Chapter 387 Earthen Cloth Bag
Once you enter the forest, you can see mushrooms everywhere on the ground. Most of them are rotten and they have no intention of picking them up.
Only when I occasionally come across blue-headed mushrooms and egg mushrooms will I bend down to pick some.
In the blink of an eye, they had passed the Shuijing ditch and arrived at a more primitive mountain forest. A lot of Ganoderma lucidum began to appear in the woods, and it was still worth picking up some of these.
But it was just a casual search, no special search, because time is very tight today.
The road to Birch Cliff is difficult to walk on, especially in summer when the vegetation in the forest is very lush and it is very difficult to walk.
But the good thing is that there are a lot of Ganoderma lucidum in the forest here. You can find one or two after walking a distance. In addition to Ganoderma lucidum, there are also tree tongues as big as washbasins, flat-capped Ganoderma lucidum, etc. However, these do not have much medicinal value.
This place can be called a primeval forest. The trees are generally so thick that one person can hug them. Occasionally, you can see some super big trees that four or five people can't hug them. However, these trees are often rotten at the core and are dying.
They arrived at Baishigou at around nine o'clock. There were very few shiitake mushrooms here today, so they just picked up a few egg mushrooms.
Because of the heavy rain, the water in the mountain stream was still very high, so they had to take off their shoes and hold up their pants to wade across. On the other side were even taller trees, and ancient trees and vines were fighting each other for sunlight. The ground was littered with rotten fallen trees, and death and life complemented each other.
"Look there, the wax gourds are ripe."
Lin Heng saw the purple wax gourds hanging under the tree canopy from afar. The wax gourds that had just turned purple and had not yet cracked were the most perfect.
Lin Yue looked up and said, "This tree is not that big, we can just chop it down."
This is a small medicinal tree located on the edge of the forest. It is as thick as a thigh and about seven or eight meters tall.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, took the hatchet and walked over to chop. It took less than a minute to chop down the medicinal tree.
With a cracking sound, the whole tree fell to the ground, and the wax gourd vines wrapped around the tree also fell to the ground, and the beautiful wax gourds became easy to pick.
"We can't finish eating all the wax gourds on this tree. There must be twenty or thirty wax gourds here." Father Lin said as he picked the fruits.
"If you can't finish it, throw it away. If it rots, it can be used as fertilizer."
As Lin Heng spoke, he opened a wax gourd and took a bite. It still had the familiar taste, without any sourness, just pure sweetness, even a little cloying.
This taste is still nostalgic and you will never get tired of it. After you have sucked all the juice from the pulp, you can open your mouth and spit out the seeds like a machine gun.
After eating three wax gourds in a row, they continued on their way, eating the rest as they walked.
Before they knew it, they had climbed over two more mountains. The forest was getting bigger and bigger, and the road was getting harder and harder to walk on. They picked a lot of Ganoderma lucidum this year. Lin Heng alone had picked up about five or six kilograms of fresh Ganoderma lucidum.
This thing needs wood to grow, and the deep mountains and forests like this are full of fallen trees, which is the best growth environment. Therefore, there are more Ganoderma lucidum than in other places.
"Hahaha, I got rich today!!"
At ten o'clock, Lin's father suddenly burst into laughter, which scared Lin Heng and Lin Yue.
"What the hell, Dad, makes you so happy?"
Lin Heng walked over curiously.
"Hehe, these are all Ganoderma lucidum weighing three or four kilograms." Father Lin laughed.
Hearing this, Lin Heng quickly quickened his pace and was shocked when he came over to take a look. In front of Lin's father there was a fallen tree with a diameter of about 40 centimeters, and there were more than a dozen palm-sized red Ganoderma lucidum growing on the tree.
"It's true that he made a fortune." Lin Heng said enviously.
"This is too much! This is the first time I see so many Ganoderma lucidum growing on one tree." Lin Yue was also shocked.
"Help me pick them quickly." Father Lin laughed.
The two nodded and helped to pick the Ganoderma lucidum and wrap it with Pueraria leaves.
After picking all the fruits and putting them in the bag and weighing them, they felt that it weighed more than five kilograms.
Seeing their father picking up so many Ganoderma lucidum, the two of them searched even harder. However, so many were hard to come by, and it would take a long time to find one or two.
Because Lin Heng had Xiongba's help, he found more than them.
As we entered this old forest, other Chinese medicinal herbs also began to appear, including Scrophularia, Poria, Tripterygium, Codonopsis, Panax ginseng, etc.
