After Zhou Huaian sent Zhou Huaishan away, he collapsed on the rocking chair as soon as he came back. "It's almost five o'clock. It will be dark before we get halfway up the mountain. I'd better lie down at home and have a good rest!"
Yang Chunyan poured him a glass of honey water and said, "It's almost five o'clock. Drink it and go plant those Drynariae in the big pit and the forest behind the mountain. Then go to the forest farm tomorrow."
Zhou Huaian took a sip and sighed, "Sometimes I feel that it was quite comfortable when I was a second-rate lazy guy. As long as I didn't mind the food being bad, I could just stay at home and not work. When I woke up, I would go up the mountain to look for wild bees and go down the river to catch fish. It was like living a godly life."
Yang Chunyan glared at him, "I thought I was going to live a godly life, but I'm just a parasite! I don't get married and have kids, I only feed the whole family, but when I get old I'll be like that stray dog at the village entrance, without even a home."
After hearing this, Zhou Huaian thought of the days she had in her dream, and quickly slapped himself twice, then stood up and put down the water cup, "Don't be angry, I was just talking."
He said something nice, so Yang Chunyan didn't bother to let go. Thinking about how hard he had been living these days, she said, "Why don't you hold Jiu'er while I go plant the seeds!"
Zhou Huaian waved his hand quickly, "No, I'll go right away! After planting, we need to filter out the honey, and separate the old honey from the new honey."
The old man came over with the broken bone stalks in his hand. "It's getting dark over there. It will rain before dark. Plant them first. A rain will keep them alive."
After hearing this, Yang Chunyan and the other girl turned their heads to look at the mountain in the southeast. Seeing that the top of the mountain was covered with dark clouds, they said happily, "The rain is finally coming. We have been looking forward to it for a long time."
Zhou Huaian also became more energetic and picked up the medicine hoe, "Grandpa, give me the basket, I will go up the mountain to plant it quickly."
After hearing this, the old man said, "You go to the big pit to plant, and I'll go to the back mountain to help you plant!"
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian handed him the medicine hoe, and the father and son walked towards the backyard together.
While Yang Chunyan coaxed the child to sleep, Zhou's mother had already washed the tree flowers and boiled them in the pot. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law collected the herbs and chopped the comfrey into short sections, rinsed them and hung them upstairs. The tree flowers in the pot had also cooled down.
Zhou's mother poured the chicken blood vine flowers in the basin into the colander, "Leave a small part for making pancakes."
"I plan to dry it and soak it in water to drink." Yang Chunyan brought the dustpan over, and Zhou's mother poured more than half of it into it. After rolling it out, she took it upstairs to dry.
When she came down, Yang Chunyan said, "We'll cook fish with tofu, cold-mixed tree flowers, and pancakes tonight. You can eat here tonight."
"Eating at your place again?" Zhou's mother said, "I've been eating at your house almost all this year!"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "After we finish eating the food here, we will go to your place to eat."
"That's right!" Zhou's mother wiped her hands with a smile, "I'll mix the dough first to wake him up, then go mix the tree flowers, you go check on Xiao Jiuer."
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "Look, with you here, I still have a ready meal to eat!"
Zhou's mother said happily, "If you listen, Mom will like to cook for you. If you don't listen, we will feel uncomfortable if we eat dragon meat in your house."
"hey-hey!"
Yang Chunyan wiped her hands and went to the door of the main room. She saw that the little guy had woken up. He had already pulled off his socks and thrown them aside. He was pulling his little feet hard into his mouth.
Yang Chunyan smiled and picked him up, "Little boy, is there honey on your little pig's hoof?"
"Oh oh!" Little Jiuer spoke in baby language and put his little hands into his mouth again.
"Aunt, the tofu pudding is here!" Before she finished speaking, Zhou Xiaoru walked into the yard holding the tofu pudding, "Today we are all eating tofu pudding fish, and Third Grandma's family is eating it too."
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "Send it to grandma in the kitchen, and come with my sister to eat flower cakes later."
She felt that after Li Qiuyue came back, the two sisters became more lively than before. No matter how good their grandparents and uncles were to them, the only one who could make the children feel at ease was their own mother.
Zhou Xiaoru shook her head, "No, we are full. My mother made a paste with pumpkin flowers, eggs and wheat flour to make pancakes for us."
Yang Chunyan thought of the golden pumpkin flower pancakes, "Pumpkin flower fried pancakes are delicious too!"
"My mother put four eggs." Zhou Xiaoru thought about it and walked up to her, "Aunt, can my mother give birth to a younger brother?"
Yang Chunyan looked at the sensible and sensitive child, rubbed her head, and said softly: "Yes!"
"I think so too!" Zhou Xiaoru went to the kitchen holding the porcelain jar.
Zhou Huaian and the old man came down from the mountain and went to the vegetable garden and woods to call back the chickens and ducks and lock them in the chicken coop. Then they shouted that it was time for dinner.
Tofu fish, cold tree flowers, flour ground from home-grown wheat, eggs, salt, water and chicken blood vine flowers are mixed into a batter, which is then scooped into a pan with a spoon and fried until both sides are golden brown.
Yang Chunyan took a pancake and took two bites. She found it crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with a moderate salty and fragrant taste. After swallowing it, there was a sweet taste of nectar in her throat. "Mom's pancakes are delicious!"
Zhou's mother smiled and said, "This year's new noodles and four eggs are delicious when fried with bran."
"Look, we have everything from the water and the mountains on our table." Zhou Huaian took a pancake and took a bite, "It tastes really good!" He handed one to the old man, "Grandpa, you have one too, it's good for clearing heat."
