Chapter 331 Chapter 332: Back

Zhang Xiuxiang suddenly thought of something, "Chunyan, I remember when I had a toothache, my grandma would dig up the roots of gardenias and stew them in soybean soup. After eating it, the pain went away. Is the root of gardenia also a medicine?"

"It's a traditional Chinese medicine. Gardenia root can clear away heat and dampness, cool blood and stop bleeding, and has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects." Yang Chunyan recalled the time she encountered a wild boar. There was a large patch of yellow gardenia in the mountains. "Let's come back tomorrow to dig up all the grass and pick the yellow gardenia."

Zhang Xiuxiang said: "I know that yellow gardenia can be dyed by boiling it. My grandmother used to pick yellow gardenia and madder to dye the homespun cloth she wove."

Yang Chunyan thought that in the future, the old cloth would be much more expensive than polyester, "the old cloth is actually quite beautiful after being dyed."

Zhang Xiuxiang: "There are people in my mother's family who can weave cloth, and the cloth they sell is expensive. If you like it, I'll bring it to you next time."

"Yes! Please buy me a few more so I can use them to make quilt covers and blankets."

The sisters-in-law were busy for an hour or so. When their stomachs started to growl, they took out the dry food and water they had brought with them and sat on the sacks to eat.

Zhao Huifang looked at the white hyacinths piled on the ground. "There are too many. I didn't expect this thing to be so resilient. Once they have grown all over this area below the ridge, we can dig up at least several thousand kilograms."

Yang Chunyan nodded. "This thing grows very fast. Let's go back and pick out the tubers with the most terminal buds and plant them now while it's still warm."

Li Qiuyue swallowed the biscuit in her mouth and asked, "Chunyan, how many years will it take to harvest this?"

Yang Chunyan recalled, "After planting, the underground tubers have to grow in the fourth year before they can be dug up."

The three looked at her in surprise, "So long?"

Yang Chunyan nodded, "Yes! Although Bletilla striata has a long growth period, it is easy to grow as long as it is planted in loose and fertile soil, and the yield is also high. Paris polyphylla has an even longer growth period and is not easy to grow."

Zhao Huifang: "How much can it sell for per kilogram now?"

Yang Chunyan thought that in later times, a pound of dried food would cost 60 or 70 yuan, "Fresh food should be sold for 20 or 30 yuan a pound, so it should be fine."

Zhang Xiuxiang said happily after hearing this: "That's not bad. We can dig at least 200 to 300 kilograms by the afternoon."

"Hmm!" Li Qiuyue took a bite of the biscuit and said with puffed cheeks, "Let's work hard after eating. We'll come back to dig for another day tomorrow. Let's go to the place we saw last time."

&****

Zhou Huaian saw that the kiln fire had been lit. He checked the time. It was almost five o'clock, and the people who went into the mountains to dig herbs were still nowhere to be seen. "Old man, I'll go to Fangtian to pick up Chunyan."

"Yes." Father Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Your third brother has gone to help Secretary Xu's family with farming. You can take a look when you pass by."

"It's okay. Third brother's tractor driving skills are better than mine now." Zhou Huaian said, then got on his bicycle and walked down the mountain.

The rice fields at the foot of the mountain are full of busy figures, some are planting broad beans, some are preparing the fields and dividing them into beds in preparation for sowing rapeseed seeds.

As soon as I arrived at the brigade headquarters, I saw Zhou Huaixing and his wife walking towards me, carrying their children on their backs.

The two people's hair, which used to be combed sleek and shiny, was now messy, and their clothes looked like they hadn't been changed for a long time. They were wrinkled like old salted vegetables taken out of the salt jar.

When Zhou Huaixing saw Zhou Huaian riding a bicycle over, he felt jealous. The old man wrote in a letter saying that he owed money to the villagers for buying the quota. Part of it was contributed by his father-in-law and several sisters, and part of it was earned by picking mushrooms and digging herbs in the mountains and selling them to the second wife.

