Chapter 15: Encountering a Wolf
After the torrential rain came several consecutive days of scorching sun. The rice seedlings, whose roots had been damaged by the flood, were now scorched by the sun. For the past two days, the villagers of Zhaojia Village didn’t even get distracted by the smell of meat coming from Zhao An’s house. They were all wearing long faces, hoping the sky would quickly turn overcast and the temperature would drop, giving their seedlings a chance to recover.
At this time, Zhao An hadn’t had much interaction with the villagers and was unaware of their suffering. He only felt uncomfortable having to wear long-sleeved clothes in temperatures that had rapidly soared above thirty degrees. Zhao An certainly hoped the temperature would drop soon, but he had an even more pressing wish: to be able to wear a short jacket and vest like Qin Tong.
But Hai Bo resolutely refused to let Zhao An wear such clothes out. The look in his eyes suggested that if Zhao An dared to go out in a short jacket, he would die of anger on the spot. He even took out all his savings and said to Zhao An, “These coarse cotton clothes are indeed stuffy to wear. Young Master, why don’t you take this money and buy a roll of light gauze? I’ll have someone make it into clothes for you, and you won’t be hot.”
The money Hai Bo took out was the fifty liang Hu Sheng had left. Zhao An thought of that person for two seconds, then said seriously to Hai Bo, “Cotton clothes absorb sweat. I’m fine wearing them. You should put this silver away.”
Zhao An then had another thought. The current weather was perfect for going up the mountain. It would surely be cool up there, and it was indeed not advisable to wear too little when walking on the mountain paths. Before setting out, he even had Qin Tong change into long-sleeved clothes. He had him carry a basket with food, a water flask, and a self-made fire starter of wood shavings and grass fluff, planning to find a chance to boil some hot water to drink on the mountain. He himself carried a basket with two sickles and a small hoe.
He made so many preparations because he wanted to go further this time. In order to go a little further in the shortest amount of time, he didn’t even bother to dig up some of the common medicinal herbs he saw. Moreover, after going up the mountain more often, his pace had quickened a lot. So, they only took a little over half a shichen to reach the stream where they had once found the strawberry seedlings.
Then they followed the stream upstream. Although the path along the river was relatively easy to walk, it was also more dangerous. Fearing he might encounter predatory animals coming for a drink, Zhao An kept a thorny branch in his hand, planning to instantly activate it with his ability to entangle the predator and escape if he encountered one.
Fortunately, they walked along the stream for a shichen without encountering any predators. Unfortunately, besides fish mint, there were only water-loving mosses and lichens by the river.
Besides its medicinal value, lichen was also a decent-tasting wild vegetable, so Zhao An still spent some time collecting some, planning to blanch it and serve it with aromatic vinegar as a cold salad back home.
Other than that, there was no harvest. Zhao An continued on the road with Qin Tong, and then they finally encountered two beautiful animals: a male and female pheasant. The male’s tail feathers shimmered with iridescent colors in the sunlight, like the legendary phoenix.
The tail feathers of this species seemed even more vibrant than those used for the plumes in Peking opera. Zhao An could still appreciate them, but when Qin Tong saw the two pheasants, his first reaction was, “I wonder if this kind of wild chicken tastes good.”
“You can’t eat this,” Zhao An quickly interrupted Qin Tong’s reverie.
Qin Tong still looked at the two pheasants strolling leisurely in the woods, eager to pounce and catch them. He asked, puzzled, “Why can’t we eat them?”
“Because we can’t catch them,” Zhao An said. He actually wanted to say, Let’s leave this rare, specially colored animal for future conservation efforts.
Although the concept of protecting plants and animals no longer existed after the spiritual energy revival, those creatures that had gone extinct could never reappear.
Qin Tong quickly accepted the reason Zhao An gave. If you can’t catch it, you certainly can’t eat it. So he could only reminisce about the soup made from the fat hen and the braised meat from the young rooster they had eaten two days ago. The hen was stewed until tender and delicious, while the rooster was chewy and flavorful.
Zhao An had to once again marvel at the fact that although Hai Bo had been a steward for decades, his skill in making a few home-cooked dishes had not grown rusty at all.
Zhao An knew what Qin Tong was thinking just by looking at his expression. A thirteen-year-old boy was in the middle of a growth spurt and had a particularly large appetite. His expressions were even less concealed. So Zhao An said to Qin Tong, “I’ve taught you some methods for identifying medicinal herbs. Help me keep an eye out. If we can find some precious herbs today, I’ll have Hai Bo buy another young rooster to braise when we get back.”
