This time, Paige was there to pick them up halfway through the journey again.
When the three of them returned to the mountain with torches, it was already past midnight. Xu Errui was tired but excited. As soon as he entered the door, he kept talking to Jiang Zhi, who was yawning, "Mother, today Scholar Xia talked about the sun and the moon, and I remembered it all!"
Jiang Zhi was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open, but she nodded: "Good, I'll go again tomorrow. There's water heating up on the stove, so you can wash up and go to bed early!"
It's 10 PM now.
For modern people, nightlife is just beginning, but for ancient farmers who were used to working at sunrise and resting at sunset, it was already time to wake up, take a second nap, and add grass to the cattle in the middle of the night.
Even Jiang Zhi has adapted to local customs and, unless there's something important to do, she's gotten into the habit of going to bed early.
As soon as Qiaoyun entered the door, she went to see Caixia first. She bent down and kissed her sleeping daughter. When she heard Errui talking about teaching, she hesitated and said, "Mother, I won't go to the village tomorrow."
Jiang Zhi frowned slightly as she watched her affectionate interaction with her daughter: "Are you tired from walking? Or are you afraid of walking at night?"
Hiking at night is indeed dangerous, but the road has been repaired several times, greatly reducing the danger.
Of course, Qiaoyun really didn't want to walk at night, so she could stay in the village and ask Liu for lodging, and then come back in the morning.
Judging from her affectionate gestures at this moment, she probably still can't bear to part with her child.
"No, Mother, I'm not tired. I'm just afraid that Caixia will be disobedient and upset you!" Qiaoyun quickly explained.
Jiang Zhi pursed her lips and didn't ask any more questions: "It's getting late, you should go to sleep first, we can talk about it tomorrow morning."
She wondered if Qiaoyun hadn't understood and didn't want to exhaust herself for nothing, so she decided to ask Errui and Xiaoman tomorrow before making a decision.
Women have very little free time; if they don't cherish it, it will be difficult to get it later.
Now that Caixia has been weaned, Qiaoyun can also get away for a while. If she gets pregnant again, she will have no chance to study at all.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, thick fog enveloped the entire mountain forest, and Jiang Zhi had already gotten up early.
Jiang Zhi didn't wake Er Rui and Qiao Yun up because she got back too late yesterday.
She was going to pick some vegetables to feed the chickens and pigs, and also check if the lilyturf in the gully had started to bear fruit, and check some medicinal herbs planted near her home.
Miss Huo Er said she wanted Xu Family Village to grow medicinal herbs, including Ophiopogon japonicus.
Ophiopogon japonicus flowers, with their rhizomes used in medicine, are described in the Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica as a superior tonic for nourishing yin and moistening the lungs. Long-term use can lighten the body, prevent aging, and reduce hunger.
Ophiopogon japonicus is considered a weed in the south. It also grows on the mountains around Xujia Village, but in small quantities, and even if you dig it up, you can't sell it for much money.
Jiang Zhi thought that she could save the seeds or propagate them by division in the future, and she could keep them to use in prescriptions at any time, so she never harvested them.
It's the time when Ophiopogon japonicus is in bloom. Clusters of pale pink flowers are stuck in the grass, looking plain from afar but stunning up close.
In early winter, it can produce lilyturf fruits, which are also quite beautiful in their own way.
The fruits of Ophiopogon japonicus resemble deep blue gems scattered among the grass; they would also look beautiful strung into bracelets, but they are not edible.
She knows how to collect herbs, but that doesn't mean she knows how to grow them. She keeps these native seedlings for her own consumption and also to observe the growth of real wild medicinal herbs.
As you walk through the mist, all sorts of wildflowers and weeds come into view.
Summer is when plants grow most luxuriantly, and it is also the time when various medicinal herbs are easiest to identify.
The world is not lacking in beauty, but only in eyes that can see it. These flowers not only adorn the scenery, but also serve many other purposes.
The plants on the hillside, about a meter tall and unremarkable, were now blooming with clusters of pale purple flowers, typical of hanging bells.
Its southern name is Pao Shen, while its northern name is Sha Shen.
