Chapter 38： Five Poison Months

Chapter 38 Five Poison Moons

It rained all day, and in the middle of the night, the light rain turned into a heavy rain, with lightning and thunder, which scared Chun Niang so much that she couldn't sleep much the whole night.

She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the rain stopped the next day.

After a night of heavy rain, the river was overflowing and only just a little bit overflowed the river bank.

Jiang Sanlang stood by the rushing river and watched it for a long time, and he was almost certain in his heart.

Looks like my daughter’s dream may come true.

Just one night of heavy rain can cause the river to overflow like this. What if it happens another night?

He dared not think about how he and his family would cope if a flood struck.

In the past, rivers would overflow, even reaching low-lying farmland. Occasionally, they would flood into villagers' homes, but they receded quickly, so the villagers didn't care.

Ever since his daughter said that there was going to be a flood, alarm bells suddenly sounded in the hearts of Jiang Sanlang and his wife.

Looking at the river after the rain now, the more dangerous it becomes, the more dangerous it becomes.

No, we still have to move to Xiaonanshan as soon as possible.

Looking back, Xiaonanshan is not far from the village, only two or three miles away. Standing on the hillside, you can see the smoke from the village.

It doesn’t seem impossible if a few more families move to Nanshan.

 Jiang Sanlang made up his mind and turned around to find Uncle Muramasa Chen.

It is sunny and sunny after the rain, and the weather is getting hotter.

Today is the first day of the Five Poison Month. Yingbao is wearing a five-color wristband embroidered by her mother, a colorful silk thread on her ankle, a colorful shirt, and five-poison embroidered shoes. She is wearing the same dress as Dani and Ernihu. Let's go to the river ditch to catch shrimps together, break off some reed leaves, and go back to make rice dumplings.

The deer followed closely behind them, nibbling at the new grass on the roadside from time to time, wagging its short tail happily.

The reeds grew luxuriantly and the leaves were very wide. Dani asked her two younger sisters and her little cousin to stay on the bank while she went down to the river beach to collect leaves.

Soon a bamboo basket was filled, and she walked ashore carrying the deep one and the shallow one.

At this moment, a pheasant flew past, causing the tiger to scream in surprise. "Pheasant! Pheasant! Big sister caught it!"

Dani took a look and said, "The pheasant has flown far away and we can't catch it."

She placed the basket at Erni's feet and went back to the river beach. "I'm going to see if there are any wild eggs in the reeds."

Normally, pheasants and wild birds will make their nests in the grass or reeds. There may be pheasant eggs where the pheasants flew just now.

Sure enough, Dani's surprised cry came from the reeds: "Ah! There are really wild eggs!"

Yingbao and Ernihuzi immediately stretched their necks, trying to see where the pheasant was nesting.

After a while, Dani walked out with her clothes in her arms, one foot deep and one foot shallow, laughing, and showed the wild eggs in her clothes to her younger brothers and sisters. "Look, eight."

Huzi squeezed over and reached out to take it, but Erni slapped it away, "Don't move, it will break."

The four-year-old child screamed angrily and jumped up and down, insisting on grabbing it.

Suddenly, his little hand was grabbed by Ying Bao.

Huzi paused immediately and became as quiet as a chicken. He turned around and said to Yingbao with a smile: "I want to play with Yingbao."

“I’m not going to play, we have to go fishing for shrimps.” Two-year-old Ying Bao coaxed him like a little sister: “Be good, I’ll go back and cook wild eggs for you.”

Huzi nodded wildly, sniffed, and suddenly transformed into an obedient baby.

 Dani and her younger siblings found a large puddle with aquatic plants and started fishing for shrimps with their own dip net.

The shrimps at this time are fat and big, and twenty or thirty of them can be cooked in a plate.

Yingbao was young and couldn't carry the net, so he wandered around with a basket.

