Era: Started from raising livestock in the mountains

In a blink of an eye, Lin Heng had reached the top of the mountain. This place was quite high, and he could see that most of the setting red sun cast a layer of fire on the distant dragon-like ridge, as if the dragon was reviving.

A flock of birds flew out of the forest and soared in the sky. The tall ancient trees were connected with vines, like strange human figures. From time to time, the calls of monkeys came from the distant mountains, telling the depth and tranquility of the mountains.

"Let's go, go back and see if we can catch prey. It seems that we can hear the calls of golden roosters and bamboo chickens over there."

Looking at the huge red sun, Lin Heng pointed to the ravine in the left front and said.

The search in the afternoon was still fruitless, which made him a little bored. Ginseng is indeed not so easy to find.

"Okay!"

Lin Yue nodded and followed Lin Heng down the mountain.

"Will you come to the remaining mountain tomorrow?" Lin Yue pointed to the last mountain and asked.

The plan when he came was to search all the mountains adjacent to the mountain where the century-old wild ginseng was found. Now there is only one left.

"Come on, we won't give up until we finish searching." Lin Heng looked at the not-so-high mountain and felt that the ginseng was among them.

"Okay." Lin Yue nodded and walked forward.

They searched for a long time in the ravine where they heard the calls of the golden rooster and bamboo partridge, but the annoying thing was that they didn't find it. They didn't know where those guys were hiding.

The leaves were dense in summer, and the light of the flashlight was weak after a few days of use, so they had to give up in the end.

It was already ten o'clock in the evening when they returned to the shelter. They ate roasted taro and boiled plum fish soup. The food had been eaten up, and there was nothing left.

The beds for the two were still made of mugwort. They had always wanted to make a hammock, but they never had the time.

"It seems that we won't be able to catch any big prey this time." Lin Yue said with emotion while packing up Panax notoginseng.

"There is gain if there is sacrifice. This time we are mainly looking for ginseng." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"I see you are a little depressed."

"I'm angry because I didn't find ginseng." Lin Heng shook his head. The more hope you have, the greater your disappointment.

"I hope we can get something tomorrow." Lin Yue said with a smile.

After eating, they lay on the grass bed and fell asleep early. The next morning, they got up when it was faintly light, made a taro and plum fish soup, fed the dog and went to the last mountain to look for it.

This time, the two were particularly careful, but because there were not many plants under the forest on this last mountain, they finished looking for it at around 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

"Failed." Lin Heng shook his head speechlessly.

Lin Yue patted his shoulder and comforted him, "It's common. Wild ginseng is not easy to find. We don't have that luck. Let's focus on hunting next time."

"Look for prey in the afternoon." Lin Heng said. In fact, Xiongba also found some traces of prey these days, but he didn't want to break the rhythm of looking for ginseng, so he gave up.

The two discussed and decided to go back to see if there was any prey.

After walking a few kilometers, Xiongba seemed to suddenly smell something on the ground and walked in one direction.

Lin Heng hurriedly followed behind and observed everywhere. After walking a distance, he found some feces like black beans.

Because he didn't find any footprints, he couldn't tell whether it was a muntjac or a roe deer. After walking for a while, Xiongba looked around in confusion, obviously he had lost it.

"It's okay, let's look for it nearby." Lin Heng touched its dog's head. If Xiongba could find every trace, hunting wouldn't be so difficult.

Not long after walking, he found the wild boar feces he had found before, but after tracking it for a while, he still found nothing.

The elder brother and Fengshou, who were not far away from Lin Heng, also had no gains.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, Lin Heng was a little tired on the way back. He walked to a gray-white basalt in front to rest and drink water, and looked at the quiet forest in a daze.

Although he didn't find anything, the process of exploring the deep mountains and old forests was still very happy, and it could be said that it was physically and mentally comfortable.

"Wait a few days to see if we can make a bee-proof suit with thicker rubber, and then we will go and teach these wasps a lesson." Lin Heng said, looking at a white wasp nest on the opposite mountain.

There are many wasps encountered these days, including the black-ringed wasps that make honeycombs on trees and the terrifying golden-ringed wasps that make nests underground.

They almost got tricked, but fortunately they found it from a distance.

Lin Yue said: "Then you have to make a thick seam. These wasps can sting people to death."

"Yeah." Lin Heng nodded. He naturally understood this truth, but bee pupae are delicious, and adult wasps can also cure rheumatism when soaked in wine.

"Let's go." After a break, Lin Yue stood up and said.

Lin Heng followed him and stood up. When he turned around to leave, his eyes suddenly flashed, as if he saw something good.

He stopped in confusion, walked in that direction, pushed aside the branches of the bushes above, and found the good thing he just saw in a green leaf below.

