The old man opened the door, glanced at Bai Gu's room, and then went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
By the time Bai Gu got up and walked out, the old man had almost finished his meal.
When he saw Bai Gu coming out, the old man didn't even raise his head. He still lowered his head and ate the porridge. He just pointed at the bowl and chopsticks opposite him with his chopsticks and said, "Eat quickly. After you finish eating, go find the ginseng quickly."
Bai Gu didn't say anything or refuse. He just sat down and scooped out a bowl of porridge for himself and started eating.
After eating, Bai Gu rushed to wash the dishes and refused to let the old man enter the kitchen.
The old man had no choice but to give in. Anyway, he could have some leisure time.
Bai Gu moved quickly, and it didn't take long for them to go out.
"Mr. Xu, where should we start looking? You have been in the mountains for a long time, so you should have a better idea of where ginseng grows."
"Didn't Dr. Wu tell you?" The old man held a long wooden stick in one hand as a hiking pole, and in the other he held a cigarette pole and smoked.
What a chain smoker.
Bai Gu glanced at the cigarette pole in the old man's hand and looked away, "Mr. Wu was telling me about the shady places under big trees, big rocks or inside caves, and there would be purple flowers growing there. There will be snakes around, that’s all.”
"that's all?"
"hold head high."
"Didn't I tell you anything more? For example, what dangers are there, or what should I pay attention to."
"No."
The old man was speechless, and he just gave this little hint. Damn it if you can find it. The old man took a puff of cigarette and slowly blew out a smoke ring, "I think Dr. Wu doesn't want you to find Shen."
"Why do you say that? Mr. Wu is a good man." Bai Gu looked confused.
"So it's not like you don't know how big Xuefeng is. There are a lot of shady places like the one you mentioned. If you have to look for them one by one, you don't know how long it will take. I'm afraid you won't be able to leave even if it takes a year and a half. Finished. I'm still looking for Shen. I think he's teasing you." The old man knocked the ashes from his cigarette and continued to smoke.
Bai Gu was silent for a moment, "What about the purple flowers? And the snakes. There shouldn't be a lot of space for these things together, right?"
"Snakes generally like to be in shady places, so this is not a good reference point. As for the purple flowers, there are relatively few, only a few places. But they are very unevenly distributed. They are in different areas and far apart. It’s hard to find them.”
"Then speed up. Can we cover these places in two days?"
"Old man, I'm old and can't walk very fast. It's basically impossible."
"Is that okay if I carry you on my back?"
"This is a lot faster, but apart from sleeping time, it's still difficult even if you carry me on your back all the time."
Bai Gu thought for a moment, and then said: "Then don't sleep anymore and keep looking."
This sentence almost sent the old man away. He choked on a puff of smoke and caused a cough.
Bai Gu quickly went up to help pat his back, and while patting him, he explained: "Master Xu, you misunderstood what I meant. What I mean is, I don't sleep. You lie on my back to sleep at night. Please give me instructions in advance." It's a good road, I'll just follow the directions and find it, and you can sleep peacefully on my back."
"That's it." The old man took two puffs of cigarette and thought about it seriously, "That's barely okay, but it's still a bit annoying. After all, there is some distance. And if you don't sleep, your energy will be very poor. If something happens, it will be very troublesome.”
"It's okay, it's only two days, I can hold on." Bai Gu grinned.
The old man gave Bai Gu a meaningful look and chuckled, "Only two days? Young people should take good care of their bodies. Don't wait until you are old. If your health is not good, you can only be like me, sighing silently here. It's good to be young. ah."
Bai Gu scratched his head, feeling embarrassed by the old man's eyes and words. He didn't know how to reply, so he had to laugh a few times.
"Then let's go to the first place first. It happens to be not far from here. Let's go."
"good."
Bai Gu knelt down, carried the old man on his back, and followed the old man's guidance towards the southeast.
After walking for about two-quarters of an hour, Bai Gu and the others came to a cave.
The cave is not very big. It is only big enough for a small person to pass through, and he has to bend down. There are many short trees in front of the cave, which block part of the view of the cave entrance, so if you don't look carefully, you will miss the cave.
What made Bai Gu a little excited was that there were purple flowers growing in this cave.
Purple flowers spread out from the cave, rushing out like a purple torrent and scattering all over the ground. The purple flowers look even more delicate against the white snow.
Could it be that I was so lucky that I found the first place?
Bai Gu was so happy that he walked straight towards the cave, but was stopped by the old man on his back.
