Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 84 The first of the nine ‘immortal grasses’

Lin Heng's current location is not very far from the waterfall falling from the mountain stream, and the medicinal material he saw grows on the cliff at his feet, standing tall and graceful, as if it were carved from jasper.

Because he was short, he didn't notice it at first until the pig badger ran away and he sat down to sulk.

This is none other than Dendrobium officinale, the first of the nine immortal grasses, growing on cliffs.

There are naturally some in the Qinling Mountains, but they are hard to find. Lin Heng did not expect that he would actually see them here.

This thing has a very great reputation. It is a famous traditional Chinese medicine for nourishing yin. It has been listed as a holy product for nourishing yin since ancient times, and it is said to be worth the price of gold.

In later generations, due to the depletion of wild dendrobium resources, one kilogram has been speculated to several thousand yuan, sometimes even tens of thousands.

However, later, due to the large-scale expansion of artificial breeding, it fell from the altar, and purely wild ones were not allowed to be picked, so the price became normal.

In this era, resources are still relatively abundant, and they are all wild. Artificial cultivation technology has not yet appeared. The purchase price is similar to that of red Ganoderma lucidum. The purchase price of dried dendrobium fluctuates around [-] yuan.

One kilogram of dendrobium is equivalent to two months' salary for others. Of course, people often risk their lives to pick it.

"It seems that I really have a connection with medicinal materials? I might as well collect more medicinal materials in the future."

Lin Heng shook his head. He was a little shocked that he encountered such a precious thing.

"Uncle, come here quickly!!"

Lin Heng turned around and ran over, calling people as he ran.

Dendrobium grows on cliffs. Naturally, one cannot go down directly. That would be a joke with one's own life.

"What's the matter? You yelled so loudly that my furry mouse ran away." Li Baiquan came over and said helplessly.

"I don't know where you are. The main reason is that you are too excited. What do you think I found?"

Lin Heng said with a smile.

"What is it? Some kind of herb, it's impossible for a prey animal to roar so loudly." Li Baiquan looked at him and said.

"I first saw a pig badger in the canyon at the foot of the mountain. After searching for a long time, I couldn't find it. I just watched it run away.

But I didn’t expect that there was no way out after mountains and rivers, and there was another village with dark flowers and bright willows. When I was sulking, I saw Dendrobium officinale on the cliff. "

Lin Heng said with a smile.

"What, Dendrobium officinale!!" Uncle Lin Heng's eyes widened.

"You are so prosperous, you are really lucky." He sighed, wondering why he was not so lucky.

"I don't know how many there are yet. Uncle, do you have a rope with you? If not, go chop the cane. You watch while I go down to pick it. We will divide it into [-]% and [-]%."

Lin Heng said with a smile that he now hopes that there will be more dendrobium there, and he will have to collect enough for a kilogram.

"Everything you find is yours, so what's the point of helping me? It's not necessary. You are too outsider." Li Baiquan shook his head.

"If this doesn't work, you have to act according to the rules and score points." Lin Heng shook his head firmly.

"Then [-]%, just give me [-]%." My uncle said again.

"Don't disagree. If you don't agree, just go and do it alone. I won't go. I'll help pull a rope and give you [-]%. Your aunt will give me a beating when you get back."

Li Baiquan added another sentence.

"Okay then." Lin Heng could only agree.

"The rope I brought is only twenty meters. How many meters is the rope you brought?" Li Baiquan asked again.

"It's also twenty meters long. It's almost enough together." Lin Heng nodded. Today he was carrying all the ropes on his back.

The ropes they took were all hemp ropes, very strong, just to avoid the situation where they sometimes found that the herbs were out of reach.

"Then let's go." Li Baiquan said, and the two of them walked past one after another.

"Look, it's right down here, am I right?" Lin Heng said, pointing to the rocky cliff below.

"That's right, it's really Dendrobium. You're so lucky, it's both forest deer and Dendrobium." Li Baiquan said with emotion.

"I don't know how many there are. Let's go down and take a look."

After Lin Heng finished speaking, he took out the rope and tied it to an acorn tree that no one could hold.

After connecting the two ropes, Lin Heng tied a safe climbing knot. The rope nooses were wrapped around his limbs, and finally gathered in front of his chest.

"I'm going down, uncle."

After checking it, Lin Heng said.

"Don't worry, I'll show you the rope." Li Baiquan nodded and said.

