Chapter 1: The Bloody Ginseng Harvest

  Mount Changbai, named for its main peak Mount Changbai's many white rocks and snow, is a border mountain between China and North Korea, known as the "Number One Mountain of Guandong". Historically, Mount Changbai has been a place where people from Guandong live and work, and it is also the birthplace of the Manchu people. In the Qing Dynasty, it was called a "Sacred Place". Mount Changbai is famous worldwide for its tourism, as the birthplace of the Manchu people, and as a sacred mountain of the Chinese nation.

  Changbai Mountain is a dormant volcano, with its unique geological structure forming a wonderful landscape different from other mountain ranges. The main peak has an elevation of 2691 meters, and there are 16 peaks above 2500 meters. Tianchi Lake is the most famous scenic spot in Changbai Mountain. Changbai Mountain is the main producing area of the three treasures of Northeast China: ginseng, sable fur, and deer antler. The mountain also has many rare biological resources, such as Metasequoia, wild grapes, wild mushrooms, golden larch, and Polygonatum, as well as Northeast tiger and red-crowned crane.

  Because the Changbai Mountains have fewer and fewer high-quality wild ginseng, local medicinal herb collectors will venture into these deep mountains and ancient forests whenever the weather permits to dig up the increasingly rare and valuable wild ginseng. If someone is lucky enough to find a wild ginseng that's over 100 years old, they can spend the rest of their life at home in comfort.

  People who live around the Changbai Mountains and make a living by picking herbs all have such extravagant hopes, but at the same time they understand one thing: that going into the mountains to pick herbs is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. In recent years, countless numbers of herb-pickers have ventured into the deep forests where few people ever go, seeking to strike it rich with a single stroke of luck, but many never return. As time goes on, local villagers have come to realize that this kind of windfall is not something that anyone can get.

  Village doctor Han Ankang, located in the southeastern border town of Jixi Province, carried his grandfather's only legacy, an old medicine basket used by a medicine collector, early in the morning. He prepared to take advantage of the clearing weather to go to the nearby deep mountains to dig some Chinese medicinal materials, so as to alleviate the increasingly scarce Chinese medicinal materials in the village clinic.

  As a top student graduating from Jilin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Han Ankang could have looked for a relatively high-paying job outside. However, he thought of his grandfather's last wish when he passed away, and the fact that he was able to finish university largely thanks to the villagers' contributions.

  After graduation, he declined the invitations of many well-known Chinese medicine hospitals in the province and resolutely returned to this remote village as a young and famous rural doctor. Although his clinic also operates Western medicine, Han Ankang, who grew up under the guidance of his grandfather, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, also learned his grandfather's traditional Chinese massage and acupuncture techniques.

  Even if Han Ankang's grandfather had passed away back then, the villagers resolutely decided to pool their money to support him in finishing university, largely due to his grandfather's past kindness. Since childhood, Han Ankang had been taught to repay kindness, so he refused invitations from large hospitals outside and returned to the village to take over his grandfather's work, opening a clinic to treat illnesses for the simple folk of the surrounding villages.

  In this impoverished mountain village, being a doctor is undoubtedly the greatest hope for villagers to pursue medical treatment. Therefore, some minor illnesses Han Ankang will use traditional Chinese medicine formulas passed down from his grandfather and combined with the Chinese medicine formulas he learned in school. He uses the abundant wild medicinal herbs in the mountains behind the village to help these villagers solve their physical ailments.

  Because the Chinese medicinal materials are all made from mountain collection, excavation, cutting, drying and processing, so at the time of charging, Han Ankang only charges a small cost. For a while, the villagers also had infinite respect for this young rural doctor, feeling that their kindness in helping the child with his studies was not wasted.

  In these times, if you ask what the poor people fear most, getting sick is definitely number one. Now with Dr. Han Ankang, a kind and sincere doctor treating their illnesses and dispelling their sufferings, it undoubtedly proves that their donation for education back then was an investment they can be very proud of.

  Every time the villagers see Han Ankang enter the mountain to collect medicine, they will remind him to be careful. Although the villagers know that Han Ankang is a sensible young man, no one can predict what unexpected events he may encounter in the mountains. Fortunately, the villagers all know that Han Ankang has been learning how to collect medicine from his grandfather since he was a child. As long as he doesn't go to those remote and rarely visited old forests, with Han Ankang's years of accumulated experience collecting medicine, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

  But it must be said that every time the villagers see Han Ankang go into the mountains to collect medicine, if he hasn't returned by evening, many of the elderly and young men in the village will worry about him. Firstly, they worry that something bad might happen to Han Ankang in the mountains; secondly, they also worry about losing this considerate village doctor, after which it won't be as convenient for them to get treatment when they have a headache or fever.

  As for the villagers' concern, Han Ankang naturally understood it clearly. However, he was also very aware of the high risk of entering the old forest to collect medicine. Moreover, his grandfather had specifically warned him when he was alive that if he had fate with the spiritual medicine, he could get it even without entering the old forest. If not, even climbing to the top of the absolute peak would be in vain. And the spiritual medicine in his mouth was undoubtedly the rare and precious hundred-year-old ginseng.

