It was after lunch when the family finished their work and took a break.
Zhou Huaian carried a large bowl of multi-grain rice mixed with chopped and cooked pig lungs, as well as two large bones stewed in winter melon soup, and walked towards the doghouse. Lai Fu and Wang Cai followed him with smiles on their faces, and their butts were shaking as if they were dancing the hip-shaking dance.
"Come, enjoy your big bones and pig lung rice."
"Woof woof!" Lai Fu and Wangcai barked at Zhou Huaian twice. They grabbed a big bone in their mouths and lay in front of the dog bowl, chewing it with relish.
When Zhou Huairong approached, the two dogs thought he was going to steal their bones, so they turned around with the bones in their mouths and faced him with their butts.
"Youngest, Lai Fu and Wang Cai are the best. When we eat, they never crawl around the table to beg for food. If they want to eat, they just watch from a distance."
Zhou Huaian laughed and said, "Those people in the mountains have no food to feed, so they go to the forest to catch wild animals to eat!"
"People in the mountains have started picking corn today, so we will go there to collect mushrooms the day after tomorrow."
"It's good to take a day off. I just want to go to the mountains to take a look!" Zhou Huaian thought about setting off for the old forest now. It would only take one round trip at the fastest speed, which would be just right.
"Well! There aren't many mushrooms today. Let's go take a break and come back to wash them and send them to the oven."
"That's right!" Zhou Huaian sat on the rattan chair, and suddenly thought of what Ye Laoyao said when he came back. He regretted it and slapped himself in the face, "I told you to be more critical. If that bastard really doesn't want to get over it..."
Yang Chunyan, who was feeding her baby, patted him and asked, "What are you mumbling about?"
"Alas! When I came back..." Zhou Huaian blinked and looked at her, "Yan'er, do you think Ye Laoya is really depressed?"
Yang Chunyan rolled her eyes at him. "If you really want to be depressed, you'll hang yourself. The whole village will know about it!" She grabbed the soft flesh around his waist and twisted it. "I'll teach you to speak without thinking in the future!"
"Hiss~ It hurts!" Zhou Huaian hurriedly held her hand and twisted her body to the side, "It's blue again, can't you pinch it somewhere else?"
Yang Chunyan looked at his thighs and asked, "How about trying that instead?"
"No, no!" Zhou Huaian raised his hands in surrender. "Yan'er, you know that Fang Dongming helped to capture He Jianjun and his brother-in-law last night, right?"
"Yeah! I told you everything when I got back!"
"Ding Dingmao and I both think Fang Dongming still has my sister in his heart, but my sister doesn't seem to want to find him. She even told me that it's not good to owe too many favors. I asked her to buy some things and send them with mom to express her gratitude. What do you think?"
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "Instead of sending gifts, I think it would be better to ask my mother and sister to make a silk banner for the joint defense team. This will also help him get promoted!"
"That's right!" Zhou Huaian clapped his hands and praised, "My wife is really quick-witted. I'll go talk to them about making the silk banner!"
Yang Chunyan held him back and said angrily, "Look at you, you're so quick to act. It's not too late to wait until they wake up before you say anything!"
"That's true!" Zhou Huaian sat down and thought about what Wang Zhen said in Ning'an today, "Yan'er, Wang Zhen said today that they were very satisfied with the winter honey we sent over, and asked me to collect more this year and send it over.
He also asked me to find some... We will go and dig some more next year and plant them in the big pit and on the back hill."
"Honey flower trees prefer dry land. The soil in the big pit is too moist to be suitable for planting. It is better to plant them in the back hills."
Yang Chunyan thought that people in later generations had discovered the value of rice ball nectar, and that mountain people in Yunnan Province had planted this kind of flower tree to collect nectar. However, pure nectar was expensive, and some buyers felt cheated, so it was not as easy to sell as the mixed nectar.
"Tomorrow I'll go into the mountains to see if I can still find the wild beehive I had before?" Zhou Huaian said as he stood up, "I'm going to go out and see that son of a bitch, Ye Laoyao."
"Huaian!" Yang Chunyan stopped him and said with a smile, "Last time I told you that I saw a place in the big pit covered with kudzu vines. Today, I went to pick mushrooms and saw the main root. She came back and said that the stem was as thick as your calf."
Zhou Huaian looked down at his calf, "Fuck~ Such thick kudzu root, it must weigh at least 300 to 400 kilograms. I'll dig it up and make kudzu root powder when the weather cools down and I have some free time."
"Yes!" Yang Chunyan picked up her sleeping son, "I'll take Jiuer to sleep for a while. It's time for my elder brother and the others to come over and wash the mushrooms."
"That's great!" Zhou Huaian thought about it and rode his bike out to the grove. Seeing that the gate of Ye Laoyao's house was locked, he stroked his chin and muttered to himself, "Could it be that this bastard listened to what I said? Who cares? As long as he doesn't die, it's fine!"
He shook his head and went to Zhou Yiding's house. When he arrived outside his yard, he heard Miss Deng's sweet and pleasant singing, "Sweet... like flowers blooming in the spring breeze..."
When we arrived at the gate, we saw him lying on a recliner with a palm-leaf fan covering his face. He pursed his lips and called out, "Gugu, gugu..."
Zhou Yiding took off the palm-leaf fan and looked at him, "I thought it was someone else!" Then he walked to the door with the palm-leaf fan, "I thought you went into the mountains, and said I would go to see you after the sun goes down!"
"No, I'll be busy until dinner time when I get home. Today I'm mainly here for Wang Zhen... I'll have my third brother deliver food to Ning'an tomorrow, and we'll go into the mountains as soon as we get up in the morning."
"What time do you leave? I'll call you!"
