Chapter 222: Chapter 222: Treasure Hunting—Five Big Chests

This guy was pretty shrewd. He bought the ginseng root without any rootlets, which saved him half a million compared to buying a complete one.

After getting the ginseng, he spent a hefty sum to invite a master appraiser—someone quite well-known online—to take a look. The master agreed to help mainly for the exposure, hoping to ride the wave of online traffic and boost his own fame.

The two hit it off right away, and after some clever hype, they turned this appraisal event into a hot topic.

Some people might say, “A million or two is nothing to the rich. Why bother hesitating? Just buy it outright.” But rich people don’t get their money from thin air—they’re just as wary of scams, especially with all the fraudsters online these days. You can never be too careful.

So everyone was watching the appraisal result closely, ready to place their orders the moment the verdict was out. If it turned out to be real, someone would snap up the other, complete ginseng root immediately.

And sure enough, the appraisal confirmed it was genuine.

The comment section exploded.

“I knew the shop owner I follow would never sell fakes!”

“Another day, another surprise from this little shop. The stuff they’re selling just keeps getting fancier.”

“That lump was really ginseng? My god, if I saw it on the street, I probably wouldn’t recognize it—might even kick it aside. No wonder some people make money; I’ve got eyes but no vision.”

“Fresh ginseng, in the dead of winter? Did the shop owner dig it up in the deep forests of the Northeast?”

“Guess I’m just not worthy…”

“Slap in the face for those who said the shop was selling fakes!”

“By the way, isn’t there still another ginseng root up for grabs?”

…

Before anyone could react, the complete ginseng root was already snapped up by a wealthy buyer.

Who wouldn’t want something this good?

Honestly, getting such a high-quality ginseng for just over 1.5 million was a steal.

The shop owner clearly didn’t know the market price and just went with their gut.

A lot of people could only stare in frustration—who would’ve thought a tiny shop would actually sell real wild ginseng? It was like something out of a fantasy novel.

More and more people started following Gu Qinghuan’s shop, vowing to buy whatever she sold in the future, no questions asked—first come, first served.

The first person to take the plunge not only became an overnight sensation thanks to the appraisal event and gained a ton of followers, but also found a new direction: specializing in appraisals and exposing fakes, sparking a whole anti-counterfeit trend online.

As for the ginseng he bought, he sold it to his father’s herbal medicine company and made a clean profit of half a million.

He really hit the jackpot this time.

Even after becoming famous, he didn’t forget Gu Qinghuan’s kindness. He often mentioned this story on his livestreams, giving her shop free publicity and practically becoming its unofficial spokesperson.

Gu Qinghuan, however, knew nothing about any of this.

After lunch with Xu Huaian, she hurried out of her space—there was still a lot to do that afternoon.

The two of them sped through the deep mountains, with the little purple mink occasionally pointing out things on the ground for them to dig up.

They found some medicinal herbs like polygonum multiflorum, gastrodia, and notoginseng, but no more ginseng—at least, not any old enough to be worth digging up.

In the little mink’s eyes, young ginseng wasn’t worth the trouble; it needed more time to grow.

After all, century-old ginseng isn’t like radishes—you can’t just find them anywhere.

But things got a little strange this time. Xu Huaian had already dug a hole as deep as his knees and still hadn’t found anything.

Gu Qinghuan shot a suspicious look at the little mink.

“You didn’t point us to the wrong spot, did you?”

The little mink looked both aggrieved and indignant, gesturing emphatically.

Strangely enough, Gu Qinghuan seemed to understand what it meant.

It was like it was saying, “How could you not trust me? If I say there’s something here, there’s definitely something here!”

So Gu Qinghuan had Xu Huaian keep digging.

When the hole was almost a meter deep, Xu Huaian’s shovel suddenly hit something hard, making a dull thud—it sounded like wood.

He and Gu Qinghuan exchanged glances, then he started digging even more eagerly.

The little mink turned its head away with a huff, as if to say, “See? I told you so.”

Gu Qinghuan gave it a rub. “Alright, you’re the best, okay? I’ll give you extra chicken tonight.”

The little mink looked very pleased with itself.

Xu Huaian dug for a while longer and realized the chest was even bigger than he’d thought. At his pace, he’d still be digging by nightfall.

Gu Qinghuan knew this wouldn’t do, so she came up with an idea: she jumped into the pit, touched the chest, and tried to store it in her space.

It worked!

The spot where Gu Qinghuan had just been standing was now an empty hole—she’d sunk even deeper.

But to her surprise, there was another chest below.

Gu Qinghuan used the same trick and stored that one away too.

And there was another one underneath.

It was like they’d never end.

One after another, Gu Qinghuan stored a total of five big chests in her space before finally hitting solid ground.

She’d sunk several meters down.

In the end, she had to toss a rope out from her space for Xu Huaian to pull her up.

They didn’t have time to check what was inside the chests, but anything that caught the little mink’s eye and was buried this deep in the mountains was bound to be extraordinary.

First, they had to fill in the hole—if someone found it, it could be trouble.

Luckily, there was plenty of dirt around. They shoveled it all back in, packed it down, and Xu Huaian even carefully covered the spot with snow so it wouldn’t be obvious. After a while, the traces would disappear completely.

They were hard at work when Xu Huaian suddenly looked up and pulled Gu Qinghuan behind him.

She was about to ask what was wrong when she realized they were surrounded by a pack of wild boars.

Aren’t wild boars supposed to be dumb? Since when do they know how to surround their prey?

Unfortunately, to these boars, they were the prey.

With the thick snow in the mountains, food was scarce, and these wild boars hadn’t eaten in days—their eyes were practically glowing green.

Even as she was scared, Gu Qinghuan couldn’t help counting—one, two, three… eighteen!

Eighteen wild boars in total.

Gu Qinghuan was stunned.

But she quickly remembered she could hide in her space—no need to face them head-on.

She tugged Xu Huaian’s sleeve. “Let’s hide in the space for now and wait it out.”

Xu Huaian shook his head, completely unafraid. “It’s fine, I can handle this. It’s not every day you see so many big ones—let’s stock up your space so you’ll have plenty of meat for next year.”

“So many wild boars—are you sure?”

It wasn’t that Gu Qinghuan didn’t trust him; she just didn’t know about Xu Huaian’s legendary exploits against hundreds of people.

“Just watch. I’ll make sure your pigsty is overflowing today.

Give me a basket of your cabbages, and then stay behind me. If things get dangerous, get into the space right away.”

Gu Qinghuan instantly understood his plan.

She quickly took two baskets of cabbages from her transfer box, handing one to Xu Huaian.

Xu Huaian grabbed the cabbage, picked up his shovel and a big net, and charged out.

Gu Qinghuan had no choice but to follow—she couldn’t just leave him alone.

Clearly, the wild boars were starving. Xu Huaian tossed a bundle of cabbage to test the waters, and several boars immediately started fighting over it, forgetting all about them.

Seeing this, Gu Qinghuan threw another bundle of cabbage in a different direction.

Just like that, the two of them threw out all the cabbage bundles from their baskets, successfully breaking the wild boars’ encirclement.

All the boars started scrambling for the cabbage, paying no attention to the two of them.

Xu Huaian shot Gu Qinghuan a look, and she instantly got it—they’d done this kind of thing together before."