Chapter 4: Selling the Mountain Ginseng

Gu Wennuan woke up early to find that Hu Ailian had already prepared breakfast. Looking at the lard jar, which was nearing its bottom, Hu Ailian decided it was best not to let Gu Wennuan do the cooking; though the food was fragrant, it consumed too much oil.

"Mother, I'm up, I'll handle breakfast."

"No need. I'm old and can't sleep anyway, so making breakfast is no bother. You go back to sleep for a while."

Gu Wennuan washed her face and set the bowls and chopsticks on the table. "I don't need to, Mother. I want to head into town today. I noticed we're almost out of lard, so I'll go buy a slab of fat pork."

"Do you have money? If not, I have some here."

"I have money. Besides, I dug up a wild ginseng root yesterday; I should be able to sell it for ten or twenty yuan."

"It can fetch that much? Maybe you should take Zhou Xi with you to the mountains tomorrow."

"Mother, it's ginseng, not a radish. You can't just find one whenever you go looking."

Hu Ailian knew ginseng was hard to come by. When her neighbor in the village gave birth, the doctor charged a whole yuan for just a tiny sliver of the root. In these times, when polished rice cost eighteen cents a jin, high-quality flour twenty cents, and non-glutinous rice eleven cents, one yuan could feed a family for half a month.

"Mother, I might not make it back by noon. Please take this water, and I’ll leave Yubao in your care," Gu Wennuan said, handing her a flask filled with spiritual spring water.

Hu Ailian took the flask. It was true—ever since she started drinking this water, she hadn't felt exhausted from work. Previously, she would return from the fields with a sore back and poor sleep, but now, she slept soundly until dawn.

"Wennuan, leave early so you can catch Old Liu’s ox cart to town."

"No need, Mother. I'll walk; it’ll be a good way to lose some weight."

Gu Wennuan felt her body was no longer as weak as when she had first arrived, and her weight had dropped. It was a pity that there were no scales in this era, or she would have checked her progress long ago.

After finishing her chores, Gu Wennuan shouldered her basket and set off for town. The walk took two hours, providing just the right amount of exercise. The path to town followed a small trail flanked by mountains and forests. Heilongjiang Province was rich in mountains and woods, filled with wildlife and dried goods, but everyone was too busy working the fields to forage, fearing the wild beasts. For Gu Wennuan, with her exceptional strength, killing a wolf would be a trivial matter.

She didn't encounter a soul along the way; during the busy farming season, most people were in the fields earning work points, and no one went to town unless necessary.

Upon reaching Richa Town, she saw rows of neat brick houses. There was a supply and marketing cooperative for daily necessities and a grocery store that primarily sold meat and local produce. Gu Wennuan took a sip of the spiritual spring water to catch her breath before taking her wild ginseng to the only pharmacy in town.

A young apprentice was chopping herbs behind the counter. "Big sister, what do you need?"

"Do you buy wild ginseng here?"

The apprentice didn't dare make the decision. "I'll go get my master." He turned to the back, shouting, "Master! Someone brought something good; come take a look!"

An old man with a white beard emerged. "So impatient! What 'good thing' could it be? Let me see."

Gu Wennuan took out the wrapped ginseng. "Old Master, please take a look."

Dr. Ma pulled out a magnifying glass and examined it for a long time. "A fine specimen. The root hairs are complete. It’s about eighty years old. Young lady, are you selling? I’ll offer this much." Dr. Ma held up one finger.

"Ten yuan? That's too little."

"No, one hundred."

Gu Wennuan was stunned; it was far more than she had expected. "It's a deal."

"Xiao Mao, go count the money." Dr. Ma took the ginseng into the back room. The apprentice counted out ten large banknotes and handed them to Gu Wennuan.

"Dr. Ma, do you accept other medicinal herbs?"

"We do, but it depends on the variety. We already have plenty of the common ones."

"Understood. I'll bring some next time for you to see."

After leaving the pharmacy, Gu Wennuan tucked the money into the innermost layer of her clothing. There were too many pickpockets around, and a moment of carelessness could lead to a slashed pocket.

She decided to buy meat next. It wasn't easy to purchase, and without connections, one couldn't get a good slab of fat pork. Arriving at the grocery store, she found the clerk arguing with a customer.

"I told you, auntie, there is no more fat pork! Why won't you listen? Are you buying or not? If not, move along; there's a line behind you."

"I saw a piece of fat pork right there! Why won't you sell it to me?"

"I said there isn't any, so get going!"

In this era, the three most coveted jobs were doctor, driver, and butcher. Store clerks were also highly privileged, often looking down on everyone else.

"Wennuan, you're here! Come over, I guessed you'd be coming. I saved a piece of fat pork for you." Wu Meili, the clerk, greeted her warmly.

Gu Wennuan quickly accessed the original owner's memories. It turned out that once, when the original owner had come to town, she had saved Wu Meili from some hoodlums, and they had become good friends because of it.

"Sister Wu, I don't have meat coupons today, so I won't buy any."

"Who needs coupons? Just pay a little extra and add a bit more money."

Hearing this, Gu Wennuan decided to stock up. "Give me ten jin of fat pork, ten jin of lean meat, and a few large bones."

Wu Meili looked at her speechless. "Wennuan, have you struck it rich? I don't have that much here—only two jin of fat, two jin of lean, and one bone for you."

Gu Wennuan then remembered the scarcity of supplies in this era where everything required a coupon.

"That's fine. I'll pay you."

"Seventy-three cents for the fat, seventy for the lean, and I'll give you the bone for free. That'll be two yuan and eighty-six cents."

"Thank you, Sister Wu. Don't say I didn't think of you—here are some fruits I picked on the mountain. They're very sweet; have a taste."

"You're always thinking of me, better than my own husband."

"Sister Wu, I'm heading off."

Gu Wennuan then went to the supply cooperative to buy milk candies and sponge cakes—she had finished the ones at home yesterday. She also went to the grain store for twenty jin of rice and twenty jin of flour; she couldn't carry any more.

Everything fit into her basket with a little room to spare. Seeing it was noon, she grabbed a bowl of noodles at a street stall. The prices in Heilongjiang were cheap; a large bowl of noodles with pickled cabbage sauce cost only thirty cents and was delicious.

On the way back, Gu Wennuan surreptitiously added twenty jin of millet, a chicken, and several apples to her basket. The apples grown in her space were large and sweet, though she couldn't bring out the strawberries or cherries. She also added two cans and two bags of powdered milk, having removed the packaging so they looked like the local products.

The trip there had taken two hours, but the walk back, with breaks, took four. By the time she reached home, the workday had ended.

Hu Ailian had been distracted all afternoon, wondering if her eldest daughter-in-law had run off.

"Mother, why hasn't Sister-in-law returned yet?" Zhou Siyue complained, having eaten dry corn buns for lunch that were nowhere near as good as what his sister-in-law made.

"Grandma, when is Mother coming home? Yubao misses her."

Hu Ailian wiped her tears. "Soon, she'll be here soon."

Zhou Xi was also worried. "Mother, do you think she left for good?"

"No," Hu Ailian said, though she wasn't entirely sure. Even if she didn't like Gu Wennuan much, she was Yubao's mother, and that was better than having none at all.

"I'm back!" Gu Wennuan arrived with her basket.

"Sister-in-law! You're finally back! Mother’s cooking isn't good, and the buns were so hard," Zhou Siyue said, taking the basket from her. "Wow, this is heavy!"

"You brat, you've been eating my cooking for years, and now you're complaining?"

"It's good you're back. It's good you're back. I'll go cook."

"Mother, wait. First, take a look at my spoils."