Xu Erlang also had a bad temper. Recently, he had made money after the family split up, so he didn't care about Xu Zifan at all. He said as soon as he opened his mouth, "Who wants to go with you? I only came with you because I was afraid you would be in danger in the mountains. You're like a dog biting Lü Dongbin, not recognizing a kind heart! I won't come with you even if you beg me in the future."
"That would be best. I would never ask you for anything. The road is wide enough. Let's each go our own way so we don't have to argue and upset our parents." Xu Zifan quickly and gently finished picking the patch of poria cocos, stood up, clapped his hands, weighed the basket on his back, and walked towards Zheng Chuan with a smile. "I didn't expect to have such a good harvest on my first trip into the mountains. Let's walk a little further."
Zheng Chuan opened his eyes, nodded to him, and then strode ahead to lead the way, with Xu Zifan following closely behind. Xu Erlang tugged at Su Qianyun and said, "Let's go back. What's in these mountains? We're exhausted. Let's go down the mountain."
Su Qianyun was extremely unwilling and shook her head, saying, "It's a rare opportunity to go into the mountains, so I should at least find something. Besides, what a rare opportunity it is to go into the mountains with the hunters! Maybe we can even venture deeper into the mountains. Just this once, let me see what it's like."
Xu Erlang walked forward with her, but he was very unhappy. He felt that Su Qianyun was acting strangely, being bullied and still insisting on walking with him, and he didn't know why. They walked into the mountains for another quarter of an hour, when Shaohua reminded him: [There's glutinous rice grass in the grass to your right.]
Xu Zifan glanced at the location, pondered for a moment, and said, "[For newcomers entering the mountains, just focus on acquiring the most visible items; skip the less noticeable parts, otherwise it'll be too conspicuous.]"
Su Qianyun probed the grass with a twig when she suddenly caught sight of something familiar. She parted the grass and cleared away some soil, and upon closer inspection, she almost cried out – it was ginseng! Half of the ginseng was exposed, clearly something an animal had accidentally unearthed. What a waste!
Su Qianyun glanced quickly at Xu Zifan, then squatted down and exclaimed "Ouch!" Xu Erlang hurriedly asked, "What's wrong?"
Su Qianyun said softly, "My stomach hurts. Let's rest for a bit and then go down the mountain."
She winked at Xu Erlang, who immediately cooperated and said, "Alright, Third Brother, Zheng Chuan, we won't go any further. You should go back early too."
Xu Zifan took two steps in that direction. "Second sister-in-law, are you feeling unwell? Let me take a look."
"No need!" Su Qianyun called out, bowing her head and saying, "I'll be fine after a rest."
Xu Erlang waved his hand impatiently at Xu Zifan, dismissing him, "What business is it of yours, you brother-in-law? Go play."
Xu Zifan asked Shaohua, "Is there something fishy about them?"
Shao Hua scanned the area and replied: [Su Qianyun discovered glutinous rice grass.]
Xu Zifan raised an eyebrow, noticing Su Qianyun's somewhat nervous expression. He suddenly realized that the root of the glutinous rice grass was somewhat similar to ginseng. People who hadn't seen the medicinal herb in person might indeed make a mistake. But wasn't this transmigrated woman being a bit too cautious? Did she really think of him as some kind of bloodsucking, despicable relative?
Xu Zifan understood their reason for their behavior, so he ignored them and called to Zheng Chuan to continue walking inside. Once they were out of sight, Su Qianyun excitedly said to Xu Erlang, "Erlang, look what this is! It's ginseng! It must be worth a lot of money!"
Xu Erlang's eyes lit up at the mention of it, and he quickly went over to take a look. Su Qianyun took all the glutinous rice grass out of the soil, examined it repeatedly, and asked with some doubt, "Shouldn't ginseng have three small red fruits? Why aren't they here?"
Xu Erlang had never seen ginseng before, and upon hearing this, he guessed, "Is it not fully grown yet? If so, it won't be worth anything if we dig it up like this."
Su Qianyun didn't understand either. She thought for a moment, then shook her head and said, "What we dig out today is ours. If we don't dig it out and leave it here, who knows who might dig it up and take it away. Your third brother will be going into the mountains often in the future. What will happen to us if he finds out?"
"How about we go home and plant some? Can this stuff even be grown?"
"We could grow them, but we don't know how. Growing medicinal herbs isn't like farming; we don't understand it. Let's hurry up and sell them. By the way, it seems that medicinal herbs don't thrive when they're out of the soil; they need to be processed. We don't know how to do that, and we don't know if leaving them overnight will affect their medicinal properties. Let's go to town to sell them now!"
Xu Erlang was astonished. "Go now? It will be dark by the time we get back, and there are no donkey carts now. Are we going to walk? My legs are too weak to walk."
Su Qianyun looked determined, took his hand and said, "Is it worth it to work hard and earn a few more taels of silver?"
Making money is a good thing, but Xu Erlang felt a little annoyed for some reason. He then wiped his face and said in a deep voice, "Let's go, hurry back. It's dark at night, and we won't be able to see the road clearly."
"Hmm!" Su Qianyun smiled, but inwardly she was very annoyed. It's like this again! Every time there's something, she has to coax Xu Erlang to get him to agree. His legs go weak just to go into the mountains. Is he even a man? If it were a hunter like Zheng Chuan, he wouldn't just have weak legs, he might even be able to carry her on his back! Compared to him, looking at Xu Erlang with his empty hands, she felt even more disgusted with his uselessness.
