Chapter 125 Entering the Mountains to Pick Wild Fruits
Chapter 125 Going into the mountains to pick wild fruits
Author: Han Ming
Chapter 125 Going into the mountains to pick wild fruits
"Brother Anzi, go up to the mountain to pick sheep peaches."
Not long after dinner in the afternoon, Huang Ming and Zhou Yang came to the yard to call for someone.
"What are you going to do in the mountains now? The sun is so bright."
"The sun is really bright now. Let's go to the mountains to pick sheep, peaches and wild walnuts."
Seeing them each carrying a basket, it seemed that it was impossible not to go today.
"Just go with them. Why are you sitting at home every day?"
Before Zhang An said whether he wanted to go, Wang Fang, who was next to him, asked Zhang An to go for a walk in the mountains with them.
In the past, Zhang An would go to the town or county from time to time.
Now Zhang An just sits at home and doesn't go anywhere.
Wang Fang feels that her son is now like a big girl who can't get out of the house or take any steps forward.
"Okay, okay, wait until I get home to look for something."
Zhang An went home and found a backpack. After thinking about it, he picked up a small medicine hoe so that he could dig out whatever he encountered on the mountain.
There is no need to take the sickle because Zhou Yang has already brought it.
Sheep peaches are kiwi fruits, but the kiwi fruits in Zhang An's mountains are all wild.
Some kiwis have red hearts and some have green hearts.
Some are long and large, and some are smaller and rounder.
During this time, there are many ripe things in the mountains, including sheep peaches, star fruits, wild walnuts and many more.
At this time of year, after everyone finishes their work, they go to the mountains to pick some.
Especially wild walnuts, which can be stored for a long time if picked and dried.
Everyone will go to the mountains to pick a lot of them and wait until the Chinese New Year to take them out with melon seeds and peanuts to entertain guests.
In the past two years, many families in the village have planted walnut trees.
Zhang An found everything and found a bamboo hat to take with him.
Zhou Yang and others also joked that Zhang An was afraid that the sun would cause the flowers on his head to fall off.
"Let's go, you take the lead wherever we go today."
After seeing Zhang An finish cleaning up, a group of energetic young men from the village also went out and walked into the mountains.
The mountains at this time are a little different from summer, because the corn in the mountains has been taken back home.
Now there are no patches of corn bushes in the field, it looks a bit bare, only piles of corn and hay.
The river ditch behind the village is the only way out of the village and into the mountains.
No matter which mountain you want to go to, you must first follow the river ditch.
Although there is still water flowing in the rivers and ditches during this season, it is no longer comparable to that in summer.
It is probably because the rainy season has passed long ago and it has not rained much recently, so the amount of water flowing out of the mountain springs is getting smaller and smaller.
Until winter, there was only such a small stream of water flowing in this ditch.
Huang Ming was a little jumpy when walking, sometimes walking in front and sometimes walking behind. There happened to be a piece of land in front of him that belonged to his family.
He ran over and chopped some corn stalks with a sickle, brought them over and distributed them to Zhou Yang and Zhang An.
This corn stalk has more water and tastes sweet when chewed.
Zhang An and the others often cut them down and eat them. As long as they peel off the outer skin of the corn stalks, they taste just like sugar cane.
However, it can only be eaten in these two days. After a few more days, the corn stalks will be dried out and cannot be eaten.
"I said, brother, which way are you leading the way?"
Zhang An looked at Zhou Yang and Huang Ming without saying where they were going, and just led Zhang An forward with their heads down.
"Go to the opposite side of the Guanyin Bridge. There is a big piece of peaches there. My father told me about it."
Guanyin Bridge is a place in the mountains, where it looks like a suspended natural bridge.
Just like the bridge across the river at the entrance of Zhang An's village, it is naturally formed.
Zhang An still understands that the village entrance can form a natural bridge.
Maybe the entrance to the village was a big mountain a long time ago, but because the water in the river has been flowing.
Over time, the small cave was slowly washed away by the river into such a large cave, and the current bridge appeared.
But Zhang An couldn't figure it out over the Guanyin Bridge. It was probably the crustal movement mentioned in the book.
The names of Guanyin Mountain and Guanyin Bridge come from a cave on the mountain.
Many, many years ago, someone discovered a cave in this mountain, and there was a natural human-shaped stone statue in the cave.
Because it looks like the Guanyin statue in the temple, everyone calls it Guanyin Cave.
Many nearby villagers often go to worship the Guanyin statue.
Especially families that have not had children for a long time will go to Guanyin Cave to ask for a child.
