As the two sisters walked through the woods, Yang Chunyan saw that the Selaginella planted on the stone had also survived, and the olive, drynaria and stonecrop next to it had also sprouted.
It is a drought season now, and the herbs planted on the stones have to be watered by carrying water, otherwise they will be as wilted as the dead grass in the mountains in the next few days.
The weather here is so strange. There are no continuous rainy days, and there is no return of the south wind.
Even in the rainy season, most of the time it rains heavily at night.
Zhou Huaian often said that when he was in the production team, what he hated most was this kind of weather. He would wake up at night and hear heavy rain falling outside. He would think that since it was raining heavily, he would not have to go to work the next day.
I happily wrapped myself in the quilt, thinking of having a good sleep the next morning. But when I opened my eyes in the morning, the rain had stopped, the sky was clear, and the horn for work honked. My heart sank.
Thinking of this, Yang Chunyan looked up the mountain and asked, "I wonder if Wang Zhen and your brother-in-law have come down the mountain by now?"
"It's just past two o'clock. When we came here yesterday, my brother-in-law and Brother Yiding had just come down the mountain!"
Yang Dongmei pulled her forward and said, "Sister, when you left on the second day of the Chinese New Year, mom and old man said that brother-in-law is like a completely different person now compared to before."
"He can't sit still now. After harvesting the red mushrooms, he goes to harvest medicinal herbs. Sometimes he even goes into the mountains to have a look. No matter how much he earns, he always has some income." Yang Chunyan sometimes feels that he has changed more than herself, who has lived an extra lifetime.
"That's good! Those gossipy women in the village who used to say that you didn't like your brother-in-law, now see that you bring so many good things every time you go back, and they change their tune and say that you have good taste and found a good son-in-law with good looks."
Yang Chunyan smiled and joked: "I think the thing that makes me most jealous is you and Wang Zhen's affair!"
"Yeah!" Yang Dongmei said angrily, "Especially those families who came to matchmake in the past, saying that my mother and husband had long planned to marry into a rich family, and they were hanging around with their kids, waiting for me to graduate and go on a blind date!"
"Don't pay attention to them. Just live your life to the fullest and envy them to death."
"That's right, I envy them so much."
After going up the hill, Yang Dongmei pointed ahead and said, "Sister, look, there are herbs everywhere on the hill behind your house!"
Yang Chunyan saw a large patch of white grass growing on the slope. "These should be the seeds that grandpa collected and scattered here. He said that if there is a famine, we can dig them up and eat them to fill our stomachs."
Yang Dongmei also often heard her mother and husband talk about the two years of famine. "My mother also said that during the famine, the villagers found the herb and called it little ginseng. They dug it up one by one and were reluctant to even peel it. They just rubbed off the mud and stuffed it into their mouths to eat."
Yang Chunyan: "People who are extremely hungry even eat Guanyin soil. It's considered good to have this to eat."
Potentilla discolor belongs to the Rosaceae family. It is a perennial herb and is also called chicken leg ginseng in some places.
The back of the leaves of this plant are white, it has small yellow flowers, and its tubers are thick and spindle-shaped.
After washing and peeling the skin, the flesh inside is white and can be eaten raw. It is crisp with a slight sweetness.
Its roots can not only be eaten raw, but also used as medicine.
The herb is mild in nature, sweet and bitter in taste, and non-toxic. It has the functions of stopping bleeding and reducing swelling, clearing away heat and detoxifying, and can also treat leucorrhea and menorrhagia in women.
As they were talking, the two of them turned to the medicinal field adjacent to Zhou Huaishan's house, walked down the hill to the edge of the field, opened the fence gate, followed the stones laid in the middle, and walked to the fence wall where Adenophora was planted.
Yang Dongmei pointed at the adenophora plants and said, "Sister, do you remember how we used to love picking the flowers of the adenophora plants? You've planted so many of them. When they all bloom, the purple bells hanging upside down on the branches will surely be very pretty."
Adenophora is a perennial herb belonging to the Campanulaceae family. Its carrot-shaped roots are excellent for nourishing yin. The plant can reach one meter in height and has lavender flowers that look like a string of bells hanging upside down on the branches, which is very beautiful.
Yang Chunyan thought about it and felt that in summer, this fence must be as beautiful as a painting. She smiled and nodded, "We planted them two years ago. We will dig up the big ones and take them back to make soup."
"I'll do it." Yang Dongmei took the medicine hoe in her hand, dug up the big ones, picked up one and looked at it, "It's too small, I should wait until autumn to dig it up."
"We don't have any Adenophora ginseng at home. We dug some here today to make soup. Remember to ask your brother-in-law to bring some back next time." Yang Chunyan shook off the dirt on the tubers, revealing light brown tubers. The color will be darker after drying.
She remembered that the Adenophora radix in the stewing seasoning packages that Xiaolin and her friends had bought before were all beautifully white. They had all been whitened by sulfur fumigation, and were not good for the human body when eaten. It was safer to eat the colored ones now.
Adenophora is sweet and slightly bitter in taste and slightly cold in nature. It has the effects of nourishing yin and clearing away heat, moistening the lungs and resolving phlegm, and benefiting the stomach and promoting fluid production. It is forbidden to be taken by people suffering from cough caused by wind and cold.
Yang Dongmei leaned on the medicine hoe and looked at her, "Sister, my brother-in-law is going to deliver truffles to Ning'an tomorrow. Since he is not busy now, why don't you take Xiao Jiuer to play there for a few days!"
"Okay, let's go together tomorrow." Yang Chunyan thought that the piglets would be caught in a few days, and the chicks would be hatched soon. So she might as well take a trip while she had nothing to do during these few days.
