Those who have never gone into the mountains to search for ginseng cannot imagine how difficult it is.

The mountains are covered with vegetation, rising and falling in undulating waves; especially now that the flowering season has passed, the landscape appears as a vast expanse of lush greenery.

And since ginseng leaves look no different from the rest, it’s easy to miss them if you’re not paying close attention.

However, the methods passed down through generations of mountain guides still proved effective. Yan Qi had Huo Ling on his left and Xiao Mingming on his right, each positioned two staff lengths away. He had thought he might lose focus, but following Huo Ling’s advice—keeping his eyes fixed on the tips of the staffs—he was actually able to concentrate fully, scanning the ground inch by inch.

At this moment, aside from Huo Feng and Huo Ling, the other three kept the appearance of the ginseng leaves firmly in mind, walking rather slowly for fear of missing them. Huo Ling and Huo Feng moved a bit faster, but it was clear they were also deliberately slowing their pace.

After all, when traveling in the mountains, being too far apart meant danger.

To prevent Dager and Huang Yae from running around and obstructing their view, the two dogs walked on either side, each standing at the very edge of their group—one following Huo Feng, the other following Huo Ling.

Since they were both male dogs, every so often they would lift their legs to urinate at the base of a tree; this served both as a territorial mark and to ward off any wild beasts that might approach.

“Clink, clink.”

Unlike the mountain treks of the past few days, everyone was unusually quiet today; the only sound in the mountain breeze was the clinking of copper coins.

Even so, no one felt bored.

After all, even the most worthless ginseng could fetch over a dozen taels of silver. For a family of three living frugally, that was enough to last a whole year.

It was as if someone had scattered a handful of silver coins on the mountain, inviting you to pick them up—with the promise that whatever you found was yours. Anyone in that situation would likely settle down and search patiently.

After walking for nearly an hour with no results—not even a trace of ginseng—they rounded a hillside to find a mountain stream with a small waterfall leaping before their eyes. Huo Ling pointed to a flat spot by the water.

“Let’s rest here for a bit and fetch some water.”

There were always protruding rocks on the hillside; a quick sweep made for a seat.

The three men took their water bags to fill them up, washing their faces while they were at it. Then Yan Qi and Xiao Mingming went to wash up as well.

After Dager, Huang Yae, and the others had finished using the water, they gathered around, found a spot to stand, and dipped their drinking straws into the water to lap it up in big gulps.

The rest of the day followed the same routine: Huo Ling would pinpoint the direction, and the five of them would comb the mountain together, searching for traces of wild ginseng among the clinking copper coins.

However, by the afternoon, with just one hour left before nightfall, they still had nothing to show for their efforts.

It seemed the ginseng they’d spotted earlier was indeed gone—either trampled by wild beasts or dug up and gnawed on.

“Let’s head back. It’ll be too dark to see the mountain path later. We’ll come back tomorrow.”

Huo Ling took it in stride; finding wild ginseng was a matter of luck to begin with. There were plenty of people who went into the mountains day after day, yet came away empty-handed even after the entire ginseng season had passed.

Since this was a rare occurrence to begin with, no one was particularly disheartened. On the way down the mountain, they climbed a tree to pick a pair of lion’s mane mushrooms, gathered some wood ear mushrooms from a fallen tree, and pulled up two handfuls of kidney grass.

When they got home that evening, they pulled a fishing net out of the mountain stream in front of the house. Inside was a rather large fish thrashing about with great strength; Huo Ling thought that if they’d arrived just a little later, it probably would have broken through the net and escaped.

“This fish must be a carnivore to have grown this big.”

Yan Qi crouched down to examine the fish tangled in the net. He held out his open palm for comparison—it was at least three palms long.

“It’s a fine-scaled fish. It eats anything—insects, larvae, and fish smaller than itself. It’ll swallow anything it can get its mouth around.”

The fine-scaled fish was a rare large species in mountain streams; other fish rarely grew beyond three or four inches, unlike this one—catching just one was enough to feed several people for a meal.

Huo Ling threaded some water plants through the fish’s mouth and let the two gers feel its body. The reason it’s called “Fine-scaled” is that its scales are very fine, but they aren’t fine enough to eat without scaling.

