Chapter 56 Chunyan's Contribution
Yang Chunyan opened the bag, and a strong honey aroma wafted into her nose. Wild bees smelled the nectar and flew to the bag. She quickly used wormwood to push them away, "The nest is still there, go back to your nest."
Zhou Huaian came back after sealing the entrance of the wild beehive. The two of them carried their backpacks, holding purple Ganoderma lucidum and wild honey, and walked back sweating profusely.
"Ouch!" Zhou Huaian pulled the shoulder strap, "Why is it getting heavier?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "I felt it was heavy too, but when I thought about all the money I was carrying, it didn't feel heavy anymore."
Zhou Huaian: “…” You never forget to brainwash me every moment!
Seeing that he didn't say anything else, Yang Chunyan pulled the falling strap and tried to move forward.
When she passed by the blooming stinking peonies, she looked at them reluctantly and could only come back to dig them next time.
When the two climbed up the last ridge breathlessly, the sun was setting in the west and the sky was filled with rosy clouds.
If you don't go out when the morning glow comes, the evening glow will travel thousands of miles. Tomorrow will be another sunny day.
The two helped each other put down their backpacks and sat there panting. Zhou Huaian wiped his sweat and kept fanning himself with his hat, "It's hard to make money, and it's hard to eat shit. For such a small amount of money, I almost died of exhaustion!"
"Pennywise?" Yang Chunyan glanced at him, "People who are overambitious but incompetent are the worst."
Zhou Huaian was choked by her and felt a little embarrassed. "I just made a complaint, but you made it a big deal. If you keep doing this, I will get angry!"
Yang Chunyan sneered, "How dare you get angry? Think about it, Ha Yiding and Erchun, who doesn't help with the housework? Erchun knows to take the eels to Ning'an to sell, what about you?"
She said that without caring about him, she stood up and put the bamboo pole into the backpack, squatted down and put the backpack straps on her shoulders, leaned on the medicine hoe and worked hard... Unexpectedly, she stood up in an instant.
Zhou Huaian was behind him, and said in an exaggerated tone: "The backpack is so heavy, what will you do if it hurts your waist?"
Yang Chunyan turned her head to look at him without answering. She walked behind his backpack, waited for him to put on the straps, and then helped him lift the basket.
Zhou Huaian stood up and handed the basket to her, smiling, "Stingy guy, I'm just complaining."
Seeing that he took the initiative to please her, Yang Chunyan took the basket and said, "Let's go!"
Zhou Huaian picked up the bag and said flatteringly, "Yan'er, we'll go to Ning'an tomorrow and sell the wild honey on the street. You think the price of wild honey sold in Ning'an should be higher than in town, right?"
Yang Chunyan shook her head. "No need to set up a stall. Send it to Doctor Wang. They want to buy wild honey and beeswax. The price may be better than what you sell on the street."
Zhou Huaian looked at her in surprise, "Why does the pharmacy collect wild honey and beeswax?"
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment, "It seems like using honey to make pills. I remember my old man said that old honey and beeswax are also medicines."
In later generations, pure wild honey like this can be sold for one or two hundred yuan per pound.
Zhou Huaian grinned, revealing his full mouthful of white teeth. "That's good. We can collect wild honey and sell it in the future. Oh! Next time you go up the mountain, remember to bring two more urea bags so that you can separate the pupae and honeycombs."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "We also need to buy a shovel and find small beehives. We can also dig the hive wider for them."
"That's a good idea!" Zhou Huaian looked back at her, "Yan'er, I think you've changed. You're like someone who has been digging herbs for many years and selling them. You can recognize all kinds of herbs and know their effects. Your brain works faster than before."
Yang Chunyan glared at him and said, "You forced me to do this. A woman who marries a man needs clothes and food. She doesn't want to worry about anything and just follows him around to eat and drink.
If you don't want to find a way to make money, someone has to come up with a way. Are we just going to sit there and do nothing, watching others enjoy themselves while we can't even fill our stomachs?"
She has lived for decades and has also been digging herbs for decades. Of course, she knows a lot. She saw the beehive being widened when she was watching short videos. She also followed the young man who live-streamed collecting honey in the wild.
Thirty or forty years later, information is circulated quickly. Men, women, young and old can watch various short videos when they have nothing to do. Even illiterate old ladies know how to earn gold coins by watching videos!
"..." Zhou Huaian was speechless after being scolded by her. He felt that he was just a bad-mouthed person who was looking for trouble!
****
At the foot of the mountain, Zhou's mother touched the mugwort and mint leaves that Yang Chunyan was drying. They were already dry, so she put them into a winnowing basket. Then she looked at the half flower on the drying mat, which was also dry. She went into the house, took out a basket, and poured the half flower into the basket.
Old Master Zhou came in with a sheep whip in one hand and a rattan basket in the other. "Gui Lan, no one has come back yet?"
"None of Dasong's uncles came back, but Huifang and her two sisters came back twice. The younger ones all came back, so I roasted some young corn for them. After they ate, they ran to the back of the house to cut bananas."
Zhou's mother said as she went into the house, poured a cup of tea and handed it to him. She looked at the basket at the old man's feet and said, "Old man, where did you find this basket? It's so ugly."
"I cut vines and weaved them in the mountains. Look what I found?" The old man grinned, and the wrinkles on his brown face looked like old tree bark.
Mother Zhou saw a lot of yellow bubbles filled with leaves, and there seemed to be something underneath. After picking up the yellow bubbles, she smiled and said, "It turned out to be Poria cocos. There must be about 10 to 20 kilograms of these. Where did you dig them?"
"It's under a pine tree stump. Luckily I brought a machete, otherwise I wouldn't be able to pry it up." The old man paused, "Give the youngest couple Ning'an to sell, and the young couple can save some money to raise a baby in the future."
"You don't have to worry about them. Dasong and I know what's going on." Zhou's mother lowered her voice and said, "The money in the family is all Chunyan'er's credit. We will subsidize them when the family is divided."
"Alas! To be honest, he has to rely on himself to stand on his own. We can't help him all his life." After saying this, Mr. Zhou took off the pipe tied to his waist, took out his pipe, put a cigarette in the bowl, and began to puff out smoke.
"I think the youngest has been more diligent these past two days than usual." Mother Zhou recalled Zhou Huaian's frown, which was so tight that it could kill a mosquito. "Let's see how long he can hold on."
Mr. Zhou shook his head and exhaled a puff of cigarette, "If you want to give money, don't give it to the youngest one, give it quietly to Chun Yan'er."
"I know. Are you hungry, old man?"
"Not hungry." The old man pointed at the herbs piled under the eaves and said worriedly, "These wild herbs are everywhere. Ning An is so small. Can he sell them if he sends them over?"
"Chunyan has asked, and they will accept any medicine delivered to them. I heard that their family is collecting medicines for the provincial capital!" Mother Zhou said as she went to the courtyard and put the dried herbs on the eaves.
The old man was relieved after hearing this, "The provincial capital is big, we can eat whatever we want."
Yang Chunyan and her companion went down the mountain and arrived home. When they walked into the yard, they saw a sieve with some Houttuynia cordata drying in it, and herbs piled up like a mountain on the eaves.
Zhou Huaian saw the herbs on the steps at a glance: "Oh my god, if we load so many things on the cart tomorrow, I'm afraid I won't even be able to see the person pushing the cart."
Zhao Huifang and two other people were sitting in front of the pile of herbs picking them out. When they saw the two men coming back, they quickly stood up and went forward to help put down the baskets.
(End of this chapter)
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