Farmhouse Green Plum

Xiaoxiang was a little worried: "Daya, do you really know the way to the county? What if you get lost? What if you meet bad guys?"

"Xiao Xiang, we can't back down now! We have no other choice but to do this!" Daya said seriously, paused, and then consoled, "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

She placed the backpack filled with pine needles and the rake under a tree and pretended to leave for a while.

He used another backpack to pack the herbs that had been dried in the past few days, said goodbye to Lai Di and the other two, took a small path around the village, and set off for the county.

Lai Di took out a machete, cut some small branches and spread them on the ground, and asked Song Yuan to spread the plantain and ground worms picked by Daya this afternoon on them to dry.

Soon, the other girls arrived at Songlinpo. Although they did not see Daya, they saw Song Yuan playing with grass nearby and a backpack and rake placed under a tree. Naturally, they thought that Daya went to the nearby toilet or forgot to get something.

After saying hello to Lai Di and Xiao Xiang, they each found a location with lots of pine needles and started working.

Zhao Xiaocui glanced at Lai Di and her cousin who were wielding machetes, and asked in surprise, "You all started chopping wood? Can you chop it?"

Lai Di stretched out her red palm and said honestly, "Thinner branches and shrubs are OK, but thicker branches are not. But I really don't want to shave pine needles endlessly every day."

Zhao Xiaocui was silent for a moment, "I'll try it tomorrow."

Several other older girls also expressed their willingness to try chopping wood, which made Lai Di and Xiao Xiang secretly happy.

The purpose of their chopping wood today was to guide Xiao Cui and the others to chop wood, and slowly separate from the little girls of their age.

Seeing Lai Di cutting down bushes and spreading them on the ground in front, and Song Yuan grabbing a handful of grass and spreading it bit by bit behind, Zhao Xiaocui kindly reminded: "Laidi, let Song Yuan play somewhere else. You are drying firewood at the bottom and he is spreading grass at the top. How long will it take for it to dry?"

The cut branches contain moisture, so they cannot be burned if you just take them back. They are also very heavy, so the cut branches must first be dried on the mountain, and then tied up and carried down the mountain.

Of course, during this period they had to be on guard against some shameless people stealing the things away secretly. Lai Di and Xiao Xiangxun were at the edge of the pine forest, where they had enough sunlight and could watch while they shaved the pine needles on weekdays.

Lai Di seemed to have just discovered Song Yuan's "troublemaking" and shouted angrily: "Little vegetable gardener, what are you doing, you little bastard?"

As they had been told in advance, Song Yuan knew she was acting. He pouted, sprinkled the remaining grasshoppers on the firewood, patted his butt, and ran off to play nearby.

After Zhao Xiaocui and others were not paying attention to this place, he continued to spread the herbs on the firewood to dry.

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After asking along the way, Daya finally arrived in Qingshui County safely.

When she arrived at the clinic, she found the medicine boy as usual and took the herbs out of the backpack. "The top one is ground tiger and the bottom one is plantain. I'm not sure if it's right, so I only took one bag."

The medicine boy opened the bag and took a look, praising her: "Little sister, you have a good memory. You are not wrong this time!"

Daya's heart was at ease, finally all her hard work was not in vain.

In response to the compliment, she smiled sheepishly, "It's mainly because you explain it in detail."

"You're pretty sweet. We agreed that the price of plantain can be higher, one cent for one and a half pounds, and the price of ground tiger is still the same, one cent for two pounds."

Thinking of the last process, Daya asked curiously: "Don't you need to tell Doctor Ma this time?"

"No need. The last time you washed the ground tiger very clean and dried it well. The master was very satisfied. He said that these are ordinary herbs. I will make the decision if you send them."

Daya smiled and said, "Then I will go and thank Doctor Ma later."

The medicine boy smiled and nodded. Just as he was about to speak, Doctor Ma's voice came from the clinic, "Lin Wenxuan, come in!"

Lin Wenxuan was stunned for a moment, and said to Daya, "Wait for me first."

"Okay, you go ahead and do your work." Daya naturally had no objection. Thinking about thanking Doctor Ma, she also walked towards the clinic, intending to go in and thank him while Doctor Ma was talking to the medicine boy, so as not to delay Doctor Ma's treatment.

As soon as he reached the door, he saw Doctor Ma with a stern face, throwing a handful of short yellow grass to the medicine boy Lin Wenxuan: "What is this?"

Lin Wenxuan was caught off guard and had his face covered with yellow grass knots. He grabbed a few that had not yet fallen to the ground, took a look, and said, "Ephedra."

Looking at Doctor Ma's expression, Lin Wenxuan felt guilty, "Did I make a mistake?"

"Is this ephedra?" Doctor Ma became even angrier, and grabbed another handful from the dustpan beside him and threw it at him, "Look carefully, is this ephedra? Does your ephedra look like this?"

Daya was shocked. Isn't Doctor Ma a highly respected and kind-hearted person? Why is he so irritable?

Lin Wenxuan looked at the yellow short knot in his hand and still thought it looked like ephedra. Facing his master's relentless questioning, he gritted his teeth and asked, "Could this be knotweed?"

"Joint grass! I'll make you joint grass!" Doctor Ma was so angry that his beard twitched. He looked around, picked up the copper pestle and mortar for pounding medicine, and banged it on the table.

"Come here!"

Lin Wenxuan swallowed his saliva and slowly stretched out his hand: "Master, I was wrong. Please teach me again. I will never admit my mistake again."

Doctor Ma hit his palm hard with a copper pestle and mortar, "This is horsetail! How many times have I told you to distinguish between knotweed, horsetail, aralia, and ephedra? What did I teach you?"

Lin Wenxuan almost wanted to cry: "Master, I swear I memorized it, but you only taught them how they look when they grow in the ground. They are all the same when dried. How do you tell them apart?"

To prove that he was not lying, he recited the properties, production environment, important differences and even the main functions of the four on the spot.

Doctor Ma's expression finally eased a little, and he began to tell Lin Wenxuan the key points of identification: "The nodes of horsetail are very thin, while the main trunk of knotweed is relatively thick, with only thin whorls, and the inside is hollow..."

It took him a full quarter of an hour to finish his speech. While he was drinking tea, Daya hurried forward to thank him.

Doctor Ma waved his hand: "No need to thank me, we only accept the medicine you sent if it's good."

Then, Lin Wenxuan led Daya to the backyard to continue weighing the herbs, calculated the payment, and counted out the copper coins and handed them to her: "18 catties of ground tiger, 9 cents, and almost 3 catties of plantain, 2 cents, a total of 11 cents."

"Thank you." Looking at the copper coins in her hand, Daya was overjoyed. This was the first time she had come into contact with so much money.

The medicine boy smiled and said, "We have known each other for such a long time, but I still don't know your name. Well, you already know my name."

Daya bit her lip, feeling very embarrassed. She had always felt that 'Daya' was not a name. It was too casual, like a ranking rather than a name.