Chapter 228: 227: Extreme Joy Leads to Sorrow
"Oh!" Zhou Huaian put down the desperate pheasant, dug up the sweet potato vines to find a dozen ripe ones, found a puddle to wash them, and went back to hand them to Yang Chunyan.
"A lot of them are rotten. It would be better if it were closer to Ning'an. I could get some to sell in the city."
"They've all rotted when I carried them to the city." Yang Chunyan wiped them, tore open a hole, and took a few puffs. "There's no sun in the forest, and the fruit doesn't taste as good as down in the mountains."
"Hmm! It's quite moist."
They ate two and put them in the basket, and continued to cut more mountain fragrance (coral grass).
After more than half an hour, the two men cut all the osmanthus that had not yet produced seeds, put them into their backpacks, and went to the front of the slope to pick saxifrage.
Yang Chunyan said: "Huai'an, if you keep cutting, it will grow back."
Saxifrage is a perennial evergreen herb, also known as stone lotus leaf, golden thread hanging hibiscus, tiger ear, golden silk lotus leaf, and red ear.
The medicinal part of Saxifraga is the whole plant of Saxifraga of the Saxifragaceae family, which has the effects of dispelling wind, clearing heat, cooling blood and detoxifying. It is mainly used to treat rubella, eczema, otitis media, etc.
Saxifrage has one stem and one leaf. The stem is reddish purple. The whole fresh grass is purple-red or dark green, with irregular blunt serrations on the edges and long prostrate hairs on both sides. The leaves are light green with longitudinal ridges. The back of some grass leaves is reddish purple.
The shape of the leaves looks a bit like tiger ears, with a layer of white-gray fluff on them. The fluffy heart-shaped leaves have small light pink flowers with five petals.
The three petals on the top are relatively small, while the two petals on the bottom are particularly long. Moreover, the shapes of the two petals are also different. The upper part has purple-red spots, while the lower part has yellow spots, which is very peculiar.
There were a lot of dead leaves at the foot of the slope. The two men used sickles to push away the dead leaves and quickly cut off the tiger ears. There were still a lot of dead leaves and grass clippings stuck in the stems and leaves.
Yang Chunyan put down a handful of saxifrage grass and said, "Huaian, there are too many dead grass and leaves in the leaves. You have to pick them out before you can carry them to wash them."
"It will be troublesome to pick so many of them all at once!" Zhou Huaian thought for a moment, "Go back and carry them to the ravine, and wash them while you're at it, and the dead grass leaves will wash out."
Yang Chunyan glanced at him and said, "You are the only one who is lazy and has many ideas every day. Herb leaves and dead leaves are almost the same. If the dead leaves can wash away the herb leaves, then can't they also wash away the herb leaves?"
Zhou Huaian said with a playful smile: "It doesn't matter if you wash away one or two blades. It's better than sitting for half a day to pick grass leaves."
“I can’t argue with you!” Yang Chunyan curled her lips, gathered the severed tiger ears together, and put them into her backpack.
There were potatoes everywhere from the bottom of the slope to the top. After they were all cut and packed, the two went to cut wild sweet potatoes.
Zhou Huaian picked up a few vines, cut them off, grabbed them and pulled them up with force, pulling up a piece of them. The wild sweet potatoes on the vines were also pulled into pieces by him.
Yang Chunyan picked up the sweet potato vines he had cut, shook off the dead grass and leaves on them, and stuffed them into a sack. "It's not good when it rains. The wet herbs are cut and there's a lot of mud on the roots."
"The herbs in the shallow mountains are all worthless, but they are in large quantities." Zhou Huaian said as he stood up, "Yan'er, I think there are more herbs by the ditch, and they are easier to clean. How about we walk along the ditch next time we come up?"
Yang Chunyan nodded, "There are also a lot of Polygonatum and Arisaema near the ravine where the forest was burned last time. We can only go there after the dog is well again."
When the two men returned to the forest farm, Dahei and Dahuang, who were limping, came to greet them with their two apprentices.
Zhou Huaian raised his foot and kicked Wangcai and Laifu who were circling around the two of them, and said to Dahei and Dahuang who were standing beside them and wagging their tails:
"Teach your apprentice well. Once you've done that, I'll get you some chicken legs to chew on."
