My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 107 Catching Scorpions at Night

However, while the little weasels are tough, they are all incredibly clumsy and stupid, lacking any of the cleverness or cunning of other weasels. They are almost two months old and can't even catch birds or mice, so don't expect them to steal chickens.

Several times when Wang Susu fed the chickens and ducks, they would follow her to the stone trough near the chicken coop to freeload. They were chased all over the yard by the chickens and ducks; when more than ten of them attacked together, even Xiao Huang and Xiao Pang didn't dare to fight back. The three little creatures pecked off several patches of feathers. And they still didn't learn their lesson. They were always bullying the rabbits or teasing the chickens and ducks, sometimes even jumping on the backs of the two dogs to play. This annoyed Heiwa and Xiao Jin. A few days ago, they angered Xiao Jin so much that they blocked the dogs in the yard, refusing to let them down. Even when Xiao Huang and Xiao Pang complained to Chen Ling, it didn't work. Whenever they tried to get down, Xiao Jin would bite them, and only then did they behave a little.

Chen Ling pinched the three chubby little devils and saw that they were comfortably dozing off on his lap with their eyes closed. He was speechless for a moment: "Just as silly as Heiwa, all they do is grow fat and not develop any skills."

Speaking of which, the weasels in the mountains are quite capable. They can catch mice and birds, and they can swim and climb trees. Some people think that weasels can't swim, but that's not true. For families living near rivers, weasels often swim down to their homes and harm their chickens and ducks. When they get up, they find the chicken coops covered with wet claw marks, making it impossible to guard against them.

"Sigh, I've ruined it, I've ruined it..."

Chen Ling shook his head and sighed. He grabbed the little silkworms by the scruff of their necks and threw them to the ground. Ignoring their bewildered and aggrieved expressions, he went to the backyard to feed the silkworms and clean the silkworm droppings in the tray. The silkworms had already molted three times. After one more molt, they would start spinning cocoons. At this time, they needed to be fed every two or three hours, including at night.

However, Chen Ling found it troublesome, so he planted two mulberry trees in the cave. Every day after going out for a walk, he would bundle the branches and leaves together and carry back several bundles. In this way, Wang Susu no longer needed to pick mulberry leaves. The mulberry leaves produced in the cave were exceptionally nutritious. At first, Wang Susu got up several times at night to feed the silkworms, but when she saw that the silkworms could not finish the mulberry leaves she put on before going to bed and that they were not growing poorly, she simply stopped caring about them.

After cleaning the silkworm excrement, it was piled up against the wall to ferment. Then, the fermented excrement from the previous two days was poured into a bucket, mixed with bran, and stirred to make simple fish food. Back in the front yard, it was poured into the lotus pond, causing a sudden splash as all the fish surfaced, mouths agape, scrambling for it. Now, because Chen Ling poured half a bucket of stream water into the pond every two days, these ordinary ornamental fish had become wild and aggressive, and much easier to raise. They would eat anything, not picky at all. Not to mention silkworm excrement, even crumbs of steamed bread would cause them to scramble to the surface, heads pounding, to grab them. Nothing in the house was ever wasted.

"Luckily, it looks much better than when it was first put in. Otherwise, it would just become more unruly and wild the more it is raised. It would be better to put a few grass carp in instead."

Chen Ling put down the bucket, squatted down and admired the scene for a while, then went to cook the meal. After Wang Susu returned from herding the cattle, the two ate, washed the pots and pans, and began to sit together to tie wheat straw into a frame. This was to be prepared before the silkworms spun their cocoons, so that they could spin silk. This is what is commonly referred to in rural areas as the 'mountain' that silkworms have to climb to go up the mountain, usually called a silkworm frame.

Before long, Liu Nier came with a large group of little kids outside the house, calling him to go out and catch scorpions.

"Why did you bring so many bottles? Where are we going to catch them tonight?"

Chen Ling went outside and saw the little kids standing at the gate, each carrying a kerosene lamp or a torch, with strings of canned food jars and wine bottles hanging around their necks. This guy was obviously going to do something big.

"Hehe, let's wander around the village first, and if it doesn't work, we'll go out and look for something. But Da said we can't go up the mountain, even with Uncle Fugui leading us, because he said there are wolves on the mountain at night."

