sinovels Chapter 1802 Stone Dragon Has a Remaining Odd Chapter
Chapter 1802 Stone Dragon Has a Remaining Odd Chapter
Chapter 1802 Stone Dragon Has a Remaining Oddity and Returns in Evenness
If a qualified ginseng leader can't distinguish between ginseng rootlets and grass roots, then he might as well run into those two rocks and die.
At this moment, Shao Tianpeng told Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin that he had obtained ginseng roots. He did this to inform his accomplices that Shi Long was located there, and also to tentatively ask Zhao Jun whether they should shout "Shout Mountain!" as part of the traditional mountain-releasing ceremony.
As an old-fashioned mountain herder, Shao Tianpeng wanted to shout, but he was afraid that if he did, he would attract the vicious tiger.
The Shao family had dealt with this ferocious tiger before, and more than once. Shao Tianpeng knew that this tiger was different from ordinary large and ferocious mountain beasts.
Like the three major feline predators and large wild boars in Northeast China, they will flee at the sound of gunshots, firecrackers, or shouts and banging.
As for brown and black bears, they only stand on guns when hunters are attacking them at close range. If they are at a distance and hear gunshots or other unusual noises, their normal reaction is to run.
Therefore, when herders go into the mountains, they always carry a rope-poke stick. Once inside, they frequently use the stick to tap trees. This serves two purposes: to communicate with their companions and to scare away nearby wild animals.
But this vicious tiger was different from others. After losing a companion, the Shao family gang re-entered the old ditch, firing their guns into the air and setting off firecrackers along the way.
Logically, this should work on tigers, leopards, and bears. When a tiger caused havoc in the Yong'an forest area, Zhang Yuanmin, who was driving his sled home, successfully scared the tiger away several times with a bundle of firecrackers.
But the fact that the second member of the Shao family gang was carried away by the tiger shows that all their efforts were in vain.
This is what makes this vicious tiger different from other Siberian tigers. Other tigers would have run away long ago at the sound of gunfire or firecrackers. But for this vicious tiger, the gunfire actually revealed the location of the herdsmen. It followed the sound of gunfire and then looked for an opportunity to ambush the Shao family members.
Zhao Jun knew how troublesome this vicious tiger was. Now that they were right in front of Shi Long, and the three of them were about to carry the ginseng, the eight guards were on high alert, each one completely focused and on edge. The pressure was already immense; Zhao Jun didn't want to cause any further trouble.
So Zhao Jun said to Shao Tianpeng, "That's enough, Mr. Shao, let's stop carrying it."
As soon as Zhao Jun finished speaking, Shao Tianpeng didn't say anything, but Zhang Yuanmin said to Zhao Jun and Shao Tianpeng, "Boss, old man, how about we shout a little lower?"
"Dude, you're just making a scene." Shao Tianpeng glanced at Zhang Yuanmin and said, "Keep your voice down, or are you going to shout at the mountain?"
After saying this, Shao Tianpeng sighed and said, "Alright, then stop shouting."
"If you don't want to shout, then don't shout," Zhao Jun said softly. "Once we bring the ginseng out, we'll kowtow to the mountain god and the old foreman a few times, and that'll be fine."
Zhao Jun's words were meant to comfort Shao Tianpeng. However, they unexpectedly reminded Shao Tianpeng. The old man, who was already kneeling on the ground, placed his hands on the ground, moved his knees back a few steps, and then bowed towards the two stones.
Zhao Jun, who was opposite Shao Tianpeng, hurriedly dodged aside, but then he heard Shao Tianpeng call out to him and Zhang Yuanmin, "Zhao, Zhang, you two also say goodbye."
Zhao Jun came from humble beginnings; he first started carrying ginseng in the old forests of Luosha. There, he couldn't shout to the mountains, nor were there any sacrificial ceremonies. He just looked at the ginseng club and knew only one thing: carry it.
After his rebirth, Zhao Jun no longer followed the rules when hunting in the mountains, but when he was at home hunting with Zhao Youcai, Zhao Youcai always forced him to kowtow. Unexpectedly, after coming to Lingnan, although Zhao Youcai was gone, Shao Tianpeng came into his life.
There's no way around it; the rules of the ginseng-making community are just too many. You have to kowtow when you open the mountain for the mountain-opening ceremony, you have to kowtow when you see the pine tree as an omen, and you still have to kowtow when you see the ginseng club.
