Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 63 Going up the mountain
Work in the mountains usually starts in late September or early October, when the first snow falls.

The road from Maoer Mountain to Hengshan is not short, and Shui Laowu is the boss of the mountain field, so he has to go back early to prepare for the work.

"Shaoyang, let's not go up the mountain today. Go and notify those families later and pack up your things at home. We'll leave tomorrow."

On the morning of September 22, while having breakfast, Water Crow said something.

"Okay, okay, we still have to go to Uncle Song's house, so we have to leave early."

Qu Shaoyang was almost annoyed to death by the girl from the Wang family. He wished he could leave immediately.

When Shui Laowu and his wife saw that Qu Shaoyang couldn't wait to leave home, they couldn't stop laughing.

"You stupid boy, look at your lack of ability, you can still scare a girl to death."

"That's not the case. I don't have that kind of feelings for her, and I don't want people to misunderstand me.

Otherwise, if I delay the girl, wouldn't that be a sin?" Qu Shaoyang scratched his head and said with embarrassment.

To be honest, he didn't like the girl from the Wang family.

Besides, Qu Shaoyang is not in the mood for romance now. It is more important to make money and save money for the family.

It takes four or five months to work in the mountains. You have to eat and live in the mountains and cannot go home. You have to prepare clothes and luggage carefully.

Fortunately, Lin Ruolan made cotton jackets and trousers for Qu Shaoyang and Shui Laowu in advance.

They also cleaned and mended their old and worn sheepskin coats and trousers, and then packed them up.

After breakfast, Lin Ruolan began to busy herself with packing clothes for Shui Laowu and Qu Shaoyang and preparing food.

It takes six or seven days to walk from Maoer Mountain to Hengshan. Sometimes you may not encounter a village, so you have to prepare more food.

There was greasy food at home and they hadn’t finished eating it yet, so Lin Ruolan decided to make some buns with bread.

In addition, she kneaded some more dough and planned to make some pancakes with bear fat.

Qu Shaoyang ran quickly to inform those who were going to follow him up the mountain.

After returning, Shui Laowu and I took the time to tidy up everything in the house.

These days, the master and his disciple have prepared a lot of firewood. The chopped bamboo shoots alone filled up an entire firewood shed, and there was also a large pile of pine branches and other firewood.

This should be enough to last the family for several months.

Lin Ruolan is pregnant and Tianzhi is still young, so we must be fully prepared.

All necessary preparations were made, and on the morning of September 23, everyone gathered at Shui Laowu's house and set out together.

Although there is a mule cart at home, the road to Hengshan is not accessible. Many places are small roads that cannot be passed by cars, so the mule cart has to be left at home.

Both guns were left at home. Only Lin Ruolan and Xiao Zhi were at home, one was a pregnant woman and the other was a child.

Both families have a lot of money, and Qu Shaoyang even has copper gallbladders and other things.

Although the neighbors are nice people, we can only judge a person by his appearance, not his heart. So who knows what he is like?

Leaving the gun behind, whether it is useful or not, at least it can scare people.

A few days ago, Shui Laowu asked around and got two one-month-old puppies from someone else. He wanted to raise them and listen to the noise they make when they grow up.

At the same time, Shui Laowu asked the Zhou family to help look after Lin Ruolan and her son.

The third and fourth sons of the Zhou family felt that there was nothing to do at home in winter, and hunting was purely a matter of luck, and they might not get anything even if they were exhausted.

So, the two of them kept clamoring to go into the mountains to work as woodcutters, and Lao Zhou had no choice but to give in.

So they begged Shui Laowu to keep an eye on these two guys and not let them get into trouble.

There were seven or eight strong young men in total who followed Shui Laowu and his apprentice to the mountain field. After everyone was together, Shui Laowu took them away.

Two days later, everyone came to Toad River and found Song Laojiu's lover Cuixiang.

Shui Laowu informed the other party that Song Laojiu was gone, and gave him Song Laojiu's salary.