Six leaves and four hexagonal leaves formed a hexagon, like a lotus flower. The stems in the middle had white pedicels, and the red fruits that should have been on them had disappeared.

If this is not the ginseng that Lin Heng had been looking for for five days, what else could it be?

"Hey, what's wrong?" Lin Yue turned back curiously.

"Brother, what do you think this is?" Lin Heng pointed at the plant in front of him and couldn't help grinning.

"It's impossible, we've clearly looked for this place before."

Lin Yue ran over and said with wide eyes.

Lin Heng laughed and said, "I don't think it's possible either, but I just happened to see that leaf and the stem in the middle, and I thought it looked a bit like it, so I came over to take a look."

Lin Yue looked at it carefully and gave a thumbs up: "It seems that you are lucky, brother."

"Brother, look around, maybe there are some." Lin Heng said as he took out the red thread and tied the ginseng.

Wild ginseng is really a magical thing, and you might miss it no matter how carefully you look for it. Sometimes even if you pull out the plants one by one this year and look for them, they might still appear next year.

Because this thing will go dormant, sometimes it is normal for it not to produce plants for a year or two.

"I'll go look for it." Lin Yue began to search around carefully.

Lin Heng took out a knife and chopped off all the other plants around him, and then used a wooden stick to sort out the ginseng roots and veins bit by bit.

Lin Yue searched for a while but couldn't find it, so he came over to help him dig ginseng. This was an extremely delicate job, and the value of the ginseng would be greatly reduced if a section of root was missing.

They started digging at around six o'clock and continued until half past seven. The two of them didn't dare to take a breath and kept being cautious until the ginseng was completely taken out.

"Phew, we finally dug it out!" Lin Heng took a deep breath.

Lin Yue looked at the ginseng in front of him and exclaimed: "This ginseng is not simple at all. It must be seventy or eighty years old, right?"

Although he has never dug ginseng with his own hands, he knows how to identify the year. The upper part of this ginseng is filled with densely packed reed bowls, and there is also a ‘jujube core’ that only exists in 70 or 80-year-old ginseng.

"Yes." Lin Heng nodded with a smile. The ginseng dug this time was smaller than the century-old ginseng last time. It was less than a hundred years old, but it was definitely seventy or eighty years old.

The shape of ginseng is also completely different. The last wild ginseng that was 150 years old had two 'legs' and looked like a human. This ginseng has four 'legs' and has more ginseng whiskers.

But because it was summer and the soil was soft, digging was much faster than last time for the century-old ginseng.

"Congratulations, brother, can this be sold for tens of thousands? It's really a one-time fortune." Lin Yue said with great envy. He didn't know that the last time Lin Heng dug wild ginseng was 150 years old.

"Not sure, I'm going to save this for now and wait and see." Lin Heng said with a smile.

This kind of good thing will only become more and more cherished. It is best not to sell it as a last resort.

"That's right. Ginseng of this vintage is so rare." Lin Yue nodded, sincerely happy for Lin Heng.

Putting the ginseng into a plastic bag for preservation, the two walked back with flashlights on.

"Let's go back tonight and get some fish to celebrate." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"Okay." Lin Yue nodded, shook his head and sighed, "It seems that I am not destined to dig ginseng."

Lin Heng patted his elder brother on the shoulder and said: "This mountain forest should be more suitable for the growth of ginseng. Come and take a look when you have time in the future. Maybe you will encounter it."

"But my harvest this time is good, Panax notoginseng can be sold for three to four hundred." Lin Yue said with a smile, he was satisfied with this harvest.

Taking their things, the two of them returned to the shelter with their dimmed flashlights. Unfortunately, they didn't encounter any prey on the way.

It is difficult to hunt pheasants and golden pheasants at night in summer. The leaves are so dense that they cannot be seen hidden among them.

Back at the shelter, the two grilled four half-pound plum fish, and the two they ate even smeared the last bit of bean paste on them.

After eating it, I was not satisfied, so I went to get another one. The only prey I took home now were the big turtle and black fish.

After eating and drinking, the two of them lay on the grass bed smelling the scent of mugwort and fell into a deep sleep.

In the blink of an eye, it was early the next morning. The first thing Lin Heng looked at when he woke up was his ginseng. If it was eaten by a rat or something, it would be heartbreaking for half his life.

He felt relieved when he found that it was intact. He looked at his big brother who had just gotten up and said, "Pack up and go home."

"First go up to the big pool and look at the fishing traps." Lin Yue nodded and said.

Taking a net bag, the two of them walked up. As soon as they arrived at the place where the fishing traps were arranged, they heard the sound of splashing water.

