After a while, Zhu's father couldn't stand it anymore. In his simple mind, boys should not be entangled with flowers and plants. They should either study hard to gain fame or stay at home and farm. Picking flowers and flirting with plants are not what a good man does.
"Well, today's harvest is good. Let's go down the mountain." Father Zhu stopped his two sons who were picking flowers with their butts bent to prevent them from going astray. "We have to go down the mountain before the sun sets. It will be difficult and unsafe to walk in the forest later."
Zhu Ping'an saw that his small backpack was full of honeysuckle. He pressed the flowers gently, but when he realized that he couldn't put any more in, he clapped his hands reluctantly and followed his father down the mountain.
On the way back, Zhu's father took the two of them to the place where they had set traps to catch rabbits before.
The first trap was empty, with no harvest. Zhu Pingan was a little disappointed.
But then I was excited again, because the next two traps actually contained a fat rabbit, and it was still alive.
Zhu's father tied the rabbit's legs with wild grass and let Zhu Ping'an touch the rabbit enough before putting it in the basket.
The first time he went into the mountains, he harvested pheasants, rabbits, fish, bamboo shoots, mountain mushrooms and honeysuckle. Zhu Ping'an was full of longing for going into the mountains in the future, and even the unbearable pain in his calves didn't matter to him anymore.
"Yeah, the second brother is back."
As soon as Zhu Ping'an and his friends entered the room, Fourth Aunt Zhao rushed over. She looked like a wolf that had been hungry for several days, with green eyes.
Even Chen, who had been waiting for her husband and children at the door for half a day, didn't react before Fourth Auntie had already tried to grab the basket that Zhu Shouyi was carrying.
If you don’t know, you might think it was Aunt Si waiting for her husband and children.
Zhu Ping'an stared in amazement at the abnormally enthusiastic Fourth Aunt.
"Oh, my second brother also caught two fat rabbits and two pheasants. Ah, there are so many fish. Mom, mom, come quickly..."
At this moment, Aunt Xiao Si turned into an airport security officer. She started rummaging around in the basket, screaming and shouting every time she saw something, for fear that others would not know.
Father Zhu Shouyi looked at Chen with embarrassment. He didn't know where to put his hands because of the disturbance caused by Fourth Aunt.
Chen looked at Aunt Fourth with disdain!
Really, do you think everyone is like you and your fourth brother, hiding things and being stingy
Little Fourth Aunt cried out, and the grandmother came over briskly. She did not ask her sons and grandsons if they were tired in the mountains or if they encountered any trouble or danger. Instead, she asked, "We have caught so many, did you drop any in other places?"
ha
Suspect of hiding something
"We only caught this much even without mother. With the two of them helping to pick wood ear mushrooms, wild mushrooms and bamboo shoots, we got a lot more than the last time my son went into the mountains." Zhu Shouyi seemed not to have heard what Mrs. Zhu was hiding. He answered very honestly and even helped his son to take credit.
Old Mrs. Zhu also knew that her second son was honest and would not hide anything as long as it did not pass through the hands of the second daughter-in-law. Moreover, the fourth daughter-in-law was supervising him, so she felt relieved.
However, when she swept the small basket that Zhu Ping'an was carrying, Old Mrs. Zhu rubbed her eyes. Why did it look like her little grandson was carrying wild flowers
Old Mrs. Zhu reached into Zhu Ping'an's small basket and rummaged through it, and sure enough, it was full of wild flowers.
"You silly child, why are you carrying so many flowers?" Old Mrs. Zhu wondered if her grandson was mentally ill. It would be fine if it was a girl, but why are you, a boy, carrying so many flowers
"Sell it for money!" Zhu Ping'an answered straightforwardly.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone on Zhu Ping'an, illuminating his mouth of white teeth with golden brilliance, making him look like a foolish boy obsessed with money.
