Yang Chunyan held the stem aside, squatted by the ditch and scooped up some cool and sweet mountain spring water to drink. There were many Acorus calamus growing on the rocks by the ditch. The water flowed out from the caves above. It was such a large stream all year round and never stopped flowing.

She felt that there must be a cave inside, but the old people in the village said that someone had gone in before and never came out again, and even the people who went to look for it never came back, so the cave became a forbidden area.

Every time they went up the mountain, the adults would remind them not to go inside. That year, Yang Weidong made a bet with someone and went to the cave entrance. When he came back from the mountain, he was rewarded with a meal of bamboo shoots and fried pork slices. Since then, they never went there again when they went up the mountain.

Yang Chunyan saw a lot of olive trees growing on a big rock, so she walked over, picked up one and pulled it out. The good thing about this thing is that it can be pulled up in pieces when pulled.

The current environmental quality is really good. Stone olive and stone calamus can be found by the ravine. If you go further, you will only find them in such mountains and forests.

Yang Chunyan left some behind, hugged the olive tree and went to the ditch to clean the moss and rot on it. When she looked back, she suddenly found a patch of light yellow snake gourd growing under the mulberry tree at the edge of the ditch, which was somewhat similar in shape to the spring grass.

She smiled and said to them, "Look, there are a lot of snake gourds growing over there. We are so lucky today!"

Zhou Huaian turned his head and took a look while leaning on his hoe. "It looks a bit like the Rejuvenation Grass."

Wang Zhen looked back and said, "This is not the herb of rejuvenation. Its scientific name is Snakehead scutellaria. It likes to parasitize on plants of the mulberry family. It has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, cooling blood and stopping bleeding. Some people dig it up and sell it as Cynomorium songaricum."

"I hate people who try to make money by doing anything. They are so crazy." Brother Yang said angrily, "Last time I went to Pulin Town to collect red mushrooms, I saw someone using dahlia tubers to impersonate Gastrodia elata. After I caught him and exposed him on the spot, he wanted to gather his accomplices to beat me up, but they ended up smashing his stall."

Zhou Huaian praised: "Big brother, you did a good job. Don't be polite to this kind of person when you meet him."

Wang Zhen said: "In the past, some people mistook Gelsemium for other herbs and dug them up to make wine, which almost cost them their lives. You should also be careful when you go up the mountain to collect herbs. If you find Gelsemium growing around herbs, you must not pick them back. Gelsemium is too toxic and the surrounding herbs will be contaminated with toxins."

Zhou Huaian: "We saw it last time at the forest farm. Chunyan said that the herbs nearby cannot be dug because they are poisonous."

Wang Zhen: “It’s right not to dig!”

Brother Yang had left a bunch of turmeric undigged, so he went to help pick up the dug turmeric, put it in a basket, and took it to the ditch for Yang Chunyan and her sister to wash.

There wasn't much mud in the cracks of the turmeric, mostly rotten soil, and it wasn't very dirty after being washed by the water in the ditch. By the time Zhou Huaian and Wang Zhen had finished digging, they had almost finished washing.

Sister Yang Chunyan left the rest for the three to clean, and they carried the baskets to collect the snakeheads.

These snake fungi are parasitic on mulberry trees. Most of the mulberry trees along the ditch have withered. The sisters looked around carefully and did not find any Coriolus polygoni multiflorus.

Yang Dongmei said to her, "Sister, the nutrients of these mulberry trees have been absorbed by these snake gourds, so they should not be able to grow mulberry yellow anymore."

Yang Chunyan lowered her head and pulled up the snake gourd in front of her feet and put it in the vegetable basket. "It's okay, I'll just look around and find it if I can. If I can't find it, there's no loss."

Yang Dongmei felt that she had really changed a lot. "Sister, when you moved, I wanted to say this. I don't know why, but I always feel like you have matured overnight!"

I thought your brother-in-law wasn't treating you well, or that he was not ambitious enough and was hanging around outside, and that you had to shoulder the burden of the family and that's why you matured so quickly.

But from what I've seen, my brother-in-law seems to have changed, and he treats you just as well as before. Could it be that, as mom said, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are until you become the head of a household, and you'll become more sensible once you become the head of a household?"

After hearing this, Yang Chunyan touched her ponytail with heartwarming feeling, but how could she tell her that she had started over again in this life and had also changed the trajectory of her and Wang Zhen's lives.

"Your brother-in-law's family is in financial difficulty, and he accidentally chased someone else's cow off a ridge and killed it. Almost all the money for repairing the house has been paid to the Xiong family. We have to put it back on its feet!"

"No wonder the book says that suffering can make people grow." Yang Dongmei looked at her with a smile, "Sister, after the new house is built, are you going to move to the city?"

After pulling up the last flower, Yang Chunyan walked to the ditch with the basket in hand. "You know, there is such a big stall at home. I can only stay there for a few days occasionally."

"I guess so!" Yang Dongmei said, nudging her, "Grandpa told us that you and your brother-in-law are very lucky."

"Why do you say that?" Yang Chunyan recalled what she had heard before: Chinese medicine is a bit weird in some aspects. Could it be that the old man has seen something?

Yang Dongmei shrugged. "I don't know. Anyway, that's what he told me and Wang Zhen."

Seeing that she didn't know, Yang Chunyan changed the subject, "Didn't you say last time that Wang Zhen's father and stepmother were coming? What's his stepmother like? Is she easy to get along with?"