At this time, Li Qiuyue came into the medicinal field carrying a basket and asked, "Chunyan, have you dug out the Adenophora?"
Yang Chunyan held up two Adenophora ginseng plants and said, "I dug a few of them. Look, they are only as thick as my index finger." Today is the New Year's Eve reunion at Zhou Huaishan's house. In a few days, when Wan Xuejiao comes out of confinement after giving birth, she will go to Zhou Yiding's house for a meal.
This is how the New Year is celebrated in the countryside. For those who live nearby, some will gather with relatives and friends from the first day of the New Year and continue until the fifteenth day of the New Year to say goodbye to the New Year.
"Just a few will do." Li Qiuyue took the Adenophora and pointed at the peas with purple flowers. "My mother asked me to pick some pea tips to take back. Look, they are blooming."
Yang Chunyan looked and saw that the flowers in her own medicinal field were also blooming. "Let's go down the mountain to my vegetable field and pick them. They were planted last month and are just the right size to eat these days."
"Yes." Li Qiuyue responded readily and walked towards the fence gate.
The two sisters also walked down with their medicine hoes. Yang Dongmei looked at Li Qiuyue who was walking down with big strides, "Sister, I heard from my brother-in-law and Wang Zhen that your third sister-in-law is the most son-in-law, is that true?"
"It was before, but it's much better now."
"Some people don't know what's going on. They divide their children into different levels even though they are all their own."
Yang Chunyan thought of the situation in Li Qiuyue's mother's family, "Most of the time, parents taught by example, and they followed suit."
The two sisters left the medicinal field and went to the vegetable field with Li Qiuyue. They picked a full basket of pea tips, cut two bunches of vegetables, and picked some onions and garlic sprouts.
The two sides of the garlic seedlings in the field are kept for peeling garlic moss and digging garlic, and people are reluctant to pull them out by the roots.
After leaving the vegetable garden, I saw Zhou Huaijun carrying a shrimp basket with some vegetable leaves and rice grains in it. He put the shrimp basket into the fish pond. The vegetable leaves inside floated to the surface, but the rice grains remained in the shrimp basket.
After the fishing net was washed away by the water, it was difficult to catch the fish in the pond, but going to the town to buy them was too far and troublesome.
Zhou Huaian put a long bamboo pole on the shrimp basket. Before catching fish every time, he would sprinkle some chopped vegetable leaves or cold rice in the fish pond. When the fish came to eat, he would lift the shrimp basket and he would always catch one or two fish.
Zhou Huaijun saw the three people coming and said to Li Qiuyue, "Your second brother is here and said he has something to ask you, but he won't tell you when the third brother asks him."
"What is he doing here?" Li Qiuyue hurriedly ran home after hearing this. When she reached the gate of the courtyard, she saw Li Laoer squatting on the steps, and Zhou Huaishan was standing beside him, looking at him helplessly.
She walked into the yard with a dark face and said unhappily, "Li Laoer, it's New Year's Day, why are you coming to my house?"
Li Lao Er stood up and said angrily: "You still remember the New Year! On the second day of the New Year, married women from other families go home to visit their parents' graves. Aren't you born by your parents? Did you jump out of a stone?"
In the past two years, the Zhou family went into the mountains to collect red mushrooms and truffles, and the family earned some money. They planned to help Hongxing get married, and they looked for several families, but it didn't work out in the end.
During the Chinese New Year, I went to the matchmaker's house to ask, and only then did I find out that the girl's family had asked around in the village and learned that the Li family favored boys over girls and did not treat their daughters as human beings. After several sisters got married, not a single one returned home.
The matchmaker said that if Hongxing didn't invite the sisters back to visit their mother and husband's graves, he would either get married again or remain single.
"Haha!" Li Qiuyue sneered, "Stick out your tongue and speak. Are we not going back to visit the graves, or are you not allowing us to go back to visit the graves?"
How did you treat us when I went home the first year after Huaishan and I got married? You took the bacon and noodles, and didn't even give us a sip of water. You said you were going to my mother-in-law's house and told us to leave quickly.
We sisters must have done so much evil in our past lives that we were reborn into the Li family in Baicaoping. We started working when we could walk, and when we were old enough to get married, we sold the money to help you build a house and find a wife."
You're still selling it for money? You're the most cunning one in the family. I've never taken advantage of you for a penny.
Li Laoer swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth, and had to swallow his anger for the sake of his son. "We were wrong before, but mom and dad have never done anything wrong to you. Why don't you take some time to go back and burn paper for mom and dad's graves?"
"Li Lao Er, are you confused because of the fever?" Could it be that the sun rises from the west today? The arrogant and unreasonable Li Lao Er has learned to speak human language.
Li Qiuyue looked up at the sky. The sun was still normal. Could it be that Li Laoer was poisoned by the mushrooms he ate?
Zhou Huaishan turned his head to look at his mother standing at the kitchen door. He wanted to laugh but couldn't. Among his three brothers, none of them had a brother-in-law like his own, who came empty-handed on New Year's Day.
Li Lao Er glared at Li Qiuyue in anger, "I'm not sick, I'm fine. My elder sister, second sister, and younger sister have all agreed to go back to visit the grave on the fifth day of the new year. Mom and Dad treated you the best when they were alive, so you should go."
"Did my elder sister and the others agree to go back? What exactly do you two want to do?" Li Qiuyue felt that the couple must be up to no good.
"Ahem, ahem!" Mother Zhou, who was standing at the door of the kitchen, coughed twice and said, "Qiuyue, your mother and husband have spent a lot of effort to raise you. You should go home and visit their graves." (End of this chapter)
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