Traveling through the mountains and farming

After tasting the snack oil residue, the three of them put some snake and insect repellent powder on their bodies and prepared to go to the back mountain to chop firewood.

Before going out, Li Chongle excitedly took out the newly bought lock and locked the door. His family now has a lot of belongings. If someone robs the house, he doesn't know who to cry to.

This reminded Lin Wan of the time when Li Chongle walked around the house several times, saying he was looking for a place to hide the money. Finally, he dug a hole under the bed in their room and buried it.

And this afternoon, the first thing he did when he got home was to bury the remaining money again.

Li Ke ran in the front carrying a backpack, fearing that her sister-in-law would change her mind and not let her go with them. Before her sister-in-law went out, she wanted her to stay at home, saying that chopping wood was strenuous work and she was small and weak, so following would only tire her out and it would be better for her to rest at home.

This opportunity to go out with them was something she had worked hard for. She was responsible for digging beautiful and useful flowers and plants along the way, as the flower bed in their backyard had not been finished yet.

The previous times that Lin Wan and her friends cut bamboo and picked litchi fruits, they were only at the very edge of the back mountain and had never really entered the back mountain. This time, she did not plan to go deep into the mountain and would complete the task of chopping wood as close as possible.

"Xiao Le, let's not walk too far. Let's pick up dry firewood first. If that's not enough, we can chop low branches. This way we can save energy." She called to Li Chongle who was already walking in the front.

They have been in the mountains for 25 minutes now. Of course, they did not rush all the way. They dug up a lot of beautiful or useful flowers and plants along the way, wrapped the roots with leaves and put them in the backpack, such as basil, mint, wild leek, honeysuckle, day lily (forget-me-not)...

They also dug up some wild lilies, so they had something to eat for dinner.

"Okay, all the dry firewood outside in front has been picked up. There is some dry firewood nearby, and there are also many low trees suitable for us to chop." At this time, Li Chongle, who stopped in front to check the situation, also agreed to stay here to chop wood.

Then the three of them stopped and divided the work. They had more and more tacit understanding. Li Ke searched nearby for flowers and plants that could be taken home, while Lin Wan was responsible for the easier task of collecting firewood, because Li Chongle held on to the machete and took on the more strenuous job of chopping branches.

"Sister-in-law, please take a look at this flower. I have never seen it before. Should we take it back?"

Lin Wan, who was bending over to pick up firewood, heard Li Ke's voice calling her not far away.

She thought to herself that the little guy must have encountered some flowers or plants that he couldn't decide whether to take home or not, so she put down the firewood in her hand and went over to find Li Kede's voice.

Seeing her sister-in-law approaching, Li Ke waved and called out, "Sister-in-law, over here, look at these straight stems with bunches of small orange-yellow fruits hanging on them." She squatted in front of the plants, observing them while describing the grass she saw to Lin Wan.

"Should we dig this up? There are four or five of them. They would look nice if planted together."

When Lin Wan saw this, she immediately bent down and squatted, gently holding one of the plants in her hand to observe it. There was a bare upright stem with a bunch of fruits on it. This was the Gastrodia elata that had already produced seeds!

In modern times, she once worked on tourism planning for a county in the northwest. Gastrodia elata is the specialty agricultural product of that county. At that time, she also visited the Gastrodia elata planting base and conducted in-depth research on the cultural history, medicinal value and the entire planting process of Gastrodia elata.

In modern times, Gastrodia elata has long been cultivated on a large scale, and its price has reached a level that ordinary people can afford.

However, Gastrodia elata was a very precious Chinese medicinal material in ancient times. Because Gastrodia elata has no roots, it cannot be cultivated artificially and can only grow in the wild. Therefore, it is called "God-given magic medicine."

Li Shizhen even called it "Dingfengcao", and its effects of calming wind and stopping convulsions, unblocking meridians and relieving pain are very obvious.

And there are five Gastrodia elata plants here, they made a fortune.

Lin Wan happily hugged Li Ke who was squatting beside her, and was about to kiss her on the cheek, but Li Ke covered her mouth. After the last surprise attack, Li Ke reacted quickly. Although she liked the closeness of her sister-in-law, she still needed time to get used to kissing.

"Sister-in-law, calm down. What is this grass?"

"Xiao Ke, you are really possessed by a koi fish. You have discovered a treasure again. These are rare Chinese medicinal herbs called Gastrodia elata. If we dig them out, they should be worth a lot of money."

Lin Wan let go of Li Ke and turned to the Gastrodia elata plants, trying to find a suitable place to start digging.

