This 4-leaf root, in terms of both appearance and age, was inferior to the two dried ginseng roots Wang An had snatched first.
Mainly because those two dried roots had already reached the pinnacle of 4-leaf ginseng; if it weren't for the lack of the ginseng stalks as a reference, they very likely would have been 5-leaf.
After all, with wild mountain ginseng, once the stalks are removed, the simplest and most direct way to determine the age is to check the number of "luwan" (growth rings/nodes).
However, it must be noted that luwan do not form every single year, which means checking them isn't entirely precise.
Therefore, while the two ginseng roots Wang An snatched currently showed 4-leaf luwan, they were very likely 5-leaf when they first came out of the ground.
After observing this 4-leaf ginseng, Wang An placed it back on the ground, took out his set of digging tools, and prepared to start digging himself.
Now that Wang An was back, Wang Li seemed to have found his anchor and finally stopped aimlessly pointing his gun.
Seeing Wang An's movements, Wang Li also took out his own digging tools.
But before Wang Li could squat down, Wang An gave him an instruction
"Old Fifth, go peel some more bark and shovel some more moss. I think these 'clubs' have 'zila-ed' enough; it's time to wrap them up."
"Zila" meant letting them be blown by the wind to air out for a while.
Because ginseng is quite damp when first unearthed, the rootlets are relatively brittle and break easily.
Thus, it is best to let them air out for a short while—or in the local dialect, "let them zila-zila in the wind."
Only when the rootlets become slightly withered does their toughness fully manifest, making them less prone to breaking.
"Aye, you got it, Brother-in-law."
Hearing Wang An's order, Wang Li gave a shout of agreement and walked off carrying his flower basket and axe.
Meanwhile, Wang An and Mu Xueli began to exchange digging techniques while they worked. To be precise, Wang An was listening and Mu Xueli was teaching.
Fortunately, with yesterday's experience, Wang An's digging skills had improved significantly. However, through a momentary lapse in care, Wang An turned today's first 3-leaf root into a "damaged grade" root.
Watching Wang An turn over 300 yuan directly into 100 yuan, Mu Xueli sucked in her teeth in heartache and couldn't help but advise
"Brother-in-law, how about I just do the digging? If you keep going like this, how many 200-yuan losses are we going to rack up?"
Although Wang An was thick-skinned, he felt a bit overwhelmed by Mu Xueli's words at this moment.
Mainly because just a moment ago, Wang An had confidently told Mu Xueli that he was a natural and just how incredibly skilled he was, only to be slapped in the face so quickly!
Wang An kept a straight face and said thick-skinnedly
"You think I *want* to dig? How long would it take you to dig all these clubs? If I don't get my hands dirty, what are we supposed to do?"
Mu Xueli gave Wang An a secret eye-roll but remained silent with a face full of helplessness.
That being said, when digging the second ginseng root, Wang An became noticeably more cautious.
Ginseng isn't cabbage; Wang An also felt the sting of turning a root into a damaged grade.
Fortunately, aside from not fetching a high price, a damaged ginseng root didn't hinder its use for home consumption at all.
To be honest, even now, Wang An couldn't wrap his head around it. Clearly, the medicinal value of a root with broken rootlets was the same as a whole one, and since ginseng has so many rootlets, breaking a few was perfectly normal.
And yet, they insisted on "completeness." Most importantly, the price difference was damn ridiculously huge!
This was clearly just being pretentious! Truly!
Just as Wang An perfectly extracted the second ginseng root—a "two-jiazi" (120-year) root—Wang Li returned carrying a bundle of bark and a basket of moss.
Without needing to be told, Wang Li proactively began wrapping the ginseng bundles.
As the three of them chatted and joked while doing their respective tasks, Wang Li suddenly asked Wang An
"Fourth Brother, I forgot to ask because I kept getting interrupted—did you catch up to those five people earlier? What were they doing?"
As soon as Wang Li finished, Mu Xueli also asked with a face full of curiosity
"Did they find a club nest? Did they hit a big haul?"
After Mu Xueli asked, Wang An gave her an eye-roll and said irritably
"Are you an idiot? How the fuck would I know that?"
Suddenly being scolded, Mu Xueli's smiling face was instantly replaced by a look of total bewilderment. Mainly because Wang An had been smiling a second ago and suddenly turned sour.
Wang Li was also stunned by this scene, unable to understand why Wang An's expression had changed so abruptly.
Seeing the confusion on their faces, Wang An explained helplessly.
Actually, the reason Wang An suddenly reprimanded Mu Xueli was that, by logic—or rather, by the rules—Mu Xueli shouldn't have asked that.
Normally, the reason formal ginseng gangs "call the mountain" is to tell people nearby that they've found ginseng, so that anyone who hears it stays away to avoid conflict.
Other formal ginseng gangs, upon hearing the call, would generally proactively keep their distance.
Even if two formal ginseng gangs met in the mountains, they would usually go their separate ways and absolutely would not inquire about each other's harvests.
After all, this was the rule and a major taboo. Who wouldn't be envious of a big haul?
Therefore, it was something all formal ginseng gangs had to obey.
Truthfully, if everyone proactively followed it, the rule was actually quite good.
While Wang An wouldn't necessarily follow the ginseng gang's rules, he wasn't so bored that he would go looking for trouble with others.
If Mu Xueli's words were heard by others—especially the "mountain callers"—it would undoubtedly be a violation of their rules and taboos. They would certainly wonder
"Is this Wang An breaking the rules by stalking and spying on a ginseng gang?"
"What do you want? To rob the ginseng or what?"
"You broke the rules, so there's no problem with me killing you."
One must know that those who committed such a major taboo and caused serious consequences met ends that were fucking miserable!
The punishment was to be stripped naked, tied to a tree, and left to be bitten by insects and eaten by wild beasts until death.
Never think that just because you have a gun, you have nothing to fear.
You have a gun, but others do too. Your marksmanship might be great, but there are plenty of people better than you!
When all the formal ginseng gangs united, anyone who committed a major taboo and caused serious consequences was a dead man the moment they entered the mountains, unless they stopped coming in entirely.
Because you can choose not to follow the rules, but you cannot commit a major taboo. If they played by the rules, there would be no issue with them killing you.
Of course, all of this was told to him by Han Shuisheng.
After Wang An finished, he shared a few cases of people who had completely vanished after committing major taboos, and Mu Xueli and Wang Li became noticeably more subdued.
However, immediately after, Wang An told Wang Li and Mu Xueli about what he had seen and what he had done to those five Japanese soldiers.
After listening and thinking for a moment, Mu Xueli suddenly said
"Brother-in-law, I think you should find Brother Wu or Sister Zhang immediately. This could be a huge contribution."
(End of Chapter)