Chapter 8 Chapter Six: The Wonderful and Inexplicable Scorpion Grass

I have always been very afraid of all kinds of insects. When I first arrived in Hong Kong, cockroaches could fly.For the first time, when a fat and big cockroach suddenly fell from the sky and landed on the body, it made a cry that made people think that a murder had occurred. And the first time I crossed the Yellow River, I was defecating in a hut. I looked down and suddenly saw thousands of piles, headless and brainless, dragging a tail. Mice are not like mice, but indescribable things wriggling there. Crawling, when a few of them had already climbed up the insteps, they even forgot to lift their trousers, and ran out screaming, really scared out of their wits.

Afterwards, I found out that it was a kind of maggot of a cannabis fly. The maggot of a fly is as thick as a finger and has a long tail. In 1952 and 1953, on the banks of the Yellow River in northern Jiangsu, the saline-alkali land was reclaimed to set up farms, and the main crops were cotton. Cotton had never been grown in this place, but the blame is here. Cotton is one kind. All kinds of cotton-eating insects also appeared. It is hard to imagine how and where they came from. There is something to be said for flying insects. It was extremely slow, but it also came, which is really unbelievable.

There are more than 70 kinds of pest specimens collected.Once, I pulled out a piece of cotton and brought out a few worms. When I looked carefully, my whole body felt numb, and I ran away. That kind of insect is as big as a thumb, and the upper half is like a cockroach, which is already ugly enough, but the terrible thing is that its lower half is wrapped in a transparent membrane, and the colorful internal organs inside can be clearly seen, which is terrifying. , is the best of all insects, it makes one's hairs stand on end and a cold sweat breaks out. Later I learned that this kind of insect is called a grub. An old cadre asked me to catch it and make a specimen. At that time, I refused and told him to go by himself. The crime of disobedience to the leader’s assignment is the biggest crime. That guy, at least 190 centimeters tall, is a majestic Shandong man, but he didn't dare to catch him, no wonder he was so timid!

Scorpions are not insects, they are rare in the south, and they are most common in the north of the Yangtze River. In the north of Jiangsu, I was stung by a scorpion's tail, and it stung on the forearm. Immediately, the forearm swelled up, and I was really frightened. Next to him was a local fellow who was quite experienced in being stung by scorpions. One of them held his wrists and arms tightly to prevent the poison from flying in both directions. Green grass, with roots and leaves, and a few small flowers, with soil on the roots, and a loud order: put it in your mouth and chew it, chew it!This is scorpion grass!

At that time, I didn't know what scorpion grass was. Anyway, it was important to save my life, so I stuffed it into my mouth and bit it down. A smaller scorpion stung it, and it turned into a herbivore. Those scorpion plants tasted weirder the more they chewed, and after chewing them to pieces, their faces might have turned green.The fellow suddenly asked me to open my mouth again. He grabbed a handful of salt in his hand, stuffed it into my mouth, and ordered: Chew again! The taste of the scorpion grass was already weird, so I added a handful of salt, and while chewing, I couldn't help crying, feeling a great grievance in my heart: people really have to do everything for their lives!

However, this feeling of grievance disappeared after half an hour, because after chewing the few scorpion plants, half of them were applied to the stung wound, and half of them were applied to the swollen back of the hand. Half an hour later, the swelling disappeared, and the pain stopped. The scorpion had already been trampled into meat paste, its revenge was avenged, and its anger was gone. This humble weed has such a great effect.It turns out that all the local people know that scorpion grass is specially used to treat scorpion stings, even if it is the most poisonous flower scorpion (one gray and one black, extremely poisonous), it can be cured quickly.What's more, wherever there are scorpions infested, there must be scorpion grass, which can be found very quickly. After finding it, the person who was stung must chew it up and add salt to be effective.

Naturally, I keep the shape of this weed firmly in my heart, so that it can be treated immediately in case this happens again, but fortunately it was only that one time, and I have never been stung by a scorpion again. Later, I asked many people who are familiar with herbal medicine, and they all know that this grass is called scorpion grass, but they don't know its official name.Until recently, I found its ins and outs in the dictionary of traditional Chinese medicine. It turns out that it has a very strange name: Sedum Sanqi.The main medicinal effect is to treat various kinds of bleeding, but: appropriate amount of fresh sedum notoginseng, add a little salt, mash it and apply it to the affected area to treat scorpion stings.

It turns out that you can just mash it, but the local fellow wants to chew it by himself. I think it’s not intentional to tease, and it probably makes sense. If I didn’t have such a experience of chewing grass, I’m afraid this incident would not leave such a deep impression.That kind of taste, after trying it once, I never want to have a second time. The shape of the scorpion is like a full-bodied shrimp, especially a kind of crayfish produced in the United States. The stinger is on the tail, so the tail of the scorpion is always up. When two scorpions attack each other, it is very spectacular.

It is not the plot of the novel that such a terrible thing can be eaten. It is really edible. The way to eat it is to throw the caught scorpion into the hot ashes and burn the grass or firewood first, and burn it to ashes. Apply it, add a cover, wait until the ashes are cold, and the scorpions are cooked, and the experienced hands can squeeze out the meat. The shape is exactly like a boiled shrimp. The meat is white, delicate, very delicious, and it can also be dried. Dried scorpion meat is a great drink, one of the many weird foods I've eaten.The other is the locust. It is said that locust recipes have been introduced to Hong Kong, I don't know if it is true.