Unexpectedly, the poor and stingy second wife would have a day to turn things around and build a brick house, and the lazy and mediocre Zhou Laoyao would be able to buy a tractor.

"I told you to wait until dark before entering the village, but you insisted on coming in now. Look, there are people everywhere in the fields, and you ran into that bastard son of the youngest brother as soon as you came in."

"We'll be seen by others sooner or later. I'm not afraid of you, so why should you be afraid of me?" Chen Limei gave him a slight turn and smiled at Zhou Huaian. "Youngest, where are you going?"

Zhou Huaian glanced at the two of them indifferently and said, "Let's go to Fangtian Brigade." After that, he rode away on his bike.

"A villain is getting ahead!" Zhou Huaixing muttered, turning his head to look at Chen Limei, "Why are you calling him to do something? We are the boss, he should take the initiative to call us to do something."

"Ha!" Chen Limei rolled her eyes at him. "You thought it was still the same as before. Didn't you read what the old man wrote in his letter? We have to dig herbs and pick mushrooms to sell to him when we come back! If we offend this bastard, you can't do anything about it if he doesn't accept our money."

Zhou Huaixing stopped and looked at her, "Are we really going to dig herbs and pick mushrooms when we come back?"

Chen Limei said angrily: "Do you think I want to go? We can come back this time. The money your mother and husband paid back is only a small part. The bulk of it was taken by my husband and his brothers. If you don't pay it back, I will divorce you."

Zhou Huaixing looked at her with dissatisfaction, "You old man put the cost of their quota purchase on our shoulders. We didn't force them to buy those quotas, so why should we pay for it?"

Chen Limei's eyes widened angrily, "Zhou Huaixing, are you going to get divorced or not? If you don't want to, let's go to the village to get a certificate right away, and go to the town to get a divorce tomorrow morning."

Zhou Huaixing immediately wilted after hearing this, and looked at her flatteringly, "But, who can argue? Jiaqiang and Xiaoli are still waiting for us to go back!"

After hearing this, Chen Limei pulled him anxiously and said, "Why don't you hurry up? I don't know if they have gained weight or lost weight."

Zhou Huaian stopped his bicycle at the foot of Fangtian Mountain, climbed halfway up the slope to see that there was no one there, then ran down the mountain and parked his bicycle at Yang Xiaoxue's house, then walked up the mountain carrying his basket on his back.

After walking for an hour or so, he saw that there was no one around, so he muttered, "Silly woman, you like to walk in the mountains even though you're pregnant. Your feet get itchy if you don't walk for a day. Oh! It must be because you got used to walking in the mountains every day in your previous life."

As soon as I turned the corner, I saw Yang Chunyan coming over with a basket, followed by Zhao Huifang and others with a big smile on their faces. "Sichuan people are stubborn. I would have said it earlier if I had known."

Yang Chunyan saw him coming and said happily, "Why are you here? Is the kiln ready?"

Zhou Huaian took the basket she was carrying and saw Ganoderma lucidum and some potato-like things inside, with white forked tubers underneath. "What did you get? Why are you here so late?"

Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "We found a large area of ​​grass. It will take us half a morning to dig it all tomorrow."

"Oh!" Zhou Huaian slapped his head, "I know, Doctor Xiao Wang said that we can go up the mountain to look for white hyacinth in the next few days, and we can dig it until the first month of the year!"

Zhao Huifang smiled and wiped the sweat off her face. "It's no use knowing you can't recognize it. We saw it a few days ago but didn't know how to dig it out."

"I'll recognize it next time." Yang Chunyan said as she reached out to take back the basket. "Go and change Second Sister-in-law quickly. She has the most in her basket."

"Okay!" Zhou Huaian put down the backpack, "I was worried that you might find too many herbs to carry, so I brought a backpack with me."

Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and said, "This thing doesn't take up much space. Most of the backpacks weigh about 80 to 90 kilograms."

Zhou Huaian put on the backpack and looked at the white hyacinth in the baskets carried by Zhao Huifang and the others. "These weigh at least 200 kilograms. You are really capable!"

(End of this chapter)