"Hey hey!" The old man happily took it and started eating.
Father Zhou also took a pancake and said, "After a rain, mushrooms will appear. Is it time to harvest red mushrooms here?"
"Well! Let's eat the mushrooms right away." Zhou Huaian said as he picked up a piece of tree flower with chopsticks, "It's spicy and numbing, but edible."
The old man said, "Youngest, if your eldest father and his friends pick some red mushrooms and send them to you, please take them for Grandpa's sake!"
Zhou's father, who was concentrating on eating fish, raised his eyelids and looked at Zhou's mother. Neither of them spoke.
A few days ago, Zhou Dachun and Li Yinfu went to the old house to look for him. They were both afraid that the mushrooms would come out, and the youngest one was so stubborn that he refused to accept the red mushrooms from his house.
They asked him to say hello to the youngest brother, but he was angry at Zhou Dachun and his wife, who supported Zhou Huaixing and the Lao Xiong family in stealing their jobs and did not touch his own brothers at all, so he refused.
Therefore, even if the youngest son did not consider the old man's face this time and still refused to accept the red mushrooms from Zhou Dachun's family, he was not going to say anything good for him.
Seeing that neither his mother nor his husband would support him, Zhou Huaian responded readily, "Okay! You have the final say!"
The old man asked, and he had to agree no matter how reluctant he was. Besides, he could make money by selling it, and the rest could be discussed later!
"Grandpa knows that they are dishonest and treacherous, but they are also the flesh and blood of the people..."
The old man paused for a moment before continuing, "I have beaten and scolded your eldest father. If they still don't change their ways, after grandpa is gone, if you don't want to associate with them, just treat them as ordinary neighbors!"
Everyone at the table raised their heads. Father Zhou looked at the old man and said, "Old man, you..."
"Grandpa!" Zhou Huaian looked at him with a smile, "My little Jiuer is still waiting for you to help take care of his son!"
Yang Chunyan: "That's right, Xiao Jiuer likes the old man the most. He accompanies the old man to listen to the radio on the small loudspeaker every day, and he even stops eating his favorite pig's trotters."
Mother Zhou: "Yes, old man, didn't you say the other day that you should take good care of your health so that you can help take care of your great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren in the future!"
The old man laughed and said, "That's just talk. If you really live that long, you'll become a monster!"
"It's the old man!" Zhou Huaian smiled and pinched a piece of fish for him. "Chunyan said that eating more fish is good for your health."
"Good!" The old man picked it up and ate it happily.
Mother Zhou smiled and said, "I see the red radishes in the vegetable garden have grown bigger. Let's fry those crucian carps and cook radish soup tomorrow!"
Yang Chunyan: "Big red radishes are good. The red skin can be peeled, dried and used to make pickled vegetables, or the core can be used to make soup or stew with bones."
The family chatted and laughed to change the topic. After dinner, Zhou's mother and father went back to the old house to feed the pigs and clean up.
The old man held Xiao Jiuer in his arms and listened to the trumpet. Yang Chunyan washed the dishes, scooped the pig food into the pot and heated it up, and Zhou Huaian carried the pig food bucket to feed the pigs.
"Crack~" A thunder exploded on the top of the mountain, and the silver dragon illuminated the dark night sky.
The old man quickly picked up his great-grandson and pinched his little ears, "Don't be afraid, Yaoyao, the thunder god is hitting the bad guys, don't be afraid!"
There was not a trace of wind, and raindrops as big as beans began to fall.
Everyone in the mountains went to bed peacefully, thinking about getting up early tomorrow morning to check on last year's chicken mushroom nests. If they were lucky, they would try to pick more and sell them, and cut two pounds of meat to bring back for their children to enjoy.
Yang Chunyan waited for Zhou Huaian to come back and asked hurriedly, "Have you finished writing the advertisement for collecting red mushrooms?"
Zhou Huaian: "I've written it. I'll go post it early tomorrow morning and then go up the mountain to find the samples. You and your sister-in-law should teach the villagers who brought the mushrooms."
After hearing this, the old man said, "I don't know what the situation is with the Xiong family. Do you think they will accept it?"
"Whether he collects them or not, we will collect them." Zhou Huaian said after a moment's silence, "Can he collect all the red mushrooms in the Funiu area?"
"When the red mushrooms come out, I'll teach Huaizhong, Lao Xu, and Li Wu how to do it, and then I'll let them live in Bailing Mountain and collect them."
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "If you want them to help collect the money, you might as well ask them to go somewhere else to do the collection."
"Collecting on behalf of others? If they go and collect the mushrooms for a dime or a few cents per pound, the people in the mountains will work very hard and still not earn much! Also, the price is too low, and someone will come to steal the business. If you raise the price a little, the red mushrooms will be snatched away by others."
"We set a minimum price. If the price is lower than this, we will not cooperate with them in the future. For example, our first-class purchase price is 5 yuan per catty, but they used to buy it at 40 cents per catty."
Yang Chunyan paused, "Also, the quality must be in accordance with our purchasing standards. In this way, our purchasing cost remains unchanged, and we don't have to worry about quality issues."
Zhou Huaian thought this was a good idea. "Your idea is good. If they go out to collect the goods, we can just check, dry and deliver the goods at home. Wang Zhen said the same thing last time. He said that we can go to the next door to collect the goods and lower the purchase price, so as not to increase the cost."
As he spoke, his mind raced, "I have to talk to Uncle Datian and Secretary Xu to see if Huaizhong and Xu Laosan are interested in collecting the goods next door?" (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com