Back to 1978: Getting rich starts with treasure hunting

"Mom, you are really amazing. You have completely controlled my mother-in-law. I have never gotten any advantage from her in all the years I have been married to her."

Lin Xue watched Deng Cai carry back a load of milled grain and gave Liu Xiaoe a thumbs up.

Liu Xiao'e: "In fact, your mother-in-law is not cruel or bad. She is just too smart and has too many tricks. She is short-sighted and always likes to take advantage. With these 100 kilograms of grain, your family will be able to hold on until the double harvest this year."

"I still have to thank you, Mom. If it weren't for you, my mother-in-law would never have lent us these 100 kilograms of food."

"Since your mother-in-law has lent you grain, whether it's for filial piety or to impress others, when our tofu is ready, invite your mother-in-law and father-in-law to have a meal in the evening."

Lin Xue humbly accepted the advice: "I know, the fish and shrimp fried at noon are still there, plus the bacon and tofu, it can just make a table of sumptuous dinner."

As the old saying goes, there are three hardest jobs in the world: rowing a boat, forging iron, and making tofu.

A bucket of soaked beans needs to be slowly ground into soy milk using a stone mill. Regardless of whether it is bitter or not, at least you need to be patient.

Lin Shu was not interested in grinding tofu. In the afternoon, while Liu Xiao'e and Lin Xue and his wife made tofu at home, she took Lin Xue's eldest son Bingbing to the back mountain of the village.

"Aunt, there are many prey in the mountains behind our village, such as rabbits, pheasants, wild boars, and musk deer."

"There are many prey in the forest, which means your village's ecological environment is good and has not suffered any damage."

Lin Shu was more interested in the lush forests. Xianfeng Village was located in a remote area, and the forests remained in their original state, which showed that the vegetation inside had not been destroyed.

Lin Shu felt like a gold mine was beckoning to her.

"We basically chop firewood in the outskirts of our village. My dad said we can't go into the deep mountains because we might encounter wild boars," said Bingbing.

"Okay, let's just walk around the periphery."

When you reach the outskirts of the forest, the shrubs in the woods are relatively short, but this does not mean that the medicinal materials are also of low age.

Not long after entering the forest, she found a wild yam that was more than ten years old. However, the plant was cut down by villagers every year for firewood, but the rhizomes underground continued to grow.

Lin Shu took a lot of effort to dig it out.

"Aunt, is this stem useful after we dig it out?"

“Well, this is a medicinal herb.”

"Medicinal herbs?" Bingbing stared at the large piece of rhizome. "Can I exchange it for money?"

"Hey, you still know how to change money?"

Lin Shu put the wild yam he dug out into the basket, and found that there were a few more nearby, so he dug them all out in one go.

The basket was already half full. Lin Shu lifted it up and weighed it, and it weighed about twenty pounds.

"Aunt, is this plant a medicinal herb?" Deng Bing casually pulled over a vine beside him.

Lin Shu was checking the plants around him. After hearing what he said, he turned around and looked over. He smiled, "Hey, I think you're lucky. This plant has milk in its branches and leaves. It's also called milkweed, also called golden leopard, wild codonopsis, and its rhizome is also a relatively precious medicinal material."

Wild Codonopsis pilosula is known as a treasure-level all-around herb and is very popular in the south.

Looking at the two or three meter high vines, Lin Shu started digging without saying a word.

The rhizome of this plant is particularly long, and it must be at least twenty years old.

"Wow, I made a fortune."

Lin Shu looked at the rhizome with surprise, [System, how heavy is this wild Codonopsis? ]

[Return to the host, weight 3.1 catties, 2 years old, value yuan per kg. ]

[How heavy was the wild yam just now? ]

[26 jin of Chinese yam, worth 0.5 yuan per jin. ]

Lin Shu raised his eyebrows. The medicinal herbs he dug out in just over an hour were worth nearly 20 yuan. It turned out that it was easy to make money with the system.

Lin Shu looked at Deng Bing who was still looking for wild codonopsis pilosula and asked, "Bingbing, how much tuition do you pay for a semester when you go to school now?"

Deng Bing didn't know why Lin Shu suddenly asked about the school's tuition, but he answered honestly, "Two dollars."

Tuition fees were not really expensive in that era. Two dollars was equivalent to more than ten kilograms of food.

In addition to books, schools also distribute exercise books. It can be said that in this era, students only need to prepare stationery to go to school.

There are no material fees and you don’t have to prepare your own homework.

"Aunt, look, there are Ficus microcarpa fruits growing on that stone!"

Lin Shu looked in the direction Deng Bing pointed and saw a piece of limestone in front of him with many fig fruits growing on it.

Green fruits hang on it, and their shape is a bit like a weight.

"It's such a large area, don't people from your village come up the mountain to pick the fruit?"

"My mother said that she is very busy with farm work and has no time to make these snacks that cannot fill our stomachs. I think other people in the village also think that these fruits are difficult to handle."

