Chapter 31: Collecting Herbs

As the old woman asked, “What is it?” she had already begun to lift the pillow cover.

Once the cover was removed, a large silver ingot glittering in the dim light of the oil lamp appeared before everyone’s eyes.

The old woman gasped, clutching her mouth with one hand and pointing at the silver ingot with the other, she inquired, “Wh-where did this come from?”

“Silver? That’s such a large ingot!” Song Pandai exclaimed, her eyes wide with excitement as she had never seen such a big piece of silver before.

“This is also my first time seeing such a large ingot; it looks beautiful!” Song Zhaodi echoed, staring greedily at the silver.

Without allowing his mother to explain, Song Liangzuo rushed over to his grandmother, hugging her leg and beaming up at her as he recounted his accomplishments of the day.

However, his version was greatly simplified; he only mentioned that he had helped a doctor at the clinic in the county and that the shopkeeper had gifted him ten taels of silver in appreciation.

Hearing this, the old woman joyfully scooped up her grandson, exclaiming, “My clever grandson! With this money, I’ll send you to school. In a few days, we’ll go to the town to check out the school!”

Song Liangzuo had initially thought that ten taels would not last long for schooling, but then he considered that he could find ways to earn more money later. He nodded repeatedly.

With the sudden arrival of ten taels in their household, the happiest person was undoubtedly the old woman. As mealtime approached, she waved her hand at Wang Chunlan and instructed, “Go on, stir-fry the meat and vegetables together. Make sure to add more veggies; the meat has quite a bit of salt. Today, because of Liangzuo’s good fortune, we’re having meat!”

Despite leading a simple life, the family of five was quite cheerful.

The next day, many households close to Song Liangzuo’s received word from Liu Xiping, shouting about collecting plantain and dandelion.

Anyone with children or adults interested in digging up these herbs could come to their home to learn; he said his clever grandson would teach everyone how to dig.

If done well, they could earn two coins for every five pieces.

In the village, there were always plenty of children around.

Not long ago, these kids might have been dragged along by their families to pick leftover grain or rice, but the late-season rice planting was almost at its end.

With fewer restrictions on these children, word about the money to be made from digging herbs spread quickly.

Soon, both adults and children were heading toward the home of Song Wangshan.

Since Song Liangzuo wanted to involve the villagers, he decided not to go to the fields that day and instead stayed home to wait for visitors.

Whenever someone arrived, he provided them with examples of what they should dig, safety precautions, and tips on the proper sizes of the herbs.

Within a day, the villagers all knew that the Song family was collecting dandelions and plantain, and those who had missed out earlier came by in the evening, curious to find out if the rumors were true.

Some even brought half a basket of herbs they had dug, eagerly asking if they were good enough.

As everyone watched, they could see little children carefully observing their returned herbs while Song Liangzuo separated them, saying, “Grandma, these here are good; the rest aren’t acceptable.”

“Ah? These are no good. I thought they looked fine!” The adult who had brought the herbs squatted down, trying to defend her herbs as she hoped to have them all accepted.

“Grandma, some of these are broken at the roots; others are damaged. Look at these—some have lost all their leaves. It seems you were too careless while digging,” Song Liangzuo said with a bright and cheerful smile, explaining patiently.

“I mean, they’re all pretty similar. If you really won’t take them, why don’t you let the shop check them out? Even if they’re broken, they’re still herbs. Besides, if they’re just broken, they can still be boiled together,” the woman said, reluctantly picking two mangled herbs from the rejected pile.

With a firm tug, she twisted off the bad leaves from one and cut off the roots from another and, in front of Song Liangzuo, attempted to make a “matching set.”

Watching the woman’s antics, Song Liangzuo felt a twitch at the corner of his mouth but restrained his temper, asking, “Grandma, do you prefer white rice or broken rice?”

White rice is the whole grains, while broken rice consists of fragments that result from processing.

Essentially, they are the same grain, but when cooked, broken rice is less appetizing.

“Who wouldn’t prefer white rice?” the old woman replied.

“Exactly! You understand that white rice is preferable over broken rice— how much more so for herbs? If someone in the family is ill and has spent silver, would anyone choose inferior herbs for them?”

“Of course, Aunt Chen, you aren’t trying to sell bad herbs, are you? We farmers can’t make money by selling poor quality,” laughed a neighbor who had come to visit.

“Oh, I was just hoping to earn a little extra,” she replied, a little sheepishly, trying to brush off the remark.

She then grinned mischievously while looking at Song Liangzuo, “Given that you’ve already sorted out the good ones, why not take the bad ones now? It saves me the trouble of having to dry them. Besides, I wouldn’t want to ruin a few trying to dry them myself.”

After some thought, Song Liangzuo figured he would be collecting and drying herbs at home in the future and wouldn’t be going out again, so he nodded in agreement.

“There are a total of forty-eight good ones here. Technically, that should be worth nineteen wen and two li. Since none of us have the extra li, I’ll give you twenty wens for the ones that aren’t usable,” Song Liangzuo stated, pointing to the improper herbs the old woman had packed into her basket.

In an alternate situation, a self-aware person would not have brought this up and would simply accept the twenty wens happily. But the old woman had just tried to pass off inferior herbs by ‘gluing’ them together; her cunning calculation mercilessly stepped on his toes, and he didn’t want her to take advantage.

Without further ado, the old woman pulled out the herbs she had just put in and grinningly said, “These aren’t good stuff anyway; I’ll just give them to you.”

Song Liangzuo didn’t refuse and turned to call out to his grandmother, “Grandma, can you give her twenty wens?”

Before long, Liu Xiping returned with twenty copper coins and handed them to the visitor.

Now, seeing that it was possible to actually sell herbs, the visiting neighbors, who initially came just to inquire, rushed to finish their meals, asking Song Liangzuo a number of important questions and, with empty bowls, hurried back home.