Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 317: Going into the mountains again and encountering water birds again
Lin Heng trotted over and showed Xiulan the wound on his arm from a bee sting.

Xiulan was also frightened when she saw it: "Why was I stung so many times this time?"

As she asked, she took Lin Heng's hand, squeezed the bee venom for him, then blew on it and applied some cooling oil.

Seeing his wife's distressed expression, Lin Heng immediately felt much better and explained, "Because the number of bees we caught this time was large and they already had a nest, it was much harder to catch them than usual. Even a raincoat couldn't cover them."

"Then you'll just have to bear with it." Xiulan shook her head gently and got him a glass of water from the side. "Fengzi, have you already put it in the ginseng garden?"

"Yes, it's already there." Lin Heng nodded and took a sip of water.

Xiaoxia came over and blew on Lin Heng's wound with her little mouth: "I'll blow on Daddy too!"

"My dear, I'll let you taste the honey first." Lin Heng smiled happily, went into the house to get a basin and gauze, then took out the cut honeycombs and put them in it.

"Five pieces! That's so many." Xiulan said in surprise as she looked at the honey comb.

"Because this time it's a strong swarm, the number of bees is more than the bucket we collected last year." Lin Heng explained while cutting a small piece for Xiaoxia.

Xiaoxia looked at the golden yellow honey and handed it to her mother: "Mom, eat it first. Mom is going to give birth to a younger brother for me."

Xiulan was touched and amused by her action. She touched her face and said with a smile, "My dear daughter, you are so kind. But you eat first. Your father will cut it for me soon."

Xiaoxia tilted her head and said, "Then mom, eat more and give me another brother or sister."

She recently wanted a younger brother or sister to play with her. She was so bored being alone in the mountains and kept asking her mother for help.

"Okay!" Xiulan touched her head.

Lin Heng cut a small piece for Xiulan and half a honeycomb as a snack. He put the rest in gauze and crushed it with a rolling pin to filter out the honey.

The one pound of honey I bought was filtered out of four bottles of glass bottles, so four pounds was more than enough. All of them were deep mountain honey with a variety of flowers. They were golden in color and very tempting.

Then Lin lit a charcoal fire, put the remaining residue from the filter into a small pot, added water and boiled it. After boiling, both the honey and the beeswax melted in the water.

He then took out the water and set it aside to cool. During this time, he and Xiulan picked some mushrooms that he had collected in the morning. After picking them, they placed them on the charcoal fire and dried them in a bamboo grill.

After all the mushrooms were picked, the water containing honey and beeswax had cooled down, and the orange-yellow beeswax floating on the water had solidified and could be easily taken out.

The purified beeswax is stored. It has many uses. The simplest one is to make lipstick. Xiulan quite likes the lipstick he makes.

The remaining water is very sweet because it contains a lot of honey. You can add some rice, red beans, lotus seeds, peanuts, etc. to make porridge, so there is no waste at all.

During lunch, eldest brother Lin Yue came back from picking mushrooms and came over to ask about Lin Heng’s injury.

"I'm fine. Big brother, you came at the right time. Sit down and eat before going back. I'll prepare it for you." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"Okay." Lin Yue nodded with a smile, and without any hesitation, he sat down and ate a bowl of porridge and a few potato cakes.

After dinner, Lin Heng gave him another bottle of honey.

"I can't help you, just take it and eat it yourself." Lin Yue shook his head and said.

Lin Heng stuffed it into his hand and said with a smile: "Just take it. Don't be polite with me. I still have more than ten kilograms of honey at home."

"Yes, brother. There's no need to be polite between our two families." Xiulan also echoed.

"Okay then." Lin Yue had no choice but to accept it, and then the two of them discussed it again and decided that if there was no rain tomorrow, they would go up the mountain to take a look.

The water level here in the mountain stream is still too high, so it is not easy to build a small dam for the time being. We have to wait for the sun to shine for a day or two.

After the discussion, Lin Heng took a jar of honey down the mountain and gave it to his parents. In the countryside, people rarely eat alone, and people are happy only when they have good things to share with friends and family.

"How could you be so careless, kid? You got stung so many times." Mother Lin looked at him and shook her head.

"It's okay, it doesn't hurt anymore, it's just very itchy. You can drink the honey and Panax notoginseng powder." Lin Heng smiled and waved his hand.

Mother Lin asked, "Did you keep any for yourself?"

"Don't worry, we still have seven or eight kilograms." Lin Heng said with a smile, and went to feed the cattle and sheep. His father was still helping at the Liu family.

After feeding, he found that there was already a lot of feces in the pen. These guys also spilled the salt bricks he hung up on the ground. After washing them and hanging them up again, Lin Heng pushed a cart to shovel the cow and sheep feces.

