"Raw eggs are hard to carry. Do you have any cooked ones here?" Jiang Yu pulled out about twenty boiled eggs that he had cooked before. They were convenient to eat and nutritious. He would cook a pot of them every time he went into the mountains. When they didn't have enough vegetables, they would heat up the boiled eggs and eat them as a side dish.
"Sure~ Give me a few, I'll chop them up and put them in the hot and sour soup."
As she spoke, Jiang Xiaoman poured out the ginger and brown sugar water from the soup pot and distributed it to the group. Then, she quickly washed the pot, estimated the amount of food the group would eat, poured in three portions of spicy soup base, added half a pot of water, and put it on the stove to cook.
Preparing the base for Hu spicy soup is very complicated, and most people don't know how to make it, including Jiang Xiaoman.
However, when he was working in the cafeteria, he once saw the owner of a hot and sour soup shop helping his child with his homework. He was so anxious that he almost had a heart attack. His old habit of meddling in other people's business came back to him, and he helped the child with his homework.
Such a small thing, but unexpectedly, just before the holiday, the boss gave him a whole bag of soup base for making hot and sour soup!
I asked around and found out that the spicy soup didn't sell well at their school. The owner originally wanted to bring his two children to the city to study, but because they didn't have local household registration, the tuition alone would cost more than 50,000 yuan a year. The couple couldn't afford to support them and were reluctant to send their children back to their hometown, so they wanted to find a city with a lower cost of living to continue working.
Before leaving, the owner sold everything he could in the shop, and gave away some unused seasonings that had been opened from their bags. Remembering that Jiang Xiaoman had once said that his father had never drunk hot and sour soup, he gave him the remaining hot and sour soup base.
“My dad really likes this. After our old house collapsed, he even dug this out. Luckily, I had wrapped it up and put it in a plastic bucket, so it didn’t get crushed.” Jiang Xiaoman said as she put the chopped hard-boiled eggs into the pot, stirred them with a ladle, and then added the soaked and chopped wakame seaweed and bean curd sheets. After boiling it again, she added chili powder to taste and it was ready to eat.
The conditions in the wild were rudimentary. If she were at home, Jiang Xiaoman would sprinkle some chopped green onions or cilantro in, which would make it taste even better. But in this deep mountain forest, Jiang Xiaoman hadn't found a single wild green onion on her way here, so she had to give up with regret.
Even without scallions and garlic for seasoning, this hot, spicy, and appetizing soup still made everyone so happy that they couldn't help but squint their eyes, slurp it up, and let out a long sigh. After finishing a big bowl of soup, just as Jiang Xiaoman had said, they felt warm all over.
"Xiaoman! Where can I buy this spicy soup? Can you buy me a lot?" Jiang Yu grabbed Jiang Xiaoman's arm excitedly.
"I'll search online later. They should sell it online. Otherwise, if I make all the ingredients myself, the cost will be too high." Jiang Xiaoman originally planned to buy more after finishing these. Jiang Youliang especially likes to drink spicy soup. She wondered if he was from Henan in his past life. He would crave it if he didn't drink it for a few days.
The hot and spicy soup was served with the golden-brown baked roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), and the group ate until their bellies were round. For the first time, they felt that going into the mountains to harvest honey was not so difficult after all.
It's a pity that Jiang Xiaoman was only there to film a video and couldn't often go into the mountains with them. Otherwise, given his cooking skills, they would all be willing to share some of the food with him.
After finishing their meal, Shan Yan gathered everyone together to discuss tomorrow's work.
The good news is that this enormous wild beehive has never been harvested before, so they predict that there may be even more beehives hidden in the crevices of the cliff.
The bad news is that because there are likely more beehives hidden inside, if they only smoke out the wild bees from the outer layer of beehives, while wild bees remain inside, once they start harvesting the honey, the wild bees inside will riot, which will definitely be a disaster for them.
“The plan has changed. Let’s not move tomorrow. Let’s go and chop some more wet firewood and throw a batch in to test the depth. If we’re lucky, it might be an old beehive, so there shouldn’t be many wild bees,” Shan Yan decided.
"Then we can make another fortune! This old beehive is a real gem! Many herb farmers are buying it," Ah Hu said excitedly, rubbing his hands together.
According to an old Chinese medicine doctor, these wild old beehives have a remarkable effect on treating rhinitis and pharyngitis. Every time they go into the mountains to harvest honey, they also harvest the beehives, because empty beehives can also be sold for money, and the older the beehive, the higher the price.
“Yes, let’s be patient this time and cut down this whole area. Then we won’t have to suffer in the mountains for the next six months.” Shan Yan also smiled slightly.
