"Haha, think about it for yourself, have you ever ridden a dog before when you were a child?"
The adults at home are quite superstitious and often teach their children not to ride pigs or dogs.
If I rode a pig when I was a kid, it would snow heavily when I got married and held a banquet when I grew up.
And if you ride a dog, it will rain heavily if you do something important at home, which is unlucky.
Of course, many adults also use it to coax children, just to prevent the children from tossing the pigs and dogs at home.
Later, this sentence was often used as a joke.
Zhou Yang really thought about it carefully. Although this kind of thing has no basis, he usually doesn't believe it.
But when it comes to yourself, you still have to think about it.
After all, there is a saying that it is better to believe that something exists than to believe something does not exist.
"I have never ridden one before. I wanted to ride one at that time, but my mother gave me a good whipping and then I behaved."
Zhou Yang's words made everyone around him laugh. The adults here are all elders.
They all grew up watching Zhang An and Zhou Yang's generation.
Zhang An and the others had forgotten some things that happened when they were young, but these uncles would remind them from time to time.
Not long after chatting with Zhou Yang and the others, Zhang An walked towards the back of the village.
When he left the village and walked to Chahe, Zhang An saw his fourth grandfather.
Fourth Master Zhang also carried a load of things on his shoulders, and it looked like he was going to the fields in the mountains.
"Fourth Grandpa, what did you pick?"
Zhang An strode forward and soon caught up with Fourth Master Zhang.
"When I came back from pressing oil yesterday, I picked some oil cakes to put in leaf tobacco."
Mr. Zhang and his elders did not spend money to buy cigarettes.
Instead, you can grow your own leaf tobacco, plant it on a small piece of land, collect the tobacco leaves and dry them, and you can smoke them for a year.
Sometimes there is still a lot left over that can be sold on the street to get some gas money.
"Master, give it to me and I'll help you pick it up."
Zhang An took advantage of his fourth grandfather's words to reach over and take the burden from the old man's shoulders.
"I can pick it myself, but I didn't pick much."
In the village, there are many people of Master Zhang's age who can carry burdens up the mountain and into the fields.
On the one hand, my body is relatively healthy, and on the other hand, my family is in general, so I want to do more.
Although Fourth Master Zhang felt that it was not heavy and wanted to carry it to the field by himself, Zhang An took it over with a pole.
It really didn't weigh much. The two baskets were filled with pig manure mixed with oil cakes.
It looks like a lot, but it only weighs fifty or sixty pounds.
"Master, how many leaves have been planted this year?"
Zhang An looked at the small amount of oil cakes and pig dung in the basket, maybe there wasn't enough space to store it.
"I planted about a hundred rice seedlings this year, and I didn't even think about selling them. I just have enough to plant myself."
In previous years, when the old man was plating tobacco leaves, he always planted two cents of land.
However, Zhang An feels that it is better to plant less tobacco. Planting too much flue-cured tobacco will be tiring.
The key is that you can't smoke it all yourself, and you can't sell it at a high price if you take it to the town.
And today’s young people like to spend money to smoke cigarettes.
Even if you don't have money, Jiaozi, who can buy a pack for one yuan, won't smoke leaf cigarettes.
Therefore, the leaf tobacco produced by the old men is only appreciated by the elderly.
And it's also because it's cheap that those old men are willing to spend money to buy it.
Of course, another reason is that the leaves roasted by yourself are too smokey.
Generally, young people who have only been smoking for a short period of time cannot resist the momentum of leaf cigarettes.
Zhang An had tried it before when he was smoking, and he stewed himself down after just two puffs.
"Where are you planning to go?"
Fourth Master Zhang watched his eldest grandson heading into the mountains, but he didn't bring anything with him, thinking that Zhang An was going to collect condoms.
"I heard from Tiewazi and the others that there are a lot of stone pounds in the forest at the foot of the sandy field. I haven't eaten in many years, and my mouth is a bit itchy, so I wanted to take a look and catch some, hehe."
Fourth Master Zhang has known for a long time that he doesn't like anything about Zhang An except this delicious bite.
"Where are the stone scales over there? This thing likes to be near stone water, so even if there is one there, I'm afraid it will only be a little big."
Fourth Master Zhang said and pointed the direction to Zhang An.
"If you really want to catch the big ones, you have to go to a well to wash them. Stone pounds like to stay near rocks with water. Once you pass that place, you can hear their noisy noise."
The place over the sand was just a place Zhang An mentioned casually, and he never thought about actually going there.
