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

Tiger returned home with his ginseng. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Uncle Ding sitting in the yard weaving a basket. The bamboo strips were turning and twisting between his rough fingers, making a soft rustling sound.

"Didn't you just say you'd go into the mountains and find more before coming back? You're back so early?" Uncle Ding didn't even look up, his hands still busy with their work, but his tone carried a hint of concern.

"We were going to take advantage of the good sunshine to touch more things, but Sister Qianqian couldn't walk anymore and rested for a while. That's when we found this." Tiger said, his hand just reaching into his clothes, only revealing a corner, when Uncle Ding's eyes narrowed and he got up and pulled him into the house.

"Where did this ginseng come from?" Uncle Ding asked in a low voice, almost inaudible, but his eyes were fixed on the ginseng in Hu Zi's arms.

"I dug it up from the mountain." Tiger then took the whole ginseng out of his pocket and carefully placed it on the table.

Aunt Ding heard the noise and came out of the inner room. She saw the thing on the table at a glance. The word "ginseng" had just come out of her mouth when she quickly covered her mouth with her hand and her eyes widened.

The rest of the Ding family also gathered around upon hearing the commotion, one after another crowding around the table with their mouths agape, but none of them uttered a sound, as if afraid of startling the ginseng.

"My God... this is ginseng? Tiger, did you dig this up?" Chunfen's voice trembled as she heard someone dig up ginseng for the first time.

Tiger nodded, his face beaming with undisguised pride: "I dug it up with Sister Qianqian. Sister Qianqian found it first. She said there was one plant, and there might be a second one next to it, and then I found it."

"Where did you dig this up? Are there any more?" Ding Dahu rubbed his hands together, unable to suppress the joy in his eyes, and his voice unconsciously rose.

"You think that's digging for wild vegetables? They're everywhere. Even if you asked, you wouldn't dare go. They've gone deep into the mountains." Uncle Ding glared at him, his tone heavy.

"What?! Deep in the mountains?" Ding Dahu gasped. "You two, a little girl and a kid, went into the deep mountains? You're really brave! Aren't you afraid of being eaten by monsters?!"

"That's all just scaremongering. We've been there many times, there are no monsters at all," Tiger said arrogantly, sticking out his neck.

"Are there many ginseng plants in the deep mountains?" Ding Erhu couldn't help but ask, his voice filled with longing.

"I don't know how much or how little, but Qianqian and I have dug twice already," Hu Zi said casually.

Aunt Ding remained silent, her gaze sweeping over the ginseng several times before she suddenly looked up, her expression solemn: "Listen, no one is allowed to tell anyone. We can't say that Hu Zi dug up a ginseng."

Everyone nodded, their expressions increasingly serious. They all knew how many eyes a ginseng could attract and how much trouble it could cause these days.

"Tiger, this must be quite old, right?" Chunfen leaned closer to take a look and found that the ginseng roots were even finer than her own hair.

"Sister Qianqian said it could take twenty or thirty years," Tiger said after thinking for a moment.

"Twenty or thirty years..." Aunt Ding murmured, rubbing her fingertips on her apron. "That would have made a lot of money."

"I'll take it to town tomorrow and see how much silver I can get for it," Uncle Ding said, reaching out to gently touch the ginseng's roots before pulling his hand back as if afraid of damaging it.

"What I dug is nothing! Do you know how big Sister Qianqian dug?" Tiger suddenly raised his voice, gesturing with both hands, "It's this thick, it's a hundred years old!"

There was a moment of silence in the room, and then everyone's mouths gaped open even wider.

"What? A hundred-year-old ginseng?" Aunt Ding slapped her thigh. "I told you that girl was lucky! She just happened to find a hundred-year-old ginseng while taking a break, my goodness!"

"My sister looks like a lucky person." Tiger puffed out his chest, extremely proud.

"Now, those two sisters have finally found happiness after all their hardships." As Aunt Ding spoke, her eyes reddened slightly, as if she were happy for the two sisters, or as if she were recalling some old story.

"Sister Qianqian gave the ginseng to Doctor Zhou." Hu Zi's words were like pouring water into a hot oil pan, stunning the Ding family once again.

"What?! A century-old ginseng, just given to Doctor Zhou like that?" Aunt Ding slapped her thigh, her voice shrill. "How much silver is that worth?!"

"That girl must be grateful to Doctor Zhou for teaching her medicine." Uncle Ding sighed, but his tone was full of praise. "If anyone is ten times kind to that girl, she'll repay them a hundred times over."

"That's true, she takes after her mother, she's kind-hearted." Aunt Ding nodded, her expression softening.