Previously, Zhao Jun had said that Shao Tianpeng should be in charge of everything. Now, Shao Tianpeng asked them to kowtow, and Zhao Jun had no choice but to bow three times to the stone.
After the prayers were finished, the three began to lift the stone. They patiently and carefully moved the soil around the stone, and if they encountered any ginseng roots, they had to move it outwards.
When Shao Zhiqiang first discovered this ginseng seedling, he clearly saw that it was a four-leaf ginseng. It was quite old, so its rootlets were very clean, without any excess hairs.
However, since it is not as old as five or six leaves, the ginseng roots will not be too long, so the workload of Zhao Jun and his two companions is not very large.
After the three men cleared the soil around the two stones, exposing them completely, they still dared not move them rashly, fearing that ginseng tendrils would pierce them from above, as the bottoms of the two stones were still touching the soil.
"Continue." Shao Tianpeng looked up and said these two words to Zhao Jun, who instantly understood what he meant. Shao Tianpeng meant to keep digging, to dig horizontally through the soil under the stone.
The three men continued their work, kneeling around the two stones, each holding onto the stones with their left hand and using a deer antler spoon in their right to stir the black soil. Although the two blue stones were not large, they were heavy, each weighing thirty or forty pounds.
As the three men dug away the soil beneath the stone, they could no longer support it with just one hand. Shao Tianpeng was the first to put down the antler-shaped key, then used both hands to support the stone. Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin followed suit.
"Guys, you two hold on tight," Shao Tianpeng said to Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin, then pulled a deer bone pick from his toolbox.
The Eighteen Hills region had its own unique mountain-climbing culture in its early days. While other places used deer bone picks for mountain climbing, the Eighteen Hills region used a unique tool called a deer antler spoon.
The Shao family originated from Shibadaogangzi, but they later moved to Lingnan. Therefore, Shao Tianpeng combined the strengths of both families, using both deer antler spoons and deer bone skewers.
At this moment, Shao Tianpeng held a deer bone pick and gently pried the soil out of the gap between the two stones.
Although Shao Tianpeng hadn't been up the mountain for many years, his skills hadn't diminished at all. His hands were steady, and his movements were gentle. As he moved the soil, he picked up and pulled out ginseng roots one by one.
The ginseng rootlets that were pulled out were gently pinched and lifted by Shao Tianpeng with the thumb and forefinger of his other hand, so as not to let the unearthed ginseng rootlets interfere with the subsequent work.
As the deer bone probe gradually penetrated into the cracks in the bluestone, Shao Tianpeng picked up strands of ginseng from his fingertips.
With the help of the faint light in the forest, Shao Tianpeng could vaguely see the ginseng body in the crevice of the rock.
Shao Tianpeng knew he couldn't dig any further. He held onto the bluestone with one hand, and with the deer bone pick in his right hand, he handed it to Zhao Jun through the bluestone, saying, "Zhao, you dig over there."
During the process of lifting the stone, Shao Tianpeng had seen Zhao Jun's actions.
As the saying goes, a skilled hand reveals its worth at a glance, and Shao Tianpeng could tell at a glance that Zhao Jun possessed ginseng-carrying experience beyond his years. Therefore, Shao Tianpeng confidently handed the deer bone skewer to Zhao Jun.
At this critical moment, Zhao Jun did not back down. He took the deer bone pick from Shao Tianpeng's hand and began to pry the soil out of the cracks in the rocks. Zhao Jun's skill was no less than Shao Tianpeng's, and soon he had picked up the ginseng roots one by one in his hands.
Upon seeing the ginseng body, Zhao Jun stopped, put down the deer bone pick, and then placed both hands on the two bluestones respectively, saying to Shao Tianpeng, "Grandpa, you hold this one."
Zhao Jun didn't specify which piece it was, but since Zhang Yuanmin was supporting the right piece, Shao Tianpeng would naturally have to support the left piece.
Thus, Zhao Jun held the two bluestones in the middle, Zhang Yuanmin on the right, and Shao Tianpeng on the left. Zhang and Shao each exerted force to pry the two bluestones open to the left and right.
The fact that four leaf-shaped stone dragons grew out of the two pieces of bluestone indicates that the two pieces of bluestone have been together for several decades.
Although the black soil is not very sticky, it is not easy to separate two pieces of bluestone that have been stuck together for so long, especially since these two stones are heavy.
Seeing that the two were struggling, Zhao Jun quickly called out, "Baoyu, Xiaochen, come and lend a hand."
