Chapter Twenty-Four: The Green Girl

  Song Kai pulled out a dogtail grass with his hand, held it in his mouth, and looked around. If this were to be developed into a tourist area in the future, it would make a lot of money.

  Behind him, Qingniang followed at a distance of one step, also silent, her head slightly lowered.

  "Green girl," Song Kai said, then laughed at himself. This title was too strange. It was okay to call others "certain certain daughter", but today he called a 14 or 15-year-old child "daughter", which was too unconventional.

  "The young lady is," the girl replied softly, her voice round and smooth.

  "What's your name?" Song Kai was bored and wanted to chat with a little girl.

  "Green girl," the girl said.

  "Hmm... I'm saying your name, Big Name," Song Kai emphasized.

  "My name is Qingniang, and my father's surname is Chen," said Qingniang in a serious tone, without a smile, as if she were being interviewed.

  Song Kai waved his hand, it seemed that he could only call her Qingniang after all. "Qingniang, take me to the tea garden over there and have a look."

  "Yes, Mr. Lang," said the young man as he and Song Kai walked along a small path.

  A middle-aged man walked towards them, first bowing slightly to Song Kai, then grinning and turning to Qingniang, "Qingniang, later go...to Uncle's place, Uncle got a few bird eggs, for you to build up your body."

  "Uncle Wang, you should take care of yourself first. Tonight, I'll come to your place and bring some peach wood cores that can ward off evil spirits."

  The middle-aged man slanted his mouth and said, "Wang Shu is old, no need to add more, can your peach wood heart be given to Wang Shu? Wang Shu's mouth is crooked and aching."

  The two people gradually drifted apart as they spoke.

  Song Kai saw that person speaking with a crooked mouth and thought it was quite interesting, so he smiled and said: "Why is his mouth crooked?"

  "Hui Lang Jun, Wang Shu bumped into something unclean a few days ago and got infected," Qing Niang said in a low voice.

  "Oh, so it was blown by the cold wind," Song Kai nodded, "What is your relationship with the old man in the tea garden?"

  "Grandfather Ge is called Ge Shou, he's alright," Qingniang was clearly dissatisfied with Song Kai directly addressing Ge Shou as old man, her small mouth pouting slightly, but when speaking, she remained polite and courteous, "If it weren't for Grandfather Ge taking us in, we would have all been sold into slavery."

  "Oh?" Song Kai was taken aback and turned his head to look at Qingniang, "What's going on? Tell me."

  The young woman slightly lowered her head, not daring to look into Song Kai's eyes, as if she was shy or perhaps it was the courtesy of ancient women. "Most people working here have had their land mortgaged or seized by wealthy landlords. Without land, we have to rent fields from them to farm. Many people who rented fields couldn't pay the rent and were sold into slavery. Grandfather Ge's tea garden and mulberry forest are actually a way for us to survive."

  Song Kai nodded, he really hadn't thought that the hunchbacked Ge old man would have such a Bodhisattva heart.

  "The fact is that Grandpa Ge's purchase of this mountain land has never been profitable, and it's very difficult to support so many people," Qingniang knew a lot about it, perhaps thinking that Song Kai was a bit rude but easy to get along with, and after opening up, she began to talk, "Grandpa Ge's family used to have a lot of money, but after buying this mountain forest, they lost money year after year. Now he has sold all the houses in the city, and he and his son's family can only live here."

  "How can it not make money?" Song Kai asked as he walked, "Tea and whatnot, sales channels, hmm, no problem."

  "It's all because of those mountain bandits and those damned robbers," Qingniang cursed in a low voice.

  "Are bandits and robbers any different?" Song Kai burst out laughing, finding it quite amusing. Before, he could only encounter bandits in games, but now he was going to come into contact with the real deal.

  Two people were talking and arrived at a tea garden.

  Song Kai took a look at the tea tree planting technology and asked, these tea trees are quite tall. Although Song Kai doesn't understand much about farming, he understands pruning and trimming. He pointed to the tea tree and said: "This way, the yield of tea will be low. In the spring when it sprouts, you need to cut off the top, otherwise the tea tree will grow too high, but the yield will increase."

  The green girl looked at Song Kai with an incredulous expression.

  Song Kai waved his hand, "Forget it, I need to sort these things out myself. There's no point telling you, you're just a kid and won't understand."

  The young girl pouted, looking very disgruntled. "Lang Jun, this tea garden and mulberry forest are all under my management. I've been following Ge Grandfather since I was five years old, and when we first bought this place, I already knew about these things."

  "Where are your parents?" Song Kai asked casually.

  "They all died of illness," Qingniang looked away.

  Song Kai sighed and reached out to touch Qingniang's head, but restrained himself. In this era, girls matured early and still attached great importance to the distinction between males and females.

  Out of the tea garden, arrived at the place where tea is made. In fact, it's not really "made", but just washing the freshly picked tea leaves clean and then drying them in the sun.

  This is also a method of making tea. In later generations, the tea that was made by this method and dried in the sun was called white tea. Fujian and other places produced more of it, while tea from other places made into white tea had too light a flavor and was slightly bitter, so it wasn't very popular.

