Chapter 15 015. If you don’t serve me, who will you serve?
Five-fingered peach.
Zhou Yi knew it all too well.
It is a plant of the Moraceae family with the scientific name of Ficus microcarpa. Its leaves are alternate, feel like paper, are oblong-ovate or broad-ovate in shape, and have fine serrations on the edges.
Zhou Yi touched the leaves of the five-fingered ginseng and looked at its inflorescence.
An interesting point about it is that it blooms synchronously within a sequence but asynchronously within a plant, and there are inflorescences at different stages of development throughout the year.
But its flowering and fruiting period is from April to June. It is only the end of March now, so we can't see any spherical or oval figs.
Seeing Zhou Yi touching the leaf and carefully identifying it, Lei Li asked him, "Have you identified it? Next time you see it, can you find it?"
"able."
Zhou Yi nodded, "Are you going to use the roots of the five-fingered peach?"
"Yes, the county medicine shop only wants roots."
Lei Li used a long curved grass knife to clear the weeds around the five-fingered ginseng, then took out a small hoe from his backpack, squatted down and started digging carefully.
"But be careful when digging up the five-fingered ginseng. It grows together with another poisonous weed. Don't mix them up, or it will be poisonous to death."
"I know."
Zhou Yi also helped dig with a small hoe. "That poisonous plant is called Gelsemium elegans. It often climbs and entangles on the five-fingered ginseng plant, but its leaves are small and smooth to the touch, and it has small yellow flowers, so it is easy to identify."
Lei Li was surprised when he heard this. "You can also do medicine? Were you a doctor before?"
"no."
Zhou Yi shook his head. "I told you before, when I was bored, I would read some herbal encyclopedias. I remembered them after reading them many times."
"Your family is really rich."
Lei Li couldn't help but sigh, "A book costs one ounce of silver. Your family still has money to buy you miscellaneous books. Don't your parents want you to focus on the imperial examination?"
"I know nine out of ten things about the imperial examination, but I still don't know one thing. I can't pass the exam, and my family doesn't force me to go to a good university... I just want to make a name for myself."
Zhou Yi said, "My family is not as rich as you think, it's just that..." I just happened to be born in a good era, a good country, and encountered good policies.
After a pause, he continued, "I also grew up in the countryside when I was a child. My grandfather knew a lot about these things. Whenever he had time, he would take me to dig some red peony root, goji berries, and five-fingered taro."
"grandfather?"
"That's what you call grandpa here."
Zhou Yi said, "In the summer, myrtle...we call it radish. When the radish is ripe, I pick it and eat it, or make wine for my grandfather."
"Is it delicious?"
"It's sweet, but it makes you drunk easily. I don't recommend eating the fruit of the five-fingered ginseng, but you can soak it in wine. The medicinal wine can improve blood stasis and yin deficiency."
"Then can you soak?"
"Yes, I remember the recipe, but I don't know if there's any suitable wine here for soaking."
"I'm just asking. Even if there's a suitable one, I can't make it."
Lei Li said, "Wine is expensive. A bowl of wine costs two cents, and it's rough wine. My brother can't get drunk even if he drinks several bowls. We don't have money to buy good wine."
Although Lei Li didn't drink several bowls.
He tasted it once when he was a child and found it a bit bitter and unpalatable, so he gave it back to his father.
At that time, a landlord in the town was celebrating his 70th birthday, and a buffet with one hundred jars... or maybe two hundred jars of wine was prepared. His father happened to take him to the town to sell things, and he grabbed two seats and two bowls of wine.
That was the best and most satisfying meal Lei Li had ever had since he was born. He even brought a lot of dishes back with his father to give to his mother.
"There will be someday."
Zhou Yi patted Lei Li's hand and said seriously, "There will be money and wine. Let's work hard together."
"You should dig up the roots first, so as not to mix them with the roots of poisonous weeds."
"OK."
—
This five-fingered peach tree is at the edge of the forest at the foot of the mountain.
After finishing the digging and carefully putting it in the backpack, Lei Li continued to use a grass knife to clear a path into the mountains.
Sanlihe Village is almost surrounded by mountains on all sides.
The mountains are not high, but they are rolling. If you look down from the sky, they look like a tray of buns.
It may be due to climate reasons.
There is precipitation here all year round, concentrated in autumn and summer. Rain and heat occur at the same time and are abundant, making the vegetation in the mountains lush and prosperous with high species diversity.
Lower mosses and ferns can be seen everywhere, coiling around tree trunks to obtain more water and heat resources, dressing many trees in green "sweaters".
But you should also pay attention to the snakes, rats, insects and ants around your feet.
"Don't get bitten. There are poisonous snakes and centipedes here. If you get poisoned, I'm not sure if I can save you."
Lei Li remained calm, raised his hand and chopped a snake on the tree, and the scarlet blood splattered on the green branches and leaves.
Zhou Yi took a look and saw that the knife had hit the snake right at the heart. The broken tail was twitching wildly. It seemed to be still alive, but in fact it was just a nerve reaction.
"Your move was quite clean and neat."
"You'll get used to it."
Lei Li said, "If you go into the mountains hundreds of times a year, your eyes won't see, and your hands won't."
Lei Li has a very strong sixth sense.
It was also thanks to his keen sixth sense that he had never been bitten by the poisonous creatures here.
Centipedes are not that bad, their toxicity is not very high. Just go to a humid place, catch a few slugs and apply them to the bite. Even if you don't treat it, it will heal on its own.
The same cannot be said for spiders and snakes.