"You want to die! Didn't you see crawling marks on the ground? Those are left by snakes passing by. Awakening a hibernating snake, the snake will be angry. Therefore, most of the snakes on Xuefeng Mountain are venomous. If you are bitten If you take a bite, you may not be safe. If you want to go in, I won't stop you, but I'm still on your back, so don't drag me into the water!"
The old man angrily hit Bai Gu's head with the cigarette pole, seeming to vent his dissatisfaction.
The old man didn't use much force, so it didn't hurt much.
But Bai Gu was also knocked awake.
Yes, if you go in rashly, it will be a trivial matter if you can't find the ginseng. If you wake up a hibernating snake, it will still be a poisonous snake, so it won't be able to eat it and will carry it away.
I'm afraid my life will be decided here.
This is the outcome that Bai Gu least wants and is most afraid of.
There are two younger sisters at home, one is waiting for food, and the other is waiting for help. Nothing can be said here.
Even if you can’t find ginseng.
After all, Ah Yue can survive for a few more months. If you really can't find it, wait until the snow season is over. It should be easier to find ground without snow, and you don't have to worry about heavy snow closing the mountain.
However, Ah Yue's condition may become more serious by then, and even Mr. Wu and Bai Gu don't know if they can cure Ah Yue's disease.
So Bai Gu still wanted to take a gamble and try to find the purple ginseng plant before the heavy snow closed the mountain in this snow season, so that Mr. Wu could cure Ah Yue.
Only then did Bai Gu propose that he not sleep for two days and drive all night.
"Now what?"
When I went in, I was afraid of waking up the snake hibernating in the cave. If you don’t go in, you won’t know if there are any ginseng inside.
Bai Gu was a little embarrassed.
"Silly. Take off your shoes, be gentle, don't put your whole body in, and leave a place for yourself to exit. If you find something is wrong, get out quickly. Take a photo of it with a hot book, just enough to see, don't take too much For a long time. If it’s too long, the temperature in the cave will rise and the snake will end hibernation early. Be careful.”
"good."
Bai Gu put the old man down and then took off his straw sandals. Just as soon as his feet touched the ground, he was so excited that he jumped up.
But he still remembered that there was a snake in the cave, so he immediately covered his mouth, otherwise he would have to shout.
"What? This is it." The old man was happy.
"This place is so cold." Bai Gu's voice was trembling.
The old man couldn't help laughing when he heard this. He shook his head helplessly and said with a smile: "Then hurry up and don't freeze."
Bai Gu took out the fire bag from the baggage he had packed in the morning and walked towards the cave.
Only halfway through, Bai Gu turned back.
The old man was a little confused, "What happened again?"
Bai Gu raised the fire folder and said, "How do you use this thing?"
The old man was completely speechless.
He had no choice but to take the fire folder and demonstrate it to Bai Gu, "Like this, open the lid, then blow on the fire port, and there will be fire. When it is not in use, just cover the lid, and the fire will start. It will turn off automatically. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Bai Gu nodded.
"Is there anything else that I haven't prepared or picked up yet?" The old man was really speechless to Bai Gu.
"It's gone, it's really gone this time." Bai Gu smiled awkwardly, and hurriedly walked towards the cave and fled the scene.
The closer Bai Gu got to the cave, the more he could feel the gusts of dark wind blowing out of the cave, making him feel frightened.
He quickly shook his head and quickly put aside those useless thoughts that would only make him more and more frightened. He mustered up the courage, hunched over, and headed into the cave.
However, the old man outside looked at Bai Gu who was slowly moving into the cave. Because of his posture, his buttocks almost reached the sky.
From the old man's perspective, Bai Gu's butt was facing the old man, and it was stuck out so high, which was really indecent.
The old man had no choice but to slowly move away and silently walked aside, not looking at Bai Gu's "enchanting" posture.
He kept muttering something silently, "Don't look at anything that's inappropriate, don't look at anything that's inappropriate..."
Bai Gu moved into the cave step by step. If he moved a step, he would stop and look around, just in case there was really a snake hibernating and he accidentally woke it up.
When he reached the place where the sunlight outside could not reach, Bai Gu took out the fire stick and illuminated the cave.
Bai Gu looked around and found nothing unusual, so he extinguished the fire and moved a few steps deeper.
Then he took out the fire stick and illuminated the cave again.
This time, Bai Gu was so frightened that he almost lost his hold on the fire fold.
Not far from him, there was a nest with about seven or eight snakes coiled up, motionless, and it looked like they were hibernating. The patterns on the body are all colorful, with sporadic black spots.
Viper!