Jiang Yu had always felt that the internet in the mountains was terrible, and watching videos would buffer for ages. So, now that he'd earned some money, Shan Yan planned to get a wired internet connection. He'd heard it was expensive, but the two of them were grown men who didn't usually have much to spend money on living in the mountains, so as long as Jiang Yu was happy, that was enough.
Upon hearing that he wanted to run a network cable from outside the mountain, Jiang Xiaoman was stunned for a moment, then said with great distress, "Brother Yan, do you know how much it costs to run a network cable into the mountain? Do you know how far your home is from the nearest town? Wouldn't a wireless network card that costs a few dozen yuan a month be better?"
What?!
The group of people stared blankly at Jiang Xiaoman, who was inexplicably excited.
Jiang Xiaoman was also stunned. Then she remembered that probably not many people in the mountains had ever used an outdoor-specific wireless network card. She immediately felt embarrassed.
"Well, I know there's a wireless network card sold online that can be used outdoors without a wired connection. I just got one and bought a three-year plan. It works out to less than fifty yuan a month, which is much cheaper than mobile data. Do you want to buy one, Brother Xiaoyu? I can buy it for you."
"I want one too!"
"Buy one for me too!"
Upon hearing Jiang Xiaoman say that the monthly rent was less than fifty yuan, all the young people present were tempted.
Although everyone lives in the mountains, they can see the wonderful world outside through their mobile phones. None of the boys here have ever been married. The main reason they like to follow Shan Yan into the mountains to collect honey is to earn some pocket money to go online.
As for saving money by harvesting honey to get married? They wouldn't even dare to dream of that!
These days, getting married in the mountains costs at least several hundred thousand yuan. Even if you wiped out all the wild beehives in Langshan, you still wouldn't have that much money.
Rather than that, it's better to take it one day at a time. However, compared to the monthly data charges of one or two hundred yuan, this wireless network card is incredibly cost-effective!
"Okay! I'll place an order when I get down the mountain and have the items shipped to my place. I'll bring them over to you and teach you how to use them. They're very easy to use; many outdoor live streamers use this kind of network card." Jiang Xiaoman noted down the requests from the group.
Because they needed to prepare more wet firewood for scouting, Shan Yan and the others didn't go up the mountain the next day. Instead, they each took axes and went to chop firewood. Jiang Xiaoman wasn't idle either; he went to the ditch to fish for shrimp and crabs.
There are quite a few rivers on this mountain. He discovered them yesterday when he came here to bathe with others. The shallow areas are full of rocks, which is the easiest place to catch small crabs. He didn't dare to go far and just caught them near the campsite.
Besides flipping over crabs, he also took a few people's baskets, sprinkled some crushed cakes inside, and threw them into the water to see if he could catch any small fish or shrimp.
"Today I'll show you if we can catch some small crabs in this ditch." Jiang Xiaoman turned on the camera, smiled at the lens, and put on the work gloves she had prepared in advance. These gloves have a rubber layer on the palm to prevent her from getting her hands pinched when catching crabs.
"When you're looking for crabs in an unfamiliar ditch, remember to bring a pair of these safety gloves. You never know if there are snakes or poisonous frogs in an unfamiliar ditch. Wearing gloves can provide some protection. Let's go see how lucky we are today."
As she spoke, Jiang Xiaoman fixed the tripod to the riverbank and began to squat down and turn over stones.
Actually, the best time to catch crabs is after nightfall, with a kerosene lamp lit. Crabs like to run towards light. When we were kids, Jiang Youliang took Jiang Xiaoman to the ditch to catch crabs, and they could catch a whole bucketful in one night!
However, you definitely can't go out at night here. You know, many of the wild beasts in the forest are nocturnal. If you encounter one, it's hard to say who will eat whom.
Whether he was lucky or unlucky, he flipped over two stones in a row, and both of them popped out as toads, which gave him a big fright! These things are edible, but Jiang Xiaoman didn't dare to touch them and could only watch them squawk and jump away.
Fortunately, his luck soon turned around—he flipped over a large rock with a crack underneath, and several small crabs suddenly scurried out!
Jiang Xiaoman was quick-witted and agile. Even though he was wearing gloves, he wasn't afraid of getting pinched. With one slap, he caught the crab. Now he had experience and specifically looked for rocks with gaps at the bottom that crabs could squeeze into, flipping them over almost every time!
Perhaps because no one usually comes to catch fish in this ditch, he caught almost half a bucketful in no time.
Then I looked at the fish traps set up nearby, and wow! Are the fish and shrimp in this river stupid?
There were so many small fish and shrimp scrambling for those tiny bits of bread crumbs at the bottom of the bamboo basket!