Deng Bing looked at Lin Shu with hope in his eyes and said, "Aunt, can we pick some and make jelly?"

"Okay, let's pick some and take them back. I just don't know if the fruits are ripe at this time, and whether there is much juice inside."

Lin Shu picked a fruit and broke it open, only to find that the core of the fruit had turned red.

[Tongzi, is this ficus pumila fruit a medicinal herb? ]

【Back to the host, Ficus pumila is a vine plant of the genus Ficus in the Moraceae family. The whole plant can be used as medicine. The fruit is sweet and flat in nature. It has the effects of strengthening yang, consolidating semen, stopping bleeding, and promoting lactation. The fruit of Ficus pumila is worth 0.5 yuan per catty, and the plant is worth 0.02 yuan per catty. 】

Sure enough, there are no weeds in the mountains, and everything you know is a treasure.

"Bingbing, be careful and don't climb onto the rocks to pick the fruits." While picking the fruits, Lin Shu did not forget to throw some into the system to exchange for money.

When the sun went down, the aunt and nephew came down the mountain. The basket they brought with them was already full. Lin Shu exchanged the ficus pumila fruit he threw into the system for 5.3 yuan.

Thanks to her hard work in collecting medicinal materials these days, the system balance now has 432.1 yuan.

If all the wild yam and wild codonopsis are sold to the system, the system balance can increase to 472 yuan. However, they cannot be sold directly to the system at present. You must take them back and find an excuse to leave the county.

When they got home, Liu Xiao'e noticed the roots in their basket and motioned Lin Shu to put them into the house.

The tofu has been pressed using a mold.

Lin Shu took a quick look and then took out the layer of ficus litchi fruits from the basket.

Seeing the roots covered in mud in the basket, Lin Xue asked curiously, "What kind of roots are you digging?"

“Smilax glabra and wild codonopsis.”

Liu Xiao'e's heart moved, and she asked in a low voice: "Youngest, are these wild yam and codonopsis valuable?"

Lin Shu nodded: "Not bad, this half basket is worth two big unity cards."

"hiss!"

"Mom, you said this is medicinal material?"

Liu Xiao'e nodded to Lin Xue and said with a smile, "You never thought that these common rhizomes are actually medicinal herbs. In the past, when we dug these rhizomes out during land reclamation, we even disliked using them as firewood because they were difficult to burn."

Lin Xue looked at Lin Shu happily: "Little sister, who are you selling these herbs to?"

"There is a medicinal material purchasing station in the county."

"Medicinal Materials Purchasing Station, why haven't I heard of it?"

Lin Shu scratched his head and said embarrassedly: "My friend also told me, otherwise I wouldn't know that these common weeds in the countryside can be exchanged for money."

Lin Xue: "Your friend seems to be quite nice to you. Is he a man or a woman?"

Lin Shu noticed that Liu Xiao'e was also looking at her with gossipy eyes, "Ahem, she's a woman, don't think too much about it."

Liu Xiao'e was slightly disappointed. "I thought it was a man who was willing to help you like this."

If a man is so willing to help her, it means that he has a good impression of her, so there is hope for her to become a son-in-law.

Lin Xue and Liu Xiao'e entered the kitchen, while Lin Shu sat in the main room cutting litchi fruit. If one wanted to eat jelly, one had to squeeze out the juice of the fruit, filter it, and then let it settle.

It was dinner time, and several families living in Sishuiguitang were cooking. For a moment, the whole house felt smoky.

Lin Shu looked up at the house that was blackened by smoke. The carved beams and painted rafters on the roof had been smoked so much that it was hard to make out the patterns.

It can be imagined that building this house must have been very labor-intensive and costly.

[System, when this house was first built, were the materials used very particular? Was there any golden nanmu?]

In his previous life, Lin Shu watched the news and heard about an inconspicuous wooden house in the mountains. The entire house was built with golden nanmu wood. At that time, many people offered high prices to buy that house.

Most of the big houses with blue bricks and black tiles in Xianfeng Village belong to landlords, so you might be able to get a bargain.

[Replying to the host, the beams and pillars of this house are made of cypress and catalpa, both of which are high-quality hardwoods that will not rot over the years and are high-quality wood for building houses.]

[Sure enough, the landlords have surplus food, so they are more particular about building houses.] Lin Shu was not too disappointed.

[However, host, the desk placed against the wall opposite the main hall is made of yellow rosewood and is of some value.]

Huanghuali wood?

Lin Shu looked at the table opposite. It was the furniture of the family opposite. The surface of the table was covered with a layer of paste and looked black and dirty. On it were a chopping board, some pots, pans, and other cooking utensils.

Next to the table was a small earthen stove, in which a fire was burning, and the woman who headed the household opposite was cooking.

Lin Shu walked into the kitchen that Lin Xue had renovated and took a look around. "Sister, your kitchen is a little inconvenient to use. It's missing a table."

Lin Xue smiled helplessly: "We have just separated for a few months, so it is difficult to buy some furniture. I will buy more slowly when I have more money in the future."