The two of them went straight to town without even going home after descending the mountain. Earlier, when they went into the mountains, the villagers had already heard rumors, even finding out that each of them had given Zheng Chuan 10 coins. They were all saying that Xu Zifan had gone mad and was really obsessed with medicine. How could he not find a master? What could he learn by reading books on his own? Going into the mountains to find someone to guide him was a waste of money.
The villagers saw the couple heading to town and speculated that they must have found something good in the mountains, otherwise why would they need to go to town at this hour? They must be eager to sell it, not even able to wait a night. They wondered what they had found—game or medicinal herbs.
When her mother was chatting with the neighbors, she heard about it and immediately lost the will to talk to anyone. She ran home and said to Xu's father with concern, "The second son and the others have come back, but why hasn't the third son come back yet? They said that the second son and his wife went to town. They didn't bring back any of the baskets and sickles they had taken. They must have found something good."
Hearing this, Madam Cai quickly came over. "Mother, really? Second Brother and the others found something good? What is it?"
"How would I know? Why are you in such a hurry? You haven't even gone inside the house yet."
Cai pursed her lips and muttered under her breath, "They're afraid we'll get their hands on them."
Xu's mother glared at her, but then realized she was right. She didn't scold her, but instead pulled Xu's father inside to talk. Both elders were worried, wondering what the situation was in the mountains and why Xu Zifan hadn't returned yet. Cai Shi had another idea. She went back inside and said to Xu Dalang, "I heard that Second Brother found something good in the mountains, something very valuable. Dalang, why don't we go take a look?"
Xu Dalang now believes that everything Cai Shi said is wrong. He thinks that if you don't live your life properly, you won't live well. He feels that his current life is very stable and he doesn't want to cause any trouble. He is convinced that Cai Shi is just jealous of other people's good lives, so he rejects the idea without thinking, saying, "I'm not going. If you want to go, you go yourself."
"Big Brother, listen to me, I..."
"I said I'm not going! You're always urging me to do this and that, what are you up to? Do you regret marrying a useless piece of trash like me? Then go back to your parents' house!" Xu Dalang wouldn't listen to a word, and stormed out after a fit of anger.
Mrs. Cai collapsed onto the bed and sobbed, "Who am I doing this for—"
Xu Zifan and Zheng Chuan walked for another half hour. Zheng Chuan's trap in the mountains caught two pheasants, and with Shao Hua's reminder, Xu Zifan found a nest of wild eggs, a total of ten! Then Zheng Chuan shot a roe deer, and Xu Zifan also picked a bunch of mushrooms and wood ear fungus. He also saw a pine tree and picked a lot of pine needles, almost filling his small basket.
They walked to a large, marked rock. Zheng Chuan stopped and pointed ahead to Xu Zifan, saying, "There might be wild animals inside. I put this rock here. If you go into the mountains and come this far, don't go in."
Xu Zifan raised his hand to his eyes and gazed into the distance. The trees and bushes in the visible areas of the deep mountains were much more lush than on the outer edges, probably because people rarely ventured in. This meant there must be many valuable things inside. Medicinal herbs that couldn't be found outside might be found there.
Shao Hua scanned the area and told Xu Zifan: [There are four types of herbs, as well as wild rabbits, mushrooms, wood ear fungus, and wild vegetables within a 500-meter radius ahead. Their locations have all been marked.]
A virtual landmark appeared before Xu Zifan, marking the names of various things that could be gathered in different locations. Xu Zifan smiled and replied, "[You really are a treasure. No wonder so many people have become corrupted after getting a system. Shaohua, remember to always remind me to be self-reliant and strive for improvement, and never become a slave to the system.]"
[You said we'd be partners forever.]
[Yes, that's right, partners who make progress together.] Xu Zifan turned to Zheng Chuan and said, "Let's go. I hope we'll have a chance to go in and take a look sometime. It's getting late, let's hurry back."
Zheng Chuan nodded, then subconsciously looked at his feet and hesitated before asking, "Are you alright?"
Xu Zifan waved his hand, "I exercise every day, I'm not tired at all." He looked around, "This mountain is quite comfortable, I'll come more often in the future. Actually, it's fine if I come by myself, but if my parents ask you, how about you cover for me?"
"I'm not lying."
"Alright then, thank you for taking me into the mountains. If I want to go deep into the mountains to collect herbs in the future, you can wait for me by the rock."
Zheng Chuan frowned and said seriously, "It's dangerous inside, very dangerous!"
"I know that herb gatherers are very adventurous. If they see rare herbs growing on cliffs, they will definitely go and pick them. I exercise to do that. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, and I'm lucky. I won't get into trouble." Xu Zifan didn't want to talk about this anymore, so he quickened his pace and changed the subject.
Zheng Chuan was taciturn by nature, and it was already a good thing if he could talk to him a few more times. Seeing that he wouldn't listen, he didn't try to persuade him any further, since they weren't familiar with each other.
When Xu Zifan returned home, his parents and Xiaolian rushed to greet him, looking him up and down. His mother breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness you're finally back! Why are you so late? Your second brother and sister-in-law went down the mountain long ago. What happened?"
Xu Zifan looked around the house and asked in confusion, "Nothing happened. Where are my second brother and sister-in-law? My sister-in-law said she wasn't feeling well, so they came back first."
"Huh? Didn't they get some good stuff to sell in town?" Xiaolian's eyes widened in surprise. "Third Brother, didn't you know? How could that be?"