My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 294 Stinky Honey, Durian in Honey
When Chen Ling first heard about changing her child's name, she thought it was quite unreliable.

Just then, Wang Susu and her mother-in-law came out. After hearing the reason, they believed it wholeheartedly.

Gao Xiulan knew this old man because he had done her fortune telling before and had described her family's situation in great detail. He even predicted Wang Cunye's broken leg. He was considered a minor celebrity in the Yaowang Temple area.

Alongside this old man was a blind boy from a neighboring county, skilled in fortune-telling by feeling bones.

Only during the annual Medicine King Festival would they carry banners and wield bamboo sticks.

This old man is incredibly accurate at predicting family matters, while that blind young man is good at telling fortunes and love.

So when the old man said that the name "Chen Rui" was not good and needed to be changed, Gao Xiulan was very cautious.

Wang Susu also quickly asked how to change the name.

Seeing the mother and daughter's respect for him, the old fortune teller puffed out his chest and began to talk about heaven and earth, about good fortune, and started rambling on and on.

In the end, Chen Ling paid the money, and the family left with a small note.

The note, of course, contained the name they had spent money to name the child.

"What word was added to Rui Rui's name?"

"I don't know, let's open it and see when we get home."

"Don't worry about that, the brat is fast asleep."

Chen Ling glanced at the little guy sleeping soundly in his arms and smiled helplessly.

This child has been different from other children since he was little.

Most other children like to sleep while traveling. No matter what kind of vehicle it is, the swaying and bumping along the road will make them sleepy, and they will wake up when they get off.

He, on the other hand, did the complete opposite.

On the way, he was happy to look at the scenery everywhere. When we arrived at our destination, we took him out of the car, and he became sleepy and started to doze off. In no time, he was fast asleep.

No matter how I call him, he won't wake up.

"Let him sleep. He went out today, so he probably slept through both of his naps this morning."

Wang Susu carefully straightened her son's clothes and said.

"Come on, it's well past midnight now. I think he even took his afternoon nap." Chen Ling shook his head, and the three of them went to the back of the temple to eat.

By this time, it was well past noon, and lunch was available at the temple; you could eat as long as you paid.

We had a quick lunch.

As they descended the mountain, Gao Xiulan pointed to the river at the foot of the mountain and said to him, "There are plenty of handkerchiefs in the shallow parts of this river. Come and fish them out later. Take them home and keep them, and then sell them to someone in the fall."

Gao Xiulan had mentioned this when they were discussing it beforehand, so Chen Ling brought a bucket specifically for this purpose.

"No, Mother. It's not that easy to sell them after the fall. We'll have to raise them several times after we catch them. Only the good-looking ones will be bought. Otherwise, if they don't look good and can't be eaten, why would anyone buy them?"

Chen Ling pursed her lips, "We'll have to raise them until next year, let them produce fish eggs five or six times, and then we'll be able to raise them into pretty flower handkerchiefs."

Wang Susu said, "Let's see where we can find them first, since we're not in a hurry to go back anyway."

"Okay, let's go take a look first."

This trip was for fun, and specifically to bring Wang Susu along.

If she wants to go see it, then she should go.

Chen Ling looked around, found a shallow spot, grabbed a branch, and used it to carefully observe the water.

I just realized that there are indeed a lot of forktail betta fish here.

The small fish swim in groups, and when you shoo them away with a stick, they scatter everywhere.

As for whether the colors are beautiful, they are just average. Finding top-quality ornamental fish in the wild is like picking out jade from a pile of stones—it's not an easy task.

Moreover, the small fish haven't developed or been colored yet, so they don't look very good.

“Hey, isn’t this the same kind of fine-scaled fish we have at home?” Wang Susu suddenly pointed to the left side and said.

The river water here is quite clear, and you can clearly see schools of fish in the shallow water near the bank.

“No, fine-scaled fish live on mountains. These are small mandarin fish.” Chen Ling glanced at them and shook his head.

They were looking for fish by the water when a group of people, mostly young and strong, came from the opposite bank of the river to the northeast. They came in groups of three or five and saw them cutting grass and stirring the water, so they came over to watch.

"What are you doing here?" a red-faced man asked curiously.

"I'm looking at the fish, and I want to catch some flowery handkerchiefs."

Chen Ling turned around and glanced at the group, his eyes lighting up immediately. "Did you just come back from gathering herbs in the mountains?"

The group of people were all holding a stick, which looked like a cane from a distance, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a hoe for clearing mountains.

In addition, each person had a rope tied around their waist, a wood-chopping knife and other items attached to their waist, and a snakeskin bag draped over their body.

This snakeskin bag can be used as a raincoat when it rains, and it can also be used to store medicinal herbs when you collect them.

This is considered standard attire for local herb gatherers.

"Yes, I just came back from gathering herbs."

The red-faced man, who looked to be in his forties, was short and stocky. With his trousers rolled up, he smiled brightly and said, "What's so great about handkerchiefs? If you go further north, there are mountain loaches in the river up in the mountains. They're delicious."

"Haha, thanks. We just thought it looked nice and were just doing it for fun."

