As daybreak approached, a rumbling sound of thunder came from the sky.
Yang Chunyan was awakened by the thunder and hurriedly got up to check on her son on the crib. He was sleeping soundly with his belly protruding. She was worried that the thunder had frightened him, so she carried him to the bed and put him beside her before she had time to turn off the lights.
There was a loud "click" and a deafening sound seemed to explode above my head. The lights flickered a few times and the room fell into darkness.
Xiao Jiuer trembled with fear, and Yang Chunyan patted him gently, "Don't be afraid, mom is here."
Xiao Jiuer held her hand and fell asleep peacefully.
Zhou Huaian was also awakened by the sound of thunder. "It's thunder again. It looks like it's going to rain heavily again."
"Yeah!" Yang Chunyan responded in a low voice, "Go to sleep. It's still two hours before you get up."
Ever since the mountain road collapsed, the people from Baicaoping have been sending mushrooms to the woods beside the asphalt road to sell, and they can sleep more than an hour longer than before.
Lightning and thunder became more frequent, the lightning became faster and faster, the thunder became louder and louder, and in an instant the sound of heavy rain began...
Yang Chunyan listened to the sound of the rain and said, "Huaian, it's raining so hard, is the old man going to dig a hole to release water to the rice fields?"
"After the seedlings turn green, the water shortage in the rice fields is only half sealed. The rice fields will only be filled with water if the water in the ditches is full."
"Then go to sleep!"
"Ah!" Zhou Huaian thought about it and sighed, "It's raining so hard. I wonder if Qu Qiulin and Lao Yin are still on their way?"
"It's four o'clock now. They must be on their way. I'm afraid they're all soaked to the skin."
"Fuck, I work so hard to earn a little money, and I still can't stand you selling it at a high price."
"Forget it. Things are much better now. Besides, complaining won't do anything. It will only affect my mood."
Zhou Huaian thought about the days when he was hungry and cold, and felt that she was right. He put his arms around the mother and son and whispered, "Go to sleep!"
"Um!"
It felt like Zhou Huaian and the other man hadn't slept for very long before they were woken up by the beeping alarm. They got out of bed, walked to the window in their slippers, opened the curtains, and saw an old man waving a big broom and sweeping the yard.
The rain stopped and I couldn't sleep in any longer, so I had to resign myself to going back and getting dressed.
Yang Chunyan looked at him and smiled, "You know the rain here. It never rains from dusk till dawn."
"Yes, God doesn't give us the opportunity to be lazy, so let's get up and work!" Zhou Huaian put on his shirt, "Are you going to the bamboo forest to pick bamboo fungus this morning?"
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "Let my eldest sister-in-law take Jiaming and the others to pick bamboo fungus. I want to go to the mulberry forest where we picked Coriolus fuciformis last time with my second sister-in-law, and then go to see the Rejuvenating Grass."
Zhou Huaian became interested after hearing this. "Uncle Zhang and his friends are going to take morels to the cooperative to sell today. We only accept red mushrooms and mushrooms that have opened their caps. How about I ask my eldest and third brothers to go over there and take a look?"
"Okay." Yang Chunyan got up, put on her clothes, looked at her son, and then went out to the backyard to wash up.
Zhou Huaian hung the towel on the bamboo pole and said, "The old man said that he would ship out a batch of goods this morning. I'll go over and take a look first."
"Okay, I'll wash up and go prepare the things for the mountain."
By the time the two of them had packed up and were ready to go out, it was already past seven o'clock. This time they did not take the old road, but changed direction and walked towards the forest.
As we went up the mountain, we saw villagers picking mushrooms everywhere. Some of them had a lot of mushrooms in their backpacks, while others didn't even have their baskets full.
It's too late to pick mushrooms. I can only hope to find some good herbs. It would be good to pick a few Ganoderma lucidum and Coriolus versicolor.
The two climbed over a ridge. When Yang Chunyan saw the blue-purple flowers blooming in the grass below the slope, she called out to Zhou Huaian, "The herb that blooms in front seems to be red root."
Zhou Huaian turned his head and took a look. "That flower is the red root flower. My grandma has dug it before. I recognize it. The roots underneath are red, and the roots are long and numerous."
Yang Chunyan smiled and joked: "Not bad, you even recognize Danshen!"
"Comrade Yang Chunyan, you can't look at people with old eyes. I know a lot more about your man now."
"I'm sorry, I underestimated you."
The two chatted and laughed as they walked down the hill. When they got to the back, they saw not only Salvia miltiorrhiza but also Chuanxiong in the grass. It looked like they had been growing for many years.
Yang Chunyan happily put down her backpack and said, "I went up the mountain in a different direction and indeed I got some harvest. It's a pity that I came too late and have to wait until autumn to dig."
"If you can't dig up Salvia miltiorrhiza, you can dig up Chuanxiong!" Zhou Huaian said as he picked up the bamboo pole. "It just rained, it's wet inside, let me knock on it first!"
Yang Chunyan hurriedly asked, "Look carefully, there might be chicken mushrooms in the grass?"
"Haha!" Zhou Huaian pulled aside the grass and turned to look at her, "Look, not only did I find herbs, I also found a mushroom nest."
Yang Chunyan looked over and saw white mushroom caps emerging from the grass, some of which seemed to be still growing vigorously.
"It's better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early. There is such a big mushroom nest. Why are you still standing there? Get to work!" Yang Chunyan happily took out a crowbar and handed it to Zhou Huaian.
The couple squatted in the wet grass, patted the mushroom caps, and then started digging.