"Oh, there might be scorpions, but I haven't seen any. Doctor Niu said there are some here."
"I see."
Zhou Yi followed Lei Li along the mountain path.
The grass here grows very fast and can cover the original mountain road in a few days. There is especially a kind of grass with long and thin leaves and extremely fine serrations on the edges that can easily cut human skin.
Lei Li wrapped his hands with old cloth strips and tied up his sleeves and trouser legs to prevent being cut by grass leaves, which also provided some protection against snakes, rats, insects and ants.
Zhou Yi also dressed like this.
After walking for a while, the road ahead became a little wider. It was probably because the trees here had been cut down, and new trees had not grown yet, and they were often trampled upon.
"Besides the five-fingered ginseng, what other herbs do we need to find?"
"There are many, such as ginseng, brocade, three sister wood, duckbill flower leaves, liver-nourishing grass, clematis, cinnamon seeds, millet wood, rhubarb leaves... whatever you see, you just dig it up."
“That’s quite a lot.”
Zhou Yi listened and nodded.
He roughly knew what some of them were, and some might be local names that he had no impression of, but the plants he saw in the mountains were similar to those in modern times, so he guessed that the medicinal herbs Lei Li was looking for should be the same.
"I saw the golden peony, and there are several more."
Lei Li ran over to Jin Buhuan and squatted down, then asked Zhou Yi, "Didn't you say you've read medical books? Do you know Jin Buhuan? Does he look like he does in the books?"
"It's not a medical book, it's just an encyclopedia of herbal medicine, introducing the morphology, characteristics, and efficacy of herbal plants."
As Zhou Yi explained, he squatted down to look at these invaluable treasures, and they were indeed the same as those in modern times.
The rhizome is short, with remnants of old stems. The stem is erect, nearly cylindrical, smooth and hairless, green or with many thin purple vertical stripes.
There are also palm-shaped compound leaves, with seven leaflets on each petiole, which is obviously invaluable.
It also has another more well-known name, Panax notoginseng.
Zhou Yi said, "The 'Supplement to Compendium of Materia Medica' says that ginseng is the best for replenishing qi, and Panax notoginseng is the best for replenishing blood. They have the same taste and function, so they are called ginseng and Panax notoginseng, and are the most precious of Chinese medicines."
"37?"
"Just like what you said, gold is priceless. Ginseng and Panax notoginseng are not worth gold."
“No wonder it’s so expensive…”
Lei Li muttered something, then said, "You should know a lot of words from reading, right? When the New Year comes, you can write red couplets for our front door. It will save you some money."
"this……"
Zhou Yi paused.
It's hard to say why, although he can understand the dialect of Sanlihe Village and has learned the local language without a teacher, he has seen the couplets of the villagers...
None of them were simplified Chinese characters that he knew, nor were they traditional Chinese characters. In any case, he didn't know them.
Lei Li killed several Panax notoginseng plants that grew together, and he took Zhou Yi to search deeper.
The three-sister wood is horse broom and false indigo root, and the liver-nourishing grass is dragon beard grass.
Lei Li also dug up some roots of Nine-section Dragon, Fritillaria cirrhosa, and Eagle Claw Flower. Just as he said, he dug up whatever he saw, focusing on those herbs with high prices.
The two large backpacks were filled to the brim.
"If I had gone into the mountains alone before, I wouldn't have dared to dig so much because I couldn't bring it back. But it would be a shame not to dig it up if I saw it."
Lei Li patted Zhou Yi's shoulder, a satisfied smile on his face, like a capitalist looking at a hardworking worker. "It's good now. With you here, I can carry more."
That’s right.
Lei Li gave the heavy roots and rhizomes to Zhou Yi to carry, and he carried the branches, leaves, fruits and vines himself.
Lei Li glanced at the sky. The sun was already setting in the west. In a while, smoke would rise from Sanli Village.
"I'll go back and pick some wild vegetables. They're at their freshest now and are delicious in egg drop soup or stir-fried."
Lei Li smacked his lips and said, "It's best to stir-fry wild onions with bacon. It's so fragrant that you can eat your tongue off. But we don't have bacon at home."
"I've had wild onions fried with bacon. My grandfather likes to add chili peppers. It's spicy and fragrant. I can eat three bowls of rice with it."
"chili?"
"Um, no chili peppers here?"
“No.”
"It's a very pungent plant with green leaves, small white flowers, and red, long, pointed fruits. It smells very pungent and tastes very pungent, but its spiciness is actually painful."
"Painful?"
Lei Li pursed his lips and said, "Something that hurts people doesn't sound good."
“It’s delicious.”
Zhou Yi said, "When I find it, I will cook it for you. I am a very good cook."
"Then you cook tonight."
"good."
Zhou Yi suddenly smiled and said, "You are quite good at making the best use of things. You are very good at ordering people around. You act more like a young master than I do."
"I am your husband, if you don't serve me, who will you serve?"
Lei Li was justified.
But in the village and town, husbands serve their husbands, but Lei Li is so tough. He never treats Zhou Yi well, calls him around every day, strips him of his pants and throws him on the bed, and kisses and touches him forcefully if they disagree with him.
Zhou Yi was new here and didn't know the market situation, so he really thought that's what Lei Li said.
He thought about it, his brother has to earn money to support the family and have children, as a husband he should take more care of his husband, so he nodded and said,
"You're right."
Lei Li snorted, thinking that Zhou Yi, despite his size and fierce face, was a pushover. It felt quite...
Likeable.
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