Liu Nier sniffed, then handed two canned food jars to Chen Ling: "Here, these are for you. I was afraid you wouldn't be able to tighten the lids properly and scorpions would crawl out."

"Haha, alright, Uncle didn't spoil you for nothing."

Chen Ling took it and tied it around his waist. Then he went home, grabbed a bamboo clamp made from a bamboo comb from beside the stove, and followed the children out the door with a flashlight.

After walking for a while, Chen Ling suddenly realized something was wrong. He frowned and looked at Liu Nier: "Is your child missing a tooth?"

"Hehehe, Uncle Fugui, the shrimp you made is so delicious. I ate it all at home with steamed buns in one meal. I didn't feel anything after eating it, but when I woke up this morning, I found that I had broken two teeth."

“My mom even said she would throw it on the roof, otherwise the teeth wouldn’t grow properly, but she never found it.”

Liu Ni'er grinned, revealing that her two lower front teeth were missing.

"Uncle Fugui, I've also lost my baby teeth. They're the big, clumsy ones from the inside."

"My tooth was a little one, and it was about to fall out with just a little bit of flesh left. My grandma said she would pull it out with thread, but I was afraid of the pain and didn't let her do it."

The other two children weren't going to be left behind, so they ran up to him with their mouths open so he could see.

As a result, the torch in his hand almost burned Chen Ling's hair.

The children's parents allowed them to go out to look for scorpions, but they were reluctant to use flashlights, so they used torches instead. Most of the torches in the mountains were made of hemp stalks, the kind that are used to scare away wolves. After soaking and peeling off the outer skin of ramie, the stalks in the middle are left. After being dried slightly, they become light and white, making them convenient and easy to use as torches, and they burn smoothly.

Ramie was quite useful in those days, used to make ropes and linen, but it gradually became less common in the early 21st century.

Hemp stalks are generally about 1.5 meters long, and a dozen or so can be tied together to make a small torch. It is safer than those made from reeds, and even small children can use it without any problems.

"Okay, okay, Uncle saw it. Losing your baby teeth is a good thing. Once all your teeth have come in, you'll be all grown up."

Chen Ling said with a smile.

Little kids love it when adults say they've grown up; they immediately jump and dance with joy when they hear that.

The night is lovely tonight. A crescent moon casts a soft glow across the sky, turning the entire earth a silvery-gray hue. Frogs croak in the village ponds, reservoirs, and pools outside the village, while various insects chirp loudly in the grass. In this early summer night, accompanied by a cool mountain breeze, everything seems vibrant with life.

However, the corn hasn't been planted yet. People are too tired from working during the day to catch scorpions at night. There are only a few scattered people, holding torches and bending over, lifting up the stones under their feet one by one. When they are unlucky, they may lift up many stones but not catch a single scorpion. When they are lucky, they can fill half a bottle under a single stone.

Seeing these people catching scorpions, Liu Nier didn't run over to compete with them. Instead, she cheerfully led Chen Ling into the old house in the village.

The old houses in the mountains weren't all built of adobe; some were built of stone and then plastered with yellow mud. But over time, the wind and rain would expose the stones inside. Some families were more particular and built stone walls to enclose their yards. Others used stones to make pigsties, donkey pens, and so on. Scorpions like to stay in the crevices of these stones.

Because it is dark and damp inside, and has many small insects, it has become a paradise for scorpions to forage for food.

To catch scorpions in this kind of place, you need to be quick, otherwise they might slip back into the cracks in the wall or escape into the weeds, making them very difficult to find.

Scorpions are actually quite clever. Some scorpions play dead by pretending to be motionless when you shine a flashlight on them, because their appearance is similar to the color of the yellow soil. Other scorpions will retreat into the crevices of rocks when you shine a flashlight on them, knowing there is danger. They will only come out when there is no light or movement outside, and then hide again when you shine a flashlight on them. They are playing guerrilla warfare with you, and it is very difficult to catch them without some effort.

However, although there are many scorpions in the old houses in the village, they are overgrown with weeds due to the lack of human activity. Various terrible poisonous insects or other unknown creatures also hide in them. Some of the roofs have collapsed halfway and are about to fall, which is quite frightening.