Chen Lingchong smiled at the man, "When I came here this morning, I saw people moving around on the cliff on the northeast side of the mountain. Were you gathering herbs?"

"Ah? Yes, young man, you have such good eyesight that you can spot us while walking on the trade route?" The red-faced man was taken aback and asked curiously.

"I could see it, but I couldn't see it clearly. The mountains here are high, and the mountaintops were shrouded in clouds and mist this morning. It just flashed in front of my eyes for a moment, and I thought I was seeing things."

"Hey, your eyesight is amazing. Most people can't see clearly from such a high and far place on the business road."

This was a rather talkative man. After Chen Ling stopped and chatted with him for a while, he learned that his surname was Xing, that he was a local, and that he lived on the mountain. He rarely came down the mountain except to sell and dry medicine.

This time, we came down the mountain to dry the medicinal herbs.

Of course, you can dry herbs on the mountain, but if you've collected valuable herbs, the process will be much more complicated and difficult to process, so it's more convenient to come down the mountain.

They also have residences at the foot of the mountain, mostly their children who have moved down there.

He still lives mostly with his elderly parents in the mountains, making a living by collecting medicinal herbs.

However, their children moved down the mountain, which meant that the livelihood of collecting herbs had basically ended with their generation.

After Chen Ling became somewhat familiar with him, he started calling him "Old Xing" and followed them back to the village. He wanted to see if they had found any special medicinal herbs.

If it exists, I'll buy it myself.

Although Lao Xing and his group were quite enthusiastic, they didn't take him seriously because he was young, and even kept changing the subject, not wanting to show him the herbs in his pocket.

It's only natural to be a little wary when it's the first time you've met.

Chen Ling didn't find it strange.

But just when he wisely stopped asking questions, Old Xing and the others saw that he had arrived by car, and their attitude immediately changed. They were willing to show him the freshly picked herbs.

This left Chen Ling speechless.

I was thinking I should get a car next year. This guy is showing off, I don't really mean it, but I have to admit, sometimes it just works.

Looking at the medicinal herbs, the most valuable one was dendrobium. The other herbs were already available at home and in the cave, but there were no new ones that Chen Ling wanted.

They went to Lao Xing's house in Xialongkou and found three or four good herbs. Chen Ling bought them, both the herbs and the plants, and told Wang Susu and his mother-in-law that he wanted to make medicinal wine. The two of them didn't object. After spending the money and buying the things, Chen Ling suggested that he go for a walk in the mountains with Lao Xing and his group. They agreed. Lao Xing had just finished drying the herbs at home and was going to take his grandson back to the mountains for a couple of days, so he led the way.

“In the past two years, more and more people from other places have come to Yaowang Temple to burn incense. Many of them are like you. When they meet us, they want our villagers to take them around, let them see the mountains and rivers, provide them with a few meals, and let them stay overnight. They have many and strange requests, but they are willing to spend money generously anywhere without saying a word. This makes the children in the village very envious and itchy. They all want to go out and make a lot of money.”

Old Xing walked ahead with his grandson, and his voice came from ahead.

"Yes, it's the same in our area. Many young people can't stay at home and want to go out to earn money. It started three or four years ago, with groups of them going out to work."

People from Chenwangzhuang only started going out to work in 1992. People like Wang Lixian didn't count; they just worked in the surrounding two or three counties.

“Working is good, much better than collecting herbs. These two or three months are the busiest time for us every year, when we collect herbs all over the mountains and fields.”

The seventh and eighth months of the lunar calendar are the busiest time for herbal medicine collectors. They collect all sorts of herbs, such as Codonopsis pilosula, Gastrodia elata, Bupleurum chinense, Scutellaria baicalensis, Astragalus membranaceus, Coptis chinensis, Phellodendron chinense... Oh, and there's also Polyporus umbellatus, which is a kind of fungus.

After you've dug up these few herbs, there are others waiting for you to gather.

There are thousands of kinds of medicinal herbs in the mountains, such as Pyrrosia lingua, Dendrobium nobile, Akebia trifoliata, Aristolochia debilis, Mahonia fortunei, and Podophyllum hexandrum. There are too many to dig up, so we can only pick the valuable ones. The precious ones often grow in dangerous places, so we have to take risks.

How can that compare to the stability and security of working?

Chen Ling said that his father-in-law was also a herb gatherer who had once fallen from the mountain and broken his leg.

Old Xing, a talkative man, was taken aback and sighed several times, unable to utter a word.

But as they spent more time together, he became noticeably more enthusiastic towards Chen Ling.

The mountain where Lao Xing lives is diagonally opposite the mountain where Yaowang Temple is located, to the northeast of Yaowang Temple, and the mountain is much higher.

Chen Ling's family followed behind him for nearly ten minutes, and then they saw a waterfall cascading down the mountainside.

During the rainy season in summer, the waterfall is magnificent, booming and imposing. Now, however, it's drizzling and thin, like a little white snake.

Further on is a deep valley, where the autumn leaves are already colorful, and the path is rugged, leading up the mountain.

The higher you go, the steeper and narrower the mountain path becomes.

Fortunately, Wang Susu and Gao Xiulan were already used to walking this kind of road, so they didn't feel uncomfortable at all, nor did they feel tired.

