Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

A short while later, Deng Xiangrong came out of the cafeteria.

"Brother Zhou, what brings you here so soon? It'll be dark soon." Deng Xiangrong knew about the relationship between Zhou Rui and Zhang Zhenbei, so he was naturally very welcoming to him.

"We hunted a few sika deer near the forest farm, and here we are, back in Brother Wang's car. We'll treat the comrades to a nice meal tonight."

"Oh. A few people, hurry up and weigh it, or the finance department will be leaving soon." Deng Xiangrong was so concerned about Zhou Rui's matter, partly because of Zhang Zhenbei, and partly because Zhou Rui had deliberately tried to befriend him.

"Hey, don't weigh them all. Save the biggest one for me. My uncle's family is having a banquet the day after tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll do as Brother Zhou says."

Zhou Rui pulled Deng Xiangrong aside and handed him a military water bottle.

"What is this?"

Zhou Rui raised his chin, gesturing to the sika deer that was being weighed. "It's heart's blood, just collected a few hours ago. You can handle it yourself."

Deng Xiangrong quickly took it and held it in his arms, as if afraid someone would snatch it away.

"You really understand me, bro, hehe..."

A short while later, Deng Xiangrong returned the kettle, along with the weighed receipt. The venison, 1124 jin, was priced at two yuan per jin, totaling two thousand two hundred and forty-eight yuan. This was higher than the previous price per jin.

Zhou Rui took the order, said goodbye to Deng Xiangrong, and left immediately.

"Ruiwa, why did you give him that pot of your heart's blood? I was planning to take it back and make wine with it."

"Don't even mention it. Look at this." Zhou Rui handed over the receipt issued by Deng Xiangrong: "A pot of blood was exchanged for venison, which increased the price by two cents. What good was it to you?"

"Gah... this deer blood is so expensive. More than two hundred yuan more?" Gu Shaofeng counted on his fingers.

"Here you go. You take the ginseng and go find Director Zhang first. I'll go settle the accounts with the finance department. Otherwise, I'm afraid Director Zhang will be off work by then." Zhou Rui said, handing his bag containing wild ginseng to Gu Shaofeng, and then the two went their separate ways.

After Zhou Rui finished paying the bill and rode his bike to Zhang Zhenbei's office, there wasn't a sound coming from inside. Gu Shaofeng's car and dog were outside, but where was he?

Zhou Rui knocked on the door, then heard a series of rapid footsteps. The door opened, and Zhang Zhenbei peeked out, glanced around, and then pulled Zhou Rui inside.

"Uncle Zhang, what are you doing?"

Zhang Zhenbei was a little excited, and even the water glass he handed over trembled slightly.

"You little rascal, you brought such good stuff over, I have to be careful." Even though there were only three people in the room, Zhang Zhenbei still deliberately lowered his voice.

Zhang Zhenbei was nervous. If others found out he had wild ginseng, he might not be able to keep it. This was a valuable resource for his advancement, and he couldn't let others covet it.

"Where did they come from? Did you collect them or carry them yourself?" Zhang Zhenbei asked, lifting the newspaper and pointing to the three opened packages.

"An aunt in my village was getting married and asked me to go up the mountain to get some meat. My senior brother Gu and I were chasing a herd of deer when we saw this thing, and we dug it out last night."

Zhang Zhenbei looked at the mud on Zhou Rui and the other man's coats and nodded. It was from rubbing against the ground while carrying the ginseng.

"What are you digging for? Digging ginseng requires carrying it." Zhang Zhenbei scolded Zhou Rui.

"We're not ginsengers, we don't know anything about those things."

Looking at Zhou Rui's innocent expression, Zhang Zhenbei couldn't help but sigh that the kid was really lucky.

"How much are you two prepared to give?" Zhang Zhenbei asked impatiently. It was disheartening that such a good thing didn't belong to him yet.

"I have no idea."

"Huh?" Zhang Zhenbei looked up at Zhou Rui, wondering what he meant.

"I really don't know. This is the first time I've ever lifted a bunch of clubs. I don't even know how old these clubs are."

