My best friend is living a famine-stricken life; you're going crazy, I'm farming.

Yang Fenglan went into the mountains with Xu Yingying every day, and this went on for half a month at a time.

That day, upon entering a place no one had ever been before, Long Aotian suddenly shouted: "There's ginseng! There's ginseng!"

"Let's go!" Xu Yingying took off in the direction Long Aotian pointed.

"Wait a minute." Yang Fenglan stopped her and pointed to something at her feet. "There's wild animal droppings. There must be wild animals around here. Be careful."

“Hmm!” Xu Yingying looked at Long Aotian.

[The search has been completed; only ginseng is found, no wild animals.]

Only then did the two sisters feel relieved enough to go and find ginseng.

Then he was stunned.

"One, two, three, four, five, six... Yingying, we've stirred up a ginseng den."

“This leaf looks a lot like the one I dug up before, Master Long, how old is this ginseng?” Xu Yingying asked, tugging at a ginseng leaf.

[So-so. That one is at least fifty years old, this one is thirty, and the others are just two or three years old.]

“Even the baby ones are good.” Yang Fenglan had already put down her basket and started digging.

Since they had encountered the baby, there was no way they could keep it, so the two of them dug it up as well.

These ginseng plants took a whole day to dig up.

It was dark when we came down the mountain.

Since Yang Fenglan couldn't enter the city, she went directly to Xu Yingying's house and slept with her.

The two did not tell Xu Dazhu and Lin Cuiniang about finding ginseng.

After finishing my meal, I went inside to sleep.

The next day happened to be market day.

The two walked hand in hand to the market in town.

In the past, there would always be people waiting at the village entrance for Gu Laosan, who would drive the oxcart.

With Gu Laosan's entire family gone, the cow naturally disappeared as well.

After a year of famine, Qingshui Village lost all its cattle, and there were no vehicles to take them to the market, so they had to walk.

During the hour and a half it took to reach the county town, we only saw two oxcarts on the road, which was much quieter than last year.

Even the number of people going to the market has decreased.

The streets, which used to be packed with people, are now less than half full, and the clinics are also nearly empty.

Yang Fenglan was a regular customer. As soon as she arrived at the clinic, the manager invited her into the backyard.

"I've been waiting for you all day yesterday, but you never showed up. I thought you weren't coming." The shopkeeper looked eagerly at Yang Fenglan's basket.

For the past two weeks, Yang Fenglan has been coming to sell goods every day. She sells medicinal herbs that are not easy to find, and she doesn't charge high prices, so the shopkeeper looks forward to her coming.

However, there was nothing in the basket.

"Out of medicine?" The shopkeeper looked disappointed.

"Here it is." Xu Yingying lifted the cloth covering the basket in her hand, revealing four ginseng roots inside.

The shopkeeper still looked disappointed. "That's all? Although the ginseng was dug up intact, it's young, so I can't offer a high price."

Xu Yingying smiled and said, "We came because we trust the shopkeeper's judgment."

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper laughed heartily and held up two fingers, "Two taels of silver."

Xu Yingying didn't know the price, so she looked at Yang Fenglan.

Yang Fenglan mentally compared the price of the thirty-year-old vintage she sold last time; two taels of silver was not a small sum.

"Okay, two ounces it is."

After delivering the goods and the shopkeeper paid, Xu Yingying took out another cloth bag from her bosom. "Shopkeeper, take a look at this one."

The shopkeeper took the cloth and unfolded it. "Is it ginseng too?"

He didn't understand why they had to be packaged and sold separately.

When the ginseng was fully exposed, his eyes lit up. He picked it up and examined it carefully. "This is a good thing. Fifteen taels of silver."

"Eighteen," Yang Fenglan replied without hesitation.

The fact that two ounces of each of the four small ginseng roots can be given proves that this medicine is in short supply.

So, for a 30-year-old piece, we gave 15 taels of silver last year. This year's piece is complete, so asking for an extra 3 taels of silver is not unreasonable.

The shopkeeper was taken aback. "I can't give that much."

The next second, the shopkeeper was bewildered when he saw Yang Fenglan also pull out a cloth bag.