Chapter 561 Chapter 562: Slippery

The rapeseed in the rapeseed field at the foot of the mountain has begun to form pods, with only a few remaining flowers on the top of the flower spikes.

Xu Hongbing's family planted a lot of vegetables in this mountain area. Before he even arrived, he could hear the buzzing of bees.

"Xu Hongbing watched from a distance and didn't dare to go over. He pointed at the pile of rocks in front and said, "It flew out from there!"

"A sting won't kill you, so why be afraid?"

"I won't go. It hurts so much that everything I see is distorted!"

"A grown man is afraid of little bees!"

Zhou Huaian smiled and took out the medicine hoe from his backpack. He knocked the pumpkin vines a few times as he walked. When he came to the pile of rocks, he saw countless little bees flying in and out from under a piece of rock.

"Damn it, I didn't expect there was a big beehive here!" He excitedly moved the surrounding stones away and took out moxa sticks.

Xu Hongbing tiptoed and looked at him, "Youngest, is there a wild beehive?"

"Yes, would you like to come and take a look?" Zhou Huaian put the lit moxa stick in.

Xu Hongbing took a few steps and saw a black mass of bees flying out of the hive. He was so scared that he stepped back and said, "Forget it. I have been afraid of this thing since I was a child!"

"Then you just wait here while I take out the honey!"

After the bees flew away, Zhou Huaian moved the stones at the entrance of the cave, revealing the rows of beehives hanging on the stone slabs. "The space inside is too small. We have to expand it a bit after we get the honey."

Xu Hongbing saw him busying around with his body bent. His pores stood up when he saw two black bee clusters hanging on a willow tree not far away.

He simply turned around and brought out a high stool, stepped on the stool and picked the yellow papayas from below.

Zhou Huaian cut five rows of beehives and half a row of pollen combs, leaving one row of food for the little bees. He doubled the size of the hive and then brought stones to seal the hive.

He walked over to the papaya tree with his backpack on his back, and saw him reaching out to pick papayas. He smiled and walked over to him, "Come down, I get anxious when I see you like this!"

"Hey! The materials are a little short!" Xu Hongbing jumped down from the stool with a smile, "Pick off the yellow ones, otherwise they will fall to the ground and break."

"Great!" Zhou Huaian picked one and put it in the basket, "Leave two seedlings for me, I'll take them back and plant them next to the vegetable garden."

"There is a small one over there. Wait for me. I will go back and get a hoe to dig it up. You can take it back and plant it." Xu Hongbing left in a hurry.

Zhou Huaian picked all the yellow ones. The basket was already full. He thought that when he passed by Ding Ding Mao's house later, he would make soup for the two of them.

After a while, Xu Hongbing came up the mountain with a hoe. The two of them dug up the small papaya tree with the soil, picked some pumpkin leaves and pulled a handful of ivy, wrapped them up with the soil and roots, and walked down the mountain together.

When they arrived at the gate of Xu Hongbing's house, he said, "Old Xu, this nest is full of old honey. I will go back and filter out the honey and send you half of it."

After hearing this, Xu Hongbing hurriedly said, "Half is too much. Just give me a small bottle."

"I'm telling you, this is old honeycomb, mixed with water, it's the best to drink." Zhou Huaian said as he took out the half-row of honeycombs, "There's still some honeycombs, take it back and get the pollen out of it for your wife to eat, it's also a good thing."

"Thanks!" Xu Hongbing took it gratefully. "Wait a minute. I'll go in and put my things away, and then help you carry the papaya tree."

"No need, just put the tree in the backpack, and I'll hang the honey bucket on the faucet." Zhou Huaian said as he came down and took out the wooden barrel from the backpack, and the two of them put the papaya tree into the backpack.

After the bicycle entered the yard, he shouted into the room, "Yan'er, I dug a papaya tree. Where do you think it's suitable to be planted?"

Yang Chunyan came out of the room and saw the papaya tree that was already half a person tall in the backyard. "It can be planted next to the vegetable field or the medicinal herb field at the back."

"Just plant it next to the vegetable field." Zhou Huaian took down the wooden barrel and handed it to her. "Old Xu, a man is afraid of bees... I picked up some stones from it and doubled the size. I'll go take a look in the fall."

After hearing this, Yang Chunyan shook her head and said, "Look at you. Their family is afraid of bees. You cut the honey combs and expanded the hive. There will be more and more bees in the future. By then, they won't even dare to go out to pick pumpkins."

"Oh!" Zhou Huaian slapped his head, "Why didn't I think of that? I'll bring a beehive over later, take out the honeycomb where the queen bee lives, and move the beehive to the back mountain to attract small bees."

Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "I think you'd better find a place in the big pit to move the two boxes of bees on the back mountain down, otherwise we will be stung by bees sooner or later."

Zhou Huaian thought about the old man complaining about the little bees that day. He didn't even dare to go over there to pull grass. "Okay! I'll find a place in the pit to put the beehive later."

He took a hoe and dug a hole next to the vegetable garden. After planting the papaya tree, he walked around the woods. The Jerusalem artichokes planted last year have grown out, the yam vines have climbed up the small shrubs, and the ramie is growing lush green. The pig grass he planted is more than enough for six pigs to eat.

The Jerusalem artichokes planted by the pond are about one meter long. In a few months, the roadside and the pond will be covered with golden Jerusalem artichoke flowers. It's so beautiful just to think about it...

Zhou Huaian returned home with a hoe, went into the house, took the beehive and said to Yang Chunyan: "Yan'er, I'm going to Old Xu's house."

