Chapter 89

Qing Mengzhu hadn't expected him to have already found out, and immediately said, "I want to see. Where does he live?"

Tan Wenlei pointed to the village nestled among rolling hills. "It's in the mountains behind here. Apparently, it's said that Solomon's seal is best grown in the mountains, where the yield is higher than when grown on flat land."

Qing Mengzhu: "Then let's drive there."

Tan Wenlei: "Wait a minute, let me ask him if he's home today?"

Today is Saturday, so Tan Wenlei doesn't have to go to work and has plenty of free time.

He quickly found out that the person who grows Solomon's Seal was home today and welcomed them over; it would be even better if they could buy some Solomon's Seal.

Qing Mengzhu drove to Tan Wenlei's house.

Tan Wenlei was waiting for him at the door. As soon as he saw him, he said, "Mengzhu, what made you decide to grow Solomon's Seal?"

Qing Mengzhu: "A few days ago, Sixteenth Grandpa gave us a bag of Solomon's Seal, and it tasted pretty good, so we were thinking of planting some. Luckily, our bamboo grove meets the planting requirements, and we can mimic the wild growing environment of Solomon's Seal."

Thinking of his family's bamboo grove, Tan Wenlei agreed, "Your bamboo grove is lovely; it makes you feel comfortable as soon as you go in. Planting some medicinal herbs there would be a good idea."

Tan Wenlei had never worked a regular job in his life, but now that he's working at the company, he's also working under Feng Ningxiang.

He knew Qing Mengzhu was the boss, but there was no distance between them; they were still the same as before.

Qing Mengzhu was also happy to be able to relax.

Under his command, Qing Mengzhu drove into the deep mountains, listening to his brother's story of how he became rich along the way.

Hearing his envious tone, Qing Mengzhu asked, "Then why don't you grow Solomon's Seal Uncle Wenlei?"

Tan Wenlei shook his head. "You know me, my planting skills are just average. I sometimes lose money growing vegetables. Growing these precious Chinese medicinal herbs might result in even greater losses. I'm not going to gamble on that."

Qing Mengzhu rarely agreed, "It's indeed difficult to plant now."

For these growers, both cash crops and medicinal herbs have Xiao Nian.

When prices are high, you can make several times the profit; when prices are low, you might even lose money on fertilizers and pesticides.

Often, farmers are too lazy to harvest crops that rot in the fields because they are too cheap and it's not worth the labor cost.

They chatted all the way to the village where the farmer named "Jing Juntao" lived.

Jing Juntao lives deep in the mountains, even deeper than the mountains where Qing Mengzhu occasionally goes mushroom picking.

The people living in these mountains are completely different from those in traditional villages. They live on opposite sides of the mountain, and in many places, there is only one family living on an entire mountain.

The mountain road doesn't lead to the doorstep; you have to park the car on the side of the road and walk a bit further.

Looking at the white-walled, black-tiled mud houses on the hillside from afar, Qing Mengzhu exclaimed in shock, "Are there still people here who haven't moved out?"

Tan Wenlei: "Yes, many elderly people don't want to move. They're not used to living in the city, there's no one to speak their dialect, and everything is expensive. Living in the mountains, growing some vegetables, raising some livestock, and then taking the vegetables to the city to reunite with their children during the Spring Festival is quite nice."

Qing Mengzhu: "What if something goes wrong?"

Tan Wenlei: "We can only call home more often and keep an eye on things. Don't be fooled by how things are now; the village-to-village road network has brought water, roads, electricity, telephones, TVs, and things like that. It's much better than before. Before, we couldn't contact each other for ten days or half a month, and that's how everyone lived."

Tan Wenlei called out from afar to the two-story house in the village, "Jing Juntao, we're here!"

A person came out of the small building. "I guessed you'd be here soon. Come in and have some tea."

Tan Wenlei: "We won't drink the tea. Why don't you take us to see the Solomon's Seal you're growing?"

Jing Juntao: "Okay, this way."

Jing Juntao was short and thin. When he saw Qing Mengzhu, he smiled and waved for them to follow him without any formal introduction.

They walked along a dirt road to another hillside, where trees lined both sides of the road, laden with red fruit, though not persimmons.

Qing Mengzhu didn't recognize him.

Seeing that he was staring at the fruit, Jing Juntao said, "That's Cornus officinalis, which we introduced in the 1950s and 60s. It's also a traditional Chinese medicine."

