My 1995 Small Farm

   Chapter 184 New Son-in-law Treatment

   This homecoming banquet was lively and lively until late at night.

   The next morning.

  Chen Ling and Wang Susu got up early.

   As a result, when the two came out to wash, they found that the old man and his mother-in-law were already in the yard. The two old men were like children, each holding a handful of hay and feeding the little white cow with great interest.

The two old people were enjoying themselves, but the little white cow didn't seem to be enjoying it very much, and it was a little absent-minded when it chewed the grass, its ears were flapping, and its tail was fluttering lazily, as if it was accompanying the two. The old man plays, not two old men feed the cow.

   "Why are you both up so early?"

   Seeing the two come out, the mother-in-law was a little surprised.

   blamed Wang Susu again: "You are a real girl, you have a body, and you don't sleep much."

   "It's okay, mother, I'm used to getting up a little earlier, so that I have energy during the day."

  Wang Susu walked over with a smile.

The old father-in-law looked at Chen Ling with a smile, pointed at the little white cow and said, "You guys are very obedient in raising this cow. Yesterday Susu said about it, it really knows that my mother and I are his own, let's touch it. Let us also feed, but I'm still a little temperamental..."

   "Look at it, when you see you come out, you are so happy that you ignore us."

  Chen Ling smiled: "This cow has been smart since it was bought. The more it is raised, the more humane it is. It is very clingy and recognizes people. At home, it recognizes me and Susu."

   reached out and touched the big head of the little white cow, and scratched the sides of the horns on the top of the head. There are gaps between the two horns, which are easy to itch.

  Chen Ling scratched it so lightly, and as expected, he narrowed his eyes comfortably, and leaned his big head gently into Chen Ling's arms, rubbing it intimately.

   Gao Xiulan couldn't help but be happy when she saw this scene: "It's like raising a child."

  Wang Susu also laughed when he saw this: "Yes, the village said this, saying that A Ling didn't raise dogs or cows, but raised a few children. Who else is like him?"

"However, outsiders say, my dogs and cows are not good to them. They are all very sensible. Before winter, Heiwa and Xiaojin would fight each other every three days. They either chased rabbits or caught pheasants. Xiaobai Not only is he a good hand at pulling carts and plowing fields, but he can also watch over the house, which is more effective than ordinary dogs..."

Listening to the daughter's words, the old couple tutted their tongues in admiration: "It's true that you said that, I told your mother just now that after you slept at night, the two dogs stayed outside the door all night and told them to ignore them. , don't eat anything..."

   "Much stronger than the hounds of our stockade."

  Wang Susu felt a little proud when her parents said this, and waved at the two dogs and called them to her.

   At this time, the two dogs were no longer guarding the door under the eaves, but ran to the barn and lay on their stomachs, guarding the baggage they brought over.

   When called by Wang Susu, he trotted over, shook his head and waggled his tail around her, rubbed the palm of her hand, and acted coquettishly.

  The two old people couldn't help feeling joyful when they saw this, and they happily reached out and stroked them.

   "Good dog, it's such a big man, it's scary to look at. Our family has less medicine now, otherwise we would have to raise one."

  …

   "Xiulan, Xiulan, did you wake up..."

They were talking in the courtyard when someone came. It was a slightly sloppy old lady with muddy trouser legs, messy white hair, triangular eyes, an old black face and a red face. She walked away with a big snake. Come in.

   Seeing the four of them standing in the courtyard, he exclaimed in surprise: "Oh, I'm really lucky, my daughter and son-in-law are here."

   Then looked Wang Susu up and down: "You girl, you still look so good after two years."

   "Here, your third grandfather got a fat worm, let your mother make soup for you."

  Wang Susu seemed to know the old lady very well, so she was not polite, and immediately took the snake into her hand with a smile: "Thank you, third grandma."

   Then introduced to Chen Ling: "This is the third grandma of our family."

  Chen Ling hurriedly called the third grandma.

   He has an impression of this old lady. There are many snakes in the stockade, and many people will catch snakes in the mountains on weekdays, especially Wang Susu, the third grandmother and the third grandfather.

