Chapter 221: Chapter 221: Little Sable Hunts for Treasure—Ginseng

“How is it? What did you find?” Anything that catches this little sable’s eye can’t be ordinary.

Xu Huaian said excitedly, “Come over and take a look!”

In Xu Huaian’s hand was a piece of ginseng, with a bit still buried in the soil. He was lying on the ground, carefully digging it out. Despite the winter chill, he was sweating buckets.

“Wow, there’s actually ginseng under that patch of dead grass? Looks like a pretty big one, too.”

Gu Qinghuan patted the little sable’s head in praise. “Good job, little guy!”

This fellow kept finding ginseng one after another—could its special skill be sniffing out ginseng? That would be amazing! Whoever raises it basically has a walking treasure detector.

The little sable looked completely smug, as if this was only natural, its proud expression making Gu Qinghuan even more fond of it.

As Xu Huaian kept digging, he explained, “Ginseng is a perennial deciduous plant, so losing its leaves in winter is perfectly normal. In winter, most ginseng diggers don’t bother coming up the mountain. Once spring comes and the temperature rises, it grows new leaves, and that’s how people usually identify it. Thanks to our little sable, we’re able to find such a treasure in the dead of winter—what luck! This ginseng is probably around a hundred years old.”

A hundred-year-old ginseng might not fetch sky-high prices these days, but it’s still worth a few hundred yuan at the very least.

And if you sold this kind of wild ginseng in a vending machine to people from the future, it could easily go for several thousand or even ten thousand. We’re going to make a fortune!

Plus, they’d found another one earlier—even though it didn’t have any rootlets, it was still ginseng.

Gu Qinghuan made a quick decision. “Great job. You’re getting a special meal for lunch today!”

Of course, she was talking to the little sable.

The little guy clasped its paws together, as if to say, “Thank you, thank you.”

Xu Huaian continued digging up the rest of the ginseng, while Gu Qinghuan, wanting to reward the sable properly, looked up its favorite foods.

Sables mainly eat small birds and mammals, but they also eat insects, pine nuts, berries, and other plant foods. Their diet includes squirrels, chipmunks, field mice, voles, pikas, hares, pheasants, grouse, small birds, bird eggs, insects, and sometimes fish, honey, various nuts, and berries.

Wow, this little guy eats just about everything—from fish and meat to veggies, fruit, and nuts. Its diet isn’t so different from a human’s.

Gu Qinghuan quickly decided to reward it with a wild rabbit she’d caught that morning.

Since the sable couldn’t finish a whole rabbit in one sitting, she skinned it, chopped off a big rabbit leg, and gave it to the sable. Then she added a few packs of her favorite mixed nuts and fished out a small crucian carp to serve as a side dish.

Finally, she poured a cup of spiritual spring water.

Wild rabbit, crucian carp, and nuts—a perfectly balanced, nutritious meal.

The little sable drooled with satisfaction and dug in.

By then, Xu Huaian had finished digging up the rest of the ginseng. Now, a clump of soil-covered ginseng lay in his palm.

The two of them discussed it. They didn’t need to use the ginseng right now, and with the little sable around, they might find more in the future. Most importantly, they didn’t know how to properly prepare ginseng and didn’t want to waste something so precious. Selling it now would only fetch a few hundred yuan at most.

Gu Qinghuan decided to put it up for sale in the vending machine.

She also included the previous ginseng they’d saved—the one without rootlets.

She wrapped both soil-covered ginseng roots in a red cloth and placed them in the vending machine.

Pricing them was a bit tricky. Gu Qinghuan knew wild hundred-year-old ginseng was expensive, but she wasn’t sure exactly how expensive. She remembered seeing a news story: a 236-gram, hundred-year-old wild ginseng had a starting auction price of 12 million yuan and eventually sold for 18 million—that’s over 70,000 yuan per gram!

Their two wild ginseng roots weren’t light, but after processing, they definitely wouldn’t weigh over 200 grams—maybe just over 100 grams each.

A tiny difference in weight could mean a huge difference in price.

If she went by that auction price, each root would be worth tens of thousands, which was unrealistic since their ginseng wasn’t exactly the same.

Gu Qinghuan thought it over and decided to take a middle ground—no pricing by the gram, just a flat price.

The one without rootlets would be a bit cheaper: 10,000 yuan.

The one with rootlets, better looking and bigger, she’d shamelessly ask for 15,000.

Converted to future prices, that’s about 1 million and 1.5 million—not cheap, but definitely not outrageous. Compared to that 18 million auction price, it was a bargain.

After all, this was real wild ginseng.

She set the prices, wrote a simple description, and put them up for sale.

Her description was straightforward: “Authentic Northeastern wild ginseng, over a hundred years old. Guaranteed genuine or ten times your money back. Honest business, welcome to inspect.”

Once that was done, the two of them washed up and sat down to eat.

A steaming hot pot of spicy stew with rice—absolutely irresistible.

Xu Huaian had burned a lot of energy that morning and wolfed down three big bowls of rice, along with plenty of food.

His wife’s cooking was a rare treat these days—he had to cherish it and eat as much as he could.

What they didn’t know was that the ginseng they’d just listed was already stirring up a heated discussion online.

Because the price was so high—hundreds of thousands—many people saw it, but no one dared to buy it right away. Most were just watching.

Some couldn’t afford it and were just there for the spectacle; others could afford it but weren’t sure it was genuine and hesitated.

Although Gu Qinghuan’s shop had always prided itself on selling authentic goods, what if this was just a scam? There were plenty of stories online about sellers starting with real goods to build trust, then cashing out with fakes.

If you spent over a million and it turned out to be fake, you’d be ruined.

Some people even sent private messages cursing Gu Qinghuan as a scammer.

But there were also some sharp-minded folks.

One blogger, whose family was in the medicinal herb business and who was quite wealthy, had been trying to grow his account but never found a good angle. The online buzz caught his attention, and he had a bold idea.

Since everyone was watching and wanted to know if the ginseng was really a hundred-year-old wild root, why not buy it himself and make a high-quality review? That would definitely attract a lot of attention.

Whether the ginseng was real or fake, he’d get tons of traffic and maybe even go viral."