Qing Mengzhu: "There are so many Chinese medicinal herbs here!"

Jing Juntao: "Farming in the mountains is not as convenient as farming outside, so we mostly grow medicinal herbs, such as gastrodia elata, polygonatum sibiricum, notoginseng, and cornus officinalis, which is better than growing potatoes and corn."

Qing Mengzhu: "I also grow Gastrodia elata where I live, but I grow black Gastrodia elata."

Jing Juntao was quite pleased to have found a common topic. "Same here, my family also grows Gastrodia elata. Generally, whatever medicinal herbs grow in our mountains, we grow them. For example, we grow Polygonatum multiflorum. We're almost at the mountain where they grow Polygonatum, over there."

They quickened their pace and soon reached a shady hillside.

Land has been cleared on the hillside, and a row of large-leaved plants have been planted on it, which look somewhat familiar.

Some people say that the leaves of Solomon's Seal resemble bamboo, Qing Mengzhu now sees that the leaves clearly resemble lilies, which look quite familiar.

Jing Juntao proudly led them forward. "This is my family's Solomon's seal. We've planted it on several mountains. These Solomon's seals have been growing for two or three years. We don't use pesticides or hormones, so they're almost like wild ones."

With advanced agricultural technology, many people use growth hormones to regulate yield when planting. However, excessive use inevitably leads to a decline in crop quality.

The fact that some medicinal herbs have little medicinal effect is also related to cultivation techniques.

The medicinal herbs grow too big and too fast, which makes them look nice, but in reality, they accumulate less effective components.

Qing Mengzhu went over to look and said, "They grow really well. We can start harvesting them now, right?"

Jing Juntao: "Yes, we're used to digging in the fall. The weather's good then, it doesn't rain much, which makes it easier for us to dry them. Wait a moment, I'll dig up a Solomon's Seal plant and show it to you."

As Jing Juntao spoke, he grabbed the stems and leaves of the Polygonatum plant together and pulled it upwards with force.

Qing Mengzhu noticed that the soil was quite loose, and knew that he had loosened the soil and applied fertilizer quite a bit.

Tan Wenlei laughed from the side, "Why does your Solomon's Seal look just like ginger?"

Panting Jing Juntao broke off the Solomon's seal rhizome from the bottom and showed it to them. "Growing Solomon's seal is much more troublesome than growing ginger. Look at the quality of my Solomon's seal—among the surrounding mountains, mine is one of the best. Oh, and here are the seeds too. You can have the seeds as well."

Qing Mengzhu reached out and took it, and her heart skipped a beat after just one glance.

He seemed to have seen him in the Interstellar Mall.

Chapter 89

Qing Mengzhu still maintains the habit of browsing the Interstellar Mall whenever he has free time, especially the discounted items; he checks it twice a day.

He had indeed seen the plump, yellowish-green seed in his palm before, but he wasn't sure if it was a Solomon's seal seed.

Many plant seeds look quite similar, and it's possible that the seeds of other plants might resemble those of Solomon's seal.

Moreover, he was certain he had never seen the words "Huang Jing" in the Interstellar Mall. He would never forget such a familiar medicinal herb name once he had seen it.

In an instant, all sorts of thoughts flashed through Qing Mengzhu's mind, but she quickly suppressed the strange feeling.

Neither Jing Juntao nor Tan Wenlei noticed that the two were still discussing Huangjing (Polygonatum sibiricum).

Jing Juntao introduced how to cultivate and consume Polygonatum sibiricum.

Tan Wenlei had a very enjoyable conversation with him.

Qing Mengzhu snapped out of her reverie and joined the conversation, "With the price of Polygonatum so good, Uncle Juntao, why don't you plant more?"

Jing Juntao: "I wouldn't dare. You never know when the price of these things will go up or down. For example, this year, fresh Solomon's Seal can sell for thirty yuan a pound, while a few years ago the dried ones were only a dozen yuan a pound. I couldn't even make a profit after selling them."

Qing Mengzhu: "Isn't it a perennial? If the market isn't good that year, can't we let it grow for another two years?"

Jing Juntao waved his hand. "What if the market gets even worse in two years? I once planted a type of herb called 'Tianqi' and the price dropped for seven years straight. I was so angry that I stopped caring about it after that."

Qing Mengzhu: "If we dig them up when the price goes up again, won't they be even bigger?"