"What a great harvest today! I can add some river fish to my hot and sour soup when I get back." Jiang Xiaoman emptied the small fish and shrimp from her baskets, found a nearby puddle, cleaned the fish by squeezing out their innards, washed the shrimp, and since the crabs weren't very big and the river water was clear, she decided to put them in the baskets and shake them vigorously for a few dozen seconds to clean them. She planned to sprinkle them with chili powder and cumin and roast them when she got back!
When they returned to the camp, a large pile of wet firewood had already been built up. The way the firewood was bundled was also very particular. Trees in primeval forests like this cannot be cut down indiscriminately. Shan Yan and his companions cut down miscellaneous trees that were about the thickness of a finger, mixed them with the dry grass they had brought, and bundled them together. After lighting the dry grass, the burning grass slowly ignited the wet firewood, which emitted thick smoke to drive away wild bees.
"Xiaoman, I found two pieces of firewood over there. I'll keep them for you to cook with." Ah Hu walked over with a grin, dragging two fallen tree branches that were as thick as his calves.
These trees are usually felled by lightning or animals, and after falling, they naturally dry out, making them good tinder.
Of course, it's also the place where fungi love to live.
Seeing the dried wild mushrooms on the two logs, Jiang Xiaoman felt a pang of pain in her heart: If this were early summer, carrying a basket into the mountains, she could probably pick two sacks of mushrooms in less than half a day.
"Brother Xiaoman, you're going to the mountains to pick mushrooms? I'll invite you next year! The rock honey won't be out yet then, so we can all go mushroom picking." Ah Hu grinned, revealing his cute little tiger teeth.
Chapter 92
With many hands make light work. After storing enough wet firewood, Shan Yan led his men to hoist the firewood up after lunch and continuously threw the burning firewood into the crevices of the rock wall.
At the foot of the mountain, Jiang Yu led Jiang Xiaoman to hide in a makeshift shelter made of damp firewood.
Only then did Jiang Xiaoman understand why Shan Yan and the others had deliberately arranged their firewood in a circle when they returned from chopping wood earlier—
This creates a thick four-sided wall. Once the wild bees are driven out, you can simply cover the top with a tarpaulin and hide inside to avoid being stung.
Jiang Xiaoman also filmed this scene, which later received a lot of views on short video platforms!
Hearing the faint buzzing sound coming from outside, Jiang Yu sighed inwardly and winked at Jiang Xiaoman: "We're lucky this time. Judging from the sound, the rock wall should be full of old, unwanted beehives, not many bees."
Sure enough, in the evening, Shan Yan and his group returned safely, bringing with them two large buckets full of wild beehives, filled with golden honey!
"Brother Yan, shall we fry bee pupae for dinner tonight? It's been so long since we've had them!" Another young man named Qingshan said impatiently.
Fresh bee pupae are a good thing; they can sell for tens of yuan per kilogram down the mountain!
However, they will be staying in the mountains for a long time this time, and these bee pupae cannot be preserved, nor is there anywhere to freeze them, so they can only eat them themselves. Bee pupae are rich in protein and various vitamins, making them an excellent source of nutrition in the wild.
"Leave it to me! I brought chili powder and pepper. If we have extra, we can make two flavors."
Jiang Xiaoman's mouth watered at the mere mention of bee pupae.
You can only get to eat this stuff twice a year. Even though they have beehives, they wait until the hives are fully mature and the bee larvae have hatched before harvesting honey to ensure the healthy reproduction of the native bees. So it's rare to get a few "slipped-through" honeys.
This stuff is also sold at the market, but it's mostly wild beehives picked from the mountains. After the honey is extracted, there are usually a lot of bee pupae inside that haven't had time to hatch.
Jiang Youliang never eats them. Although the older generation of mountain people make a living by hunting, they have great reverence for new life. In their eyes, eating bee pupae is a wasteful act of living beyond one's means...
This is the season when wild bees collect nectar and reproduce in large quantities. Two plastic buckets contained three large bowls of bee pupae. I don't know where there are so many nectar sources nearby. These bee pupae are all white and plump, making one's mouth water just looking at them.
Jiang Xiaoman rolled up her sleeves to prepare dinner.
The small crabs that were prepared this morning have been marinated and then deep-fried until golden brown and crispy. They are then taken out and sprinkled with Jiang Xiaoman's homemade salt and pepper seasoning, which smells delicious!
There were quite a few bee pupae, but since there were so many of them, they were sure they could finish them all. So Jiang Xiaoman fried them all, making half with salt and pepper and the other half with spicy flavor.
