Siheyuan: Learning to be the sixth

Mr. Dong looked at the young men imitating the wolf howl and shook his head, then smiled and said, "It's great to be young."

Since entering the mountain, several people's eyes have been wide open like bells, for fear of missing out on prey.

Suddenly, a hare jumped out from the bushes, and Feng Jiafeng shot it immediately. However, due to nervousness, the bullet went a little off, and the hare ran away in fright.

"Oh! What a pity!" Feng Jiafeng slapped his thigh in annoyance.

"Don't worry, there are still many opportunities." Mr. Dong comforted.

They continued walking and soon found a bird's nest on a tree. Xu Damao excitedly climbed up the tree to see if there were any bird eggs inside. However, halfway up, he heard a buzzing sound and a group of wasps swooped towards him.

"Run!" Old Master Dong shouted.

Xu Damao jumped down from the tree in panic and hid, and everyone fled in all directions. After finally getting rid of the hornets, they found themselves lost.

Just when several people were at a loss, Mr. Dong smiled and said that this was just an appetizer and he would give them a simple lesson first.

Later, with his many years of experience in the mountains, the old man led them to find the right direction. Along the way, Mr. Dong also picked some herbs and explained to them some knowledge and uses of herbs.

As they walked, they came to a stream. Mr. Dong motioned for everyone to stop, and then quietly approached the stream. He suddenly stretched out his hand and caught a big fish. Several people were amazed and praised Mr. Dong for his ability.

He Yuzhu said excitedly: "Today is really an eye-opener. Mr. Dong is really a hidden talent!" Mr. Dong smiled and said modestly: "These are just some small tricks. You will master them with more experience in the future."

"Grandpa, how can there be such a big fish in this mountain? It's cold in the mountains, so fish can't grow this big."

Old man Wang Zhi looked at He Yuzhu with disdain.

"Boy, are you surprised? It's just that there are more people and everyone catches more. It's not easy to see them now. Do you think the old people's saying about hitting roe deer with a stick and scooping fish with a ladle is made up?"

"Old man, since the resources are so abundant, why can't we defeat them?"

"Zhu Zi, your biggest shortcoming is that you don't know much about this forest. For example, there is no need to go into the deeper Zhangguangcai Ridge, and I dare not go in easily."

"Also, it's summer now, and there's plenty of food. Large animals generally stay deep in the water and don't come out easily."

"Grandpa, are there really worms more than ten meters long in the mountains?"

Feng Jiafeng also asked a question that he had found incredible since he was a child.

Mr. Dong's face darkened, and then he said very seriously: "This mountain is full of weird things. The official will not tell you that the thing you mentioned exists, but I have seen it. Since then, every time before entering the mountain, I warn myself not to be greedy and take whatever is suitable for me."

"If the hunters continue to fish so hard and break the rules, I'm afraid this mountain will become a dead mountain. Sigh~"

The old man has been watching over animals for decades, which makes He Yuzhu admire him very much. If he hadn't been in jail for a long time in later generations, many species would have been eaten to extinction by Chinese people. However, over-protection of some species is not a good thing either. Of course, this is just my personal opinion and it cannot be taken seriously.

"Old man, can you tell me the story of your encounter with the giant worm just now?"

Xu Damao, who was stung, asked with squinted eyes.

After taking a long puff of his cigarette, Mr. Dong said, "That was in 1959. I had just returned from military service when we encountered a natural disaster. Although we had a good harvest of grain, we had to support all parts of the country, so not much grain was left for each family..."

The old man heaved a sigh of relief and continued, "It was okay in the first year. It was cold here. I only had one meal a day, and after eating I would lie in bed all day. I could barely survive, but it wasn't possible in the second year."

"It was the winter of 1960. It was extremely cold in our area that year. People were swollen from hunger. I knew we couldn't go on like this. We would starve to death. So I organized the young men in the village to go hunting in the mountains."

“Before I set out, my grandfather told me about a ginseng nest he had, which was a patch of ginseng propagated from a six-grade leaf plant.

The old man's idea was very simple. He just wanted to bring back two and put them with the wild game to replenish everyone's blood and qi so that they could get through the winter.

Finally, he specifically reminded me not to touch the ginseng king, and that I could only take two at most.

Later we went into the mountains. Since the prey on the periphery had been almost caught, we went straight to the deeper Zhangguangcai Ridge in order not to waste time. We were lucky as we encountered a group of wild boars. We didn't care about the danger at that time and several of us started shooting side by side. We were so hungry that we were almost dizzy and didn't care about tactics. After a round of shooting, four big wild boars were left behind.

We were so happy that the pain in our legs and the blurriness in our eyes instantly went away. Then I found the bottom of the cliff based on the animal skin drawing the old man gave me.

There were three people accompanying me to the bottom of the cliff. Strangely enough, there was no snow at the bottom of the cliff. I could vaguely see traces of a large area of ​​ginseng, but the top one was independent and stood high above, with its descendants sitting in a row.

Following the old man's instructions, I aimed at the row of sixty-year-old ginseng. I picked two as the old man instructed and was about to go back.

However, one of the people traveling with him thought that since it was winter there would be no wild animals guarding the treasure, so he wanted to go a little further and even wanted to touch the old ginseng king.

No matter how I and another little brother tried to persuade him, he just wouldn't listen. Just when he was about to attack the ginseng king, it suddenly got dark. When we looked up, we were almost scared to death. A giant python was coiled behind us, looking at us coldly.

Only after I kowtowed three times and explained the reason for my visit did it slowly retreat and make way for us to return. We climbed back to the cliff trembling under its gaze.

Since then, after we came back, no one dared to go to the bottom of the cliff again. However, I heard that someone went down there two years ago. Although they carried up a few ginseng trees, they were only about 20 to 30 years old, and I didn’t hear of any ginseng king appearing.

Maybe someone secretly took it down, or maybe King Shen himself moved away with his descendants. I am more inclined to the latter.

After listening to the old man's story, He Yuzhu and others sighed. It turned out that only the brave can enter this vast mountain, and only the virtuous are worthy of owning the treasures.

Seeing that it was getting late, Mr. Dong asked a few people to take the spoils and go out of the mountain. In the words of the old man: "In the daytime, the mountains and forests belong to humans, and at night, they belong to wild beasts."