"Pick the fruits first. This time we'll just dig up a few big ones and keep the small ones next to them." Yang Chunyan pointed to the saxifrage nearby, "The same goes for these. Don't dig up all of them when you dig."
"I know. We need to save seeds!" Zhang Xiuxiang and Zhao Huifang shoveled away the stems and started digging.
Yang Chunyan also picked up a medicine hoe and dug one up. These octagonal lotuses are quite old, and the rhizomes are relatively thick, with a bowl-shaped groove on each rhizome.
Like the Fritillaria cirrhosa, new rhizomes grow every year on the basis of the mother rhizome during the growing season. After the above-ground part dies in autumn and winter, a bowl-shaped groove will be left on the underground rhizome, and one groove represents one year.
Zhang Xiuxiang handed her the dug roots and said, "Go wash them. I'll dig the rest with my sister-in-law."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan squatted beside a puddle, cleaned the roots, rubbed them a few times, put them aside, went over to pick up the cut stems and leaves and put them in the backpack, and then put the tubers in it.
They only had to dig out a few big ones, and the three of them finished the work quickly. They began to cut the saxifrage. She found that some of the saxifrage still had fruit pods on them. Thinking that there were no holes in the clip back, there was no need to worry about the seeds leaking out, so she asked Zhang Xiuxiang to put the seeds directly into the clip back without cleaning them.
The three sisters-in-law picked some of the saxifrage and continued walking forward, cutting a lot of lobelia.
Zhang Xiuxiang happily picked olives. "This ravine is more peaceful than the medicinal fields behind our house. I never thought of coming here to take a look before!"
Zhao Huifang said: "Someone came here to dig yam before, but was killed by wild animals. When they were found, a lot of the meat on their bodies had been eaten away.
Since then, everyone feels that this place is gloomy and they don’t like to go here. Only the youngest and his friends like to run around the mountain looking for food. I think they are the only ones in the village who are familiar with this place.”
Zhang Xiuxiang rubbed the goose bumps on her hands and said, "No wonder no one digs the yams in the forest!"
"Second sister-in-law, some yams grow in the cracks of rocks and you can't dig them out even if you want to." Yang Chunyan didn't think much of it at first, but after hearing what she said, she felt that this place was a little eerie. She quickly glanced at the dog jumping around on the rocks in the ditch and felt a lot more relieved.
"Right, how could I have forgotten this too." Zhang Xiuxiang thought of the yams her family had grown. "Last time I went to the fields to harvest ramie, I saw that the yams you had grown were growing well. Can they be harvested by the end of the year?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "The yam beans have grown quite a bit, but I don't know how the yams below are growing. I'll dig them up in two months and see."
Zhang Xiuxiang: "In two months, everyone will be less busy digging, so it's just the right time to help."
Zhao Huifang thought about it and asked, "Chunyan, Qiuyue will soon be out of confinement. Did mom tell us when the third brother's family will hold the full moon banquet?"
"Mom didn't mention it, and I didn't ask!" Yang Chunyan remembered Zhou's mother complaining that Li Qiuyue treated the youngest child like a treasure. She said it several times but she was still unhappy. Now she is worried that she will raise a prodigal son in the future, which will be troublesome.
Zhang Xiuxiang said: "When the youngest child was born, the third child said that there would be no three-day celebration or full-month banquet to avoid gossip from the villagers. I wonder what they are thinking now."
"I heard Aunt Jiang say the other day that several families in the village are planning to have more children this year." Zhao Huifang blamed Yang Chunyan, "You only have one child, Xiao Jiuer. In two years, you can also have an extra child. It doesn't matter whether it's a boy or a girl."
"Let's talk about it in two years!" Yang Chunyan picked up the olives and put them in the puddle, and started washing them with Zhang Xiuxiang.
The convenience of picking herbs by the ditch is that you can wash them clean and hang them up to dry when you get home.
Yang Chunyan saw that some trees in the forest above were covered with Bletilla striata. She remembered what Zhou Huaian said about there being poisonous snakes and wild animals in the forest, and decided to go with him in the future.
The three of them still picked a large portion of the olives, leaving some for seeds, and walked forward with their baskets on their backs. After passing the pond, they arrived at the place where Zhou Huaian and the others were picking golden thread vines.
Zhang Xiuxiang, who was walking in front, said, "The youngest brother and his friends picked golden thread lotus here yesterday. If we walk further up, there may be more ahead."
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "It's still early to go back. Maybe we can reach the ditch that flows toward the back mountain."
Yang Chunyan asked: "Does the ditch at the back of the mountain also branch out from this one?"
Zhao Huifang: "I'm not sure. If the youngest brother were here, he might know."
…
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding have now arrived at the forest full of fragrant flowers. Along the way, they saw a few patches of honey flowers here and there. They can go there to dig up saplings later.
Suddenly I saw the incense all over the mountain, and thought that I hadn't been here to see the nest of wild bees for a long time, so I asked Zhou Yiding to take the dog to walk towards the maple tree.
"We came here last year to collect bees from this nest. I wonder if there's anything left?"
"As long as no one has found it, there is something inside."
"Let's go and see if there is any effect after expanding the beehive?" Zhou Huaian strode towards the maple tree, only to see that the maple tree was covered with vines and weeds.
Others use dry grass to fumigate wild bees to get honey. They have to clean the dry grass around the beehive entrance before lighting it. Only he and Ding Ding Mao use moxa sticks, so they don't need to clean the entrance.
"Ding Ding Cat, no one should have been here!" He happily picked up the medicine hoe, pushed aside the vines and weeds half a person high, and was about to walk towards the pile of stones.