But when Zhang An heard what his fourth grandfather said, he smiled and agreed.
Anyway, it's close to the mountains. It's much closer to the wells. You just need to walk along this river ditch.
After walking for more than ten minutes, we arrived at the place where Mr. Zhang grew leaf cigarettes.
This is not a mountain, but a rocky protrusion on the back mountain.
The land at home must be used to grow food, but Fourth Master Zhang is reluctant to use it to grow leaf cigarettes.
So just carve out a piece of mud land in this stone field and plant some randomly.
"Go quickly, I can do this myself."
Zhang An originally planned to accompany his fourth grandfather to gain weight.
But when they got to the fields, Fourth Master Zhang drove Zhang An away.
He also said that Zhang An was not sure how to measure it, and he would burn his leaf cigarette later if he put too much.
But in fact, Fourth Master Zhang didn't want Zhang An to do it and save his hands from getting dirty with pig manure.
However, Zhang An didn't insist on being stubborn with the old man, and he did take the risk as much as possible.
The total amount of fat I picked is just this little. If I add too much later, I'm afraid it won't be enough later.
On the way towards the well, Zhang An picked a few rice seedlings here and a few white dreams there.
This season, there are more and more wild berries on the mountains, and you can see them just a few steps away from the water.
Because Zhang An walked up the river ditch, most of this area was filled with paddy fields.
With the existence of rivers and ditches, as long as there is no severe drought, there will be no shortage of water in these fields.
Therefore, the rice production in the village does not only rely on the paddy fields in the dams beside the river.
There are also terraces behind the village, next to these ditches.
After walking a few steps up the river, Zhang An saw several bumble bees on the blooming prickly pear flowers nearby.
After Zhang An came closer, they seemed to feel Zhang An and flew over and landed on Zhang An's shoulders.
It can be seen that these bumblebees are from the boxes raised by Zhang An's family.
Zhang An knew that bees could fly far to collect honey, but he never expected that he would meet his family members when he went out.
Prickly pear is very abundant here in Changqing and can be found everywhere.
They can be seen everywhere in fields, mountains, and woods.
When the seedlings were planted some time ago, the prickly pears had already begun to bloom.
By now, many flowers have faded and prickly pears have grown.
There are also some prickly pear trees that have just begun to bloom.
After mid-July, these prickly pears will slowly mature.
At that time, the children will pick and eat wild fruits, and the adults will pick some, cut them up, dry them at home, and use them to make wine.
Zhang An plans to pick some this year and make a jar of prickly pear wine at home.
Zhang An walked alone and walked quickly, and it didn't take long to reach the woods in Shuijingchong.
Because there are many springs in this mountain area, spring water is always flowing out, so it is called Shuijingchong.
Some springs are relatively large, and the water flowing out has flowed into a small ditch.
Some springs are smaller, and only water can be seen emerging from them, while the ground nearby is wet.
Of course, there are many invisible springs buried underground.
Half of the water in the river ditch behind Changqing Village is collected from the mountains in the distance.
The other half of the water source is mountain spring water flowing from these wells.
Normally, they will not stop flowing throughout the summer and autumn.
It will not be until the dry season after late autumn that their water output will become smaller.
In Zhang An's mind for decades, the springs on these mountains only stopped flowing twice.
Both times, it was due to severe drought.
Many springs may stop flowing, even if water comes out again.
Although these springs fed by water wells have experienced droughts, they have continued to flow water since the flood season.
It can be said that they have been nourishing the village of Changqing.
From a scientific perspective, it may be because of the existence of the big river that a separate body of water has been formed here.
As long as the river keeps flowing, the waters nearby will not dry up directly.
When Zhang An walked into the forest, only a few "croaking, croaking, croaking" sounds could be heard.
After all, guys like Shi Ping don't like to be active during the day, so they are huddled under rocks or sleeping soundly in the crevices of rocks.
It is not easy to hear their voices during the day, and this is because there are many trees in this forest.
Therefore, the surrounding environment is relatively dark, so only a few of them come out to move around.
But when it gets dark at night, they will wake up and run out to look for food.
The sound of these things is ridiculously loud, and their sound can usually be heard from a long distance away.
Therefore, many people catch stone scales and go out in the middle of the night with flashlights.
Because of their cries, there is no fear of not being able to find them.
For example, Zhang An followed the cry just now and looked for it.
Finally, between two big rocks, I saw a stone pound eating a grasshopper that had just fallen.
