Chapter 402 Chapter 403: Dragon and Phoenix Soup
Zhou Huaian leaned on his hoe and looked at him, "Have you forgotten what I heard from those old men and women when we were enjoying the cool under the banyan tree before, that a cow was entangled and swallowed by a python?"
"I just remember the weird stories they told me. They made me afraid to turn off the lights and go to bed when I got home."
"No wonder you got a negative five points!"
"Tsk~" Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him, "Speaking of me, don't you also..."
Zhou Huaian surrendered immediately, "Okay, I won't tell you."
The two men buried the snake's head, carried the basket back, and spent half a day taking the honey out of the tree stump.
Zhou Yiding picked up the bag and weighed it. "At most three kilograms of honey!"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "It's mainly because there's too little room for them to grow in the tree hole. They can't grow bigger even if they want to. Dig some mud to patch up the damaged areas, and bring the beehive over to attract the bees next time."
"Yeah!" Zhou Yiding said with a smile, "I'm worried that if we have so many beehives, what will we do if we can't find a place to put them?"
"This is easy. If it's too far, we can just bring it back and put it on the top of the mountain."
The two men were busy for more than half an hour before they used the chopped wood and mud to paste the broken tree stumps together, then they picked up their backpacks and walked back.
…
After Yang Chunyan planted the potatoes, she spread a thin layer of straw on the ridge, scattered some peas in the furrows, and picked the pea tips before packing up her belongings and going back to cook lunch.
Just as she picked up the basket and was about to leave, she saw Wangcai coming out of the woods, wagging his tail at her with a smile on his face. "Hey, why are you back? Where's your master?"
She put down the basket and before she reached the back of the house, she saw Zhou Huaian coming over. "Why are you back so early?"
"It's a big thing." Zhou Huaian took a deep breath and was about to let her take a look, but then he thought about it and worried that she would feel sick. "Forget it, you'd better not look at it. Go back and boil a big pot of water. We'll get rid of the wild boar."
Only then did Yang Chunyan see the wild boar Zhou Yiding was carrying on his back. "Oh, I'll go roast it right away." After saying that, she hurried back to pick up the basket and walked back with the bamboo basket in her hand.
Zhou Huaian and the other man quickened their pace and walked to the gate of the yard, and placed the basket containing the python outside the yard.
"Damn it! I'm so tired!" Zhou Yiding rubbed his sore and painful shoulders, carried the bag of urine and honey to the steps, put it down, and sat down on a chair, "Youngest, go call the eldest brother to come and clean up, I don't want to move anymore."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Yes! We also need to go back to the old house to get the big sand pot and cook the python meat."
As the old saying goes, snakes don't enter the house and dogs don't sit on the stove.
Superstition holds that boiling snakes at home will attract harassment or revenge from snakes of the same kind, or lead to other disasters.
There is a somewhat scientific explanation that the wood ash from the roof will be poisonous if it falls into an iron pot and is cooked together with snake meat.
There is also a saying that centipedes are hidden in the tiles or straw on the roof. Because centipedes and snakes are natural enemies, they will come out to gloat when they smell the smell of snake meat. If they accidentally fall into the pot, the poisonous insects will be cooked with snake meat, and it will be terrible if they eat it.
Therefore, people here use sand pots to stew snake meat, and they stew it outside the yard without covering the lid to let the poisonous gas inside dissipate.
Zhou Yiding saw him pushing his bicycle to leave, "Youngest brother, go buy a chicken and make dragon and phoenix soup."
"Yes!" Zhou Huaian got on the bike and left the yard.
After a while, Zhou Jiaming and his friends rushed in, "Uncle Yiding, where is the python?"
Zhou Yiding pointed to the backpack outside the yard and said, "There!"
Zhou Jiaming walked over to the basket and took a look. "Oh my god! What a big snake! It's scary!" He reached out and touched it. "It's cold."
"So disgusting, so scary!" Zhou Xiaoqian and the other girls took one look and dared not look anymore, and went to find Yang Chunyan.
Zhou Jialiang looked at the python and then at the wild boar in the basket in the yard, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Uncle Yi Ding, can it really swallow the wild boar?"
"We snatched that wild boar from its mouth. What do you think is okay?" Zhou Yiding walked to the gate of the yard and warned, "Little thing, don't run into the mountains in the future. If you encounter a big one, you won't be able to escape."
"That's right. If you run into a big one in the mountains, you can't escape even if you have four legs."
Zhou Huairong walked in carrying two benches, followed by Zhou Huaijun carrying old door panels.
Zhou Jiakang looked at his legs and then at the wild boar, "Yes! Wild boars also have four legs."
Zhou Jialiang glanced at him and said, "Fang Laoke, ha poke!"
Zhou Jiakang immediately complained, "Dad, my second brother said I was a bitch!"
Zhou Huairong patted Zhou Jialiang and said, "Don't bully your brother!"
Zhou Jialiang curled his lips, "You snitch, I won't play with you anymore."
Zhou Jiakang: "If you don't want to play, then don't play. I will play with Lin Xiaogang and the others."
The old man came with a pipe in his mouth, and after seeing the python in the basket, he said, "I haven't seen such a big python in many years."
Zhou Jiakang pulled him, "Ancestor, does it want to eat people?"
The old man nodded, "Why not! When your great grandfather was a child, he went up the mountain to chop wood and was entangled by a python and was almost swallowed. Fortunately, he met Old Shrimp and killed the python."
"How did he kill the snake? Did he use a gun as well?" Several kids pestered the old man and asked him questions.
Brother Zhou Huairong installed the door panel, lifted the wild boar onto the door panel and placed it there, then he went to look at the python in the basket, "Yiding, you two are so lucky!"
Zhou Yiding laughed and said, "At first I was almost scared to death, we..."
Zhou Huaijun smiled and said, "Luckily the dog found it, otherwise we would have missed out on such a good thing."
Yang Chunyan came out carrying a bucket of steaming hot water, "Jia Ming, go back and ask your mother and second and third aunts to stop cooking, and then go to the old house to call grandma over, and we will eat together at noon."
"Oh oh! Let's go back!" Zhou Jiaming pulled Zhou Jialiang and ran away.
Yang Chunyan walked to the gate of the yard and took a look at the python in the basket, thinking: Fortunately it happened this year, if I caught it in the future, I would have to work on the sewing machine.
"Brother, there is still boiling water in the pot. Please go and fetch it."
"Yes!" Zhou Huaijun went to the kitchen to get out all the boiled water, and the three of them got busy.
Zhou Huaian held the big rooster in one hand and the handlebar of the bicycle in the other, and rode straight into the yard, "Dragon and Phoenix Soup is here!"
The old man took the big rooster and said, "Xiao Qian, go get a bowl, put some salt in it, scoop half a bowl of water, and make chicken blood soup!"
Zhou Huaian went back to the house and got a piece of oilcloth, and then found a piece of wood, and went out to get the snake out of the backpack. "Let's peel off the snake skin first and then cut the meat, so that people won't recognize what it is."
Zhou Yiding nodded, "Yes, we will send Ning An there after dinner."
The two men cut off the snake meat and went into the house to fetch water to clean it.
Brother Zhou Jiaming called his mother back, and when he saw Zhou Huaian coming back, he stepped forward and shouted flatteringly: "Dad, we have good luck in the mountains today!"
Zhou Huaian glanced at him and said, "As soon as you stick your butt out, I know what you are up to! Tell me what you want to do?"
(End of this chapter)
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