After collecting an extra-large Coriolus versicolor flower, the two of them picked the two they found, went to the pile of stones behind the comfrey first, opened it and cut four sheets of honey to seal the nest, then went to the tree stump, opened it and cut two sheets of honey to seal the nest, and restored the hive to its original state.
Yang Chunyan took out the corn cakes and boiled eggs she brought, and Zhou Huaian gave one portion to Gou Zi. The two sat on the rocks and started eating with pickled chili peppers.
Zhou Huaian took a few bites and said, "Yan'er, bring rice balls next time. Corn cakes and boiled eggs are too disgusting. I can't eat them without pickled peppers."
“The rice balls need to be soaked in rice wine first. Make it in advance next time.” Yang Chunyan also felt that rice balls were more delicious. She could eat a large piece by wrapping two pickled peppers in them.
After dinner, the two men cut some elderberries and covered the mulberry fungus with them. Then they walked back with their backpacks and vegetable baskets.
It was already past three o'clock when we crossed the last ridge and reached the back mountain. We saw groups of villagers picking mushrooms on the mountain path walking down the mountain.
Zhou Huaian saw that the person walking in front seemed to be He Dakuan, so he pulled Yang Chunyan and the two of them slowed down.
A familiar villager saw the two and greeted them with a smile, "Zhou Laoyao, are you free to come pick mushrooms too?"
"I've been wanting to come here for a long time. I have to satisfy my mushroom-picking urge once a year!" Zhou Huaian looked at his basket. "Not bad. I picked so many morels, and I only picked a few."
"It's an old place, there are always people there every year, but there are especially many this year!"
"I don't know what happened to my old nest. I only picked up a few this year and they were gone."
A woman asked Yang Chunyan, "I heard that your family was collecting mushrooms that had opened their umbrellas yesterday. Is that true?"
"Chicken mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, blue mushrooms, big-foot mushrooms, chanterelles...all of these are collected."
"I was unlucky today. I picked up about ten kilograms of red mushrooms, and the rest were almost all blooming."
"You two are still in the mountains. Can you handle the family affairs?"
"His family members are very hardworking. Look, Jiaming and Xiaoqian were helping out there yesterday."
"Your family is very harmonious. Even the children in your family are very harmonious, as if they were born from the same mother. It is rare to find such a harmonious family in the whole Baima Town."
"No way..." Yang Chunyan didn't know how to respond after hearing these flattering words. She wished she could get home quickly so that she wouldn't have to chat with them.
The group of people arrived at the backyard door while chatting and laughing. Zhou Huaian took out the key and opened the door. The two of them entered the yard. Yang Chunyan handed the things to him to pack, and then hurried to help next door.
Thinking of the high water content of Coriolus polypore, Zhou Huaian took it out and put it upstairs first. Seeing that the Coriolus polypore looked golden in the sun, he quickly turned it over and hung it up with the back of the fungus facing upwards so that it would not be eye-catching.
I wanted to squat down and count the growth rings, but then I remembered that I was still busy over there, so I turned around and went downstairs to pick out the mushrooms from the vegetable basket and the backpack and put them in a bamboo basket, and poured the Chuanxiong at the bottom into the pool and soaked them in water.
After washing his hands, he immediately went to get a colander and filter cloth, took the honey comb out of the beehive, broke it into pieces and placed it on the filter cloth, letting the honey inside slowly flow into the bucket. Then he carried the mushrooms to the next door.
I saw that the team selling mushrooms had lined up to the edge of the vegetable field, and the people in the front were holding scissors and saws and sorting the mushrooms in the backpacks and bamboo baskets.
Seeing him coming, Zhou Jiaming hurriedly said to Zhao Huifang, "Mom, Dad is here. Let him weigh me. You are too slow."
"You are so slow and yet you look down on me." Zhao Huifang smiled and gave up her seat, helping to carry the mushrooms Zhou Huaian brought into the yard.
With Zhou Huaian and the other two's help, the process went much faster and more and more people lined up.
Seeing that there were more villagers bringing their mushrooms to sell today than yesterday, and thinking that there was not much rapeseed left at home, Yang Chunyan told the villagers who came to sell mushrooms that her family wanted to buy rapeseed oil and would negotiate the price.
The bargain price was more than 90 cents per pound. After hearing this, everyone said that they had extra rapeseed at home and would take time to press some oil and sell it to the Zhou family.
At this time, Lao Xiazi came out to help move the bamboo baskets. The villagers started talking in a low voice, saying that he had gained weight while helping at the Zhou family, and looked much more energetic than before.
Li Xiuli, the wife of Lao Xiazi's nephew, said with a wry smile: "The food is good here, my father works here, and he doesn't even go home when he gets paid. We haven't seen him for a long time, and we only found out that he came to your house to help out after asking the neighbors."
Zhou Huaian glanced at her and was about to speak when Yang Chunyan looked up and said, "Sister Li, Uncle Xia came to my house to help light the stove. He also has to take turns with my old man to keep watch at night. He eats and lives at my house, so he probably rarely goes back."
Li Xiuli asked again: "What about the chickens and ducks that my father raised? They are not in the yard or in the pen. Where did they go?"
Yang Chunyan smiled faintly and said, "We don't know about this. You can ask Uncle Xia yourself. When he came, he only brought bedding and other things, but no chickens or ducks."
Li Xiuli smiled and apologized, "Chunyan, that's not what I meant! It's mainly because my father never talks to us properly. If you ask him something, he'll glare at you and scare you half to death."