Like Ophiopogon japonicus, Adenophora stricta is a top-grade yin-nourishing herb. When stewing meat soup, simply dig out a plant and put its roots and stems into the pot to cook together.
It's yellowish-brown in the pharmacy, but a beautiful translucent white in the stewing bag... (cough cough, it's safer to eat things with color).
Both North American ginseng and South American ginseng have roots and stems that are naturally light brown or yellowish-white, making them prime targets for sulfur fumigation used in skin whitening treatments.
These plants, which are used for both medicinal and edible purposes, along with wild yam, fleeceflower root, and silvergrass from the mountains, have now been incorporated into Jiangzhi's vegetable garden.
After inspecting all the medicinal herbs and seeing that they were growing well, Jiang Zhi picked a few vegetables to take home.
Jiang Zhi patrols the mountain peaks, just like Xiao Man Ye patrols the fields; he only feels at ease when he inspects his precious treasures every day.
When she got home, Qiaoyun was already cooking. Xu Errui wasn't home, but she could hear the sound of mortar and pestle being pounded coming from the nearby woods.
The rice and grains eaten on the mountain need to be pounded with a stone mortar and pestle, which is a very strenuous task. Now Errui pounds rice and flour in the morning when it is cool.
Below the cliff, the sound of wheat being pounded could be heard; it was either during the Lesser Fullness of Grain or the Spring Breeze.
If you want to eat refined grains, you need to spend more time preparing the ingredients.
Jiang Zhi felt that she needed to build a reservoir on the mountain.
They utilized the ditch on the mountain ridge above to store water during the summer when there was a lot of rain, and then used bamboo tubes to draw the water down.
The drop is high enough to move a small water mill, which can pound rice, grind charcoal powder and medicinal powder, reducing manual labor by half.
However, the noise of the chickens forced her to admit that creating a secluded paradise was not something that could be achieved overnight.
The chickens, big and small, were jumping around in the enclosure, looking around, waiting to eat the freshest vegetable leaves.
Jiang Zhi peeled the leaves off each vegetable, chopped them up, mixed them with bran and soybean cake, and fed them to the chickens.
The vegetable scraps were left for Peppa, who was still fast asleep in the grass nest.
Qiaoyun came over carrying water: "Mom! Dinner's almost ready!"
Jiang Zhi took the warm water and drank it, then casually asked, "What did Scholar Xia talk about yesterday?"
She felt like she was checking her students' homework at home.
Qiaoyun, who was dejected yesterday, seemed to have forgotten what she had said when the topic of lecturing came up. She immediately became radiant and said, "Yesterday, Scholar Xia talked about why the calendar uses the day instead of the month. At first, it was fine, but later many people didn't understand... Hehe!"
She couldn't help but laugh when she thought of Xu Gensheng's humiliation at being scolded for talking too much, and Uncle Li being thrown into a water vat.
"Oh!" Jiang Zhi was somewhat surprised; Xia Xiucai had indeed taken a different approach.
Yesterday I talked about "letting go" and "obsession".
Today they're talking about calendars and monthly calendars again...
From philosophy to astronomy, Xia Xiucai's range was extraordinary. He was indeed erudite, but unfortunately, ordinary people couldn't understand him at all, let alone this group of peasants.
"You say you can understand it?" Jiang Zhi became interested as well. Although Qiaoyun was only eighteen years old, she had never studied before and had only learned to read from the doctor's cryptic texts. There was no reason for her to understand the calendar.
Qiaoyun nodded.
"Then why did you say you didn't want to go yesterday? Was it because you didn't like it or because you were really tired?" Jiang Zhi pressed.
Qiaoyun lowered her head, her voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz: "I like listening to it, and I'm not afraid of getting tired, but I'm worried that Caixia will bother me!"
Hearing that she really couldn't bear to part with her child, Jiang Zhi immediately became angry: "What's wrong with a child crying a few times? You're still young and don't understand. You think that holding her for a while and laughing at her for a while is being good to her? The days of her crying are yet to come."
The sudden outburst of anger made Qiaoyun turn pale with fright.
Her mother-in-law hadn't been this angry in a long time, so she quickly shook her head: "Mom, I'm not afraid that Caixia will cry, I'm afraid that she'll tire you out!"
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