Chapter 56: Rabbits hide, beans seedlings grow fat, birds sing and mulberries ripen
Jiang Anning looked up and saw a tall, lush tree covered with small golden fruits.
When no one was paying attention, she picked up a small golden fruit that fell on the ground.
When she opened it, juice splashed out and almost got into her eyes, making her hide back in fright.
The flesh inside is white, tender and plump, much like lychee meat, and it looks delicious.
If the text in front of her hadn't repeatedly emphasized that this thing was inedible, just looking at the attractive pulp would have made her want to taste it.
[The most poisonous part of Nux vomica is the seed. Just a small one in the hand of a female native can almost make a person miserable]
Jiang Anning peeled off the crystal-clear pulp and crushed it into the soil.
Leave the flat, round and silvery seeds in the palm of your hand.
She took out a handkerchief, wrapped the seeds of strychnos vomica in it, and put them away carefully.
Maybe it's not the ripe season yet, so there aren't many golden fruits falling on the ground.
Jiang Anning searched carefully for a long time and only picked up a few.
Break off the peel and discard the pulp, leaving only the seeds and wrap them with a veil.
She planned to wait until she had some free time at night to study how to use this thing.
"Peace!"
The young wives who were walking in front saw that she had not followed her for a long time, so they couldn't help but come back anxiously to find someone.
"Hey!"
Jiang Anning responded: "I'm here!"
She kicked the soil a few times, completely burying the peeling nux vomica pulp.
After making sure that there were no traces left, he jogged to catch up with the group.
"I was talking about you just now, but when I turned around, I found that you were gone. Where did you go to hide away?"
Sui Ran, who was about the same age as Jiang Anning, joked.
Jiang Anning smiled: "Sister-in-law Guicheng, you have wronged me. Just now you were looking at a few trees here that were growing well, like mulberry trees?"
"That's right!"
Sui Ran often comes here to pick wild vegetables and mushrooms in the woods, and is obviously much more familiar with the environment here than others.
She said: "Don't look at our place. The grain output is not abundant. We usually grow some grains, but they are often thin and difficult to maintain, and we can't harvest much."
"This mulberry tree is growing very well, with lush branches and leaves."
"It's not the season yet. When the time comes, you can go into the forest and find it's cool. If you stay a little longer, your mood will be much better."
Sui Ran's face was full of excitement, wishing that time could be turned back to midsummer immediately, so that people could experience the refreshing days of enjoying the coolness under the trees, like icy water.
"Sister-in-law Guicheng, I'm really moved by what you said."
Jiang Anning kept talking to people, but she didn't think too much in her heart.
I just feel that this place is really magical. It is difficult to grow food and harvest, but things like mulberry trees that are not cared about by anyone are growing well.
There are a lot of wild vegetables at this time, but there are very few young ones, and most of them are already a little old.
Most of them, such as mother-in-law and shepherd's purse, have already bloomed. They are beautiful, but they are no longer edible.
"An Ning, come here!"
Sui Ran stood by the stream in the forest and greeted Jiang Anning in a cheerful voice, who looked like he was in a daze.
As soon as Jiang Anning approached, Sui Ran raised the water celery in his hand and shook it vigorously at the person: "There are a lot of water celery here. They are still very tender. They should be new ones. I came here before. Never seen it.”
"Sister-in-law Guicheng is so amazing."
Jiang Anning praised her sincerely, walked over, and cut water celery with others.
Others wandered around, and most of them came back empty-handed.
"At this time of year, the wild vegetables are too old to chew."
"There are some wild onions over there, but unfortunately not many. I can barely make up a plate."
Several people gathered together and shared the wild vegetables they found.
"I picked some fungus, but unfortunately not many."
“Isn’t this fresh fungus difficult to handle?”
Everyone was picking and choosing, but in the end they didn't get anything very satisfactory. They all inevitably focused on Jiang Anning and Sui Ran.
"I just cut some water celery."
Sui Ran shook a handful of tender cress in his hand.
"Yours is really good. It's juicy and tender. It's delicious even when stir-fried."
Someone retorted in a low voice with disapproval: "Looking at what you said, is it possible that An Ning can still give you a plate of fried wild celery?"
"That's right!"
Several people were talking to each other, which somewhat put Jiang Anning on hold.
