Chapter 262 Disdain
The people on the mountain were now preparing to go down the mountain and go home for dinner. When they saw Zhou Silang carrying a hoe up the mountain, many people laughed and said, "Oh, Silang is so hardworking. Are you planning to stay up late?"
"It's good to be young. Look at how motivated you are."
"How much winter wheat are you planning to plant on Thursday? I see you guys have been digging enough mud these past few days, and you're even carrying hoes here today..."
Zhou Silang always responded with a smile. After entering the mountain, he did not look for Zhou Erlang, but took Manbao deeper into the forest. The two pine trees just now were very close to the deep forest, and now there was almost no one in that area.
Some people saw Zhou Silang and his sister passing by but didn't care. After all, people who went into the mountains at this time either dug mud or collected leaves, so everyone was used to it.
Zhou Silang looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to this side, so he swung the hoe and started digging two feet away from the pine tree.
After digging about ten centimeters down and finding nothing, he began to dig in carefully.
He didn't dare to use too much force. He just loosened the soil a little bit at a time, then dug outside. He continued only when he found nothing.
Although this was cautious, it was also slow. He dug for quite some time and only saw a layer of dark brown skin when he was almost close to the tree stump.
Zhou Silang became excited and slowly dug around along the skin.
After a while, a large area was dug out along half of the pine tree. Of course, the Poria cocos underneath was not very big, but it was embedded quite deep, and a part of it was tightly wrapped around the pine roots.
Zhou Silang heard that that part was also a medicinal herb, called Poria cocos. Just by hearing the name, Zhou Silang felt that this part was much more important than Poria cocos.
Because the other person's name has three characters, while this one only has two, and there's a "God" character in the middle of the other person's name.
So Zhou Silang was more gentle. This might be about the clothes and flesh of his wife and future children, so of course he had to be attentive.
"Shiro, what are you doing?"
Suddenly a roar sounded from behind, scaring Zhou Silang so much that he almost fell to the ground. Manbao, who was squatting beside and watching attentively, was also startled. She did not have Zhou Silang's composure, so she sat down on the ground directly, pouted her lips and was about to cry.
Zhou Erlang, who had come to complain about Zhou Silang carrying a hoe up the mountain but not helping, paused for a moment, then immediately rushed over to comfort Manbao, "Manbao, did your second brother scare you?"
Zhou Silang no longer cared about the Fuling in the pit and immediately turned around to comfort Manbao, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, Fourth Brother is here. Did Second Brother scare you? I'll beat him up for you."
Zhou Silang turned around and slapped Zhou Erlang on the shoulder. He looked at Man Bao nervously and said, "How about it, are you still afraid?"
Manbao: "...I'm not afraid."
Both brothers breathed a sigh of relief. The memory of Old Zhou scaring Manbao last year and causing her to have a high fever was too vivid.
Zhou Erlang rubbed his shoulders, glared at Zhou Silang secretly, glanced at the hole he had dug, and asked, "Why are you digging tree roots?"
Zhou Silang gave him a flattering smile and whispered, "Second brother, this is not a tree root. Manbao said it's called Poria cocos, a medicinal herb."
"Poria cocos?" Zhou Erlang perked up and looked at the thing in the pit with sparkling eyes. "Manbao, is this really Poria cocos? I remember it was white."
"It's white," Zhou Silang also became excited and said happily, "Meat is white. Second brother, have you seen Poria cocos? Is it expensive?"
Zhou Erlang thought for a moment and said, "It should be expensive. I heard someone say that the women in wealthy families like to use this thing to make desserts. It is also a good medicinal ingredient."
Since it was something that could make money, Zhou Erlang certainly wouldn't blame Zhou Silang for not doing his job properly, so he rolled up his sleeves and squatted down to help.
The two of them dug down little by little. After digging out the soil under the Poria cocos, they carefully separated it from the pine tree roots. Zhou Erlang was very happy to see the exposed white flesh.
Manbao wanted to fill all the soil back in and restore the original state. This was her plan. "Fungi always seem to like to grow in the same place. If we fill the soil back in, maybe we can grow another patch next year."
Zhou Erlang and his companions didn't quite understand, but they listened to Manbao. Filling the spot with soil wasn't difficult. Zhou Silang even reached out and patted the pine stump, saying with a smile, "Should we give it some fertilizer? That way it'll grow faster."
Zhou Erlang glanced at him and said, "You have plenty of fertilizer at home, so just get some more fallen leaves here to fertilize the roots."
Zhou Erlang put the thing away, stared at the roots of other trees, and asked, "Is this thing easy to find? Is there any more here?"
"There's another one over there. Both were found near a pine stump. I suspect the pine stump is the one to find it."
The two brothers took Manbao to look for him. Zhou Erlang pondered and said, "Pine tree stumps, we have to cut down the pine trees, right? They may not grow back. We definitely can't cut down so many pine trees."
Zhou Erlang also immediately thought of the mountains. His eyes rolled and he lowered his voice and said, "Old Four, why don't you go to the mountains tomorrow to take a look?"
"That's what I planned too."
The two brothers looked at each other and understood each other.
Zhou Erlang warned, "Be careful not to let anyone from Dali Village see you. If anyone in the village asks, just say you're out looking for wild mushrooms. If you run into anyone from Dali Village, tell them the same thing."
Zhou Silang agreed.
Manbao said, "You're right about looking for wild mushrooms. Poria cocos belongs to the Fungus family."
Zhou Erlang's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Are those root-like lumps fungi?"
Manbao nodded. Although Keke didn't analyze its name, he was very sure that it belonged to the Fungus family, and there was no mistake about it.
Zhou Erlang and Zhou Silang were silent for a long time. Then the brothers couldn't help but sigh, "Reading is really useful."
Zhou Silang whispered, "Second brother, why don't we wait until we have enough money to send Datou and the others to school?"
Zhou Erlang sighed, "I don't think the big and the second ones will work. Let's raise the third and fourth ones. We can give it a try when they grow a little bigger."
Even if Manbao doesn't teach them the textbooks every day, he will still assign them homework, but they also keep an eye on the learning of several children.
There are so many children in the family, including Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang, who all followed Manbao to recognize a few words, but the one who really learned to read faster was Erya. Daya was a little behind, but she was much better than Datou and Ertou.
Big Head and Two Heads are just two stupid blockheads. Old Zhou can remember many words, but Big Head and Two Heads still can't.
You know, Manbao said that children have better memory than adults and learn faster.
Even Dad remembers faster than the two kids.
Zhou Erlang sighed sadly.
He reached out and patted Zhou Silang on the shoulder, saying, "Hurry up and have a baby. Raise it well. Maybe it will turn out to be smarter."
He became thoughtful and said, "I have to talk to your second sister-in-law too. I need to have another son..."
Manbao, who listened to the whole process, said:
Big Head: Although we are born dumb, we are born plump.
Two heads: lively
Big Head: Still healthy
(End of this chapter)
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