You are unlucky and I am tough

Most of the villagers in the Cheng family were very poor, and the whole family only spent one or two taels of silver a year. When they calculated that sixty-six taels were enough for them to spend for twenty years, they were all excited.

After hearing Cheng Shuang's specific instructions, they immediately took their tools and ran to the forest ahead to chop down trees.

There were both machetes and axes, and more than a dozen people divided the work, some were responsible for cutting down trees, some were responsible for carrying them, and Wei Qinglang led four people, using the cut tree trunks to stick on the mountain walls on both sides to build ladders.

The length of the tree trunk is cut slightly longer than the gap between the two stone walls. It is then placed horizontally and hammered in with an axe to ensure it is firmly stuck.

There are two or three poles on each layer, staggered in height and crisscrossed.

There is no rule anyway, just get in and it's stable.

The gap between the two sides was only about two meters. Wei Qinglang and Xu Daqing climbed up little by little along the stable tree trunk. They could hold on to the cliff wall with their hands and would not lose their balance.

This is not easy. It was very slow at the beginning. The speed only picked up after building four or five floors about three meters high.

Cheng Shuang helped to pass the tree trunks. As the height got higher, someone had to climb up and pass the trunks upwards using a chain method.

This is easy to say but difficult to do, and the process looks dangerous. Cheng Shuang kept reminding them to be careful.

After they had almost chopped down enough trees, others came back to help. More than a dozen people worked until it was almost dark before they finally reached the height of the Ganoderma lucidum.

Wei Qinglang climbed to the top and stood up with the help of the mountain wall. He reached out and touched the Ganoderma lucidum which looked to be about 35 or 36 centimeters in diameter. He even breathed carefully.

He shouted to the people below, "Find a large piece of cloth and pass it up."

The people below passed his words down one by one, and Wei Qinglang took out a dagger and started cutting from the handle of the Ganoderma lucidum.

If cloth was needed, it would be passed down to the bottom. Cheng Shuang took out the cloth she used to sleep on the ground and handed it to the person on the first floor to pass it up. When it was passed to the top, the Ganoderma lucidum was just cut off.

Wei Qinglang put the dagger into the space, carefully wrapped the Ganoderma lucidum with cloth, tied a knot and passed it down.

The people on the shelves also began to climb down from the crisscrossing shelves carefully.

After everyone landed, the team cheered in victory. Success meant they had earned more than sixty taels of silver.

Then everyone stared at the Ganoderma lucidum in Cheng Shuang's hand.

Cheng Shuang knew that everyone wanted to see it, so she put the cloth bag on the ground and opened it carefully.

“It’s such a big one.”

The villagers exclaimed again and gathered around. Although the things were not theirs, it would be a big topic of conversation if they told others about it after taking a few more glances.

After letting them watch noisily for half a minute, Cheng Shuang wrapped up the Ganoderma lucidum again. Her backpack was too small to fit it. Wei Qinglang tidied up his backpack, gave Xu Daqing a few pounds of flour that he had brought into the mountains as a backup, and put the Ganoderma lucidum in it.

It was already dark, and everyone discussed the issue of how to continue their journey. They all agreed to find a place to spend the night ahead and continue their journey tomorrow morning.

After much discussion, several villagers took axes and chopped off the bottom two layers of the scaffolding. They lowered their heads and walked through the scaffolding. After they came out of the narrow gap, they found a flat place to rest for the night.

Nothing happened that night, and they continued on their journey at dawn the next day.

.

People who went into the mountains have been gone for seven or eight days and there has been no news at all. Cheng Lizheng has not been able to eat or sleep well recently, and the villagers whose family members followed him up the mountain also come to ask about him every day.

Starting four days ago, Cheng Lizheng sat at the foot of the mountain every day, stretching his neck to look up the mountain. At night, he also asked villagers to guard the foot of the mountain, just to be the first to know the news of the team returning from the mountain.

In the evening, the sunset glowed on the rice fields. Another day was almost over. Lao Lizheng was getting more and more worried. He returned home after handing over the work to Cheng Daming. Just as he picked up the bowl to eat, Cheng Daming rushed in.