Sure enough, when they rushed into an old house with torches, the sudden burst of light turned the peaceful environment into a noisy mess. Bats and all sorts of birds flapped their wings and flew out of the old house, and hedgehogs or something else scurried around in the grass, filling the air with choking smoke.

Even so, there were indeed quite a few scorpions around the old house. Perhaps there were more small insects and flying insects here. Apart from those that were scared away by the firelight, there were actually many scorpions that remained motionless at the base of the wall. They were mostly medium-sized, about four or five centimeters long, and slightly yellowish in color. There was one every few steps. If you were lying there and didn't look carefully, you could really be fooled by them.

When the children saw it, their eyes lit up as if they had seen gold. They tiptoed over, grabbed the scorpion by the tail, and quickly pulled it into the bottle. They were fast and accurate, and in no time each child had caught four or five scorpions.

Following that, Chen Ling led them to several abandoned old houses, and each of them caught almost half a bottle of fish.

"An old female scorpion!"

After touring most of the village, they came to a horse-stopping wall at the edge of the village. Suddenly, Xiaosen's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed in surprise as he rushed over.

Then, with lightning speed, she used a pair of tweezers to clamp down on its tail, letting it turn over and struggle desperately with its thin legs gripping the tweezers. She then shoved it directly into the bottle, quickly tightening the cap. This kid didn't catch as many as Liu Ni'er and the others, but she still filled a bottle. Speaking of which, female scorpions are easy to deal with. But if it's a light yellow male scorpion with its tail held high and looking very alert, then you have to be careful: when you try to clamp down on its tail, it will often dart away swiftly, changing direction and quickly escaping into the surrounding grass or crevices, making it impossible to defend against.

This requires focused attention to avoid wasting effort, because even when a male scorpion is firmly clamped, it will not submit and will struggle desperately. Besides flailing its legs like a female scorpion, the male scorpion will violently shake its terrifyingly thick tail, making the clamps slap loudly. If anyone catching a scorpion gets stung in that situation, they're in trouble…

Being stung by a scorpion is a terrible experience; it's not only very painful but also causes swelling, which is quite torturous.

While wandering around the village looking for scorpions, they found that there weren't many scorpions this year. Seven or eight children and Chen Ling, one of the adults, searched for almost an hour in the east of the village and only caught a little over four hundred. Because some scorpions were too small to be counted by size, they were lucky to sell them for twenty yuan. The harvest was really not very good.

Before long, they moved to the vicinity of the threshing ground. The houses in this area did not look as neat as those in the village. Rows of mud-brick houses were crammed together, with very low houses and courtyards. Trees and weeds grew everywhere, making it gloomy at night. They were all old houses that had been around for many years.

The earthen wall is very old, very old. It is rugged and uneven due to years of wind and rain erosion, and it is covered with dark green moss.

Sure enough, many scorpions were lurking along the edge of the crack in the wall. Each one was robust and plump, with long tails tipped with venomous stingers. Their backs were arched above their heads, maintaining an instinctive vigilance. Their dark coloration indicated that they were old and had molted many times, which also proved that their venom was plentiful and thick.

After going around here, the harvest was quite good, especially for Liu Ni'er, who caught seven or eight large male scorpions in a row. The other little kids also filled the second bottle more than halfway.

After catching them here, we continued walking out of the village.

After walking a few steps, a continuous barking of dogs rang out near the threshing ground. People peeked out from several shacks nearby, but quickly retreated back into their sleep after recognizing Chen Ling with several children.

These people are there to guard the grain and prevent people from stealing it at night.

Chen Ling glanced around and saw that there were quite a few shacks around, but he didn't recognize any of the people there. They were all from the first and second brigades on the west side of the village.

“Uncle Fugui, there are scorpions on the wall over there, and several under the eaves. They just scurried into the cracks in the wall. I can see them clearly.”

Reaching the northwest corner of the village, Liu Nier pointed to a dilapidated old house and shouted.

Chen Ling squinted and looked at it with his flashlight. With his eyesight, he could indeed see scorpions moving, but after the light shone on them, they gradually stopped moving.