The ground was flushed with a hose and then limed for disinfection. Thanks to good hygiene management, the cattle and sheep have thrived and have grown significantly in the past month.

This is especially obvious with the black goats. The little rams have manes on their necks and they fight and collide in the pen after eating.

The calves are in much better condition. The largest one is the male dairy cow owned by Lin Heng, followed by the male Qinchuan yellow cattle. The remaining nine females are growing relatively slowly, and the changes are not as great as those of the bulls.

After cleaning, Lin Heng looked at the cattle and sheep for a while, reached out to touch them, then locked the door and left with satisfaction.

“It’s not raining!”

After coming out, Lin Heng looked at the sky in surprise. The rain had stopped, the sky was blue and white and particularly high, and there were dewdrops on the grass leaves that were as crystal clear as gems.

After looking at the sky for a while, Lin Heng walked up the mountain along the cement path. Because the rain had stopped, Xiaoxia started playing in the woods. Caiyun and Xiulan watched from the side for fear that she would fall.

"Wife, if the rain stops, I will go up the mountain tomorrow." Lin Heng said to Xiulan.

Xiulan nodded: "Go ahead."

Caiyun smiled and said, "Don't worry, second brother. I will take care of my sister-in-law."

Lin Heng nodded and went to fetch two buckets of water so that they would have water to use tomorrow.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next morning. Lin Heng planned to stay in the mountain for a few more days this time, so he was not in a hurry to leave early in the morning. There was heavy dew in the morning and it was difficult to walk.

After breakfast, Xiulan prepared some food for him on the road. Lin Heng went to the ginseng garden and opened the hole of the beehive. Immediately, the bees couldn't wait to fly out, flew around the area twice, and then flew away to collect honey.

Seeing the bees settled down, Lin Heng went down the mountain and returned to the village to get some equipment, and then brought Jinbao and Fengshou back to Hongfeng Mountain. No one fed them after he entered the mountain.

The chickens and cows in the back mountain were entrusted to my sister-in-law Liu Juan to help raise. The red dates were all on Hongfeng Mountain, so there was no need to worry.

The sun, which had not been seen for a few days, came out early today. As soon as it appeared, it reminded people of the days dominated by its scorching heat.

"Wow, Jimbo!"

Xiaoxia was so excited to see Jinbao that she ran over and hugged him. However, Jinbao was too fat for her to hold him, so she kissed and touched him.

Fengshou played with Xiongba for a while, and when he came out, he also started to have fun.

"The meal is ready, let's eat." Xiulan said. "Okay." Lin Heng nodded.

After they finished eating, Xiulan nagged him again to be careful.

After dinner, Lin Heng waited for a while before his elder brother came over, carrying a shotgun and saying, "Let's go, brother."

"Let's go." Lin Heng nodded, comforted Xiaoxia, and asked Caiyun to take her with him. The two of them set off into the mountains with Xiongba and Fengshou.

Lin Yue asked as he walked along the road, "Shall we hurry on today and go to the cave near where we looked for ginseng last time?"

Lin Heng nodded: "Yes, let's hurry up and explore along both sides of the road ahead. We just need to get there before dark."

On the way, the two of them looked at the noose traps and found that they had not been set recently. The forest was full of mushrooms after the rain, and red mushrooms and white lime mushrooms were everywhere, in patches and clumps.

Of course, they would not pick up these mushrooms. They would only pick up Ganoderma lucidum, Mori yellow mushrooms, and other delicious mushrooms. But they would not pick up any other mushrooms.

We set off at 11 o'clock and arrived at Sanchagou at o'clock. Then we moved forward along the ridge beside the gully. We arrived at the camp above Sanchagou at :. We rested here for a while and then continued on our way.

Last year, there was a nest of wild bees not far from here. Because there were many locust flowers around, they produced locust flower honey. They planned to harvest the honey when they came back.

We didn't catch any prey along the way, and we didn't find many Ganoderma lucidum and Coriolus versicolor. We did pick up a lot of mushrooms, which we will put outside to dry when we get to the camp and then take home.

As they walked, Xiongba suddenly stopped and looked at a large pool of water in front of him. Then Fengshou also stopped and watched.

The two men hurriedly slowed down and looked in the direction they were looking. After a while, they found two mallard ducks by the water. These guys were hunting small fish near the water plants. The fish in their mouths emitted a golden luster in the sun.

"Finally, I saw some decent prey." Lin Heng said in a low voice with some excitement.

Lin Yue said softly: "Then you come and fight."

Lin Heng nodded and took his elder brother's hunting rifle. He wanted to play with the hunting rifle today, and the bow and arrow were not easy to use.

