My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 286 Return to Wind and Thunder Town
"What is this 'wealth'?"

"A beehive. This beehive is quite large, so please don't come any closer."

Chen Ling squatted down in front of an old, mottled stone wall in the woods and called out to the group.

This stone wall should be a retaining wall built by the forest farm.

It was originally used to prevent soil erosion in the Tubaoling area.

Over the years, the base of the wall has become covered with moss and wild vines, and the cracks in the wall have become an excellent place for bumblebees to build their nests.

"Don't go this way, these wild bees are very poisonous."

Chen Ling gave another instruction.

She has a child with her, it would be bad if they got stung by a bee.

At this moment, the two yellow oxen, one large and one small, had already kept their distance.

Only the little white calf remained standing behind Chen Ling, gently swishing its tail, its eyes fixed on the crack in the stone wall.

The crack here is like a spider web.

Hidden and concealed by wild vines such as thorny vines and Virginia creeper, bumblebees are constantly flying in and out.

Chen Ling gently parted the wild vines and slowly approached the crack in the stone wall, where he could still hear a buzzing sound.

He could even see the large honeycomb inside through the cracks and smell a faint yet sweet honey scent.

"This honey is good, but the honeycomb is built in a really bad place, making it impossible to know where to start."

Chen Ling looked left and right, and finally scratched his head. There was nothing else to it. The beehive was built by moor bees that crawled into the crack in the stone wall and built their nest. The beehive was in the wall and the soil behind the stone wall.

This stone wall is so hard, and the gaps in the wall are so small, there's no way to dig it out.

Smoking it won't work either.

The gap was too small, and with a child following behind, the bees got angry and couldn't escape in time.

Since that's the case, if you want to get the honey from this big beehive, you can only wait until no one is around, and then come over with a hoe and shovel to dig it open.

It's not about digging up the wall.

Instead, they dug up the soil behind the retaining wall.

It was quite a struggle.

Standing in front of the stone wall, after a moment's thought, Chen Ling used tangled wild vines to cover the cracks in the stone wall.

Then they called for the little white calf and led two yellow oxen out of the woods.

"What's wrong, Fugui? Is this beehive hard to clean?"

Qin Rongxian saw him come out and asked curiously.

Judging from Chen Ling's posture just now, I thought he was going to pry open a beehive.

"Hmm, it's not easy to extract."

Chen Ling nodded, "But even if it's easy to catch them, we can't do it now. Neither smoking nor directly catching them will work. These wild bees swarm everywhere when they swarm, and they sting anyone they see. We have a child with us, so we can't do anything reckless."

"That's true. Judging from your posture just now, I thought you were going to have not only a mixed fish hot pot for lunch today, but also honey, haha..."

Qin Rong laughed first; he hadn't thought that much about it.

"Uncle, can we roast the mantis now?"

When Little Chestnut heard that he wasn't going to raid the beehive anymore, she quickly ran over and looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Okay, roasted mantises, how many have you caught?"

"There are so many, there are ten of them."

The little girl thought for a moment, counting on her fingers, and then answered.

"Oh my, you've caught so many! Come on, let me grill them for you."

Chen Ling glanced at them and saw there were more than ten, but what could he do when the little girl could count to ten?

Soon, after roasting the mantises, the group divided up the fragrant mantis eggs.

Then Little Chestnut pestered him to catch frogs, since there were plenty of frogs in both ponds.

Rui Rui loves these bouncy little toys the most. He was overjoyed to have Wang Susu carry him around and let him look at everything.

Having had a great time, and with it almost noon, the group leisurely prepared to head back.

They weren't in a hurry to go home.

I'm planning to go to the school and call Wang Zhenzhen out so we can have lunch together at home.

Wang Zhenzhen usually brings her lunch from home and has the cafeteria heat it up for her. Sometimes Liang Hongyu cooks something delicious and invites her out for a meal or brings her some things.

After a while, the teachers and security guards recognized her. They would go over and say something, and the guards would go to the classroom to tell Wang Zhenzhen that she didn't need to eat lunch at school anymore.

Now, there are only a few minutes left before school ends, so we won't have to wait long.

While the group was waiting for Wang Zhenzhen to come out, Chen Ling saw a familiar face.

He's the county postman, probably delivering mail to the school. He just came out of the school's side gate.

Just then, she saw the family of three. She paused for a moment, then pushed her cart over with a smile. "Are you waiting for your child to get out of school too? I happen to have a letter for you. Here, take it. Anyway, you're the only one in your village, so I won't go there."

This man spends all his time delivering mail, but he has a very good temperament.

Chen Ling was quite familiar with him, so she leaned closer to the package to look at it: "How many letters are there this time?"

"Five letters, and a book."

The man bent down and rummaged through the mailbag, then looked up and grinned at him: "This book was originally meant for you to pick up at the post office yourself, but it's nothing valuable. Knowing that I often deliver newspapers and letters to you, I brought it over for you."

"Okay, please."

Chen Ling took the letter and book into his hands, exchanged a few words of laughter with the man, and then watched him leave.