Sometimes you can also pick up cicada fungus, which is a fungus born inside the golden cicada. Like cicada shells, it is an extremely precious Chinese medicinal material, but it is difficult to collect because of its relatively small quantity.
In addition, we encountered a lot of Schisandra chinensis on the road. They were all red at this time and tasted sour and sweet. We were not too hungry because of these wild fruits.
At noon they had steamed buns. Lin's mother steamed them yesterday and Lin's father brought a lot of them today. It was a happy thing to eat a bite of wax gourd or schisandra chinensis and then a bite of steamed bun.
During the afternoon walk, Father Lin still focused on picking Ganoderma lucidum and digging herbs, while Lin Heng and his elder brother shifted some of their focus to finding prey.
This time we came mainly to look for ginseng, pick ganoderma lucidum and dig herbs, but of course we also have to hunt prey. Even if we can't bring it back, eating it here is also a good choice.
After walking for more than half a day, Lin Heng finally heard the call of a grouse, and soon found a grouse foraging on the ground.
The grouse in the deep mountains had not been well educated and did not fly away immediately when they saw people. Lin Heng shot it to death with one arrow from a distance of more than ten meters.
A two-pound grouse means they have meat to eat today, and Lin Heng is more confident about this trip. In fact, there are many golden pheasants in this old forest. Today, I saw several groups of small pheasants, but the leaves blocked the view and it was not easy to hunt.
"It's right here. I dug ginseng from this forest."
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Father Lin looked at the forest in front of him and said.
Lin Heng looked at the forest and turned to look at his elder brother: "This seems to be closer than the place where we fought the black bear last time?"
Lin Yue identified it and nodded: "Yes, our original shelter should be over this mountain, in the ditch over there."
Lin Heng looked at the two and said, "Then let's look for it carefully. If we can't find it, let's go to the shelter we built last time. It's close to the mountain stream and convenient for getting water."
"Okay." Lin Yue nodded.
The three of them separated and searched everywhere. The ginseng seeds had turned red during this period, so it was relatively easy to find them. They hoped to get something.
At half past three, Lin's father found the pit where he dug ginseng last time. They searched the area carefully but found nothing else.
They had no choice but to split up and search again. They kept searching until around five o'clock. Lin Heng shot a pheasant in the woods, but did not see any ginseng. In the end, they could only rush to the shelter and then come back to search slowly.
At six o'clock they came to the mountain stream here. It had just rained and the water in the stream was flowing very fast. The sound of the water could be heard from far away.
The three of them approached quietly to see if they could find any prey. Generally speaking, it is easy to find prey near the water.
But after searching around, I couldn't find anything, only some footprints. When I came to the shelter I had built before, I found that it had been destroyed, apparently by a wild boar.
"Fortunately, the platform is still there. We can just cut down the trees and rebuild it." Lin Heng nodded.
"Hurry up, it's getting dark, and it gets dark quickly in the forest." Father Lin put down his things and started chopping trees.
Lin Heng and his elder brother also put down their things and prepared to build a shelter. They had the film paper and rainproof tarpaulin they brought from home as an awning, so they didn't have to worry about waterproofing. It was mainly for wind protection, as the early morning dew in the mountains was heavy and very cold.
"Damn it!! A cloth bag!!"
Suddenly, there was a scream from Lin Yue. Lin Heng turned his head and saw his eldest brother jumping away, and Fengshou was shouting there.
"What kind of poisonous snake? Did you get bitten?"
Lin Heng and his father immediately ran over with sticks.
Lin Yue patted his chest and said with lingering fear: "It was a dirt bag. The damn thing was lying motionless in the grass. I was scared to death!"
"I'll beat this bastard to death!"
Father Lin saw the snake slowly running away and hit it to death with two sticks.
After the snake was killed, Lin Heng stepped on its head with his foot, cut off its head with a dagger and buried it in the soil. The rest of the body could be roasted and fed to the dog.
This thing is the same pit viper as the one that almost bit him last time. Its scientific name is Agkistrodon acutus. It is very lazy and will not run away when people come. Instead, it will wait until people get close before biting.
"We have to get a hammock tonight. We can't sleep on the ground in the summer."
Lin Heng looked at his elder brother's condition and said, the most terrifying thing in the wild in summer is poisonous snakes.
Once bitten, there is a high probability that you will not survive. One reason is that it takes a day to get to the hospital in the mountains, and the other is that the hospital does not have the corresponding serum.
Therefore, every time you see a poisonous snake, you will feel the fear of death.
Lin Yue said slowly: "I think we should change places. There are many toads near the water, and poisonous snakes like to come here to catch toads and eat them."