   "This son-in-law is good. When they came over yesterday, we met. They brought a lot of stuff. She's a real baby..."

   Wang Cunye and Gao Xiulan hurriedly agreed.

   Several people chatted again for a while.

After a while, after the third grandmother was sent out, other relatives came one after another. Although Yaowangzhai is not big, Wang Susu's relatives are not too few. In addition to his uncles, there are also two aunts and two aunts. After seeing Wang Susu and his wife, they affectionately said their thoughts, talked about family affairs, and praised their son-in-law. It was really lively.

  People come and go, the whole family is very happy, and Gao Xiulan has never smiled.

  When I had breakfast, I specially cooked brown sugar egg tea for Chen Ling.

The poached eggs inside    boiled six at a time.

  According to local customs, this can be regarded as the highest treatment for a new son-in-law returning home.

   After drinking the brown sugar egg tea cooked by his mother-in-law, Chen Ling felt warm all morning.

  After dinner, Wang Qingwen and his wife came over with their children. They went back to their home to sleep last night.

After    came over, he didn't say a word, he put down the children and hurried down the mountain. There were still classes in the school, so we couldn't always delay. Anyway, my sister and brother-in-law had to stay for a few more days, so there was no need to specially stay to entertain.

  The sun is gradually rising.

  In the golden sunshine, Gao Xiulan was cutting her daughter's hair under the big tree. Wang Susu's hair was so long that it could hang down to the bottom of her legs. In the past, it was braided into two thick braids or tied on her head.

   Long hair like this is beautiful.

   But now that I am pregnant, my belly will be getting bigger day by day. When I show my pregnancy, it is inconvenient to keep my belly up, so it is better to cut it early.

   "Tsk tsk, no wonder people praise me, my daughter-in-law is good-looking, her hair grows better than other girls, and it's dark and long. If you sell this big thick braid to a hair collector, it will definitely sell for a lot of money."

   Gao Xiulan brushed twice on her daughter's head slowly, smiling in admiration.

  Wang Susu shook his head: "I don't sell it. After you cut it out for me, mother, I will keep it. If I want to sell it, I will sell it for real."

  Wang Zhenzhen was playing with the dog with his little nephew outside the hospital at this time. When he heard the words inside, he stuck his head out and asked, "Mother, sister, did you call me?"

   "No, let's play with you, you have more things to do."

   Gao Xiulan glared at her angrily.

   Mother and daughter were talking with their hair cut.

   And Chen Ling helped the old man to pack up the medicinal materials, put them into bamboo plaques, and put them on the rack to dry.

   "The sun has been good these two days. Let's get some sun. Tomorrow is October 12. We will bring it to the town to sell, just in time for the market."

  Wang Cunye carefully spread out the herbs with his hands for better drying.

  What the old man said about going to the market is actually going to the market.

   Fenglei Town is at the junction of the three provinces, and the dialects are mixed, often about ten miles apart, the accent will change, and the various calling methods are also very different.

  According to the categories, the county can be vaguely divided into two dialect areas.

   For example, father and mother, most of them here are called father and mother, while in Changle Township and the east of the county seat, father is called "Da" or "Da".

   "I" passes through Changle Township to the east, and most of them are "I". Although "I" is also spoken in Fenglei Town, most of the spoken language is "I".

   "Father, the ones on the plaques over there are made of snakes we raised at home?"

  Chen Ling pointed to several bamboo plaques in front of Wang Cunye and asked.

  I saw that there were snake sloughs, snake gallbladders, snake whips, dried snake plates and other things inside these plaques. They looked dry, and each bamboo plaque was quite full.

   "Well, mostly."

Wang Cunye nodded, grabbed a few large snake plates and handed them to Chen Ling: "Look, these are made of long worms that we raise at home, most of them are non-poisonous old black pumice and cauliflower snakes, our own long worms are relatively large , looks well-proportioned."

   "The smaller ones in front of you are made of poisonous long worms that are specially caught on the mountain. There are large and small, five-step snakes, white-flowered snakes and so on."

  Chen Ling took a closer look and could only easily identify the common ones.

