The Adopted Cannon Fodder Made a Comeback

’What’s this?’

Gu’er’s pupils constricted. She took a few quick steps over to the plant.

The plant wasn’t small. It had four stems, each one quite large, with green leaves on top. There were no red berries. If there had been, Gu’er would have been certain, but there weren’t.

’That makes sense,’ she thought. ’It’s not autumn yet, so of course there wouldn’t be any red berries.’

Gu’er examined it closely. ’This has to be it.’

Her heart began to pound uncontrollably.

"Brother Jia Ming, Brother Liu Yuan, come here!"

Gu’er called out to them, her voice trembling so much that it cracked.

Sun Jiaming and Liu Yuan quickly got to their feet and ran over.

"What’s wrong?"

Sun Jiaming asked urgently. He was afraid of what Gu’er might have found. She wouldn’t have called them like that otherwise. ’Did she see a snake?’

"Look."

Gu’er pointed at the plant on the ground.

"What kind of wild vegetable is this? Why is it so big? But there’s only one. We wouldn’t get much money for digging this up and selling it, right?"

Liu Yuan said, confused. He didn’t recognize the plant on the ground and assumed it was a wild vegetable.

Sun Jiaming, however, stared wide-eyed. He squatted down to get a closer look, even holding one of the leaves to examine it carefully. Then he looked at Gu’er and could see her excitement.

"Brother Jia Ming, is it?"

Hearing Liu Yuan, Gu’er knew he didn’t recognize it. But from the look on Sun Jiaming’s face, she was almost certain.

"I think this might be a bangchui."

Sun Jiaming nodded, a thrill of excitement coursing through him as well.

The "bangchui" he mentioned was what others called wild ginseng, or simply ginseng.

In the past, there was a practice in their area known as "ginseng hunting," which meant going into the mountains to forage for wild ginseng. There were rules about the number of people in a party—groups of three, six, seven, or eight were auspicious, while groups of two, four, or five were taboo. Two people made it inconvenient to act and difficult to resolve disputes. The word for "four" sounded like the word for "death," and "five" sounded like "nothing." For something like ginseng hunting, one needed good omens, so these numbers were avoided.

The leader of the party was called a "batou," who acted as the head and commander of the ginseng diggers. A batou had a wealth of experience in finding and digging ginseng, was generally older, and commanded respect among the group. Such a person would earn everyone’s admiration and support.

Before heading deep into the mountains for a hunt, one had to be fully prepared.

A lot of supplies had to be prepared because wild ginseng was usually found deep in the mountains, and there were many rituals involved in digging it up. Sun Jiaming had only heard about these from the elders; hardly anyone did this kind of work anymore.

For one, you had to go deep into the mountains to dig for ginseng. Secondly, it wasn’t something you could find just by looking; you needed luck. Now that people had land and enough to eat, many no longer ventured deep into the mountains for it. He hadn’t heard of any ginseng hunts around here in many years. That’s not to say it didn’t happen at all—ginseng hunters were more common over by Changbai Mountain.

Sun Jiaming never expected they would stumble upon a bangchui today. This was an incredibly rare opportunity. Some people went their whole lives without ever finding one. Seeing how large the leaves were, he estimated this one wasn’t just a few years old—it was likely several decades old.

Sun Jiaming couldn’t hide his excitement.

The moment Sun Jiaming said it might be a bangchui, Gu’er’s heart filled with an excitement she couldn’t contain. This was the first time in her two lifetimes that she had seen wild ginseng. In her past life, she’d seen plenty of ginseng sold in markets, but all of that was cultivated. She had never seen true wild ginseng. The only reason she recognized the leaves was that she had once seen a TV show about ginseng farming and remembered what they looked like.

The leaves of this plant looked very similar, just without the ginseng seeds. That was because it wasn’t the season for them yet.

’Wild ginseng... it became very valuable later on. Two years before I died, I heard a story about someone from a nearby village who dug up a bangchui and sold it for over a hundred thousand yuan. I remember being so envious. To think I’d stumble upon one myself today! This is a legendary tonic, one of the "Three Treasures"!’

’If I dig this up, I’ll have money! I don’t know how much wild ginseng is worth right now, but it definitely won’t be cheap. Then I won’t have to worry about money anymore. As long as I have money, I won’t have to be afraid of Zhou Mazi selling me off again. Then I can start making proper plans for myself.’

The more Gu’er thought about it, the happier she became. If Sun Jiaming and Liu Yuan weren’t there, she would have jumped for joy. But even with them present, she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face.

"This is a bangchui? No way! This is what a bangchui looks like?"

Liu Yuan was in disbelief. He circled the leaves, staring at them, finding the whole thing incredible.

"These are just the leaves. The bangchui is underground. We have to dig it out," Sun Jiaming explained to him.

"Oh, oh! Then let’s dig it up, quick!"

Liu Yuan was excited too. ’It’s my first time in the mountains, and I’ve encountered the legendary bangchui. What a blessing!’

"We didn’t come prepared for this. Should we dig?"

Sun Jiaming directed his question to Gu’er.

Only then did Gu’er remember the legends about wild ginseng. They said you had to tie a red string to the plant before digging, or else it would use an "earth escape" and run away.

Gu’er didn’t know the other rituals very well, but she remembered this one.

’A red string?’

’I don’t have one.’

’What should we do? Not dig it up?’

’How could I bear to leave it? This is a bangchui!’

Although Gu’er had lived many years in her past life and didn’t believe in superstitions, tying a red string was a tradition for digging ginseng. And considering her own rebirth, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of reverence.

Sun Jiaming also knew about this, which was why he didn’t start digging immediately.

"Why aren’t we digging? Brother Jia Ming, didn’t you bring a spade?"

Liu Yuan was confused. ’Isn’t a bangchui supposed to be a good thing? The other two look so happy, so why aren’t they doing anything?’

Sun Jiaming glanced at the spade he’d brought. It was the one he’d used earlier to cut chives.

"You have to tie a red string on a bangchui before you dig, or it’ll escape into the earth and run away," Gu’er explained. Even if she wasn’t a firm believer, it was a tradition passed down through generations, and she didn’t want to break it.

"Then what do we do? We don’t have a red string. Do we not dig? How about we mark the spot and come back tomorrow with a red string?"

Liu Yuan had never encountered a situation like this.

Gu’er and Sun Jiaming glanced at each other. Coming back tomorrow was definitely not an option. They were quite deep in the mountains. Danger aside, they might not even be able to find this spot again. It would be a huge loss if they couldn’t. They couldn’t let something they already had in their grasp get away.

They had to dig. They had to dig today.

"Wait, I have a piece of red cloth. Let me see if I can make a string out of it."

As if suddenly remembering something, Gu’er turned her back and pulled a piece of red cloth from inside her clothes.

She had been using this red cloth as a handkerchief. She didn’t own a proper one, so she used various scraps of fabric instead. She had already washed the last two pieces. This one, which happened to be red, she had salvaged from an old piece of clothing Zhou Duo’er no longer wore. ’I remember disliking it at the time,’ she thought, ’but I never expected it to come in handy now.’

"That’ll work."

Sun Jiaming nodded after seeing it. He then used the spade to make a small cut in the red cloth, and with a pull of his hands, he tore off a strip.