Lin Shu pointed outside the door and said, "The table next to the stove at the house opposite yours is pretty good. How about I pay for you to buy it back?"

Lin Xue didn't take it seriously and joked, "You're so generous, how much are you going to pay?"

"Five dollars!" Lin Shu stretched out his hand. If the desk was really made of rosewood, five dollars would not be expensive.

Lin Xue was amused by her ostentatious tone, "Do you know how many legs you can buy with five dollars? I bought that old table for five dollars, it's not like I have water in my head."

You know, for five dollars, she could have the carpenter make twenty legs, a table with four benches, a total of twenty legs.

"I'm not offering you five dollars, but I'm not asking you to buy it back for five dollars. You can bargain." Lin Shu chuckled, "Sister, you have to believe me, that table is definitely worth five dollars."

When Lin Xue heard this, she thought for a moment. She had heard that the desk originally belonged to the landlord. Could it really be a good thing?

"Don't worry about this. You can take your time." Lin Shu comforted her.

......

When he came back from Xianfeng Village, he not only brought back half a basket of medicinal herbs but also half a basket of fried tofu, as well as Zhuangzhuang, a six-year-old boy who had not yet gone to school.

As soon as Zhuangzhuang arrived at his grandmother's house, he walked around the house and asked, "Aunt, can I sleep with you tonight?"

Lin Shu shook her head: "No, I have no experience taking care of children. What if you kick off the quilt in the middle of the night and catch a cold?"

Zhuangzhuang looked aggrieved, "Then who should I sleep with tonight?"

"Sleep with your grandmother. She has experience. If all else fails, there is still your older cousin. You are a boy, and he happens to be a boy too." Lin Shu said as a matter of course.

"Grandma has grandpa to sleep with her, and my eldest cousin and I are not familiar with each other. What if he doesn't want me?"

"Cold salad."

"Wow wow wow!"

Liu Xiao'e picked up a few eggs from the chicken coop and glared at Lin Shu deliberately: "You bullied him again!"

Lin Shu raised her hands. She really didn't mean to bully him. She was just tired of taking care of children in her previous life. It was not easy to raise a son alone. Now she didn't want to put the child to sleep at all.

It’s really bad for children to sleep well at night, which affects their sleep quality.

Liu Xiao'e coaxed him, "Zhuangzhuang, be good, don't cry. Sleep with grandma tonight. Look, grandma picked up a few eggs. How about frying them for you at noon? I won't give them to your aunt."

Zhuangzhuang sniffed aggrievedly, tears welling up in his eyes, "Grandma, my aunt doesn't like me anymore."

"Pfft!"

Liu Xiao'e turned around and glared at her.

Lin Shu quickly covered his mouth and blinked his innocent eyes.

......

Early in the morning, Gu Jiu was dragged out of bed by Xu Ming. Before he had time to wash up, he was pushed into the car. They hurried all the way to the town, bought a bag of buns, and went into the mountains.

"Hey, you're still asleep?"

Xu Ming looked at the man who was walking up the mountain with his eyes slightly narrowed, and handed him a bun, "Eat something."

Gu Jiu took the bun, took a bite, and looked at the man in front carrying a tool bag climbing up the mountain. "You are an employee of the power supply station. Can you help these technicians up the mountain?"

Climbing the electric poles is not an option, connecting the wires is not an option, and even joining in would be considered too many.

Xu Ming took a bite of the bun and said, "I'm taking you to experience the intensity of the work at the power supply station."

"Let me make it clear first. Don't force me to turn my back on you." Gu Jiu frowned unhappily and reminded him again, "I'm here for a transition, not to work. I'm not interested in the work at your power supply station."

Xu Ming observed the surroundings, stuffed the last bite of the bun into his mouth, and then took a sip of water. "Then tell me, what kind of job do you want?"

"I want a job where I can go to work when I want to, take a break when I don't want to go to work, and be late when I don't want to get up in the morning. Can you help me find it?"

In fact, to put it bluntly, now that he had no choice but to return to his hometown in the county, Gu Jiu just didn't want to do anything.

He felt that life was boring with just going to work and eating on time every day.

"Your family wants you to join the army, but you can't stand the excessive training every day. So they want you to go to school, but you think it's boring. So tell me, what do you want to do?" Xu Ming was so angry that he laughed.

Gu Jiu felt that the timing was not right now, and he would naturally have his own considerations when the time was right.

After eating a few buns to fill his stomach, Gu Jiu looked at the situation in the forest and took out the slingshot he had prepared earlier. "Do you think I can shoot a pheasant today and make soup with it?"

"Come on, when you kill a pheasant I'll go to your house for some chicken soup." Xu Ming patted his shoulder, and his comforting tone was too obvious.

Gu Jiu raised his eyebrows: "Who are you looking down on? Do you think I can't catch prey?"

He tested the elasticity of the slingshot rubber band and found it to be very elastic and strong.