Chapter 22: No More Herbal Gathering

Rumors began to circulate, vivid and detailed rumors at that.

Given how recently the Wang family had spread herbs all over their yard, anyone who passed by could easily see it, regardless of how far they lived from the walls of their yard. There was simply no way to keep this matter under wraps.

Standing far from the village, Song Liangzuo noticed more and more elderly people and children approaching them, joining the ranks of herbal gatherers. He lowered his gaze.

Song Jiaodi, holding two pieces of bamboo, had somehow sidled up next to him, her expression worried. “Little brother, if they’re all here gathering wild vegetables, what will we have left to dig? With everyone doing it, will we still need to gather?”

Saying they had nothing left was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was true that the nearby fields had been stripped bare.

Song Liangzuo couldn’t say for certain, so he comforted her, “Elder sister, let’s hurry up and gather. Tomorrow, my grandma and I will take what we’ve sun-dried these past two days to the town.”

For the past half month, the Song family had operated like a tightly wound clock, heading to the fields at dawn and returning home only after dark.

Sometimes they would pack food to take along, eating only if they got hungry, while the family’s chickens and pigs suffered from irregular feeding schedules, making their meals less elaborate than before.

Today, the animals were finally being fed when the elderly woman threw some food to them.

Wang Chunlan was busy at the oil lamp, packing the already dried herbs into their bamboo baskets so her mother could head out with them at dawn.

Once they were done, Song Jiaodi and Song Jiadi had already made some porridge. After the family had their meal, they once again climbed up onto the kang to sleep.

Today, Song Liangzuo and his grandmother left early, so when they arrived at the traditional Chinese medicine shop, it hadn’t opened yet. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long.

The person opening the door was the same assistant they had become familiar with: Fang Shuangjiang, who was named after the frost festival because that was when he was born.

Beaming, Song Liangzuo greeted him, “Good morning, Brother Shuangjiang.”

Seeing Liangzuo standing at the door, rosy cheeked and sweaty, Fang Shuangjiang immediately made a space for him. “Oh, it’s little Liangzuo! Come in quickly, it’s hot outside.”

Once Fang Shuangjiang had finished preparing to check the herbs in the back courtyard, Song Liangzuo asked him, “Brother Shuangjiang, have any other people come by recently to deliver ‘carpet grass’ and ‘dandelion’?”

Fang Shuangjiang chuckled, “Yes, it’s also people from your Daliushu Village. They didn’t bring much, and it felt like they were testing the waters. Most of what they brought can’t even be used for medicine because they lack experience.”

Just as Liangzuo suspected, he then followed up, asking, “Do you know approximately how much of those two herbs the shop might still be buying?”

“I can’t really say, you’d have to ask the shopkeeper about specifics,” Fang Shuangjiang replied.

“Okay, I’ll ask Grandpa Shopkeeper later.” Song Liangzuo was quite savvy for his age and had built good rapport by affectionately using terms like “brother” and “grandpa,” making his way around the medicine shop comfortably now.

From the back yard to the main hall, Liangzuo formed a rough plan in his mind. When he finally saw the shopkeeper, the man smiled and greeted him before Liangzuo could speak. “What brings you here so early today?”

Despite being just a kid, Song Liangzuo was quite composed. He immediately relayed the observations he had made in the village regarding the current demand for herbs. “Grandpa Shopkeeper, I want to know if you’ll still need a lot of those two herbal materials?”

“I was just about to talk to you about that. We will continue to buy those two herbs for now, but we probably won’t need too many in the future. After all, there are only so many people in our town who can consume that much herbal medicine. If your family has some good catch, just bring it in. However, we will need to control the quantity later.”

“Ah!”

He had been hoping that the shop would buy lots, wanting to teach the villagers how to gather the herbs, and by acting as a buyer, he could save them the hassle of making a trip to the town—after all, traveling back and forth took more than two hours. With that time, they could gather even more herbs in the village.

As for himself, he could make a decent profit as a middleman plus earn from what his family collected.

However, instead of receiving good news, he got a disappointing message.

“The medicine shop is just so big. If you still want to pursue this kind of business, it might be better to make the effort to go to the county,” the shopkeeper advised.

Song Liangzuo felt like scratching his head—he had no idea where Zhengyang County even was.

“Grandpa Shopkeeper, do you know what the prices in the county are like?”

“Oh, I can’t say for certain, but they should be higher than what we offer here. If you’re interested, I’ll be going to the county for some matters this afternoon, and I can help you inquire about it,” the shopkeeper added.

“That would be a great help, Grandpa Shopkeeper.”

Song Liangzuo had originally wanted to chat a bit more with the shopkeeper, but just then, a customer arrived, and the shopkeeper went off to attend to his work, leaving Liangzuo to excuse himself.

Since they had left early, they also returned home early, right when most families in the village were having breakfast (around 9 AM). Their kitchen was already filled with smoke.

Song Liangzuo dashed back home and saw his elder sister busy cooking. Breathing in the fragrant smoke, he entered the kitchen, “Elder sister, I’m hungry! What’s for breakfast?”

“Beans and sorghum porridge.”

After having had beans and sorghum porridge for the past six or seven days, Song Liangzuo whined playfully, scrunching his nose. “More of this again?” He had already jumped over to the jar and was lifting the lid, ready to fetch a ladle of water.

Seeing his movements, Song Jiaodi hurriedly shouted, “Go back inside to drink! The water in the teapot should be cooled now.”

Upon hearing that there was some cool water, he ran back into the house.

Just then, the elderly woman entered the yard with a bamboo basket on her back. She glanced into the kitchen and asked, “Is your mother still not back?” Without waiting for an answer, she noticed Song Jiaodi cooking, which indicated to her that Wang Chunlan hadn’t returned yet.

Walking toward the east room, she placed the one tael of silver earned from today’s herbal sale into a large clay pot buried in the corner of the kang.

Looking at the four pieces of broken silver and some small coins in the pot, she smiled, watching the corners of her eyes crinkle.

No sooner had she stepped out than she spotted her daughter-in-law, Wang Chunlan, returning from the field with a hoe on her shoulder, accompanied by Song Jiadi.

Gathered as a family, the elderly woman then revealed that the medicine shop would no longer be buying those two herbs.

In an instant, the family’s enthusiasm for herbal gathering was doused with cold water.

“Mom, are we still going to dig them this afternoon?”

“We are! We’ll dig for half the day. Chunlan, you don’t need to weed in the field this afternoon; missing out on a few hours won’t hurt the seedlings. Today, we’ll all go out to gather herbs together. Tomorrow and the day after, we’ll go to the fields, and on the day after that, Liangzuo and I will deliver the herbs and check on things in the county.”

Wang Chunlan nodded in agreement.

As Song Liangzuo stuffed his mouth with food, he couldn’t help but think about other things.

In the past ten days, they had earned over four taels of silver from selling herbs. This was nearly equivalent to his family’s annual income; while it was indeed hard-earned, the fruits of their labor were evident.

However, the few taels of silver were nowhere near enough for him to study, and he needed to find more valuable herbs. It was similar to hoping for a lottery win during the most desperate of times—the odds were slim, but it was the only chance for ordinary people to strike it rich overnight.

To get rich, he needed to venture into the mountains, but the key was that his grandma wouldn’t allow him.

At that moment, Song Liangzuo suddenly thought of Grandpa Hu and his grandson Lin Shanye. After contemplating his words for a while, he said to the elderly woman, “Grandma, after I finish eating, I want to visit Grandpa Hu.”