Zhao Yuan took Meng Ying and Zhao Luo towards the mountains and forests, and along the way, they met people in the village to greet them.

There are only a dozen families in Zhaojiazhuang, all of which are surnamed Zhao, but they are the same surname as Song Taizu, who launched the Chenqiao Mutiny two years later. It is said that more than 300 years ago, Zhao Wannian, the ancestor of the Zhao family, migrated here from other places to settle down, and almost all of the people surnamed Zhao in this area of Gray Yuan Town were handed down from the ancestors of 10,000 years.

Zhaojiazhuang is not big, surrounded by mountains on three sides, but only the east side of the mountain is higher, the other two sides of the mountain are not high, Zhaojiazhuang is located at the bottom of the South Mountain on a flat land, outside the village is a river, both sides of the river are paddy fields, other dry land are on the slopes, not very into a piece, a small piece of a small piece.

Walking north along the river, it is the North Mountain where Zhao Yuan and the three of them are going to go, there are not many trees on the North Mountain, so there are many plants that can be used as pigweed, such as plantain and Houttuynia cordata.

"Luoluo, are you tired, uncle will carry you away." After walking for a while, Zhao Yuan saw that the little girl had fine sweat on her forehead and asked.

"Don't be tired, uncle, I'll go by myself."

"Okay, Luoluo is tired and wants to say, Uncle will carry you away."

"Xiaoying, that side is Beishan, and my family has two pieces of land on the slope over there......" Walking all the way, Zhao Yuan recalled the memory of the original owner and told Meng Ying about the situation of his own land.

Occasionally, the pigweed seen on the roadside was dug up or pulled and put into baskets and baskets, and the baskets also passed from Luoluo's hands to Meng Ying's hands.

"There's a spring there, and there's water to drink." After walking for a while, I came to the foot of the North Mountain, there is a clear spring in a stone depression, because of the rain last night, the spring water seems a little turbid, but the water that has just emerged from the spring is very cool and clear.

"Auntie, I know that this spring is called a cool water well, and the water in it is frozen." Zhao Yuan was about to introduce this spring water to Meng Ying, but Zhao Luo immediately rushed to say.

"This is the cool water well, I've heard of it, this spring has never dried up." Meng Ying said with great interest.

All the outlets here in Shudi, whether they come up from the ground or from springs like this one flowing out of a stone depression, as long as they can be drunk, they are called wells, not dug wells.

"It's hot, drink some water." Zhao Yuan took over and asked.

"Uncle, I want to drink water too."

The summer sun shone on the earth, and even though it had only rained last night, the temperature was already quite high, and the three of them were sweating a lot after walking for a while.

"Okay, wait a minute."

There was no tool to get water, so Zhao Yuan was going to pick a few tung tree leaves and fold them as a tool for scooping water. The tung tree is a common broad-leaved tree in Shudi, which is very common in the field, and it is easy to have spicy seeds on the leaves, and the taste is very sour when you touch it. The tung oil of the tung tree is a good oil crop, and the tung oil can not only be used to coat wood furniture, but also has the effect of preventing insects and corrosion. Moreover, tung oil can also be used as fuel for tung oil lamps, and the lamp oil burned by Zhao Yuan's house at night is tung oil.

Zhao Yuan took a closer look, picked a few large leaves without insect eyes from the tung tree next to the ditch formed by the cool water well, and folded them into a small box to scoop water.

"Xiaoying, Luoluo, come, drink water, it's so cold!"

Zhao Yuan stepped on the stone depression, scooped two bags of water with tung tree leaves, handed them to Meng Ying and Zhao Luo, and then scooped up the water himself and drank two sips.

Next to the small ditch formed by the outlet of the cool water well, there was a lot of water celery, but it was cut away, and the three people who drank the water continued to walk towards the mountain, Zhao Yuan walked in front, Luoluo walked in the middle, and Meng Ying followed behind. Walking and stopping all the way, the pigweed in the back basket slowly increased.

"Xiaoying, this is my family's land, this piece and the top piece are both, the lower piece of land is handed down by the ancestors, there are more than two acres, and the top piece of land is opened up by me and my eldest brother, there are more than one acre and four points."

"Well, I know, Brother Yuan, when did the land above open up?"

"It's been more than two years, and at that time Luoluo was barely able to leave, so my eldest brother and I dug a pit, put the back basket in the pit, put a quilt in the back basket, and put Luoluo in it, and you always climbed out at that time." Zhao Yuan scratched Zhao Luo's nose with his hand and said with emotion.

