My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 251 Feng Shui Treasure Land
It's normal to have scorpions in the orchard. Not to mention this place is at the foot of the mountain, even in the village, in the villagers' homes, scorpions will crawl around everywhere at night, so the adults didn't take it seriously.

Scorpions prefer to stay in shady places and don't come out during the day because the sun can kill them. So during the day, they hide in nooks and crannies and won't crawl out unless someone looks for them.

In addition, there are two intersecting irrigation ditches surrounding the farm, so scorpions can't crawl over there, and there's nothing to worry about.

But Wang Zhenzhen kept insisting that there were a lot of scorpions, and that you could catch a whole nest of them at once. She said that catching them would definitely make a lot of money, and that they should go out and see for themselves.

Chen Ling and her son-in-law couldn't resist her tugging, so they went out to take a look.

When I looked at it, I was quite surprised.

There are an unusually large number of scorpions.

The little girls, including Liu Ni'er, were excitedly searching for scorpions among the rocks in the orchard. The least they caught was almost two pounds.

Keep in mind that a single scorpion weighs only about two grams, and a pound of scorpions, varying in size, would require at least two hundred and fifty scorpions.

The scorpions caught by these kids must weigh at least ten pounds.

That guy had two or three thousand scorpions.

You wouldn't believe it until you see it; it's quite a surprise.

"What's going on? Where did all these scorpions come from?"

Wang Zhenzhen shook her head: "I don't know. When we came here to play, Liu Ni'er said she wanted to do a trap to catch birds. Who knew that as soon as we moved a rock, several scorpions crawled out from underneath. We caught them all. After we finished catching them, we flipped over the rocks next to us, and there were a lot of scorpions lying underneath. They don't run very fast during the day, so they're easy to catch."

"Yes, Auntie is right. We didn't bring enough stuff, we couldn't fit it all in, otherwise we could have caught hundreds more."

Liu Nier held up an earthenware pot for Chen Ling to see. It was full of scorpions crawling around inside. Chen Ling glanced down and thought, "Good heavens, this pot is almost full."

They've almost run out of cicada shells lately. They went out to play in the morning without bringing anything with them, and this earthenware pot was found near the chicken coop.

"Uncle Fugui, you'd better hurry up and get something to catch them too. There are so many scorpions in your orchard."

"Yes, Uncle, come and see! This rock is smaller than my head, and there are so many scorpions hiding underneath it."

Not far away, the snotty-nosed boy lifted a stone in one hand and shouted at him, urging him to come and see.

Chen Ling and his father-in-law went over to take a look.

Underneath the overturned stone, there were countless yellowish-brown scorpions, each with its tail raised, slowly crawling. There were even a few plump old female scorpions with their tails curled up, their backs crawling with hundreds of small, white scorpions, looking like they had a layer of white bumps on their backs, which made people's skin crawl.

"Good heavens, our orchard has become a scorpion's nest!" Wang Cunye exclaimed, his eyes wide.

Chen Ling walked to the side, flipped over two stones, and looked at them. They were also covered with scorpions.

"Let's catch them. There are so many scorpions. If we don't catch them, they'll be crawling all over the place at night and causing chaos in the camp."

Wang Susu is terrified of scorpions. If she knew there were so many scorpions hiding in the orchard, she would be too scared to even leave the farm.

Moreover, with so many scorpions, it would be bad if someone were accidentally injured.

"Go ahead and catch them. Since we know they're hiding under the rocks, it's easier to catch them during the day."

During the day, scorpions are not as active as at night. They can't run fast and are hard to hide, so they are easy to catch. Basically, just find something to grab them. If that doesn't work, just sprinkle a layer of soil on them. Don't worry about them running away.

"I'll go get it, I'll go get the things."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhenzhen rushed back to the farm and brought them two bamboo tongs and a fish basket.

The father-in-law took it and muttered, "Why are there so many scorpions appearing? This is a bit strange."

There are many poisonous insects on the north mountain, but surely not so many scorpions would run down to the orchards.

Chen Ling shook his head and said he didn't know, and then asked a few more questions with concern.

Actually, he knew perfectly well that the recent heavy rains and overflowing water from his house had attracted the scorpions, which had gathered here in such large numbers.

After catching the scorpions here, we continued turning over the rocks.

It was then discovered that not only were there many scorpions, but also many other insects.

Centipedes, spiders, poisonous ants, and even leeches in the irrigation ditch.

There are also more biting mosquitoes and other insects in the grass.

They were all particularly large.

"Goodness, there are so many pill bugs too."

Turning over the stones, besides the dense scorpions and centipedes, the common "pill bugs" were also curled up into small balls, lying quietly in the damp soil, like a layer of black bumps growing on the wet earth.