Plugging his ears and holding the hunting rifle, he approached to a distance of about thirty meters. After taking aim, Lin Heng pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, countless tiny lead bullets flew over, and the leaves of the water plants were instantly riddled with holes. The two mallards also fell to the ground and were silent.

"Wang Wang~"

Seeing the duck fall, the two dogs Xiongba Fengshou swam over happily and brought the duck back.

"There's meat for tonight." Lin Heng said with a smile.

Lin Yue was also happy: "Finally I caught the prey."

This mallard is heavier than the golden pheasant. Each one weighs about two kilograms, and if killed, it can weigh one and a half kilograms.

"Let's go, it's getting late." Lin Heng said as he put the duck blood.

We continued to move forward. We didn't encounter any ducks, pheasants, or golden pheasants along the way, but we did pick up a lot of Ganoderma lucidum and birch logs. There are many red birch trees in the Qinling Mountains, and the birch logs on these trees are also quite valuable.

It was a little after six in the afternoon when they finally arrived at the cave shelter. They had explored a bit along the way and did not dare to arrive any earlier.

"We're finally here!" Lin Heng took a deep breath, put down his things and sat down. They carried more weight today than last time, not counting the equipment, each of them brought more than ten kilograms of food.

Not to mention the people, even the two dogs Xiongba Fengshou were so tired that they lay on the ground motionless.

"The camp is broken again, we have to rebuild it." Lin Yue took a sip of water and looked at the dilapidated shelter. The good news is that the stove with smoke coming out from the outside is still good and can be used directly.

"That's not a big deal. There's a lot of mugwort in the canyon, and it's not difficult to build it after cutting down a lot of shrubs. It's just that making a hammock is more time-consuming." Lin Heng shook his head and said.

They had collected all the vines on the way here, but now they didn't have the energy to weave them.

"Let's make the bed tomorrow. I'm too tired to move today." Lin Yue shook his head and said.

The two men rested for a while, then went to the surrounding area to cut some bushes and mugwort to reinforce the windbreak wall outside the cave. After finishing this, they first went to the river to find a shallow and flat place to set up fishing traps.

Fish is the easiest source of meat to catch in the wild. With fish, there is no need to worry about food for the two dogs. The little food they carry is not enough for themselves, let alone feeding the dogs.

They had set up the stone fishing trap many times and were very familiar with it. They first used large stones to build the corresponding outline, then filled the gaps with mud and pebbles, and finally placed some Lin Heng's homemade rice wine and frog corpses in the center to complete it.

They expect to stay for at least three to five days this time. The trap is quite large, covering an area of ​​more than four square meters.

It was almost dark when the trap was set. The sunset could not be seen in the canyon at all. Only a faint red glow could be seen in the west.

But even if there was a sunset, they were not in the mood to watch it. They were too tired today. They boiled water to scald the duck and cleaned it. They chopped up the duck's internal organs and put them into their homemade broad bean sauce to stir-fry. They added water and noodles to make duck noodles.

After the two of them ate the above, they cooked a pot of duck necks, duck wings or noodles and fed them to the two dogs. They could only eat half a bag of fish tonight, but they should have enough fish to eat by tomorrow morning.

After eating the noodles, the two of them tidied the bed. The bottom was covered with mugwort, and the top was the hay found in the cave. It was quite comfortable to sleep on, and mugwort also had the effect of repelling mosquitoes.

However, even though the bed was made, the two of them couldn't sleep yet. They had to pick the mushrooms they had picked today, break them apart and let them dry. If they were left like this all night, they would definitely go bad.

Even though they didn't pick up much on the way, they walked a long way after all, and they picked up about 30 to 40 kilograms of mushrooms, and they were all top-notch, high-quality mushrooms, so they couldn't let them rot.

"Finally I can sleep."

After picking mushrooms, Lin Heng took a deep breath and lay on his back on the grass bed without moving.

The two dogs nearby had already fallen asleep and now looked as good as dead.

"Take a rest!" Lin Yue blocked the door, lit a fire and lay down on the bed to rest.

It was only nine o'clock, but both of them fell asleep in seconds.

The next morning, the two were awakened by the chirping of birds outside. The moment they woke up, they felt weak and tired.

"We got up late. We can't go hunting this morning." Lin Yue said after looking at the sky.

"It doesn't matter. Just keep looking for ginseng."

Lin Heng waved his hand, took the soap and towel and went to the river to wash his face.

"Damn, there was a big shipment last night, bro."

Lin Heng had just finished washing his face when he heard his elder brother exclaiming beside him.

"How big is the fish?" Lin Heng quickly washed his face and asked as he walked. He could hear the sound of fish splashing in the water from a distance.

"At least three or four pounds. You'll never guess what kind of fish it is!" Lin Yue said as he blocked the entrance to the trap.

(End of this chapter)