After hearing this, Yang Chunyan hurriedly said, "Huaian, you have to go to Baicaoping tomorrow. It's not safe on the road right now. I think you should ask Xu Hongbing and Brother Li to go with you."

Carrying a few dozen dollars on you these days is considered a huge sum of money, and he always carries a few hundred dollars with him every time he goes to Baicaoping.

Even though she was carrying a gun, there were always a few idlers in every village. If she was unlucky enough to be targeted by them... she didn't even dare to think about it.

"I've talked to Old Xu about this, but I haven't mentioned this to Li Wu yet. I'm afraid he's gone to the coal mine to pick up coal."

"Go check first. If Brother Li isn't here, call Xu Hongbing along."

Zhou Huaian was very happy to see that she was worried about him. He came forward and kissed Xiao Jiuer, "Little one, your mother, my wife, is still the best to me!"

Yang Chunyan burst out laughing, "My son will be like you in the future, slick and glib."

Zhou Huaian raised his eyebrows proudly, "You don't know this! A man should be able to speak. Just think about it, if I was like a wooden stake and couldn't speak clearly, you would still like me!"

Yang Chunyan smiled and glared at him, "Go quickly, I'll tell you, you have a hundred reasons to wait for me."

"Yes, sir!" Zhou Huaian hung the backpack on the back seat of the bike, stuffed the beehives inside, got on his bike and walked towards Li Wu's house.

When I arrived at his door, I saw Li Wu coming out of the backyard carrying a load of manure. "Old Li, you didn't go to the coal mine?"

Li Wu smiled and put down the manure water. "I came back yesterday to attend Yiding's wedding banquet. I plan to tidy up the land at home. I will start raising rice seedlings next month."

Originally, his family had no personal relations with Zhou Yiding's family, but since they went into the mountains to dig truffles together last time, they have been visiting each other more often. Now that they have a good relationship, it is natural for him to come and help when there is something.

Zhou Huaian parked his bicycle and said, "Come in, I have something to tell you!"

"Okay, come in and sit down!" Li Wu pushed open the gate and walked in.

"Is Aunt Li not here?"

"Growing vines in the backyard!" Li Wu smiled naively and handed him a chair. "Sit down!"

After Zhou Huaian sat down, he said, "I have to go out to collect herbs every two days. Chunyan is worried that it's not safe on the road, so I want to ask you and Lao Xu to go with me. The salary is five yuan a day. Are you interested?"

He calculated that if they made a trip every two days, that would be ten days a month, and five dollars a day would be fifty dollars, so it was not a loss for them.

"Okay, just call me whenever you want to go." Li Wu agreed readily without saying much.

"I'll wait for you at the drying dam at six o'clock tomorrow!" Zhou Huaian said as he stood up, "I'll go talk to Old Xu."

"Great!" Li Wu sent him out, closed the gate, and left with the dung bucket.

Zhou Huaian went to Xu Hongbing's house and told him about going to Baicaoping to collect herbs tomorrow and about the wages. He happily agreed.

The two men went up the mountain to the pile of rocks again, took the queen bee and honeycomb out of the hive and put them into a beehive, then covered it with straw mats, and they would come back to take the beehive away in two days.

Seeing that he had reached an agreement with Li Wu and the others, Yang Chunyan felt that although she would earn ten yuan less each time, the safety factor would be much higher.

After knowing this, the old man, Zhou's mother and father thought about taking Li Wu and Xu Hongbing with them. The daily wage of the two of them was only ten yuan. If it were several brothers, the youngest one would definitely not be able to afford ten yuan.

Also, they felt that the youngest brother's family had been good enough to the brothers, and they had suffered enough losses, so it was impossible for him to suffer losses for the rest of his life.

Before going to bed at night, he and the old man looked around the backyard with flashlights, closed the fence door outside the alley outside the chicken coop, and then went back to the house to sleep.

The old man was sleeping in the middle of the night. He heard the dog barking twice and then there was no more sound. He was worried, so he went to the backyard with a flashlight. When he saw the dog lying in the doghouse, he went back to sleep with peace of mind.

The next morning, Zhou Huaian drove a tractor to pick up Li Wu and Xu Hongbing at the drying dam, and the three of them went to Baicaoping to collect herbs together.

At dawn, Ma Chunhua came to Zhou Huaian's house and said to Zhou's mother who was cleaning the gate, "Aunt Chen, thanks to your youngest child's reminder yesterday, I locked all the chickens in the pigpen. This morning, I woke up and found that one of the traps I put outside the chicken coop was missing. It seems that a bobcat dragged it away with the trap."

After hearing this, Zhou's mother said worriedly, "If you didn't steal it this time, you won't come back next time, right?"

Ma Chunhua shook her head. "I don't know. My family still doesn't know whether it was a bobcat or a weasel that stole the chickens. I plan to build a chicken coop with bricks like yours to prevent the chickens from being stolen by bobcats."

Mother Zhou: "That's true. Find some broken bricks or earth bricks. Don't make the vent hole too big, or the bobcat will get in!"

Ma Chunhua: "Well, I'll go back first!"

In the afternoon, Zhou Huaian and his two companions came back and collected more than 40 kilograms of wild honey, more than 10 kilograms of old honeycomb, more than 3 kilograms of mulberry fungus, more than 10 kilograms of purple Ganoderma lucidum, several kilograms of red Ganoderma lucidum, and dozens of kilograms of tree tongue. They could earn at least over 100 yuan from this trip.

Two nights later, the chickens in the pen were not dragged away by the bobcat, and the people living at the foot of the mountain finally felt relieved.

After Zhou Yiding brought Wan Xuejiao back home, he went to the forest farm to take over, and Zhou Daqing retired and went home.

(End of this chapter)