"Youngest, come here!" Zhou Yiding shouted at him as he watched the little bees flying back and forth in a bunch of stinking chrysanthemums.
Zhou Huaian retracted his foot and walked up to him, "What's wrong?"
Zhou Yiding pointed at the wild bees on the stinking chrysanthemum and said, "There is more than one swarm here. Look, this one is flying towards that swarm, and that one is flying towards the forest."
Zhou Huaian also thought that they were two groups of wild bees. "Let's dig out the old nest first, and then chase them next time."
"That's fine!" Zhou Yiding stopped Dahuang who was about to run into the woods, and followed him to the maple tree.
Zhou Huaian pushed aside the vines and weeds and saw wild bees still flying into the cracks in the rocks. He put on a bee hat, pried open the hole, took out a moxa stick, lit it and put it close to the crack. The wild bees were buzzing like a pot of boiling water.
Zhou Yiding came forward and asked, "Do you have any goods?"
"Should be. I was here in February. It's been four or five months." Zhou Huaian broke the last stone and the beehive was exposed. "There are five honeycombs. I came too often. The honey is not even full."
Zhou Yiding hurriedly took out his gloves and said, "Put them on you."
"Yeah!" After Zhou Huaian put it on, he took out a knife and cut off the sealed honeycomb and put it in the honey bucket he handed over. "It's not a wasted trip. There are still two kilograms."
"Seal it back and come back next year." Zhou Yiding said as he covered the honey bucket and put it in the backpack. The two of them sealed the beehive back, picked up the backpack and walked down the ridge.
After crossing another ridge, there was no one picking mushrooms to be seen. Apart from the chirping of birds and cicadas, the only sound was the crisp crackling sound of the two people stepping on the dead branches, as if they had arrived in an old forest with no human habitation.
Under the dead leaves, they saw little elves of various colors trying their best to push aside the dead branches and leaves and drill upwards. The two of them looked down upon the miscellaneous fungi and only picked them up when they saw big-foot mushrooms and red mushrooms.
Zhou Yiding picked up a big-foot mushroom and said, "Ever since the youngest bear's grandson was eaten by a wild boar, I'm afraid there are no more people coming here except those who are hunting in the mountains, right?"
"Of course, we'll be in the old forest down there. If we run into wild animals, it's no joke." Zhou Huaian looked at the pointed mushroom caps poking out of the soil, "Ding Ding cat, we'll have chicken mushrooms to eat when we go back today."
As he spoke, he squatted down, picked up a branch and swept away the dead leaves and rotten soil on top. Only after sweeping did he see clearly that there was a large area of chicken mushrooms huddled together and trying to get out. "Oh my god! What a big mushroom nest."
"Fuck! So many!" Zhou Yiding excitedly put down the basket and pulled out the dagger hanging on his belt. "Let's do it. Ignore the other side for now. Let's eat what's in our mouths first."
Zhou Huaian took a look and said, "After prying these things apart, they will weigh about ten pounds, right?"
"Yes!" Zhou Yiding pried one open, "Do you think there are morels in it?"
Zhou Huaian inserted the dagger obliquely into the mud, held the mushroom stem left and right, and gently applied a little force, and a chicken mushroom was pried out intact.
"Last year, your sister-in-law and her friends found a nest of morels in the forest near the big banyan tree. This year, they had all been picked up. Luckily, those people didn't recognize the spring grass, otherwise it would have been a wasted trip."
Zhou Yiding patted the mushroom caps and pried one up. "Let's take these back and fry them in a can of chicken mushroom oil?"
"Your sister-in-law didn't like it very much. She and my mom cut some pork belly and fried it with big-foot mushrooms, chicken mushrooms, and other mushrooms in a mushroom sauce. I think it tasted pretty good, but there was too little of it. I couldn't eat it."
"You are disloyal. You won't even give me a taste."
"Why don't you think about it? My brother and the others are eating at my house. More than a dozen people are gone in two meals, and I haven't even tasted the flavor yet!"
"Go back and cut 20 pounds of pork belly. Use all the ones we picked up today to fry the mushroom sauce."
"We picked all this up today. I'll go cut some meat tomorrow morning and have them fry it when I get back."
After a while, the two of them pried out all the chicken mushrooms and arranged them there neatly.
Zhou Huaian picked up the machete and said, "I'll go cut some rice leaves for the basket on my back."
"Hmm!" Zhou Yiding continued to pry the bigfoot mushrooms next to him. The plump mushrooms were pleasing to the eye.
Zhou Huaian cut some rice leaves and brought them back to pad the backpack. The two of them picked up all the chicken mushrooms and put them in the basket, then covered it with rice leaves. Then they continued to walk down with the baskets on their backs.
Along the way, the two picked up some big-foot mushrooms and chicken mushrooms, and soon reached the halfway point of the mountain. After going down the mountain and crossing the ravine that was more than one meter wide, they entered the old forest.
Zhou Yiding looked at the honey trees at the bottom of the slope and said, "Youngest brother, I can't remember where I found the nest of wild bees last time. Do you still remember where it is?"
"We didn't come down from this side that time." Zhou Huaian looked around and pointed to the right. "I remember we went down the mountain and drank some water by the ditch. We climbed up about 20 to 30 meters. Also, the honey trees there were not that tall."
"Then let's go down and take a look first." Zhou Yiding took the lead and Dahuang also rushed to the front.
Soon we reached the foot of the mountain. The valley was full of flowers and the water in the ravine was crystal clear. Crouching by the ravine, we could clearly see mountain crabs crawling around in the water. (End of this chapter)
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