Chapter 62: It’s Ginseng! We’re Rich!

One hour later.

Chu Yue moved from one pine tree to another, standing atop the branches and chopping down clusters of pine cones that grew at the tips of the branches.

The ground beneath the pine trees was already littered with fallen cones. (Illustration)

After climbing down, Chu Yue took off her spiked shoes and casually stored them in her spatial storage. Then she began sorting the pine cones scattered across the ground.

The cones were large and oval-shaped, each nearly half a jin in weight. She gathered them together after cutting them from the branches.

In no time at all, she had a small mountain-like pile of cones.

There were far too many for Chu Yue to carry down with just her small bamboo basket, so she stored the majority in her space, only filling the basket to make it look like she had collected just enough.

Even so, the basket probably weighed around 50 to 60 jin altogether.

Chu Yue didn’t even blink—she effortlessly hoisted it onto her back.

Lu Yuanbao was still about halfway up the mountain. Considering he was still a small child, Chu Yue didn’t feel at ease leaving him alone too long. So after gathering her full load of pine cones, she didn’t go looking for other mountain goods but headed straight back down.

She intended to descend quickly—but fate had other plans.

Halfway down the mountain, Chu Yue suddenly heard a familiar clucking sound from the forest:
“Cluck cluck!” “Cluck cluck!”

That sound—it was definitely chickens.

And not just any chickens—wild mountain chickens.

Chu Yue’s eyes lit up. Sure enough, she spotted them—wild chickens with black feathers in the forest. They were sturdy and well-built, with glossy plumage that clearly set them apart from the typical large domestic chickens.

And their claws were black.

Judging by their characteristics, they were likely related to the Silkie breed.

Everyone knows Silkies are prized for their nutritional value—these two wild chickens couldn’t be far off.

Since they had practically delivered themselves, Chu Yue wasn’t about to let them go.

She pulled out a catching net from her space and hurled it toward the chickens—

A direct hit!

“Cluck cluck!” “Cluck cluck!” “Cluck cluck!”

Amid their sharp cries, Chu Yue walked over and lifted the net to check. To her surprise, there were two chickens caught.

Two birds with one stone!

A large chicken, and underneath it, a smaller one.

She had just been thinking about making chestnut-stewed chicken—and now the chickens had come to her!

Talk about getting something without lifting a finger.

Wild mountain chickens are much more aggressive than domestic ones. But Chu Yue was quick and sharp-eyed—she grabbed the chicken by its claws and flipped it upside down.

Held this way, no matter how much it flapped, there was no way it could perform some acrobatic sit-up to attack her hand.

And so—

By the time Chu Yue returned down the mountain, she had a full bamboo basket on her back and a chicken in each hand.

“Yuanbao, I’m back!”

When she returned to the spot where they’d been digging yams, Chu Yue couldn’t immediately see Lu Yuanbao.

But she could hear the steady thunk thunk thunk of a hoe—not far off. It couldn’t be anyone else.

“Yuanbao?”

Chu Yue raised her voice a little. From a small pit came an echo in reply:

“I—I’m over here!”

Lu Yuanbao had gotten so into digging for yams that he hadn’t stopped even once, unknowingly digging himself into a little earthen pit almost half a meter deep—deep enough for his whole small body to fit inside.

When he finally looked up, he popped his head out like a little groundhog.

He was completely covered in mud from head to toe—his face and even his hair were smudged. The sight was hilariously adorable.

Chu Yue couldn’t help but laugh. She walked over, patted his head, dusted off the dirt from his hair, then grabbed his hand and helped him take off his work gloves to check his palms carefully.

After several hours of nonstop digging, even with the gloves, the center of Lu Yuanbao’s tiny palms had turned red and raw.

If he kept working like this, he was definitely going to get blisters.

“No more digging.”

Chu Yue gave a firm command and grabbed Lu Yuanbao’s hands to lift him out of the dirt pit.

Lu Yuanbao obediently complied without arguing. He beamed with the brightest smile he had ever shown and wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve, happily saying:

“Look! I dug all of these out myself!”

“So many! My Yuanbao is amazing!”

Chu Yue praised him with a smile—not out of flattery, but because Lu Yuanbao had truly dug up quite a lot. There was already a pile of wild mountain yams, long and short, set aside.

Wait a minute!

Mountain yams?

What was that?

Chu Yue had only taken a quick glance when she suddenly spotted something unusual in the pile of yams.

It was a bit thinner than a mountain yam, and looked somewhat like a shriveled radish. It had more fibrous roots than the others—long and slender, and there were quite a few of them.

Lu Yuanbao had been careful while digging and hadn’t broken the roots off. It was still perfectly intact.

Chu Yue blinked and quickly stepped forward. She picked up the one that looked nothing like a yam and brought it closer to her nose—

It was ginseng!

It really was ginseng!

“Lu Yuanbao, you’re truly a little treasure who brings wealth!”

Chu Yue was so excited that she didn’t care how dirty he was with all the mud—she hugged him tightly.

Lu Yuanbao blushed furiously from the sudden hug and stammered nervously, “I… I’m all dirty…”

“A little dirt is nothing! We’ll wash it off when we get home. You just dug up a big treasure!”

Lu Yuanbao didn’t know what ginseng was. Seeing Chu Yue so thrilled, he blinked his wide, black eyes and asked, “Is this… thing valuable?”

“Of course it’s valuable.”

“Is it… worth more than five catties of pork?”

“With this in hand, we could eat pork every single day without a problem!”

The ginseng in Chu Yue’s hand was as big as her palm. Thanks to Lu Yuanbao’s careful digging, its roots were completely intact and in excellent condition.

A wild ginseng this size and in such good condition could easily be worth several hundred yuan!

They could definitely afford to eat pork every day now.

When Lu Yuanbao heard that, his eyes went wide. He looked like he wanted to jump right back into the dirt and try to dig out another one.

But finding something like this was a stroke of luck—something that couldn’t be forced.

This trip up the mountain had already yielded a great harvest. It was time to be content.

Chu Yue told Lu Yuanbao to rest while she carefully filled the soil back into the pit, thinking that in a few years, perhaps more yams—or even another ginseng—might grow again.

There were big persimmons, chestnuts, mountain yams, and loads of pinecones, plus two wild mountain chickens.

Chu Yue’s bamboo basket was not only full, but she’d also tied another bundle on top of it.

She carried more in her arms and on her back—both hands completely full. Lu Yuanbao was similarly loaded, carrying things on his back and in his hands. Though it was heavy, he smiled joyfully.

As for the ginseng, Chu Yue gathered a pile of soft leaves, carefully wrapped the ginseng in them, held it close to her chest, and placed it into her spiritual treasure space—it absolutely had to stay in perfect condition.

The descent was rough, and with their heavy loads, it became even harder.

Chu Yue deliberately slowed their pace to make it safer.

“Yuanbao, do you want to stop and rest for a bit?”

“No need. I can keep going.”

The little boy stubbornly insisted. Mother and son walked along the mountain path as the sun set behind them, bathing them in golden light.

Just as they were about to reach the gate of the family housing compound, Lu Yuanbao suddenly shouted:

“It’s Daddy! He’s right there!”

Chu Yue looked up—and saw Lu Zhanlin in the crowd.