Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

"Celebrating the New Year, you are here, why do you bring so many things? If your mother finds out about this, she will be unhappy." Mrs. Chen smiled on her face, but what she said was a bit wrong. Son. Huixin was the old girl she had loved and cherished since she was a child, but she got angry when she got married. The old lady was holding her breath in her heart, and she couldn't say anything today.

"Mom, I know you are unhappy. Huixin married me and now we have a child. I am so happy that I don't know how to feel good. As soon as my eldest brother and the others left that day, I told my mother that we were going to separate. "I came here today because I wanted to hear what my parents and Huixin wanted." Tao Qingnian said while looking at the old couple on the kang.

Mrs. Chen sighed, "Qing Nian, Mom is not forcing you to separate your family. After all, you have only been married for a few months, so it doesn't look good on your faces. This is what Mom is holding back." I'm sorry, please talk to your parents. This is Huixin's first child, so you need to pay more attention to it. If your family doesn't farm or raise animals, how much work can you do except for washing clothes and cooking? . If Huixin can do it, she will do it, but who heard that the nephew's clothes have to be washed by the pregnant aunt? If Huixin is not pregnant, the wives in our house can only help. I just wash the clothes of my husband and children. Even your father’s clothes are washed by me, why should I use someone else? "The old lady doesn’t want to force someone to separate the family just for this reason. It's not worth it.

"Celebrate the New Year, don't take it to heart, your mother just feels sorry for her daughter. You should go back and discuss the separation with your parents carefully, and don't rush it at this moment. Do you still have a younger brother at home? After we get married, my sister is not out of the house, and when they are settled, you have to separate. After all, it is not a matter of stirring the pot. Your mother and I also told Huixin not to do any of the work. You can't be pretentious just because you have a body." The old man took over.

Just then, Huixin came out of the suite and looked at Qingnian. The two of them just looked at each other.

"Huixin, hurry up and pack your things. After lunch, you can go back in the afternoon. Go back and live a good life. You have been here for three months. You can't do no work at all. That is not good either. Mom will come see you again after a while," Mrs. Chen said, holding Hui Xin's hand.

Seeing their brother-in-law coming, Mrs. Wen Han and the others started fishing in the morning, and now they went to the traps outside the stick to see if any animals had fallen into them. When they came back not long after, they actually had two rabbits in their hands. "Mom, I'll leave you two thin scales. There are also two rabbits here. The vegetables we grew can also be eaten. We will come back later and bring some meat or something. It should be almost ready at noon." Wen Han put it down. Rabbit and Fish then led Wen Cheng to drive the ox cart away. Nowadays, Zhiming no longer needs to be the driver, and Wenhan is pretty good as the driver.

Xue and Zhu quickly packed up the rabbits and fish, plus the eggs and other things at home, picked some side dishes from the vegetable patch, and started preparing lunch.

The meal at noon was indeed very sumptuous. After Tao Qingnian and Huixin finished their meal, they drove the carriage back. Before leaving, Mrs. Chen brought some dried fish, dried meat and the like. These dried meats are usually from animals that have fallen into traps. Before they can be eaten or sold, Chen will pickle or dry the meat. This way, it can be kept longer. Of course, there are also a lot of clothes, quilts and other small things made for Huixin's children, which are two big burdens.

Seeing their son-in-law driving the carriage farther and farther away, both Mrs. Chen and the old man felt very uncomfortable. They looked at each other and shook their heads. "I don't know if that old woman from the Tao family will be able to embarrass Hui Xin again this time. I'm really worried." Mrs. Chen said.

"Oh, what can we do if we don't worry? Can we still keep Huixin by our side for the rest of her life? She chose her own path, and we haven't lost her in any way. What happens in the future depends on her own destiny. "The old man shook his head and walked back. Mrs. Chen also followed back to the house.

In the days that followed, the Xu family began to be busy building a house. A lot of people came to the village, thirty or forty strong laborers. Within a few days, the big frames of the two houses were all built. The women in the family are also very busy. They have to prepare a lot of meals every day. Even the girls Jingya and Jinghan have to help pick and wash vegetables. The family spent five or six days busy and happily. Finally, the frame of the house was completed and the roof was finished. Zhixin said that he could do the rest of the work slowly at home. When the villagers saw that it was indeed not a big job, they stopped coming to help.

The Xue family could finally breathe a sigh of relief, and everyone said they wanted to take a good rest.

"Zhixin, isn't it time to mow the grass again in the Bangchui field? In this way, let the house dry first, then plaster the surface with mud, and set up a kang and a stove as well. After two days of rest, Let’s harvest the grass first.” The old man arranged the next work.

"Okay, listen to Dad. It's still far from winter anyway, so don't be too anxious. By the way, the village chief said that day that when June comes, it's time to divide the new ginseng soil. Dad, our family still needs to divide the soil this year. Twenty feet of soil, right?" Zhixin has been very tired these days and wants to rest for two days.