Looking into Zhou Rui's innocent, large eyes, Zhang Zhenbei finally realized that Zhou Rui truly didn't know. What was this? Was it a case of fools having good fortune?

"Come on, sit down, let me tell you about it." Zhang Zhenbei had been searching for old wild ginseng, so he had done some research on wild ginseng and even consulted with an old Chinese medicine doctor.

"The smallest wild ginseng is one to five years old, called 'three-flower' because it has a compound leaf with three leaves growing from the stem end. This kind of ginseng is not valuable, only a few dollars."

Then, from the fifth to the tenth year, the ginseng will grow complete compound leaves, that is, five leaves, hence the name "palm-sized ginseng." Zhang Zhenbei held up one palm to demonstrate.

"After another ten to twenty years, the ginseng will grow two compound leaves, which the mountain people call 'two Jiazi'. After that, after thirty to fifty years, the stem will grow three compound leaves, left, middle and right, which is called 'lampstand'."

"The ginseng matures at this time of year and flowers and bears fruit every year. If the ginseng you see has seeds, then it is at least thirty years old."

Gu Shaofeng and Zhou Rui exchanged a glance. They realized that all the wild ginseng had seeds, meaning they were at least thirty years old.

"Then let's talk about the rest. Fifty to eighty years old will grow four compound leaves, which are called four-leaf leaves. Eighty to one hundred years old will have five-leaf leaves, and those over one hundred years old will have six-leaf leaves. They are all named according to the number of compound leaves."

"Uncle Zhang, but all the leaves have fallen by now, how can we know exactly what grade of leaf it is?" Zhou Rui asked.

"We'll talk about that later." Zhang Zhenbei took a sip of hot water.

"After a hundred years, wild ginseng will be scarce. Some people say they have seen grade seven ginseng, but these are just legends. However, that is irrelevant. After all, wild ginseng that has been around for a hundred years is already rare, and the quality of the leaves is no longer a reliable indicator."

"There's a saying about century-old ginseng: seven ounces is considered ginseng, and eight ounces is considered treasure. So wild ginseng is divided into two grades: less than half a pound is ordinary ginseng, and more than half a pound is treasure ginseng. It's the kind of ginseng that can bring the dead back to life and heal bones, as described in novels."

"If it weighs more than half a pound, it can basically be passed down as a family heirloom."

Zhou Rui didn't have any particular feeling about this. He had weighed them in his hands and realized that none of the three clubs could possibly weigh more than half a jin of ginseng.

"Uncle Zhang, you still haven't explained how to tell someone's age without leaves."

"You're just too impatient," Zhang Zhenbei chuckled.

"You could have determined the approximate age of the ginseng by lifting the ginseng club. At this stage, although the leaves have fallen, the stem will still bear the node scars on the petioles. Doesn't that tell you what grade of leaf it once was?"

Zhou Rui then realized that the place where the compound leaves grow from the stem should be a sunken node, not a smooth one, so this could be used to determine the grade of ginseng leaves.

"So what do we do now? I've already cut the pole."

"It's alright, that was just a rough estimate."

Zhang Zhenbei picked up one of the ginseng roots and pointed to the part where the stem connects to the root.

"Look at this, it will form a round reed after eight years or more. Then every year the stem will wither, leaving a bowl-shaped mark. You can count how many bowls there are and add eight years to know how many years it has been."

"So that's how it is," Zhou Rui and Gu Shaofeng suddenly realized.

So the three of them carefully counted the "bowls" on the ginseng by the light bulb on the roof. After counting, they found one ginseng that was 86 years old and two others that were over 40 years old.

"I thought there was a club that was over a hundred years old," Gu Shaofeng sighed.

"Come on, you've really hit the jackpot. We didn't know anything and still managed to buy three old ginseng roots. Other ginseng sellers might not be as lucky as us even after half a year."

Zhang Zhenbei watched the two of them smiling, and his admiration for Zhou Rui grew even stronger. He was content, not greedy, and not easily swayed by money.