Jiang Anning acted as if nothing was wrong and said with a smile: "The season is wrong. If I keep searching, I'm afraid this will be the end of it. Just go back."
She seemed not to understand what they had just hinted, and her tone was calm and calm: "When I came here, I saw a lot of mugwort growing under the mulberry tree over there. How about picking it back and making it into mugwort cakes or green dumplings?"
Everyone was inevitably a little embarrassed, so they forced themselves to laugh and agreed with their expressions: "Okay, it would be good to make Qingtuan or mugwort cakes."
Jiang Anning smiled slightly and walked back first.
When passing by the mulberry tree, I deliberately picked a lot of mulberry leaves.
The few women who stayed behind looked at each other, and for a moment they were a little unsure.
"Tell me, girl An Ning, what do you mean by this? You don't want to invite us to dinner at all, right?"
The first person expressed doubts, and soon the second person began to analyze.
"It really looks like this to me. It's so good. Why does she want to invite us to dinner?"
"But no one is forcing her to treat guests to dinner, right? Now she is making a fool of herself here, who are you showing her to?"
"Who else can I show it to? Apart from us..."
Sui Ran was speechless as he listened, and angrily shouted with a stern face: "I said you guys are almost done! An Ning didn't say anything, so how come it's in your mouth, so much drama? He was hanged on the stage in his last life, and his tongue It’s so long, why don’t you forget to add some drama to yourself?”
"Why are you talking!" Some people felt that they couldn't bear to lose face. With a livid face, they rolled up their sleeves and wanted to have a good argument with others.
Sui Ran rolled her eyes lightly, completely ignored the person, and walked away.
"Hey, you..."
The man felt that he had lost face, and immediately wanted to catch up and have a good argument with the other person, but was pulled back by the person next to him, and he was unable to do so.
"Okay. Just stop saying a few words. If we really get into a fight later, you may not be able to outshine her."
The man was originally angry, but now he was restrained and quickly calmed down. Knowing that what the person next to him said was reasonable, he cursed a few times in a low voice, barely maintaining his face, and did not say anything about being angry again. I went over and tore it up with someone twice.
Jiang Anning walked in front and quickly distanced herself from the others.
She stood on tiptoe to pick mulberry leaves.
Since ancient times, it has been said that ginseng is a hot tonic and mulberry leaf is a clear tonic. The notes left to her by her parents also said that mulberry leaves can relieve depression and nourish the liver, clear the lungs and moisturize dryness. She can use it instead of tea and take it regularly to stop sweating.
It is a very useful medicine and food that has the same origin.
Mulberry leaves can be combined with sesame seeds to make mulberry pills, which are very effective in treating and preventing hair loss.
It's a pity that there aren't many people raising silkworms here.
Otherwise, mulberry trees are used to feed silkworms in spring, and mulberry trees are used to fry tea in autumn. This mulberry tree can be used in all seasons.
Thinking of this, Jiang Anning couldn't help but wonder, since this place is so suitable for planting mulberry trees, why not just raise some silkworms?
She stood there in a daze.
In the impression, when she was young, she seemed to have some memories of raising silkworms.
However, it was too long ago, and she was still young at the time, so she couldn't remember it clearly.
Maybe she remembered it wrong.
After all, there really aren't many people raising silkworms here in Ruian Town.
In order to embroider the double-sided and three-different embroidery picture of worshiping Buddha, she really spent a lot of effort and searched in many places before she found useful silk and embroidery thread.
Logically speaking, she should have never seen silkworm raising.
However, her parents are not locals.
He originally escaped from a large family and settled down here in Ruian Town.
Maybe I saw someone raising silkworms in my hometown in the past.
Jiang Anning was thinking about those almost fragmented memories.
Sui Ran and others quickly chased after him.
"The leaves of this mulberry tree are really good. Why don't you pick more and fry them?"
Someone immediately said the opposite: "How much oil will be wasted? It's not the New Year or the festival, but you are willing to do it?"
The person who spoke before immediately fell silent.
Jiang Anning: "It's okay to pick more, fry it, steam it, or make it into mulberry leaf tofu. But we've all come, can we really go back empty-handed?"
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When we went out, Sui Ran and Jiang Anning had a lot of water celery in their baskets.
Most of the others' baskets were empty, with only a few green leaves lying here and there.
