Xiao Nuan'er also felt a little embarrassed. She sat up from the ground, touched her red face, and said in a childish voice, "Damn it, it made Xiao Nuan'er fall."
Wang Fengqin was about to say a few words of comfort when she noticed the black stripes on Xiao Nuan'er's face and burst out laughing, "Xiao Nuan'er has a big graffiti face now!"
Ono burst into laughter upon seeing this.
Jiang Yimian looked over and realized that the large patterns on her face were caused by the juice from the cat's eye grass that Xiao Nuan'er had been pulling, mixed with the dirt on her hands.
Fortunately, I didn't touch it too often, otherwise it could have caused a skin allergy.
Jiang Yimian smiled unconsciously. Just as she was about to continue cutting the bushes, she saw Xiao Nuan'er pull out a cat's eye grass and put it in her mouth. She was so shocked that she quickly stopped her, "Xiao Nuan'er, don't eat it. That grass is poisonous."
These words startled everyone. Xiao Nuan'er quickly dropped the grass in her hand on the ground, her eyes instantly reddening. "Xiao Nuan'er will listen to me and not eat it. Sister, will I be poisoned?"
She just wanted to taste whether the white sap was sweet.
Wang Fengqin dropped her sickle and ran towards Xiao Nuan'er, her face full of anxiety.
Jiang Yimian quickly added, "It's alright, the toxicity isn't high. Xiao Nuan'er only licked it once, she won't be harmed."
Cat's eye grass, also known as bindweed, milkweed, or simply cat's eye grass in some places, gets its name from its shape, which resembles a cat's eye.
It is slightly cold in nature, bitter in taste, and has mild toxicity. It has the effects of detoxifying and dispersing nodules, relieving cough and expectoration, killing parasites, and reducing inflammation.
Hearing that everything was alright, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, Xiao Nuan'er dared not pick up anything and put it in her mouth again, for fear that it might be poisonous.
She had personally witnessed the mice in her house die instantly after eating something poisonous, lying stiff and lifeless on the ground. She didn't want to end up like that.
The group worked for another hour and finally cleared a piece of land. By the time they finished building their shelter, the sun was already setting.
At that moment, the sound of several people's footsteps could be heard from the woods.
From afar, one could see Liu Xiaoyun carrying large and small bags, with a boy of about ten years old beside her, and the boy carrying a pale-faced man on his back.
When Wang Fengqin saw that it was Liu Xiaoyun's family, she quickly went forward to help. After taking their things and putting them on the ground, she asked in surprise, "Xiaoyun, why are you only coming up the mountain now? Where is the others?"
Yesterday, when she heard that Liu Xiaoyun was going to go with the villagers, she thought that she would go up the mountain early to find a place to stay, but she didn't expect that she would not go up the mountain until almost dark.
Before Liu Xiaoyun could speak, Gousheng, who was exhausted and hadn't even caught his breath, cursed loudly: "Pah, what kind of villager are you? You dawdled and didn't come up the mountain this morning, but as soon as you got up the mountain and saw an open space near Liu's house, you quickly grabbed a good spot and set up your shack."
We originally planned to set up a shack there, but Wang Ergou and his wife took it over. If it weren't getting dark, I would have definitely given them a good talking-to.
What's most infuriating is that none of the other families who went up the mountain with them spoke up for them. Instead, they all advised them to find another place, even though they were the ones who had taken the spot first.
Liu Xiaoyun only whispered a scolding, "Gou Sheng."
Seeing his mother was angry, Gousheng had no choice but to suppress his dissatisfaction and took out a machete to chop at the surrounding bushes, each chop harder than the last, as if he were venting his anger.
When Jiang Yimian and Xiao Ye returned from the woods carrying hay and fallen leaves, it was already completely dark. Liu Xiaoyun's family's shack had also been set up, next to the woods, but quite a distance away from Jiang's family's.
However, since it was already dark, the weeds around the shack had not been cleared yet; only some obstructing shrubs had been cut down.
Jiang Yimian glanced at the still lush grass a few times, then carried the dry grass and withered leaves into her own shack.
Because there was no bed board and the ground was cold, she went out and found some dry grass and withered leaves, intending to lay them on the ground and then put on a quilt to make do for the night, and then go find bamboo to make a bed board when it got light.
They ate congee and wild vegetable pancakes for dinner, and everyone was quite satisfied. After all, they had been working hard all day, so there was nothing to complain about.
Xiao Nuan'er and Xiao Ye had walked too much during the day, so after eating, they snuggled up in their blankets and went to sleep.
Wang Fengqin, on the other hand, fell into a deep sleep early due to her weak constitution.
Jiang Yimian extinguished the fire outside the shack and sprinkled some insect repellent powder near the two shacks. Just as she was about to leave, she heard soft sobbing coming from the shack next door.
She paused, glanced at the shack, and then went to sleep.
Although she said she was going to sleep, she didn't sleep very soundly. Her nerves were constantly on edge, watching for any sound outside, afraid that something might happen. She didn't finally drift off to sleep until dawn.
When she woke up again, the sun was high in the sky. She sat up abruptly, feeling a bit hot.
The temperature in the mountains varies greatly between day and night. During the day, the sun is blazing hot and can be scorching, while at night, a gentle breeze can make you shiver with cold.
As soon as the sun came out, the temperature rose, and Jiang Yimian was covered in a thick quilt, which only made her sweat profusely.
Wang Fengqin was tending to the pot of warm porridge when she saw Jiang Yimian come out of the shack. She quickly waved to her, "Yimian, the porridge is still warm, eat it quickly."
Jiang Yimian responded, then looked away when she saw only the paralyzed man in the shack in the distance. She drank a bowl of salty porridge with dried radish and wild vegetables, and then went to find the bamboo forest by herself with a basket on her back.
The original owner had gone up the mountain with Shen Dazhuang before, and remembered seeing a bamboo forest on the mountain, but had forgotten the exact location.
Jiang Yimian followed the memory in her mind and looked around the mountain. After searching for a while, she couldn't find the bamboo forest, but she did find a patch of shepherd's purse on the ground.
The tender green leaves crowded together, eagerly trying to grow out of the ground, looking very vibrant.
Perhaps because it is backlit, the shepherd's purse, which should have already blossomed at this time of year, is still tender and green, making dumplings filled with shepherd's purse the most delicious.
In her spare time, her favorite place to go was the mountain. The wild vegetables and various medicinal herbs everywhere dazzled her. She also met an interesting old lady on the mountain and learned a lot from her. Of course, she also ate dumplings with shepherd's purse filling.
Jiang Yimian was starting to miss those days on the mountain. Now that she had returned, the situation was quite different.
With a soft sigh, she gave up on thinking about the past and focused on digging for shepherd's purse.
If you can't eat dumplings with shepherd's purse filling, cold shepherd's purse salad is also good.
In just a quarter of an hour, Jiang Yimian had dug up half a basket of fresh shepherd's purse, turning what was once a large expanse of lush greenery into a bare patch.
After wandering around the mountain for a while and collecting some firewood, just as Jiang Yimian was about to give up, she finally saw the familiar bamboo forest on a hillside not far away.
Before she could even rejoice at finding the bamboo forest, she spotted the bamboo shoots sprouting from the ground.
She forgot that this is the perfect time to eat bamboo shoots.
Bamboo shoots are just sprouting from the ground. After peeling off the outer skin and boiling them in water to remove the bitterness, they taste refreshing and have a great texture.
If you can't finish them, you can dry them into dried bamboo shoots, which will have a different flavor.
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