Behind the thorny bushes.
Zhao Xuanhua's face was filled with disbelief.
She turned and ran down the mountain.
Madam Sun had dug half a basket of wild vegetables and was about to move to another spot when she saw her daughter running towards her in a hurry. "What's wrong? Is a ghost chasing you?"
Zhao Xuanhua panted, angrily saying, "Great, Great Aunt, she got something good."
Madam Sun quickly stood up. "What good thing?"
Zhao Xuanhua didn't know what it was, but it looked incredibly pure and white. She wanted to take a bite just by looking at it; it must be edible.
She led her mother there.
Cheng Loanloan had already left after digging two lotus roots, mainly because her hands couldn't bear the pain. If she dug too many, her hands might blister.
"Here, right here!"
Zhao Xuanhua jumped into the lotus pond, pointing at the freshly dug mud. She picked up the small shovel and continued digging. In a short while, she saw a long, slender plant.
Madam Sun forcefully broke off a section of the lotus bud, sniffed it, and then carefully took a bite.
Her eyes lit up. This thing was soft and tasted better than sweet potatoes, but she didn't dare to eat it carelessly. She only took a bite and then spit it out.
"Let's go, let's go back and ask your grandfather."
Madam Sun used two large leaves to hold a little mud. This was discovered by her daughter, so it naturally belonged to their Zhao family.
Madam Sun and Zhao Xuanhua hurried down the mountain.
It was the Chen hour, breakfast time. Old Master Zhao had just returned from the fields and was sitting under a pagoda tree, enjoying the cool breeze and smoking a pipe.
Old Madam Zhao was cooking some wild vegetable porridge in the kitchen. As soon as she turned around, she saw Madam Sun returning with only half a basket of wild vegetables she had just picked. Her face immediately darkened. "You two went up the mountain and only picked this much wild vegetables. A bunch of idlers, eating and doing nothing all day..."
"Grandma, my mother and I found something edible!" Zhao Xuanhua quickly took the lotus bud out of the basket. "Grandpa, everyone, look what this is!"
Old Madam Zhao glanced at it. It was something covered in mud. After washing off the mud, a light yellow color appeared. When cut with a knife, the inside was surprisingly pure white.
She held the item and presented it to Old Master Zhao. "What is this?"
Old Master Zhao, with his pipe in his mouth, frowned and picked up the lotus root. He brought it to his nose to smell it, then took a bite. His eyes immediately lit up. "This is, this is jade bamboo shoot."
In the past, Old Master Zhao had traveled north and south, learning a trade in the south, where there were jade bamboo shoots. Jade bamboo shoots were a good thing. Every year after harvest, they had to be quickly rushed to the capital as tribute. Even the local people could only eat a few scraps of jade bamboo shoots.
He was fortunate enough to try it a few times. Pork bone soup with jade bamboo shoots, a sip on a snowy day, that taste was unforgettable for a lifetime.
Wild vegetables could not compare to jade bamboo shoots. This thing could fill one's stomach. When the south suffered from drought, many people relied on this to fill their stomachs, quite similar to sweet potatoes.
Old Master Zhao's eyes were burning. "Xuanhua, how did you get this?"
Zhao Xuanhua gesticulated, happily saying, "On the mountain, deep in the mountain, there's a large patch of these things, so many, so many..."
Old Master Zhao quickly made a decision. "Xuanhua, go call your father and second uncle back here. Also call Dawang and Erwang back. Hurry and eat your fill, then our whole family will go up the mountain together."
Old Madam Zhao understood. This jade bamboo shoot seemed to be life-saving.
She turned and went into the house, took out twelve bowls, and ladled in the cooked wild vegetable porridge. The young men in the house, being the main laborers, each received a full bowl. The second daughter-in-law and the third daughter-in-law each got half a bowl, and the children all received nearly half a bowl. This much food was made from two catties of buckwheat flour and three or four catties of wild vegetables.
After the meal, Old Madam Zhao stayed behind to guard the house, which was actually to guard the room containing the provisions, while everyone else went up the mountain together.
Earlier this year, there was no rain, and the fields were actually uncultivable. Many men in the household went up the mountain together to chop firewood, gather wild vegetables, and so on. It was not surprising that so many people from the Zhao family went up the mountain together.