   Laozhang said that the old black snake is the black-headed snake, and the white-flowered snake is the silver-ringed snake.

   "Now all the ones we raise at home are non-toxic?"

   "Yeah, the long poisonous insects are raised and crawled all over the place, and it is easy to bite people. In fact, there are snake repellents and snake attracting medicines at home, so I am not afraid of the poisonous long insects..."

   "But my mother and I are older, and your elder brother and second elder brother have both gone out to live on their own. It's better for the old couple to save some snacks at home."

   Wang Cunye laughed.

   then led Chen Ling to the back of the house to watch the snake.

  There is a **** behind the house, and there are many kinds of fruit trees.

   Next to the base of the wall, there is a row of wooden snake raising boxes. Because of winter, the temperature changes greatly in the morning and night on the mountain. The snake raising box is covered with a thick thatch to keep warm.

  Wang Cunye walked up to him, lifted the thatched shawl, and opened the wooden box. Sure enough, several snakes were entangled in a ball, like a ball of snakes.

  Wang Cunye picked out two snakes and hung them on Chen Ling's arms.

   "These two boxes are the only ones left. The other boxes are empty. It's cold in the winter, and there aren't a few left."

Chen Ling grabbed two black-headed snakes that were twisting back and forth with his hands. This kind of snake is easy to feed, and the cost of breeding a litter is also low. However, now the transportation is inconvenient, and the snakes in the village are only made into medicinal materials. When I go to town to sell it to subsidize my family. It is far from the scale farming industry chain of later generations.

"Dad, I heard you say snake-inducing medicine, Susu also mentioned this at home, saying that it can lead snakes out of the hole if you sprinkle it, but she can only dispense snake-repelling medicine, and she doesn't know how to prepare snake-inducing medicine. , is this medicine really that powerful?"

   "Well, snake attracting medicine is very powerful."

  Wang Cunye glanced at him and said with a smile: "Let me tell you this, the recipe for this medicine used to be handed down in the stockade by men and not women. As a family heirloom, it shows how precious it is..."

   "I'll take you around the mountain later, so that you can see the power of snake-inducing medicine."

   "Okay, is it possible to attract snakes this winter?"

  Chen Ling questioned.

   "Yes, it's just winter, the worm nests are easy to find, and it's easy to draw them out."

   Wang Cunye replied.

   Put the snake in the snake raising box, cover it with thatch, and the two return to the courtyard.

  The old man found out the medicine for attracting snakes and put them in a small gourd the size of a palm. Then he took a hatchet and a snake hook, gave Chen Ling a steel fork, and put on a back basket, and the two were ready to set off.

   "Let's go out for a walk."

   Gao Xiulan hadn't cut Wang Susu's hair at this time. Hearing this, she looked up at their son-in-law and said, "Go, Lingzi, your father's legs and feet are not good, pay attention to him."

   "I know mother."

  Chen Ling responded quickly.

   A few years ago, my father-in-law accidentally fell while collecting herbs on a steep cliff and injured his leg and foot. If his father, Chen Juncai, did not happen to meet him, once it was night, he would have been more fortunate than good.

   The two families are also connected because of this.

   Although my father-in-law's legs have been taken care of in recent years, he can still see a little lame when he walks. When he walks, he walks with one foot on short high-heeled shoes and the other barefoot, high and low.

   Therefore, when picking herbs now, it is good if you can pick it, and it doesn’t matter if you can’t pick it.

   Anyway, the children are basically married now, so don’t worry too much.

   went out, Wang Zhenzhen and his little nephew ran over with two dogs. Knowing that they were going to catch the snake, they quickly shouted: "I am going too."

   "Don't go, if you go, you will go too."

   Wang Cunye did not agree.

   "It's okay, Dad, I'll hold Tongtong."

  Chen Ling saw that the two children were looking forward to it, so he said: "Tongtong, my uncle is going to play with you, whether you go or not."

  The little doll nodded immediately: "Go."

   Then he opened his arms and waited for Chen Ling to hug him.

   looked at Wang Cunye very helplessly: "You, no wonder you are really close to you, so used to them."

