Chapter 16

Jiang Wan and her mother were fine. Both knew that the octopus wasn’t poisonous and silently swallowed the meat in their mouths.  

“Are you sure the death was caused by eating the octopus?”  

“The person who inquired said so. Wanyuzhai has already been sealed off, and many people know about it, so it must be true.”  

Lian Yue nervously observed the Yin family, worried that someone might suddenly collapse.  

Jiang Wan almost laughed when she saw her cousin’s expression of wanting to swallow but being hesitant, wanting to throw up but unable to. She quickly explained, “Lian Yue, you don’t need to worry. The octopus your family sent isn’t poisonous.”  

“How do you know? Are you sure?”  

“Of course!”  

Jiang Wan gave her mother a signal, and the tool person Yin Huaixi began explaining.  

“Lian Yue, you were just panicked and didn’t think clearly. This octopus has been eaten by people in the village for many years, so of course, it’s not poisonous. As for what you said about Wanyuzhai, if the deaths really were from eating the octopus, they definitely weren’t eating this kind of octopus but a creature called the blue-ringed octopus.”  

“Blue-ringed octopus?”  

“Yes, the blue-ringed octopus. It looks almost the same as an octopus, except its color is different, with blue circular spots on its body. It’s highly poisonous, and even if it’s cooked, the toxins can’t be broken down. A bite from it can kill a person in half a cup of tea, and if eaten after being cooked, the symptoms might take a little longer to appear, but they won’t take more than an hour.”  

In modern times, it might be possible to administer first aid, but here, there’s no hope.  

Once Yin Huaixi finished speaking, she noticed that her older brother and sister-in-law both sighed in relief and slowly began chewing again.  

“Little sister, you really know a lot.”  

“Ahem… well, I’ve learned some medicine, and I read books about poisons. To treat illness, you also need to know how to detox…”  

Yin Huaixi gave a forced explanation before stopping.  

Lian Yue thought back and realized that the big octopus he had sold yesterday didn’t have blue spots—it was flesh-colored. If it had those blue spots, he would definitely have remembered.  

“Lian Yue, can you relax now? My mother is very skilled in medicine, and if she says it’s not poisonous, it really isn’t. Would you like to try some?”  

Jiang Wan handed him a bamboo skewer with a small piece of octopus on it, but Lian Yue felt too shy to take it.  

“You all eat it. My grandmother made lunch and is waiting for me. It’s good that it’s not poisonous. Thank you, Doctor Yin, for helping my grandmother on the mountain.”  

“You’re really too polite.”  

Yin Huaixi had a good impression of the young man. After suspecting the food might be poisonous, he didn’t hide it but immediately came to notify them. He was a good kid.  

Once everything was clarified, Lian Yue bid them farewell and prepared to leave. Yin Ning and her cousin accompanied him to the door.  

“Big Brother Lian Yue, thank you for helping me yesterday.”  

Unlike Jiang Wan’s soft and sweet voice, Yin Ning spoke more gently, and Lian Yue felt as though a feather brushed over his heart, making him feel an itch.  

“You’re welcome. Your family helped mine today. Go eat your meal.”  

Lian Yue left without looking back, and the sisters returned to eat.  

However, the octopus wasn’t enough to satisfy the appetites of the five people in the family, so Jiang Wan had also roasted a large batch of spicy snails, and now the family was using bamboo skewers to pick at the snail meat.  

“Hiss…”  

“The taste of these snails is so strange.”  

Yin Huaishan finished one and quickly poked at another.  

“It’s a little bitter, but the taste is quickly covered by a very stimulating flavor. It’s savory and spicy and gives you a real appetite.”  

“Uncle, you’re really a good eater, haha~”  

The spicy snails have a mild spicy taste because of the capsaicin in their tails, which is quite a unique flavor in this place that doesn’t have chili peppers.  

Jiang Wan and her mother were rare to get a taste of spiciness and were constantly poking at and eating the snails. This food was also to the liking of Yin Huaishan and his wife, but it seemed like Yin Ning wasn’t used to it, having only eaten a little before stopping.  

From spending time together these past few days and chatting with her aunt, Jiang Wan knew that her cousin liked sweet food.  

Sweet…  

Hmm, there is some!  

Jiang Wan ran to the wooden tub with sea urchins, using bamboo chopsticks to pick one out. She didn’t mind the trouble and ran to Aunt Cuifang’s house to borrow a pair of scissors.  

When she returned, she saw her cousin and uncle both gathered around the sea urchin.  

“Wow, this little thing is covered in spines, and they’re all moving.”  

“Cousin, what is this? I’m getting goosebumps just looking at it.”  

Jiang Wan laughed.  

“This is called a sea urchin. Cousin, the octopus that gave you goosebumps before is still in your stomach.”  

Yin Ning made a sound and noticed the scissors in her cousin’s hand.  

“Little cousin, you’re still young. Let me do it.”  

“No need, no need. It’s just a small task.”  

Jiang Wan didn’t trust her cousin to handle the sea urchin. What if she got stung? That would be troublesome. She wrapped her hands in her skirt and carefully held the sea urchin, gently cutting around its mouth in circles.  

With a creaking sound, half of the sea urchin’s body was revealed. Inside were five pieces of orange-yellow roe and a bunch of undigested algae and black, mushy internal organs.  

Jiang Wan asked her cousin to rinse it with water, and after cleaning it, she divided the roe, giving each person a piece.  

Although seafood is best when cooked, she really wanted her uncle and aunt to try the fresh purple sea urchin roe.  

Purple sea urchin roe is liked by many in modern times, but more people dislike it. Some find it fishy, while others think it’s bitter. In fact, many people haven’t had fresh sea urchins, and the variety is usually just the common yellow sea urchin, so the taste can vary.

In modern times, she is a “sea foraging” YouTuber, and occasionally does seafood reviews. She once did an episode on sea urchins, buying regular yellow sea urchins, purple sea urchins, and horse dung sea urchins.

The yellow sea urchins still tasted a bit fishy and slightly bitter when she ate them, and the quality was pretty average. The purple sea urchins were stunning—no off-putting taste, just a sweet, fresh, and fragrant flavor, smooth and tender. The horse dung sea urchins had a more intense, rich flavor, and they were also very good.

“Hey, cousin, want to try some?”

Yin Ning looked at her cousin’s smiling eyes, trying not to look at the sea urchin shell. She closed her eyes and ate the sea urchin roe.

Hmm?!

What’s this flavor!

Yin Ning opened her eyes in surprise, savoring it carefully before reluctantly swallowing. The long-lost sweetness made her feel so satisfied she almost wanted to spin around and hug her cousin.

“It’s so good! Cousin, you’re amazing!”

She had just seen that her cousin had brought back a whole half-bucket of sea urchins!

“This one is raw, so we can’t eat too much. We should grill it for dinner later.”

Too bad all the eggs in the house had been stolen; otherwise, they could have tried making steamed sea urchin eggs.

Jiang Wan made a satisfied sound as she swallowed her sea urchin roe.

“Cousin, you really missed out today. It’s a loss for our family that you didn’t come with me. You have no idea, there was a whole group of sea urchins where I picked them! Too bad my basket couldn’t hold more, and I couldn’t carry that many.”

Yin Ning imagined the scene her cousin described and immediately shivered.

“Good thing I didn’t go, or seeing so many sea urchins wriggling together like that, I’m afraid I would have been too scared to walk.”