Lin Heng quickly blocked the exit with quick eyes and hands, and then removed the aquatic plants covering the surface. If it was not covered, the small fish would be eaten by the early birds.

He looked at the fish inside and said with a smile: "Although there are not as many as before, it's not bad. There is actually a big mandarin fish. I can make stinky mandarin fish and eat it when I go back."

Lin Yue nodded: "There can be five or six kilograms of fish."

The two began to catch fish. The largest one was a salmon weighing more than a pound, and the remaining two plum blossoms weighed more than half a pound. There were also many plum blossoms and small mandarin fish of one or two taels, and then there were river groupers and horsetails. The mouth is full of troubles.

The mandarin fish and plum blossoms that were too small were released, while the creek grouper and horsemouth were all collected. After they fell to death on the shore, they were directly slaughtered and their internal organs were fed to the accompanying Xiong Ba and Fengshou.

Plum fish, mandarin fish, etc. are destined to be impossible to take back alive, so we simply kill them here, clean them, sprinkle them with salt, throw in some wild peppercorns, and marinate them. They will be fresh when they are taken back.

There are a lot of wild peppercorns in the mountains. There is one next to the pool, and you can smell the strong scent of peppercorns from a distance.

After finishing it, the two of them went back. The fishing trap at the entrance of the camp had harvested relatively small fish. The two of them ate some and fed the rest to Xiong Ba.

Then he packed up and went back. The mushrooms and herbs were almost dry in the sun. The Panax notoginseng that his elder brother dug was not dry, but it was half lighter.

In addition, there is no rice or noodles, so going back will be much easier than when we came here.

At six o'clock, the two of them took one last look at the shelter to make sure it wasn't raining and then set off home.

The two of them walked cautiously along the stream. They were likely to encounter pheasants, donkeys, ducks, etc. here, which was their last hope.

In a blink of an eye, they arrived at the shelter above Sanchagou. They didn't see a single chicken feather along the way, as if they had no chance to hunt.

"Are you going to harvest honey with your stuff?" Lin Heng asked his elder brother.

Lin Yue nodded: "Carry it. I'm afraid it's not safe here. If it's stolen, I'll cry to death."

"Indeed."

Lin Heng thought so too. Other people in the village would come here from time to time.

Carrying the stuff, the two climbed over the mountain and went down to the halfway point. It didn't take long for them to find the mark they made last year.

Putting the stuff down, Lin Heng put on a bee-proof hat and walked towards the location of the beehive.

This time, he directly made a fire and fanned the smoke into the nest. Lin Heng harvested the honey quickly while holding his breath.

This bee colony has not changed much from last year, and it feels like the number is a little less.

After harvesting, Lin Heng roughly estimated that there were about three pounds of honey, all of which were relatively pure locust flower honey. There are many locust trees nearby.

"You didn't get stung this time?" Lin Yue asked.

"It's impossible not to get stung, but I got stung once." Lin Heng pointed to the base of his right hand and said.

Then he added with a smile: "But it's okay, I've been stung so many times, and the pain will be gone after a while."

"Then I'll come next time, and I'll learn it too." Lin Yue glanced at the beehive and said.

"Okay, there's no harm in learning it." Lin Heng didn't refuse.

After harvesting the honey, the two took their things and walked back. Turning around, they saw that the two dogs Xiongba Fengshou were walking down the mountain, as if they had discovered something.

"Come back, no more exploration this time." Lin Heng shook his head and called the two dogs back.

Today is the 18th, and we can't delay it. We don't want to delay it for the time being. It's better to wait until autumn to hunt large prey.

After calling the two dogs back, they went over the mountain and returned to the camp above Sanchagou, and walked back along the ridge over the stream.

As they walked, the two dogs Xiongba stopped and looked ahead.

"Someone is talking in front, it seems that they have caught prey?" Lin Yue asked curiously.

"You'll know soon after asking." Lin Heng said, cleared his throat and shouted to the front: "Did you catch any prey?"

When he heard Lin Heng's voice, someone immediately responded: "Lin Heng, you are also in Sanchagou!"

Then everyone stopped and waited for him. Now Lin Heng's words were very important, and the villagers would unconsciously respect him.

Lin Heng and the others came up and saw that the leader was Wang Kaidian and Tian Baishun, plus eight other people in the village to form a ten-person hunting team, and the prey they caught was two wild boars, one large and one small.

The big one was about 150 to 60 kilograms, and the small one was at most 40 to 50 kilograms. In addition, some people had golden roosters and bamboo chickens tied around their waists.

"You are so amazing, you caught two such big ones." Lin Heng praised as he looked at the wild boar.

Lin Yue asked curiously: "Where did you catch it?"