Zhou Yiding laughed and said, "No one takes care of these Chinese tallow trees. I still remember that every time the Chinese tallow seeds burst, the team would collect them and sell them to the soap factory."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "This thing is too troublesome. The tung oil tree in front is better. As soon as the tung oil seeds mature, many people come to pick them and squeeze tung oil."
Zhou Yiding: "The villagers don't know how to make soap, so we pick up tung oil seeds and boil some tung oil, which can be used to make oilcloth and other things."
As they were talking, they reached the top of the mountain and found a barren slope with open terrain and covered with small white flowers.
I stopped to take a look and saw that there were already little bees collecting pollen on the petals. Looking down, I saw a mixed forest.
"That's it." Zhou Huaian put down the basket and said with a smile, "The flowers of the sticky grass can still bloom so beautifully after the frost."
Zhou Yiding stretched his neck and looked around. "Come early and you'll see wild cotton. You know what? Wild cotton is pretty nice."
"Wild chrysanthemums are good too!" Zhou Huaian slapped his head after hearing this, "I forgot, go back and dig up a few nests of dahlias from your house and plant them in my flower bed."
"Yes, dig a nest for each color, and within two years, a large patch will grow." Zhou Yiding said as he picked up a brush tied with straw and put it into the bamboo tube, then dipped some honey water and sprinkled it on the white petals. "Here comes the honey water!"
Zhou Huaian rubbed Wangcai, "See? From now on, you must not eat anything given by others. That is not sugar water, it is a magic drug that will take us home obediently after you eat it."
"Woof woof!" Wangcai circled around him.
Zhou Huaian patted its head and said, "Silly dog, stop turning around. The leash has gotten me tangled up."
Zhou Yiding turned around and rolled his eyes at him. "Let Wangcai go and let him wander around in the woods. Maybe he can get something back."
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian untied the dog leash on Wangcai's collar, "Go, catch a pheasant and make soup with it."
Wangcai ran towards the pine forest like an arrow.
After sprinkling the sugar water, the two sat on the slope and watched the little bees in the flowers.
After a while, Zhou Huaian excitedly pointed at the little bees collecting sugar water on the flower petals and said, "Here they come. Just wait for them to summon the main force!"
The little bees are diligently collecting nectar, unaware that this is a sugar-coated bullet set for them by the hunters.
It soon brought the two honey thieves to its home and stole the honey that the entire family had worked so hard to collect, leaving only some food for them.
Zhou Yiding stood up and took a look. "They're coming over there too. Keep a close eye on them. Don't wait for them to slip away."
“Right!”
Before Zhou Huaian finished speaking, Wangcai ran up with a pheasant in his mouth and threw it in front of him. He looked at him with a smile on his dog face, "Woof woof!"
"Fuck!" Zhou Huaian stroked the dog, "Look, Ding Ding cat, my Wangcai has learned all the tricks of Dahei and Dahuang. Bring Laifu out next time to see."
Zhou Yiding said happily: "They are all taught by the same master, so what's the difference?"
"That's true!" Zhou Huaian picked up the pheasant and put it in his backpack, patting Wangcai, "Just one lap is enough, let's go down the mountain to find a beehive later."
Zhou Yiding pointed at the bees flying towards the flowers and shouted excitedly, "Haha! They are really coming. A large group of them is coming."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Yes! Watch carefully and see where they fly to."
People die for money, birds die for food. Groups of bees, led by their companions, fly over and stop on the flower petals, collect honey water and then fly to the hive.
The two observed for a while, and Zhou Huaian said, "Ding Ding Cat, there should be three nests of bees nearby. You see, a small number of them flew towards the pine forest, and some flew towards the woods behind us. The group heading towards the mixed woods should be the closest, and there should be the most bees coming."
"Then let's go to the mixed woods below first."
The two men picked up their backpacks and ran down the mountain. Wangcai followed them down the mountain.
When they arrived in the woods, the two looked around. Zhou Huaian sprinkled some honey water on the leaves and observed where the bees came from.
The two of them kept their eyes and ears open, and soon they saw a little bee flying towards them, and heard the "buzzing" sound of the little bee in their ears.
Zhou Yiding nudged Zhou Huaian and said, "Did you hear that? You came pretty fast!"
"Hmm!" Zhou Huaian pointed to the other side of the bush, "It should have come from there."
Zhou Yiding stood on tiptoe and saw that there were still bees flying towards this side. He looked around and said, "The road is blocked by vines. We have to get under them."
Zhou Huaian thought for a moment and said, "Leave the backpack here and let Wangcai watch it. We will go over with our belongings."
"Yes." Zhou Yiding put down his backpack, took out his belongings, put them in a urea bag, and lay down to crawl into the bushes covered by vines.
Zhou Huaian asked Wangcai to stay and followed with his things.
The two climbed for a while, then stopped and listened carefully. The buzzing sound of the bees became clearer and clearer to their ears.
Zhou Yiding pulled aside a clump of reeds and saw swarms of bumblebees flying out from the cracks in the rocks on the slope. "Youngest, it's right here."
Zhou Huaian's eyes fell on the dead tree stump in front of him, and his mouth was so happy that it was split to the back of his head, "Ding Ding Cat, today's mountain luck is really amazing. I can find such a good-looking Ganoderma lucidum while looking for a beehive. No one else has this luck."
"Where?" Zhou Yiding shrank back and moved next to him. Following the direction he pointed, sunlight shone through the gaps in the vines onto a purple-black mushroom cap that was about the size of a bowl and shone with a lacquer-like luster.
"Holy crap! It really is Ganoderma lucidum!"
Zhou Huaian nodded proudly, "You light the moxa sticks and drive away the wild bees. I'll go over and collect the moxa and come back to dig out the beehive."
"Okay!" Zhou Yiding turned and walked towards the hive.
Zhou Huaian crawled over and squatted in front of the tree stump and began to count. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, there are six flowers, and there are a few small ones. It's so nice. I'll leave a nest here and come back later."
He patted the big purple Ganoderma lucidum, tried to break it off but failed, so he took out a dagger and pried it off the tree stump, then took out a net bag and put the Ganoderma lucidum into his pocket.
After picking all the purple Ganoderma lucidum, he weighed them and said happily, "Today's harvest is not bad."
On the other side, Zhou Yiding used a pickaxe to pry open the stone at the entrance of the beehive hole, exposing the hole. He lit a moxa stick and inserted it into the beehive hole. The "buzzing...buzzing" sound coming from his ears became louder and louder.
After a while, swarms of bumblebees flew out of the hive.
Zhou Huaian also arrived in front of the beehive. "How is it? Is the bee colony big?"
Zhou Yiding nodded, "It looks good! We can start after they fly away."
Zhou Huaian looked around and said, "This place is quite secretive. The brigade still has beehives. While Master Li is still making furniture for my house, we can get a few more and ask him to help fix them. How about using this to attract a nest?"
"Alright!" Zhou Yiding turned around and smiled, "We actually found a beehive. I didn't expect that sister-in-law's method was quite good!"
Zhou Huaian took out a cigarette and gave it to him. He lit it and took a puff. "There is another way to find a hornet's nest."
Zhou Yiding turned his head and looked at him, "What's the solution?"
"Do you remember when we were under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village, listening to those old guys bragging about how they used to find hornets' nests?" (End of this chapter)
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