The enthusiasm for a solid braised young rooster made Qin Tong abandon his fantasy of the two brightly colored wild pheasants he had seen on the mountain path. He began to focus on helping Zhao An find medicinal herbs.
Logically, in this mountain forest on the border of Shuzhou and Jiaozhou, it should be easy to find precious medicinal herbs. Because of this, even Changxi County town had a shop that specialized in buying medicinal herbs, and the major medicine merchants in the prefectural city would even organize their own people to go into the Hundred Thousand Mountains to search for good herbs.
Even though the great green mountain behind Zhaojia Village was the outermost part of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, it was still an undeveloped forest. With the natural environment not severely damaged, the medicinal herbs that grew there should be of decent quality.
Zhao An suspected it was still a matter of experience. Even with his wood-elemental ability, it was difficult to spot a single valuable herb in a vast expanse of wild grass.
But in the rarely trodden mountain forest, besides trees, there was only wild grass. Zhao An could only use the most foolish method of identifying the types of wild grass one by one.
Finally, he discovered some more medicinal herbs, such as clematis, patchouli, and a particularly thin and weak honeysuckle.
Although these were not considered precious medicinal herbs, patchouli could be used as a seasoning, and honeysuckle planted in front of and behind the house could repel mosquitoes, so he picked some of each and put them in his basket.
Qin Tong, however, had found nothing along the way. Seeing Zhao An dig up herbs one after another, he felt a little dejected, afraid that the promised braised young rooster would fly away. Even if it didn’t, he would feel ashamed for not contributing when he ate it.
With a sense of determination, Qin Tong became even more serious in his search for medicinal herbs. Finally, he saw a herb that Zhao An had once described to him in detail: the gastrodia that grew near Jiaozhou.
This was the rhizome of an orchid. After late spring, it was no longer edible, but this was not a problem for Zhao An at all.
When he heard Qin Tong shout, “Young Master, come and see, is this gastrodia?” he was so excited that he started running through a pile of scattered rocks by the riverbank.
Then he saw the beautiful flowering plant. That’s right, it was the gastrodia from his memory. In this era without artificial cultivation, although the price of gastrodia couldn’t compare to notoginseng or ginseng, it was still profitable enough.
Just this one harvest today was worth it. Zhao An took out his small hoe and, following the root system of the gastrodia, dug it up whole with the surrounding soil. He carefully pressed the soil around the roots and then placed it in his basket.
He had Qin Tong search the surrounding area, and they found a total of six gastrodia plants. Just as Zhao An was about to be overjoyed, he suddenly felt a malicious gaze on his back.
He only had time to look up and see the terrified expression on Qin Tong’s face before he felt a sharp gust of wind whistle past behind him. As for why he dodged it, it was of course because he had promptly dropped to the ground.
When he looked up again, he met the eyes of a wolf. This was not a metaphor; they had really encountered a wolf on the mountain.
Although they weren’t unlucky enough to encounter a pack of wolves, this lone wolf was not small. It was comparable to a small calf. Coupled with the brown fur standing up on its back and the wounds on its cheeks and ears, Zhao An could assert that it was a lone wolf that had been wandering alone after failing to become the wolf king.
Zhao An drew in a sharp breath, suspecting that this fellow had probably been following them for some time, just hadn’t made a move until they found the gastrodia and relaxed their guard. Only then did it launch its attack.
Obviously, this wolf’s intelligence was not simple; it could even use some rudimentary tactics. Just as Zhao An was wondering if this wolf had been following them for a long time, the wolf suddenly launched another attack.
Like an arrow released from a bow, it opened its mouth full of sharp teeth and, with a foul stench, pounced towards Zhao An. Although Qin Tong had been scared stiff once before, this time when the wolf attacked Zhao An again, he had already reacted. He grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at the wolf, but the creature had already leaped away, causing Qin Tong’s hard-won counterattack to miss.
Zhao An, however, remained calm. Even though his fingers were pricked by the thorns and were bleeding slightly, his gaze remained locked on the wolf, not blinking for a moment.
Finally, the wolf pounced to within half a meter of him. He immediately activated his ability, causing the vine in his hand to grow to its maximum extent, and then controlled the ability to wrap the vine around the wolf’s body and limbs.
