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At noon, the three of them returned home.
Ye Caiping carried a few pounds of shepherd’s purse, and her two daughters carried a small amount of dry firewood.
As they entered the house, they saw Old Man Ye and his sons Ye Yong putting ropes in the firewood shed.
“Father, you’re back,” Ye Caiping greeted them. “Did you sell all the firewood?”
Old Man Ye nodded. This trip, they not only sold firewood but also paid back the debt Ye Daquan had borrowed.
They had twenty bundles of firewood in total, which Ye Yong and his brother had collected over half a month.
Each bundle cost two copper coins, so they earned forty copper coins. They used thirty-seven copper coins to pay off the debt, leaving them with three copper coins.
“What are you carrying?” Old Man Ye asked.
“I dug up a few pounds of shepherd’s purse. It’s enough for two meals.”
In the kitchen, Wei Shi and Ye Yinhua heard that they wouldn’t have to eat radish porridge anymore, and their hearts filled with joy.
In these times, almost all the edible plants on the mountain had been picked by the villagers. Being able to dig up a few pounds of wild vegetables for a change was considered good luck.
Two hours later, Ye Daquan, his mother and Du Shi arrived.
Du Shi had calmed down a lot and didn’t interact or talk much with Ye Caiping and her daughters.
…
The next morning, after eating porridge at the village head’s house, Ye Caiping took her two daughters back to the mountain.
She secretly brought the unused clay pot and small stove from home.
The three of them climbed the mountain and arrived at the stream where they had soaked the cassava the previous day.
Ye Caiping untied the vine tied to the tree and pulled out the cassava that had been soaking in the stream.
“Jin’er, you start the fire. Huan’er, go get water.”
The two sisters swallowed their saliva and immediately went to work.
Soon, Ye Jin’er had started a fire, and Ye Huan’er filled the clay pot with water and placed it on the stove.
Ye Caiping put the cassava, which had soaked for a day and a night, into the pot.
Ye Jin’er and her sister nervously watched as the water quickly boiled.
After about ten minutes, Ye Caiping used chopsticks to take out the cassava. Then, she poured out the water in the pot, refilled it with fresh water, and boiled it again.
She washed the cassava that had been boiled in the river and put it back in the pot.
She repeated this process twice, and after changing the water for the last time, Ye Caiping added salt and boiled it together.
When the cassava in the pot could be easily pierced with chopsticks, it was cooked.
“Okay, take it out,” Ye Caiping breathed a sigh of relief.
She placed all the cassava on the large tree leaves on the ground, and the fragrance of the cassava immediately filled the air.
Ye Jin’er and her sister licked their lips. This was the poisonous root? It smelled fragrant, looked soft and glutinous, and looked delicious.
But remembering the fate of Liu Heigou, who had been poisoned and forced to vomit with manure, they couldn’t help but shiver.
Not only Ye Jin’er and her sister, but even Ye Caiping was unsure at this moment.
When she was young, the aunties at the orphanage had cooked bitter cassava for them, and she knew the method. But when she grew up, bitter cassava had already disappeared from the market.
Ye Caiping turned her back and brought up the system panel.
She remembered that the space would automatically inspect items, and each inspection would provide a detailed description of the product.
For example, her wound medicine and the cassava from yesterday, the space described them as “extremely poor medicinal effect” and “poisonous bitter cassava.”
Ye Caiping stared at the cooked cassava in front of her. The system still didn’t react. She scanned the panel and saw a “manual inspection” button in the corner.
Ye Caiping was overjoyed and quickly pressed it. A small screen suddenly appeared in front of her, following her gaze wherever she looked.
She looked at the cooked cassava and pressed the button again. The familiar mechanical voice sounded:
【Detecting edible cooked cassava. The system does not purchase cooked food. Please show other items, esteemed customer.】
Ye Caiping was overjoyed. Edible meant non-toxic!
Moreover, this inspection function was too powerful! It was simply a poison detection tool!
In the future, if she encountered suspicious food, she could simply manually inspect it to see if it was poisonous.
“Mother?” Ye Jin’er called out tentatively.
They couldn’t see the system panel or the screen, and seeing Ye Caiping remain silent, sometimes worried, sometimes smiling, scared the two sisters.
“It’s okay, eat,” Ye Caiping smiled and picked up a piece of cassava.
Ye Jin’er’s face changed, and she hurriedly said, “I, I’ll eat first…”
If it is poisonous, she would be the first to die.
