The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

"I…" At Zhao Jun's shout, the staff member faltered, his steps slowing.

Sellers usually brought their Ginseng in starting in the fall. The pharmacy knew that was the season for buying it, so they didn't stop anyone from coming to the second floor.

But Zhao Jun's arrival was unexpected. From the Lunar New Year until now, he was the very first person to show up selling Ginseng. Of course they were going to ask questions.

But asking was one thing; the staff member's attitude left Zhao Jun deeply displeased.

Seeing the man was still pointing at him, Zhao Jun roared, "Who the hell are you pointing at?"

Around the Northeast, pointing at people could easily get you a beating.

Judging by his face, Zhao Jun wasn't old. But he had thick brows and large eyes, and he'd spent years roaming the mountains. To put it dramatically, a hint of killing intent flickered in his eyes when he glared.

Or as the common folk would say, the kid looked vicious the moment he glared.

"What's all the commotion about?" the old man inside the room finally spoke. Though phrased as a question, his words offered both Zhao Jun and the staff member a way to de-escalate.

Then, the old man immediately added, "You there, young man. Are you here to sell Ginseng?"

"Yeah." Zhao Jun turned on his heel, walked into the room, and tossed his satchel onto the table before starting to take out the Ginseng Buns.

He was here to make a fortune, not to pick fights.

The old man was an expert. Seeing Zhao Jun pull one Ginseng Bun after another from his satchel, he could tell just from the wrapping technique that whoever prepared them had to be an Elder Leader.

'An expert like that couldn't possibly be some wet-behind-the-ears kid.'

'So, the old man concluded that Zhao Jun couldn't be the Ginseng Leader, or even his second-in-command.'

'But that just made him wonder: what kind of crew would dare send a rookie out to sell their Ginseng?'

Zhao Jun opened the first Ginseng Bun. It was a Miao Erjiazi. The Ginseng wasn't large and its appearance was average, but its saving grace was that Zhao Jun had dug it up himself, so it was perfectly intact, down to the last root hair.

Just then, the staff member who had tried to stop Zhao Jun arrived at the door. He stood there watching, but didn't come inside.

Zhao Jun held the outer layer of pine bark from the Ginseng Bun in his palm, presenting the Ginseng inside for the old man to see.

The old man, sitting behind his desk, was leaning back in his chair. With his head tilted back to look at Zhao Jun, it truly seemed as if he was looking down his nose at him.

The old man glanced down, tossed a few black Go stones from his left hand into a bowl, then pointed to an elmwood box on the desk against the wall. "There's a scale in there," he said nonchalantly. "You weigh it."

At his words, Zhao Jun placed the pine bark on the desk with both hands and walked over to open the elmwood box.

He looked inside. That wasn't just any scale; it was a proper balance scale.

Anyone else probably wouldn't have known how to use it, but Zhao Jun did. He took out the scale, set it flat, aligned the rider with the zero mark, and adjusted the balancing screw.

That move alone was enough to stun the old man.

Then, he placed the Miao Erjiazi Ginseng on the left pan. When the scale tilted left, Zhao Jun took a small wooden box out of the larger elmwood case.

He opened the small wooden box to reveal a set of weights of various sizes.

With a balance scale, the object goes on the left pan and the weights on the right. Moreover, you're not supposed to handle the weights directly with your hands.

Zhao Jun pulled a small pair of tweezers from a clip on the inside of the weight box's lid, then glanced at the old man.

The old man was a little dumbfounded. He had intended to make things difficult for Zhao Jun.

'Mountain folk are rough men. Who among them would know how to do this? Normally, when people came to sell Ginseng, he was the one who did the weighing.'

'But because of the earlier conflict between Zhao Jun and his staff member, the old man had been displeased and wanted to give the kid a hard time.'

'That's why he'd told Zhao Jun to do it himself.'

'If Zhao Jun had said he couldn't use the scale, or made a mistake while operating it, the old man would have certainly given him an earful.'

But to the old man's surprise, Zhao Jun's every move, from start to finish, had been flawless.

Seeing the old man remain silent, Zhao Jun let out a soft chuckle. With the tweezers, he picked up a 2g weight and placed it directly on the scale's right-hand pan.

As soon as the weight was placed, the left pan holding the Second-class Ginseng rose. Without pausing, Zhao Jun picked up another weight and placed it on the right pan.

This weight was also 2g.

When the second weight settled, the left pan rose a little more.

Zhao Jun immediately followed with a third weight. This time, the scale was nearly balanced.

This weight, too, was 2g.

Three weights, 6g in total. Judging by the scale's position, the Miao Erjiazi Ginseng weighed just a little over 6g.

By the Huaxia system of weights, that was just over a qian.

That's right. It was that light.

That was Wild Ginseng for you.

But that wasn't the point. The point was Zhao Jun's performance, which had nearly dazzled the old man blind.

'By rights, Zhao Jun should have started with a larger weight, say 10g. If the ginseng was heavier, he'd add more. If it was lighter, he'd swap it for a smaller one, like 5g.'

'Take this Second-class Ginseng, for example. It weighed 6g. If he put on a 5g weight, it wouldn't be enough, so he'd have to add more.'

'The proper technique would be to add a 2g weight. If that wasn't enough, add more. If the 2g weight was too heavy, he'd take it off and swap it for a 1g one.'

'But what did Zhao Jun do? He went straight for three 2g weights, one after another.'

'And the crucial part was, once he was done, the scale was nearly perfectly balanced.'

'What did that imply?'

'Either Zhao Jun had already weighed this Miao Erjiazi Ginseng before coming, or he was a true Expert in the trade.'

'What kind of person could tell the approximate weight of a ginseng root just by holding it?!'

'And this wasn't some large object where you could make a rough guess. This was a piece of Ginseng that weighed only a few grams!'

The old man had studied medicine under his master since childhood, and for the last five or six years, he had dealt exclusively with Ginseng.

Every year, starting in the fall, a hundred or more Mountain Ginsengs would pass through his hands. But even now, he could only make a rough estimate, nothing like what Zhao Jun had just done.

'So, the old man could only conclude that Zhao Jun must have weighed all his Ginseng at home before coming.'

Of course, you couldn't blame the old man for thinking that.

Who could have possibly guessed that Zhao Jun had been reborn?

And who could have known that in his past life, Zhao Jun had made his way in the Far East, and at his peak, he saw more Ginseng in a single day than this old man saw in an entire year!

Zhao Jun held the tweezers but made no further moves. He just said to the old man, "I'm not adding any more weights or touching the rider. Just tell me what you'll pay for it."

The old man was still craning his neck to look up at Zhao Jun, a natural consequence of one man standing and the other sitting.

The more the old man thought, the more baffled he became. He couldn't figure out Zhao Jun's background, but one thing was certain: he didn't dare try to swindle him. He stood up and walked over to the scale. Pinching the Rush Head, he picked up the Miao Erjiazi Ginseng, examining its quality from top to bottom before finally saying to Zhao Jun, "Forty!"

"That's fair," Zhao Jun nodded.

These days, that was a standard price for a Second-class Ginseng of average quality. Besides, forty yuan was no small sum; Zhao Jun's entire monthly salary was only forty-six yuan and fifty-one cents.

Then, Zhao Jun picked up another of the four Ginseng Buns. He opened it, held the pine bark in both hands, and asked the old man, "Sir, how about you take a look at this one?"

The old man's eyes swept over it, and his heart instantly jolted.

This Miao Ginseng was the very same Sixth-grade Leaves that Zhao Jun had released.