After the fall harvest, everything was stored away into storage.
After a fall rain, fall vegetables were planted. Being in the North, the winters
were pretty cold and only one type of vegetables would grow. After fall, almost
every family planted easily storable vegetables such as bok choy or radishes.
When the deep winter came, they’d store these in their basement and these would
be their sustenance for the entire winter.
When the work in the fields were mostly completed, villagers of all
ages started heading into the mountains to forage for pine nuts,
hazelnuts, pecans, fungus, mushrooms, bracken, wild vegetables and the likes.
Tis the season that the mountain generously blessed the humans with plentiful
of produces. These were also products that those living outside of the
mountains loved to purchase. Any hardworking person, even kids around 10, could
earn up to several hundred wen!
Gu Ming had been in and out of the hills
by himself on a regular basis so he was quite familiar with the hill tops
nearby. He quickly located a couple hazelnut trees nearby. The boys would climb
up the trees like monkeys and hit the hazelnuts with sticks and make them fall;
and the girls would pick them up from the ground.
Under the tree, in addition to Gu Ye and
Li’jie, there were also Xiuniang, the village chief’s granddaughter, and
Yinggu, third gandmother’s youngest daughter. Gu Ming climbed up the tree and
shook the branch wildly with one foot. The hazelnuts rained down like it was
hailing.
Gu Ye carried the basket on the top of
her hand and run back and forth trying to catch the hazelnuts. Xianiang, about
the same age at her, mimicked her and ran back and forth giggling. Yinggu,
standing nearby shook her head and said, “How much do you think you can catch
running around like that, you two foolish girl! Hurry up and stop fooling
around!”
Xianiang stopped after she heard that and
looked inside her basket. There were only three to five hazelnuts in her
basket. She pouted and resorted to bending over and picking up hazelnuts.
When there were less hazelnuts falling
from the tree, Gu Ye finally stopped. Li’jie stuck her head over and peeked, Gu
Ye’s basket was half full! She was genuinely surprised and asked, “How did you
do that?”
“Just good hand and eye coordination!” Gu
Ye smiled at her before she bent over and picked up hazelnuts to put in the
basket at lightning speed. The little basket was full in no time and she poured
the hazelnuts into her brother’s basket1 and keep on collecting more.
When the boys saw that enough hazelnuts
have fallen, they jumped down from the tree and joined the crew in collecting.
Gu Ming saw that they already have plenty of hazelnuts in their basket and have
his sister go rest.
Gu Ye wants to know if there were herbs
in the valley so she didn’t object to his suggestion. The valley was not big
and one could easily see the entire place and it was full of all sorts of
weeds. One must have good eyes in order to spot herbs among the weeds!
Lilac tasselflower2, good for internal cooling
and rid of toxins, removal of bruises and swelling. Gu Ye grabbed a bundle of
lilac tasselflower from a short bush and added them to her basket. Bupleurum
root was good for influenza, fever, and malaria. Polygala root, good for
clearing phlegm and mucus, also possessed calming and mind-clearing effect…
these were all common-seen herbs that was easily spotted by her.
Picture: Lilac tasselflower
Source: zi.media
Picture: Lilac tasselflower
Source: leha.com
Picture: Bupleurum
Source: zhongyaoyi.com
Picture: Polygala (Yuan Zhi)3
Source: ttxn.com
Picture: Polygala (Yuan Zhi)
Source: k.sina.com/cn
“Mei mei, don’t wander too far
away!” Gu Ming looked up and saw that she was about to walk out of the valley.
He quickly got up and shouted.
Gu Ye waved at him to signified that she
has heard him. She was still gazing at the cliffs on both sides of the valley.
Suddenly, a dried tree caught all of her attention. The tree was most dead,
except for some hints of green on part of the roots that were sticking out.
___
Notes:
1. Basket that they carried on their
back, similar to those they carried babies in.
2. Chinese literal meaning is “goat hoof
grass”. Totes look like weeds to me! J Evidently it is quite commonly seen in farming areas and one can just
stir fry and eat it too…
___
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Thanks for the chapter. Stay well!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDeleteGraxis😊😊😊😊😊
ReplyDeleteLove the story and translation... the naaavigation is broken though.
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