  Carrying a medicine basket, he carefully put the medicinal herbs that could be used as medicine along the way into the basket and collected them. Han Ankang's footsteps also gradually moved forward to the mountainous area. Just as he was concentrating on digging up medicinal materials in the mountains, a bird call that he had not heard for a long time caught his attention.

  When he looked up to the place where the cry came from, he found that it was indeed the bird that the medicine collectors in this mountain hoped to encounter most. Why is it said that it is the bird that the medicine collectors hope to encounter most?

  Ginseng bird, also known as stick bird in local dialect, is said to be able to find unknown ginseng by following this small bird that eats ginseng seeds. Those with good luck may even dig up high-quality wild ginseng of many years.

  Never thought that he, Han Kang, would have such good fortune one day, even though he never thought of getting rich by digging up a hundred-year-old ginseng. However, as someone skilled in traditional Chinese medicine, if he could dig up some ginseng, it would also have a significant promotional and improving effect on the treatment of some villagers' stubborn diseases that are relatively difficult to cure.

  Ginseng is so rare and precious mainly because of its medicinal value. In the very early medical book "Shennong Bencaojing", it was believed that ginseng had the effects of "tonifying the five internal organs, calming the spirit, stabilizing the soul, stopping fright and palpitations, eliminating evil qi, brightening the eyes and opening the heart to benefit intelligence". "Long-term consumption lightens the body and prolongs life."

  For thousands of years, ginseng has been listed as a "top-grade" medicinal material in traditional Chinese medicine. As people pay more attention to their health, the value of high-quality wild ginseng has continued to rise. The Changbai Mountains, where the largest wild ginseng grows, have been ravaged by wave after wave of diggers, making it difficult to find wild ginseng today. Even with a lot of money, it's hard to buy old wild ginseng.

  Han An Kang lost the thought of continuing to pick herbs, staring tightly at the bird on the tree that was constantly jumping and flying low, hoping to follow this bird that could find medicinal herbs, dig up ginseng, and dig up a slightly better quality ginseng. In this way, the chronic illnesses that often afflicted several elderly people in the village could also be improved to the greatest extent possible.

  With this in mind, Han Ankang carefully followed the alpine swift for nearly an hour on the mountain road before arriving at the edge of a precipice. Just as Han Ankang was marveling that such a rocky mountain where even trees did not grow would be unlikely to produce shade-loving ginseng, he saw the slow-flying alpine swift suddenly fly to a windless spot on the mountain peak and start chirping loudly.

  Is ginseng grown there?

  With such doubts, Han Ankang carefully climbed the steep rock wall and arrived at the leeward side where the club bird landed. When he saw that there was a platform of about one square meter on the leeward side, the plants growing on the platform were exactly the ginseng he had been searching for in the mountains for many years, and his inner excitement can be imagined.

  What made him somewhat embarrassed was that the platform where ginseng grew was in a semi-suspended state, and it was extremely risky to crawl over from where he stood. After all, under the platform was a cliff of twenty or thirty meters high, and below the cliff were also strange rocks, making it extremely unlikely to survive if one fell on them.

  It's a pity to miss the few rare wild ginseng that are at least several decades or even hundreds of years old right in front of him, and Han Ankang is afraid he would not be able to bear it. Thinking of the elderly villagers who have been suffering from illness for many years, kind-hearted Han Ankang gritted his teeth and started climbing. When he finally approached the platform and could touch the ginseng, Han Ankang felt that his luck today was exceptionally good.

  Because of the aerial harvesting, Han Ankang had to free up one hand to grip a stone that bore his body weight, and with the other hand carefully dug out several ginseng plants. As each plant appeared before his eyes, Han Ankang knew he had made a big profit today. This batch of five ginseng plants, among which the largest looked like a human figure, was at least over a hundred years old.

  The rest of the years, I'm afraid they are also in their fifties and sixties. Such high-quality wild ginseng sold on the market can sell for at least tens of millions. Of course, for Korean Ahn Kang, who is engaged in traditional Chinese medicine, he will not sell such good things, but instead use them as a treasure in his medical room.

  With these top-grade ginseng medicines, he can cure many chronic illnesses for the villagers within a radius of ten miles. It's worth noting that such high-quality wild ginseng is hard to come by even with money. Besides, as a single man who spends his days working in the village clinic treating villagers' ailments, what use would he have for so much money?

  Just as Han Ankang was delighted to have solved the stubborn diseases of the elderly, the mountain rock he had been holding onto suddenly parted with the cliff. Before Han Ankang could react, he felt himself flying up, and after experiencing a severe stabbing pain, everything went black and he knew nothing more.

  As Han Ankang fell from the height, his body was covered in blood when he landed on a strange rock. The Blood-colored Jade Buddha hanging on his chest, which could prove his identity, suddenly began to shine with an unknown red light. Until the Jade Buddha completely disappeared and turned into a red light that was absorbed into Han Ankang's almost stopped heartbeat, the heartbeat of Han Ankang, who had just been on the verge of death, suddenly started beating violently again.

  The wounds caused by the falling rocks healed quickly, until there was no more bleeding on Han Ankang's body. The red glow that appeared when the jade Buddha disappeared also dissipated completely. As for the jade Buddha, it also disappeared from the red rope. If there were people at the bottom of the cliff at this time, perhaps the strange scene just now would have made people think that some kind of supernatural event had occurred!