Chapter 81 82: Money Tree
After dinner, Yang Chunyan gave Zhou Huaian the moxa sticks and bee caps she had made yesterday, "Try it and see if it works."
Zhou Huaian took the moxa stick, looked at it, and put it into the oilcloth bag sewn on the backpack.
After opening the bee cap, I found that it was different from the one used by the beekeepers in the brigade. "Hey! How do you use this?"
Yang Chunyan stepped forward and picked up the bee hat. "There is an elastic band underneath. Pull it open and put it on your head. Tighten the elastic band and the wild bees won't be able to get in."
Zhou Huaian smelled the faint body fragrance on her body, hugged her waist, and kissed her fiercely through the nylon net, "You cruel bitch, I will be suffocated to death by you sooner or later!"
"You~" Yang Chunyan was caught off guard and hugged by him. She pinched the soft flesh on his waist and turned him 180 degrees.
"Hey, be gentle, honey."
"You don't want to think about your work all day long!" Yang Chunyan let go of him, turned around and walked out.
"I am thinking about the real business!" Zhou Huaian replied with a sly smile, then stood in front of the cabinet, looked at himself in the mirror, nodded complacently, "My wife is still capable, she can be a little fierce, but her little hands are very skillful!"
After admiring the scene, he took off the bee hat from his head, put it into a backpack together with a urea bag, gloves, a knife and a shovel, and carried it out the door.
Yang Chunyan and others were already waiting in the yard.
Li Qiuyue glanced at him and said, "Youngest, I see you are just like the older girl, you can't even get out of the house for a long time!"
"Why are you in such a hurry? You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry!"
Zhou Huaian took the lead and walked towards the backyard. Zhou's father and his two brothers Zhou Huairong had already started peeling the bark.
Zhou Huaijun saw him coming out, "Youngest, did you find the money tree when you went up the mountain yesterday?"
"Money tree?" Zhou Huaian was stunned for a moment before he realized that he was talking about the Magnolia officinalis. "I looked on two hills but couldn't find it!"
After hearing this, Zhou's father warned: "Forget it if you don't have it. Don't go deep into the mountains to look for it. It will be troublesome if you encounter a bear or a wild boar."
Zhou Huaian nodded quickly, "Got it!"
Yang Chunyan followed Zhou Huaian out and up the mountain.
Zhao Huifang saw some plantain growing on the roadside and said, "Chunyan, plantain can clear away heat and relieve cough. Can we sell it for money?"
"Yes, dig them all up."
Yang Chunyan started digging with a hoe while Zhao Huifang shook off the dirt on the roots and put them in a backpack.
Zhang Xiuxiang and Li Qiuyue also found some, digging as they went.
They walked forward, dug some dandelions and drove some mountain whips. On the way, they encountered some particularly lush clumps of mugwort, and they planned to cut them on the way back.
Zhou Huaian took a few people to dig up motherwort and cut chicken shit vine. They also dug up a lot of ground ivy and thousand-root grass in the woods.
Many people confuse ground ivy with gentian. The leaves of gentian are emerald green, the stems are dark red, and there is white juice when broken. The stem is also relatively slender and has sparse hairs.
Qiangencao has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, healing sores and relieving itching.
It can also treat skin diseases and itchy skin. Boiling water with Thousand-root Grass to wash the affected area can relieve the pain and itching of skin diseases.
The leaves of the ground ivy are emerald green, the stems are bright red, the surface is smooth and has no hairs, and white juice can be found even when broken.
The herb is also known as red tendon grass, milk grass, and blood-seeing grass. It has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, promoting dampness and relieving jaundice, promoting blood circulation and stopping bleeding, and treating milk retention, swelling and pain from bruises, and heat and toxic sores.
Boil fresh ground ivy in water and gargle with it to treat bleeding gums.
These two kinds of grass may look similar to purslane at first glance, but if you look closely you will find that the stems of these two herbs are thinner than purslane and their colors are also different.
The hillside and bushes were full of these two kinds of herbs. Before they reached the place where Polygonum multiflorum grew, several people had already carried most of the herbs in their baskets.
Zhao Huifang put the freshly dug grass into her backpack and said with a smile, "No wonder people in the city say we country folk are ignorant. Look, we don't even know that we can sell the weeds that we trampled into dust."