"Well, let's go a little higher and find a place with no grass and dry." Father Lin also said.
Although the poisonous snake has been killed, it still makes people feel scared.
They immediately looked for another place, and surprisingly, they soon arrived at a very nice place.
This place is located on the top of a small hill. There is a barren black sand land with no grass. Walking forward is a 90-degree cliff. You can see the woods below and the winding ravine.
Father Lin nodded: "This is it. Although it takes 300 meters to get water, at least there is no grass around, so it's safe to live here."
Lin Heng also thought it was pretty good. It was nice to stand on this cliff to enjoy the scenery and observe whether there were any prey in other directions.
Also, it would be easier to dry the Ganoderma lucidum and herbs they picked today here.
Lin Yue suggested, "Let's build a shelter in the shape of a human figure. A large one would be difficult to build."
"Go cut the kudzu vines and wood first, and then come back to build it." Lin Heng nodded.
The three of them dispersed and soon came back with a large pile of vines.
Everyone first made a bed off the ground, tied one end with three wooden sticks and stretched it out to form a cone-shaped structure. This was a sturdy bed leg that did not require digging a hole or filling.
Make two of the four bed legs with two-meter-long wrist-thick sticks as supports and put them on top. Then simply weave rattan in the middle and you will have a perfect bed that will not be uncomfortable to sleep on.
Once the bed is made, just build a H-shaped shelter around it, fill the sides with trees, branches and pine needles, and block the back, leaving only the side facing three people open.
The shelter of the three people was located in a V-shape in the center of the black sand. They made fire and cooked in the central area surrounded by their shelter.
It’s a good thing that the film paper and rain cloth were not used. You can carry them with you in case of rain. If the rain is too heavy, you can also put them on the shelter to keep out the rain.
By the time the three of them finished building the shelter and started a fire, there was only a faint orange-red in the sky, and the crescent moon and stars had already appeared.
At this time, all kinds of noises can be heard one after another in the forest, and those who are not used to them will feel scared.
I didn't cook in the evening, so I boiled a pot of water to scald the pheasant and grouse, then got some more water to stew both of them, adding some Codonopsis pilosula, mushrooms, and yam eggs that I found on the road, and salt.
It’s not that I like chicken soup so much, but it’s hard to preserve wild animals in this weather. They can be kept longer if stewed by the fire.
They ate steamed buns with chicken soup in the evening. Fortunately, the steamed buns were relatively dry and could be preserved for a day.
Xiongba and Fengshou ate the roasted short-tailed viper, some chicken bones and steamed buns, and their stomachs were full.
After dinner, it was already late at night. The sky was filled with dense and busy stars. They were silent, and it seemed that only the sky was bustling.
The insects in the forest were still howling, as if they were competing to see who could make the loudest sound. A few fireflies were swimming around in the woods, not flying, but floating in the thick air.
After a day's journey, the three men sprinkled some realgar powder around them and went to bed to rest. They fell into a deep sleep under the bright firelight.
Gradually the sounds of insects faded away, and the night was as quiet as a calm lake, without a single ripple.
But this silence did not last long and was soon replaced by the sound of birds singing, which made the three people who had not gotten enough sleep frown.
Gradually, Lin Heng couldn't bear it anymore. He climbed up, picked up the slingshot and shot several shots at the birds on the branches. After several of them fell to the ground and died, the area became a little quieter.
But Lin Heng was no longer sleepy, and his father and eldest brother also woke up. The three of them rubbed their legs, and Lin Heng lit a fire, threw the four green lake fish he had caught into the fire, and then the three of them went to the mountain stream to wash their faces and brought three pots of water back.
Add water to the chicken soup cooked yesterday, add the noodles in it, and have chicken noodle soup this morning with the dried shrimp chili sauce I brought from home.
After dinner, the three of them took out the Ganoderma lucidum and herbs they had harvested yesterday and placed them on the ground to dry.
"Today, the three of us will work together to dig herbs and find ginseng, and look for traces of prey. Because there may be black bears nearby, it is too dangerous for one person to act alone."
Lin Heng said as he placed the Ganoderma lucidum.
Father Lin nodded: "That's for sure. It's safer for three people to act together."
Lin Yue asked: "Should we go back to the mountain where we went yesterday to look for ginseng or go somewhere else?"
Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "Let's go take another look. Maybe we missed it yesterday. If we can't find it today, we can go to another place."
After making the decision and drying the things, the three of them stood on the edge of the cliff and looked out at the endless jungle. Then they set out with the dog to look for traces of ginseng again.
(End of this chapter)
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