With a focused gaze, she carefully observed the land conditions around the Gastrodia elata, thinking about where to start digging so as to minimize damage to these precious Gastrodia elata.

Hearing what Lin Wan said, Li Ke beside her said excitedly: "Really? Then let me look around to see if there is any more. Let's dig more."

When she heard that it was very valuable, she started looking around, thinking that if they could dig more, they would have a lot of money.

"This kind of precious medicinal material is hard to come by. It is a great blessing for us to come across it, but you can try to look for it."

Lin Wan was amused by her money-grubbing appearance, but she did not discourage her enthusiasm. After all, this girl was possessed by a koi fish, and maybe another miracle would happen.

Regardless of Li Ke who had run far away, she began to prepare to dig Gastrodia elata.

First, she picked the ripe Gastrodia elata seeds in bunches from the stems, wrapped them in large leaves, and prepared to take them back as seeds, and then slowly study whether they could be planted.

She remembered that she had learned before that the germination rate of Gastrodia elata seeds was extremely low, because the germinated seedlings were separated from the symbiotic environment with the Armillaria mellea and it was difficult for them to survive and grow independently. This was the main reason why Gastrodia elata could not be grown in ancient times.

After that, she squatted on the ground and started digging the soil to dig out the Gastrodia elata. She did not call the brother and sister for help because Gastrodia elata contains a lot of water and is easy to break. She had to dig it carefully and slowly to avoid damage that would affect its value.

Finally, she dug out five Gastrodia elata, each of which was about ten centimeters long and five centimeters wide. These should be considered large among wild Gastrodia elata and are very rare.

She carefully cleaned the dirt on the surface, selected soft large leaves and wrapped them in multiple layers, put them in Li Ke's backpack, and wrapped them with flowers and plants she had dug earlier to reduce shock.

After everything was done, Lin Wan was ready to go back to the previous place to continue collecting firewood, but found that Li Chongle had already done it silently.

The dry firewood she had picked up earlier had been cut into lengths of more than one meter and tied with vines, and there were three bundles of freshly cut branches and tree trunks next to it.

"Sister-in-law, these should be enough. We probably can't carry any more."

"Yeah, that's enough. Call Xiaoke and let's go back."

Lin Wan and Li Chongle each carried two bundles of firewood on their shoulders with a stick. Fortunately, Li Chongle was thoughtful and took their load-bearing capacity into consideration. He adjusted the weight of each bundle of firewood to just be enough for Lin Wan to carry.

On the way back, Li Ke was still walking in front with the basket on her back, because the basket contained the expensive Gastrodia elata that her sister-in-law said was very expensive, so she walked carefully and took every step steadily. She slowed down like this and just matched the walking speed of the two people carrying firewood.

~

The three of them returned home and took a short rest.

Lin Wan took out the Gastrodia elata from the backpack and prepared to start cleaning and processing it.

"Sister-in-law, my sister and I will go to the backyard to plant the flowers and plants we just dug." Seeing his sister-in-law start to work, Li Chongle couldn't sit still either, so he stood up and carried the basket to the backyard.

"There's no rush. You guys make the ice jelly first. We'll eat some later and send some to Grandma Luo'a's house later. When I finish processing the Gastrodia elata, we'll plant those flowers and plants together."

When Li Ke heard that he could make ice jelly by himself, he was immediately excited and quickly agreed: "Okay, brother, I'll do it, you help me."

The brother and sister received the task and ran to the kitchen happily.

Lin Wan took the Gastrodia elata and the wooden barrel beside her and walked towards the spring, recalling how to dry the Gastrodia elata.

She remembered that fresh Gastrodia elata can be dried directly or steamed and then dried.

The appearance of directly sun-dried Tianma is slightly worse, and the drying time may be longer. Steamed Tianma can better retain its medicinal effects after drying, and it is not easy to rot after high temperature sterilization. After drying, the moisture content is low and it is easy to preserve.

If it was yesterday, she could only dry it directly in the sun. Now she has a pot to steam it, so of course the better option is to steam it and then dry it in the sun.

After careful cleaning and steaming, she dried the Gastrodia elata and its seeds, then turned to the backyard to plant flowers and plants. At this time, the brother and sister who had made the ice jelly were already planting flowers and plants in the backyard.

With her participation, the flowers and plants that were pulled up today were quickly planted.

Afterwards, the three of them went back to the house and each ate a bowl of ice jelly. Lin Wan filled a wooden barrel with half a bucket of ice jelly, covered it with a lotus leaf, and carried it to Luo's house.

The two siblings followed behind, holding the machete and saw that they wanted to return to Uncle Li's family.