“There are scorpions on the wall too. My brother caught some last year. Uncle Fugui, let’s go home and get a pole.”

Piglet chimed in at this moment.

"No, even using a pole won't work. I tried poking them with a pole, but some of the big scorpions fell down and died, so they couldn't be sold for any money. It's not worth going back home again."

Liu Ni'er immediately retorted.

Then he turned to Chen Ling and said, "My father said we need to use a broom. We need an adult to sweep with a broom. Uncle Fugui, let's bring a broom when we go out tomorrow."

The houses in the mountains aren't tall, and many scorpions like to climb higher when they come out at night. If they climb a little higher, the children can't catch them. They're unwilling to give up, so they try to poke them with sticks. But this isn't a good method. Small, thin scorpions are fine if they fall, but larger, fatter ones are a problem. Scorpions aren't afraid of being suffocated; they can stay in a bottle overnight without any issues. But they're afraid of falling. Fat, large male scorpions are heavy, and if they fall, they'll be half-dead. If you pick them up and keep them, they'll dry out quickly. Dead scorpions aren't worth much, which is a real shame.

If an adult were to catch them, it would be much easier. They would simply tie a broom to a bamboo pole; the broom is soft, and they would use it to slowly sweep the scorpions down from a height, and the scorpions would be safe.

"Okay, then let's bring the broom when we go out tomorrow."

Chen Ling nodded and led the children home. It was getting late, and if they didn't go back soon, their parents would come looking for them. So he took them home along the road.

However, after seeing them off, as we were walking back with Liu Nier and Xiao Sen, a stench wafted over, almost knocking us over.

"Uncle, someone is digging up manure."

Komori pointed in the direction of the elementary school and called out.

Liu Nier also looked around and said, "Someone is digging up the manure from our school's latrine."

Chen Ling also saw it at that moment: behind the village primary school, people were carrying manure out in a donkey cart with torches.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Mr. and Mrs. Wang Laishun, who were cleaning out the latrines at the school with their second son, Wang Juxiang.

Since Chen Ling and his group were carrying torches, the other party had already seen them and couldn't take a detour, so they had no choice but to go up to them and say, "Fifth Uncle, Aunt Guizhen, what brings you here to take out the night soil?"

"Haha, the kids have to go to school during the day, it's not good to bother them with the smell."

Wang Laishun laughed and said, "Judging from your posture, you've gone to catch scorpions?"

"Yeah, we had nothing to do after eating, so we came out to catch some scorpions."

Chen Ling nodded, then glanced at Wang Juxiang, who was dressed neatly with a towel covering his face in front of the donkey cart. This man was better looking than Wang Jusheng; he was not only half a head taller but also fairer, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, a square face, and a neat, short, square haircut.

He glanced at Chen Ling without saying a word, keeping a safe distance from the manure cart. Chen Ling found this amusing: This guy must be running out of fertilizer at his second son's house, so the old couple, Wang Laishun and his wife, have to come here in the middle of the night to do hard labor and find manure for him.

Manure is a treasure, indispensable for farming. How could we easily let go of this free fertilizer in the school?
At this moment, Liang Guizhen suddenly smiled and scolded, "Why hasn't Fugui come to visit us lately? Your fifth uncle has been talking about you a lot."

"Hey, it's only the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and it's time for harvesting wheat and visiting relatives. Do you think I'm worried you'll all be too busy?"

"No rush, no rush. The rapeseed harvest is over, and the corn has been planted early. Your uncle is free right now, so go visit him when you have some free time to play cards or chess. Come visit us often when you're not busy."

"Okay, I'll go play chess with Uncle Wu when I have time."

Chen Ling gave a perfunctory reply, then exchanged a few polite words with Wang Laishun before heading home with Liu Nier and Xiao Sen.

However, he couldn't help but sneer inwardly. He knew exactly what Liang Guizhen was thinking. She was just jealous that he always brought gifts when he visited, and she also complained that Wang Laishun had helped report Chen Erzhu to the police in the county town last time, but he hadn't gone to offer any thanks afterwards.

If it were just Wang Laishun, it wouldn't be so bad, but the problem is that this old woman is so annoying. Why would he go out of his way to make himself uncomfortable?

(End of this chapter)