Chapter 257: Ugly Grass
The three of them sat around the table, drinking cherry wine and eating spicy rabbit nuggets.
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding talked about the embarrassing things they did when they were children while eating.
Zhou Yiding pointed at him and said to Yang Chunyan, "Sister-in-law, do you know how naive the youngest was when he was little?"
Zhou Huaian smiled and glared, "Don't say it!"
"That's what I'm saying!" Zhou Yiding said, "The pond below the mountain temple is wider than the Xinhe River. When he was seven years old, we had just learned to swim. That day while we were cutting grass by the pond, he made a bet with Cai Ermei that he could swim to the other side."
Zhou Huaian took over and said, "Sometimes when I think about it, I feel that my head is really a bit square! That time when I made a bet with Cai Ermei, we didn't even decide what to bet on before I took off my clothes and pants and jumped into the pond.
When I got to the middle of the pond, I suddenly felt a little scared. I remembered that I hadn't told you what I was betting on, so I wanted to turn around and stop swimming. But I didn't know that I couldn't turn around. I had no choice but to swim to the other side and run back from the edge of the field. As expected, that bastard Cai Ermei didn't admit it.
Yang Chunyan looked at him with amusement, "Who told you to act without thinking?"
"Yes, I did not use my brain before doing things!" Zhou Huaian took a sip of wine, thought about the past, and said self-deprecatingly, "Sometimes when my temper gets out of control, I feel like I can do anything."
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "Yan Bangzi, I'm talking about you."
Zhou Huaian glared at him, "You dare to say that about me? You are not much better, have you forgotten..." Before he could finish his words, Zhou Yiding stuffed a piece of rabbit meat into his mouth, "Don't say that!"
Yang Chunyan laughed out loud as she looked at Zhou Huaian's silly look as he held the rabbit meat in his mouth.
“……” Zhou Huaian pinched the rabbit meat and started to chew it.
The three of them had eaten and drunk their fill, and the rabbit meat in the pot had already been cooked. Zhou Yiding chopped the rabbit legs into several pieces, scooped a bowl of rice, poured some of the remaining pork rib soup into it, mixed it, and poured it into the bowls of the four dogs.
After Yang Chunyan cleaned up and washed up, she went to see the bitter orange and dendrobium that Zhou Huaian had cleaned up. She saw that the bitter orange roots were neatly arranged and the leaves of the dendrobium were also picked clean.
Just as they were about to take a rest, they saw the wood ears in the basket. They hurriedly took them to the kitchen. The three of them sat around it, picked out the weeds and moss in it, and spread them out in a winnowing basket to dry.
Yang Chunyan said to Zhou Huaian: "I'm going to sleep first, you guys should go to bed early too!"
"Okay, let's go after we have a cigarette."
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding leaned on bamboo chairs, smoking and chatting. After they had satisfied their cravings for cigarettes, they went to wash up and go to bed.
The next morning, Yang Chunyan got up before dawn to cook, and woke up the two to have breakfast together. Zhou Huaian also took his hunting rifle, and the three of them went out with dry food and baskets on their backs.
The big black and two small ones were still left guarding the door.
Yang Chunyan felt that the forest was still lively in the early morning. Birds were chirping and holding meetings on the branches, and pheasants came out of their nests to look for food.
Da Huang caught a pheasant, and halfway through the journey, Zhou Huaian and his companion killed two more.
The three of them followed the route they had agreed on yesterday and walked straight towards the ditch. When they were almost at the ditch, Dahuang rushed towards the ditch.
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding started chasing after them. When they reached the ditch, they saw Da Huang and a badger fighting each other. Two more were running into the woods. The two men raised their guns and started shooting.
"Bang~bang!" Two gunshots were heard, and one badger staggered and fell, while the other ran into the woods and disappeared.
When Yang Chunyan chased to the edge of the ditch, she saw two men carrying two fat badgers and putting them into a backpack with a smile on their faces.
Zhou Huaian saw her coming and laughed at her, "Yan'er, look, we got two badgers. Badger pig oil is a good thing. It's the best for burns and scalds."
Yang Chunyan went forward to take a look and saw that both badgers were smooth-skinned and plump. "So fat!"
