Da Tang Si Zi: My Six Super Rich Little Nuggets!

Chapter 366 "Participation" - A Clever Calculation: The "Sticking" Adventure of

The world after the rain was dazzlingly bright, and the air was filled with the fresh scent of the mountains and forests, carrying the cleansed vitality of the plants. Even someone from the Tang Dynasty would feel their lungs feel refreshed after just one breath.

The tricycle drove out of the city and bumped along for more than ten miles before stopping by the roadside.

The four people jumped off the car. Shengzi Zi'an rushed into the mountains, followed closely by Sizi, who lifted her skirt. The muddy ground under her feet was soft, and some mud splattered on her skirt, but she didn't care at all.

In the pathless forest, branches intertwined, and Sizi followed, stepping on the slippery moss. Suddenly, she heard Shengzi Zian shout, "Auntie! Auntie! I'm here!" Ahead, deep in the woods, half a mud house appeared, somewhat similar to the one in the ginseng garden, only the walls were more mottled, like an old man with a face full of wrinkles.

Zian ran even faster after giving birth, and her shout of "Auntie!" echoed through the woods. Sizi heard her own heartbeat quicken.

In the woods next to the mud house, a thin woman with gray hair was bending over and rummaging through something. Hearing the shout, she suddenly straightened up and stared blankly at the person who had come.

Sizi blinked, feeling that there was something indescribable hidden in her eyes, like a layer of fog, or like a suppressed energy with nowhere to go.

"Auntie, look! Ginseng from the forest!" Shengzi Zian approached, holding a cloth bag, and presented it to the woman with both hands.

The woman took it with trembling hands, mud still stuck under her fingernails, and slowly peeled away the bark and moss covering it—in that instant, the mist in her eyes seemed to be blown away, and they suddenly brightened!

"Ginseng rootlets! Sixth-grade leaves! So many side bowls!" she exclaimed, her voice trembling as she held up the ginseng rootlets. "Where did these come from? Zi'an! Were they...were they dug up from our mountain?"

“Yes, Auntie, my brother and I just dug them up! Look at these leaves, and there are even seeds. The soil is still wet!” Shengzi Zian nodded hurriedly, beads of sweat glistening on his nose.

Sizi and her grandfather, Du Laozao, stared wide-eyed. The ginseng was swaying gently in the wind, its main root round and plump, and the row of side bowls on the rhizome was clearly visible. It looked completely intact.

Sizi quietly tugged at Du Laozao's sleeve and whispered, "Grandpa, is it true that the book says 'the miraculous herb can heal itself'?"

Grandpa's face slowly turned red, but he didn't respond.

The woman, clutching the ginseng, suddenly squatted down and burst into tears: "Old Mountain God! Thank you, sir! You even saved such a fine ginseng for me! I knew you wouldn't leave me none..."

"What's wrong with Auntie?" Si Zi tugged at Sheng Zi Zi An's arm.

Before Sheng Zian could speak, Zhi Xiaoye sighed and explained, "Sizi, my aunt has been growing ginseng for twenty years. Two years ago, a spring snow destroyed all the ginseng fields... She has always been hoping that the mountain god could leave her a ginseng."

Si Zi seemed to understand but not quite, and was about to ask, "How could Chun Xue have ruined the ginseng?" when she heard her grandfather's deep voice rebuke her through the phone: "Where's the ginseng I wrapped last night? Did you switch it out? You've got some nerve! Trying to cheat me!"

A loud voice came from the phone; it was the "Mom" that Sizi recognized: "Dad, ginseng from the forest is very precious; how can we let the child be given away so easily!"

"That ginseng was indeed glued on, but both the top and bottom sections are genuine seeds. It won't interfere with treating illnesses or maintaining health, so it's not considered counterfeit!" Si Zi was stunned.

So all that surprise was fake?

The burst ginseng root didn't close up on its own; it was glued back together by someone. She looked down at her hands and suddenly remembered the artisans in the palace repairing broken porcelain. It turned out that even the "divine herb" of the mortal world required such painstaking repair.

Zian's younger brother, Zhi Xiaoye, quickly stepped forward and cupped his hands to his grandfather (Sizi thought this gesture was more pleasing to the eye than a full bow): "Master, we are already extremely grateful for your understanding of the difficulties faced by ginseng growers! There's really no need for this..."

The redness on Grandpa's face slowly faded, but a hint of embarrassment crept in, like a child whose little trick had been exposed.

He rubbed his hands together and said to Zhi Xiaoye, "Young man, once this land dries up, come to my place to harvest ginseng! I'll teach you the ropes step by step—this is the 'Hometown of Ginseng,' I guarantee you'll get a bowl of ginseng rice! You're young, it's never too late to start over!"

Sizi ran over and took the woman's other arm.

The obscure terms "ginseng" and "hometown" used by the adults were like incantations shrouded in mist, passing by her ears and sinking into a deep pool without causing the slightest ripple.

The slight ripple about "forgery" that had just occurred was quietly smoothed out by an invisible force, leaving the water surface as smooth as a mirror, reflecting a kind of unsettling tranquility.

She leaned closer to Zi'an, her voice low and tinged with barely perceptible urgency: "Brother Zi'an, now... you won't have to go to that gloomy forest to pick ginseng seeds, right? How about you come with me to learn... 'Tai Chi'? I see that the airflow generated between the starting and ending movements is more like connecting the invisible meridians between heaven and earth than the breathing exercises of Pilates!"

Zhi Xiaoye stood to the side, nodding his head like a woodpecker, his eyes gleaming with an unusual light.

He suddenly pulled two dark-colored feathers from the pocket of his worn-out coarse cloth coat and stuffed them into the ox's hand without saying a word.

The feathers felt cold to the touch, and their edges had a dark red, rusty sheen—congealed bloodstains.

"Look!" His voice carried a strange excitement. "A feather from a club-shaped bird! I found it by the old ginseng pit! Here, take one, keep it safe!" His tone was less like sharing a toy and more like handing over an ominous token.

Si Zi's heart skipped a beat for no reason. She twirled the cold feather, and an indescribable chill crept up her spine from her fingertips.

She suppressed her unease, nodded hastily, and after returning home, tucked it into the yellowed old book that recorded countless tales of supernatural phenomena.

As the pages closed, the dark red of the feather's edge seemed to flicker briefly before fading into silence.

The wind swept across the vast mountains and forests once again, carrying with it not only the fresh scent of soil and vegetation.

The wind carried the faint, melancholic spiritual energy emanating from the thousand-year-old ginseng, mixed with the whispers of something slumbering deep underground, seeping into the seven orifices of the rhinoceros.

She stood by the window, gazing at the mountain shadows as dusk settled, and suddenly shivered.

The strange sensation from the feather still lingered on my fingertips.

A thought pierced the fog like an icicle:

The so-called "imperfections" of this world... those deliberately concealed traces, the sudden appearance of strange feathers, the elusive whispers in the wind... probably conceal far more bizarre and chilling truths than those light, airy phrases on ancient scrolls about "divine herbs healing themselves" shrouded in a sacred aura.

That "meaning" is probably like bait with a hook, leading straight into the unfathomable depths of history and culture.