"Hm…"
Long Qiu—the left-behind child—rose to her feet, shook the dirt off her small shovel, and let out a faint, sulky hum.
She had just planted a tuber fleeceflower, which had auburn tuberous roots, solid skin, and a satisfactory weight—in a word, top-grade. Counterfeit tuber fleeceflower flooded the market these days and everywhere one was offered human-shaped or thousand-year-old ones, which were nothing but a load of shit.
This one was only several decades old, but was already as rare a plant as one could find.
She left the herb garden, ran to the river to wash the shovel clean before drying it carefully with a cloth, then raised her head and looked around.
Winter was followed by spring and after a few months' growth, the medicinal plant seeds sowed earlier had taken roots and sprouted, covering the slopes of the hills. The peach trees also prospered. Exuberant branches were dotted with numerous buds, nodding and swaying in the wind.