According to "Selected Poems of the Qing Dynasty", ladies-in-waiting in the Qing Dynasty love to keep slugs. Once, a maid-in-waiting was waiting for Cixi to take a bath when the slug in her arms suddenly cried out. The maid-in-waiting was scared to death at that time. I didn't expect Cixi to be angry, but she smiled happily. Old Beijingers keep autumn insects until winter, which means prolonging life.
In old Beijing, if you want to buy winter slugs, you need to plant flowers in a greenhouse in Fengtai. At this time, the price of winter slugs is of course the most expensive. There are old and young men who beat Guo and raise Guo in quadrangles, and there are also people who live in miscellaneous hospitals, such as rickshaw pullers. Most people who cultivate and raise winter fruits are celebrities or literati in mansions and pear orchards. Celebrities such as Jin Shaoshan, painter Qi Baishi and Wang Xuetao all like to raise fruit. In winter, some people put the gourd on the special back of cotton robe and enjoy the singing of the gourd when they go out to work. I remember the great painter Qi Baishi once painted a famous Chinese painting of Chinese cabbage slugs!