Besides pill bugs, there are also ground beetles, also known as earthworms, which are plump, grayish-black insects with oval shells. When you lift a stone, they swarm and flee in all directions, which can be quite startling.

There are surprisingly many of these "woodlice," such as pill bugs, ground beetles, and burrowing bugs.

They are similar to scorpions, living in broods.

The orchard seemed to have become a stronghold for insects.

Logically speaking, besides chickens and ducks, there are quite a few birds flying around here every day, so how come there are so many insects?

Did they all come here at night with their families?
While he was wondering about this, Chen Ling continued to pry open another rock, and was so frightened that he almost cursed out loud.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Wang Cunye and a group of children quickly came over.

"Zhenzhen, take them and don't come over yet. There are too many poisonous worms here."

Chen Ling stood up and took two steps back. In front of him, behind the overturned stone, lay four or five small, newly grown snakes in the grass. These snakes were quite venomous, so he dared not be careless.

"Poisonous snakes? We raise grass snakes on the farm, and I even sprayed snake repellent. How come there are still poisonous snakes coming over?"

Wang Cunye walked over, carrying a bamboo pole and cutting through the grass, and then asked Wang Zhenzhen to hand the bamboo pole to Chen Ling.

Bamboo poles can deter snakes.

Snakes are afraid of bamboo poles. If you encounter a snake, use a bamboo pole to lift it up, and the snake will become limp.

Even using it to cut grass can scare away snakes hiding in the grass.

"Goodness, there really is one. It's rare to see such a small branding tip."

Upon seeing this, Wang Cunye grabbed all the small branding iron tips, stuffed them into a bamboo basket, covered it, and left them with the scorpions.

Although the branding iron tip was poisonous, he had been catching snakes all his life, so these small worms were no problem for him at all.

But his mind wasn't on that right now; instead, he kept muttering to himself, "Could it be that because we're close to the ditch, the snake repellent isn't working?"

This situation is actually quite common.

Snake-attracting drugs are less effective when near water sources.

We then saw some non-venomous snakes such as rat snakes and black-banded snakes, as well as highly venomous snakes such as five-step snakes and white-headed vipers.

"Something's not right, something's really not right," Wang Cunye muttered to himself, frowning.

In the wild, it is quite strange and bizarre that several different types of snakes gather in one place.

"I didn't use any snake bait, did you?"

"No, Father, you gave me the prescription, how could I possibly use it randomly around our house?" Chen Ling quickly shook his head. In fact, he knew that besides the rain washing out the water in the ditch, the water flowing in the ditch every day was also diluted spiritual water. Although the dilution ratio was very high, it was still stronger than ordinary water and had a strong attraction to wild creatures.

Thinking of this, he looked carefully at the route he had taken and found that the snakes and insects were indeed gathered near the irrigation ditch.

While thinking about water, Chen Ling discovered something new in the water.

It turned out to be two small salamanders, the kind that live in mountain streams, which had also attracted them.

As soon as people approached, they slipped into the water with a "splash" and disappeared.

Wang Cunye also discovered two new types of insects: blister beetles and bamboo weevils. The two insects have somewhat similar shells, but they are quite different.

Blister beetles are poisonous but can be used in medicine.

Bamboo weevils are pests that specifically eat bamboo. They are edible, as they like to suck the leaves and branches of bamboo, and whether fried or roasted, they have a bamboo fragrance.

"We can catch these bamboo elephants, and fry a lot of them along with the scorpions. We'll have them as a snack with drinks at noon."

"Well, you'd better eat the scorpions sparingly. I'm saving them to make wine for you. Wine made from snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and the like is very nourishing. I'll make a big vat for you, and you can sell it later."

"As long as you have the ability, I don't care if you sell it for 10,000 yuan per kilogram."

Wang Cunye laughed as he spoke, "Actually, if you put it that way, having more poisonous insects in the orchard isn't necessarily a bad thing, huh?"

As the father-in-law and son-in-law were talking, Wang Zhenzhen and several children ran restlessly to the edge of the field. After a while, they pointed to the sky and shouted.

"Look at the sky! There are birds, so many birds!"

As they were shouting, they heard a loud sound of wings flapping and rubbing against the air. Then, flocks of birds began to fall towards the orchard, like dumplings falling from the sky. The scene was truly spectacular.

The birds that had made their home in the orchard were startled and kept taking flight.

Chen Ling, with his sharp eyes, glanced over there and couldn't help but say, "These are the birds we saw the other day; they've all flown here."

Wang Cunye looked over and recognized it, then paused in surprise, "It really is! How did it fly this way?"

The flock of birds flew into the forest and headed straight for the irrigation ditch.

