

This behavior is no different from Wang Meilan's killing of her donkey after it had served its purpose, except that these two chickens are just enough to exchange for the life of the donkey in the house.

And so, Zhao Jun bought two roosters for five yuan each.

The price is slightly higher than when I sold chickens last winter because the roosters from the previous year have grown their feathers, and the wing feathers and tail feathers can still be sold for a few cents.

Zhao Jun tied the two chickens upside down to the back of the cart and continued to drive around the market with Ma Ling.

Seeing that there were large river clams for sale, Zhao Jun went over and bought them all for him.

These large river clams from Northeast China are as big as a child's head. After cleaning them, you discard half and keep the other half.

The remaining half was stir-fried with scallions and garlic sprouts, which made a nice, slightly chewy snack with drinks, but the flavor was just average.

That's why it's so cheap. A man wanted 50 cents for half a sack of river clams, but Ma Ling bargained it down to 35 cents.

A dripping burlap sack was tied to the back of the car, and a rooster hanging upside down next to it even had the audacity to peck at the tattered seam on the sack.

As we walked on, we came across a village where Liu Renshan and his wife were selling shrimp at a stall.

There are two types of shrimp in Northeast China: green shrimp and crayfish.

The green shrimp are what locals call small river shrimp, while the crayfish are freshwater lobsters unique to Northeast China, and they look very similar to crayfish. However, their deliciousness and nutritional value are incomparable to crayfish.

More importantly, crayfish have extremely high requirements for water quality and cannot survive in dirty water.

People in Yong'an say that Zhang Yuanmin is good at fishing and Liu Renshan is good at catching shrimp, and this is true.

Liu Renshan and his wife each had a small shovel in front of them; one shovel contained crayfish, and the other contained small river shrimp.

When Zhao Jun got closer, he saw a layer of small, bluish-green river shrimp huddled together on the surface of the water. Occasionally, one or two would suddenly spring up, causing the surrounding shrimp to sway gently, but none of them sank.

Don't underestimate these little things; they're more valuable than river clams. Liu Renshan and his wife wanted two yuan for over seven pounds of small river shrimp and over five pounds of crayfish.

Since they lived in the same village, Zhao Jun and Ma Ling felt embarrassed to haggle. After Zhao Jun paid, he told Liu Renshan and his wife to head back to the village and deliver the shrimp to Zhao's courtyard on the way.

Liu Renshan's wife took the money, and the couple left happily. There were plenty of shrimp and crayfish in the mountains, but Zhao Jun and his men didn't have time to go out and catch them.

Zhao Jun and Ma Ling went around the market again and bought more than forty large flat-bottomed fish, which they put in a basket and headed home.

When Zhao Jun and Ma Ling arrived home, not only did Liu Renshan bring shrimp, but Zhang Yuanmin and his wife also came.

Zhang Yuanmin arrived so early because Zhao Jun requested it.

"Brother, how about this board?" Zhang Yuanmin took out a thin pine board to show Zhao Jun. The pine board was one meter long, more than seventy centimeters wide, and about half a finger thick.

The wooden board was smooth, shiny, and clean on both sides, clearly the work of Zhang Yuanmin.

Zhao Jun took the wooden board with both hands, weighed it in his hand, and nodded in satisfaction, saying, "Very good, brother, well done."

Zhang Yuanmin chuckled after being praised by Zhao Jun and once again took credit, saying, "Brother, I've already prepared the slurry."

As he spoke, Zhang Yuanmin took a small jar as if presenting a treasure. The jar was open, and a brush was stuck inside.

Zhang Yuanmin pushed the brush down and then lifted the brush head, revealing that the bristles were covered in paste.

"Brother, this paste is really well made," Zhang Yuanmin praised himself, adding, "I also added alum and sesame oil."

These days, people usually make their own paste, which is called "da jiangzi" in the local dialect.

Making paste is very simple; it just requires getting the ratio of flour to water right.

Zhang Yuanmin said to add alum, which is actually alum. This kind of stuff is very common in rural areas; almost every household has it. It's not only used for purifying water and making vermicelli, but some people also use it to rub on all sorts of rashes on their bodies.

Adding alum to the paste makes it thicker and less prone to mold. After all, this paste is made from cooked flour, and it's easy for it to mold and grow mold if left on for too long.

As for adding sesame oil, it's to keep the surface of the paste from drying out; otherwise, if the paste is left for a long time, the top layer will form a skin.

"Great, brother, that's really well done." Zhao Jun praised Yuan Min, then called to Wang Meilan, "Mom, find a piece of red cloth."

"Sigh." Wang Meilan said to Zhao Jun, in the local dialect, "Just trust your son's opinion." She didn't even bother to consider what Zhao Jun said.

This is what makes Zhao Youcai most jealous.

Wang Meilan went to the east room, pulled a small roll of red cloth from the kang cabinet, and then said to Zhao Jun, "Son, do you think this is enough?"

Zhao Jun came over, glanced at it, stepped forward, took the red cloth roll, and said, "That's enough."

"Is that enough?" Wang Meilan said, "There's still a bigger one up there."

Wang Meilan meant there was still a large roll left. Before Zhao Jun got married, Wang Meilan led a group of people into the city for a big shopping spree, and ended up buying too much of the same thing.

