Xu He had wanted to go up the mountain since the beginning of spring, but he was busy at home and had no chance.
After lunch, he and Zhang Fangyuan skipped even the lunch break and went straight up the back mountain with their weapons on their backs.
The forests in spring are no longer bleak like in winter; the trees are lush and green, giving off a lot of spring flavor. Xu He was carrying a small backpack and holding a small sickle and a small shovel that Zhang Fangyuan had taken out from the tool shed.
The first time I met Zhang Fangyuan in the mountains, I found that he had a lot of very useful tools. Today, when I took the tools out, he got to see them.
Zhang Fangyuan's treasures were placed in the warehouse behind the central hall of the house, and one wall was hung with tools. There were tools for slaughtering animals, farming, hunting and chopping wood in the mountains... sickles, hatchets, machetes and everything else. The iron tools glowed coldly. He was shocked when he first entered. There were sharp objects hanging everywhere, as if he had entered a prison and saw torture instruments.
It's no wonder that everyone is afraid of Zhang Fangyuan. It's hard not to be intimidated when there's a room full of such deadly weapons every day.
Zhang Fangyuan even said proudly that selling all the tools in the room would be enough to build a new house.
When they were halfway up the mountain, Xu He couldn't wait to start working. After all, the mountains and fields were not as crowded with people as the fields in the village. Wild vegetables grew one after another, and the wild leeks hidden in the grass were not discovered until their tails turned a little yellow.
Wild onions are not like the domestically grown alliums that grow upright and straight. Wild onions are more than half as thin as green onions and hang down to the ground like hair when they grow long.
He used a small shovel to dig up the wild onions together with the garlic sprouts, shook off the mud on the shovel and put them in a basket covered with banana leaves.
There were also mugworts growing short among the flowers along the way, which were very tender, but Xu He did not pick them. He usually liked to wait until the mugwort grew tall, bloomed and aged before cutting it. He would take it home and make mugwort sticks to light at night after a day of exposure to the summer sun. They were very effective in repelling mosquitoes.
"How do you know everything?"
Zhang Fangyuan held a piece of grass diagonally in his mouth. He was not in a hurry. He just sat in the cave and watched Xu He burying his head in digging here and there.
"In the summer, mosquito repellent incense sold in the city costs ten cents per stick, and you can't even light it twice. It's more expensive than a candle, so I can only find ways to repel mosquitoes myself."
Zhang Fangyuan smiled and said, "Then I'll come with you to cut the mugwort when it's old."
"Yes. There are still a lot of wild onions nearby. Don't just sit there. Help me dig them."
"We've already dug out half a basket. Why dig so much? A stir-fry will be enough for both of us." Zhang Fangyuan said this, but he still got up to help look for food.
"There are many ways to eat wild onions. In addition to stir-frying, they can also be used to make dumplings and buns. You always eat in the city. Haven't you seen that the buns with wild onions and stuffing at the breakfast stalls in spring are more expensive than ordinary buns?"
Zhang Fangyuan laughed. This guy really knew everything.
"Dig more and save them for a day. When you go to the city to set up a stall, I'll take them to sell. I'll use the money to buy some flour and go home to mix it into dough to make dumplings for you."
Zhang Fangyuan became excited when he heard this, and he was eager to go up to the city with him.
The two of them spent an hour digging wild vegetables on the hill. Zhang Fangyuan kept looking for wild onions, and Xu He thought that since they were going to sell them, he might as well collect other wild vegetables, such as the tender and strong ferns, which grew well one by one and could fill half a basket with them after a while.
Perhaps because of the busy farming season, the newly grown wild vegetables have not yet been picked by the villagers, which makes him very relieved.
By the time the two of them reached the mountain, Xu He's small backpack was almost full. The backpack was moved from his back to Zhang Fangyuan's back. Zhang Fangyuan was tall, and he felt like he was restrained when carrying his small backpack. The rope of the backpack was tightly tied around his shoulders, which looked a bit funny.
Xu He asked him to carry it back for him, saying that it was not heavy and he could not afford it, but he refused and took a few big steps to move ahead, making it impossible for Xu He to catch up with him.
It is much cooler in the forest than on the hillside. The trees sprout new buds in the spring, and the leaves grow in late March, providing good shade, reducing most of the sunlight.
The two of them went to the deep mountains to bury traps. Zhang Fangyuan carefully called Xu He. These days all the hunters have gone up the mountains. They make a living from the mountains and forests. Unlike these half-baked people who go up the mountains to try their luck, most of them live in the mountains for ten days or half a month. The deep mountains are full of their traps.
It's easy to get caught if you're not careful.
Zhang Fangyuan took a few glances and didn't know whether it was because he hadn't been up the mountain much in the past two years and didn't know the situation or what, but he found that there seemed to be many more traps in the forest than before, and the distances between them were closer. In the past, one hunter could hunt half of the mountain, but in those two years, the hunters could make a lot of money.
I guess the food is so delicious that everyone wants to get a piece of it.
"It seems that it is not easy to try something new." Zhang Fangyuan sighed and decided to rely on his wife's wild onion buns.
Xu He said: "I don't rely on this for a living, I just want to relax." Isn't it just like fishing by the river?
After setting the trap, the two men left the mountain for fear of disturbing wild animals that might come to eat them.
The early batch of spring bamboo shoots on the hill were already as tall as half a bamboo, wearing a dark brown coat, standing tall and straight. The coat of the bamboo shoot close to the ground fell off, revealing the lush green bamboo shoot inside. Zhang Fangyuan touched one of them out of curiosity. It was too old to be pinched.