Because the scales are so small, scaling them is quite a hassle. The locals here are accustomed to dabbing a bit of vinegar on them, waiting a while, and then scaling them—the scales soften, making it easier to avoid damaging the flesh.

“It’s been ages since I’ve had a taste of this.”

Seeing the fine-scaled fish in the net, Huo Feng was delighted and said, “We’ll have this for dinner tonight.”

Huo Ling thought for a moment and suggested, “Let’s just grill them. We’ll build a fire in the courtyard—it’ll be more fun that way.”

“Grilled fish sounds good.”

Huo Feng called out to Lin Changshui, “You and I will go find some branches, whittle them down, and build a grill.”

There were also some small, miscellaneous fish in the net. Huo Ling picked out the ones with fewer bones, planning to steam them and mix them with some cornmeal to feed the dogs later, while tossing the bony ones back into the water.

They wouldn’t taste good anyway, so it’s better to give them a chance to live.

Yan Qi paused by the stream, peered ahead, and asked, “Shouldn’t we catch some crayfish before we head down the mountain?”

Huo Ling nodded. “We’ll catch them later. If you want some now, it wouldn’t be hard to catch a batch.”

Crayfish are only found in very clear water—much like the fine-scaled fish—and the clearer the water, the more tender the meat. When you crack them open, they’re clean from head to tail, and a quick boil in plain water brings out their freshness.

If you’re willing to put in the effort, you can make crayfish and tofu—a dish every household beyond the Pass knows how to prepare.

Since it was his wife who brought it up, Huo Feng had already been thinking about catching crayfish; even if everyone else forgot, he certainly wouldn’t.

With no one else around, Yan Qi smiled at her words and said, “We’ll talk about it later. We’re all tired today. Anyway, we’re always in the mountains—we can catch whatever we want whenever we want.”

They scaled the fish, slit open the belly, and removed the innards. After rubbing salt inside and out, sprinkling a little wine along with scallions and ginger, and drizzling soy sauce over it to marinate for a while, Huo Ling took it out to the courtyard to grill.

Lin Changshui handed over the branches they had whittled; they were long enough to be threaded through the fish’s mouth, with the other end poking out of its tail. The sections protruding at both ends fit perfectly onto the makeshift grill.

There were plenty of mosquitoes in the mountains, but the smoke near the fire drove them away. They also tossed a few chunks of aged beef liver into the flames.

The rest of the group was equally enthusiastic, each holding a skewer of raw meat and roasting it above the flames.

Since they’d already built the grill, they didn’t plan to stop at just fish. They went out for another round, used a slingshot to take down two wild rabbits, skinned them, cut them into chunks, and skewered them for roasting.

Since the branches they used were fairly thick and the meat chunks were cut rather large, about two skewers per person was plenty, and there were also whole rabbit legs, which were grilled separately as a bonus.

Worried that meat alone wouldn’t be filling enough, there was also a mushroom and egg soup in the pot, and they’d made a few corn cakes.

Huo Ling turned the fish over, brushed it with oil, and as the skin curled slightly from the heat, droplets of oil fell into the fire, sending sparks flying.

“If Yingzi found out, she’d definitely make a fuss, blaming us for not bringing her along.”

Huo Feng laughed, “When we get back down the mountain, we’ll do this at home too.”

After a while, the fish was cooked through and gave off a fragrant aroma. Once it had cooled slightly, Huo Ling took it into the kitchen, chopped it into several pieces with a knife, and set it aside to be shared.

The skin on the outside was crispy, while the flesh inside remained snow-white and tender, even slightly juicy.

The flavor of the marinade was mostly concentrated on the skin and hadn’t penetrated the flesh much, but the fish’s natural freshness was delicious enough on its own.

He set aside the fish head for Yan Qi. The ger used his chopsticks to pick out the fish eyes and held them up to Huo Ling’s lips.

There are two eyes per fish, and they each took one. In truth, there isn’t much to eat in a fish eye—it’s just for the taste. The white eyeball in the center is rock-hard and impossible to chew.