You don't need anyone's help to go down. First, put down all the rope and stretch it straight. The person will wrap the rope around your waist, step on the stone wall with your feet and walk down bit by bit. As you go down a little bit, put a little bit of the rope.

Lin Heng had a hard time walking. Although he had played like this when he was a child, his weight is different now.

Moreover, there is moss on the stone skin, and Jiefang shoes are a bit slippery on it.

Fortunately, I have been eating well recently, working regularly, and my physical strength has recovered well.

There are almost no people who are not afraid of heights, including Lin Heng, but he overcame this difficulty in his previous life.

I was a little dizzy at first when I looked down, but I got better soon.

After descending fifteen meters, Lin Heng saw the dendrobium tree he saw on the cliff.

"It's so fat. This one weighs half a catty." Lin Heng touched it gently, pulled it up by the roots, and put it into the snakeskin bag around his waist.

After looking around, he placed the seedling on the left and walked to the right to pick another large one.

There were a lot of dendrobium trees on the stone wall. He saw more than a dozen of them at a glance. The dendrobium trees grew in clusters, just like orchids. One tree had many branches.

Lin Heng estimated that he could get seven or eight kilograms of dendrobium from all the dendrobium he picked. However, this place is relatively humid, and it might take five or six kilograms to produce one kilogram of dried dendrobium. The exact price of the dendrobium he can sell is not yet certain.

And this is just this stone wall, there are other stone walls nearby.

Dendrobium is a very magical plant. Its roots are almost exposed and it directly absorbs moisture from the air.

Its roots are also attached to fungi that can fix nitrogen directly from the air. The absorption of nutrients mainly relies on fungi and some nutrients produced by moss decomposing rocks.

Precisely because it is so special, its growing environment is very harsh. It must be half shade and half sun, with a lot of fog. It cannot be placed in a place that is too sunny or too cold.

It is also very simple to distinguish whether dendrobium is mature. Mature dendrobium has only branches and no leaves. There are some rust spots on the dendrobium that are similar to rust.

Lin Heng was also a relatively good herb collector. He let go of the dendrobium trees that only had one or two branches and picked large ones.

It's a pity that not everyone is as qualified as him, otherwise the wild resources would not be gradually exhausted.

"This one is so beautiful."

Lin Heng uprooted the dendrobium tree, smelled it and put it into a snakeskin bag. This was his last lesson in picking in this area.

"Sure enough, there are more over here!" Lin Heng looked to the left side near the waterfall. Sure enough, there were still many dendrobiums growing better than here. He estimated that there were thirty or forty dendrobiums.

"Is there more?" His uncle's call came from above.

"There's more, quite a few!"

Just as he was feeling happy, his feet suddenly slipped, and the rope in Lin Heng's hand came loose. He instantly fell seven to eight meters, his head hitting the stone wall, and his face was covered with dust.

"what happened?"

Li Baiquan's shout came from above.

"Phew! It's okay, the rope slipped and I didn't step on my feet properly." Lin Heng said, his heart still pounding.

It seemed like it only happened in a moment, but to him, it couldn't be described in just four words: "frightened". His body was stiff. This was a brush with death.

Fortunately the rope is strong enough.

"Are you okay? Do you need my help?" Li Baiquan asked again. He was also worried. If something happened to Lin Heng, he really couldn't explain it when he went back.

Lin Heng wiped the dirt off his face, rubbed his forehead, and said, "No need, I can do it myself."

After hanging for a while, Lin Heng regained his composure, pulled the rope and stood on the stone wall, and slowly climbed up.

Because dendrobium trees are high and low, he couldn't fix the length of the rope. If his foot slipped and his hand lost his grip, the situation just happened.

"Life has to go on." Lin Heng shook his head and continued to pick dendrobium.

There is more water vapor on the cliff here, and the stone wall is also very slippery. No matter how careful you are, you will still slip from time to time. Fortunately, with the previous lesson, I tightened the rope tightly, but my knee hit the stone wall, and there was no serious pain except for it. hinder.

It took another half an hour for Lin Heng to pick all the dendrobiums as large as the stone wall, and then moved left and right to look at several other stone walls.

"Pull me up, uncle." Lin Heng shouted after making sure there was nothing left.

"Okay." Li Baiquan nodded, pulled up, climbed down, and soon reached the top of the cliff.

"Phew! I'm finally up. My hands feel like they're no longer my own."