Seeing that Da Ni Er Ni and Hu Zi were all staring at the puddle, she squatted down and quietly took out a large bush of water chestnut grass from the cave and placed it on the edge of the ditch, deliberately making it look like it had just been pulled out of the ditch.

Then she shouted: "Sister Dani, come quickly, I have found the big water chestnut."

Dani heard the sound and came over. She was a little surprised when she saw what was in her little cousin's hand, "Are these really water chestnuts?" This was too big. She has never seen water chestnuts as big as eggs.

No matter how shocked Dani was, Yingbao picked up a water chestnut and rinsed it in the water. She pointed at several water chestnuts hanging below and said, "This should be edible."

As he spoke, he picked one, washed it, took a bite, and kept muttering: "It's so sweet and delicious."

Hu Zi had long forgotten that he had eaten water chestnuts last year. He picked up a water chestnut and rinsed it. He happily tore off a large water chestnut and stuffed it into his mouth. The bite made a clicking sound.

Erni saw this and squatted down, picked the water chestnuts one by one and put them into the basket.

Dani didn’t hesitate for long and came over to help.

This time Yingbao released a pile of freshly plucked clover grass and a small basket of water chestnuts.

The four siblings stopped fishing for shrimps and returned home with a basket of water chestnuts and a basket of reed leaves.

“This is a water chestnut, right?” Mrs. Jiang Liu and Mrs. Jiang’s sister-in-law Zhou were surprised when they saw such a big water chestnut for the first time, “Where did it come from?”

“Ying Bao found it.” Dani and Erni said in unison.

“Where did you find it?” Jiang Liu asked.

“Over there in the ditch.”

Dani was still a little confused and asked Jiang Liu: "Grandma, is this really edible?"

Ms. Jiang Liu picked up a water chestnut and rubbed it on the palm of her hand. She took a bite and chewed it. "It's not numb. It's sweet and sweet. You should be able to eat it."

Hand another one to the eldest daughter-in-law, "You should try it too."

Zhou took it and went to the kitchen to scoop out water and wash it before taking a sip. "It tastes like water chestnuts, but sweeter than water chestnuts."

Ms. Jiang Liu asked her granddaughter with a smile, "Is there any more over the ditch?"

Dani was confused and turned to look at her little cousin.

Yingbao said quickly: "There should be one. Let's go look for it tomorrow."

She wants to get all the water chestnuts from the cave, and maybe she can mobilize her family and her eldest and second uncle's families to grow some, and they should be able to sell them for money.

If you can't sell it, it's better to eat it at home than to let it rot in the cave.

Mrs. Jiang Liu touched Yingbao's head and said with a smile: "Then you can go look for it tomorrow. If you find it, come back and tell Grandma, and Grandma will ask your second brother to help dig it out."

“Yeah.” Yingbao nodded. She will be able to find lots and lots of water chestnuts.

 Ying Bao returned home and showed half a basket of big water chestnuts to her mother-in-law.

“This is the water chestnut that Sister Dani, Sister Erni and I found.”

“Such a big water chestnut?” Chun Niang picked up one and looked at it. "It's really rare."

The two milk babies on the kang also crawled over to grab them.

They are just growing teeth, and they put everything they catch into their mouths.

Yingbao moved the basket away and said, "I'll give it to you to eat after it's cooked."

Children of seven or eight months old have weak spleens and stomachs and cannot eat raw food. Moreover, these things grow in water, so there is no guarantee that there will be bugs in them.

Chun Niang took the water chestnuts, washed them, cooked them all, and put them into a yellow basin.

The two little babies were drooling as they watched their sister peeling water chestnuts for them, and they screamed with excitement.

Ying Bao handed the peeled ripe water chestnuts to her younger brothers. Seeing how sweet they tasted, she took one and bit it herself.

The two little guys ate it with gusto, and drooled all over their clothes.

Chunniang had no choice but to keep wiping the saliva and hands of her two sons, but the little baby boy pushed her away and made a fuss in protest.

(End of this chapter)