But there is a saying that after many people go to Guanyin Cave to worship, they basically become pregnant not long after returning home. This is quite mysterious.
As time went by, word spread about it, and people from far away often came to pay their respects.
Therefore, the mountain where the cave is located is also called Guanyin Mountain.
The suspended bridge at the entrance of Guanyin Cave is also called Guanyin Bridge.
Guanyin Bridge connects two hills, and below is a very large valley.
Standing on it, you can see a large area nearby.
Zhang An doesn't know how this place was formed. He can only say that nature has miraculous creations.
The three of them walked all the way into the mountain, and now they had missed the river ditch and started to go into the woods.
"Look, there is a big pile of goat's milk Mengler over there."
Suddenly, Huang Ming, who was leading the way, stopped and pointed to Zhou Yang and Zhang An.
Zhang An looked in the direction Huang Ming pointed, at the road ridge ahead.
The goat's milk dream has grown from golden to red.
Zhang An didn't even have to think about it, this dream of goat's milk was already ripe for him.
Goat milk dream is also called goat milk fruit, which is a wild fruit in the mountains.
It blooms and bears fruit every summer, and begins to mature in late summer and early autumn.
Zhang An and the others used to go to the mountains to pick them.
And no matter whose property there is, there will always be something like this growing on it.
When people hoe the ground, they don't dig it up as weeds.
On the contrary, sometimes when fertilizing the ground, I also add some to it.
Because in this time of shortage of fruits, both adults and children like to eat goat milk dream.
Goat milk fruit begins to mature in August and September, and is yellow at first.
It's not very tasty at this time because it tastes a bit astringent.
When it starts to turn red, just like what Zhang An and the others are experiencing now, it's time to become very delicious.
But when the goat's milk dream grows red, it will easily fall to the ground.
The three of them all have younger brothers and sisters at home. When they saw it, they definitely wanted to take it home to comfort their children.
"Why don't we go up the mountain first and pick them again when we come back, otherwise they will be crushed in the basket by then."
Since we have to go into the mountains now, we are not in a hurry to pick them.
Listening to Zhang An's words, a few people just picked a few and tasted them before continuing into the mountain.
The mountains at this time are the real paradise.
At that time, Zhang An's family had not yet been separated, and Zhang An's grandfather raised a big buffalo.
Every day when Zhang An came back from school, he would go to the mountains to graze cattle with the people in the village.
There were a lot of people in the cattle herding team in the village at that time, ranging from seven or eight to more than a dozen people, both men and women.
But in fact, there were only four or five families in the group who owned cattle.
The other people went to the mountains to play and cut pig grass on the way, because there were many people raising pigs.
But after so many years, Zhang An still has a particularly deep impression of that time.
Above Yanzi Rock, through the woods, there is a mountainous area called Sandy Land.
It was all sand, and that place was Zhang An's paradise at that time.
As soon as they reach the mountains, these cows will find a place to eat grass on their own.
Everyone rushed into the woods to search for wild fruits.
The younger children could only stay and watch the cows.
After finding something and returning, everyone is willing to share some with those who stay to look at the cows.
Zhang An and the others even brought ropes with them at that time.
When we got to the woods, we tied ourselves to two trees and played on the swing.
Now that I think about it, although I was poor before, I was actually quite happy.
Until now, the cattle herding brigade in the village is still passed down, although the captain of the cattle herding brigade has changed from generation to generation.
But in recent years, more and more families are raising cattle and horses in the village.
The cattle herding brigade has become a real cattle herding brigade, instead of just a dozen kids herding a few cows as before.
"Uncle An Zi, you have built a loess slope for the village. What are you going to use it for? Do you have any big plans?"
The three of them walked slowly forward on the path in the mountains.
I just randomly picked up some random topics, otherwise it would be too quiet in this mountain forest.
"I'm going to use it to plant some fruit trees. Didn't you ask me some time ago what those things are behind me? They are the cherry saplings I'm going to plant on Loess Slope."
"Is it the cherry you planted in your old yard? That cherry is so delicious. I will give you a few of them and I will plant them in the yard."
When Zhang An's cherries were ripe before, he gave some to many families in the village.
Huang Ming had eaten it at that time, so he was thinking about it now.
"Okay, you can just come and get it when the time comes."
Anyway, they were just a few seedlings. Huang Ming wanted them, so Zhang An gave them to him.
"Are you going to die this year?"
"Yeah, well, anyway, if you stay down during this period, you will have time to grow up. Then you don't have to be afraid when the cold weather comes. It's sooner rather than later."