"Uncle, that's because I want to help." Luoluo said dissatisfiedly.

"It's not easy!" Meng Ying also said with a sigh.

"Yes, yes, let's go, there's a lot of pigweed on the hillside, fill it up first." Zhao Yuan shook his head, bent down and plucked a plantain at his feet and threw it into the back basket.

"Uncle, there's a cage of prickly bubbles there, I want to eat it." After walking up the hill for a while, suddenly the little girl said loudly.

"Prickly bubbles?" Zhao Yuan was stunned for a moment, and looked towards the place Zhao Luo pointed, it turned out to be a large raspberry, also called a thornberry, the ripe fruit was purple-black, and the taste was sweet. The prickly bubble in front of me has a lot of purple-black fruits growing on it, because it grows on the ridge, it is very difficult to pick and keep it.

"Luoluo, don't go over, Uncle will help you pick it." Zhao Yuan pulled the little girl who was almost drooling and hurriedly said.

"Be careful, dig a pit with a hoe and step on it." Meng Ying handed the small digging hoe in his hand to Zhao Yuandao.

Zhao Yuan took the hoe, dug two holes on the ridge where he could put his feet, then put the hoe down, took the small pocket made of the leaves of the tung tree that he used to drink water just now, grabbed a small pine tree on the slope, and climbed towards the place where the thorn bubble was.

"Be careful!" Meng Ying watched Zhao Yuan step on the dirt slope and said worriedly.

"Uncle be careful!" Zhao Luo also shouted.

"Don't worry, it's okay."

There are many kinds of prickly bubbles, and the thorn bubble plants that Zhao Yuan sees now are vine-like shrubs, and there is one that is not vines. One of the characteristics of this vine-like prickly fruit is that it is easy to pick in bunches, and soon, the two leaf pockets are filled with purple-black prickly bubbles.

Zhao Yuan folded a small wooden stick, sealed the leaf pocket of the tung tree, and then carefully returned to the road, the little girl looked expectantly at the two small pockets of thorns held by Zhao Yuan.

"Uncle ......"

It just rained last night, and there were no insects on the prickly bubbles, so they could be eaten directly, Zhao Yuan handed a pack of thorns to Meng Ying and the little girl: "Eat it." ”

"It's so sweet, uncle, there are a lot of them on the tree, can you pick them all back." Luoluo took the small leaf pocket, opened it and took two thorn bubbles and put them in her mouth, her tongue was blackened, and asked greedily.

"Okay, take it all back." Zhao Yuan touched Luoluo's forehead dotingly, and wiped the sweat on the little girl's forehead with his sleeve.

"Brother Yuan, you eat too, be careful." Meng Ying opened the leaves of the tung tree and stretched it out in front of Zhao Yuan and said.

"Xiaoying, eat it, I'll go pick up all those prickly bubbles, and I also found a good thing!" Zhao Yuan said mysteriously.

Benefiting from the knowledge in his mind, Zhao Yuan easily recognized a few bushes of plants under the prickly bubble tree, which is a large piece of bracken nettle, because the root shape resembles ginseng, also called ginseng fruit, also known as hairy chicken legs, is a very nutritious plant, containing protein, fat, carotene, vitamin B2, vitamin C, as well as starch, dietary fiber, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, iron, lipids, choline, betaine, etc.

But now the bracken nettle stems and leaves are relatively old and inedible, but the tubers of the bracken nettle are just in time, Zhao Yuan took the small hoe, slowly walked to the thorn bushes, held the tree with one hand, and held the small hoe with the other, dug out the bracken nettle, and threw it directly under the soil slope.

The fat and tender bracken nettle tubers can be eaten as snacks or vegetables, even the old stems and leaves, and can also be used as pigweed to feed pigs.

"Brother Yuan, what are you digging up that grass for?" Meng Ying saw that Zhao Yuan did not pick the prickly bubbles, but laboriously dug a plant on the ridge, and asked suspiciously.

"This is a good thing, it's not grass, it's called hairy chicken legs, you can eat it!" Zhao Yuan replied and continued digging.

"I don't know, Brother Yuan, you know so much, be careful."

"It's okay, it's steady!"

Meng Ying ate two thorn bubbles, handed the leaf pocket to Luoluo, put the back basket flat, let the little girl sit at the bottom of the back basket, walked to the bottom of the soil slope with the basket, and picked up the nettle thrown down by Zhao Yuan, there were really a lot, and when Zhao Yuan finished digging, he pressed a basket full of stems and leaves.