HCB Chapter 109 A bit weird
Chapter 109 A bit weird
Under the walnut tree, Xia Qingyue and the Li family looked at the road ahead.
"Go further ahead, there are wolves."
Han Zhibai's words immediately dispelled Xia Qingyue and the Li family's idea of moving forward.
Xia Qingyue pointed to the east, "Then let's go that way."
They set off towards the east and walked a long way. On the way, they found some yams and stopped to dig them up.
Xia Qingyue and Heihei wandered around the area, trying to see if they could find any other mountain products to teach Han Zhibai about.
Through the harvest of the past few days, she thought she should go out tomorrow to get some more tung trees and soapberries. She has found most of the supplies and wants to stay in the tiankeng later.
As they were turning, Li Weisheng, who was going to take over from the other side, came over and said, "Sister Qingyue, I saw a lot of bananas over there, but they are a little weird, they are so short, and I don't see any long bananas."
"Dwarf Banana?" Xia Qingyue was stunned for a moment. She thought of something and couldn't suppress her excitement. "Take me over to have a look."
"Okay." Seeing that her expression was not right, Li Weisheng turned around and led the way.
The two men and the dog came to a large slope.
The dwarf banana trees grow on it, clustered together. Their leaves are oblong, and the edges and backs of the leaves are purple.
Xia Qingyue climbed up the hill, picked up her shovel and dug the roots of the dwarf banana, saying as she dug: "This is banana taro, the roots are edible. Weisheng brother, go tell my uncle and aunt and Han Zhibai to come over here to dig this after they finish digging the yam."
Li Weisheng believed what she said without a doubt and turned away.
After digging for a few minutes, a taro was dug out. It had a plump tuber and looked like taro. After removing most of the soil, it turned pink in color.
She had originally seen taro while watching videos, and learned that it can be eaten steamed or boiled. Although it is not as soft as sweet potato, it is not hard either. It tastes sweet and has an attractive fragrance. Because of its high starch content, it has a strong sense of fullness.
In addition to steaming and cooking, you can also extract its starch and grind it into powder to make taro jelly.
She only knew about this by watching videos and had never eaten it, so she couldn't help but look forward to it.
"Qingyue!"
Chen Yuzhen's crisp voice came from behind.
Xia Qingyue turned around and saw that they had all come over. When they came to her, she raised her hand, showing the taro in her palm and began to introduce them.
"There is such a good thing!" Chen Yuzhen was overjoyed.
Li Benfu continued, "Yes, we didn't know there was such a thing before. Even if we passed by it, we would just think it was a banana, and we would never have thought that its tubers were edible."
Han Zhibai's eyes were filled with emotion, and he went up the hill to check out the taro with great interest.
He had passed by this place so many times before, but he had never thought that this thing could be eaten.
They were busy digging taro, digging and picking. It took them almost three hours to finish and they got six full backpacks and four sacks.
All together they weigh several hundred kilograms.
The harvest is amazing and joyful.
As evening approached, they divided the day's results.
Han Zhibai said the same thing as yesterday, that he didn't want chestnuts or walnuts, but wanted taro and yam.
Xia Qingyue and the Li family looked at each other, and finally they gave Han Zhibai a little more taro.
On the way back, Xia Qingyue said to the Li family, "If nothing unexpected happens, I will go out again tomorrow and will not come with everyone to look for winter supplies."
"Sister Qingyue, what's wrong? Are you in trouble?" Li Weisheng asked worriedly.
Chen Yuzhen secretly pinched her youngest son's elbow and winked at him.
Unfortunately, Li Weisheng didn't understand what his mother meant. "What's the matter, Mom?"
Li Benfu glared at his younger son for a few times, his eyes showing a look of disappointment.
"I'm fine, don't worry, I just ran out of stock."
"Then will we still travel with Han Zhibai later?" Li Weisheng muttered.
The Li family members looked thoughtful and no one spoke.
Xia Qingyue thought for a moment and said, "Uncle, aunt, what do you think?"
"After following Han Zhibai to search for supplies in the forest, we encountered fewer dangers and found more things. This is a real fact," Chen Yuzhen said pertinently.
Li Benfu and Li Weikang nodded in agreement.
"He barely says a few words all day long, and he doesn't want this or that. I think it's a bit weird." Li Weisheng thought what he said made sense and nodded in approval.
Chen Dawei glanced at Chen Yuzhen, then at Xia Qingyue, and said softly, "Logically speaking, this is a little strange."
"He said he doesn't like chestnuts. Everyone has different tastes. Haven't you noticed that he is very skilled and can hunt prey easily? This shows that he is not someone who is short of food.
It’s not about whether we should follow him or not, but whether he is willing to take us with him!”
Chen Yuzhen's words made all the Li family members shut their mouths and look embarrassed.
What she said was true.
Chen Yuzhen said, "How about this, let's ask Han Zhibai tomorrow and see how he responds."
"If he is willing, then we can go together. Otherwise, we should not force him. We can take the route we took in the past few days to find wild vegetables and hunt. This is the safest way."
Her proposal was approved by the whole family.
After parting with the Li family, Xia Qingyue ran three times to bring the things back to the tiankeng. When she sat down to rest, it was dark.
She lit two candles for lighting. These were the last two. She had to process the tung trees as soon as she had time.
It's autumn now. Apart from the cooler weather in the mornings and evenings, there are no mosquitoes anymore, so there's no need to light mosquito coils.
After sitting for a while and eating two kiwis to fill her stomach, she lit the fire to cook the rice.
While cooking, she chopped wild vegetables and mixed them with rice bran to feed the chickens and ducks. She went to pick up eggs as usual, but she was busy yesterday and forgot to pick them up.
There were quite a few eggs on the straw nest, the bigger ones were duck eggs. She picked up the chicken eggs first and got nine. There were more duck eggs, so she picked up two. When she started picking up the third one, she felt something was wrong with the duck eggs.
After a closer look, I found that these duck eggs were actually fertilized eggs!
"Wow, I can hold ducklings again!"
"We have to build a poultry house quickly, otherwise how will the animals survive when winter comes?"
After picking up the eggs, she walked out of the poultry pen and put the fertilized duck eggs aside.
In the evening, I simply soaked some black fungus and cooked it for a cold dish, steamed some dried fish and eggs, fried some wild vegetables, and ate it quickly.
After eating and cleaning up the kitchen, she went to the open space next to the poultry pen, marked the location, and prepared to start digging the foundation for building a house.
As far as she knows, there are several types of foundations, including rammed earth foundation, lime soil foundation, masonry foundation, and stone foundation.
In fact, she doesn't have a very comprehensive understanding of the relevant aspects.
She couldn't build a complicated foundation by herself, so based on her own abilities and existing conditions, she ruled out those types of foundations and decided to use earth bricks and clay as the foundation.