In previous years, Song Laojiu would return to Hamachuan very early to help Cuixiang's family repair the house, harvest the land, and collect firewood. He would not leave until he had time to work in the mountains.

Song Laojiu didn't come back a few days ago, and Cuixiang already had some guesses in her mind.

After learning that Song Laojiu was really dead, Cuixiang cried and screamed, threatening to die. But when Cuixiang's man saw the silver, his eyes lit up and he wanted to grab it immediately.

Qu Shaoyang and Shui Laowu didn't know what to say about this.

But before leaving, he reminded Cuixiang and Cuixiang's eldest son to keep the money safe.

Song Laojiu is no longer with us, and from now on there will be no one to send money to their family or help with work every year.

The rations left by Song Laojiu could last for a few years if used carefully.

If that heavy smoker spends the money on smoking or gambling, there will be no other income in the future.

After all, the master and disciple were outsiders and could not say too much. They just gave a few words of instruction and left Toad River.

After walking for another four days, they finally arrived at the mountain area in Hengshan.

"Hey, No. 2, you're here early. How's your leg? Is it feeling better now?"

Shui Laowu led a group of young men and just as they entered the mountain field where Qian Xiucheng was the big treasury, they saw the second treasury manager Li Yongfu head-on and hurried forward to greet him.

"Brother Liu, Leng Huer, oh, it's been a while since we last met."

Li Yongfu was also very happy to see Shui Laowu and Qu Shaoyang, and walked over with a smile.

"My leg has healed a long time ago. Doctor Chen's medical skills are really good.

Look at me walking now, it's the same as before, you can't tell anything." Li Yongfu patted his legs and laughed.

"I noticed that you two have gained a lot of weight and look rosy-cheeked. It seems that you are living a good life. How are you? Where are you staying now?"

When Shui Laowu and his companions left Anton City, they had not yet decided where to go.
“Second Cabinet, we are doing well too, we have settled down in Maoer Mountain.

My master has adopted a son, and his wife is pregnant too, so she will be having a baby next year."

Before Shui Laowu could speak, Qu Shaoyang spoke first with a smile.

"Oh, you have a child in your old age, Brother Liu, you are so happy.

Look, I don’t know this either. I should go and have a drink at your wedding with Manager Lin.”

When Li Yongfu heard this, his eyes widened in surprise, and then he bowed to Shui Laowu to congratulate him.

"There's no such thing as a wedding banquet. We're both this age now, and we just get along and live together, so there's no wedding ceremony.

Next year, when the baby is born, I will invite you to a full-moon banquet." Shui Laowu smiled a little embarrassedly.

Originally, he wanted to wait until the house was built and then have a simple wedding with Lin Ruolan, even if only his apprentice and son were witnesses.

Who would have thought that Lin Ruolan was pregnant before we even moved.

After discussing it, the two decided not to cause trouble. It would be better for Lin Ruolan to take good care of herself, give birth to the baby safely, and live a good life.

"Okay, then we have a deal." Li Yongfu responded readily.

"Who are these people?" Li Yongfu then looked at the people behind him.

"Oh, are these the people we brought from Maoer Mountain to work in the mountains? Look, they are all strong and healthy guys." Shui Laowu hurriedly introduced them to everyone.

"Second cabinet member, how do you plan to arrange the work in the mountain field this year? How many wooden handles have you found in total?" After a few words of small talk, he got down to business.

Qian Xiucheng's warehouse was one of the best among all the material warehouses and wood yards in Andong City, and it was also the first to open a wood yard in Hengshan.

Every winter, the merchants would hire a large number of woodcutters to go into the mountains to cut down trees.

A portion of the wood was left on the cabinet and made into a raft and exiled to Anton.

The rest are sold to other material warehouses. I can make a lot of money just by trading wood in a year.

Shui Laowu paid money to build a large cabinet and worked on it for several years. He was the foreman, leading the woodworkers to do the work.

So, when Shui Laowu arrived, he asked Li Yongfu how to arrange the work for this year.

Unexpectedly, Li Yongfu looked embarrassed when he heard this.

(End of this chapter)