Chapter 40 The Story of the Elders
The grandfather and grandson set out from home and followed the small river ditch behind the village into the mountains.
This small river ditch is actually not small, but it is a bit small compared to the big river.
It is a river flowing from Dishuitan. It has a lot of water and provides irrigation water for nearby farmland.
The grandfather and grandson chatted along the way, asking questions and answering questions. Xiaohu followed Zhang An honestly, walking behind neither fast nor slow.
Sometimes when I meet people in the village, they all say hello to Mr. Zhang.
Secretary Zhang’s family has always picked various herbs and cooked them. In addition to the ones that are usually sold in the town or county, there are still a lot left at home.
Nowadays, when medical treatment is not developed, everyone goes to Zhang Erye for some minor illnesses and pains, and takes the herbal medicine home to eat.
Although Mr. Zhang is not the oldest among the group, his seniority is very high in the village.
Many people in the village already call Uncle Zhang An, and Mr. Zhang’s seniority must be higher.
Today's weather is quite decent. The continuous light rain for several days has ended and been replaced by bright sunshine.
In the early morning, it was still quiet in the mountain forest, probably because the fish, insects, birds and beasts had not yet gotten up.
At this time, the sunlight shines through the sparse branches and onto the ground. It looks a bit like the lighting controlled by the lighting engineer on the stage.
Under the sunlight, the dew in the mountains slowly turned into mist, floating in the mountains and forests.
After walking all the way into the mountain forest, the moist fresh air woke up Zhang An's still sleeping brain.
Although it is still mixed with the smell of rotten leaves on the ground.
Although the second grandfather is already over sixty, he still walks briskly with his strong legs in the mountains.
There is no sign of aging at all.
The further you go into the mountains, the denser the woods become, and the roads left by people walking in the mountains are covered with weeds after a period of time.
The road is not easy to walk, sometimes it is soft soil, sometimes it is exposed rock.
Anyway, there are ups and downs all the way, which is different from the mountains and forests in the Northeast.
Zhang An wouldn’t feel tired if he walked by himself, but if he walked with his second grandfather, he definitely couldn’t keep walking.
"Second Master, let's take a break and drink some water."
Second Grandpa also agreed and found a stone to sit down.
He is very calm now. When he was young, he would not feel tired even if he ran in the mountains for a whole day. But now that he is old, he starts to pant after walking for a while. People still have to accept old age.
Zhang An handed the kettle to the second master. It was filled with tea made from space spring water to restore the second master's strength.
“This tea from your family tastes so delicious, and your mother’s tea-making skills are also very good.”
“This is last year’s. I think it tastes good. I will wait for this year’s new tea to be harvested. Come down and fry it, I will send some over when the time comes.”
When it was time to pick tea at home a few days later, Zhang An picked all the tea leaves in the space and asked his mother to help him fry them. "Second Master, is there any ginseng in our mountains? Books say ginseng is very valuable."
"There must be ginseng. In such a big mountain, there is nothing. It's just that the valuable ginseng is old, and the young ginseng seedlings are not valuable. If a ginseng wants to grow up from a ginseng seedling in the mountains, not only must it The land is good, and it can’t be eaten by the livestock in the mountains, so it’s hard to find old ginseng.”
Secretary Zhang patiently told Zhang An, and then told Zhang An. Some growth characteristics and main growing places of ginseng.
“Have you dug ginseng before, Mr. Zhang?”
Hearing Zhang An ask this question, Mr. Zhang began to recall the past.
“I have dug it, and I have dug it several times. Grandpa You and the others were no longer around at that time. Your grandfather took a few of our brothers to live in a mud house in the village. At first, He had to earn work points to support the rest of us. Later, I was able to earn work points, and the family felt a little more relaxed.
That's when I met an old Chinese medicine doctor who was sent to our brigade. He had a bad temper. Well, many people couldn't get along with him, but I was thick-skinned. No matter how much he cursed, I would go to him every day.
After a while, he stopped cursing, and I learned from him several times. Although I didn't know how to treat people and give them needles, I learned the skill of identifying flowers and plants.
One year later, during July and August, wild boars came down from the mountains to destroy the corn in the fields. I organized people to hunt wild boars in the mountains. I walked with your grandfather, carrying the gun given by the brigade.
Then we encountered a wild boar coming from behind. The guy was like a hillside, three or four. It was a big man weighing 100 kilograms and carrying a bunch of cubs behind him. If it went to the field of corns, the corns in the field would be gone after a few clicks.
At that time, I panicked and gave it a try from a distance. , I didn’t expect to be hit, but it made him go crazy and kept moving towards us
Your grandpa said we should separate and let me run first and let him attract me from behind. But no matter how hard he beat the animal, he kept chasing me and it ran away after chasing me. We ran very fast at that time, here. In the woods.
I just kept my head down and ran. I didn’t know where I was running. I slipped and rolled down the mountain and fell in a small corner of the mountain.
When I was waiting, I didn’t see the wild boar chasing after me, but I saw two ginseng sticks in the little corner. When I dug them up, they looked quite big. It was already late at night when I finally brought them back.
They searched for me for a long time but couldn't find me. They thought I was gone. I was really scared that time. I have never been so scared.
When everyone goes to bed, I dare to take it out and show your grandpa the two ginseng sticks. But you can't take it out at that time. If you take it out, you have to pay it to the public. The family still owes a lot of debts, so it definitely can't be paid to the public. It will stay like this for more than ten years. After the opening up, your third grandfather will go He joined the army and never came back.
At that time, everyone was still living in the old house now, and other families were building new houses. Finally, after everyone discussed it, they took two ginseng sticks to the county to sell them, and distributed them to everyone when they came back. , so your family only had money to buy a new house at that time.
It's just a pity that your father and grandma left not long after the new house was built. You were still young at that time. When they left, they said that they had to pay it back, but in fact it was when you were young. They suffered so much with us that our health was no longer good.
If I had known earlier, I would definitely have left one behind, but there was no use regretting it later. ”
This is the first time in Zhang An’s two lives that he has heard his elders talk about the past. In those years, it was not easy for people in the mountains, especially those like grandpa whose parents had long since disappeared.
The eldest brother is like father, and the eldest sister-in-law is like mother. It is quite difficult for them to have several younger brothers, but they have not given up. Now, they can no longer find the sense of responsibility they had before. .
After the second grandfather finished speaking, he fell into a somewhat gloomy atmosphere.
This is not good for the elderly, so Zhang An changed the topic.
"Second Master, tell me if we can find a ginseng plant today. If we find it, our family will be rich."
Second Master Zhang listened to Zhang An's words, Instead of hitting him, he smiled and encouraged: "Then you can keep your eyes sharper today, otherwise I'm afraid it will be difficult."
(End of Chapter)