Bai Gu remembered the appearance of several common venomous snakes that the old beggar had told him, and it just so happened that the hibernating snakes in front of him all matched the characteristics of one of them.
Moreover, one of them is very strong. Other snakes are not much thicker than tree poles, but one of them is as big as four or five other snakes.
It's also extremely long. Other snakes only coiled themselves four or five times, but it coiled itself more than a dozen times.
If it wakes up from this, I'm afraid it won't be able to swallow Bai Gu in one bite.
Bai Gu's hands and feet are a little weak now. He couldn't hold the fire stick firmly and wanted to get out quickly, but found that his legs and feet couldn't use the strength. Bai Gu smiled helplessly and had to quickly extinguish the fire to prevent the temperature in the cave from rising and causing the nest of hibernating snakes to end their hibernation early, wake up, and swallow Bai Gu as lunch.
Brother Bai slowly approached the wall, holding on to the wall before he could barely stand. His eyes were always fixed in front of him. Even though there was no light and there was only darkness in front of him, there was indeed a nest of hibernating snakes entrenched there.
What he was doing now was to keep an eye on the movements of the nest of snakes, and then quickly regain his strength and withdraw from the cave early to avoid being bitten.
He is really afraid of death.
But how many people in the world are really not afraid of death?
Bai Gu didn't dare to breathe now, and even breathed as quietly as possible, for fear of waking up the snakes in front of him.
After a while, Bai Gu felt that his hands and feet had regained some strength, and he began to try to slowly withdraw from the cave.
step……
Two steps...
Three steps...
Bai Gu's movements were very light and slow, not daring to make the slightest sound.
It wasn't until he felt that he was out of the cave that Bai Gu suddenly stepped back, and he was out of the cave.
His whole body fell into the snow in front of the cave.
He quickly got up and ran towards the old man without stopping for a second.
It wasn't until he ran to the old man that he suddenly collapsed on the ground, gasping for air, no different from a frightened old dog.
My body was already covered in cold sweat, even though it was snowing.
The old man took one look and roughly guessed what was going on inside the cave. But he didn't say anything, waiting for Bai Gu to slowly regain his mood.
After a while, Bai Gu calmed down and told the old man about the situation in the cave with lingering fear, "Mr. Xu, you don't know, there are really snakes in there! The kind that are poisonous! There are a whole nest! There are seven or eight of them. There’s another one inside! It’s so big and long! If it wakes up, I might not even be able to run away. It’s so scary!”
The more Bai Gu talked, the more excited he became, and he began to make gestures with his teeth and claws, trying to explain the scene to the old man.
"You don't know how scared I was! I was so scared that my legs were weak and I couldn't work hard! But I was still very smart. Following your words, I quickly put out the fire to prevent the snake from waking up... "
The old man couldn't help but laugh when he listened to Bai Gu's intense narration and looked at his exaggerated movements.
Although it seems that Bai Gu's behavior is a bit childish, and it feels like he is asking for credit and praise. But in the final analysis, Bai Gu is just a teenager. He has not yet left his childishness, has not experienced many ups and downs, and is not that mature yet.
He just looks a bit adult on the surface.
How can he compare with someone like himself? He is old enough and has experienced and seen a lot of people and things. Not to mention a few snakes, even if the mountain collapsed in front of him, the old man would not blink an eye.
It's not that he's not afraid, but the old man has experienced things more dangerous than this, so he thinks it's nothing.
But listening to Bai Gu telling it so vividly, I found it quite interesting.
The old man was smoking, listening and looking at Bai Gu quietly. He didn't speak, he just kept smiling.
He seemed to be like this when he was a boy, right?
It's been too long, I don't remember.
It’s great to be young.
It wasn't until Bai Gu finished speaking and was tired of talking that he stopped, that the old man slowly said: "There shouldn't be any snakes at the foot of the mountain, right? I see you were quite frightened."
"How...how could it be?" Bai Gu suddenly became stiff and said with a pinched neck: "There are still snakes at the foot of the mountain! There are many in spring and summer. I...I was just careless!"
"Oh, really? What happened just now?" The old man glanced at him, full of teasing.
Bai Gu's face turned red, but he couldn't hold back a single word. Then, like a deflated balloon, he muttered: "With so many snakes gathering together, no one is afraid of them. This is... a normal reaction on my part!"
The old man knocked out the cigarette ashes and said with a smile: "Okay, I won't tease you anymore. Apart from snakes, is there any purple ginseng you are looking for in the cave?"
"No, I looked very carefully." Bai Gu shook his head.