"Hey, let's go with twenty feet. If we add more, we don't have that many mallets to hand over. Besides, we don't have enough seeds. Twenty feet is enough." The old man hesitated for a moment, but decided This year it will be twenty feet.

It's June, and the weather is not very good. It rains every now and then. The ground in Shenchang was originally made of mud, but now it was even harder to walk on. So when it was raining and cloudy, Mrs. Chen didn't let the children walk around and usually stayed indoors. Wenhan took this opportunity to teach his younger brothers and sisters how to read. The seven or eight children were all in Wenhan's house, reading and reading every day, memorizing Tang poems and Song lyrics, etc., which was pretty good.

After four or five days of rain, it finally became sunny. Before the ground outside had dried, Jinghan and the others couldn't wait to run outside.

"Wenhan, Jinghan, it's wet and slippery outside, what can you do?" Ms. Xue asked after seeing the children running outside.

"Mom, it's been raining for several days. There might be Gastrodia elata in the forest. Let's go into the forest and see if we can dig up Gastrodia elata." Jinghan said as she walked. In Jinghan's previous life, at this time, people would go into the mountains to dig gastrodia elata. Furthermore, Zhiming also told everyone, so today they want to go into the mountain to have a look.

"Be careful when going into the mountains. It has just rained and there may be insects in the forest." Mr. Xue warned. The long worms, of course, were snakes. There were already many snakes in the mountains, not to mention it had just rained, so Xue was a little worried.

"It's okay, mother. My third uncle prepared some snake repellent medicine for us. We're all taking it with us." Wen Han waved his hand and led his younger siblings away.

The children all carried small baskets on their backs and walked happily into the forest. It had been raining for the past few days, which had made them miserable. When the weather finally cleared, they were as excited as little birds that wanted to escape from their cages. It is even more humid in the forest, and there are still water drops on the leaves of the trees. Under the sunlight, they reflect colorful light. The birds in the forest, after being silent for several days, finally let go of their voices and sang.

Stepping on the thick rotten leaves and grass under her feet and breathing the fresh air in the forest, Jinghan felt so comfortable that she couldn't help but shout.

Wenhan looked back at his sister, "Jinghan, why are you so crazy? Be careful and attract the wolf. Walk well, we are here to find Gastrodia elata, not to attract the wolf."

Jinghan smiled sheepishly, then lowered her head and started looking around. After a while, I really saw a Gastrodia elata tree. The purple-red pole is about less than a foot high, with yellow-green tassels growing on it. This is Gastrodia elata. "Brother, look, there is Gastrodia elata here." Jinghan shouted.

Everyone looked in the direction Jinghan pointed, and sure enough they saw it. Wen Han took the little doghead in his hand and came to the Gastrodia elata tree. Digging Gastrodia elata is very particular. You cannot just dig out the Gastrodia elata tree. The unearthed Gastrodia elata is not valuable. What is valuable is the ones in the ground that have not yet been unearthed. Therefore, the soil must be removed from under the gastrodia pole to reveal the oblong gastrodia tuber underneath, which looks like a potato. Then dig up the soil in the opposite direction of the gastrodia pole, and slowly dig back. You will find that there are many long oval potato-like things in the back of different sizes. Those are the valuable gastrodia, and these are called Zaizi.

The tree Jinghan saw actually had a lot of Gastrodia elata under it. Wenhan slowly dug out. After picking up the top layer, he dug down again and found several more. Just this one tree alone has half a catty of Gastrodia elata under it.

While Wenhan was picking Gastrodia elata, Wen Cheng and Jinghan saw several more Gastrodia elata trees, and they all started picking Gastrodia elata. Sometimes, there are some tree roots or something in the soil. At this time, Wenhan comes. He used a small tool to dig out the roots of the tree vigorously, so that he could continue to dig down the soil.

In one morning's work, everyone found more than a dozen Gastrodia elata trees, and when dug out, they weighed six to seven pounds of cubs. Wen Han saw that it was almost noon, so he led everyone back. When they got home, Zhiming saw the Gastrodia elata that the children had dug up, "Hey, I didn't expect that there are quite a lot of Gastrodia elata here. I'll join you in the afternoon. Let's Dig up the gastrodia elata together.”

"Okay, you'd better put up the kang in the house with me. I think it will be sunny for a while. I guess the village chief should bring people up to hang strings in the next two days to divide the soil. After dividing the soil equally, return We need to dig up the soil quickly. There won’t be much rain in July, so it’s time to get some sunshine. The next step is for the kids to do as much as they can. We just need to get the house sorted out as soon as possible.” Zhixin stared. He glanced at Zhiming and then said.

Zhiming scratched his head and felt a little embarrassed. He was still a doctor at heart, so he couldn't help but get excited when he saw the medicinal materials.