Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and tried to smooth things over, "I often forget what's at home, too. I just weighed two kilograms of salt last time, and yesterday I asked Xiaoqian to go to the brigade to weigh the salt, and she remembered it."
Zhao Huifang: "That's right, it's not something important, why do you need to remember it so clearly? There are wild grapes everywhere in the mountains these days, just pick as many as you want."
Zhang Xiuxiang suddenly remembered something after hearing this. "Sister-in-law, we said we would go to the mountain valley to pick pears in a few days. It's been so many days, and we haven't thought about picking them yet!"
"I really forgot!" Zhao Huifang picked up the bamboo basket and hurried to the field. "Let's finish the rest and go down the mountain to pick hairy pears."
"There is still one box left to be spread." Yang Chunyan picked up the dustpan, grabbed the seeds mixed with weeds and flowers and plants and started to spread them.
Zhang Xiuxiang picked up the spiked rake and raked the soil sprinkled with fertilizer and seeds evenly to cover the soil.
Li Qiuyue saw that the three were busy sowing seeds, spreading fertilizer, and burying soil. "I won't go. Xiaolong'er will cry if he doesn't see me for a while."
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "Okay, go back first. I'll bring some back to you when I pick them."
Seeing that she had returned with the child in her arms, she said, "Mom told me the other day that she was worried that Xiao Long'er would be spoiled by Qiuyue, but I didn't believe it. Yesterday, Xiaoru and Xiaowen told me that Xiao Long'er still sleeps in my arms, and he starts crying within a minute of being put on the bed."
"The third brother has complained to Huairong several times, saying that they often quarrel over Xiaolong. He also said that he is too lazy to quarrel with her now, so he moved to the side room to sleep alone, so as to avoid not sleeping well at night and not having energy to work the next day."
Yang Chunyan: "It's only two months now. When the child is older, he won't be spoiled if you teach him well."
"Chunyan, you haven't seen those brothers from Qiuyue's mother's side. Before they got married, they were supported by their sisters. After they got married, they were supported by their wives and daughters. The sons in the family are the bosses and don't have to do anything. It's inevitable that mom is worried."
Zhang Xiuxiang thought about what she had seen and heard in Baicaoping, and felt that it was Li Qiuyue's family tradition to raise their son as their ancestor.
Yang Chunyan: "Of course I haven't seen him. Didn't the nephew of the third sister-in-law stay at her house for two days? She couldn't stand it and sent him away immediately. If she really wants Xiaolong to be raised by those men from her mother's family, then she is a pig-brained person."
Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and said, “There are people like this in my mother’s village. They raise their daughters as farmhands and their sons as rich girls. When they are too old to work, they ask their daughters and sons-in-law to help them take care of their old age and their sons.
It's OK if the son-in-law is good at controlling his wife, but if he is not, he will have to watch his wife send the money she earns from growing crops back to her parents' home, help her brothers repair their houses, and find daughters-in-law, while his own son remains single.
Zhao Huifang: "If Jiaming and Jialiang marry a woman like this in the future, I would rather be the bad guy and tear them apart."
Zhang Xiuxiang: "You really don't have to be polite to a woman like this who drains herself to support her brother. I still admire Qiuyue for this. No matter how her brother made trouble, she never gave him a penny."
Zhao Huifang nodded, "That's true! Qiuyue herself is not that kind of person, she probably wouldn't raise Xiaolong to be a loser who eats his parents and sister's flesh."
After hearing this, Yang Chunyan felt that Li Qiuyue was quite capable. Growing up in such a native family, she was not like her sisters at all. Xiaoru and Xiaolin would not follow the example of her aunts and cousins and become the kind of brothers-supporting women who ignored their own family.
The three sisters-in-law were gossiping and before they knew it they had sown the grass seeds on one side of the field, packed up their farm tools, left the medicinal field, closed the fence, and went down the mountain back home.
Zhou's mother was doing needlework in the backyard while little Jiuer was crawling around on the mat. The little fellow had grown two small teeth now and could eat half an egg yolk and half a bowl of rice porridge at a time. His chubby little white hands were like lotus root nodes.
What he likes to do most now is to tear off the toys in the mat, the cotton hat he is wearing, and the socks on his little feet and throw them around, then he screams and asks adults to help him pick them up.
When Xiao Jiuer saw Yang Chunyan and others coming in, she lay on the mat, tilted her head back, and yelled at her.
"You little rascal, you took off your hat again!" Yang Chunyan smiled and went forward to pick up the hat and put it on him, "Mom, let's go pick some pears."
Looking down, I saw Xiao Jiuer pulling at his trouser legs and trying to stand up, so I quickly picked him up.
"I thought you didn't want it anymore!"
Zhou's mother put down the sole of her shoe and pointed at the needle and thread bag. "Don't rush to go. Help me thread the needle. Xiaokang and the others are gone. There is no one left to help me thread the needle. I am old and I can't even see clearly when cutting nails or picking out thorns."
After hearing this, Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Huaian and I are going to the city tomorrow. Why don't you go with us and buy a pair of reading glasses?"
Zhang Xiuxiang also said after hearing this: "Yes, Mom, go buy a magnifying mirror so that you can see even when sewing clothes and threading a needle."
"I know. I've seen people wearing them before." Mother Zhou was a little tempted. "I'll go with you guys to see them tomorrow. If they're not expensive, I'll buy one."
Yang Chunyan: "Not expensive, just a few dollars a pair. Dongmei bought a pair for my mom and husband during the Mid-Autumn Festival."
"Okay, let's go check it out tomorrow." Mother Zhou happily took Xiao Jiuer and said, "Don't delay it for too long."