Lin Heng sat down on the ground. His clothes were already dirty. He looked more like a beggar now. "Are you okay? Are you injured?" Li Baiquan looked at the scratch on Lin Heng's forehead and asked worriedly.

"No."

Lin Heng shook his head, threw the dendrobium over again, and said with a smile: "Uncle, how many pounds do you think this weighs?"

Li Baiquan picked it up, weighed it, and estimated with a smile: "It's quite a lot. It weighs at least nineteen or twenty pounds. I estimate that it can still weigh two or three pounds after drying."

Because all dendrobium roots are collected with roots, and dendrobium roots have no medicinal value, after removing the roots, they may only weigh [-] or [-] kilograms, and drying them only weighs two or three kilograms.

"Then let's do it." Lin Heng chuckled.

"I feel that the environment of this place is suitable. Maybe there are other places. Let's look for it." Li Baiquan said with a smile.

Lin Heng looked at the sky and estimated that it was about ten o'clock.

He was a little hungry, but he could bear it, so he nodded and said, "Let's go then. I also think there is hope."

The two separated and continued searching nearby.

"The goat's milk fruit is ripe." Lin Heng came to the stream above the waterfall and saw red goat's milk fruit hanging on several small shrubs.

The goat's milk fruit is also called the crotch fruit. It is about the size of a finger. Lin Heng walked over and picked it and ate it. The fruit was slightly bitter when it was not ripe, but very sweet when it was ripe.

After eating two handfuls, Lin Heng felt a little full and turned back to continue looking for dendrobium.

The sun was already rising now, and it was almost impossible to encounter prey. He picked up two green-headed mushrooms and a handful of chanterelles in the forest, and was ready to go back to cook.

On the way back, I found a few more birch yellows and picked them casually, but I didn't find the Ganoderma lucidum.

"Lin Heng, don't go, I found some dendrobium again." At this time, my uncle's voice came from the distance.

Lin Heng was shocked, he really found something, and he quickly said: "I'll come right away."

"Where?" Lin Heng walked up to his uncle and asked.

"It's far away, on the other side." Li Baiquan said, leading the way.

The two climbed over the beam and stopped more than a kilometer away from the mountain stream waterfall.

"Look, there are some on the rock wall below!" my uncle said, pointing to the cliff diagonally below. You can just see a few of them at this location.

"This place is more dangerous than where I was just now." Lin Heng looked down and said. The cliff on his side was only about [-] meters long, while the cliff here must be [-] to [-] meters taller.

Of course, no matter which side, as long as the rope is broken, the result will be the same.

"It's okay, just keep an eye on me and I'll go pick it up." Li Baiquan said with a smile.

After checking the rope, he tied it to a huge pine tree. Li Baiquan fixed the rope and slowly descended.

Lin Heng waited in fear above. It was very necessary to leave someone above, in case there was a situation below, someone would pull you up.

If there is no one, you will have to wait for death if you are injured, so it is necessary to divide [-] to [-]%.

When he was almost in place, Lin Heng asked: "How is the situation?"

"It's not very good. There aren't as many as yours. They're very sparse." Li Baiquan's reply came from below.

"Pay attention to safety!" With a reminder, Lin Heng stopped talking. Too many words will only distract people's attention.

Lin Heng sat under the tree and waited for an hour before his uncle's voice came from below: "I've finished picking, please help me pull it out."

"okay."

Lin Heng nodded, grabbed the rope, stepped on the big tree and started to exert force.

"Hey, it's really life-threatening. The wind is too strong on the cliff, and the dust gets into my eyes."

After coming up, Li Baiquan sat down on the mountain and sighed.

"Uncle, how much did you get?" Lin Heng was curious about his harvest.

"Seven or eight pounds weighs as much as the sky." Li Baiquan handed the bag to him, his face full of joy of harvest.

Lin Heng took it over and looked at it. His uncle's picks were drier than his picks, and they could probably be dried by a pound. There was obviously much less water vapor on the cliff here.

"You are so beautiful, please do a little bit to weigh yourself down." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"That's not as much as you, but it's still thanks to you, otherwise I wouldn't have discovered so much. Let's break up and help each other as equals."

Li Baiquan said with a grin.

Lin Heng didn't show any pretense: "That's fine, I'm the one taking advantage anyway."

"If you hadn't discovered the dendrobium here, I wouldn't have been looking for it."

