Chapter 56: Gastrodia

  It was just a leisurely time when Chu Jiaqiang's eyes caught sight of San Shu Po walking from afar, with something in her hand.

  San Shu Po walked in, and Chu Jiaqiang smiled: "San Shu Po, where are you going? If it's not urgent, have a cup of tea!"

  "Hehe! Your Third Uncle had numbness and pain in his hands and feet last night, so he went to the mountain to dig up some Ding Feng Cao. He's going to make a soup with it tonight. This stuff is pretty effective for numbness and pain in the hands and feet. The old Taoist priest told us about it before too." Third Aunt walked over and put down the Ding Feng Cao.

  Chu Jiaqiang hastily asked Chu Jiayuan to take a seat, then poured a cup of tea.

  "Oh! Dingfeng grass!" Chu Jiaqiang looked at the Dingfeng grass and suddenly remembered that this Dingfeng grass was also called Tianma. It's also a very precious medicinal material. He recalled that the mountain of Yueguangding had the most Tianma. In the past, he didn't know its value, until later, he discovered that these were treasures. After returning, they all forgot about these treasures.

  It looks at the Tianma in front of his eyes, which is elliptical or long and flat, slightly wrinkled and curved, 3-15cm long, 1.5-6cm wide, and 0.5-2cm thick. The surface is yellowish-white to light brown, with longitudinal wrinkles and transverse annular patterns formed by the arrangement of latent buds, sometimes with brown fungal hyphae visible. The top has a reddish-brown to dark brown parrot-shaped bud or residual stem base; the other end has a circular umbilical scar. The texture is hard and not easily broken, with a relatively flat cross-section, yellowish-white to light brown, and horn-like.

  Tianma, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, has been used for over 2,000 years, with the southern variety being considered superior. It is rich in tianma alkaloids, gastrodin, proteins, amino acids, and trace elements. Its properties are pungent, warm, and non-toxic, with effects of anti-epilepsy, anti-tetanus, anti-rheumatism; sedation, antispasmodic, analgesia, tonifying, and calming the liver to extinguish wind. The main functions are to calm the liver and extinguish wind to stop spasms. It is used for headaches and dizziness, numbness of limbs, epilepsy, tetanus, and infantile convulsions.

  In the north, gastrodia is generally harvested after the winter solstice and before Qingming Festival next year. In the south, some people harvest seedlings in March or April, and roots in July, August, or September. Actually, nowadays, there is no strict restriction on the harvesting season.

  "Shouldn't you take a few more? Anyway, I definitely won't be able to finish this." Third Aunt scooped out nearly half the bag.

  "That's great! It's better to obey than to be polite! Thank you, Third Aunt!" Chu Jiaqiang really took some.

  "Permit Auntie, when stewing pork bones tonight, add it in. It's also very effective for Uncle Yan's illness. It can cure acute and chronic convulsions, numbness and paralysis, dizziness, headache, hemiplegia, limb numbness, as well as rheumatic arthralgia."

  Xu Xiuyi listened and immediately nodded, as long as it was beneficial to her husband, she wouldn't think it was a bother.

  "Brother! Where are you going?" Chu Jia Wan asked as she saw Chu Jia Qiang get up and head out.

  "Dongfeng grass is a good treasure, especially the wild ones. I remember there were quite a few on the mountain? Let's gather everyone to dig for treasure." Chu Jiaqiang said. Chu Jiaqiang could have gone to dig secretly by himself, but since he still had enough money, it wasn't necessary to fight with everyone over that little bit of profit.

  It's said that Chu Jia Wan is digging for treasure, and immediately follows along with a large group of children trailing behind. Xu Xiu can't help but laugh at the scene, while Yan Tian Zhi nods to himself in secret, thinking: This kid really doesn't care about money! It's clear that he stayed behind with the intention of bringing wealth to everyone.

  He went to his uncle's house and pulled him aside, saying: "Uncle, it looks like we have to do business again this time."

  "What business is this?" Second Uncle was quite perplexed.

  "There are many Ganoderma lucidum on our mountain, aren't there? That's also a treasure. This time, let's follow the old rules, you cooperate with Shengyi Uncle! Collect Ganoderma lucidum together and then resell them." After all, Chu Jiaqiang still had some personal motives, although he didn't care about that little money, his own family needed it!

  "Oh? How much does it cost?" Second Uncle's eyes lit up.

