My 1995 Small Farm.

After leaving the farm, we walked along the newly built bluestone path into the village.

Now, there are too many out-of-towners coming to watch the excitement.

They weren't exactly tourists, though.

It wasn't specifically for tourism.

They were just casual tourists who came to join in the fun.

However, with so many people, the number of street vendors in Chenwangzhuang has increased significantly.

People who didn't do this before are now doing it.

On both sides of the road, you can see villagers setting up stalls every short distance.

There were vendors selling boiled corn, roasted sweet potatoes, and homemade pickled vegetables and dried green beans.

Groups of tourists gathered around the stall, haggling over prices in accents from other regions.

"Uncle Fugui!" A young woman waved to him, "Try our freshly boiled tender corn!"

Chen Ling smiled and waved his hand: "I just finished eating, and I'm still full."

The wife smiled and beckoned to Rui Rui and Xiao Ming, stuffing a boiled corn into each of their hands.

The two children didn't stand on ceremony and took the food to eat.

Further along, the threshing ground was even more lively.

Several large buses were parked in the open space at the entrance of the village, where a group of people from out of town were gathered, listening to Wang Laishun tell a story about the Donggang ancient tombs and dinosaur fossils.

"Our Chenwangzhuang has a history! You know dinosaurs, right? They lived here tens of millions of years ago! And Qingxu Temple, it existed as early as the Ming Dynasty..."

Wang Laishun spoke with great enthusiasm, and the audience listened with great interest.

The Donggang area is the most crowded right now; those who can't squeeze in are just wandering around the village.

Rui Rui tugged at Chen Ling's sleeve: "Dad, Grandpa the Party Secretary is bragging again."

“That’s not bragging, that’s advertising.” Chen Ling patted his head with a smile. “Let’s go, let’s go around from here and go straight to your Uncle Jusheng’s house, and call Datou over.”

Turn past the threshing ground and walk east along the field path.

This year, the farmland is full of buckwheat that was hastily planted after the floods, and the flowers are in full bloom right now.

A blanket of tiny white flowers covered the ground, looking from a distance like a thin layer of snow.

A breeze blows, and the buckwheat flowers sway gently, carrying a faint sweet scent in the air.

"Dad, these flowers smell so good!" Rui Rui took a deep breath.

"This flower isn't actually very fragrant; it has a strange smell," Chen Ling said with a smile. "It's only when there are many flowers blooming together that it has a fragrance. Bees love this."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a cry of pain suddenly came from ahead.

"Ouch—Mommy! Mommy! It hurts!"

It was a child's voice, crying heartbreakingly.

Chen Ling looked in the direction of the sound and saw a group of people, men and women, gathered on the ridge of the field not far ahead. Their clothes and appearance made them look like tourists from the city.

In the middle of the crowd, a woman in her thirties was squatting down, holding a little boy of four or five years old in her arms. The child was crying with tears streaming down his face, his right hand was raised, and the back of his hand was swollen and red, which looked frightening.

"What's going on?" Chen Ling quickly walked over.

A middle-aged man wearing glasses turned around, his face full of anxiety: "This child got stung by a bee! I don't know where the bees came from, they were circling around the child and his mother, and when his mother swatted them a few times, the bees stung them!"

The woman next to me looked up, tears still streaming down her face, and said anxiously, "I heard that if you get stung by a bee, you have to pull out the stinger, but I'm too scared to do it! Is there a clinic in these mountains? Where's the nearest hospital?"

As she spoke, she looked around and saw Chen Ling walking towards her. Seeing the two children and two large tigers behind him, she paused, realizing who it was, and quickly asked, "Are you Mr. Chen? Is there a hospital nearby? Please, please take us there quickly!"

Chen Ling squatted down and looked at the child's hand.

The back of my hand was swollen like a small steamed bun, with a black dot in the middle—that was a bee sting.

He then looked at the child's mother; the woman also had a red, swollen bump on her neck, but it wasn't as severe as the child's.

"Don't rush, pull the thorn out first." Chen Ling said, and was about to start working.

Just then, Rui Rui suddenly squeezed through the crowd, grabbed Chen Ling's arm, and looked up at him, saying, "Dad, let Uncle Guoping go see him! Auntie, there's a clinic in our village, run by Uncle Guoping. His wife, Aunt Xiufen, has some folk remedies that can cure many diseases!"

Chen Ling was taken aback and looked down at her son.

Rui Rui blinked his eyes, his little face full of seriousness.

Chen Ling was overjoyed.

This kid's gotten smarter now.

Before, he would always say things like "My dad is good" or "My dad is amazing," but now he knows to leave some room for his dad.

“Yes, Aunt Xiufen from Uncle Guoping’s family is very good at treating bee stings.” Chen Ling stood up and said to the woman, “Come with me, it’s not far, just over there in the row of houses.”

"Okay, okay! Thank you, thank you!" The woman nodded repeatedly, picked up the child, and was about to follow.