Once these things are fried, you have to eat them. There's not much to be particular about in the forest. A few people just put the bee pupae in the middle of a large banana leaf, use chopsticks made from tree branches to eat them one bite at a time. They're fragrant, crispy, and incredibly delicious.
Jiang Xiaoman sautéed some ginger slices in the oil after catching the small fish and shrimp in the morning, then added the fish and shrimp and stir-fried them until they changed color. She added half a pot of water and poured in the hot and sour soup base she had brought. Jiang Yu had somehow managed to get a dozen or so bird eggs back, so now they could finally see egg flowers in their hot and sour soup.
Authentic Hu spicy soup doesn't actually contain small fish or shrimp, but since they're just eating it themselves, they don't care too much about the details; as long as it tastes good, that's all that matters. Unexpectedly, Jiang Xiaoman's innovative "added-ingredients Hu spicy soup" became a huge hit, especially the river fish. Having grown up by the river, he's always loved eating all kinds of fish and shrimp, and he never imagined that fish and shrimp would taste so good in Hu spicy soup!
"Xiaoman, I'll go shrimp catching with you tomorrow. This little bit isn't even enough to fill our teeth."
Jiang Xiaoman had only planned to catch some fish and shrimp to enjoy their freshness, but she didn't catch much; each person received a bowl, and everyone said they weren't satisfied. Jiang Yu even declared that he wanted to go shrimp fishing tomorrow, as catching fish and shrimp was a family tradition!
"Okay, then teach me how to catch shrimp. I see a lot of these little shrimp in the river, but they're so hard to catch."
As the two talked, their heads almost touched. Shan Yan couldn't stand it any longer, so he picked up Jiang Yu and took him to the river to bathe.
Jiang Xiaoman was rebuffed and felt extremely embarrassed.
He always seems to forget that Brother Jiang Yu has a sworn brother; it seems he really needs to be more careful in the future.
Even though sworn brothers are not legally protected, according to local customs, such couples enjoy the same treatment as married couples. Having an affair with someone else's sworn brother is considered cheating on them, and no one would sympathize with you even if you were beaten half to death... Thinking of Brother Shanyan's strong biceps, Jiang Xiaoman decisively chickened out.
The next day, Shan Yan and his men climbed up the rock face early in the morning with plenty of dry food and water. They planned to stay up there all day and, taking advantage of the wild bees being driven away by the smoke, quickly cut off the outer layer of the beehive.
Jiang Xiaoman was taking pictures with her phone from below. From a distance, she could barely see a few figures. Qing Shan was pulling on a rope below, catching plastic buckets that were being lowered from above. The buckets were filled with honeycomb rich in rock honey.
Jiang Xiaoman also helped out. Qingshan took down the plastic bucket filled with rock honey, and Jiang Xiaoman tied another empty bucket on top. The group worked together seamlessly and filled all the plastic buckets they brought in less than a day.
"Let's call some people up to choose!" Jiang Yu opened her phone and called the porters she often worked with to come and choose. They agreed on a time, and Ah Hu would go to the outside of the woods to pick them up.
In the old mountain valley, there are also people who are clumsy and not good at rock climbing, so they follow the people who go into the mountains to collect honey to earn a hard-earned living. Shan Yan and his group have regular porters they work with.
Make a phone call, give them a general location, and have someone bring in a carrying pole and empty buckets. Then, carry the plastic buckets filled with rock honey down the mountain.
Previously, Shan Yan and his family would find buyers to directly purchase the harvested honeycomb. But as we all know, with the widespread use of mobile phones, information in all industries has become transparent. It is said that the buyers purchased their honeycomb for 40 yuan per kilogram, but sold it for at least 100 yuan per kilogram, not even counting the money from selling the honeycomb. Now everyone is not happy about this!
Shan Yan quit too! A few years ago, he found some strong men from several nearby villages and formed a mountain-carrying team. They would take on odd jobs and help people carry honey during the honey-collecting season, so at least they could earn the money themselves.
The honeycomb transported home is extracted and sealed by the villagers themselves. The wild honeycomb can also be sold for a sum of money. The processed honey can be sold for 100 to 200 yuan per kilogram, depending on its quality. Although it is more troublesome to sell slowly, the money earned is much more than before.
Besides, time is the least valuable thing to them. Pure wild rock honey has a long shelf life when sealed, and it won't spoil for several years. They're not in a hurry; they can just sit at home and wait for their regular customers to come.
The porters had half a day to go into the mountains. The next morning, Shan Yan and his men went to chop firewood and make firewood stacks, continuously throwing burning wet firewood into the crevices of the rock wall to ensure that the wild bees would not fly back during the two days they were harvesting honey.