Xu He put down his backpack and prepared to dig some freshly unearthed spring bamboo shoots to take home. One reason was that he would have one more wild vegetable to display at the stall with Zhang Fangyuan, and the other was that he wanted to pickle some bamboo shoots, which were delicious at ordinary times, or he could boil them in water and dry them. He could eat them whenever he wanted, and of course, he could also sell them.
Although spring bamboo shoots do not taste as good as winter bamboo shoots, they are durable and easy to find. If you store more, you can use these wild vegetables to fill your stomach when the autumn harvest is poor.
He looked at Zhang Fangyuan like a naughty child and said helplessly: "Don't touch the new bamboo shoots. If you touch them, they won't grow taller."
Zhang Fangyuan withdrew his hand with amusement and jumped to Xu He: "If I touch you, won't you grow no taller?"
Xu He's ears turned red, and he turned his head away to dig bamboo shoots: "I'm tall enough now."
Zhang Fangyuan took the opportunity to touch his hand and said, "Does that mean I can hold your hand casually?"
"Stop it."
Xu He scolded, but did not move away from Zhang Fangyuan.
The two of them worked together to dig up more than a dozen bamboo shoots. The spring bamboo shoots were very large, so they were peeled in half on the spot. Each one was like a big fat head, much larger than the winter bamboo shoots. Xu Hede had to hold them in his backpack with both hands, and the remaining few that looked good were taken to the city.
Xu He wandered around in the mountains for a while. The sunlight on the mountain was not as bright as on the hillside, so naturally wild vegetables did not grow everywhere. But he still found some thorny buds, and their buds were still tender. Since he was not tall, he sent Zhang Fangyuan with him. However, the thorny buds did not grow close to each other, there was one in the east and one in the west. It was not practical to pick a lot at one time.
"Look, there's a tung tree!"
Xu He's eyes lit up as he looked from a distance at a thick tree trunk lying across a pile of ferns. Perhaps it had rained in the forest yesterday, and the bark of the tung tree was still wet. Because of the good moisture, large and small fungi sprouted on the trunk.
From a distance, the wood ear looks black, but up close, you can see a little red. The small ones are only the size of a thumb, while the big ones are as big as ears.
The wood ear on this tree may have absorbed a lot of water, so it is very thick, and feels soft when pinched, like pinching the earlobe. Xu He carefully picked the large fungus, wrapped them in big leaves and put them into the basket. He felt reluctant to leave after picking all the mushrooms, as he wondered if he would be able to find them next time.
Zhang Fangyuan said, "Just carry it home and put it in the yard. When it blooms, you can pick it. That's more convenient than going up the mountain."
"Yes!" Xu He took a sickle and tried to cut the fern, but Zhang Fangyuan held onto the trunk and used such brute force that he dragged the tung tree out.
After cutting off the branches, Zhang Fangyuan carried the half-man-high tree trunk to the two people's backpacks.
"Zhang Fangyuan?"
As soon as the two of them returned, they saw a man wearing a felt hat, carrying a quiver on his back, and wrapped up like a savage walking towards them in the distance. It took Xu He a moment to realize that the man was the village hunter Wang Ju.
Hunters are often in the mountains, so it is common for them to wear a lot of clothes. If they don’t have wives to go up the mountain with them to take care of things, the men will let themselves go. They will grow long beards, have not interacted with people for a long time, and have bad tempers. They are quite scary if you meet them in the mountains.
Wang Ju is about the same age as Zhang Fangyuan. When they were in their teens, they worked together in the fields. Now they are both married.
"I haven't seen you for a long time. I heard you were getting married when I went up the mountain half a month ago. I didn't expect it to be so soon."
Zhang Fangyuan said, "Your parents are here for a drink. I asked you about it before. I heard you went up the mountain. How is the harvest in the spring?"
"It's better than in winter, but more and more people are doing this, so it's not as good as it was in the past two years."
"Just now I also saw that An's trap was much tighter."
The two chatted for a while, and Xu He didn't disturb them and ran off to look for wild vegetables.
Wang Ju then asked, "I heard that you are working in the city's meat market now?"
Zhang Fangyuan nodded.
The men in the village spoke directly. Wang Ju asked, "Do you buy mountain products?"
Zhang Fangyuan frowned. He had never sold mountain products before. "Didn't we sell them in the city before?"
Wang Ju said, "It's a waste of time." Besides, it's not like selling at a stall. If it's not sold out today, it has to continue tomorrow. It's not like selling at a stall.
These mountain products are more expensive than pork, and most of the people who can afford them are city dwellers. They are not as easy to sell as pork. Even if they are not selling well, if the price is slightly reduced, people will come to pick them up immediately.
As for selling mountain products, if you encounter customers coming out of the restaurant to buy, the goods will be sold out quickly, but this does not always happen.
I had made an agreement with a restaurant at first to deliver the goods as soon as they had stock, but now they suddenly don't want them anymore. There are so many variables and there's nothing we can do.
Wang Ju naturally did not say the rest of the words directly.
Zhang Fangyuan didn't say yes or no, he just said: "To put it bluntly, I'm a reseller. If you sell your stuff at my place, the price you get will definitely not be as high as if you sell it in the city yourself."
"Of course." But the money is secure, just like the villagers selling pigs.
Zhang Fangyuan thought for a moment and said, "We have a long history. I will go to look for something to buy tomorrow. I think I will have to set up a stall in the city the day after tomorrow. You can deliver the goods tomorrow and I will bring them to the city to sell them."
Wang Ju smiled and said, "Okay!"
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