Chapter 214 213: Gotta get some money back
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian ran back happily, "Yan'er, Ding Ding has paid for the cat's litter box, let me come back to get the bee cap and urea bag."
As soon as he said that, Yang Chunyan was stunned. After hearing the rest, she understood and glared at him in reproach, "You are the only one who could think of that."
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "He said the money was coming."
Yang Chunyan took out the small oilcloth bag and the medicine hoe from the backpack and handed them to him, "Be careful, and put on your gloves."
"Don't worry, just sit there and rest for a while after you're done."
Zhou Huaian took the oilcloth bag and ran back to the woods. Seeing Zhou Yiding standing under a tree, he asked, "Is the beehive on the tree?"
Zhou Yiding led him to the back of the bushes. "No, there is a hole on the slope behind the bushes. I looked at the hole and saw some bumblebees flying out, but there were very few bees on duty."
Zhou Huaian thought for a moment and said, "Generally speaking, in this situation, there is either a lot of honey in the hive, or a lot of bee pupae."
Zhou Yiding: "Who cares? Let's dig it out and take a look."
When the two men arrived at the beehive that Zhou Yiding mentioned, they saw only a hole the size of a fist, with only a small number of wild bees flying in and out.
The two men put on bee hats and used medicine hoes to widen the entrance of the cave. Zhou Huaian took out moxa sticks from his bag, lit them, and leaned in to fumigate the hole for a while. A small number of bees flew out buzzing.
The two waited for a while, and seeing that no bees came out, Zhou Huaian picked up the hoe and said, "Let's dig open the hole first."
"Hmm!" Zhou Yiding sat aside and watched him dig along the hole. After digging for ten minutes, he still didn't see the beehive. "Youngest brother, I think it might be a termite hole. Those bees have just started to build a nest."
"The hole is a bit deep, let's dig a little longer and see." Zhou Huaian dug another foot longer, "I see it."
"Let me take a look!" Zhou Yiding came closer. "It's pitch black inside. Make the hole wider."
"I wonder if there is a lot of honey?" Zhou Huaian took the medicine hoe and dug it with small hoes.
"Who cares! As long as it's there, it's fine."
Zhou Huaian stopped and looked back at Zhou Yiding proudly, "Look, it's all capped honey! I told you that it's either all bee pupae or there's too much honey and there's no room for it to grow."
Zhou Yiding gave him a thumbs up and said, "You are really good at finding honey! If it were me, I would be too lazy to dig for honey like this."
Zhou Huaian took out a knife and started to cut honey. "When I came here, I saw that there were quite a lot of flowers and trees here. How about we ask a carpenter to make a few beehives and put them here?"
"Okay, your family is going to build a house, right? I'll get some wood and make seven or eight beehives for them to put in the woods."
Zhou Huaian shook his head. "It will be cold by the time my house is repaired. I will go down to find a carpenter this time."
"Hey!" Zhou Yiding suddenly remembered the brigade's beehives. "Youngest, I remember there are beehives in the brigade's storage room. Why don't we go down and find Wang the custodian to buy them?"
"That's a good idea." Zhou Huaian put the honey into the urea bag, "Look, what an easygoing board!"
"Indeed!" Zhou Yiding laughed, "Damn it, why was it so hard to find good honey before? It seems that we just don't get along when we get together!"
Zhou Huaian thought so too. "I went into the mountains with Erchun last time and found more than ten kilograms. I have never been alone with Dakuan and Cai Ermei."
"I don't know when Cai Ermei got home yesterday. I hope she didn't run into any wild boars."
"That guy is smarter than a monkey. Don't worry. I think he will start collecting herbs again."
"Why bother with him! We just need to have a clear conscience."
"That's right. A real man, no matter what, can't be like an old woman, spitting at people as soon as they see each other after a conflict!" Zhou Huaian said as he put the honey comb into the urea bag, "How many honey combs are there?"
Zhou Yiding took a look and said, "There are five rows now. Are there any more?"
