mtlumby2d 383: Cute Baby
383: Cute Baby
After he finished speaking, Old Master Ye fell silent.
Everyone knows that Xiao Qingdai loves her daughter dearly. He can only talk about it in front of Lao Fu because of his friendship with him, but he wouldn't dare to go to her.
So he chuckled and said, "Never mind, children and grandchildren have their own blessings."
Grandpa Fu didn't expose him; he just smiled and remained silent.
They went back to the Fu family's house across the street and sat there for a while. It was almost noon when Old Master Ye went home.
That afternoon, Tan Hongru, having received the news, brought his professional friends to dig for ginseng.
Now, Grandpa Fu no longer dislikes him as much as before. Several old men squatted together, wearing glasses, holding professional ginseng digging tools, carefully removing the soil around the blood ginseng bit by bit.
"Be more cautious."
"No, my hands keep shaking."
"Then send your student."
There were four people in total: besides Grandpa Fu and Tan Hongru, there were two other elderly men of similar age.
Of the four people, Grandpa Fu and Tan Hongru were the two amateurs, but right now, it was the two amateurs pointing fingers at the two professionals and cursing them.
Seeing yet another root break off, Tan Hongru was heartbroken and ruthlessly sent the person away.
"Go, go, you two go and rest. Let your students come over."
The two men, holding their tools, stopped what they were doing, looking somewhat aggrieved.
"Well, you can't blame us for this. Everyone knows I was a master ginseng digger when I was young. So many people traveled thousands of miles to invite me to dig for ginseng."
Now that I'm older, my eyesight isn't what it used to be.
Thinking of this, he looked at Old Master Fu and Tan Hongru with suspicion.
"We all get old eventually, how come you two still have such good eyesight?"
There was no response to this, so the two old men looked up, glanced at the students standing in the distance, and called them over.
Subsequently, members of the Xiao family also came to take over the positions of Old Master Fu and Tan Hongru.
The old men got tired of squatting for so long, so they sat under the pavilion not far away, watching them dig and chatting along the way.
"Master, you're here!"
A voice came from afar, and the group looked over to see a fluffy little ball of fur running happily towards them.
"Master, Master!"
Upon hearing the voice, Tan Hongru's heart softened instantly, and a smile unconsciously appeared on his face.
"It's Qing girl."
The little girl nimbly ran to his side, took his hand with her chubby little hand, and her clear, starry eyes curved into a smile: "Master, did you come to play with me?"
Tan Hongru chuckled as he picked up the little dumpling and placed it on his lap. But when he lifted it by its weight, his smile froze for a moment.
“I’ll dig up the blood ginseng and use it to make medicine for your mother.”
After saying that, he said with affection in his eyes, "Qing'er has grown taller."
Hearing this, the little girl was both touched and happy, and looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"Everyone says Qingqing has gained weight, but only Master says Qingqing has grown taller. Master is so kind!"
The people in the pavilion couldn't help but laugh.
The two elderly men who didn't know her at first were also amused and looked at her with increasing affection.
Seeing this scene, Old Master Fu felt a surge of pride.
His granddaughter is so lovable, everyone adores her.
Seeing the little girl's rosy cheeks, Grandpa Fu reached out and touched them; they felt cool to the touch.
"Are you cold?"
Qingqing shook her head. The clothes she was wearing were warm, but her face felt a little cold from the wind.
Immediately afterwards, the little girl began to beg Tan Hongru to stay and play.
She couldn't remember the date, only that her master hadn't come to visit her in a long time.
On the way here, Tan Hongru was wondering if the little guy had forgotten him since they hadn't seen each other for a while. But now, hearing the baby's sweet voice, his heart melted.
As for Qingqing's plea, he was so charmed that he couldn't bring himself to refuse, acting completely irrationally.
After receiving Tan Hongru's affirmative reply, the little girl was overjoyed and immediately wanted to tell Xiao Qingdai the good news, so she skipped away again.
Tan Hongru only felt a lightness on his legs, and the next second, the sweet and soft little dumpling in his arms had already run several steps away.
He chuckled happily. At that moment, a blood ginseng had been dug out and carefully placed on an oilcloth, its roots still covered with some soil.
Several elderly people walked over from under the pavilion and watched them pack the blood ginseng.
At this moment, Old Master Fu remembered the few whiskers that had been plucked at the beginning, and he gave the others some heartfelt instructions.
"Carefully turn over the soil in the pit and find the broken rootlets."
"Understood, sir."
After responding, a middle-aged man diligently knelt down beside the pit where ginseng had been dug, intently searching through the soil.
The people around him wanted to help him, but before they could even squat down, he sent them away.
"Go and help dig up the next blood ginseng. I'll take care of things here. Don't waste time. Try to dig up all of these before dark tonight."
The person who wanted to help thought that what he said made sense, so he went to help dig for ginseng.
The middle-aged man continued searching in the soil and found four thin, torn-off rootlets in the pit.
Instead of immediately putting it away and handing it to Old Master Fu under the pavilion, he first raised his face and subtly looked around.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he quietly moved his fingers and tucked one of the roots into his sleeve.
While doing these things, he appeared nonchalant and calm.
After hiding one, he handed over the remaining three.
The movement was so subtle that it went unnoticed by anyone.
As the man emerged from the pavilion, his heart was still pounding.
He tucked the ginseng rootlets from his sleeve into his pocket and then joined the ginseng diggers.
Digging ginseng is a very meticulous task. It requires carefully removing the soil around the ginseng and cleaning the soil around each rootlet, just like a doctor performing surgery.
This was the first time he had ever seen a blood ginseng of such top quality. In addition, what he had just hidden was only a very thin rootlet, which would not affect the value of the blood ginseng. That's why he had such inappropriate thoughts.
He certainly wouldn't dare sell just a single root. He was initially just curious and wanted to see what made this ginseng different from ordinary ginseng.
However, he soon thought of the ginseng root in his pocket, which was not much thicker than a hair, and felt that its medicinal power was too weak to be of any use.
It's already hidden now; it's just a matter of hiding one more root. Anyway, these tiny roots don't affect the medicinal properties of ginseng.
So he gritted his teeth and decided to hide another one later.
However, the plan failed.
The reason why the previous blood ginseng broke off four ginseng roots was because when Grandpa Fu and the others were digging, the two old men were old and their eyesight was not good, so they accidentally broke them off.
This time, when it was a young person, the same accident didn't happen again.
The blood ginseng was dug out intact by the group.
After wrapping the second blood ginseng and handing it to Old Master Fu, the man once again used the excuse of searching for ginseng whiskers to turn over the soil in the pit, but this time he found nothing except for those useless, extremely fine ginseng whiskers.