Chapter 15

Wang Xiaoqiang helped the Xia family with irrigation. By noon, Xia Guifang invited Wang Xiaoqiang to have lunch at her home. Wang Xiaoqiang didn't refuse; he went home and told his sister-in-law, then set off for the Xia family's house.

Liu Juyi originally wanted to stop Wang Xiaoqiang and tell him about the matchmaker's proposal from Aunt Wangzui, but the words stuck in her throat. She suddenly felt a contradictory desire to let Wang Xiaoqiang know and yet feared he would find out.

Why would she have such feelings?

Liu Juyi couldn't explain it. Ever since Aunt Wangzui proposed the match this morning, she had felt a vague sense of loss.

When Wang Xiaoqiang sat down at the Xia family's dining table, the mother and daughter were already bringing dishes to the table. There were four dishes and a soup. Xia Sanwa had gone to the county town to gamble and hadn't been seen for days. Taking advantage of his father's absence, Xia Guifang brought out a bottle of ginseng wine to offer Wang Xiaoqiang.

Wang Xiaoqiang didn't like drinking, but as he was about to refuse, he suddenly felt the Five Elements Spirit Spring in his body vibrate sharply, as if it had sensed something.

Wang Xiaoqiang knew that the Five Elements Spirit Spring could move freely within his body and emit warm or cool sensations, but it had never shown any unusual movement before. This was the first time.

As the Five Elements Spirit Spring in Wang Xiaoqiang's body vibrated, the bottle of ginseng wine on the table also began to tremble slightly. The ginseng inside the bottle seemed to come to life, rolling and churning in the wine as if trying to break free.

Xia Guifang and her daughter were busy serving the food and didn't notice this strange phenomenon. Wang Xiaoqiang, however, knew that the vibration of the ginseng wine was closely related to the Five Elements Spirit Spring in his body. To avoid arousing suspicion from the Xia family, he gripped the wine bottle with his right hand, feeling both surprised and panicked. At that moment, the Five Elements Spirit Spring in his heart quickly moved to his right hand, vibrating more intensely and exerting a suction force.

The ginseng wine in Wang Xiaoqiang's hand began to vibrate more violently, with the ginseng inside the bottle moving like a frenzied shrimp in the wine.

Fortunately, Wang Xiaoqiang's grip on the bottle prevented it from tipping over. The phenomenon was brief, so it didn't attract the attention of the Xia family.

When the Five Elements Spirit Spring in his palm stopped vibrating, the bottle and the ginseng inside also stopped. Wang Xiaoqiang felt the Five Elements Spirit Spring return to his heart, where it seemed to have grown slightly, from the size of an egg to the size of a duck egg. Of course, this was just his perception; he couldn't see or touch it to confirm the exact size.

"Xiaoqiang, why aren't you drinking?" Xia Guifang asked, placing a bowl of egg soup on the table and noticing Wang Xiaoqiang's dazed expression as he held the ginseng wine.

"Uh... it's too hot, I'd better not drink," Wang Xiaoqiang replied, letting go of the wine bottle. He then noticed that the bottle, which had been full of wine, was now missing more than two ounces, and the ginseng inside had turned to powder.

Xia Guifang also noticed this and stared at the ginseng in the bottle, speechless.

After a while, she pointed at the bottle and asked, "What, what happened?"

Wang Xiaoqiang, knowing the truth, pretended to be confused and said, "Yeah, why is the ginseng in the bottle broken? By the way, Xiaofang, is this ginseng fake?"

"It can't be. This is wild ginseng, a family heirloom left by my grandfather. My father just used it to make ginseng wine."

"Xiaofang, really? Wild ginseng is very expensive. Your father using it to make wine is a waste!" Wang Xiaoqiang wanted to determine the type of ginseng in the bottle because he had already sensed that the Five Elements Spirit Spring was closely related to it. He could even feel that the ginseng had been reduced to powder because the Five Elements Spirit Spring had absorbed its essence.

"Ha, you don't know my father. Besides gambling, he loves alcohol. He wouldn't hesitate to waste even a thousand-year-old ginseng."

Wang Xiaoqiang nodded in agreement.

"By the way, Xiaofang, can I have this bottle of wine? I'll take it home and drink it slowly..." Seeing that Xia Guifang's mother had finished and was about to eat, Wang Xiaoqiang picked up the bottle of ginseng wine and placed it under the table.

"Sure, take it," Xia Guifang agreed readily.

After eating at the Xia family's, Wang Xiaoqiang took the bottle of ginseng wine home. Seeing that his parents and sister-in-law were not in the yard, he quietly entered his room, closed the door, and opened the bottle. The strong smell of alcohol immediately filled the air. However, Wang Xiaoqiang no longer felt the previous sensation, and the Five Elements Spirit Spring in his heart remained still, as if it were sleeping. He took a sip of the wine, feeling a burning sensation from his throat to his stomach, but the Five Elements Spirit Spring still didn't move. This confirmed that the Five Elements Spirit Spring was not reacting to the wine but to the ginseng.

Could the Five Elements Spirit Spring absorb the essence of ginseng? Or perhaps it could absorb the essence of medicinal herbs in general?

Wang Xiaoqiang speculated and went to the yard to find a wild yam he had dug up from the mountain. Holding it in his hand, he felt nothing unusual. He then found a Chinese cornelian cherry that his father had dug up and held it in his hand, but the Five Elements Spirit Spring in his heart still showed no reaction, nor did the Chinese cornelian cherry.

Wang Xiaoqiang threw away the Chinese cornelian cherry and realized that the Five Elements Spirit Spring only absorbed the essence of ginseng, not other herbs. However, he still needed to confirm whether the ginseng in the Xia family's bottle was wild ginseng.

Although the mountains around Sanmiao Village had wild herbs, wild ginseng was extremely rare and hard to find.

The Wang family didn't have wild ginseng either. Wang Xiaoqiang was eager to determine whether the Five Elements Spirit Spring absorbed the essence of ordinary ginseng or wild ginseng, so he decided to try his luck at the village health station.

Wang Xiaoqiang knew that Old Qing Shan was an experienced Chinese medicine doctor who often used Chinese herbs. The village health station indeed had many Chinese herbs, but he wasn't sure if it had wild ginseng.

When he arrived at the village health station, Xu Xiaoya was treating a child. Seeing Wang Xiaoqiang walk in, she glanced at him shyly, thinking that Aunt Wangzui's efficiency was truly impressive. However, she also thought that Wang Xiaoqiang was too impatient, coming so soon after Aunt Wangzui's proposal in the morning. Despite his usually honest and serious demeanor, he...

Xu Xiaoya shook her head inwardly but then thought it was natural. Wang Xiaoqiang was a person, and being in his youth, it was normal for him to have feelings for girls. If he showed no interest in girls, that would be a sign of a problem.