Chapter 136: Those Two Have Incredible Dumb Luck

Lin Jingyue patted her chest with a resounding thud. "Don't worry, I will definitely do my best."

With those words, the chance of success felt a little higher.

"However, daily maintenance is also very important. For instance, during your period, you must avoid cold water, spicy food, and raw or cold items. Be careful not to catch a chill, especially in your abdomen..." Women in this era often ignored such things, so Lin Jingyue rattled on with a long list of instructions.

Yet, truth be told, they had no way to be careful. In these times, for the sake of a few bites of food, who in a household wasn't working their fingers to the bone like an old ox? Most women would return to the fields just three days after giving birth. Those who could actually complete a full month of postpartum confinement were few and far between, and only those with kind-hearted in-laws were afforded such luxury.

"I never knew there were so many things to look out for," Sun Lanlan said, stunned.

"Well, your body belongs to you; it never hurts to be a little more careful. Also, if you have the means, try to eat a bit better. You don't have to eat meat every other day, but you must keep up with eggs." Sun Lanlan and Cai Jinzhou were currently able to keep three chickens, so they could certainly manage two eggs a day.

"We will, we definitely will," Cai Jinzhou chimed in, nodding like a chick pecking at grain.

Lin Jingyue gave a few more instructions before preparing to leave. When Cai Jinzhou offered to see her out, she waved him off. "Go boil some hot water for her. Oh, and I won't be able to assemble the medicine for another day or two; I'm still missing two ingredients. I'll bring it over once I have everything."

"Thank you for your hard work. I will have the 'consultation fee' ready."

Lin Jingyue smiled with satisfaction. Cai Jinzhou was actually quite bright.

She left the small courtyard. Cai Jinzhou bolted the door and returned to the room, taking Sun Lanlan’s hand. "Lanlan, I’m planning to give two items from what Mother and Father left us to Lin Jingyue as a down payment for the consultation fee. She’ll be more dedicated that way."

Thinking of Lin Jingyue’s "no eagle without a rabbit" personality, Sun Lanlan didn't object. She actually trusted Lin Jingyue quite a bit. While the girl was pragmatic, she was certainly not a liar—she wouldn't ruin her own reputation.

"You decide what to give," Sun Lanlan said.

Her mother-in-law had secretly given them a bundle of belongings, which was buried behind the house. Cai Jinzhou first boiled hot water for Sun Lanlan, adding a bit of brown sugar for her to drink, before going out to dig up the stash. Neither of them had actually looked at the contents carefully; they had been so rushed and fearful of being searched that they had buried it immediately and never unearthed it since.

Cai Jinzhou spread the items out on the *kang*. The golden glimmer nearly blinded Sun Lanlan. There were three hairpins adorned with pearls and jewels, a pair of solid gold bracelets, five small gold bars, three gold rings inlaid with rubies, a jade thumb ring, a pair of jade bangles, and a strand of jade beads.

Jade wasn't worth much these days, but gold… gold could be exchanged for anything. As a hard currency, there was no one who didn't love gold.

Sun Lanlan clutched her chest. "It’s over, it’s really over. I’ve married into a wealthy family."

"…That’s a bit of an exaggeration," Cai Jinzhou said, his mouth twitching at her unconvincing performance.

Sun Lanlan giggled. "How much are we giving Lin Jingyue?"

"How about this and this?" Cai Jinzhou picked out the strand of jade beads and one of the small gold bars. The beads were just a sweetener; the gold bar was what mattered.

"Once your health is restored, we’ll give her another gold bar."

Sun Lanlan thought for a moment and nodded. "That seems feasible."

***

Lin Jingyue returned to the educated youth dormitory, locked the door, and entered her personal space. The land inside was filled with medicinal herbs, lush and vibrant. Thanks to being pampered with spirit spring water, even the common ones were several times better than those found elsewhere. She hadn't lied; she was indeed still missing two ingredients.

The next day, after breakfast, Lin Jingyue shouldered her basket and prepared to head up the mountain. The sky was overcast, looking as though it might snow again.

"You're going up the mountain?" Zhou Yan was tidying the stove and looked surprised to see her heading out.

"Yes, I need to dig for some herbs."

"Wait, I'll go with you." Thinking of the conditions on the mountain, Zhou Yan quickly dropped his rag. "I’ll go call Sun Jiabao; you wait for us at the foot of the mountain." To avoid gossip, he decided to bring another person along.

Lin Jingyue didn't even have a chance to refuse. She smiled and headed to the foot of the mountain with her small hoe to wait. It wasn't long before the two of them—no, three of them—arrived. Li Tongchui was there too.

Upon seeing Lin Jingyue, Li Tongchui instinctively shrank his neck, though he puffed out his chest a moment later, silently chanting to himself: *Lin Jingyue isn't scary, Lin Jingyue isn't scary. As long as you don't provoke her, she won't hit you.*

"Why is there an extra person?" Lin Jingyue raised an eyebrow.

Sun Jiabao scoffed at Li Tongchui. "Some people are just thick-skinned and insisted on coming."

"You're just as thick-skinned," Li Tongchui retorted, curling his lip. He was afraid of Lin Jingyue, but Sun Jiabao? He was just a loser.

Ignoring them, Zhou Yan said to Lin Jingyue, "With an extra person, we can dig up more herbs."

Lin Jingyue figured that made sense.

The group headed up the mountain. On the way, they passed a few older children gathering firewood, their hands frozen red.

"Here, these are the herbs I need. There should be some in this area. Thank you all for your help." Lin Jingyue took a book out of her basket, shielding it from view as if she’d pulled it from within. It was a comprehensive encyclopedia of traditional Chinese medicine, complete with descriptions and illustrations.

"Try your best to dig them out without breaking the roots," she instructed. "Thank you for the hard work."

"Whoa!" Sun Jiabao and Li Tongchui waved their hands hastily. "No trouble at all, no trouble at all!"

The two of them grabbed sickles and immediately began searching for herbs based on the diagrams she had provided. Zhou Yan also picked a direction to head off in, though they all stayed within close range of each other.

Lin Jingyue stayed in the middle. The Great Green Mountain was truly a treasure trove; the herbs were countless. She didn't let the common ones go either, digging them up and tossing them into her basket to be processed and stored for future needs.

"Educated Youth Lin, come over and see what this is!" She was in the middle of digging up a *bupleurum* root when she heard Sun Jiabao and Li Tongchui calling.

She finished collecting the *bupleurum* unhurriedly before walking over, picking a handful of other herbs along the way. "What did you find?" she asked lazily.

"Educated Youth Lin, look, is this the ginseng the book talks about?" Sun Jiabao held up his find for all to see. "Li Tongchui and I were digging for balloon flowers here and accidentally dug this up."

Upon hearing the word "ginseng," Zhou Yan hurried over as well. He and Lin Jingyue stared at what Sun Jiabao was holding, both left speechless for a moment.

"I think it looks just like the one in the book, just not as big," Sun Jiabao said, scratching his head. Li Tongchui held the open book in his hands.

Lin Jingyue’s mouth twitched. She looked at the ginseng, which had had its fine roots broken off during the digging, and felt a pang of heartache. "It is indeed ginseng."

And it looked to be about twenty years old. The two of them had incredible luck to stumble upon a twenty-year-old ginseng just like that.

"Whoa, it really is! Do I actually have such incredible luck?!" Sun Jiabao jumped up. He had heard enough about the value of ginseng to know they’d hit the jackpot.