Yang Dongmei curled her lips, "On the day we arrived in Ning'an, Wang Zhen took me to meet him on the train. His father looks a lot like Grandpa Wang. I saw that he was always polite to Wang Zhen, as if he was afraid of offending him.

The woman's temperament and appearance were a bit like the Jiangnan women described in books. I hated her fake smile the most. After returning to the city, we went to the guesthouse for dinner.

Wang Zhen's father gave me a jade bracelet, saying it was passed down from the elders to the eldest son and his wife, and that his mother wore it before, and now it's given to me. The woman's eyes looked like she wanted to kill someone.

Wang Zhen told me that the woman dreamed of having the bracelet, and he thought the old man had given it to her, but he didn't expect that he had kept it all this time. Later, she said she was not feeling well and had been staying in the guesthouse instead of coming to the old house. Her father told me not to worry about it and to let her do whatever she wanted.

Yang Chunyan: "It seems that his father also understands that Wang Zhen suffered a lot at her hands in the past."

"How can I not understand? We have been married for so many years, how can I not know the details of the person next to me? But since his father gave me the bracelet, Wang Zhen's attitude towards him has been much better than when I first took him in."

"Men can be a little confused sometimes, but there is no overnight hatred between father and son. His father has already taken the initiative to show good will, so Wang Zhen may not be that angry with him anymore."

“I think so too!”

While the two sisters were talking, they washed the snake gourds. At this time, Zhou Huaian and the other two also washed the turmeric. They filled three backpacks, one and a half of them, and two of them were almost full.

The five of them were busy for more than an hour and felt it was good to have such a harvest.

Brother Yang said happily: "The quality of these turmerics is good. We can go back and steam them in a steamer, dry them, and then grind them into powder."

Wang Zhen smiled and said, "Yes, people here don't like to eat turmeric. When cooking fish, you can put two slices in it just like we put ginger slices to enhance the flavor."

Zhou Huaian put the turmeric he had taken home to plant into a net bag and hung it on his backpack. "After we collect the traps, you can cut two slices and put them in when you cook the fish to try."

Wang Zhen: "When we go back down the mountain, will there be fish in the traps?"

Brother Yang said affirmatively: "Yes, I put bait in it."

Wang Zhen saw that the turmeric had been packed and that the basket he was carrying was only half full, so he hurriedly picked up the musk deer on the ground and put them in.

Zhou Huaian picked up the pheasant and said, "You have never carried too much on a mountain road. You will not be able to walk if you carry too much. Put the pheasant in your backpack and put the musk deer on top of mine. Let me carry it."

Wang Zhen smiled and nodded, "Okay!"

Zhou Huaian put the musk deer on top of the turmeric, tied it up with a rope, and said to the four people, "Let's eat something here and then go back over there, okay?"

"Okay!" Sister Yang Chunyan took out the food from the backpack, "Look, there are eggs, steamed cakes, moon cakes, and a cut watermelon."

Each of them ate two boiled eggs, then started eating the steamed cake. Finally, they didn't touch any of the mooncakes, but broke the watermelon in half and ate them.

Zhou Huaian took a few bites in succession, "Delicious! Sandy and sweet!"

Brother Yang smiled and said, "It's the field where you went to pick the fruits last year. This year, I took all the watermelons and melons to Ning'an to sell to the fruit vendors. It's calculated that I made dozens of yuan more than in the town."

Zhou Huaian: "We ate a lot of watermelons and melons you sent us this year." Zhou Huaian said, looking at Yang Chunyan, "Didn't you save seeds last year? Why didn't I see anyone picking watermelons to eat at home?"

Yang Chunyan: "I don't know what happened. None of the watermelon seeds I sowed grew, but a lot of melons did. The melon vines were planted over at the old house. This year, my mom and husband stayed at my house a lot, so a lot of them were stolen."

Zhou Huaian: "The two kids from the eldest house stole the vegetables with their baskets. I saw it with my own eyes. It's impossible for me to go back to their house and argue over some food."

Yang Chunyan: "No wonder. I heard mom say that we will plant in the back hill and corn field next year instead of the vegetable garden over there."

After hearing this, Brother Yang shook his head and said, "The father of the Huai'an family is too calculating. In fact, our uncles of the Yang family are better!"

Zhou Huaian: "My uncle and his wife are the same, they typically hate the poor and hate the rich. Fortunately, my old man has figured it out now and doesn't associate with my dad anymore, otherwise I would still be worried that he would force that family to join us."

Brother Yang: "Your grandparents are fine. In our village, there are grandparents who are partial to the eldest and youngest wives. No matter what happens, the middle ones always suffer."

Zhou Huaian: "That's right. I didn't notice that my grandparents favored the eldest wife. I don't know why my old man was afraid of my eldest father. He always thought of him in everything he did. Later, I don't know why he suddenly didn't give him face. My mother said that my old man suffered too much and figured it out."

Yang Chunyan handed the last piece of watermelon to Brother Yang and said, "Let's go over there and see if there are any wax gourds and myrtles. Then we'll go back. If it's any later, I'm worried that Jiu'er will come looking for us."

Zhou Huaian also stood up quickly. "The little guy is a little familiar with people now. He's fine at home, but I'm worried that my mother-in-law can't take care of him here."

Wang Zhen looked at the watermelon seeds on the ground and suddenly had an idea, "We have spit so many watermelon seeds here, will there be watermelons to eat next year?"

Yang Dongmei washed her hands, smiled and stood up to pull him, "We'll know next year when we come to see you." (End of this chapter)