  "This Bupleurum is also called gastrodia, usually sold dry. The ones grown at home are not worth much money, but the wild ones are quite valuable. Just now I asked Jiang Ge, he can take 800 yuan per catty for wild dried goods. You can ask the villagers for 700 yuan and still make a lot of money, everyone will be very happy." On the way, Chu Jiaqiang had already contacted Jiang Tao.

  "Really that expensive?"

  "Is this fake? If you don't believe me, you can call Jiang Ge and ask him." Chu Jiaqiang nodded.

  "Let's go! To Old Village Chief's house." Second Uncle hurriedly went to the village chief's house.

  The old village chief and Chu Shengyi were both there, with Chu Shengyi repairing a bike at the entrance and the old village chief smoking on the side. They saw Chu Jiaqiang and Chu Shengmin walking over, followed by a group of children, and couldn't help but feel curious.

  "Winning people and strong families, looking at you, it seems like something's up!" The old village chief said, putting down his water pipe.

  "Sheng Yi Shu, is the carriage broken?" Chu Jiaqiang lowered his head and looked under the carriage.

  "Haha! Small problem, already fixed." Chu Shengyi crawled out from under the car, his whole body covered in black engine oil.

  "Old Uncle, Xiao Yi, let's all go in and talk about it! It's not convenient here." Er Uncle said, looking at the large group of children behind him.

  Chu Shengyi was taken aback along with the old village chief, then nodded and directly took Chu Jiaqiang and Chu Shengmin to the inner room.

  "What's going on? Speak up! You're being mysterious." The old village chief laughed.

  Chu Shengmin looked at Chu Jiaqiang and said: "Jiaqiang, you say it yourself!"

  Chu Jiaqiang forced a bitter smile, and had no choice but to recount the events again. The old village chief and Chu Shengyi stared with wide eyes - could it be that the usually unremarkable Difengcao was actually a treasure? And it was worth 700 or 800 yuan per kilogram? This was far more shocking than the cicada shells from before. Several dozen yuan per kilogram versus several hundred yuan per kilogram, the two were simply incomparable.

  The old village chief calmed down and walked back and forth for a while.

  "Let's just go with Jiaqiang's idea then! It's a bit late today, I'll let everyone know first thing tomorrow morning." the old village chief said.

  "When digging, remind everyone that the small ones should not be dug up, leave some seeds, and they can continue next year." Chu Jiaqiang was afraid that everyone would dig them all up, after all, this treasure is several hundred yuan per kilogram, but it's hard to say.

  The old village chief nodded, this truth doesn't need Chu's family to emphasize it again, he already knows what to do. He can predict that this item will increase everyone's income by several thousand yuan this year, and with quick hands and feet, even getting tens of thousands of yuan out is not a difficult task. He knew that on the Moonlight Peak side, there were many of these fixed wind grasses.

  This is a very important income, you know, the annual income from farming land is only a few thousand yuan. Therefore, it is necessary to continue this sustainable property. He plans to draft a protection plan and go door-to-door tonight to get everyone's signature, which will also save tomorrow's broadcast.

  This time, Chu Shengyi didn't dare to take half of the profit. After discussing with Chu Shengmin for a while, they decided to give half of the profit to Chu Jiaqiang, and then Chu Shengmin would take 30% and he himself would take 20%.

  "You all go and do what you need to do! Chujiaqiang, stay behind and help me come up with some protective measures for the Dingfengcao. Tonight, we'll go from house to house to get everyone's signatures." The old village chief immediately started shooing people away, leaving only Chujiaqiang behind.

  The two of them discussed for a while and jointly formulated three rules.

  Only mature Dingfeng grass can be dug up, and young or small ones growing nearby are not allowed to be disturbed.

  Secondly, a specific time is designated each year for digging and harvesting, and digging is not allowed at other times to avoid affecting the growth of the Difengcao. Of course, if only a small amount is dug for personal use, that's a different matter.

  Thirdly, everyone must keep it confidential and not casually mention it to people from other villages.

  As for the third point, Chu Jiaqiang is not very optimistic. Adults are easy to talk about, and they will definitely not speak out of turn, but children can't keep their mouths shut. We can only pay more attention in the future, thank you for paying attention to the whereabouts of outsiders entering the village.

  Three penalty schemes were also formulated for violations of the rules: For minor cases, one-tenth of the income from this item in that year would be deducted as village expenses; For serious cases, half would be deducted; For severe cases, the harvesting and excavation rights for that year would be directly revoked.