Returning to the 1960s: Starting with Digging for Fo-ti

Du Jianguo’s heart stirred. He gently used his hoe to brush away the top layer of soil. Once he had dug out a decent-sized pit, he held his lit torch close, shining the flame into the hole.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. Lying in the pit was the Fo-ti he had been longing for!

He had finally found it!

Du Jianguo immediately lightened his movements, switching from the hoe to his hands. He carefully scraped away the soil around the Fo-ti, terrified of breaking its roots.

After cleaning the earth from around the root system, he slowly pulled the plant completely out of the ground. Clutching it in his hand, a look of relief finally appeared on his face.

Although this Fo-ti was black and looked like a big potato, it was a treasure passed down by ancestors with high medicinal value.

Especially for this kind of pure, wild Fo-ti, pharmacies usually offered a high purchase price.

Du Jianguo weighed the herb in his hands, estimating it to be around five or six jin (roughly 2.5 to 3 kg). Based on market prices, this would fetch at least ten or more yuan.

“Over ten yuan!” Du Jianguo sighed.

In this era, for a farmer’s family of three, a couple working themselves to death in the fields for a month might earn work points worth only five or six yuan when converted to cash.

Now, he had single-handedly brought back a Fo-ti worth over ten yuan in a single night.

His earlier idea had been correct. Instead of joining the village crowd to pick up scattered potato scraps in the fields, it was more practical to spend time finding wild goods.

Du Jianguo carefully placed the Fo-ti into his basket. Just as he reached out to lift the basket and leave, every hair on his body stood on end. This was a biological instinct of alertness.

He instinctively gripped his torch tighter and suddenly turned his head. Not far away in the grass, a snake was flicking its forked tongue. Its front half was raised high, and a pair of cold, dim eyes were staring fixedly at him.

“Damn, how did I attract a snake?”

Du Jianguo’s heart sank. He tightened his grip on the torch even more, daring not to move his feet easily.

The snake’s body shimmered with a green-black hue, and its head was a typical triangle shape.

Although Du Jianguo had never raised snakes, he had heard the elders say that if a snake’s head looked like this, there was a high chance it was venomous.

His heart instantly turned cold.

The village was dozens of miles of mountain road away from the county hospital, accessible only by walking. If he really got bitten by this snake, he would likely be dead before he could reach the hospital to get serum.

Du Jianguo held his breath and carefully shuffled backward, already planning his escape.

But just as he was about to move, he saw the venomous snake seem to lose its nerve. Its body shrank back a bit.

Du Jianguo paused, his gaze falling on the burning torch in his hand. Suddenly, his face lit up with joy. “Right! Snakes fear fire and high temperatures. How could I forget that?”

“Come on! Dare you come closer!”

Du Jianguo plucked up his courage, cursed at the snake, and deliberately moved the torch closer.

The snake indeed retreated a few more steps under the pressure of the flame and did not dare to advance. It stared at him fiercely but lost its previous aggression.

The snake was probably frustrated. It had come out to hunt, but the torch in his hand blocked it, leaving it unable to attack but unwilling to give up.

Du Jianguo suddenly remembered that there was a place in the county that bought snakes.

Could this venomous snake be sold for money?

“Starve the timid, feed the bold!” Du Jianguo gritted his teeth and made up his mind. “Let’s do it!”

He first dumped the Fo-ti and potatoes from the basket onto the ground. Then, gripping the bottom of the basket, he slowly moved toward the venomous snake.

“Come, I have something good for you.”

However, although the snake feared fire, it was not stupid. It saw clearly that the man had no good intentions. With a flick of its tail, it turned and darted into the deep mountains.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Du Jianguo’s quick eyes and agile hands, honed by years of hunting, were no joke. He flicked his wrist, and swish, the basket landed squarely over the snake.

The snake thrashed and hissed inside the basket, and the basket looked like it would be overturned at any moment.

Daring not to touch it with his hands for fear of being scratched by the fangs, Du Jianguo immediately took off his outer shirt. He pressed down on the basket tightly through the fabric and thrust the torch into the gaps of the basket a few times, aiming precisely at the snake’s head.

After a while, the movement inside the basket slowed down. The snake was stung until it was dizzy and stopped moving.

Du Jianguo finally let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“I hope I can sell it for some money. Otherwise, the calories I saved up from eating the pork fat would be wasted.”

Although the snake was unconscious, Du Jianguo was still not reassured. He feared the venomous snake might wake up and bite him by surprise.

He thrust the torch into the basket gaps a few more times until he confirmed the snake would not wake up for several hours. Only then did he stop.

He squatted down, looking at the Fo-ti, the potatoes on the ground, and the venomous snake trapped under the basket. He felt a sense of security filling his heart. Tonight’s trip was definitely not in vain; the harvest was sufficient!

He just didn’t know how much money this venomous snake could fetch.

Du Jianguo dared not stay in the original spot for long. Who knew if there was a second snake nearby?

At the moment, he only had a torch and no other self-defense weapons. He would not stand a chance against large wild animals. If it hadn’t been for the torch holding the venomous snake at bay just now, it was uncertain whether he could have escaped safely tonight.

He silently made a determination: upon returning, he must get something for self-defense, whether it was a bow and arrow or something else. Having something was better than nothing.

By the time he returned home with the basket on his back and the snake in hand, the sky was just beginning to lighten. It was around 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.

When he got home, he did not go to the bedroom to disturb Liu Xiuyun. Instead, he found a thin mattress and curled up on the wooden bench at the entrance to catch some sleep.

He had consumed a tremendous amount of energy from digging for Fo-ti and fighting the venomous snake.

Moreover, this body was originally weak. He had never practiced martial arts, nor had he eaten enough good food to supplement his nutrition. He was already exhausted.

Fortunately, he had eaten some pork fat dregs early this morning to replenish his oils. Otherwise, how would he have had the strength to fight the venomous snake?

Du Jianguo, in his drowsy thoughts, planned to go to the county town first thing tomorrow morning to sell the Fo-ti and the venomous snake. Then, he fell into a deep sleep.

At around 6 or 7 o’clock the next morning, Liu Xiuyun woke up and saw Du Jianguo sleeping soundly on the wooden bench. Her eyebrows furrowed.

In another half hour, the villagers would gather in the fields to dig for potatoes.

Judging by Du Jianguo’s sleeping posture, he certainly would not wake up for a while.

“Ah,” Liu Xiuyun sighed lightly.

Although Du Jianguo still had production tasks assigned by the village today, she could only wait for him to wake up. She would go to the potato field first to see if she could pick up some leftovers.

Just then, the basket beside her made a noise, as if something inside had bumped against it.

Liu Xiuyun paused, then slowly moved closer to the basket, gathering her courage.

When she was still half a meter away, she finally saw clearly that there was a green-black venomous snake inside!

Thump!

The snake hit the side of the basket violently again. Liu Xiuyun let out a scream of terror. Her face instantly turned pale, and her body uncontrollably retreated backward, falling right into the arms of the just-awakened Du Jianguo.

Liu Xiuyun trembled like a startled rabbit. She pointed at the basket, her voice trembling with a cry. “Snake… there is a snake inside!”

With a soft fragrance entering his embrace and Liu Xiuyun’s soft chest brushing against him, Du Jianguo’s mind went blank instantly. All previous drowsiness vanished, leaving only a moment of trance.