"You're talking nonsense. Grandpa Shrimp isn't scary at all. He even made cricket cages for us!" Zhou Xiaolin said, holding up a few pagoda-shaped straw cages to show everyone, "One for my brother Xiaolong, one for my brother Jiuer, and one for me too."
After hearing this, Jiuer threw away his wooden gun and climbed up from the mat. He took his cricket cage and said to Yang Chunyan, "Grandpa Shrimp made it. Jiuer likes it!"
"Grandpa Xia also told us stories about their wars, which were not scary at all." Zhou Jiakang and others also said in a low voice.
Li Xiuli looked at the serious-looking children, as well as the complicated looks and discussions from the villagers selling mushrooms. Her face turned red and white like a dyeing factory.
I, who am usually very eloquent, didn't know how to respond to these children, and couldn't bring myself to ask the next question.
Yang Chunyan glanced at Li Xiuli and wiped the child's face with a handkerchief. "It's really beautiful. You can't call him Grandpa Xia. You have to call him Grandpa Xu."
"Aunt!" Zhou Xiaolin looked at Yang Chunyan, "Grandpa Xia said that I can call him whatever I like. We like to call him Grandpa Xia."
"Don't pay attention to them, the kids can shout whatever they like." Old Shrimp came out and said happily without even looking at Li Xiuli.
Someone with a nosy mind smiled and said, "Uncle Xia, you work here every day. If you don't go home to check on your family, the chickens and ducks at home may have been taken away by weasels and cats!"
Li Xiuli hurriedly explained with a smile: "Dad, we saw that you didn't go home to feed the chickens and ducks, so we saw you today and asked casually."
"Don't worry, I sent it to the town to sell before I came here to help." Old Shrimp glanced at Li Xiuli indifferently, picked up the bamboo basket and turned away.
Li Xiuli looked at Yang Chunyan and then at everyone else, "Look at what my father is like. He doesn't even look happy when he sees us. We don't dare to ask him what he does."
Yang Chunyan was busy counting the bills and didn't look at her or respond.
The villager who had just spoken said, "Old Shrimp has a strange temper, but he didn't ask you to support him, and you don't have to eat from the same pot, so isn't it better for each of you to live your own life?"
"That's right. The five-guarantee households are taken care of by the government and don't need you to support them. Why do you worry so much?"
"When my husband asked me to come and sell mushrooms, I saw my father and asked him."
Seeing that none of the Zhou family members responded, Li Xiuli did not dare to ask Lao Xiazi how much he earned for working here a month. She could only wait for the mushrooms to be weighed, took the money from selling mushrooms, and left in embarrassment.
The family was busy until it was almost dark. Zhou Huairong and Zhou Huaishan came back from harvesting mushrooms. Li Qiuyue told everyone that Secretary Zhang and his team had sent some morels, chanterelles, big-foot mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms to the town cooperative to sell today.
Some of the villagers in the cooperative complained that the people in the cooperative scared away the mushroom collectors, causing them to walk two or three more hours.
Some said that they would sell their mushrooms to whomever they wanted, and complained that the mushroom collectors were more timid than mice and would run away like rabbits if scared.
When the cooperative saw that the goods they delivered were of good quality, they thought that the mushroom collectors were really scared away by them and were said to be very proud of themselves for a while.
Seeing that he had collected a lot of mushrooms with their umbrellas opened, the old man said to Zhou Huaian, "If we put the mushrooms for making sauce here, the drying room here won't be enough. You can gather the mushrooms for making sauce and send them to your house. They will be dried overnight."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "I'll go and set mine on fire as well."
The old shrimp came over with a pry bar, "Youngest, I have all the coals ready for the fire. I will help you light them up. Heat up the oven first. You can send the mushrooms in after dinner."
"Okay." Zhou Huaian took the crowbar and walked out with him.
After the two of them left, Lao Xiazi said, "Youngest, it has only been a short time since I came to your house to work and got paid, but Xu Ping and Xu Zhong have stopped me several times and wanted to take me to live with them.
They haven't cared about me for so many years, why are they scrambling to take me to live in their homes now? Everyone knows it well. From now on, when Xu Ping and the others ask you something, just push it to me and ignore them."
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "Don't worry, Brother Xu Ping won't cause me trouble. They are counting on selling mushrooms to my family!" They are even hoping that you can earn more money in my family!
Old Shrimp nodded and said, "You are right. Now everyone relies on your family for two mushroom seasons a year. They are all thoughtful and will not do anything to offend others.
Uncle Xia has lived alone for most of his life. Only after coming to your house for these days did he feel that life was finally meaningful. Thank you very much, youngest brother."
He suddenly remembered something and planned to wait for Secretary Xu and Zhou Datian to come back before looking for the two elders in the clan to discuss his affairs after his death, so as to avoid causing trouble for the youngest family in the future.
"Uncle Xia, please stop saying that. You've helped us a lot in my family."
Zhou Huai settled the matter down for a moment. "Look, once the rainy season is over, we'll have to harvest corn. Once we've harvested mushrooms, we'll have to be busy harvesting millet and the herbs in the back hills. Once we're done with these things, we'll have to harvest truffles at the end of the year. As long as you like it and don't mind the hard work, you can stay at my house and feel at ease."
Old Shrimp felt warm at heart after hearing this, "Youngest, uncle understands, thank you very much!" (End of this chapter)
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