The next morning, the children got up without being called. They tied their trouser legs, put on rain boots, and went up the mountain with sticks as the adults asked.
Zhou Huaian carried Xiao Mi'er on his back, Zhou Jiaming helped them carry their guns, and Zhou Jialiang and others carried food. They went up the mountain, stepping on the morning dew and heading towards the pine forest facing the rising sun.
Yang Chunyan saw a few red-bellied golden pheasants flying over the treetops with their long tail feathers, and hurriedly pulled Xiao Jiuer, "Son, look!"
"Wow!" Xiao Jiuer's eyes widened, "It's so beautiful! It looks exactly like the golden rooster in the New Year picture last time. Sister Mina, take a picture of it quickly."
"Great!" Zhao Meina quickly picked up the camera and pressed the shutter to take a picture. "I'm really lucky this time. I can see six or seven mushrooms. In the past, I could only see two or three at most when I was picking mushrooms."
Zhou Huaian took the gun from Zhou Jiaming's back and said to Xiao Mi'er in the backpack: "Yaoyao, I'll give you a golden rooster!"
Xiaomier hugged his neck, "Daddy won't hit me! Feifei looks good!"
Xiao Jiuer said in a condescending manner: "Old man, it won't look so good if you kill it, and there's not much meat on a pheasant, so forget it!"
Zhou Xiaolong nodded, "Pheasant meat is not tasty at all."
Zhao Xiaochuan: "That's right. You see, they might be a family. It would be a pity to kill them!"
Zhou Huaian stroked his son and said, "Okay, okay, you are all good people. I won't be the bad guy. Hurry up and take a few more photos. You may not see them in the future."
Zhao Meina raised the camera in her hand and said, "Uncle Zhou, I've taken several pictures."
The golden rooster, scientifically known as Chrysolophus pheasant, has an elegant posture and light steps. The male golden rooster is about 1 meter long, with a golden silky crest on its head that extends all the way to its neck. It shines brightly in the sunlight.
Except for the dark green upper back, the rest of the upper body is golden yellow. The feathers are dazzling and colorful, and the feathers on the abdomen are a bright blood red.
In comparison, the female golden pheasant, whose feathers are mainly black, brown and brown-yellow, looks much more monotonous.
The golden rooster's gorgeous tail feathers, which can be up to 75 centimeters long, were often used in ancient times to make extremely valuable pheasant tail fans, which were exclusively used by princes and nobles.
Some people now believe that the "phoenix" mentioned here is the red-bellied golden rooster. In addition, the red-bellied golden rooster was also embroidered on the robes of the second-rank civil officials in the Qing Dynasty.
The meat of golden chicken is tender and delicious, and the whole body can be used as medicine. It has the function of stopping bleeding and detoxifying, and is mainly used to treat blood hemorrhoids, carbuncles, swelling and poison, etc. Its beautiful appearance and medicinal value made it the target of illegal hunting, and it was later listed as a second-level wild protected animal in my country.
The sun had risen when the group arrived at the pine forest. Yang Chunyan and Wan Xuejiao found a flat place in the woods, took out the oilcloth and spread it out for everyone to rest.
Xiao Jiuer pulled Zhou Huaian and said, "Dad, let's go hunt wild goats."
Zhou Huaian rubbed him and said, "Aren't you picking mushrooms with your mother?"
Xiao Jiuer glanced at Yang Chunyan and the others who were sitting on the oilcloth to catch their breath, and said, "Hey, the girls are picking mushrooms, and the boys are hunting. Let's divide the work and cooperate."
"You can go, but you must listen to instructions and not run around." Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding looked at the boys who were looking at them eagerly, and thought that since it was a rare opportunity, they would take them to see it.
"I promise not to run around." Zhou Jiaming and others raised their hands to make the promise.
Zhou Huaian said hello to Yang Chunyan, and left with Zhou Yiding, Xiao Jiuer and Dahei.
Zhou Daqing pointed to the bushes over there and said, "The day before yesterday, I picked up several kilograms of morels over there. I also picked up matsutake mushrooms there. I'll bring Xiao Mi'er and Xiao Zhou to play here. You can take Gouzi to pick mushrooms. Be careful of snakes and insects."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan took Wan Xuejiao and the girls towards the bushes.
The mushroom nest where I had picked mushrooms the day before yesterday should have still had some in the past. When I got there and pushed aside the weeds and dead leaves, I actually saw a field of morels.
"Oh my god! There are so many here!" Zhao Xiuna pulled Zhou Xiaoqian to crawl under the bushes, and Zhou Xiaolin and Zhou Xiaowen also climbed up.
Yang Chunyan and Wan Xuejiao quickly reminded them to be careful and to knock on the grass with wooden sticks before starting. The children also stopped and swept the dense grass with wooden sticks before starting to pick mushrooms.
I picked up the ones that had opened their umbrellas and put them in a basket, and put the buds in another. Unfortunately, some of them had already withered, and when I pulled them out, there were still insect holes on the stems, while some had just broken through the soil.
They picked up all the ones with opened umbrellas and buds, and left the small buds that had just broken through the soil, planning to go back and pick more.
Wan Xuejiao looked at Zhou Xiaoqian and the others who were nimbly moving through the bushes, and said to Yang Chunyan with a smile, "Sister-in-law, I feel much dumber now than before, and I am not as agile as before when climbing hills and ridges."
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "As the children grow up, we grow old!"
