Crossing Over to Yamada Love

"Let's water as much as we can, otherwise we'll just be anxiously waiting at home. We might as well go water the fields," Mo Lan advised her grandfather.

“Alright, let’s go water the fields.” Mo Quan knocked on his pipe and stood up.

Mo Changhe, Qiu Dajun, and Chen Xuan together lifted the large water bucket onto the cart.

This large water bucket is made of sheet metal. It's round and over a meter long. There's an opening at the top so you can lift the bucket to fill it with water, and an outlet at the bottom so you can put water in. It can hold a lot of water; one trip can irrigate quite a lot of land.

The men of the Mo family went to the river to fetch water, while Mo Changhai, Qiu Shi, Mo Mei, and Mo Lan picked up small wooden buckets and waited at the edge of the field.

After the cart arrived, they lined up to get water. Once the buckets were full, the cart left, and Mo Lan and the others carried their buckets and ladles to water the land.

Pour the water from the ladle evenly around each seedling, ensuring they are thoroughly hydrated, and water them one by one.

In one afternoon, the Mo family irrigated more than two acres of land.

Mo Lan looked at the empty water ladle and pounded her lower back with her arm. Her arm was also very sore and heavy, and it was difficult to lift it.

After several days of watering, the corn and peanut fields were finally finished. The Mo family was almost exhausted. Seeing the Mo family watering the fields, a few families in the village followed suit, but most of them laughed at the Mo family for being foolish. They said that their ancestors had relied on the weather for their livelihood. If it didn't rain, they would work themselves to death trying to water the fields.

Regardless of what others did, the Mo family watered all their land, and the corn seedlings grew very quickly. While others' seedlings were only a foot tall, the Mo family's were already half a foot tall. At first glance, they were clearly different from the others.

“Let’s go to the fields to weed. Lan, you don’t need to go. Stay home and rest for a couple of days,” Mo Quan said to Mo Lan as he dressed.

"Okay, I won't go. I'll stay home and make pickled vegetables with my grandma," Mo Lan replied. A lot of weeds had sprouted in the field. There were no herbicides available, so they had to be pulled by hand. Weeding wasn't easy; you had to squat on the ground the whole time, moving forward while squatting. After an afternoon like that, your back and neck would ache. But that's how crops are; if you take good care of them, they'll grow well; if you neglect them, they'll neglect you.

With the adults gone, Mo Lan led Xiao San and Wang Shi into the vegetable garden to pick and process the vegetables, making pickled vegetables. The Mo family consumed a lot of pickled vegetables every day. The craftsmen, those who came and went from town, and the people who came from town all needed a small dish of pickled vegetables at almost every table. They needed to make two large basins of pickled vegetables every day.

The crops in the field yield a harvest with every effort. While other people's corn cobs are only a tiny bit big, ours are already ripe and ready to eat. The peanuts are a little sore, but they can still be boiled and eaten.

When the young masters from those towns arrived, they almost always ordered a plate of corn and boiled peanuts, and they would take some with them when they left.

Of course, many people were envious of the Mo family, so much so that some of the Mo family's corn and peanuts were lost. In the middle of the night, some greedy and unscrupulous people would run into the Mo family's fields to pick corn and harvest peanuts. Not only would they take them away, but some would also damage them. They would not take the bad ones and would just throw them on the edge of the field after pulling them out.

Looking at the peanut vines that had been pulled up and thrown away at the edge of the field, Mo Quan's beard bristled with anger. These were crops, the fruits of his family's hard work, and to have them ruined like this, he was filled with indignation.

But he was helpless. There were too many people to keep an eye on everything; they all lived in the same village. Even if he caught them, what could he do? It would just result in a quarrel and a commotion. Afterwards, they would still steal and cause trouble as before!

The Mo family was somewhat worried, but they finally came up with a solution. When everyone was selling mushrooms to their family, Wang said that the Mo family already knew who was stealing their peanuts and corncobs. They were just villagers who didn't want to make a scene. If they went there again, the Mo family would not only refuse to accept anything from them, but they would also tell the Xue family's son that they would go to the magistrate to file a complaint.

This advice proved quite effective; corn and peanuts stopped being stolen as much. Of course, some people still stole a little occasionally, but it was much better than before. It seems everyone was afraid of getting involved with the authorities.

"Lanlan, my mother went up the mountain to pick Sichuan peppercorns. Doesn't your family eat meat every day? Aren't you going to pick some?"

Mo Lan, who was grating sweet potato slices, heard Liu Hu calling her, "Shanhuajiao?" What is Shanhuajiao? Sichuan pepper? Mo Lan was puzzled.

"Brother Tiger, my family bought a lot of Sichuan peppercorns, so we don't need to go and cut any more, right?" Mo Lan said hesitantly. Sichuan peppercorns need to be cut? Aren't they all picked from the peppercorn tree?

"Lan'er, the Sichuan peppercorns that Hu Zi is talking about are not the same as the Sichuan peppercorns we have at home. If you want to go, then go with Hu Zi," Qiu Shi chimed in from the side.

“But I don’t know what Sichuan pepper is, Brother Hu, do you?” Mo Lan asked Liu Hu.

"I...I...I've seen the ones my mother brought back, but I don't really recognize the Sichuan pepper tree," Liu Hu said, blushing slightly. Before he met Mo Lan, he rarely went into the mountains and didn't recognize everything.

"Alright, I'll go with you. Otherwise, you two might get lost and never find yourselves." Qiu put down the drying rack and handed over the task of drying sweet potato slices to Wang and Liu. She changed her clothes and accompanied Liu Hu and Mo Lan into the mountains.