   "Haha, I'm happy."

  Chen Ling picked up his little nephew and followed Wang Cunye out of the stockade.

   As for Wang Zhenzhen, he ran to the front with his two dogs.

There are many miscellaneous trees on the mountain. This place is high and densely forested. My father-in-law took Chen Ling to walk some familiar mountain trails. This kind of trail is the trail that the herb collectors and the hunters walked out of. It is not a serious road at all. Walking through the creek, I walked into the forest for a while, walked into the valley for a while, and climbed to the top of the mountain for a while.

  According to Wang Cunye’s statement, such a road is already a good one.

   He also specially took Chen Ling to see the road that the young herb collectors often take.

Those narrow paths circled over the steep mountain walls, and could only accommodate two people, but when walking up, they would not dare to walk side by side, because the other side was an unfathomable mountain stream, and they would fall if they were not careful. Fall down and die.

  Chen Ling put down his little nephew and walked around alone to experience what it was like.

   He found that this kind of road is not only narrow, but also in some places when people pass by, there will be loose soil and rocks, and they will fall down the mountain stream in pieces, which is very scary.

   "Okay, Lingzi, your legs are very smart."

   Seeing Chen Ling walking easily, Wang Cunye smiled.

   He originally wanted Chen Ling to walk for a while, but he didn't know that he would return after walking around.

  I wanted to remind but didn't dare to remind him immediately, for fear of scaring Chen Ling and standing unsteady on it.

   Fortunately, Chen Ling's body is flexible, and he stepped over in three or two times. He looked very light, and he was relieved.

  Chen Ling smiled and said that he often walked up the mountain.

   At this time, Xiao Tongtong became familiar with him, and took the dog for a long walk with Wang Zhenzhen. After playing with the dog tired, he called out to his uncle and asked Chen Ling to hug him.

   After several people left the vicinity of the mountain stream, the road was still steep.

  The road that someone stepped on on the slope, dug one square pit after another.

  The old man told Chen Ling that these roads were called "pig trough roads".

   is named after the square pits that resemble pig troughs.

  The main reason is that this place has a lot of rain in summer and autumn. Once it rains, these steep hills will become very slippery and difficult for people or workhorses to climb.

   So these small pits have become the best anti-skid measures for mountain people and hunters who go into the mountains to collect herbs.

   "In the past, we used to collect herbs on this kind of trail. For example, the mountain walls and cliffs like just now, we often climbed up. Many times, the more indecent places, the more valuable goods."

   Wang Cunye said, Chen Ling listened.

   also talked about attracting snake fans.

  The old man didn't hide his secrets. In addition to attracting snake fans, he also told him some hunter tactics.

   Even took out a homemade bow and arrow and painted it on the spot.

   is also a poison, similar to the strychnine paste used by old hunters in Kinmen Village.

   But here we use mylabris and aconite, both of which are poisonous. They are mixed with medicinal powder and smeared on the front part of the dagger and bow and arrow. After the prey is hit, it will soon lose its ability to resist.

   "Slow, there is a snake nest ahead."

  Suddenly, Wang Cunye stretched out his hand to stop Chen Ling, preventing him from moving forward.

   "Come here too, don't run around."

  Chen Ling looked up and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but the two dogs sensed something sensitively, but they didn't have any interest on their faces.

   "Shh, don't talk..."

  Wang Cunye reminded in a low voice, then took out the gourd, pulled the stopper and poured the snake-inducing medicine into the palm of his hand. The snake-inducing medicine was a pinch of pale yellow powder and carefully sprinkled near the snake's nest.

Then he took out a bamboo whistle, put it on his mouth and blew it gently. The sound was very small, very subtle, and seemed to be nothing. It was completely different from the method of playing the flute to control the poisonous snake that Chen Ling had seen, and he didn't know what it was. principle.

   In less than two minutes, a miraculous scene appeared. In the grass four or five meters away, a fire chain snake with a length of more than one meter and the thickness of an arm drilled out and slowly crawled towards Wang Cunye.

   This scene made Chen Ling a little dumbfounded.

   (end of this chapter)