Ye Caiping was speechless and didn’t argue with her. She picked up a piece and stuffed it into her hand. “Then eat.”
Ye Jin’er, with a look of resignation, took a bite. Then, her eyes lit up. “It’s delicious… much more delicious than radish and rice bran porridge… It doesn’t scratch my throat at all.”
Then, she finished it in a few bites.
Although Ye Huan’er was scared, she was also tempted. Ye Caiping stuffed a piece into her hand. “Don’t be afraid, it’s not poisonous.”
“Hmm.” Ye Huan’er was overjoyed.
Anyway, her sister had eaten it. If it was really poisonous, they could all die together.
The three of them happily ate.
Cassava was the king of starch. After eating three large pieces each, they were full.
There were three large pieces left, and Ye Caiping wouldn’t let them eat anymore.
Then, with anxious hearts, the two sisters followed Ye Caiping to search for wild vegetables.
It wasn’t until noon that the two sisters finally breathed a sigh of relief. If they had eaten the poisonous root and been poisoned, they would have shown symptoms within an hour and a half.
It had been two hours, and they were still fine, proving that their mother’s method was correct!
“There are thousands of poisonous roots all over the mountain. We won’t have to go hungry anymore,” Ye Jin’er said excitedly.
“It’s called cassava, not poisonous root,” Ye Caiping corrected her.
“Hmm, it’s cassava. After we go back, we’ll tell your uncles and aunts immediately.”
“Wait. If we tell them directly, they won’t believe us, and they won’t try it. I have a better plan. When we get home, you do as I say,” Ye Caiping said.
Ye Caiping explained her plan to her two daughters. Ye Jin’er and her sister’s eyes lit up, and they quickly agreed.
Ye Huan’er said, “We dug up a hundred pounds yesterday. Let’s quickly bring them back and soak them.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
The three of them quickly returned to the cassava forest, but the cassava they had bundled yesterday was gone.
Ye Jin’er frowned. “Strange. It was clearly here yesterday, three large bundles! Where did it go?”
Ye Caiping remained calm. “It must have been an animal in the mountains that accidentally bumped into it or kicked it. It might have rolled down to the valley below. Forget it, there are so many, we’ll dig more after we convince your uncles and aunts.”
Although Ye Jin’er and her sister felt sorry, there was nothing they could do. They couldn’t go down to the valley to look for it at risk.
The three of them put their baskets on their backs and walked down the mountain.
“It’s so heavy, let me carry it down for you!” A steady voice came from not far away.
Ye Caiping’s footsteps stopped. That voice…
Ye Caiping pushed aside the bushes blocking her view and saw a young couple cutting pigweed.
The young man was tall and handsome, her nephew Ye Yong.
Ye Yong was putting the cut pigweed into a large basket, a simple smile on his dark face.
The girl was about sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing faded coarse cloth clothes and a cloth headband. She wasn’t very white, but her eyebrows were clear and her eyes were beautiful, and her figure was slender.
“Thank you… You’ve already helped me cut so much pigweed. I can’t trouble you anymore. You still have to carry firewood.” The girl said.
“Let’s take turns carrying it!” Ye Yong took the large basket full of pigweed and put it on his back. “We’ll switch after we go down the mountain.”
His own basket didn’t have much firewood, so it wasn’t as heavy as the pigweed.
Seeing that he had already taken it, the girl could only nod shyly and pick up his half-basket of firewood.
They left one after the other.
Behind the bushes, Ye Jin’er said, “Mother, cousin and that girl…”
Ye Caiping said, “Let’s pretend we didn’t see anything, don’t tell anyone.”
Ye Jin’er and her sister looked at each other and quickly nodded.
They didn’t know the situation between Ye Yong and the girl yet, so they couldn’t talk about it recklessly.
Although the village didn’t have strict restrictions on men and women, if they talked about it, it wouldn’t sound good, especially for girls.
Note:
Characters
Other Characters:
Heigou – Ate poisonous roots
Heigou’s mother
Doctor Zhao
Zhao Facai – Neighbor
Village Head Ye- Sometime Ye Lizheng (Lizheng is a title that refers to Village Head/Chief)
Ye Bajin – Village Head’s Son
Fubao – Village Head’s Grandson
Places:
Qinghe Village: FL’s Village
Li Family Village
Great Zhou Dynasty