Although he was panic-stricken at the time, Bai Gu still took a closer look at the environment in the cave.
The nest of snakes was at the end of the cave, about five or six meters away from the mountain wall. And Bai Gu was not far from the nest of snakes, so Huo Zhezi's light could shine to the end, allowing Bai Gu to take a closer look.
Apart from the nest of snakes, there was nothing else there. Even the mountain wall and the ground were clean, with no weeds at all.
Bai Gu reluctantly flattened his mouth.
When the old man saw this, he smiled and said: "What's wrong, you still want to win in the first place? Young man, you are a bit greedy."
"Doing meaningful things for the people you care about, being a little impatient and having a little fantasy is not greedy."
"Well said!" The old man took a deep drag on his cigarette, looked up at the sky, and blew out a big smoke ring. "I just want to think about it. Reality is reality, and it will not make you so happy."
Bai Gu lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking. But soon, he raised his head again and said, "Master Xu, where is the next place?"
"To the northeast, keep walking..."
Bai Gu put the old man on his back and set off again.
…
The moon was already high in the sky, and Bai Gu was already walking on the mountain road carrying the old man on his back.
He moved very lightly, for fear of waking up the old man who was already asleep on his back.
The old man had told him where the two places were before going to bed, and he just had to follow them.
As Bai Gu walked, he was thinking in his mind: He only walked five places in the whole day. At this speed, plus two tonight, that would be seven places in one day. If the speed is the same tomorrow, there will be a total of fourteen places.
Fourteen places...it's still a bit difficult.
Like the previous five places, there was nothing but snakes. One of them didn't even have a snake, which made Bai Gu dumbfounded.
After walking for a long time, Bai Gu arrived at the first place tonight, in front of a large cave.
This cave is very large, thirty to forty meters high. At night, it looks like a giant beast opening its big mouth. There is a very open place in front of the cave, with flowers and trees, just like the courtyard of the cave.
Bai Gu scanned the surrounding environment, and after confirming that there was nothing wrong, he placed the old man under a tree and let him sleep against the trunk.
Bai Gu settled the old man, took out some things from the bag, and began to enter the cave.
Because it was night, there was no light. It was okay outside the cave, there was a little moonlight so I could barely see, but it was completely dark inside the cave.
So the first time Bai Gu entered the cave, he lit the fire.
It was pitch dark inside the cave, and no one knew what was inside. It would be okay if there were no snakes, but if there were snakes and I accidentally stepped on them, or tripped over a protruding stone on the road and fell on a snake, I would be in trouble.
This is simply sending yourself into the snake's mouth!
Just thinking about it made Bai Gu shudder.
There is nothing unusual about the entrance of the cave, except that some small flowers and grass grew on the mountain wall, and then disappeared.
So Bai Gu passed smoothly and quickly.
But the further he walked in, the more Bai Gu found something was wrong.
Some messy marks began to appear on the ground, and there were also some corroded gaps on the mountain wall.
Could it be that……
There are snakes in this cave, many of which are poisonous?
Bai Gu suddenly became nervous and stopped moving forward.
Bai Gu took a deep breath.
Look ahead?
But there were so many traces of the snake, so obvious that I wouldn't believe it even if there was no snake, Bai Gu could be beaten to death.
Otherwise... forget it?
But for such a big cave, it's cool enough, even to the point of being eerie. It can be said that it is very consistent with the growth environment of purple ginseng mentioned by Mr. Wu.
Bai Gu was a little unwilling to just withdraw and give up.
Bai Gu was very confused.
Bai Gu patted his face and rubbed it again. No matter what, give it a try, or run away if the worst happens!
Anyway, I have been running extremely fast since I was a child, and no one can catch up with me until now!
Bai Gu tightened the torch in his hand and stepped softer. At the same time, he leaned back slightly, fearing that he might encounter a snake next step, so he could run out immediately.
I walked cautiously for a long time and didn't know where I was in the cave. I just knew it was very deep.
At the same time, there were more and more traces of snakes crawling on the ground and on the mountain walls, corroded by venom, and the white bones of animals that had been dead for a long time.
The further Bai Gu walked, the more frightened he became. He didn't dare to let down his guard at all. His heart was almost in his throat.
He didn't even notice the cold sweat on his back.
After turning an ordinary corner, Bai Gu thought it was the same as before, nothing unusual, so he lowered his head and straightened his slightly uncomfortable underwear.
However, when he raised his head and saw clearly in front of him, a chill instantly shot from the soles of his feet to the Tianling Cap!