Zhang An had already planned that as long as the package was secured, he would be killed this year.
Wait until next spring, the tree will grow.
"Okay, when you are about to fall into trouble, come and shout and I will help."
Zhou Yang's family has made a lot of money this year, which is not bad compared to Zhang Xinmin's family.
So when Zhou Yang heard that Zhang An was going to plant trees, he would definitely go to help.
"And me, I will come when the time comes."
After hearing what Zhou Yang said, Huang Ming was not far behind.
Now that Huang Ming is like this, everyone in his family is happy.
Including Huang Ming’s mother, although Huang Ming usually doesn’t listen to what his mother says.
But now Huang Ming doesn't hang out on the streets, nor does he ask them for money every day.
"Okay, I'll definitely need both of you when the time comes, and I'll give you your wages then."
Zhang An will definitely call them two when the time comes. Zhou Yang and Huang Ming are two young laborers.
"What? Do you still need to pay me wages?"
Huang Ming and Zhou Yang both wanted to help, and had no plans to become part-time workers.
"We definitely need to pay for the work. Otherwise, if there are so many, how many days will it take us to plant them."
"Even if I ask for help, our family won't be able to come back in the future, so why not give me some wages and everyone will be happy."
Anyway, Zhang An planned to find more people at once, and it would only take two or three days to plant them.
"Anyway, I don't want it. Brother Anzi, you don't have to retaliate against my family."
Zhang An rolled his eyes when he heard what Huang Ming said.
"Come on, everyone wants it. If you don't want it, I won't invite you. Your mother will be very dissatisfied by then."
"Besides, if you don't make some money yourself now, you won't even have the money to treat a little girl on the street to a popsicle. Our family has spent tens of thousands of yuan, and we can still save dozens of yuan of your wages."
The three of them walked for more than half an hour and finally arrived at Guanyin Mountain.
Because people come here often, the road conditions are relatively good.
There are no big thorns or other weeds on the road, it is clean.
When they got here, Huang Ming took the lead and led Zhou Yang and Zhang An forward.
Several people climbed up Guanyin Mountain and walked through the entrance of Guanyin Cave to go up to Guanyin.
When Zhou Yang passed by Guanyin Cave, he went in specially to pay homage.
"Oh, Zhou Yang wants to ask Guanyin Bodhisattva to bless you to give birth to a fat son as soon as possible."
Huang Ming and Zhang An made fun of Zhou Yang's behavior.
"Go away, you pigworm can't spit out ivory from the dog's mouth. When my mother was injured before, I came to beg her. Now that my mother is well, I happened to meet her and I said goodbye."
The relationship between the three of them is very strange. Huang Ming, Zhang An and Zhou Yang are of the same generation, and Zhang An is Zhou Yang's uncle, a close relative.
Anyway, the calculation is a bit messy, but it is like this in rural areas, everyone has his own name.
"Come on, Guanyin Bodhisattva is specially worshiped by people who want to have a baby, but you still bother us."
In the end, Zhou Yang was made to stare at Huang Ming, so Huang Ming did not mention this matter.
But in fact Zhou Yang is not young anymore, he is two years older than Zhang An.
Among these three people, Huang Ming is the youngest, but he is also nineteen years old.
Moreover, during this period of time, Zhou Yang's family was also making arrangements to propose marriage to him.
"Okay, okay, stop making trouble, Huang Ming quickly lead the way, don't you want to take us to pick sheep peaches?"
When they heard Zhang An shouting, the two stopped fighting.
When we came to Guanyin Bridge, the mountain breeze blowing from above felt very comfortable.
This mountain breeze is not like the strong wind on many mountaintops, it blows very softly.
Standing on Guanyin Bridge, you can see what Changqing Village looks like.
The view here is very broad, but those who are afraid of heights are advised not to come here.
Because the valley below was indeed very deep, Zhang An felt a little dizzy just looking at it.
After crossing Guanyin Bridge and walking for half an hour, we finally arrived at the place Huang Ming mentioned.
This is a sunny slope. Although there are many trees growing there, most of them are sparse.
It's quite far away from Guanyin Bridge. No wonder so many people come to Guanyin Cave but don't come to pick wild fruits.
In this forest, there are many sheep and peach trees.
Wild sheep peach trees do not grow very tall and usually grow under other tall trees.
Therefore, the fruits produced by the sheep peach trees in front of us look relatively small.
Zhang An picked a ripe sheep peach and picked it from the tree.
Peel off the fluffy outer skin, pop it into your mouth and eat it.
This is really delicious, all natural, no medicines, cooked naturally.