  Song Kai nodded and was about to leave when he saw the middle-aged man with a crooked mouth hastily running over.

  "Green girl, green girl, it's no good! The silkworm baby is sick again!"

  Qingniang heard this and jumped up in a hurry, forgetting to send Song Kai back. She hastily followed Wang Shu to the distant silkworm house.

  Song Kai saw Qingniang anxious and followed her over as well.

  Apart from tea gardens, sericulture is a more important source of income here.

  The silkworm house is a bit hot, with dozens of bamboo baskets placed inside.

  The crooked-faced man pointed at the bamboo basket in the northeast corner and said with a heartache: "Qingniang, look."

  The basket of pears has many silkworms dead.

  The young girl was almost in tears, she clenched her small fist and said: "Uncle Wang, let's hurry up and take out the sick silkworms, otherwise the other silkworms will also die."

  Song Kai walked over and took a look, it turned out to be infected with white rot fungus.

  "Give me these dead silkworms," Song Kai suddenly said.

  The young woman in a flurry and the crooked-mouthed King Uncle were both stunned.

  Wang Shu was an honest and affable person, staring blankly at Song Kai.

  The young woman quickly reacted and said in a low voice: "Sir, don't joke around. If you really pity us, just buy more tea leaves."

  Song Kai pouted, "I wasn't joking, by the way, what happened to the silkworm that died of illness earlier?"

  "Bury... buried," Qingniang looked at Song Kai, and indeed Song Kai was not joking.

  Song Kai spread his hands and said, "What a waste! These dead silkworms are actually a kind of Chinese medicine called 'Jiang Can', which is very effective. Oh, it can cure your Uncle Wang's crooked mouth, the effect is really good!"

  Wang Shu continued to stay in his original place.

  The young woman's face turned red with anger as she heard this, and she stamped her foot. "Sir! Although we are in a difficult situation, you can't just mock us!"

  "...To be honest," Song Kai said, touching his waist and pulling out the money bag, "Here are 300 coins, consider it a deposit. You help me collect these dead silkworms, and we'll forget about the past ones. If there are any that have died in the last few days, dig them up for me too, I want them all. The price is negotiable."

  The young woman took the money bag handed over by Song Kai, still unbelieving, but looking at Song Kai's expression, it didn't seem like a joke either.

  "What are you staring at? Take it out! These white fungus can be contagious, I'm collecting medicinal herbs, but I don't want too many," Song Kai said.

  Qingniang and Wang Shu responded in unison, helping Song Kai collect the sick silkworms into a bamboo basket.

  "Lang Jun, are you really not teasing us? Can this thing really be used as medicine? And what's wrong with my uncle Wang's face?" Qingniang asked while busily and efficiently doing her work.

  "Medically speaking, it's just wind and cold evil invading the meridians. To treat it, just use medicine that dispels wind, stops spasms and scatters coldness. This White Stiff Silkworm is quite good, but Peach Wood won't do! Haha," Song Kai laughed.

  "Ah! Not... isn't it a collision?" Wang Shu's mouth twisted, and he burst out laughing. His smile caused half his face to scrunch up, making him look even uglier.

  "Of course not, oh, use these silkworms, soak them in lime for half a night, then dry them with fire and grind them into powder. Put the powder into your nostril on this side, change the medicine every three hours, and it will be fine in two days," Song Kai handed over a handful of silkworms to the crooked-faced Wang Shu and left the silkworm house.

  After settling the silkworms, Qingniang took Song Kai back home, walking while occasionally turning her head to look at Song Kai.

  "Still doubting me?" Song Kai smiled.

  "Uh," the young woman nodded subconsciously, then quickly shook her head, "No, no, nothing, just..."

  "Just" made a few sounds, but didn't say anything.

  Song Kai just smiled and didn't ask again.

  Two people had just returned to the wooden house when they saw five burly men in black standing outside. The leader, who was only about 1.4 meters tall and stout, looked at Ge Shou, who was standing at the door with disdain.

  The young girl saw this and her small body shrunk back behind Song Kai's back, tensely saying: "It... it's those bandits."

  "Ah?" Song Kai was startled and stopped in his tracks. The robbers were ruthless killers, if they made a move, he would have to run for his life.

  "Ge Lao, I really don't want to waste my breath anymore. You tell me, how many times have the brothers come this month? It's so hot and they're working so hard!" The short and stout man pretended to wipe his forehead.

  Ge Shoudui put on a smiling face, "Let Peng Er's family suffer, Ge Mou is really sorry, sorry."

  "Alright, don't say anything else. We, the Taohu Gang, have been working hard to ensure your manor's safety and stability. Our big boss arranges for two brothers to patrol here every day, fearing that mountain bandits will harass you again. You should understand, we're not easy either. Today, this ten taels of silver protection fee, Old Master, you must give it to us. If you don't, then Qingniang, we'll really have to take her away to the mountain stronghold as a maid." The short and stout Second Master said coldly.

  Upon hearing this, Song Kai suddenly understood that these people were not mountain bandits, but rather came to collect protection fees. No wonder Qingniang called them robbers - mountain bandits would need to sneak in and kill quietly, whereas these people were openly robbing them.