"Uncle Village Head, we're back. Everyone who went into the mountains is back."

Cheng Lizheng's hand shook and the bowl fell to the ground. He didn't care that the whole bowl of porridge was spilled, and hurried out with the help of his crutches.

The Cheng Zhengyi brothers didn't even bother to eat and immediately chased after him.

Cheng Lizheng had poor legs and was anxious, and he almost fell as he just walked out the door. Cheng Zhengyi simply carried him on his back and ran away.

When the villagers working in the fields saw Cheng Zhengyi running over with the head of the village on his back, they guessed what was going on and stopped what they were doing to follow him.

"It's the village head uncle." Someone who was still some distance away saw someone running in front and shouted.

The team that entered the mountain originally thought that they could get out in three to five days, but who knew it took eight days. Everyone knew that Village Chief Cheng must be waiting anxiously, so they went straight to the Village Chief's house after getting down the mountain, and the two parties met halfway.

Cheng Lizheng quickly asked his son to put him down and went to meet them. He started counting the number of people before he got close.

Wei Qinglang shouted, "Grandpa Lizheng, we're back."

The others also shouted, and although they looked embarrassed and tired, their tone was full of joy and pride.

A lot of villagers gathered from all directions, asking them why they went into the mountains.

Cheng Lizheng had no time to care about those people, nor did he ask about the medicinal materials. He nervously counted the number of people and found that no one was missing. He finally put his heart at ease.

Cheng Shuang smiled and said, "Grandpa Lizheng, we have lived up to your expectations and found all the medicines."

"Okay, okay, I'm glad you're all back."

Cheng Li was so excited that his eyes were red and he nodded repeatedly. Suddenly he saw Cheng Shuang's hand was wrapped. He immediately grabbed her arm and asked, "Hey, how come you're still injured?"

Then he looked at the others and found that several of them were also injured. His face was immediately filled with anxiety. "Quick, quick, get Doctor Wang to come and take a look."

"Uncle Village Chief, our injuries are fine. Cheng Shuang has checked us out. They are minor injuries."

Cheng Fu jumped out and said, "It was caught by baboons in the mountains. A group of baboons suddenly jumped down from the tree and snatched our things. You don't even know, village head, the mountains..."

Cheng Fu quickly told the story of his encounter with baboons and wild wolves, which made the village head and villagers open their eyes wide in astonishment.

It had been seven days, and everyone in the village knew that Wei Qinglang had taken a dozen people into the mountains. Now that they heard that they had returned, people from every household ran over to see. When they heard that there were wild wolves and baboons in the mountains hurting people, they all looked terrified.

The whole village seemed to be bustling with activity. The people had not returned before, and some people had already made bad guesses, thinking that they had encountered danger in the mountains.

Some people even said behind their backs that these people probably wouldn't be able to get out, and cursed Wei Qinglang and his wife as evildoers.

Now you can see people coming back. Although they all have unshaven beards and look tired, and their clothes are tattered, like savages, but not one is missing.

They couldn't help but marvel at how Wei Qinglang and Cheng Shuang managed to bring so many people into the mountains for so many days, even encountering wild wolves, and still come back safely without getting lost.

The families of the villagers who went into the mountains had prayed to all kinds of gods in the past few days. After receiving the news, they rushed over. Seeing the family members with unshaven beards and tired faces, they rushed over to check on them. After making sure that everything was fine, they put their hands together and bowed to the sky to express their gratitude.

Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang did not look too embarrassed because they avoided people and went into the space to wash and tidy themselves up, but they were tense for so many days. After coming down the mountain, they finally relaxed and felt extremely tired.

Cheng Shuang took out a cloth bag from her backpack, walked up to Cheng Lizheng and patted him, "Grandpa Lizheng, the herbs are all here. If they are to be used as medicine, they need to be processed. It will probably take another four or five days."

Cheng Lizheng nodded and said, "Okay, okay, you take it back and deal with it first. I will gather the whole village and tell them what happened in a couple of days."

It was obvious that these dozen people were exhausted. They had been standing here chatting for a long time. Cheng Lizheng didn't say any more nonsense. He gave an order for them to go home and rest. They should have a good sleep first and talk about it another day.