Upon hearing this, Li Baoyu and Xie Chen quickly turned around and rushed over.
"Slow down, slow down, stop!" Suddenly, Zhao Jun called out to the four men.
The four men, in pairs, supported two bluestones. A two-centimeter crack had appeared between the two stones. Zhao Jun peered through the crack and saw a hollow in the middle of the left stone, with soil inside, and within that soil was the stone dragon.
At this moment, one of the stone dragon's whiskers was still attached to the stone on the right. Zhao Jun carefully used a deer bone pick to pry the whisker off the stone on the right before letting the four men continue to break the stone.
As the stone was opened, the stone dragon appeared before the five people, half-concealed, like a pipa player playing a game of hide-and-seek. At this moment, it was in the stone hollow, half of its body exposed and half hidden in the black soil inside the hollow.
"Baoyu, Xiaochen, you two go back." Zhao Jun told Li Baoyu and Xiechen to return to their positions and stand guard in case the tiger attacked. Then he glanced at the big pine tree next to him and said to Shao Tianpeng, "Old man, let's peel the bark off this tree."
To avoid being attacked by the ferocious tiger, the two groups dared not go far. There was a pine tree right next to them, so if they didn't dig it up, who else could they dig up?
Upon hearing Zhao Jun's words, Zhang Yuanmin, without waiting for Shao Tianpeng to speak, pulled out his ancestral Handahan knife from his back waist, preparing to peel the bark off the tree.
But then Shao Tianpeng smiled and said, "Chief Zhao, even if you strip this pine tree bare, it still won't be enough to cover this stone."
When selling this stone dragon, you can't just sell the ginseng seedlings; you have to sell the stones and black soil where it grows along with it. Otherwise, how will you know it's a stone dragon?
Even if this piece of bluestone weighs more than 30 kilograms, there's no other way; we have to pack it all up and carry it down.
The stone is hard, and the stone dragon is brittle; to bring this stone dragon down, several layers of bark would be needed. The bark of the pine tree beside them is clearly insufficient.
At this moment, Zhao Jun also realized that not only pine bark, but also moss should be used to protect the stone dragon.
As a result, the two groups had no choice but to disperse their guards and start peeling away the moss and pine bark.
To Zhao Jun's surprise, when Shao Tianpeng called out "Xiao Liuzi," a man carrying a gun and a burlap sack came over.
When the visitor took out a large roll of more than ten sheets of pine bark from the burlap sack, along with moss rolled up inside, Zhao Jun couldn't help but sigh, "Old ginger is spicier."
With the moss and pine bark in hand, the three prepared to pack it up. At that moment, Zhang Yuanmin asked Shao Tianpeng a question: "Grandpa, what if they just took any rock, stuck some soil on it, stuffed in some bamboo shoots, and called it a stone dragon? Would that work?"
"Will that work?" Shao Tianpeng glanced at Zhang Yuanmin, then pointed to the two pieces of bluestone that were joined together and said to Zhang Yuanmin, "Look at these marks and the state of this ginseng soil. It can't be squeezed out in a day or two."
After carrying out the stone dragon, Shao Tianpeng was in a good mood. At this moment, he pointed to the ginseng body protruding from the soil and explained to Zhang Yuanmin: "Look, this ginseng grows naturally. It's not like you can throw two whole ginseng seeds into a crack in a rock and expect it to grow into a ginseng."
Like you said... if someone takes a stick to make this fake, you have to squeeze it into the stone first. It would take at least a month to fake the stone-cutting marks.
But if you do it this way, the club isn't grown in rocks; it's squeezed in by people, so it's easy to crush it.
Secondly, this club won't rot; it's trapped inside a rock, and nine times out of ten it won't survive. If it's left inside like this for ten days or half a month, it will rot anyway.
Shao Tianpeng said this with a smile, but when he finished the last word, his brows suddenly furrowed.
At that moment, Zhao Jun's attention also fell on the stone dragon. He, too, sensed that something was amiss.
“Master Shao,” Zhao Jun looked at Shao Tianpeng, and Shao Tianpeng also looked at Zhao Jun. The old man and the young man exchanged a glance, and their hearts skipped a beat at the same time.
“Master Shao,” Zhao Jun said to Shao Tianpeng, “where did this club come from?”
As he spoke, Zhao Jun gestured with his fingers to the ginseng body, which was half in the soil and half above it, and said, "The bud should have come out from my side, right? And the rhizome should be on this side too, right?"