"There are still three rows left. There are still many flowers. Cut two more rows and leave one for them."
"You have the final say!"
The two men put the honey comb in place, Zhou Huaian dug up the excess mud and covered the hole again, leaving a hole as thick as a wrist. The two men returned to the ditch carrying the urea bags.
Yang Chunyan had already washed the herbs and put them in a backpack. When she saw the two men coming back, she asked, "How was the harvest?"
Zhou Huaian opened the bag and said with a smile, "There are about six or seven kilograms of honey. They all look good."
Yang Chunyan came forward, and a scent of nectar filled her nose. "Yes, the scent of flower nectar is pleasant to the nose."
Zhou Huaian nodded and said to Zhou Yiding: "What time is it?"
"It's ten o'clock." Zhou Yiding thought for a moment and said, "I'll take the urea bag back first. Can you and sister-in-law go up and take a look?"
"Yes, we will go back in an hour or so." Zhou Huaian gave him the urea bag and the rifle, "Go along the ditch, don't go into the woods."
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "Don't worry, I know the mountains better than you do!"
Zhou Huaian and Yang Chunyan picked up their backpacks and continued to move forward.
****
At the foot of the mountain, Cai Ermei's family started collecting herbs again, but this time they didn't raise the price. When the herbal sellers saw that the purchase price of the two families was the same, most of them were willing to send them to the Zhou family.
Cai Ermei was so angry when she saw the villagers who walked away with the herbs after asking the price, "Hey! Why are you leaving? It's not like my family won't pay!"
The lady selling herbs turned her head and looked at him. "I will sell it to you only if you charge 5 cents per pound. Otherwise, if you deduct 2 pounds from the weight, I will lose a few cents."
Cai Ermei waved her hand in annoyance, "Go away, five cents a pound, I'm not a Bodhisattva!"
The old lady was not happy with it and pointed at him and cursed: "You unruly thing, who do you think you are?"
"Hmph!" Cai Ermei snorted coldly, closed the courtyard door with a bang, and sat on a chair at the door of the main room with a gloomy face.
When she thought about how she had walked back to the village in the middle of the night last night, she went straight to Ye Xiaoshuang's house, pestered her for a long time, and finally agreed to give her 20% of the money she earned before she got the 50 yuan back.
Thinking about the hundreds of dollars I had spent on Ye Xiaoshuang over the years, which I calculated last night, if I could get half of it back, why would I need to worry about the capital?
If she doesn't get the money in a month or so, she will have to promise that old bachelor from the mountains. She must find a way to get some money back, otherwise she will have helped someone else support a woman for several years in vain and end up with nothing.
Thinking of this, Cai Ermei stood up, went back to the main room, picked up the army green shoulder bag on the table, and walked out.
Wang Chunhua chased after him, "Where are you going? We haven't pulled out all the weeds in the field yet!"
Cai Ermei turned around and said, "I'm going to find Dakuan and go to town to find Boss He to see if he can raise the price. We can go to the mountains to get cliff honey while the weather is fine these few days."
"Oh!" After hearing this, Wang Chunhua turned around and went back to the house.
The herbal medicine seller went to Zhou's house carrying the herbs on her back and saw Zhou's mother drying rapeseed in the yard. "Guilan, Cai Ermei's family has started to collect herbs again. The price is the same as yours. Can you raise it a little?"
Mother Zhou put down the wooden rake and said with a wry smile, "Old sister, my family charges 0.4 cents per pound purely out of spite with that bastard Cai Ermei.
To be honest, among the herbs sent by everyone, the good ones are not valuable. For example, plantain, dandelion, and aged mugwort... you really lose one cent per pound!"
The old lady put down her basket and said, "I found some plantain and sticky grass today. Cai Ermei begged me to sell them to her but I didn't sell them to her!"
"Thank you very much, old sister. I'll go get the scale." Zhou's mother went to the main room, took out the scale, and started weighing.
(End of this chapter)
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