"Why are there so many letters this time? Five at once!" Wang Susu said, quite surprised, when she saw the stack of letters in his hand.

"Yeah, I guess they saw the news about the giant turtle in the reservoir."

Chen Ling glanced at the address on the envelope and smiled, "Besides, it's the Mid-Autumn Festival too, so let's all say hello to each other."

"Who wrote the letter? Dahai and the others?" Qin Rongxian asked.

Liang Hongyu, Qin Yueru, and the other two also came over to take a look.

"It wasn't Brother Dahai and his group."

Wang Susu shook her head, glanced at Chen Ling, and pouted, saying, "He has pen pals now, quite a few, and they correspond with each other all the time."

"Oh my, Fugui, you even have pen pals?"

Liang Hongyu's eyes widened in surprise. This nephew of hers was quite something; he'd even developed a pen pal relationship with her.

Then he looked at the book in his hand.

What book is this?

"Wait, let me see."

Chen Ling tore open and peeled off the kraft paper covering the book, and Liang Hongyu and her daughter read out the words on the cover in unison.

"Medicinal Botany..."

"Wow, botany, and medicinal uses too, you've really gotten high-level now."

"Wow, it was a book mailed to me by a university professor, who even wrote a note about it?"

Liang Hongyu and her family of four surrounded Chen Ling in amazement.

"Haha, it's nothing, just a pen pal I've never met. When I wrote to him, I shamelessly said that I didn't know all the herbs and couldn't identify them, and that my wife was going to open a Chinese medicine shop, so I asked him to recommend a book to learn from. I didn't expect him to send it to me directly."

Chen Ling smacked her lips and laughed, then waved the book at Wang Susu, "Here, this is what I asked for you, it even has illustrations inside. When we get home, let's study while taking care of the kids."

Seeing this, Wang Susu wrinkled her nose and snorted at him, then hugged the baby and came closer to look.

Upon seeing it, her eyes lit up: "Wow, what a clear illustration!"

"Hehe, that's right, they must have picked it carefully, otherwise how could they present it?"

Chen Ling opened the book and told his wife to read a few more chapters.

Wang Susu became more and more satisfied and happy as she looked at the photos, nodding repeatedly as she looked.

"Hey, look at that young couple, they're so engrossed in their sweet talk they don't even notice anyone else, tsk..."

Liang Hongyu said to her husband and daughter, "Grandma, look, Auntie is coming out."

Just then, Xiao Lizi saw Wang Zhenzhen come out of the school gate and waved her little hands happily, jumping up and down, "Auntie, Auntie, I'm here."

This girl is also Wang Zhenzhen's little tagalong; she loves playing with Wang Zhenzhen.

If it weren't for the crowds around the school after school preventing her from running around, she would have already run to the school gate to wait for Wang Zhenzhen.

……

After picking up Wang Zhenzhen, they returned to Liang Hongyu's house. The two little girls were together, making quite a scene.

After having a mixed fish hot pot for lunch, Wang Zhenzhen had some time to rest.

But they don't sleep at school either.

They would play all sorts of games on the school playground, such as skipping rope, kicking shuttlecocks, and hopscotch, until afternoon classes started.

Anyway, we can play wherever we want, so I'll just leave it to her and go back to school for class in the afternoon.

Chen Ling had originally planned to remove the beehives in the forest farm that afternoon, but her son started making a fuss again.

They only came to the county town to get vaccinated today and didn't plan to stay any longer. Now that they've been here for most of the day, they're running out of diapers.

The little one started crying and fussing, and nothing we did could soothe him.

"Rui Rui probably wants to go home for a nap. This little rascal has always been particular about people and beds."

Liang Hongyu said.

Wang Susu smiled helplessly: "That's right, ours is very difficult to please."

"Fugui, you can drive Yueru's car and take Susu home. Come back this afternoon."

Chen Ling didn't stand on ceremony with them, because the school was going to have a Mid-Autumn Festival holiday tomorrow, and he had to drive to Fenglei Town to pick up Wang Qingwen's family.

He then drove Wang Susu home.

That evening, they went to the county town to pick up Wang Zhenzhen and drove the oxcart back.

It's just a lot of trouble anyway.

Qin Yueru found it troublesome for him to travel back and forth, so she brought her car over early the next morning for him to use. Worried that he would carry too many people, she drove Liang Hongyu's Jeep.

You could say this silly older sister was also very thoughtful and considerate.

Getting to Fenglei Town involves crossing mountains and rivers, and the road is difficult.

The tractor could only go as far as the ancient trade route west of Changle Township, and then it couldn't go any further.

Other means of transportation, besides animal-drawn carts and bicycles, include cars and three-wheeled vehicles.

Now that our own people have cars, of course cars are more comfortable.

Just then, Qin Yueru drove over, so Chen Ling took the opportunity to bring his father-in-law and mother-in-law back to Fenglei Town.

Qin Yueru and Wang Susu were left to look after the farm while the two children played around.

……

I have to say, cars are faster and more comfortable.

We left the village not particularly early, but when we arrived in Changle Township...