But its forward momentum did not slow down. If Zhao An hadn’t rolled on the ground and dodged quickly, he would have been hit and injured by the thorn-wrapped wolf.
But none of the unexpected situations occurred. Zhao An successfully subdued the wolf. He still held one end of the thorn vine tightly in his hand, then slowly infused his ability and pulled on the vine. The wolf initially didn’t want to move, but the increasingly urgent stinging pain from its neck forced it to follow Zhao An’s steps.
That’s right, after finding the gastrodia, Zhao An was not greedy and planned to head back. Now that he had encountered this wolf, his plan remained unchanged, and he continued to walk in the direction of home.
Then, he returned to Zhaojia Village when the afternoon sun was at its hottest. He stood at the foot of the steps outside his house and saw the farmers all looking at the sun-withered seedlings with worried frowns.
In this situation, the only option was to replant. But for the working people of ancient times, gathering enough seedlings was already a difficult task, let alone replanting.
Under these circumstances, everyone Zhao An saw wore a worried expression. And they completely ignored the fact that Zhao An was leading a wolf with a vine. This made Zhao An, who had originally wanted to show off in the village and intimidate the petty villains, feel a sense of powerlessness, like punching cotton.
After all, the reason he wanted to parade this wolf around the villagers was that two days ago, he had wanted Hai Bo to buy two puppies in the village, but after asking all the dog-owning families, none of them wanted to sell to them. So, after getting this untamed wolf, he couldn’t wait to lead it out to show off.
However, judging by the current results, it was like winking at a blind man.
Under these circumstances, even if Zhao An didn’t care about farming, he discovered the hardships of the surrounding villagers.
Some of them seemed to have resigned themselves to their fate and had started to cultivate new seedlings, hoping to replant some rice before the weather completely cleared up.
Other villagers were not well-off. After this disaster, they no longer had the ability to remedy the situation. They planned to dig up some hilly land and plant more corn and sweet potatoes, hoping not to starve at the end of the year.
Even in what seemed to be a relatively peaceful era, the common people of ancient times really couldn’t withstand even the slightest disaster. Even though this so-called flood, for someone like Zhao An who didn’t farm, only meant having Hu Sheng stay at his house for a night, for the other villagers, it meant considering a year of hardship ahead.
In fact, not much of this rice would end up in their mouths. For them, most of their staple food was actually corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and the like. But the rice harvest was their biggest source of income, used to pay taxes, buy salt, cloth, cotton, and other necessities for survival.
If they had no rice to sell, they could only sell corn, sweet potatoes, and the like, and these coarse grains didn’t fetch a good price.
In short, everyone was working as hard as they could to enhance their ability to resist the risks of natural disasters, except for Zhao Tongming’s family.
After losing fifty liang of silver and having their home invaded twice, their family was still scheming. Taking advantage of this opportunity provided by the heavens, they planned to buy up more children in the winter. After a little grooming, they could be sold for a large sum of money. And next year, during the spring famine, they might even be able to buy up some land.
However, their wishful thinking this time was destined to fail. Because after Zhao An led the wolf home, under Hai Bo’s astonished gaze, he calmly took out a handful of strawberry seeds, scattered them in a small bamboo basket, and then activated all the ability in his body, infusing it into these ungerminated seeds. The strawberry seeds grew as if they had broken through heaven and earth, until they were the height of a finger.
Without stopping, Zhao An directly carried this basket of strawberry seedlings to Liu Huan’s house to discuss a cooperation plan with him: to set aside a piece of the Liu family’s ancestral land to grow strawberries. When the money was sold, Zhao An would only take a one-tenth share, and the remaining nine-tenths would be divided equally among the villagers.
Liu Huan was of course very happy to hear such news, especially when he heard that Zhao An could sell the strawberries to Ruyi House for as much as three wen each.
But Zhao An said, “But I see that the market in Changxi County is not large. With just my family selling strawberries, we can maintain the price of three wen per strawberry. If everyone in our village starts growing strawberries, I think the market will definitely be overwhelmed. At that time, we might not even be able to sell them for three wen per jin.
So my suggestion is, after the strawberry seedlings have grown, we use some bamboo baskets to pack them and then transport them to sell in farther places.”
“In this way, the impact of the flood on our village should be minimized,” Zhao An said.