Take this red cloth for example. Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu didn't even use it all up for their weddings, and there was more than enough left for Xie Chen to use when he got married.

Zhao Jun took out the red cloth and handed it to Zhang Yuanmin, who then unfolded it on the table.

"Brother Zhang, let me get you some scissors." Seeing this, Ma Ling knew that Zhang Yuanmin wanted to cut the cloth.

As soon as Ma Ling finished speaking, Zhang Yuanmin said, "No need, sister-in-law."

As Zhang Yuanmin spoke, there was a tearing sound. Ma Ling turned around and saw Zhang Yuanmin tearing the red cloth open with his hands crossed.

The key point is that Zhang Yuanmin pulled it perfectly straight. Even scissors can sometimes cut crookedly, but Zhang Yuanmin pulled it perfectly straight.

"My goodness!" Zhao Youcai couldn't help but exclaim to Yuanmin, "Yuanmin, you do this job better than any woman!"

"Hehe..." Hearing Zhao Youcai's words, everyone chuckled. Zhang Yuanmin asked Zhao Youcai with a smile, "Uncle, are you praising me?"

"Haha..." Zhao Youcai also realized that there was something wrong with what he said, so he waved his hand with a laugh, and then leaned over to Zhang Yuanmin and asked, "What are you guys doing? Are you going to set up a plank to worship the household spirits?"

After saying this, Zhao Youcai gestured towards the east room and said, "We're just hunting, it's all for nothing if we don't provide any offerings."

Hearing this, Ma Ling's eyes widened, while Zhao Jun stopped Zhao Youcai, saying, "Dad, what are you saying? What nonsense about worshipping household spirits? I'm asking my older brother to make a display board."

"What board?" Zhao Youcai wasn't that he didn't hear clearly, he just didn't understand.

“Display board.” Zhao Jun repeated, gesturing on the pine board, “In a bit, we’ll put some paste on it, stick the red cloth on it, and then we’ll place our ginseng king on it and secure it. Wouldn’t that look great?”

What Zhao Jun described is the kind of ginseng selling strategy that will be used online 30 or 40 years from now; they'll package the ginseng in a very sophisticated and high-end way.

Two days ago, Wang Meilan sent a message to Zhao Jun, saying that a wealthy man whom Manager Huang knew was interested in buying top-quality wild ginseng.

Zhao Jun was not opposed to this. He figured he had enough of the ginseng king that Xing San had given him; the Zhao family had helped him get it, so he would sell it if necessary.

Of course, the goal is to sell it for a good price. Zhao Jun doesn't try to cheat people, but it's always good to package the product well. He wants the big boss to feel that their money was well spent.

These days, there's no way to display ginseng like this. Zhao Jun is setting a precedent, and if he takes a few more photos, it will definitely impress the nouveau riche.

"Wait, kid?" Xing San asked, "How are you going to secure that club? Are you going to glue it on too?"

“We can’t stick it on, it’ll ruin it,” Zhao Jun said. “We’ll set up the clubs first, then mark them with a pencil, and my brother will drill holes with a drill.”

As he spoke, Zhao Jun raised his right index finger and said, "For example, this is a ginseng root head. We make a hole on each side, take a thread and thread it through from the back, tighten it on the root head, and that's how you fix it, isn't it?"

Thirty or forty years later, the ginseng sellers will be using KT material for their display boards, which is basically just a type of foam.

That kind of KT board is quite soft; a needle can pierce through it. KT boards already exist, but they're mostly used for billboards and similar things in big cities; you'd never see them in remote mountain villages.

If there are no conditions, then create them yourself. Zhao Jun asked Zhang Yuanmin to make these display boards himself.

"It's all thanks to my son's sharp mind!" Wang Meilan praised Zhao Jun after hearing this, and Ma Ling, who was standing next to her, nodded in agreement.

At this point, Zhang Yuanmin had already pasted red cloth on both sides of the pine board.

This red cloth can't be cut exactly right; there are extra pieces on all four sides. Zhang Yuanmin said to Ma Ling, "Sister-in-law, we'll have to get the scissors this time."

“Okay, Brother Zhang, you wait here.” After saying that, Ma Ling walked towards the west hut.

“Brother,” Zhang Yuanmin said to Zhao Jun, “We did a good job carrying these ginseng seedlings in this area. How about I push a few more boards, and then we can sew boards onto those ginseng seedlings?”

“No need, brother.” Zhao Jun rejected Zhang Yuanmin’s suggestion, saying, “Those will sell well, this is the main thing.”

After saying that, Zhao Jun changed the subject and said, "And don't forget, brother, these ginseng roots are all fresh. We need to dry them before we can sew them onto the board."

As he spoke, Zhao Jun tapped the pine board covered with red cloth and said, "Today's main purpose is to take pictures of our ginseng king. After we're done, we'll have to take it down."

If you stick the ginseng to a board, one side won't be ventilated and it won't dry well.

Hearing Zhao Jun say this, Zhang Yuanmin nodded and said, "Okay, brother, I'll listen to you. Let's take care of it for now, and after the ginseng is dried, we'll put it on this board. Then I'll make a box and paint it with red oil, and that will be perfect!"

"Slap!" Upon hearing Zhang Yuanmin's words, Zhao Jun slapped his thigh hard, then pointed at Zhang Yuanmin and said, "Brother, let's do it your way!"