Phew
Little Fourth Auntie was laughing so hard that she couldn't stand up straight, and she kept coughing, "Haha, what Xiaozhu said really made me laugh to death. These wild flowers can also be sold for money. Haha, Second Sister-in-law, didn't you say that?"
Upon hearing this, Old Lady Zhu looked at Chen.
Chen wanted to slap Xiao Zhao's smiling face with a big slap! Fanning the flames and stirring up trouble. The fourth family can't be quiet for a moment!
"It's not mother who said that. I think it can be sold for money." Zhu Ping'an said quickly before Chen got angry.
Old Mrs. Zhu is right there, and if my mother and Little Fourth Aunt get into a fight, nothing good will happen.
"Haha, the little pig must have gone crazy from climbing the mountain. If you want to sell wild flowers for money, then everyone in our village will be rich. If you can sell them for money, the sun will rise from the west."
It can be said that Xiao Si's Aunt is not kind-hearted at all. She has a vicious mouth but a bitter heart. She is two-faced, smiling on the surface but tripping people up underfoot. In the open, she is a pot of fire, but in the dark, she is a knife.
"How can you talk like that? Do you know how to talk? You are so tired that you are stupid!"
Chen was not happy about it. She could scold her own son, but she couldn't let anyone else say a word! It was fine if the old lady just said it about my son, but you still said it! Although she also thought that her youngest son's behavior of picking a basket of wild flowers was weird, she couldn't let anyone else say it!
"Okay, stop arguing, all of you go help the second son put the things away." The grandmother only had things in her eyes. She waved her hand and asked Chen and Xiao Zhao to follow Zhu Shouyi to put the things away. As for the wild flowers in Zhu Ping'an's backpack, the grandmother didn't care at all. What use could a few wild flowers be? Pigs wouldn't eat them. "The little pig can keep the wild flowers for himself to play with."
It seems that no one in the village can discover the value of honeysuckle, so that's a good deal for me.
Honeysuckle can be said to be the easiest Chinese herbal medicine to prepare, without a doubt. Spread the flower buds on a reed mat or a bluestone slab and dry them in the sun for a day or two. The only thing you need to pay attention to is not to turn it over when drying, otherwise the stamens will easily break.
Reed mats were out of the question, as my grandmother wouldn't give them to me. So I had to find a place to dry them. I also had to clear the ground in the yard, as I was worried that the chickens at home would damage them. Well, I'd just put them in the small shed in the pigpen.
Zhu Ping'an walked with his short legs and stepped on a small stool to successfully dry the honeysuckle above the pigpen.
Looking at the spread of honeysuckle, Zhu Ping'an felt as if he saw copper coins running towards him.
This is hope!
It was his mother Chen's turn to cook dinner, and Zhu Ping'an followed her to light the fire, and Chen couldn't chase him away. Because Zhu Ping'an had just heard his grandmother ask him to make fish soup for dinner. Although they had eaten fish at noon in the mountains, the seasonings were not complete and the cooking method was rough, so the taste of the fish could not be fully brought out.
Chen is an expert at cooking fish. She removed the scales and gills of the fish, cleaned the internal organs, and then rinsed the whole fish with clean water. Then she put the bamboo shoots and dried mushrooms in the pot, turned on the fire and slowly simmered them. Slow work makes fine work. She lowered the fire from high to low, and soon the pot was filled with fragrance.
Chen looked at her second son who was staring at the pot and couldn't help laughing. "Look at how greedy you are. Come, let me taste the saltiness of the fish soup." As she said that, she picked up a piece of fish and put it in the bowl, being careful to remove the fish bones.
It was said to be a taste to see how salty it was, but in fact it was just a special meal for Zhu Ping'an.
"Well, then I'll try it." Zhu Ping'an washed his hands in the basin beside him and waved his fat paws reluctantly. However, the way he drooled almost made Chen laugh.
The soup is fresh and delicious. My mother’s cooking is a hundred times better than what my father made at noon. I almost want to swallow my tongue into my stomach. It’s so delicious that I want to cry.