"How about half past six?"
"Okay!" Zhou Yiding waved his fan, "We have nothing to do, how about we go fishing?"
Zhou Huaian shook his head decisively, "No, if we go to the river dam under such a strong sun, we will be dried into black fish in half a day."
"It's not hot below the Heba Reshan Temple!" Zhou Yiding looked at him with a smile, "Let's go to the winter paddy fields below the mountain temple to catch eels. I haven't eaten eels cooked with garlic for a long time."
Zhou Huaian thought for a moment after hearing this, "I remember there are a lot of stone jumps in the ditch above the mountain temple. How about we go and catch some?"
"Okay, let's catch some stones. Wait for me to go get my stuff." Zhou Yiding walked inside excitedly. After a while, he changed into boots and came out with his stuff. He got on the back seat of his bicycle and said, "Let's go..."
Zhou Huaian turned around and rolled his eyes at him, "You were lying there weakly just now, but when you talk about delicious food, you get excited!"
"We are the same!" Zhou Yiding hit him with a bamboo basket, "Brother, don't talk about the second brother!"
"..." Zhou Huaian pedaled hard and was out of breath when he got home, "I'm so tired."
Zhou Yiding jumped off his bicycle and looked at him with a smile, "Just in time to get some stones back to make up for it!"
"Wait for me to tell your sister-in-law." Zhou Huaian pushed his bicycle into the yard and parked it. When he reached the door of the main room, he slowed down his pace and went into the house to tell her about the stone jumping incident.
Yang Chunyan hadn't eaten delicious stone frogs for many years, because in her previous life, this thing was already a second-level protected frog. "It's hot and there are many old shuttlecocks. Bring snake medicine and knives."
"Well!" Zhou Huaian opened the drawer and took out the snake medicine and dagger. After thinking about it, he took out a few net bags and put them in his pocket. "I'm leaving!"
“Be careful!”
"Got it!" Zhou Huaian went out to the west wing to change into boots, then went to the corner room to get a bamboo basket, and walked towards the mountain temple with Zhou Yiding.
The two of them went down from the earthen kiln and walked along the path along the field. There were plantain, snakeberry, viola yedoensis, and dandelions on the path. Everyone had gone to the mountains to pick mushrooms during this period, so no one picked these herbs.
When we arrived at the winter paddy fields, we climbed up the slope and arrived at the mountain god temple which had collapsed so much that only a large hall remained, and even the statues of the gods were gone.
Looking at the dilapidated mountain temple, Zhou Huaian pulled Zhou Yiding and said, "Since we are here, let's pay homage to the mountain god!"
"Okay!" The two men stood at the entrance of the hall and bowed three times respectfully towards the inside, then they carried their belongings and climbed up a ridge, then walked along the narrow path to the ravine below.
As Zhou Huaian walked along, he unexpectedly discovered that there were a lot of herbs growing on this road. There were some Poria cocos and Epimedium with rhizomes as thick as thumbs. Some of them looked like they had been growing for many years. There were also a lot of stinking peonies growing next to them.
"Ding Ding Cat, I've never been here before, but I've seen several kinds of herbs along this stretch of road."
"I only know Epimedium and Stinking Peony."
"There should be a lot of good things near the ravine."
"Take a good look later and let my sister-in-law dig it up tomorrow."
"That's right. Tomorrow, my sister-in-law and the others don't have to go to the Hundred Lawn. They can have company if they come along."
When they reached the ravine, the road was a little wet. Zhou Yiding pulled a bush down to the ravine. He saw that the water in the ravine just covered his feet, and the clear stream flowed slowly downwards.
When we got to the bottom of the ditch, the bushes on both sides of the ditch blocked our view. It immediately felt cooler when we stood in the ditch. "Youngest, hurry up and get down. It's too cold down there."
"Of course it's cooler, it's more relaxing than going to the river dam to fish!"
“Each has its own fun!”
Zhou Yiding turned his head and saw a lot of saxifrage in the grass, as well as several lotus leaves that were as big as a small bowl, and some plants with square leaves.
"Youngest, I remember last time my sister-in-law said that she had collected three of the four treasures of Shennong, and she was still missing a bowl of water by the river. Do you remember what she said that thing looked like?"
Zhou Huaian thought for a moment, "She said that the bowl of water by the river is also called the Eight-Angled Lotus, and in folk culture it is also called "Mother Weed", and in traditional Chinese medicine it is also called "Ghost Morus". "
Zhou Yiding counted the horns of the plants that looked a bit like lotus leaves. Some had eight horns and some had none. "Look at this thing. It might be the bowl of water by the river that my sister-in-law mentioned."
Zhou Huaian stepped forward to take a look, "There are some saxifrages over there. They will come to dig herbs tomorrow. Go back and tell her and ask her to come and take a look tomorrow."
He looked around and sighed, "No wonder your sister-in-law said that most herbs like to grow in moist places. There are so many herbs growing by this ditch!"
"Have you forgotten the ravines in the forest farm? Aren't there enough herbs along the way?" Zhou Yiding picked up the trap and said, "Let's find a place to put it down first."
Zhou Huaian nodded, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind, "Ding Ding Cat, does this mountain belong to the village or the public?"
"I don't know!" Zhou Yiding turned around and looked at him, "Do you want to buy this piece?"
"It's such a large area, at least more than a thousand acres of mountain land. How can my family eat all of it? If it were in the village, my brothers and I would team up to take it over and scatter the collected herbs in the forest. We would have a good harvest in the future."
"Go ask. If you want a package, I'll be included."
"Okay!" Seeing that the water upstream was very shallow, the two men carried the trap and walked downstream, finding a place with deep water to lower the trap. (End of this chapter)
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