"I know!"
The three sisters-in-law helped her thread the thread, then they took the medicine hoe, carried a backpack and led the dog to the ravine where the hairy pear trees grew. When they were almost at the ditch, the three found that the stems and leaves of the weeping angels had been shoveled away with a hoe and were all over the ground.
Zhao Huifang said angrily: "These people are jealous of others' success. They don't dare to contract these mountain lands themselves, but they are jealous of others who have contracted them."
Yang Chunyan sighed, "It's OK, they will grow back by themselves next year. What I'm worried about is that they will dig up the herbs we left behind."
Zhang Xiuxiang was anxious after hearing this, "Hurry up and go down to take a look."
The three of them went down to the ditch and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the myrtle and saxifrage they had left behind last time were still there.
"And the olives and golden thread vines in front are the good stuff." Zhang Xiuxiang said as she walked forward anxiously.
After that, the three sisters-in-law breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the olives and golden thread vines left on the rocks had not been pulled out by anyone.
"These are all still good, and those hairy pears should be there too." Yang Chunyan thought about picking more and trying to brew a jar of hairy pear wine.
The three sisters-in-law walked over excitedly, and were dumbfounded by the scene in front of them. None of the fruits that were originally hanging on the vines were gone, and the vines were chopped into pieces. The broken vines were scattered all over the ditch and the bank.
Yang Chunyan remembered those people saying that they found treasures in the mountains. It seemed that some people were jealous and came here to look for treasures. They saw the hairy pear trees growing by the ditch and not only picked the fruits, but also destroyed the vines.
Zhao Huifang was so angry that she started to curse, "Which bastard gave birth to a son without an asshole..."
Zhang Xiuxiang and her were also so angry that they cursed, "You bastard, you are so evil-minded. If you want to eat it, just pick it. Why destroy the vines..."
The sisters-in-law cursed at each other for a while, and vented some of their anger. They then guessed who might have done such a thing in the village, and thought of going to the village to listen to the news.
Yang Chunyan looked at the ditch in front of her and asked, "How about we go over there and take a look?"
"Okay, let's go and take a look."
Zhang Xiuxiang pulled aside the vines that had fallen into the ditch, and the three of them walked through. They picked some olives and stone vines from the rocks beside the ditch, and also dug up some lobelia, arisaema, and ophiopogon.
Yang Chunyan also saw large patches of money grass on the shore.
Collecting moneywort can easily cause allergies and swelling of the head and face. She was allergic to this thing, and she didn't take precautions when she first collected it. Before she got home, her head and face were swollen like a melon.
Now the harvesting season has passed, and I don't know the situation of Zhao Huifang and the other person, so I didn't tell them. I plan to wait until next year and bring gloves to collect again.
Herba Lysimachiae: Clears heat from the blood, clears the lungs and relieves cough, and eliminates edema. Treats kidney stones, gallstones, traumatic injuries and malaria.
Big money grass is the whole herb or the whole herb with roots of the plant of the family Rhizoma Cibotii. It is a perennial herb with a little soft hair or nearly hairless, with weak stems that creep on the ground, and leaves, calyx, and corolla all with dot-shaped and striped black glands.
After drying and soaking in water, you can still see black stripes on the leaves.
Zhao Huifang pointed at the money grass and said, "Chunyan, do you recognize it? It's called money grass. The local doctor in my mother's village said that if you dry it and soak it in water, it will help you urinate."
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "It's the moneywort. It's best to dig it in May every year. Now it's past the digging season. If you need to dig it in the future, it's best to wear gloves to prevent allergies."
"Oh!" Zhao Huifang and the other person took note of it carefully and put the olive and stone fern in the puddle to clean them.
"Woof~" Wangcai, who was digging a puddle in front, suddenly let out a scream.
Yang Chunyan and the others were so frightened that they quickly grasped the medicine hoe placed beside them. When it ran over, they found that there was a mountain crab stuck in its mouth.
“Haha…haha…” The three sisters-in-law looked at Wangcai who was looking at them anxiously, and laughed so hard that they couldn’t even straighten their backs…
Yang Chunyan held back her laughter and walked forward, took out a knife and pried open the crab's claws. Seeing that its lower mouth shell had been pinched with blood marks, she smiled and rubbed Wangcai's head, "Let's see if you will bully those crabs again in the future!"
Wangcai looked at her aggrievedly, and kept using his claws to scratch the injured lower beak.
Yang Chunyan searched for a while, pulled out some ground ivy, mashed it up, and applied it to the cat's beak. Perhaps the cat felt cool and comfortable, and it wagged its tail happily again.
Zhao Huifang looked at the bamboo forest on the shore and asked, "Chunyan, is the bamboo forest ours too?"
Yang Chunyan: "Yes, I heard that this bamboo forest is more than 200 acres!"
Zhao Huifang: "Then we should come earlier next year to pick bamboo fungus, dig bamboo shoots and dry them."
"Chunyan, look, there are some Gastrodia elata over there!" Zhang Xiuxiang pointed at a few stems on the dead leaves under a clump of small shrubs and shouted in surprise, then climbed up by stepping on the stones.
"It's true!" After seeing this, Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang hurriedly stepped on the big rock and climbed up.
"We've made it! We've made it!" Zhang Xiuxiang happily pointed at the Gastrodia elata and counted them. "There are nine of them here, and there may be more in the forest. There are golden thread vines by the ditch, and you can pick bamboo fungus in the bamboo forest. Here we found Gastrodia elata again. I don't know what treasures there are in this forest!" (End of this chapter)
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