Chapter 121: 120: Underground Trap

Yang Xiaoxue blushed and shook her head at her, "You know, they separated within two months of the marriage, and his mother and husband live with us now. Your brother-in-law is nice to me, and the mother-in-law's words are unbearable, but in some ways, compared with the mothers-in-law of other families, it's still good!"

"Yeah, as long as you are not as good as the best but better than the worst, that's enough."

Yang Xiaoxue looked at her belly, "What about you?"

"Neither do I. Don't panic. It will come naturally when it's time."

Yang Xiaoxue nodded. "Someone in Zhiqiang's brother-in-law's family works at the cement factory. His sister asked someone to find a temporary job for me at the cement factory. I earn over 30 yuan a month. When I earn some money, I'll go back and do some repairs on the house, so that it won't rain when it's raining outside."

Yang Chunyan didn't expect Fang Zhiqiang to go to work in the cement factory so early, but who wouldn't envy someone who can work in a factory these days!

I don't know if she will listen to me when I advise her not to let Fang Zhiqiang go to work in the cement factory?

Then he thought about what happened to their family in their previous life and decided to persuade her not to let Fang Zhiqiang go.

Yang Chunyan made up her mind, took her hand, and whispered in her ear: "Sister, I heard that people who work in cement factories will get lung disease after a long time. Besides, if your brother-in-law is gone, your family has so many fields. How can you and your parents-in-law, who are old and weak, cultivate them?"

Yang Xiaoxue looked at her in surprise, "Lung disease? Who told you that?"

"I forgot who said it. Ask your aunt to help find out. The people at the cement factory should know something about it."

"Okay, when I get back I'll tell Zhiqiang that if working in a cement factory really does give us lung disease, we won't go no matter how much money we make."

"That's right. I dug some herbs these days and sold them on the street. I made some money. We have dug herbs in the mountains together before. You also know some herbs. I think you can take your brother-in-law to the mountains to dig herbs and sell them!"

Yang Xiaoxue's eyes lit up after hearing this. "I dug up some golden vines a few days ago and also dried some mountain whips and snake grass at home... Where did you sell them?"

"Dr. Wang's family is accepting patients at Deshengtang, which is across from the Chinese Medicine Hospital."

"Doctor Wang? Are you talking about that Doctor Wang?"

"Yeah!" The two sisters kept talking to each other, and before they knew it, they arrived at the Fangtian Brigade.

Zhou Huaian jumped off the tractor, helped the old man and Yang Chunyan out of the car, and said to Fang Zhiqiang, "Brother-in-law Fang, come over to our house when you have time."

Fang Zhiqiang nodded readily, "Yes, come to my house when you are free, and we will go to the back mountain to hunt wild boars."

Yang Chunyan waved to Yang Xiaoxue, and the group walked back.

When they reached the field road in front of their home, Zhou Huaizhong and his brothers said goodbye and walked towards their home.

When Yang Chunyan's family arrived at the door of their house, they found that the gate was locked. Zhou Huaishan took out the key, opened the door and entered the yard.

There were a lot of red mushrooms and other miscellaneous fungi picked up by Zhao Huifang and her friends drying in the yard.

After picking up the red mushrooms, I cleaned them all and dried them, but never cooked or ate them.

Zhou's mother also didn't let Yang Chunyan cook it, for fear that it would be poisonous and the whole family would be confined to bed.

Yang Chunyan looked at the red mushrooms and thought about bringing them to Dr. Wang next time she went to Ning'an. Could she exchange them for money?

Zhou Huaian put the chicken bus away and looked at the eels in the pond. "Alas, there are fewer and fewer."

Zhou Huaishan came out after changing his clothes. After hearing this, he stepped forward to take a look and said, "There's nothing we can do. The ones we sent this morning were collected by my second brother after visiting several teams."

"No, let's go to the town tomorrow to collect some!" Zhou Huaian scooped some water, washed his hands, and walked towards the room.

