Lingzhi was a type of fungus that typically took more than a year to be fully grown and would only grow only under very specific conditions. However, it was still not as difficult to find as ginseng. It was very rare to find good quality old ginseng. Even if one managed to find it, one needed to find someone who knew how to dig it out, otherwise there would still be damage done to the ginseng. An intact ginseng was a very rare find.
As Qiao Qiang looked at these items, he still felt that they were still not up to standard and not presentable. Back then, Xia Zhe was tricked into entering the house to be with Qiao Mei, but not only did he not despise Qiao Mei’s figure and appearance, he even gave her generous betrothal gifts. Even for weddings in the city, there were very few people who were able to come up with the ‘three turns and one sound’. It was not because people did not have the money to buy it, but because one might not be able to get hold of the items even if one had money.
Qiao Qiang decided to go back to his cabinet and see if there were any other valuable items that Qiao Mei could bring to the capital with her.
Qiao Mei hurriedly pulled Qiao Qiang back. She could have as many of these herbs as she wanted. She wanted her grandfather to keep his share for himself and she could go into the mountains to get some more. Her heart ached to see how nicely her grandfather treated her, but it was just not possible for her to tell him about her abilities.
“Grandfather, keep these for yourself to put in your drinking water. I’ll go to the mountains to look for more. There should be plenty of these!” Qiao Mei said to her grandfather.
“Plenty of these? Hahahaha, do you really think it’s like cabbages that can be found everywhere? Silly child,” Qiao Qiang said laughingly.
Qiao Mei handed the box to Qiao Qiang and said, “What makes you think I can’t find it, I’ll go look for it again. If I really can’t find any, then I’ll take yours.”
Qiao Qiang thought for a moment and decided he did not want to argue with his granddaughter, so he let Qiao Mei be. He put the box back into its spot in the corner. Although everyone was poor now, he was still afraid that someone would covet it and come to steal it.
Qiao Mei went up to the mountains alone. Recently, she would take the four children out for a walk whenever she had time and teach them to recognize all the useful things on the mountain. As the old saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. Instead of picking and harvesting stuff for the children to sell, it was better to teach the children how to pick them and to distinguish what was useful and what was not edible.
Ever since the villagers saw Qiao Mei bringing the four children up the mountains to pick wild crops every day and coming back with their hands full every night, many people tagged along to take a look at where they went to find so many nice things. Usually, Qiao Mei would also produce more fruits when she did energy exchanges, afraid that the villagers would become suspicious. She had already informed Auntie Dong and Auntie Wang roughly which areas they should head to. After all, they were on her side and it was better than letting outsiders pick the fruits.
She also did not want the children to follow her all the time. They still had to have their own circle of friends. Qiao Mei roasted the remaining melon seeds at home, distributed them to the children and asked them to play near the tree at the entrance of the brigade office. That area was big and all the village children liked to play there. She told them to share the melon seeds with the other children if the children did not invite them to play together. Using this method, they got along well with all the children in less than three days. There were even a few children who took the initiative to go to Li Gui’s house to play with them.
Ever since the children came to the village, they laughed more and there were smiles on their faces every day. Zhang Wei, who was relatively older than the rest, slowly brought his younger siblings out to play with the children in the village. He soon became the leader of the group of local children and everyone liked to play with him.
Li Gui even borrowed a few pieces of rags from Qiao Mei and sewed a triangular sandbag and a square sandbag for the children. Many children found it novel and played at Li Gui’s house for a long time before pestering Li Gui to make one for them.
“Auntie, make one for me too!”
“Auntie, I want one too!”
“Okay, okay, okay…”
The harmonious atmosphere made Qiao Mei feel relieved.
She had already explained to the four children how difficult it had been for Li Gui all these years, as well as told them about the evil deeds of Old Madam Zhang and Old Madam Li.
The children were all quite sensible and understood that what happened in the past was not entirely Li Gui’s fault. Most of the time, it was someone else’s fault. Their attitude towards Li Gui improved a lot and they knew to help her in whatever way they could. Li Gui used the money that she earned from selling things to buy them items that they liked. They were no longer afraid that the Zhang and Li families would sow discord between them and ask them for money.