"Aunt Yao, you and Aunt Wan are not old at all. It's my mom who is old. She has all white hair." Zhou Xiaolin said with a smile.
"Mom said that she got old because of Xiaolong. If she had known not to give birth to Xiaolong, she would have been much less worried about us two sisters." Zhou Xiaoru curled her lips, "I said she said one thing and meant another, and she forgot the time when she missed her son so much that she went crazy."
Wan Xuejiao chuckled, "You said that about your mother, but she didn't beat you?"
Zhou Xiaoru shrugged, "No, she said that she has seen more now and has different ideas than before. Instead of raising her son to take care of her in her old age, it is better for her to earn more money and save it, so that she can spend it whenever she wants, and she doesn't have to worry about her son's mood."
Wan Xuejiao thought of her old man's illness and nodded, "I think your mother is right. We should save more money and provide for ourselves in old age."
Zhou Xiaoqian smiled and took Yang Chunyan's arm. "Aunt, I think you adults just like to overthink. My grandma always said that water drips from the eaves and falls into the old nest. There is no one like Zhou Huaixing in our family."
"Yes! You are all good kids!"
Ever since Zhou Dachun found out that Zhou Huaixing had a mistress in the town, he followed him out to haul goods every day. The father and son often fought over the wages.
Once, they came to the house to ask the old man to seek justice. After the old man tried twice, he was completely disheartened. When Li Yinfu came to call him, he simply pretended not to be there and let the family make a fuss.
Over there, Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding led the boys through the pine forest and across the ravine, only to see the hillside covered with white, yellow and purple wild flowers.
"So beautiful!" Xiao Jiuer ran over in surprise and picked a lily. "It smells so good. Old man, when we go back, we can pick some lilies and dry them to make soup."
Zhou Huaian smiled and nodded, "Okay! I haven't eaten wild lilies in several years."
"Dad, let's go quickly, or the wild goats will run away soon." Zhou Jiaming and Zhou Jiakang came over and dragged the father and son away.
"Okay, okay, don't pull me!"
Yang Chunyan and her group hunted, picked mushrooms, and had a picnic in the mountains. They had a great time for two days. Thinking that they still had some work to do at the Zhou Huaian Mountain Temple project, they packed up and headed back.
Zhou Daqing was worried that his grandson might be kidnapped, so he waited on the mountain for Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding to take away the precious herbs and flowers he had grown, and then he went to the forest farm to resign.
…
In Ning'an, Zhao Xinghua also received the remittance slip sent by the postman. Liu Jun took him to the post office to withdraw the money, compensated the waiter at the guesthouse, paid the medical expenses, and issued a temporary identity certificate to him. He also warned him not to harass Zhao Meina and her brother.
Zhao Xinghua thought about how cold-blooded Zhao Meina and her brother were, watching their father being beaten and detained in a detention center without even a glance at him, and realized that the three siblings were not easy to control, so he certainly would not go to Fu Niu to take them to Shanghai to eat for free.
He has more important things to do now. When he was in the hospital treating diarrhea these two days, he found that his little brother seemed to have problems too.
He didn't trust the doctors here at all, thinking they couldn't even cure diarrhea. For a life-threatening disease like this, he had to go back and see a doctor.
Zhao Xinghua had a gloomy face and came out of the police station without saying a word, carrying his luggage bag. He hailed a rickshaw to go to the railway station. The moment he stepped onto the rickshaw, he said to himself: This is a godforsaken place. Even if he is invited in a grand ceremony, he will not come.
When he reached the steep slope below the train station, he got off the rickshaw and walked weakly with his luggage toward the train station. He was very depressed when he thought that he had wasted nearly a thousand yuan and spent two days in the detention center.
When he arrived at the train station, he stopped and frowned at the charming middle-aged woman walking towards him. "Huang Xin, why are you here?"
Huang Xin smoothed the hair around her ears, looked behind him, and smiled sarcastically, "Didn't you say that you are the kindest father who loves children the most? Mina has been close to you since she was a child, what's wrong? None of them followed you?"
"Whether they leave or not, they are also descendants of my Zhao family!" Zhao Xinghua squinted at her, "If they don't want to go with me, will they go with you?"
"I don't plan to take them away. I'll be happy as long as they don't go with you." Huang Xin stepped forward, "When I was leaving, I heard that your sick child was hospitalized again!
For the sake of our past friendship, I remind you! Medical expenses are not cheap nowadays, go back and earn money to save your life!"
"Even if my Abao is hospitalized, he is better than your idiot. For the sake of our past friendship, I remind you to find another one while you can still give birth. Otherwise, when you die, the idiot will starve to death!"
Zhao Xinghua repeated what she had just said to her. Thinking of Huang Xin's child and his own child, he suddenly felt that there might really be retribution in this world.
Otherwise, how could she give birth to a mentally retarded child and be dumped by her husband? Her own Abao, such a smart child, was like that...
"You bastard! You're a son-in-law! What qualifications do you have to show off in front of me!" Huang Xin snorted coldly and walked towards the rickshaw parked on the side of the road.
She knew that she was an unqualified mother, but at least she was better than the man named Zhao, who didn't even dare to tell his wife when he came back to pick up the children. She was different. She was the master of her own house and didn't have to look at anyone's face.
Zhao Xinghua was so angry that he fell backwards. He looked at Huang Xin who had left in a rickshaw. He thought that she came to Ning'an probably to pick up Mina and her brothers to help her raise a fool, so he also got in a rickshaw and followed her to Ning'an City. (End of this chapter)
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