A middle-aged man wearing glasses followed, asking as they walked, "Brother, is this the doctor in your village? What medicine does he use?"

“He is the doctor in our village. However, for bee stings, even if you go to the hospital, you will only receive Western medicine treatment, which is not effective so quickly. Folk remedies are better.”

Chen Ling led them back: "Our village doctor's wife, Sister Xiufen, specializes in treating difficult and complicated diseases. If someone gets stung by a bee, she mashes up a kind of herb leaves and applies it; it reduces swelling and relieves pain faster than any medicine."

"Grass leaves? What kind of grass?" the man asked curiously.

"I don't know its scientific name, but we call it 'bee grass' here. It grows in the mountain valleys and is used to treat bee stings."

Before we knew it, we arrived at Chen Guoping's house.

Chen Guoping's courtyard is not large, with three brick and tile houses, and the courtyard wall is made of stone, with several pomegranate trees planted at the base of the wall.

In the courtyard, Chen Guoping was squatting there repairing farm tools, while his wife, Li Xiufen, was sitting on the porch picking vegetables.

"Brother Guoping! Sister-in-law Xiufen!" Chen Ling called out at the courtyard gate.

Chen Guoping looked up and saw Chen Ling. He put down his weapon and came out to greet him: "Fugui? What's up?"

“A little kid from the city got stung by a bee and asked your sister-in-law to take a look.”

Upon hearing this, Sister-in-law Xiufen quickly put down the vegetables, stood up, wiped her hands on her apron, and hurried out.

The woman carried the child into the yard. When Sister Xiufen saw the child's hand, she exclaimed, "Oh dear! That's quite a sting! What kind of bee stung him?"

“It should be a wild bee,” Chen Ling said. “It’s from the buckwheat field over there.”

Sister-in-law Xiufen nodded, then turned to Chen Guoping and called out, "Husband, go to the backyard and pick some tender bee grass!"

Chen Guoping responded and went to the backyard.

Sister-in-law Xiufen took the child and sat him on a small stool. She then said to the woman, "Don't worry, it's nothing serious. Let's pull the thorn out of his hand first."

Her hands were steady. She took a needle from the sewing basket, heated it over a fire, and brought it close to the child: "Little one, don't move. Grandma will pick the thorn out for you. It won't hurt anymore once it's out."

The child was still crying, but not as hard, and nodded, sobbing.

Sister-in-law Xiufen acted quickly, picking out the thin bee stinger with the tip of a needle, and then gently squeezing it with her fingertip to extract a little transparent liquid.

"Alright, the prickles are out. Crush the grass leaves and apply it later, and it won't hurt for long." Chen Guoping returned from the backyard at this moment, holding a handful of lush green grass.

The grass leaves were long and thin with serrated edges and covered with a layer of fine hairs; they looked quite ordinary.

Sister-in-law Xiufen took the grass, put it into the stone mortar, and mashed it into a paste in a few quick movements, releasing a refreshing grassy aroma.

She applied the mud to the back of the child's hand and gently wrapped it with a clean cloth.

"Okay, change it every half hour, and the swelling will go down after two changes."

The child stopped crying, looked down at his hands, his eyes were still red, but he had stopped sobbing.

The woman breathed a sigh of relief and thanked her repeatedly, "Thank you, ma'am! Thank you, ma'am! How much is it? I'll pay you!"

"What money do you need? It's just a handful of grass." Sister Xiufen waved her hand. "You're here to have fun, right? Be careful next time. There aren't many bees this season. Just don't go near places with lots of flowers and wild fruits."

The woman nodded, then looked at the bump on her neck: "Sister-in-law, I also got stung on my neck, could you take a look?"

Sister-in-law Xiufen looked at it and laughed, "You were just brushed by a bee's tail, but it didn't sting. It's much lighter than a child's case. Just apply this herb to it too."

She mashed some grass mud and applied it to the woman's neck as well.

The woman finally relaxed completely and sat in the courtyard chatting with her sister-in-law, Xiufen.

"Sister-in-law, why are there so many bees here? We've seen flowers in the city, but we've never seen so many bees."

Sister-in-law Xiufen laughed and said, "That's because the flowers in your city don't attract bees. This year is different. Look over there, all white, that's buckwheat."

"Buckwheat? The kind of buckwheat used to make buckwheat noodles?" the man with glasses asked.

“Yes,” Chen Ling replied. “This year’s floods submerged a lot of crops, so we quickly planted a crop of buckwheat. When the buckwheat flowers, the smell isn’t very pleasant to humans, but it attracts bees. Wild bees from the mountains all fly here.”

The man suddenly realized, "No wonder! I've seen so many bees along the way, I thought it was a bee farm."

“There aren’t any bee farms,” Chen Guoping interjected from the side, “but there are plenty of wild bees. We have plenty in these mountains. If you want to buy honey, there are a few households in the village that know how to collect wild honey. That stuff is precious and much more fragrant than farmed honey.”

