Chapter 155 154: King Wen's Pen
Yang Chunyan looked at the big figs in the baskets and said, "Both baskets are full of big figs. I can only put the stinking peony leaves into the sacks to find something else."
"Yes! It stinks so badly that I don't even dare to put mushrooms on it, for fear that it will make the mushrooms stink."
"Mom said Grandpa has a lot of phlegm, so I'll go back and make some morels to stew for him."
"Yes!" Zhang Xiuxiang looked at the morels that were only as big as the tip of her little finger. "Let's pick up the big ones and come back tomorrow to pick up the small ones."
"Huaian and I are going up the mountain to look for Magnolia officinalis trees this afternoon. We will stay at Yiding's place tonight and won't be back until tomorrow afternoon."
"Oh! I remember now. The youngest brother asked us to dig mountain radishes tomorrow and send them to the city the day after tomorrow."
The two men gathered piles of morels and put them in their backpacks.
Yang Chunyan looked at the morels and said, "They should weigh about four or five kilograms. There are a lot of morels during this period. I think we should not send them to be sold. Hang them up to dry. When the weather gets colder, the price should be higher."
“Yes!”
The two searched around again and saw only small mushrooms left, so they picked up their backpacks and carried the baskets and continued walking into the woods.
The further you go in, the denser the trees become. Various vines grow intricately, and their roots cling to the trees in all directions, like a big net.
The sun could only shine through the gaps in the woods, making the forest seem a little eerie.
Yang Chunyan knew about kudzu, Chinese yam, oleander and broad-brained vine. But she didn't have time to dig kudzu and Chinese yam, so she was interested in broad-brained vine.
When she grabbed a vine and was about to pull it down, Zhang Xiuxiang patted her and said, "Chunyan, what do you see growing on the slope?"
Yang Chunyan followed the direction Zhang Xiuxiang pointed and saw that the slope in front was densely covered with bright red mushrooms, which looked like inverted fiery red brush heads.
The sunlight shines through the gaps in the treetops and onto the clusters of bright red, fiery mushrooms on the dead leaves. There is a kind of enchanting beauty!
"My God, why are there so many rejuvenation grasses growing here?"
"Rejuvenation grass? It sounds like the name of a herb!" Zhang Xiuxiang turned her head and looked at her and smiled, "I've seen it before, but not so many. People thought it was too red and poisonous, so they never picked it up! It's obviously a mushroom, why is it called rejuvenation grass!"
"Because it has the effect of rejuvenation when eaten, folk doctors call it rejuvenation grass. Medical books say that stewing chicken with it has the effect of nourishing and astringing semen. It can also be used to make soup, which is not only delicious but also can drive away internal heat and eliminate toxins."
"I don't have the guts to eat it. Just like the red mushrooms you mentioned, I took them home and dried them so that they filled two oilcloth bags, but I just don't have the guts to stew them."
Yang Chunyan once again felt that people from the neighboring Yun Province were the bravest when it came to eating mushrooms. "Forget it if you don't dare to eat them. We can pick them up and dry them and send them to Dr. Wang's house. We should be able to sell so many of them for dozens of yuan."
"Okay!" The sister-in-law put down her backpack and picked up the bamboo strips and started working.
Zhang Xiuxiang grabbed a bunch and pulled it up, and found that there was a thin long root growing underneath it, "Chunyan, look, this thing still has roots."
"That's its parasitic root. It survives by parasitizing on other vines and absorbing nutrients."
Huichuncao is also known as Wenwang's Pen, Shegu, and many other aliases. Different places have different names, and the most famous one is Wenwang's Pen.
There is another story about this. Legend has it that when King Wen of Zhou passed by Shennongjia in Hubei, he saw the local scenery and thought it was so beautiful. So he drank and appreciated the scenery while reviewing official documents.
As a result, after getting drunk, he accidentally dropped the pen he used to mark official documents down the mountain. Later, the pen turned into a kind of herb with a stem like a pen tube and a slightly larger head, shaped like a brush with a red brush tip. It was called "King Wen's Pen".
Snakehead fungus likes to grow in dark and humid valleys. It does not have chlorophyll and cannot carry out photosynthesis on its own.
When its pollen falls to the ground, it produces a suction cup, and then parasitizes on the roots and stems of other plants, using its suction cup to continuously absorb nutrients from the parasitic plants for its own use.
Therefore, it is also known as "borrowing the mother to return the womb".
Snakeheads grow in clusters. If you pull up one, there may be seven or eight clusters connected together, or as few as four or five. Soon, a pile of red snakeheads will be spread on the ground.
Yang Chunyan looked at the vines growing in the forest and thought that it might be the environment here and the rain in the past few nights that caused them to grow so many.
The whole plant of Wenwang Yizhibi can be used as medicine: it is bitter, astringent and cold in nature, and has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, cooling blood and stopping bleeding, expelling qi and relieving pain, replenishing deficiency and astringing semen, etc.
It also has excellent effects on pain relief, hemostasis, tissue regeneration, etc. It is commonly used in folk medicine to treat stomach problems, nose bleeding, menstrual bleeding, dysentery and traumatic bleeding.
It can also be used as a tonic. Grind the whole plant of Wenwang Yizhibi after drying it and eat it with eggs every morning.
The two men left the snake gourds that had not yet grown up, went back to put the leaves of the stinking peony into a sack, put some leaves at the bottom of the backpack, picked up the snake gourds and put them in the backpack, filling it up.
The rest filled up another backpack filled with chicken mushrooms and mushrooms.
Zhang Xiuxiang tied the sack to the backpack and said, "You carry the light one. I'm stronger, so I'll carry the heavy one!"
"Yes, we'll take turns carrying you when we get tired!"
Yang Chunyan helped her carry the backpack, and then she walked out of the woods with the basket in one hand and the medicine hoe in the other.
After the sun hid behind the clouds, the forest became increasingly darker, and a faint rustling sound could be heard from the front.
Yang Chunyan suddenly felt a chill rising from her back. She stopped and pulled Zhang Xiuxiang, "Second sister-in-law, there seems to be someone in front."
Zhang Xiuxiang looked back at her and said, "There are many people picking mushrooms these days. They might be picking mushrooms."
Yang Chunyan thought about it and thought, "I'm hungry, let's eat something first."
"Okay, let's eat first."
Yang Chunyan put down the basket, and the two of them took turns helping to put down the backpack, taking out the biscuits they had brought in the morning and started to eat them.
Yang Chunyan made a pancake made of corn flour and sweet potato flour. She rolled it with a pickled pepper like last time, put some cold shredded radish in it, and added two slices of wild boar meat.
Zhang Xiuxiang swallowed a mouthful of the pancake and said, "It's delicious. I'll roll it up like you next time."
"I rolled it like this last time, and Huai'an said it was delicious too!"
"Crack!" Suddenly a crisp sound came from the front, which was obviously the sound of someone stepping on a dead branch.
Yang Chunyan immediately stood up with the medicine hoe in hand, and Zhang Xiuxiang followed suit. They stared at the big tree in front of them, "Who is it? Come out!"
A short, dark-skinned, greasy-haired man came out from behind a tree, carrying a backpack on his back, and watched the two men running around with his shifty eyes.
Finally, he stared at Yang Chunyan and asked, "Little sister, which team are you from? Why are there only two of you picking mushrooms?"
Thanks to book friend 2018...2921 for the reward and support!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com