When Zhao Jun said "this side," he was referring to the crack in the rock that he had just pried open with a deer bone pick.
It's already the fourth month of the lunar calendar, and although it's early April, wild ginseng is cold-resistant. Even if the ginseng sprouts haven't broken through the cracks in the rocks by now, they should at least be emerging from the soil. But after opening the rocks, no ginseng sprouts were found.
Zhao Jun and Shao Tianpeng were both experienced ginseng masters, and they both concluded in their hearts that the ginseng had gone dormant.
If a wild ginseng is dormant, it means it's injured. This could be due to damage to the rhizome or the ginseng body itself. Judging from the condition of this particular wild ginseng, the rhizome is likely severely injured.
Both being experts, Shao Tianpeng naturally knew that Zhao Jun was right. Presumably, in the past few years, because of the ferocious tiger, they hadn't been able to come and lift the stone dragon, so birds or mountain rats had been pecking at the ginseng root head through the cracks in the rocks.
Shao Tianpeng quickly walked around to Zhao Jun's side, gently pushed Zhao Jun aside, then took out his tool bag from his satchel, pulled out a deer bone skewer, and knelt down.
The old man frowned, his eyes following the path of the reeds protruding from the soil. As his gaze slid upwards, Shao Tianpeng roughly estimated the location of the reed head.
Then, Shao Tianpeng used a deer bone skewer to remove some of the black soil. And with this effort, he unearthed a broken and rotten reed head.
Wild ginseng from this year typically grows three-sectioned reeds. These three sections are round, variegated, and tooth-shaped. However, at this time, only the round reed and the tattered variegated reed remain on the ginseng's head.
"It's over!" Shao Tianpeng slapped his thigh hard, saying in frustration, "What a waste of such a good thing."
"It's alright, Master Shao," Zhao Jun comforted Shao Tianpeng. "The ginseng is damaged, but it still has medicinal properties. Four leaves are enough for him. Even if we can't sell it for 100,000, 60,000 or 70,000 should be fine, right?"
"Sigh!" Shao Tianpeng sighed heavily, then looked at Zhao Jun and said, "Alright, Chief Zhao. No matter how much it sells for, we'll split it in half."
"Then I'll thank you in advance, sir." Zhao Jun thanked Shao Tianpeng because the two gangs had previously agreed that if the stone dragon came from the Shao family gang's channels, the two families would split the profits 40/60, with the Zhao family gang getting 40% and the Shao family gang getting 60%.
Only through connections with the Zhao family could the two families split the profits 50/50. But now Shao Tianpeng is saying that no matter what, the two families will split the profits equally.
It is said that harmony brings wealth, and sharing wealth with others brings even more harmony.
Next, Shao Tianpeng covered the stone dragon with moss. Fearing that the stone dragon would be damaged on its way down the mountain, Shao Tianpeng pressed four layers of moss on the stone dragon.
Then it was wrapped in pine bark. Just like the amber dragon that the Zhao family had wrapped before, the ginseng and the stones attached to it were wrapped in pine bark and taken away together.
While making steamed buns with pine branches, Shao Tianpeng was surprised to find that Zhang Yuanmin did it better than he did. The stones had sharp edges and could easily damage the pine bark.
However, Zhang Yuanmin was able to leave a gap of two sheets of greaseproof paper between the stone and the pine bark, which ensured that the pine bark would not break and that it would adhere to the stone.
Seeing how skillful Zhang Yuanmin was, Shao Tianpeng stepped back and handed over the job entirely to Zhang Yuanmin.
It took Zhang Yuanmin nearly twenty minutes to wrap the ginseng bun, which weighed thirty-seven or thirty-eight pounds.
Besides carrying tools like ropes, club locks, deer bone picks, and quick axes, ginseng hunters also bring club baskets and hampers. These are essentially carrying baskets and hampers, used to carry club-shaped bundles.
But today we're here to carry the stone dragon, so the Shao family has specially prepared burlap sacks. They're the kind of sacks that mountain gatherers use to carry their goods—sacks with two straps sewn onto them. Carrying large stones with these is much more comfortable than carrying them in baskets.
Xu Shanhe, the leader of the Shao family guards, personally carried the sack containing the stone dragon. Then the Zhao family led the way, with Shao Tianpeng and Xu Shanhe in the middle, and the Shao family bringing up the rear.
This group of eleven, plus Miao Shilong, perfectly embodies the saying "single departure, double return" in mountain expeditions.
(End of this chapter)