The woman's interest was piqued: "Wild honey? Where can I buy it?"

"We're out of stock right now," Chen Guoping laughed. "You have to wait for the right time to collect wild bees. The village is busy with other things right now, who has time to collect them? Unless you hire someone at a high price."

Just then, another commotion came from outside the courtyard gate.

A young woman rushed in: "Sister Xiufen, you'd better hurry and see! Someone else has been stung by bees over at the threshing ground! This time it's three!"

Sister-in-law Xiufen was taken aback, then stood up and walked towards the door.

Chen Ling followed him out.

A crowd had already gathered around the threshing ground.

Wang Laishun stood in the middle of the crowd, gesturing to several tourists.

Of the three people who were stung, one was a young woman whose hand was swollen.

One was a middle-aged woman in her forties, with a red patch on her neck.

There was also a boy around ten years old whose eyelids were so swollen that they were barely open, which looked both pitiful and funny.

"Make way, make way!" Sister-in-law Xiufen squeezed through, and when she saw the boy's eyelid, she gasped, "Oh dear, why did he have to sting his eyelid of all places?"

The boy's mother was so anxious she was stamping her feet: "Sister-in-law, please take a look! He insists on running in that flower field, and I can't stop him no matter how much I call him!"

Sister-in-law Xiufen squatted down to take a look, then turned to Chen Guoping, who had followed her, and said, "Husband, gather a few more handfuls of grass, gather more."

Chen Guoping turned around and ran away again.

Sister-in-law Xiufen grows many easy-to-grow medicinal herbs, some for treating skin diseases and others for treating bee stings.

Many of the grasses in her yard are actually grown at specific altitudes.

Even if people from other places transplant them back, they won't survive.

Chen Ling squatted down and looked at the boy's eyes: "Don't let him rub them, the more he rubs them, the more swollen they will become."

The boy was too scared to rub it anymore. He just stood there pitifully, his eyes peeking out from a slit as he looked at Chen Ling and asked in a childish voice, "Uncle, will I go blind?"

"No, it won't." Chen Ling chuckled. "It'll just be swollen for a couple of days, and it'll look a bit ugly."

Someone nearby couldn't help but burst out laughing.

The boy's mother glared at the man, but she couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time.

Sister-in-law Xiufen first treated the bee stings on the hands of the young girl and the middle-aged woman, and then applied grass mud to them.

When Chen Guoping brought the grass back, she quickly mashed it and applied it to the boy's eyes.

The boy sat obediently with his eyes closed, like a little wooden puppet.

"Alright, just apply it." Sister-in-law Xiufen stood up, patted the herbal juice off her hands, and said, "Come to my house in half a day to change it. It will be gone by tomorrow morning."

The boy's mother thanked him profusely and tried to give him money, but Sister-in-law Xiufen refused.

She truly never charges for her medical consultations.

It's just that we have a Buddhist or some kind of deity worshipped at home, so we need to burn incense and paper money.

Wang Laishun tried to smooth things over, saying, "Alright, alright, stop pushing. You city folks don't know that buckwheat flowers attract bees. Remember this in the future: don't go into the flower fields, and don't spray that fragrant stuff."

Upon hearing this, the young woman blushed and whispered, "I...I wore perfume today..."

No wonder.

Chen Ling couldn't help but shake his head: "The perfume smells strong, there are few flowering plants this season, and it's hard to find nectar sources. Bees don't just target this! If you spray perfume and stand in the flower field, it's like throwing candy into a hive!"

Everyone burst into laughter.

The girl blushed even more.

Sister-in-law Xiufen gave them a few more instructions, telling them to go back and change their dressings on time, before they dispersed.

Chen Ling led Rui Rui and Xiao Ming through the crowd and continued walking towards Chen Guoping's house.

Rui Rui looked up and asked, "Daddy, why do bees sting when you spray perfume?"

“The bees think it’s a flower,” Chen Ling explained. “They collect nectar by following the scent. If you spray perfume, it smells like a flower and comes over to take a look. If you pat it at that moment, it thinks you’re going to hit it and will sting you.”

"Oh..." Rui Rui nodded as if she understood, "Then I won't wear perfume anymore."

"Why are you spraying that stuff?" Chen Ling laughed. "You're not a little girl."

Xiao Ming said from the side, "My mom is very beautiful, but she doesn't wear perfume. She says it's a waste of money."

“Your mother is right.” Chen Ling patted his head.

When they arrived at Chen Guoping's house, the tourists in the courtyard had already left.

Sister-in-law Xiufen was cleaning up the stone mortar when she saw them return. She smiled and said, "These two boys are so sensible. They were even helping to pass things to me just now."

Upon hearing this, Rui Rui puffed out her little chest.

Chen Ling patted his head: "Alright, stop showing off. Come on, let's go to Xizi's house to feed the wild boars." (End of Chapter)