Chapter 106 105: Feed Her Grass
Zhou Huaian said calmly: "If those eels are yours, I won't say anything. If they are someone else's, I really can't do anything. You see, we are all from the same team, and they are all relatives and friends. If everyone asks me to help take Ning An to sell, what will I eat?"
He paused and continued, "You know I just squandered so much of my family's money. I also want to make some money to repair the house and support my wife."
"Do you think you are the only one who knows the way to Ning'an?" Cai Ermei said unhappily, picked up the eel and turned away.
Xu Erchun looked at Zhou Huaian, "What should we do?"
"You know I'm not the only one doing the eel business. Besides, I charge 28 cents per pound to buy eels. I keep them in buckets for two days and then weigh them. So I only make a few cents per pound. My brothers asked me to lead the business, and I didn't hesitate. Why should I, an outsider, do that?"
"You're right. We should all help our brothers. Outsiders have no right to care so much!"
The two said that they didn't care, but they were still in a very depressed mood.
****
Yang Chunyan and Li Qiuyue arrived at the forest above the pumpkin field. The sky was gloomy and it was likely to rain. They saw half-flowered grass and ground ivy on the road but did not dare to dig them up, fearing that they would get damaged if not exposed to the sun.
When we arrived at the place where the golden vine grew, we saw that the vine had climbed onto the bushes nearby.
Jingangteng is the rhizome of Smilax glabra, a plant of the Liliaceae family. It has the effects of dispelling wind, promoting blood circulation, and detoxifying. It can treat rheumatism, back pain, bruises, etc.
Elderly people who suffer from back and leg pain will dig up golden vines during the slack season, clean them and use them to make wine. It is said that drinking it can treat bruises and rheumatic back and leg pain.
The golden vine is dioecious, flowering period is from May to July, and the fruit will not mature until October or November.
The stem is solid and nodular, the leaves are alternate, oblong-lanceolate, and there is a pair of tendrils at the end of the sheath. Its stem is very hard and has many hard thorns. The old stem is smooth and shiny after being polished, and it has a kind of simple beauty when worn on the wrist.
The whole body of the golden vine is a treasure. Not only does its underground root tuber, which is as hard as diamond, have high medicinal value, but its fruit is edible. The fruit is green when it is young and dark red when it is ripe, and tastes sweet and sour.
Li Qiuyue put down her backpack and took a look. She thought that this area was spacious, but it was too far to go out of the village to the market. "Chunyan, do you think it's a good idea to build the new house here?"
"Great, how spacious!"
"That's true. There's a pond in front and a pool at the foot of the mountain. At least we don't have to worry about running out of water when it's dry."
Yang Chunyan used a hoe to hook the vine to one side and saw that the tubers below were bulging. "It looks like these pieces of golden vine are a bit big!"
Li Qiuyue dug some with a hoe and said, "There are a lot of these things in my mother's family. My grandfather also dug them up to make wine when he was alive!"
"You can go back to your mother's house and dig some to sell in Beining'an!" Yang Chunyan picked up the hoe and started digging along the roots.
Li Qiuyue also started digging the piece next to it. "Forget it. My two sisters-in-law and brothers are no different from leeches. After my old man left, I swore that I would never go back even if I had to beg for food in this life."
Yang Chunyan didn't want to talk to Li Qiuyue about her family, so she changed the subject, "Third sister-in-law, just dig along the edge and cut off the roots, and you can dig them out with a hoe."
Li Qiuyue slowly scraped along the edge, and gradually a large lump that looked a bit like Alpinia officinalis emerged. "Mine is also quite big, about 6 or 7 kilograms."
The piece that Yang Chunyan dug was also exposed. "When we move here, we will go up the mountain to dig some and plant it on the edge of the vegetable field. It can be used as a fence, and we can also sell it after a few years."
She also wanted to contract this barren mountain. These days, contracting a barren mountain is much more profitable than paying public grain after reclaiming it.
"That's a good idea." Li Qiuyue said as she grabbed the root with a hoe and dug it out. "Chunyan, this thing really looks a bit like Alpinia officinalis, right?"
"Hmm!" Yang Chunyan dug out the piece with force, "My piece is bigger than yours."
Yang Chunyan nodded, "There are two more over there, dig them out and go back."
The two men picked up their hoes and started digging. "Oh no! A section was broken off."
"Hey!" The woman's voice sounded angrily behind the two men, "How come you guys are doing it so fast?"
Yang Chunyan turned around and found that it was the old woman who spat in the woods in the morning. She was standing behind the two of them, carrying a basket on her back and holding a hoe, her eyes staring at the golden rattan on the ground.
Li Qiuyue turned around, glanced at her, and sneered, "We dug up ownerless things, so what if we got them quickly? We don't steal or rob, unlike some people who steal corn from other people's homes in the middle of the night!"
After hearing this, Yang Chunyan immediately understood who she was. Xu Hongbing's mother, Qian Chunhua, was also a famous three-handed and scoundrel in the Funiu Brigade!
It is because of such old ones that such young ones are taught.
Qian Chunhua pretended not to understand, "I saw it when I was picking mushrooms down the mountain, and thought I'd dig it up after dinner to make some wine." Then she went to pick up the largest piece of golden vine, "Qiuyue, you dug so many, give this piece to me to make wine."
"Why? Because you're so shameless?" Li Qiuyue kicked the golden vine aside and looked at her with contempt. "The younger one stole my corn, and the older one wants to steal our golden vine. What a bunch of thieves!"
"Bullshit!" Qian Chunhua put her hands on her hips and looked at Li Qiuyue, "Who stole your corn? If you don't explain it to me clearly, I will tear your mouth apart!" Then she stepped forward and grabbed Li Qiuyue.
Li Qiuyue slapped her hand away and pointed at her nose, "Old thing, weigh two taels of cotton and go visit them. Everyone in the Funius Brigade knows that your family is full of thieves!"
"You little whore with your mouth full of maggots, I'm going to fight you today." Qian Chunhua lowered her head and bumped into Li Qiuyue.
"Old whore, old shameless..." Li Qiuyue cursed and dodged to the side.
Yang Chunyan knew Qian Chunhua in her previous life. She relied on her age to do many shameless and money-making things.
People often say that good people don't live long, but evil people live for thousands of years, but such an evil person lived to be over 90. In her previous life, she often wondered why good people died early, but Qian Chunhua lived so long?
Yang Chunyan stepped forward and grabbed Qian Chunhua by the back of the collar, "Stop making a scene here. Your Xu Hongbing's clothes are still at my house. We will send them to the police station tomorrow. I don't believe that the police station can't find out what happened."
Seeing that she was no match for the two, Qian Chunhua sat down on the ground, slapped her thigh and shouted at the top of her voice, "Someone's been beaten to death, come quickly~ These two little whores from the Zhou family beat me up..."
Li Qiuyue pointed at her and said, "You old hag, you're just making dirty jokes. Where did we hit you?"
Yang Chunyan grabbed a handful of grass and rolled it into a ball. She stuffed it into her mouth when she opened her mouth to howl, "You old thing who eats people's food but does nothing for them. What else can you do except cry, make a scene, and hang yourself? Go and sue us if you have the guts."
Qian Chunhua didn't expect to be fed grass. She was so angry that her face turned red. She pulled the grass out of her mouth, got up and pointed at the two of them, "You little whore, I'm going to fight your Zhou family today." After saying that, she got up and ran down the mountain.
(End of this chapter)
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