Once inside the mountains, Qiu led the two around and around. Mo Lan didn't recognize them, so they just followed Qiu, occasionally picking some mushrooms or gathering some wild herbs, which kept them entertained.

"Tiger, Lanlan, come here quickly, there are two Sichuan pepper trees here."

Mo Lan, who was looking for the pagoda, heard her mother call out and rushed over. She was stunned when she saw her mother.

Is this Sichuan pepper? But this is clearly a Schisandra chinensis tree. The tree is covered with clusters of dense, red Schisandra chinensis berries, which looks quite pleasing.

Mo Lan knew about Schisandra chinensis; she had seen her mother-in-law sun-dry it in her past life, saying it was a medicinal herb that could cure diseases.

She knew about Schisandra chinensis and Cymbidium goeringii; she had seen her mother-in-law sun-dry it in her past life, saying it was a medicinal herb that could cure diseases.

She remembered that she was afraid her mother-in-law was wrong, so she went home and looked up information. The book said: Schisandra chinensis is sour and warm in nature; it enters the lung, heart, and kidney meridians; it has astringent and descending properties.

Suitable for those suffering from night sweats, palpitations, excessive dreaming, insomnia, nocturnal emission, and spermatorrhea.

It has the effects of astringing and consolidating, replenishing qi and promoting body fluid production, tonifying the kidneys and calming the mind.

It is used to treat chronic cough and wheezing, nocturnal emission and spermatorrhea, frequent urination and bedwetting, chronic diarrhea, spontaneous sweating and night sweats, palpitations and insomnia, and thirst due to fluid depletion.

Seeing these things put her mind at ease, and she also learned about Schisandra chinensis. The fruit on the tree in front of her was the same as the Schisandra chinensis that her mother-in-law was drying. Could this be the Schisandra chinensis tree?

Mo Lan carefully examined the small tree. The trunk was grayish-brown with thorny bark, while the twigs were smooth and purplish-red. The knots on the branches were also thorny. The stalks were shorter than the flowers, and the tree had five leaves and five oblong petals, covered with small, round, bright red berries.

Mo Lan knows that the dried, ripe pericarp can be used medicinally to warm the middle burner, dispel cold, expel parasites, and relieve itching. It is effective for abdominal pain due to cold, vomiting, diarrhea, and ascariasis.

Mo Lan watched as her mother began to cut the bark of the Schisandra chinensis tree with a sickle, putting some into a basket. Was this the same bark they called Sichuan peppercorns? Mo Lan was speechless. This was clearly a medicinal herb! They were discarding the good stuff, just cutting the bark to stew with meat. While the bark was alright, it couldn't compare to the Schisandra chinensis itself. This was a natural medicinal herb; it should be valuable.

"Mother, I want the fruit up there, can you hook some for me?" Mo Lan tried several times on tiptoe but couldn't reach it. She had no choice but to ask her mother for help.

"What are you going to do with that? Those fruits look nice, but they taste very sour," Qiu replied to her daughter while cutting Sichuan peppercorns.

"It looks beautiful! Let's take it back and ask Grandpa Chen if it's edible. I want to eat it." Mo Lan looked up at the Schisandra chinensis on the tree.

"Look how greedy you are. Wait, I'll pick some for you." Mrs. Qiu couldn't help but laugh at her daughter's expression. This girl was interested in everything. She stood on tiptoe and picked a few bunches for her daughter.

"I want them all, I want them all, pick them all!" Mo Lan shouted, jokingly. This mountain is so big, she doesn't even know where her mother has taken her now. If she were to confirm that these are Schisandra chinensis, she wouldn't even be able to find a place to pick them.

"What's the point of having more? It's so high up there, I can't reach it anyway," Qiu said, looking at her daughter with a puzzled expression.

Finally, at Mo Lan's request, Liu Hu and Qiu Shi began picking Schisandra chinensis. The upper part was too high, so Liu Hu took off his belt, casually rolled up his pants, and used the belt to hook onto the branches for Qiu Shi to pick.

After finally picking them clean, the two trees had yielded more than half a basket. Mo Lan was overjoyed and kept laughing, while Liu Hu kept blushing, probably because he was embarrassed about the belt incident.

As they walked back, Mo Lan happily picked whatever she could find, then threw it on the ground. They were just leaves and the like, which would all wither in a while, so it didn't matter.

Huh? Mo Lan threw a few handfuls of leaves and then came back. She raised an eyebrow at the thing in front of her.

"Mother, Mother, come back." She called out to Qiu Shi.

"What's wrong? Why are you walking so slowly?" Hearing her daughter's call, Qiu turned back helplessly.

"Look, isn't this a leaf of a dada fragrance?" Mo Lan asked, pointing to a small tree on the ground.

Mrs. Qiu glanced at it twice, then rolled her eyes at her daughter and said, "Yeah, so what? Don't tell me you want this leaf too."

"Hehe, Mother is so amazing! Yes, I want this leaf." Mo Lan tugged at her mother's sleeve, smiling at her with a look full of flattery.

"Why do you like everything! Pick it if you want it." Qiu couldn't resist her daughter's insistence, so she helped her pick the leaves of the dahlia.

"These are the second batch of leaves. The first batch was full of insect holes. Once the first batch of leaves falls off, the second batch will be much better," Qiu said to her daughter as she picked the leaves.

After picking a lot of leaves, the three of them went down the mountain. Mo Lan didn't let them go back to the Mo family, but instead went to Doctor Chen's house first.

Upon seeing Physician Chen, he hurriedly invited them to sit down. His wife, a kind woman, poured water for the three of them, chatted for a few moments, and then withdrew to let them talk.