Many vendors here haven't set up their stalls yet.

In their area, two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are three consecutive days of large markets in the county and townships, selling all kinds of things, and the atmosphere is as lively as during the Spring Festival.

Upon arriving in the village, Chen Ling stopped the car and, without saying a word, bought two bags of mooncakes and carried them back.

He had written two letters to Wang Qingwen in advance, saying that he would pick them up for the Mid-Autumn Festival and also asked him and Wang Qingzhong to inform them.

If I get busy then, I'll bring Wang Qingzhong's son over.

Wang Qingwen said that Wang Qingzhong's son was not with him and his wife, but with his maternal grandmother. For the past six months, Wang Cunye and his wife had not been home and could not take care of their grandson, so Guo Xinping sent the child back to her parents' home.

So we have to go to the maternal grandmother's house to pick her up. At this crucial time, the Mid-Autumn Festival is just two days away, and we can't go empty-handed.

Even something as simple as buying two bags of mooncakes would be better.

Moreover, when Wang Cunye and Gao Xiulan came out, they took quite a lot of wild boar meat with them.

That's enough.

Wang Qingzhong's father-in-law's family lived quite close to Changle Township, so they drove there first to pick up the child.

Goodness, these days, driving a car into a mountain village, especially a remote one, can really cause quite a stir.

As soon as Chen Ling drove his car into the village, half the villagers came out to see what was happening.

Although it wasn't their own car, Wang Cunye and Gao Xiulan couldn't help but stand tall and straight, facing the gazes of many people, feeling their faces burning and glowing.

In reality, they were both proud and nervous, their palms and noses sweating.

When they arrived at Wang Qingzhong's father-in-law's house, the elderly couple were even more enthusiastic when they saw the large entourage.

The two elderly people were quite embarrassed after receiving the things from them.

The old lady brought out a large bag of wild fruits and mushrooms she had picked from the mountains.

The old man even took out a bamboo pole specifically for knocking down dates, walked to the old date tree in the yard, hooked it hard onto a date tree branch, and stood under the tree shaking it vigorously.

The dates fell like hail, crashing down in a flurry.

Feeling bad that the old man was busy with his own work, Chen Ling picked up a bamboo basket and helped catch the food from below, calling out as he did so, "That's enough, Uncle, that's enough, we can't carry any more."

But that couldn't dampen the old man's enthusiasm.

The old man shook two large jujube tree branches before stopping, grinning as he picked up jujubes for them.

Wang Cunye watched with a smile. After packing the dates, he said to Chen Ling, "Lingzi, let's go outside and pack the corn for your uncle."

West of Changle Township, the corn is harvested earlier, and it's already piled up outside to dry.

Unlike the area east of Changle Township, they don't hang corn cobs on walls or doorways much. After peeling off the outer husks and drying them, they pack them up and store them inside the house.

Knowing this, Wang Cunye called on Chen Ling to help tidy up the corn drying outside.

Chen Ling is good at physical labor; his family knows how fast he works.

The plot of land here is small, and at most one or two acres can be planted with corn, less than half an acre or a few fen.

This task was nothing to Chen Ling.

It was done in no time.

Upon seeing this, the elderly couple repeatedly praised their son-in-law, Wang Cunye and his wife, and then began preparing lunch, inviting them to stay for a meal.

Unfortunately, they still had to return to Fenglei Town and then go back to Yaowang Village on the mountain, so they couldn't stay for a meal. Otherwise, such a warm welcome would have taken up too much of their time.

So he repeatedly declined, picked up Dongdong, and headed towards Fenglei Town.

The journey to Fenglei Town went smoothly, and Wang Qingwen and his wife got a day off this afternoon.

It's fine if I assign homework to the students in the morning so they can leave at noon, since there are no classes in the afternoon anyway.

The holidays are long at this time of year; a Mid-Autumn Festival celebration takes at least seven days.

Because it's busy farming season.

During my vacation, I can help with some chores around the house.

If it falls on a Sunday, the holiday plus the weekend can make it eight or nine days, which would be really great.

Chen Ling came to pick them up, and the two little children were the happiest of all.

Xiao Tongtong is an introverted child, but he is very close to his uncle Chen Ling, who loves to play and is good at having fun. He speaks to him without any pressure, and when he sees him, he clings to him, asking him to hold him and take him out to play.

"Uncle, please take me to the market, okay? My parents won't take me."

The child doesn't actually spend any money going out, it's just that Wang Qingwen is too serious. He does everything in a very rigid manner and is very strict with Xiao Tongtong, which makes the child feel stifled.

Other kids might dare to sneak out, but he doesn't care.

Now that he's seen Chen Ling, he feels like it's New Year's Day. He immediately lets loose and wants Chen Ling to take him to the market to have some fun and see what's going on.

"Okay, Uncle will take you to the market, and Dongdong will go too. Let's go pick out a puppy, shall we?"

"Okay, I knew it. My uncle is the best to me."

Goodness, just by taking him out to play, they've won them over. Wang Qingwen, the father, doesn't know what to say.

(End of this chapter)