Who Told You It Was Ginseng!

Zhou Wanwan coughed and said, "A school is a private academy. Shh! Quiet down..."

Zhou Wanwan sat on a stone nearby and slowly closed her eyes, feeling refreshed in body and mind.

Then she heard some mushrooms talking not far away. "That young lady's song just now sounded so good."

"I thought so too. I just couldn't understand it."

The corners of Zhou Wanwan's mouth curled up. "You really know how to give a compliment. I'll let you off this time."

One of the drynaria plants, the sturdiest of the lot, complained in a rough voice:

"So noisy! So noisy! What kind of song was that? Blowing up a school?

We've been growing here for over ten years, and we've never heard such a strange tune. I couldn't understand a single line!"

Another drynaria beside it rubbed its leaves against the moss nearby and chimed in softly, "Isn't that the truth! That girl's thoughts are harder to guess than the worms in our roots!"

Zhou Wanwan chuckled and walked over. "Hard to guess? I think my thoughts are easy enough to guess. I don't like you two either, so you're coming with me!"

Before long, Zhou Qingyan had carefully dug up the two medicinal plants and put them in the carrying basket.

Zhou Wanwan sat down again and began to meditate. All around her were the voices of wild grasses.

All sorts of conversations reached her ears.

Several foxtail grasses shook their fluffy seed heads and sighed:

"If you ask me, weeds like us aren't much use.

Look at those angelica plants beside us. They're the ones worth the most.

Herb gatherers' eyes light up when they see them. If they're dug up and taken back, they can sell for several taels of silver!

Not like us. We can only be eaten by cattle and sheep or burned as firewood."

Not far away, a clump of honeysuckle with pointed leaves shouted:

"What's so great about angelica? I'm the greatest thing in this forest!

I can be boiled to treat coughs, and I can be dried and steeped as tea to clear heat. What household doesn't need me in summer?

Which of you can match my medicinal uses?"

In a corner, several inconspicuous bupleurum plants snorted coldly:

"What do you amount to? We bupleurum are the ones with real ability. In spring, we soothe the liver and relieve stagnation; in autumn, we reduce fever and drive away cold. Even the apothecaries in the city scramble to get us.

You honeysuckle can only treat a little cough. Compared with us, you're a long way off!"

The mint nearby also shook its leaves and chimed in softly, "That's right, that's right. I, mint, can also be boiled to relieve fever, and I can refresh the mind too. I'm useful for far more than honeysuckle..."

Several medicinal plants hidden in the cracks between the scattered rocks also joined in.

The elderberry spoke first, its branches rustling as they shook:

"What are you arguing about? We're the lifesaving herb for bones!

If someone breaks a bone in a fall, boil our branches in water and apply it, and the bone will gradually heal in less than half a month.

Which of you can match our ability to mend bones and reconnect tendons?"

Several groundsel plants sprawling over a low wall nearby also shouted:

"And us! For mosquito bites in summer or eczema on the body, pick a handful of our leaves, boil them, and use the water to wash. It reduces inflammation and stops itching in no time!

When it comes to everyday uses, we're much more practical than honeysuckle or bupleurum!"

Sitting beneath a wild jujube tree not far away, Zhou Wanwan couldn't help chuckling aloud.

The medicinal plants in this forest loved vying for superiority even more than people did.

After waiting about the time it took an incense stick to burn, the medicinal plants finally ran out of strength to argue and gradually fell silent.

Only then did she get up and have her older brothers dig up all the angelica, bupleurum, elderberry, and groundsel and load them into the carrying basket.

Once they were more or less done there, Zhou Wanwan found another place to crouch.

Zhou Wanwan had just squatted down when she heard a few spindly weeds talking by her feet. The goosegrass said in a thin voice, "That fellow still hasn't woken up?"

A bermuda grass beside it hurriedly replied, "Isn't that so! All it does is sleep from morning to night. It's been sleeping since the start of spring, and even with the sun directly overhead, it still hasn't woken up!"

The goosegrass shook its leaves again, sounding a little vexed. "It's sucked up all the nutrients around us, and even the soil has dried out. Hasn't it slept enough?"

"Who told it to be ginseng!"

A dandelion lying close to the ground cut in, a note of helplessness in its voice:

"We weeds are wanted by no one, but that's ginseng! I hear lots of people have their eyes on it!

They say that as long as they loop a red string around the ginseng's stem, it won't be able to run away. And they have to be very careful when digging it up, for fear of breaking its roots!"

Zhou Wanwan listened with a secret smile. She gently moved the weeds aside, and when she saw the wild mountain ginseng in the soil, her eyes lit up.

Its roots were dense and white. Judging by their thickness and markings, it was an old mountain ginseng plant more than twenty years old!

The thing was sleeping soundly and hadn't noticed at all that someone had found it.

Zhou Wanwan took the herb hoe from Zhou Qingyan and carefully began digging. If this wild mountain ginseng were sold to an apothecary, it would fetch at least ten taels of silver.

But the wild mountain ginseng would be of greater use to Zhou Fusheng, so Zhou Wanwan planned to keep it.

The wild mountain ginseng suddenly woke up and cried, "Aah! Young lady, what are you doing? Boo-hoo-hoo... I've been dug up by a woman. My purity is ruined, boo-hoo-hoo..."

The noise gave Zhou Wanwan a headache. "Keep making a racket and I'll stew you in soup."

The ginseng promptly covered its mouth with its leaves. "You... you can hear me?"

Zhou Wanwan chuckled. "Yes! I can hear you."

The little ginseng burst into tears. "Boo-hoo-hoo... Big sister... please don't eat me, okay? I don't taste good at all."

Zhou Wanwan scoffed. "Don't call me big sister. You're over twenty years old. Is it appropriate for you to call me big sister? Am I that old?"

The little ginseng looked thoroughly aggrieved. "But you're human. You can't count it that way. Please don't eat me, okay? I can take you to find other wild ginseng."

Zhou Wanwan looked at it expressionlessly. "You're certainly good to your own kind."

The ginseng smiled. "Better a fellow Daoist die than this poor Daoist. Besides, those ginseng plants are all dimwits without spiritual intelligence. They're different from me.

I've gained intelligence. How about we make a deal?"

Zhou Wanwan looked at it. "Tell me first. What kind of deal are you planning to make with me?"

The ginseng chuckled.

"I know this part of the forest very well. I know where several ginseng plants are, and I'll help you find them.

Then I'll follow you, and from now on, you'll be my master. How about it?"

Zhou Wanwan looked at it. "I've never seen a ginseng like you. All right! I'll treat it as keeping a pet!"

The ginseng immediately grew happy. "From here, keep going into the woods on the right. Yes, yes, yes, keep walking. Stop when I tell you to."

Zhou Wanwan did as it said. When she reached the back of a large tree, she heard it say, "Squat down, squat down."

Zhou Wanwan squatted down and pushed aside the weeds. Sure enough, beneath them was a ginseng plant over ten years old. It chuckled and said, "I didn't lie to you, did I? This ginseng is pretty good too, a great tonic. Too bad it isn't as clever as me."

Zhou Wanwan put the ginseng that was over ten years old into the carrying basket, then heard it say, "Go farther in. There's a ginseng plant over twenty years old there..."