After the family split up, my stepmother and scumbag father begged me to come home.

The group walked quickly toward the town.

They arrived at Tianxiang Restaurant with practiced ease. The waiter, seeing their presence, greeted them with a smile, "Go straight to the back courtyard and find the manager! It's crowded today, so I won't serve you."

"It's alright, I know the ropes. You go ahead and do your work, little brother!" Lin Qianqian nodded and smiled.

The group walked through the corridor into the backyard, and Manager Su, having received the news, also lifted the curtain and came out.

"Manager Su, today's dishes are wild vegetables and rabbit. However, we're only selling one rabbit. Could you please use this space for a moment? We'd appreciate it if you could help us process the rabbit skin?" Lin Qianqian said politely.

Manager Su waved his hand, "No problem." He glanced at the wild vegetables in the basket and smiled, "Then weigh the wild vegetables first. Your wild vegetables taste good and are very juicy. My restaurant has had quite a few more customers these past few days."

"Congratulations, Manager Su!" Lin Qianqian replied with a smile.

Lin Yulong squatted to the side and deftly processed the rabbit. He first made a small incision at the hind leg joint, then inserted his finger and gently pried it apart from the flesh. He then pulled it down, and the entire rabbit skin rolled off like taking off clothes. In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a complete skin was peeled off, with even the base of the ears and the area around the eyes completely unharmed.

Shopkeeper Su glanced at it and praised, "Excellent craftsmanship. You're so young, yet you can do this. The leather is intact; it can fetch a good price."

"Sixty catties of wild vegetables, still the same price, one hundred and eighty coins in total." Manager Su weighed the vegetables and then said, "One rabbit plus three rabbit skins, one hundred and ten coins for you. Two hundred and ninety coins in total."

Lin Qianqian took the money, put the skinned rabbit into her basket, said goodbye to Manager Su, and left Tianxiang Restaurant.

Once they were on the street, Lin Yulong couldn't help but lean in and ask, "Sis, where are we going next?"

"Go to the pharmacy and check the price of ginseng," Lin Qianqian said in a low voice.

Ding Xiaohu chimed in from the side: "I heard that the Jishetang in town is quite good. The manager is kind and compassionate, unlike some shops that look down on the poor."

"Okay, let's go to Jishetang then," Lin Qianqian decided.

Having inquired about the location, the three carried baskets on their backs and made their way there. Upon entering, they were not given any disdain because of their attire.

When the waiter saw that they wanted to sell medicinal herbs, he turned around and went inside to ask the shopkeeper to come out.

The shopkeeper was a thin old man with gentle eyes. He looked them up and down and asked with a smile, "So you're the ones who want to sell medicinal herbs? What kind of herbs are you looking to sell?"

"Shopkeeper, could you please help me check how much this ginseng is worth?" Lin Qianqian said, taking out the two smaller ones that Ding Xiaohu and Lin Yulong had dug up from her basket—she planned to find out the price of the larger one first.

The shopkeeper took them and examined them closely in the light. He first looked at the root tip, then counted the veins, gently rubbing the ginseng whiskers with his thumb, and nodded: "Both of these are from forest-grown ginseng, the root tips are tight, and the veins are dense—this one has seven or eight veins, it's been growing for six or seven years; this one is slightly larger, with about ten veins, it must be about ten years old. However, the quality is a bit inferior. How about I offer twelve taels for both?"

Lin Qianqian nodded inwardly. The price was fair for the town, so she replied, "Okay."

The shopkeeper took out twelve taels of silver and handed it over, which Lin Qianqian accepted.

"Shopkeeper, could you take another look at this one?" Lin Qianqian then took out the largest one and handed it over with both hands.

The shopkeeper's expression changed immediately upon receiving the ginseng. He first brought it close to his nose and sniffed it, then examined the horizontal lines on the ginseng body closely against the light—the lines were fine and deep, extending in circles from the rhizome downwards, almost covering the entire main root.

His tone became much more serious: "This is a fine piece of ginseng. The rhizome is tightly packed, with three sections—round rhizome, piled-flower rhizome, and horse-tooth rhizome—all present, and there are forty or fifty rhizome bowls alone. The horizontal lines on the ginseng body are deep and dense, and the iron-wire lines extend all the way to the ginseng leg, a characteristic of ginseng that is decades old. The rootlets are sparse yet resilient, and the pearl spots are also obvious. In my opinion, this ginseng is at least forty or fifty years old, and of superior quality."

He paused, glanced at Lin Qianqian, and said, "Girl, the price in town is relatively lower than in the prefectural city. I can offer eighty taels for this one."

Lin Qianqian's heart skipped a beat, but she didn't show it on her face and simply said, "Deal."

The shopkeeper brought out another eighty taels. Lin Qianqian took it and counted out fifty taels: "Shopkeeper, please exchange these fifty taels for silver notes."

The shopkeeper nodded in agreement, turned around and went inside to get a fifty-tael silver note, which he then handed to her.

Lin Qianqian took the silver note and carefully put it away. She then took her leave with the two of them.

The shopkeeper stood at the door, watching the three children's backs as he stroked his beard thoughtfully.

He looked down at it—firm, oily and shiny, with a faint, bitter medicinal fragrance. It was clearly ginseng freshly unearthed that day, the moisture still lingering. The three children, who knows which mountain they dug it up from, had such good fortune.