Li Baiquan smiled and said, "Let's go back to eat and see what they plan to do in the afternoon. Should they go to the foot of Taibai Mountain or continue exploring nearby."

"Hurry up, I'm starving to death." Lin Heng nodded. It was already twelve o'clock, and he was so hungry that he could eat a tiger.

But I didn’t bring any food with me and left it in the shelter.

Walking is relatively fast during the day. Simply rushing, the two of them were back in half an hour.

On the way back, we also picked up a weasel. As soon as we returned to Baishitan, the smell of meat was in the air.

"Hurry up and eat beggar's chicken." Tian Baishun shouted from a distance.

"Coming, coming." Lin Heng trotted over and walked over.

The roasted creek grouper on the stone floor was a little cold, and Mr. Tian was eating a roasted squirrel in his hand.

Lin Heng didn't care about anything else. He picked up the Xi grouper and put it in his mouth. He got flustered when he was hungry and couldn't think of anything but eating.

"My God, it smells really good." He killed more than ten Lin Hengs in a row before stopping.

"This beggar's chicken will be waiting for you two to come back and eat together. If you are hungry, there will be roasted taro." Tian Baishun pointed at the dark taro nuggets next to him and said.

After eating a little, Lin Heng was no longer so hungry. He took a taro and slowly peeled it.

"Old man Tian, ​​you haven't gone out all morning?" Li Baiquan asked while eating taro.

Old Man Tian nodded: "Yes, I have been resting here. I almost lost my life yesterday. I want to take a rest."

After saying that, he glanced at the two snakeskin bags not far away and asked: "What about you? I see that the snakeskin bags you took contained a lot of things. Did you dig up herbs?"

"Hehe, it's not an ordinary herb, it's Dendrobium officinale." Li Baiquan chuckled.

Old man Tian's eyes widened with a look of shock: "Damn, you guys are so prosperous. You made dozens or hundreds of dollars in one morning. Old man, this is not the first time I've been to this place, so I didn't notice it at all. There is also dendrobium in this place.”

"It's really dendrobium? Isn't it a lie?" Lin Heng's uncle Lu Honghai didn't believe it, so he walked over and opened the bag to check.

"It's true. Which of you discovered it?" After taking a look, a trace of envy appeared on his face. This is a good thing.

"Lin Heng, I picked some at his advantage. If he hadn't told me, these would have been his." Li Baiquan said with a smile.

"Originally, I said that I found a lot of bergamot and astragalus today. It's good to make ten yuan, but compared with you, it's really annoying."

Uncle Lin Heng looked at Shi Hu with envious eyes shining.

He has decided to search nearby in the afternoon.

Lin Heng smashed the mud of the beggar's chicken, took out the chicken and tore off a drumstick. While eating, he asked: "Should we continue exploring here in the afternoon, or should we go somewhere else?"

"Let's just go here. There are quite a lot of prey tracks around here. Let's search carefully in the past two days." Tian Baishun said.

"I think it's okay. If you have something to gain, go back and go farther away next time." Lu Honghai also nodded.

"Then let's stay here." Lin Heng didn't have any objections to this. Anyway, it was pretty much the same, and sometimes running far away might not yield results.

This thing is just like fishing, luck plays a big part.

After eating some chicken, Lin Heng ate two more taros to fill his stomach.

He looked at his uncle's bergamot and astragalus drying on the ground, then turned to deal with his own dendrobium.

You must pour it out to dry, otherwise it will all rot when you get home.

He didn't have time to process it slowly, so he spread it flat on the ground to dry. When it was dry, the leaves fell off naturally.

The medicinal parts of Dendrobium officinale are the stems of the plant, and the roots and leaves are useless.

Lin Heng looked at the dendrobium on the ground and thought that he might try artificial cultivation. Although he had not had much contact with it in his previous life, he could give it a try.

He definitely does not have this technology for complete indoor greenhouse farming. It was developed by countless professionals after many experiments. Without specific cultivation data such as humidity and temperature, it is impossible to succeed.

But by finding a suitable environment and transplanting the dendrobium branches into wild and semi-wild cultivation, he felt that there would still be a high probability of success.

In this era, there was no technology to cultivate dendrobium at all, so semi-wild ones like mine could be sold as wild ones.

Although it is a bit immoral, there is no morality in making money. If you can guarantee that this is Dendrobium officinale, it is already a very high moral level.

(End of this chapter)