Yan Yan looked up and saw many vines with oval-shaped fruits under their leaves. The fruits were yellow-brown in color and varied in size. The big ones were as big as half an egg, while the small ones were about the size of soybeans.
She stood up on tiptoes and picked one, pinched it open and saw that the inside was white, sticky, and even stringy!
The words "yam beans" popped out of her mind, along with many ways to eat them.
"Second brother, these are yam beans. Wash them, steam them and wrap them in sugar. They are super delicious! You can eat them directly as food without coating them in sugar!"
"Wow, sister, you are so awesome, you even know this!" Qingbai looked starry, and quickly put down the basket to pick yam beans, "We need to pick more, so we don't worry about running out of food!"
"Yes, pick a lot of them, go back and ask grandma to make delicious food for us!"
When Yan Yan thinks about the delicacies her grandma made, she starts to salivate, and she becomes more energetic when working!
The two little ones were holding on to the vines and picking yam beans. The Shu family over there finally realized that their baby was missing and started looking for it in a hurry.
Fortunately, the two little ones didn't go too far and found them back soon. However, they still frightened Mrs. Shu so much that she hugged the little dumpling for a long time and refused to let go.
Yan Yan was choked by her and couldn't breathe. She twisted her butt and said in a loud voice: "Grandma, let go quickly. If you don't let go, your granddaughter will have her hair braided!"
"You kid..." Mrs. Shu laughed, released her hand and tapped the tip of her dusty nose, and asked, "Tell grandma you found something good, and you didn't even know how to answer for a long time."
Yan Yan raised the basket full of yam beans in front of her as if she was offering a treasure, "Yam beans can be eaten as food. There are a lot of yams under the beans, and the soil is too hard, so we can't dig them out."
Shu Mingzhi next to him exclaimed: "Hey, yam is a good thing. I used to have a friend who specialized in reselling yam and astragalus and made a lot of money!"
"Then you go dig yams and pick yam beans. I'll stay here to catch pheasants and hares. There aren't many of them anyway. I can handle it all by myself." Shu Mingli answered.
"Okay, dig!" Mrs. Shu gave the order, and everyone started working enthusiastically, carrying baskets and shovels.
Growing in the deep mountains and with sufficient nutrients, this yam grows exceptionally strong. The rhizome is as thick as an adult's arm and extends downward in a straight line for two or three feet, which is quite gratifying.
The adults were digging yams, but the little ones couldn't help, so they were picking yam beans on the other side.
Time flew by and it was soon noon.
The family did not go back for lunch, so they made a fire on the spot, burned a basket of yam beans, and ate them with water.
Gently twist the cooked yam beans with your fingers and squeeze them again, and the white pulp will come out. It tastes soft and waxy, mixed with the fragrance of pine wood. Although it has no salty taste, it is very filling.
Mrs. Shu ate the last few yam beans and sighed: "This stuff is good. I will pick more later and take it to the road to eat. I will cook a pot every morning and eat some when I am hungry at noon. It will save trouble."
After eating and drinking, a group of people continued to work hard, this time until sunset.
Finally, when all the harvest was collected, there were two baskets and two sacks of yams, two sacks of yam beans, and a large basket of pheasants, hares, and the like.
Before leaving, Mrs. Shu looked at the unfinished yams and sighed: "If I had discovered them two days earlier, I would have lived in the mountains and dug them all up before going back down!"
Yan Yan answered quietly: "I have wanted to follow my third uncle up the mountain for a long time, but my grandmother refused to let me."
When the others heard this, they silently broke into a cold sweat for Xiaotuanzi. Damn, you dare to slap the tigress in the face in public, do you want to be beaten?
Unexpectedly, not only was Mrs. Shu not annoyed, but she picked up Xiaotuanzi with a smile, pinched the tip of her nose and said, "Yes, yes, it's all grandma's fault. Grandma will definitely listen to Yan Bao next time."
Everyone: "..."
Sure enough, they were all picked up, and only the granddaughter is a relative.
"What should we do with the remaining yams? Are we going to dig them up tomorrow?" Old Shu couldn't bear to leave, and looked back three times.
Old Mrs. Shu said: "We don't have time. We haven't bought anything, haven't packed our luggage, and we have a lot of crap. How can we spare the time to dig yams?"
Besides, this thing is not ginseng. You can sell it for a lot of money if you dig one. And now that many shops in the town are closed, there is no guarantee whether they can be sold!
If we can't sell it, we can only take it away with a donkey cart. We have to haul grain, Yanbao and the others, and yams. You might as well tire it to death."
"Then let them rot in the mountains?" Old Man Shu still refused to give up. He suffered from hunger for more than half a year. Now that he had food but had to waste it, he felt uncomfortable.
Yan Yan suggested: "How about we tell the village chief and ask him to bring others to dig, so that it won't be wasted."
After saying that, she quietly asked Xiao Qinglong in her heart: "Is it a good deed to tell others about the food I found?"
Xiao Qinglong: "I guess forget it, you can try it."
The old couple made a plan in their minds and decided to flee the famine together. If other people's families had no food and could only drink from the northwest wind, and their family still ate meat and soup every day, it would be easy for something to happen.
More importantly, after helping the villagers so much, Shu Guangzong and his family will not be allowed to walk sideways in the village in the future?
Thinking of the way the village chief was groveling to him, Old Shu was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth. "Okay, just do as Yan Bao did. I'll go to the village chief's house in the evening!"
"I'll go too." Shu Mingzhi said, "I just want to tell Brother Shitou about going to the south with us, and let's hear how he arranged it."
The group of people returned home carrying large and small bags. The women were preparing lunch in the kitchen, the men counted the harvest and lit the fire to smoke the meat. Old man Shu and the fourth child went to the village chief's house.
The village chief was angry at the moment. Originally, he just wanted to count the list of people who were going south so that he could make unified arrangements.
As a result, people from the village came one after another. Instead of talking about business, they first held his hand and cried. Sometimes they said that the food was gone, and sometimes they said they were going to starve to death.
They were crying so hard that those who didn't know it thought they were visiting the grave.
After finally sending away the last wave of people, Shu Guangzong and his son came again.
The village chief took a deep breath and rubbed his face so hard that the skin almost peeled off, "Please, don't come crying. My family is short of food and I can't produce food for you."
"Who wants to ask you for food?" Old Man Shu puffed up his chest and snorted arrogantly: "My family has enough food."
The village chief changed his face in a second, "Oh, so you are talking about escaping? Is your family sure you want to leave?"
Old Man Shu's spine straightened even more. He had never been so straight in his life. "Our family is definitely leaving, but I didn't come here to tell you this. I have other things to do."
Under the doubtful gaze of the village chief, Old Man Shu cleared his throat and spoke proudly: "Ahem, today we found a large area of yams and yam beans in the mountains. If you don't have enough food to eat, you can go over and dig some tomorrow."