But no matter what it is, as long as it’s shared like this, it seems to become incredibly delicious.

Even Dager and Huang Yae were watching longingly from the side, even though they’d clearly just eaten rabbit meat and been given a rabbit leg.

So Huo Ling broke open a steamed bun, rubbed it against the fish to pick up a bit of saltiness, and handed a piece of fish to each of them.

A chunk that size would be swallowed whole by a dog—they wouldn’t even taste it—but Dager and Huangyaer weren’t short on food. After finishing, they licked their lips and strolled off, satisfied.

“The stars in the mountains are so bright.”

After finishing their meal in the courtyard, the group began putting out the fire and dismantling the grill. During this, Xiao Mingming looked up at the sky and remarked with genuine admiration.

Huo Ling doused the embers with water, glanced at him and Lin Changshui, and said, “If you two think life in the mountains isn’t so bad, why not come in and earn some money for a couple of years while you’re still childless?”

This isn’t a life everyone can handle, but from what he’d observed over the past few days, he felt Lin Changshui and Xiao Mingming were actually quite suited for it.

Huo Feng raised an eyebrow at this, seemingly surprised that Huo Ling would say such a thing, but he didn’t interrupt. Instead, he picked up a pile of branches they’d taken down and carried them to the kitchen to stoke the fire.

Yan Qi looked at Xiao Mingming at the same time; the latter was just as shocked as Lin Changshui.

Lin Changshui stammered, “The two of us… go… go into the mountains? Is… is that okay?”

“There’s no reason it shouldn’t be.”

Huo Ling’s words carried a double meaning: on one hand, he was leaving the decision up to them; on the other, he was making his stance clear—this mountain wasn’t his own, and whoever went into the mountains to make a living wasn’t taking anyone’s livelihood away.

Not to mention his grandfather’s generation—even in his father’s time, there were two other families living on this mountainside besides the Huo family. Their courtyards still stood; if you walked a bit further, you could still see them, though they were in a state of disrepair. Since they weren’t in use, no one had come up to maintain them.

Huo Ling had repaired the walls and roofs twice and had even gone over there to collect stones and roof tiles.

Lin Changshui and Xiao Mingming clearly fell deep in thought after that, and even their conversation dwindled.

However, since everyone slept separately in the mountains, the young couple didn’t have much time to discuss things; they’d likely have to wait until they got back down the mountain to sort it all out.

Likewise, Yan Qi didn’t get a chance to ask Huo Ling alone that night why he’d suddenly blurted out such a remark.

They merely held hands briefly at the door before each returning to their rooms to sleep.

On the final day of their ginseng-hunting expedition, Huo Ling led his men to the grove where the “old sign” left by his father was located.

Huo Feng had known about it beforehand, though he hadn’t been there in a long time.

“If ginseng has sprouted beneath that old sign, it probably hasn’t been growing long enough yet.”

“It’s true, but there might be other ginseng seeds nearby.”

If there were any, they should have sprouted long ago, but since they hadn’t searched thoroughly before, it was possible they were there all along—they just hadn’t noticed them.

That’s how ginseng hunting goes; you have to try anything that offers even the slightest hope. A windfall isn’t something you come across easily.

After working together for a few days, the five of them could now form their formation with ease, and the clinking of copper coins echoed for quite some time.

Whenever they passed an old ginseng site, they all stopped to pay their respects.

Huo Ling lit three sticks of incense, and Huo Feng poured some wine at the base of the tree.

Since they had come into the mountains specifically to dig for ginseng, they had to pay serious homage whenever they encountered the old omen. No matter whose name was inscribed there—even if it belonged to a complete stranger—they had to offer incense.

Only after the incense had burned to ash and all embers had died out did Huo Ling lead the way forward.

As for Yan Qi, he never would have imagined that he would be the first to discover the “Ginseng”

He dared not shout it out loud, fearing he might be mistaken and cause a mountain-wide explosion. Instead, following Huo Ling’s instructions, he thrust the treasure-seeking staff forcefully into the open ground beside the plant, then called out to the others to come and see.

Huo Ling quickly walked over, glanced at it, and immediately declared, “It’s the ‘ginseng’.”