Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

Nanshan is very large. That day, they walked all morning but didn't even reach the halfway point. They just circled around a little above the foot of the mountain. Jiang Xing walked faster today than last time and continued up the ridgeline. The path became steeper and the forest became denser.

The branches of the bushes stretched out from both sides, and people had to squeeze through the gaps sideways to walk past.

But it must be said that Nanshan is truly fertile.

Along the way, Dr. Gu's eyes never stopped. He squatted down after walking a few steps and dug out several excellent-quality Poria cocos from next to the roots of a fallen, withered tree.

After walking a few more steps, he found a piece of gastrodia elata in a shady crevice of a rock. The root was thick and strong, and his fingers were shaking when he dug it out.

Further on, on the gravelly slope beside the stream, there were patches of epimedium and dendrobium. He squatted there and dug for a while, and the medicinal herbs in his basket had already piled up into a small mountain.

"This mountain...this mountain..." He squatted on the ground, carefully digging away the pebbles around the dendrobium roots with a small hoe, muttering to himself, his voice carrying a complex emotion that was hard to describe as either joy or regret: "I've practiced medicine in Yongzhou for thirty years, and I've never seen such a fertile mountain, with such dense medicinal herbs, before. These dendrobiums are worth at least two taels of silver each in a pharmacy. What a loss, a huge loss."

He looked up, his eyes narrowed into slits with a smile, his white beard covered in dirt, making him look like an old child who had found a treasure. Then he saw Jiang Xing.

Jiang Xing squatted not far from him, his face cold and unsmiling, his expressionless face and his brows slightly furrowed.

Dr. Gu's smile froze on his face. He coughed lightly and awkwardly wiped the mud off his beard with his sleeve.

He came to help someone find medicine, and now his basket is full of herbs. Jiang Xing, on the other hand, has been searching for the herbs—including *Tougu Cao*, *Niuxi*, and *Honghua*—all morning but hasn't found a single one.

It was indeed a bit unreasonable for him to be smiling so happily. At least in his eyes, Jiang Xing's expressionless face looked like he was disappointed, and he couldn't show too much joy.

He touched his little mustache sheepishly, moved the basket behind him, leaned closer and whispered, "Miss Jiang, don't worry, Nanshan is so big, we'll keep going this afternoon, we'll find it eventually."

On the hillside not far away, the villagers who had followed them up the mountain had split into two or three groups, each squatting on the ground digging something.

Those who had tasted the benefits before knew where to look: where there was thick humus, there were fern roots; under pine trees, there was Smilax glabra; and in shady rock crevices, there was Polygonatum sibiricum.

Their harvest was no less than that of Dr. Gu. Two women were the luckiest; they found a jujube tree at a bend in the mountain gully. The jujubes were scattered all over the ground, the base of the tree was rotten, and many more were still hanging on the branches.

They tried every means to knock them down with long branches, shake them by hand, and climb up by stepping on each other's shoulders. After much difficulty, they picked dozens of bunches of them, which looked like a bunch of crumpled little bells in their clothes.

At noon, everyone gathered by the stream to rest. The snake meat they had eaten last time was found by this very stream, and everyone remembered how lively it was back then. But the atmosphere had been noticeably more subdued these past two days.

No one spoke; everyone was eating the dry rations they had brought. Those without rations sat by the stream, drinking cool water, and then squatted down to dig for wild vegetables.

Dr. Gu sat on a rock and took out his findings one by one to organize them.

Poria cocos, Gastrodia elata, Epimedium, and Dendrobium nobile were neatly arranged on an oilcloth, each plant in perfect condition.

After he finished tidying up, he couldn't help but laugh again. He quickly stopped laughing and looked up at Jiang Xing.

Jiang Xing sat on a rock by the stream, took a sip of water from a bamboo tube, and his face remained expressionless.

She wasn't actually feeling down. She was thinking that she recognized all those herbs. Herba Clematis chinensis liked to grow on sunny, rocky slopes, Achyranthes bidentata mostly grew in mountain gullies and streams, and Carthamus tinctorius was even more common, growing everywhere on sunny hillsides.

Unfortunately, I didn't encounter a single one of these most common medicinal plants all morning.

This isn't a matter of luck; it's just that these kinds of plants might not grow in this area to begin with.

If she still can't find it today, she'll have to find an excuse to shake off this group and then check the shop panel to see if there are any seeds or finished medicines for these herbs.

But she had already checked yesterday and found that the store had anti-inflammatory drugs, hemostatic powder, and suture needles, but no topical ointment specifically for reducing joint swelling.

If she had the medicine, she wouldn't need to go up the mountain. So she has to find it today, even if it means going deep into the mountains, she has to gather the medicine before dark.

As she was making her plans, a low rumble of thunder came from behind her. It wasn't the kind of thunder that explodes, but a muffled rumble that rolled in from deep within the clouds, like something heavy was crushing across the sky.

Everyone looked up at the sky. The clouds were thicker than in the morning, piling up darkly on the peak of Nanshan Mountain. The wind had picked up, flattening the withered grass by the stream.

"It's going to rain." Doctor Gu stood up, stuffed all the medicinal herbs into his basket, and looked up at the sky: "This rain is going to be heavy."

The villagers also began to pack up their things. Some people put the fern and kudzu roots they had dug up in their clothes, while others tied the bunches of jujubes with straw ropes and hung them on their carrying poles. Their faces all showed a sense of relief that "today's trip was not in vain."

Their harvest was enough to last another day or two, enough for the children to have one more decent meal.

"Miss Jiang, it's raining, let's go back," Li Shitou called out to her.

Jiang Xing stood up, stuffed the bamboo tube back into the basket, and said, "You guys go back first, I still need to go further in."

Li Shitou was stunned for a moment, and was about to say something when Doctor Gu had already picked up his medicine box and stood next to Jiang Xing: "I'll go with you. We haven't found those few herbs yet. I said I'd help you find them, so we can't give up halfway."

Jiang Xing glanced at him. The old doctor's face was still covered in mud, and his white beard was messed up by the wind, but his eyes were very serious.

She paused for a moment, but ultimately did not refuse. When this person got stubborn, he was a bit like her grandmother.

The raindrops began to fall, starting with a few scattered drops that pattered on the withered leaves, then gradually grew denser, turning into a fine curtain of rain in less than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

The villagers shielded their heads with their hands and ran in twos and threes towards the cave. Li Shitou ran a few steps and then looked back, only to see that Jiang Xing and Doctor Gu had already disappeared into the depths of the dense forest, swallowed up by the rain and the shadows of the trees.