Yang Chunyan found it funny, "Do you think it's Roaring Sky Dog and can understand you?"
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "I understand. They didn't bite the two little ones."
"I know they're relatives!" Zhou Huaian smiled and picked up the pheasant in his hand and said to Zhou Yiding, "Look, it was hit with a sickle."
"Let's have some stewed mushrooms." Zhou Yiding took the pheasant and the bamboo basket, and helped the two men take the backpacks. "I've already prepared the meal, and I'm just waiting for you to come back and eat."
Zhou Huaian saw that he was walking more smoothly, "We will go down the mountain after we finish eating and washing the herbs. Will you come with us?"
Zhou Yiding shook his head and said, "I'll rest for two more days. I'll remove the splint when Dahei's leg gets better. I'll go down the mountain to visit my third sister."
Zhou Huaian glanced at him and said, "Are you going to see the chili peppers, or?"
Zhou Yiding blushed slightly, "Go tell my third sister that I agree to watch Chuchu!"
"Oh~ Are you embarrassed?" Zhou Huaian said jokingly, "Last time I told you about renting the wasteland, did you tell Uncle Daqing?"
"He said he would wait until he came down the mountain to take a look, and if he found a suitable one, he would buy one."
"I asked Brother Huang from the guesthouse to help me find out about buying a tractor. If you can buy one, I'll help you plow the land when you lease it!"
Zhou Yiding glanced at him and said, "It's okay if you buy it alone. If you buy it together with your brother, I will pay you!"
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "I bought it alone."
Zhou Yiding smiled and nodded, "Then I won't be polite."
After the three of them finished eating, Yang Chunyan saw that it was still early, so she said to Zhou Huaian, "It's still early, how about we go over and cut those fine-leaved Dendrobiums?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "We can also take the herbs to the ditch, wash them and filter the water, and cut some Dendrobium officinale to bring back."
Yang Chunyan thought it wasn't far to go, "Yes."
Zhou Yiding said, "Let's go together. The water in the ditch has definitely not reached the top. We need to wear boots to cross it."
The three of them put on boots, picked up their tools, and set off, carrying the herbs and baskets.
When I walked to the ditch, I saw that the water in the ditch had indeed not reached the path I had walked on before, and was almost reaching the place where the tiger's whiskers grew.
Zhou Huaian put down his backpack, rolled up his trouser legs and went into the water, and said to Yang Chunyan, "Give me the basket, it's just the right size for washing herbs."
"Hmm!" Yang Chunyan put the empty basket into the water, took the tiger ears out of the backpack and put them in, while Zhou Huaian stood in the ditch to wash them.
He put his hand in and stirred it a few times. The dead leaves stuck in the leaves floated up. He said to Yang Chunyan, "See, this is much faster!"
"Yes!" Yang Chunyan handed over the basket, "Put the cleaned herbs in it and filter the water."
Zhou Yiding looked at the water in the ditch and frowned, saying, "The water in this ditch is so high, it looks like the rain in the mountains is quite heavy. I don't know if Cai Ermei and the others have come down the mountain yet."
Zhou Huaian recalled what Yang Chunyan said about herself in a dream, and she went into the mountains to look for cliff honey regardless of everything. He sighed, "It's already this late, we should go down the mountain."
****
Cai Ermei and her companions had now reached a rock on the mountainside and happily put down the urea bags they were carrying.
He Dakuan rubbed his hands excitedly, "Old Linzi still has the goods, we made the right choice this time." With more than 100 kilograms of honey, each person could get at least 200 yuan. With the money in hand, it was enough to buy not only a sewing machine, but also a bicycle.
Cai Ermei turned her head and curled her lips, then took out some dry food and said, "After we eat the dry food, we will go down the mountain."
Cai Jun sniffed and said, "Hurry up and eat and go. I almost froze to death last night!"
Cai Lin took out the dry food from the backpack, and several people sat on the rocks and started eating.
Suddenly, a black shadow flashed out from the cave in front of them. Cai Ermei and her companions looked up and saw two black bears, one big and one small, standing in front of them. The big one was taller than a human, and the small one was as tall as their shoulders.
(End of this chapter)
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