Old Man Zhao shook his head, "I can't wait for this matter; I must make it clear."
He wore straw sandals, pushed open the courtyard gate, and walked towards the village chief's house under the dim starlight.
As soon as he reached the door, he heard familiar voices coming from inside the courtyard.
"This morning, I went up the mountain and saw a dry pond. I casually dug with a shovel and found this, white and soft. I don't know what it is, but I feel like it's edible, so I dug some back to cook." Cheng Loanloan explained clearly, "Chopped up and mixed with buckwheat flour, fried a little in the pot, it's incredibly fragrant. Or put it in the pot and stew it until cooked, it's also edible, and tastes no different from sweet potatoes. So I thought, could this thing be like sweet potatoes, able to fill one's stomach?"
The village chief asked suspiciously, "Dashan's mother, where did this come from?"
"There's a lot on the mountain, about four or five mu. It's all in the mud; I estimate there could be over a thousand jin."
The village chief's wife's eyes lit up, "Over a thousand jin, then each family could quickly have a hundred jin! Although it's not as filling as corn, at least we won't starve for half a month..."
The village chief tasted a lotus root flour ball, heavily oiled, even more fragrant and palatable than meat. If this thing really amounted to over a thousand jin, what more could Dahe Village worry about?
His eyes still held a hint of concern, "Our Dahe Village has this, why has no one seen it before?"
"This is jade bamboo shoot!"
Old Man Zhao stepped inside.
The village chief and Old Man Zhao were cousins. Old Man Zhao was several years older, and his eyes were firm as he said, "I saw it several decades ago; there are many jade bamboo shoots in the south. It can fill one's stomach, but I heard it's specially offered as tribute to the capital. I don't know why our Dahe Village also has it."
Cheng Loanloan was extremely surprised, not expecting Old Man Zhao to have also encountered this. So, in this era, lotus root was called jade bamboo shoot, a very beautiful name indeed.
Lotus root is rich in starch and can indeed temporarily replace staple foods, but it doesn't feel as filling as staple foods.
The village chief's expression was a little anxious. He quickly said, "I'll go change my straw sandals, then go up the mountain to take a look."
The village chief's wife disagreed, saying, "What time is it now? There are wolves on the mountain. Can't you wait until tomorrow morning?"
"I can't wait until tomorrow morning; this is a serious matter concerning whether we can eat our fill."
The village chief went to change his shoes. The village chief's old friend was helpless and had to go light a torch. If they held a torch on the mountain, the wolves wouldn't dare to approach.
Old Man Zhao looked at Cheng Loanloan and praised, "Dashan's mother, I misjudged you before."
To discover a large patch of jade bamboo shoots, know that it's edible, and come to inform the village chief so early.
Dashan's mother was not selfish or insatiably greedy as he had imagined.
Before, he thought his third daughter-in-law was not bad, but when faced with the great temptation of food, his third daughter-in-law's true nature was revealed.
Cheng Loanloan coughed and said, "There are six people in our family, one child, one pregnant woman. There's so much jade bamboo shoot, we can't dig it all..."
Most importantly, she had a trading system in the mall. A single wild vegetable could be exchanged for several jin of rice. Even if the whole family faced a famine year, they wouldn't starve, but others wouldn't be so lucky.
She had never felt herself to be particularly selfless, but at least she wouldn't snatch life-saving food from a group of people who saw no hope.
Li Zheng held a torch and walked over, followed by his three sons. Old Man Zhao turned back to call his second and third sons. A group of seven grown men going up the mountain at night no longer posed a high risk.