Hearing what Jiang Anning said now, the few people who had been dissenters also started to pander to him and cooperated to pick mulberry leaves.
There is strength in numbers.
In a short time, a few people picked two full baskets of mulberry leaves.
"There are so many, that should be enough, right?"
Looking at the mulberry trees that had been harvested and become somewhat bald, the group of people looked at each other with hesitation.
Jiang Anning said 'hmm': "It's almost done, let's go back."
Everyone always feels that something is strange, but they can't explain why.
When he heard someone speak, he immediately stopped what he was doing and followed the person towards the village.
As we were walking, someone behind the crowd muttered in confusion: "Why should we listen to her?"
It felt like they had become Jiang Anning's little followers.
The person next to her glared at her: "You ask me, who am I asking?"
Inexplicably, I feel that I should listen to others' arrangements.
The more they thought about it, the more they felt that something was not right, as if Jiang Anning had some kind of captivating spell that inexplicably prevented them from having any thoughts of disobedience.
Jiang Anning was completely unaware of this.
Jiang Wei and others had already gathered at Jiang Anning's home to discuss dividing their teams and arranging night patrols in the village.
Only then did everyone know that Zhao Hai had escaped from prison!
"It's so good, how did this man escape from the prison?"
"In a place like the county government, how many pairs of eyes are staring at it. Zhao Hai is not very powerful, so how can he be so capable?"
Some people think this is too unbelievable: "Could the news be wrong?"
Jiang Wei: "Yesterday, the Yamen had posted a notice, wanting the fugitive Zhao Hai, with a reward of 500 taels of silver."
"Take, how much?"
When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but gasp, and were so shocked that they couldn't speak.
Five hundred taels!
Five hundred taels!
That's five hundred taels!
Many people were flushed with excitement, as if they had drunk fake wine. They just wished they could see Zhao Hai immediately, grab them, and take them to the Yamen to exchange them for silver.
"Muramasa, don't worry! We promise to obey your orders. As long as Zhao Hai, a little brat, dares to show his head, none of us are freeloaders. We will make sure he never comes back!"
"Yes, as long as he dares to come, we will definitely send him back to the Yamen!"
The young and strong men in the village were more enthusiastic than the other at this time.
The reward of five hundred taels of silver was like a huge pot of chicken blood, stirring up the heat in people's hearts. They just wished they could meet Zhao Hai sooner, so that they could capture him quickly and send him to the Yamen. , exchange it for reward silver and return it.
With everyone's cooperation, Jiang Wei quickly divided into eight teams.
"Every two teams team up and rotate every three hours. Every corner of the village must be inspected. Be sure to be on guard. If you find traces of Zhao Hai or other suspicious people, report them immediately!"
Jiang Wei emphasized with a serious face: "Everyone must not show off the courage of an ordinary man, and must not make his own decisions and leave his post without permission."
"Today, we are a whole, and everyone must act together!"
"When I get the silver reward, I will distribute it to everyone according to their work."
"But if someone is greedy for their own selfish interests, sabotaging the operation and holding everyone back, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
"When the time comes, we will open an ancestral hall, report to our ancestors, and list our sins one by one. It will be a shame."
Jiang Wei mixed his palms with sweet dates and lectured him in a very bluffing way.
Everyone was still immersed in the sweet fantasy of five hundred taels, and naturally had no objections to Jiang Wei's arrangement. Everyone was gearing up, just hoping that Zhao Hai would come back quickly and kill him.
When Jiang Anning and others returned, they could hear the impassioned slogans from a distance, as if they had already dug three feet into the ground to find Zhao Hai and captured him, and were preparing to hold a celebration banquet.
"What's going on?"
"It seems like Muramasa said something..."
While people were making random guesses, Jiang Anning had nothing to hide. She talked about Zhao Hai's escape from prison and reminded everyone to pay more attention to safety in the coming period and travel together as much as possible.
I don't know, I still think that Zhao Hai is some kind of evil bandit leader who kills many people.
Sui Ran was a little puzzled: "It's just Zhao Hai, so there's no need to be so guarded, right?"
"Be careful when sailing a ship that lasts for thousands of years. There is nothing wrong with being more cautious."
Jiang Anning: "Who knows if he will feel resentful after escaping and take risks and burn down our village?"
(End of chapter)