Yang Chunyan took out the pig's trotters and pork intestines she had bought and put them in a basin. She opened the lid of the pot and saw that there was still food left inside. Sauerkraut and potato soup was warming on the steamer, taro was cooking, and there was multi-grain rice underneath. There was also some cold shredded radish in the cupboard.

After calling the three people to have dinner together, Zhou Huaishan and the old man went out with hoes and baskets.

Zhou Huaian helped Yang Chunyan put the dishes and chopsticks in front of the stove, "Yan'er, I borrowed 80 yuan from Third Uncle's family, and I'll give you the rest later. I'll go change my clothes and shoes, and we'll go pick up those two purple Ganoderma lucidum."

Yang Chunyan shook her head and said, "It's a little late today, so we should go pick up the two Ganoderma lucidum tomorrow morning. You put the money away, and we will go to Guanyin Mountain to take a look."

"Yes, I'll go pack up, you wash up, and then we'll go." Zhou Huaian walked to the door and turned around, "Yan'er, shall we take the trap away and get some fish?"

"Uh-huh!"

The two packed up and were about to go out when Zhou's mother came back with a basket of vegetables and Zhou Xiaolin on her back, "Are you going to pick herbs?"

Yang Chunyan nodded, "Yes! Why did you pick so many tender pumpkins?"

Mother Zhou put down the basket and said, "Too many pumpkins won't grow big. I'll distribute them evenly and keep more old pumpkins."

Yang Chunyan helped her put Zhou Xiaolin down, looked at the little girl's rosy face, handed it to her and said, "We bought pig intestines and pig's trotters, I put them in the basin."

Seeing the two of them coming back with meat, Zhou's mother frowned and said, "Your third brother said that the price of eels has dropped and it's hard to make money. Don't buy these next time."

Zhou Huaian: "Mom, the old man and my eldest brother do heavy work in the mountains every day. If they don't eat well, they can't stand the fatigue. Look at Third Dad, he spent a lot of money every time he went to the hospital. Third Aunt and Huai Gang even sold three bottles of blood."

"Alas!" Zhou's mother sighed, "Apart from the blood on the old farmer's body, what else is valuable?"

Zhou Huaian was shocked when he heard this, "Mom, you also know that there are people selling blood?"

"I've heard people say that before." Zhou's mother looked at him and said, "Youngest, it's not easy to make money. You should save money and don't spend it carelessly. You can take out money when you need it urgently."

Zhou Huaian nodded and said, "Don't worry, I've put all the money away for Chunyan. We want to go to Guanyin Mountain to dig herbs, so we won't go up the mountain to pick up stones."

Weird, he doesn't talk back? Zhou's mother looked at him in surprise and said, "Yes, there are not many people digging herbs to sell now, so you can dig more and sell them for money."

"Yeah!" The two of them went out with their baskets on their backs.

Mother Zhou looked at Zhou Huaian's back and felt that her youngest son had really changed.

Yang Chunyan and Zhou Huaian arrived at the river and walked towards the southeast, where there was a small ravine about two meters wide.

Zhou Huaian took the trap out of the basket on his back.

The ground traps these days are all shuttle-shaped traps woven with homemade bamboo strips. The fish-attracting mouth at one end is in the shape of a trumpet, with an inverted mouth made of fine bamboo strips inside, so that fish and shrimp can enter but not exit.

One end has an opening like a wine bottle, and inside there is a small bag for bait. The opening is sealed with rolled green grass to make it easy to pour out the fish inside.

"Yan'er, I'm going to dig crickets. Can you help me cut some grass?"

"Oh!" Yang Chunyan took a sickle and cut two handfuls of grass on the roadside. Zhou Huaian caught some crickets and eels from the dug soil, put them into the bait bag, tied it up, and stuffed the opening tightly with grass.

"I'll go put the cage down." Zhou Huaian rolled up his trouser legs, picked up the cage and stepped into the stream. The water that used to reach up to the soles of his feet now reached his calves.

Zhou Huaian put the trap in place, tied the rope to the bushes beside the ravine, and went ashore and said, "Let's go. Come back and take a look when we go back."

(End of this chapter)