The one in front of me was about three or four taels in size, and it was considered a big deal, but Zhang An did not grab it.
These guys are very picky about their living environment, and in Zhang An's opinion, they are second only to the giant salamander.
They like to live in forests with water, especially deep mountains and old forests with good water quality.
If the water quality is slightly worse, they will not be able to survive, so this thing can be said to have grown up drinking mountain spring water.
Therefore, it is also known as "Mountain Spring Living Ginseng".
Because of this, they are very rich in nutritional value and delicious.
In terms of nutrition, a bullfrog is inferior to a stone pound.
Moreover, the bullfrog is an imported foreign product, while the stone pound is a species native to our country.
Born in the mountains, Zhang An ate a lot of stone pound meat when he was young.
Zhang An still remembers that when his grandfather was still young, he caught the largest stone weighing more than a kilogram.
At that time, such a piece was steamed with lard, and Zhang An couldn't finish it by himself.
Listening to the sounds of various insects and birds coming from the forest, Zhang An found a high place with stones to sit on.
Although these sounds were a bit noisy, Zhang An felt very peaceful and comfortable.
After staying on the mountain for half a day, Zhang An also felt that it was time to go down and go home.
There is too much water vapor in this mountain forest, so it feels good to stay there for a while.
But if you stay there for a long time, moisture will easily enter the body.
Just as Zhang An was about to stand up, his pupils suddenly changed dramatically and a lot of sweat broke out on his forehead.
Because Zhang An saw a small green thread coiled on the branch in front of him.
And it's not that far away from Zhang An. As long as this guy stretches his head and glides, he can definitely bite Zhang An.
Zhang An was a little hesitant to move at the moment, thinking about returning to the space to avoid the limelight.
But at this moment, the little green snake in front of him suddenly turned his head.
Damn it, I'm so excited.
Zhang An patted his chest and calmed down.
The little green snake in front of me has black eyes and its head is not triangular.
This is an emerald green snake with a relatively docile personality and is not poisonous.
I didn't see the snake head just now. Zhang An thought it was a green bamboo leaf with triangular red eyes, which really shocked him.
Seeing that there was no danger, Zhang An got down from the stone and walked to the edge of the river below.
Holding some ice-cold river water, I washed the sweat on my face from the shock.
The cool and refreshing feeling made Zhang An's mind clear up a lot.
Zhang An took out the plastic bag he brought with him and packed a dozen stone pounds in the space.
There are many stone pounds in the space now, covering a large area, and they are all crowded together.
The water quality in this place was good, and the environment looked good, so Zhang An simply released some animals outside.
Anyway, Zhang An doesn’t eat this thing every day, he just leaves it alone.
Just think of it as making a small contribution to protecting the ecological environment.
Shi Ping, who has just left the space, is relatively unfamiliar with the outside environment and needs some time to adapt.
However, they are naturally afraid of light, so after squatting for a while, they jumped into the water.
Use the fastest speed to find a place under the stone that is more suitable for living together and use it as a home.
After watching the released stone pounds scattering, Zhang An went down the mountain and went home with these in his hand.
"What did you catch again?"
When Zhang An returned home, Wang Fang looked at the bag he was holding, which was bouncing around.
Wang Fang thought Zhang An had gone to the mountain again to trick him into something.
"I encountered some stone pounds in Shuijingchong. They looked quite big, so I caught some of them and brought them back."
Zhang An found an empty bucket and put the stone scale in the bag into it.
"It's so big. It weighs more than half a catty."
The stone scales in the bag are not the largest in the space, but they are still about the size of more than half a catty.
Although the stone pound is easy to see, it is not that easy to find if you don't look carefully for it.
Moreover, these guys are very good at jumping and can jump more than one meter high in one go.
Therefore, big stone pounds are not so easy to catch.
Wang Fang took a look and Zhang An put the lid on the bucket.
Otherwise, they will all jump out in less than a minute.
"Mom, let my dad peel and kill them later, and we'll cook them in the evening."
Later Zhang An ate the American Frog Fish Head several times and thought it was very good.
But Zhang An doesn't like to eat fish heads, so he can cook some fish fillets today.
"Okay, let your dad finish it later, but there are so many, I can't finish them in one meal."
Zhang An brought back a dozen of them, weighing at least ten kilograms.
With so many stone pounds, I would definitely not be able to finish them all in one meal.
"It's okay if you can't finish it. Later, we will form a circle around the fish pond and keep them all."