Chapter 1664
The Older Generation of Mountain People
Liu Guilan rolled her eyes at Wang An and said irritably:
"You damn bastard, you're always causing trouble and making people worry."
Wang An patted his mother's shoulder with a grin and said:
"Don't you know how strong your eldest son is? Taking down a black bear is a piece of cake for him, don't worry."
At this moment, Wang An looked confident, completely unlike the embarrassment he felt when being chased by Hei Xiazi.
Liu Guilan glared at Wang An and said sarcastically:
"I don't know who it was, lying at home for a year, still holding a handkerchief. I'll beat you up for holding a handkerchief."
As she spoke, Liu Guilan swung her hand and slapped Wang An on the back.
No matter how old or capable a son is, in a mother's heart, her son will always be the one she worries about.
Wang An smiled and didn't flinch, instead trying to please his mother:
"That time I bumped into the big claws, that was an accident, Mom, why do you keep bringing that up?"
Liu Guilan glared and said fiercely:
"What are you talking about? I'd like to hit you too."
As she spoke, Liu Guilan slapped Wang An on the back again.
Wang An continued with a grin:
"Mom, you can't just hit me like that anymore. You can't even hurt me, and you'll only hurt your hand. It's not worth it, is it?"
As he spoke, Wang An gently massaged his mother's shoulders.
Wang An is 1.86 meters tall, and Liu Guilan is about 1.65 meters tall. So when Liu Guilan stands next to Wang An, she only reaches his shoulder. Every time Liu Guilan hits Wang An, it looks particularly comical.
Wang An's antics immediately made Liu Guilan laugh, and she nudged Wang An, saying:
"Stay away from me, why am I so annoyed by you?"
While Wang An was arguing with his mother, everyone worked together to remove the black bear carcass and the bucket of frogs from the side basket.
After unloading the truck and entering the house, Wang An saw the dishes on the dining table covered with plates and bowls and asked everyone:
"Have you all finished eating? Or are you waiting for us without eating?"
Wang Dazhu agreed:
"Xueqing said you'd be back around 1 p.m., so we didn't eat anything and waited for you. Xiaomei and the other two ate and are sleeping in the east room."
As June approaches, the days and nights in Northeast China begin to grow longer, and students' schedules change, with some time now allocated for a midday nap.
Wang An nodded and said:
"You must be hungry, let's eat quickly."
Everyone took their seats, lifted the bowls and plates covering the dishes, and began to eat.
During the meal, Liu Guilan asked Wang An:
"You two prepared so much junk food, what are you going to do with it if you can't finish it?"
Wang An said in a matter-of-fact manner:
"Squeeze out the oil from the hamsters, then dry them in the sun. Dry a lot of them so we can eat them before winter."
Wang Dazhu nodded and said:
"Yeah, drying them is fine. But leech oil is a great tonic, but it's so rare. There's not much on a single leech. You're barely managing to get a pound of oil from this whole bunch."
Wang An chuckled and said confidently:
“It’s alright, we’ve already set up traps on the mountain. You just wait until tonight, then we’ll each bring back a bag of urea.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Dazhu's expression immediately changed, and he asked impatiently:
"A trap? What trap? A trap for catching ants?"
Wang An smiled mysteriously and said:
"Yeah, Dad, if you're free before dark, you should come with us. We'll just pick them up, filling our bags with them, one handful at a time. It'll be so much fun, hehehehe." Wang Li chuckled and chimed in.
"Let me tell you, Uncle, the method my fourth brother came up with for catching ants is really amazing. As soon as the ants come out of the pond, they all gather together in a pile. We don't have to go through the trouble of looking for them. We can just squat down and pick them up."
Upon hearing Wang Li's words, Wang Dazhu's curiosity immediately intensified.
The main thing is that Comrade Wang Dazhu has lived for over 40 years and has never heard of forest frogs gathering in groups and waiting for people to collect them.
It is known that although there are many forest frogs in the area, every year at this time of year, people will wait by the river, in the fields, or by the ponds near the village, hoping that the forest frogs will come out of the water so that they can catch some to take home and eat.
After so many years of catching them, the number of forest frogs in the waters near the village has decreased significantly. Sometimes a group of people guard a water pit from morning till night, and they are lucky if they can catch two or three pounds of forest frogs.
Even so, they caught everything, big and small; otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to catch two or three kilograms.
Wang Dazhu thought for a moment, then asked Wang An with a look of eager curiosity:
"How did you set up that trap? I've never heard of traps for catching ants in all these years."
Wang An smiled slightly and said:
"I can't explain this, you'll find out when we go collect the forest frogs at dusk, hehehehehe."
After Wang An finished speaking, Liu Guilan, who had been listening to the group with a curious expression, suddenly objected and said to Wang An in an annoyed tone:
"You little brat, you're keeping your secrets from your parents too. Do you believe I'll beat you up?"
Wang An wasn't afraid of his mother beating him, mainly because it wouldn't hurt much, but he was afraid of his mother's sharp tongue.
If Liu Guilan were to start talking like a machine gun, Wang An really wouldn't be able to stand it!
Wang An smiled slightly and said:
"It's nothing much, just a whole plastic sheet is laid down at the foot of the mountain, like a bamboo pole, and it will keep the ants out of the mountain before they come up to eat the insects."
Wang Dazhu stared wide-eyed, his face filled with disbelief, and said:
"You think you can catch ants that easily? Don't they all scatter as soon as you enter the mountains?"
Wang An nodded smugly and said:
"Yeah, it's that simple. Those 'hashima' things don't know how to turn before they go up the mountain, and the plastic sheet is transparent, so they can't see it. We just need to put the plastic sheet up where we were before we split up, right?"
After a pause, Wang An continued:
"Actually, covering the bubbles with plastic sheeting is the easiest way. But I'm afraid that if everyone learns this method and does it, it will be much harder for us to catch ants to eat in the future."
After Wang An finished speaking, everyone fell silent. Wang Dazhu then clicked his tongue and said:
"Xiao An, you've got a real head on your shoulders! But if you use this method, won't that 'catcher' wipe out all the offspring? That's a bit immoral!"
Liu Guilan frowned and immediately said:
"We can't do something so immoral! We can't just kill off all the ants in this puddle!"
You can tell from what this couple said that the older generation of mountain people are really very particular.
Although they don't understand what "sustainable development" or "ecological protection and wildlife protection" means, their thoughts, beliefs, and actions are all subconsciously doing so.
Before Wang An could explain, Wang Li impatiently said:
“My fourth brother had thought of this long ago. My brother and I only caught the biggest ones; we let go of the little ones and the older ones. Otherwise, there would have been many more.” (End of Chapter)