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "Now is the time when they are gaining weight, of course they are fat."
Badger skin is colorful and is the raw material for making high-end fur clothing. The meat is delicious and nutritious. Badger oil is an effective medicine for treating scalds and burns. It also has a certain effect on hemorrhoids and gastric ulcers.
Badgers have poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell. Like wild boars, they like to dig up the roots and rhizomes of various plants. They also eat earthworms and underground insect larvae, or prey on stone frogs and mountain crabs by the stream. They also prey on mice in the forest and sometimes go down the mountain to steal corn and peanuts to eat.
The badger has a ferocious temperament and makes a sound similar to that of a pig. It has a solid and fat body, short and round ears, small eyes, a pointed nose, and a short and thick neck.
The limbs are short and strong, with strong and thick long claws on the ends of the toes, the claws are almost the same length as the toes, and the toes of the front and back feet have powerful black-brown claws. The front claws are longer than the hind claws, generally weighing about thirty pounds.
Zhou Huaian put the badger pig in the backpack and said, "Let's go. While collecting herbs, we walk to the beehive. The sun should be coming out soon. While the bees are out collecting honey, let's get some honey!"
Zhou Yiding led the way in front, and after thinking for a while, he said, "The trees are full of rows of bees. When we get there, sister-in-law, put on your bee hat, too."
"I'm wearing the bee hat." Yang Chunyan replied.
The three of them walked to the place where they were digging Polygonatum sibiricum and entered the woods from there. Not long after they walked, Yang Chunyan saw several clusters of bright red rejuvenation grass.
"Huaian, wait, let's pick those rejuvenation herbs."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian nudged Zhou Yiding and whispered, "Brother, do you know what the Rejuvenating Grass means? It's a good thing. I'll leave some for you when I go back."
Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him and said, "Keep it for yourself!"
"You don't know how to appreciate kindness!" Zhou Huaian followed Yang Chunyan with a smile, helping to pull up the rejuvenation grass and put it into the backpack. "Not as many as you and your second sister-in-law did last time."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "It's really rare to have so many."
The two followed Zhou Yiding and continued to walk inside. Dahuang ran in front for a while and then came back to look at the three of them.
There are so many mushrooms in the forest, such as chicken mushrooms, big-foot mushrooms, chanterelles, and brush mushrooms... you can't pick them all.
The three of them picked up the mushroom caps that had not yet opened. Their backpacks were full of buds, and they were too lazy to even look at the clusters of chicken mushroom flowers.
Going up, Yang Chunyan saw Ophiopogon japonicus and Achyranthes bidentata with bunches of purple flowers like small balls of fluff on the slope, and Schefflera chinensis in the bushes.
Even in the hottest weather, the bright yellow berries on the branches of the Schefflera tree are still reluctant to return to their roots. You know, these fruits were grown in winter.
The small tuberous roots of Ophiopogon japonicus are a traditional Chinese medicine. They have the effects of promoting salivation and quenching thirst, moistening the lungs and relieving cough. They are only suitable for harvesting after the Qingming Festival of the following year.
Sichuan Achyranthes bidentata is the dried root of the Amaranthaceae plant Sichuan Achyranthes bidentata, which can only be harvested in autumn and winter, but Yang Chunyan did not mention it.
After going up the hill, in the sparse woods, we saw a long field of snow primroses, some of which were blooming with bunches of beautiful purple flowers and some of which had already produced seeds.
The scientific name of snow primrose is Litchi grass, and its aliases include snow primrose, toad grass, frog grass, wild boar grass, pig grass, and chicken grass.
Litchi grass is an annual or biennial herb of the Lamiaceae family, Salvia genus; the main root is thick, extending straight downward, with fibrous roots, and the whole plant can be used as medicine.
Snow primrose: bitter, pungent, cool. In the Chinese Materia Medica, it is introduced that Toad Grass has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, cooling and dispersing blood stasis, and promoting diuresis and reducing swelling.
It is not as beautiful as Xuejian in the Legend of Sword and Fairy. Its leaves are oval, wrinkled, and bulging, looking as ugly as a toad's skin.
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(End of this chapter)
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