They stood by the water, heads bowed, drinking.

After drinking the water, they searched for insects to eat in the grass among the fruit trees.

"Goodness, they're thirsty and have come to drink water. It seems our farm is a lucky place, everything is coming here."

Wang Cunye saw the flock of birds gradually becoming more active among the plants and trees, and he smiled.

Hearing this, Chen Ling continued, "What kind of auspicious place is this? I don't know what we raised wrong or what we planted wrong, that attracted all these things..."

"what?"

As soon as he finished speaking, his father-in-law let out a soft exclamation and squatted down in front of a tree. "This tree is growing Ganoderma lucidum. It's a feng shui treasure land even if it's not one."

"Huh? Lingzhi? What kind of Lingzhi is this? Is it valuable?" Chen Ling quickly went over to take a look.

Then the old man picked a grayish-white, fan-shaped Ganoderma lucidum from the tree.

“This is a green Ganoderma, also called tree tongue. It’s not worth much, far inferior to red or purple Ganoderma.” Wang Cunye shook his head and handed the Ganoderma in his hand to Chen Ling.

"However, the effect of medication is not bad."

"Hehe, it seems your place is really good. It attracts snakes and birds, and can even grow Ganoderma lucidum. What a great place! Hurry up and plant ginseng here too."

"Don't rush into ginseng; the money will come in a few years."

Chen Ling looked at the Ganoderma lucidum and said, "We'll plant it in the fall. When we plant ginseng, we'll plant some Ganoderma lucidum too. It grows fast."

Reishi mushrooms are annual plants; once planted, they can be harvested after a year of growth.

Whether wild or cultivated, they are no exception.

The so-called century-old and thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum do not exist.

Ginseng, however, is different.

There are ginsengs that are a hundred years old and ginsengs that are a thousand years old.

Even with properly cultivated ginseng, also known as wild ginseng or round ginseng, it takes three to six years to fetch a good price.

Not to mention wild ones.

Although Chen Ling has a hidden world within him, he doesn't need to follow the usual rules.

However, ginseng grown in the wild must still follow the laws of nature.

He simply didn't expect to get rich by growing ginseng outside the region.

He plans to grow ginseng himself and then release it into the Qinling Mountains.

Otherwise, it would be hard to believe that such a vast area as the Qinling Mountains could be devoid of wild ginseng.

“After a few days, we’ll train the kite and find some dangerous places, like near cliffs or deep pits, and put ginseng seeds in them.”

Chen Ling pondered, thinking that he should reduce the amount of spiritual water he added in the future, pouring it into the irrigation ditch once a week, or once every ten days. Otherwise, the forest would gradually become full of snakes and insects, making it impossible to walk.

"Well, it's not a big problem. There are a lot of snakes and insects, but they won't bother the chickens and ducks. Besides, so many birds have flown over. There aren't enough insects in the forest for them to eat."

After taking a walk around the orchard, Wang Cunye said to his son-in-law.

Chen Ling nodded, and then the two began their daily egg-collecting work.

After working until after 10 o'clock and finishing collecting the chicken and duck eggs, the flood control commander named Li Min brought two more people over, saying they were going back to the city for a meeting and wanted to buy some wine.

After they finished speaking, they saw the scorpions, centipedes and other poisonous insects that Chen Ling and his son-in-law, along with a group of children, had caught, and they were immediately startled.

But after the initial shock, a thought suddenly popped into my head: this must be used to make medicinal wine.

Upon asking, it turned out to be true, so I happily inquired whether the farm currently had this kind of wine.

"No, it's not ready yet. Come back next year. This kind of wine won't work if it's not steeped long enough."

Wang Cunye waved at them without even looking up.

"Okay, we'll come back to buy again next year. Your wine is really good, but it's a bit expensive."

Li Min nodded, increasingly convinced, thinking that he was indeed a capable and conscientious old herbalist who wouldn't sell his medicine if it wasn't effective enough.

Her words made Wang Cunye raise his head, thinking, "Good heavens, fifty or sixty yuan for a tael of wine, is it just a bit expensive? It seems my son-in-law is right, a horse won't get fat without night grass, these bastards must have embezzled the money."

Suddenly I didn't want to talk to these people anymore.

Chen Ling was unaware of these matters. After finding out what kind of wine they wanted to buy, he quickly fetched two jars of wine from the storeroom and carefully tied knots with rope so that they could carry them steadily.

Then, another two thousand yuan was in hand.

He sold alcohol three times in one month, earning several thousand yuan, which made him very satisfied.

I thought to myself: This kind of business that comes to my door is really great. I can make money without leaving home. I wish there were more people like this.

(End of this chapter)