The annoying thing about digging mushrooms on rainy days is that your boots get covered in mud, as do the stems of the mushrooms you dig up, and soon a pile of chicken mushrooms forms on the fallen weeds.
Yang Chunyan looked at the chicken mushrooms leaning towards the bottom of the mountain and said, "Huaian, dig up the remaining ones. I'll go over there and see if there are any more mushroom nests."
"Use a bamboo pole to knock it, so that the dew won't soak your pants." Zhou Huaian handed her the bamboo pole.
Yang Chunyan walked to the bottom of the hill, and saw a small bulging mound of earth at the bottom of the hill. "Not bad, it's worth the trip."
She used a crowbar to gently lift up the bulging soil, revealing three white cockleburs. She used the crowbar to dig through the mud, and when she saw the mushroom stems that were several circles thicker than the crowbar, she happily turned around and shouted, "Huaian, I found three big cockleburs."
"Let me see." Zhou Huaian put down the chicken mushroom and walked over. He saw her holding a big chicken mushroom that was almost as thick and long as Xiao Jiuer's arm. He gave her a thumbs up and said, "Great!"
Yang Chunyan pointed to the other two and said, "These two are also large chicken mushrooms. I'll give you a taste of them!"
Zhou Huaian said happily: "You made these two big chicken mushrooms look like mulberry fungus!"
Yang Chunyan pretended to put down the chicken mushroom in her hand and said, "Forget it, I'll do it myself!"
"No, I'll dig! If you haven't dug up a large chicken mushroom while picking mushrooms, you'd be embarrassed to say you've picked mushrooms before."
Zhou Huaian squatted down with a smile and slowly dug down along the mushroom stem. He couldn't dig too deep, otherwise the chicken mushroom nest would be destroyed and it would not grow next year.
Of the remaining two, one is almost as big as the one Yang Chunyan dug up, and the other is smaller and thinner, but about half a foot longer.
"Three are enough for a meal." Yang Chunyan happily took it and followed him back.
"Go back and get some ham, garlic, and green and red peppers. We can make a big stir-fry."
The two men went back, picked up the thirty or so chicken mushrooms and put them in their backpacks, and continued digging herbs.
Yang Chunyan pointed at the salvia miltiorrhiza whose flowers had already faded and said, "Huaian, you have a good memory. Remember to remind me to collect the seeds later."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian knocked it once, and then the two of them used the medicine hoe to push away the weeds, set aside the Salvia miltiorrhiza, and started digging along the rhizomes of Chuanxiong.
Salvia miltiorrhiza is a perennial upright herb, also known as red ginseng, purple salvia miltiorrhiza, red root, etc. The medicinal part is the dried roots and rhizomes of the Lamiaceae plant Salvia miltiorrhiza.
The stem of Salvia miltiorrhiza is quadrangular in shape with grooves. The whole plant is covered with white fuzz. There are usually five leaves on the branches. The front of the leaves are green and there is a layer of white fuzz on the back.
It blooms from March to September, with spikes of small blue-purple flowers shaped like lips.
The outer skin of the root of Danshen is scarlet, and the flesh inside is white, bitter, slightly cold, and non-toxic. It has the effects of removing blood stasis, promoting new blood, activating blood circulation, and regulating menstruation.
Wild salvia miltiorrhiza is much more valuable than domestically grown ones. In a few years, when people go up the mountain to collect herbs, they will dig up all the wild salvia miltiorrhiza they see, no matter how big or small. In her previous life, when she went up the mountain to collect herbs, it was difficult to find wild salvia miltiorrhiza.
Yang Chunyan dug up a Chuanxiong along the rhizome and scraped off the excess mud on it, revealing an irregular fist-shaped mass that was larger than Zhou Huaian's fist. It exuded a stronger fragrance than the leaves and it seemed to have been there for many years.
Yang Chunyan pulled off the roots that were covered with mud on the tubers, and the remaining mud stuck on them could only be carried to the ditch to be cleaned.
"Yan'er, I only found Chuanxiong the first time I came out with you. This is the second time I found it!" Zhou Huaian blushed a little when he thought of how lazy he was when they first came here to dig herbs.
Yang Chunyan put the dug Chuanxiong aside and said, "Yes, this is the first time I have seen Salvia miltiorrhiza!"
"This thing grows very quickly. I see that more than one acre of land has been planted in the back hills!"
"Next year there will be more, and in a few years the land on the back hill will be fully planted."
Zhou Huaian and his companion were busy with their bodies bent. Several women who came out of the woods saw them digging herbs and walked towards them curiously.
Wangcai, who was lying on the side, stood up, looked at the two of them with a vigilant look, and made a "woohoo" sound from his mouth.
When Zhou Huaian heard the noise, he looked up and saw several women from the same village. He said to the dog, "Wangcai, lie down."
The woman with two long braids smiled and said, "Zhou Laoyao, are you also digging herbs?"
Zhou Huaian did not hide it, "Yes, this is called Chuanxiong, you can dig it up when you see it in the future!"
"Really?" Several women looked at each other happily. The woman with long braids pointed to the woods below and said, "We also saw it in the woods below. It looks a bit like wild celery, but we didn't dare to dig it up because we were afraid it might be poisonous."
Yang Chunyan looked up and said, "Go and dig them up. The ones at the bottom are medicinal herbs, and the tender leaves at the top can be used to stir-fry eggs."
"Okay! Chunyan thanks you." Several women turned around happily and walked towards the woods below.
Yang Chunyan and the others were busy for more than an hour before they dug up all the mature ones. They left many small ones in the grass, and they would have to wait until autumn to dig up the salvia miltiorrhiza. (End of this chapter)
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