Li Qiuyue nodded, "Yeah, I've never heard anyone say that before, so how would I know?"
Zhang Xiuxiang: "It's better to be educated. There are more ways to make money than for illiterate people like us."
Yang Chunyan took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off her face. "Huaian, where is the Polygonum multiflorum vine you saw?"
Zhou Huaian looked at the surroundings and pointed ahead, "Just ahead, there is a large patch of Polygonum multiflorum vines growing."
Zhao Huifang took a look and said, "Chunyan, let's go cut the Polygonum multiflorum vine first, and then we can dig these herbs when we come back."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "Then let's go directly there."
Zhou Huaian led a few people to the bushes in front. A gust of wind blew towards them, bringing with it the scent of gardenias. "We're here, we're here!"
Yang Chunyan saw the yellow gardenias blooming on the slope and thought that she would be able to pick them after a while.
Following Zhou Huaian and walking forward for a short distance, I saw at a glance the lush Polygonum multiflorum vines clinging to the bushes.
As usual, I first hit the vines with a bamboo pole, and a gray hare ran out from the vines "whoosh".
"Puff!" Li Qiuyue hit the air with her stick and shouted, "Youngest, hurry up, the wild rabbit has come out."
Zhou Huaian also saw it, and swung a bamboo pole and hit the hare on the head. The hare kicked its hind legs and shook a few times, struggling to escape, but Yang Chunyan, who had caught up with it, hit it with a hoe, and it became completely motionless.
Zhou Huaian walked forward and picked up the wild rabbit. "It's quite fat. We have spicy rabbit to eat today."
Li Qiuyue pointed at the vines and said, "Youngest, there's probably a rabbit's nest in there!"
Zhou Huaian put the hare into the backpack and said, "Let's cut the Polygonum multiflorum vine first."
Several people worked together, grabbed the vines, cut them and pulled them down. It didn't take long before they cut off a piece of Polygonum multiflorum vine. They didn't find a rabbit's nest or see any rabbits.
Yang Chunyan followed the vine stem to find the taproot.
Li Qiuyue asked: "Chunyan, is Polygonum multiflorum valuable?"
"The older ones are more valuable, while the younger ones are more valuable than the ordinary herbs."
"Oh, Magnolia officinalis is still the best!" Li Qiuyue looked towards the mountains, "There must be some in the mountains."
Zhang Xiuxiang also looked over and said, "Even if there is one, I don't dare to go. If I run into a wild boar or a bear, I will be seriously injured if I don't die!"
Zhao Huifang nodded, "Qiuyue, do you still remember that when we went up the mountain to pick mushrooms last year, the third son of the Xu family was gored to death by a wild boar?"
After hearing this, Li Qiuyue recalled the miserable state of Xu Laosan and shuddered, "Forget it, I won't live to spend the money I earn!"
Zhou Huaian thought of the big wild boar that the team killed two years ago. Its tusks were as thick as an adult's thumb, the hair on the pig's face was like steel needles, and the bristles on its back were no different from steel needles.
I heard from the old people that when wild boars attack people, they like to dig into the people's genitals the most. Several pieces of flesh on Xu Laosan's legs were torn off, and his lower body was torn apart by the wild boars. He died before he was taken to the hospital.
Yang Chunyan followed the remaining stems to find the main root and discovered that there were three Polygonum multiflorum plants growing in this area.
"Let me dig this!" Zhang Xiuxiang picked up the hoe and started digging.
Zhou Huaian took a look and felt that the stem was not as thick as the last time. "Yan'er, what do you think of the underground Polygonum multiflorum?"
“You’ll know only after you dig it out.”
"Nonsense, why would I ask you after I dig it out?"
"I don't have X-ray vision, how can I know how big the thing underneath is?"
Zhou Huaian rolled his eyes, picked up the hoe and started digging.
There were stones in the soil in the bushes, and it took some effort to dig out all three Polygonum multiflorum. One was about the same size as the one we sold last time, and the other two were only as big as sweet potatoes.
Zhou Huaian put the Polygonum multiflorum into the backpack and said, "Let's go. There are still a few clumps on it. Once we dig them all up, we'll call it a day and go back."
(End of this chapter)
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