After walking another five or six hundred meters, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a relatively flat hillside area.

After passing this point, the terrain becomes increasingly flat. After walking several dozen steps, a vegetable garden of about one acre in size appears, enclosed by a fence. The fence is covered with green vines, as well as many old thorns and dried caltrops.

"Wow, this huge area is all fenced off."

"There are many wild things on the mountain, we have to fence it off." Old Xing smiled at Chen Ling, opened the fence gate, and walked through the vegetable garden. He saw that the garden was full of all kinds of vegetables, sweet potatoes, radishes, cabbages and the like.

Chen Ling even saw two rows of buckwheat.

Radishes are planted during the first ten days of summer, vegetables during the second ten days, and buckwheat is planted after the third ten days. Buckwheat has just started to grow this season.

After passing the vegetable garden, there was a small pond in front of it, with lotus flowers and fish.

There is a gourd trellis next to the pond.

The beehives are placed under the gourd trellis.

Further ahead were a few earthen-tiled houses.

“This place has fields, water, and food; it’s no worse than our village,” Gao Xiulan sighed after looking around.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it gets cold early on the mountain. The lotus leaves in the pond have withered, and the blue bellflowers that used to bloom all over the mountain roads and the whole mountain are now overwhelmed by weeds.

The little courtyard on the mountain didn't feel deserted at all; on the contrary, it was quite lively. There were large clusters of cockscomb flowers blooming wildly, like Guan Yu with a red face. Huge gourds hung down from the trellis, like Li Yuanba wielding a hammer.

As the group was talking, a sudden "woof woof woof" sound came from behind the mud-brick house, and a pack of dogs rushed out from the woods.

Chen Ling laughed as soon as he saw it, "It's Tiger Head Yellow."

Tiger-headed yellow tigers are ferocious and easily angered. When they get angry, they can bite people to death. Strangers who enter a house without being led by an adult could be bitten to death.

Therefore, apart from hunters, ordinary people in Changle Township would not keep such fierce dogs.

On the contrary, Fenglei Town is located at the junction of three provinces, with high mountains and deep valleys. The people are a mixed bag, and wild animals frequently appear. For safety reasons, the tiger-headed yellow tigers are unusually rampant around the town.

Old Xing's family has more than ten tiger-headed yellow cats, including the big ones and the small ones.

Chen Ling felt a sense of familiarity upon seeing him now.

"Go away, go away." Old Xing chased away the pack of dogs, and his little grandson followed suit.

Soon, Old Xing's wife also came out from behind the house, and Chen Ling and the others then discovered that there was another piece of land behind the house, which was planted with corn and buckwheat.

After the two families chatted for a while, Old Xing and his wife invited Chen Ling's family to sit down.

"Old Xing, you've started beekeeping here too?"

"It's not about raising them or anything, it's just wild bees that my kid collected from the mountains."

As Old Xing spoke, he asked his wife to fetch honey from the room for Chen Ling and the others.

Seeing that Chen Ling and the other two were being polite, he said, "Try it. This honey is different from other honeys. You'll know once you try it."

As he spoke, a mischievous smile appeared on his flushed face, and his little grandson chuckled along.

Chen Ling became curious immediately. After Old Xing's wife took out the honey and poured it into their teacups to dissolve, he waited.

Chen Ling took the first bite and immediately frowned: "Why does this honey smell so bad?"

"Young man, you've never tasted this honey before, have you? This is buckwheat honey, it has a strange taste." Old Xing's wife, who was dark and thin, grinned at this moment.

Then I gave him some pure honey to taste.

"Oh? So this is buckwheat honey."

Chen Ling suddenly realized, "The taste is really strange, let me try another bite."

After tasting it carefully, I felt that this honey was like the fake honey on the market, with a very obvious grainy texture. However, if you lick your tongue carefully, you can taste the unique sweetness of wild honey.

It has a very strong aftertaste and a very pungent smell; it even leaves a strange, pungent odor in the nasal cavity.

While he savored it, Mr. and Mrs. Xing also warmly invited Wang Susu and her husband to taste it as well.

With Chen Ling leading the way, the mother and daughter first drank two sips of honey water, and both frowned.

However, after taking a couple of sips, I was surprisingly able to get used to and accept this unusual taste.

"Hmm, it tastes pretty good."

"Delicious? Don't drink the honey water, try this honey. This is really strong..."

Chen Ling had recovered from the two spoonfuls of buckwheat honey. "This tastes like the stinky tofu of honey."

After saying that, he felt that the analogy was not quite right; perhaps it should be durian instead.

Then he asked Lao Xing, "If this honey is made into mead, will it still taste the same?"

Old Xing shook his head: "I don't know, this is only our third year of beekeeping, we've never thought about making wine from the honey."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling was not disappointed at all; on the contrary, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

That's just the kind of person he is; he loves to have fun.

If you ask him to make mead to sell, he probably won't take it too seriously.

But if you asked him to brew this buckwheat honey wine with its peculiar odor, he would be a hundred times, a thousand times willing.

When I get home, I'll have to try it out and see what the wine tastes like.

(End of this chapter)