The whole village is starving, but I have a full warehouse of meat in the mall

Chapter 19: Dahe Niang, why are you here?

She handed the thing to Old Man Ye: "What is this?"

Old Man Ye held a pipe in his mouth and frowned as he picked up the lotus root. He put it to the tip of his nose and sniffed it, then took a bite and tasted it. His cloudy eyes lit up: "This is, this is a bamboo shoot!"

In the early years, Old Man Ye traveled all over the country and worked as an apprentice in the south, where there were jade bamboo shoots.

Jade shoots are a good thing. Every year after they are dug out, they are sent to the capital as fast as possible. Even the locals can only eat those that are dug rotten.

He was fortunate enough to have eaten the bamboo shoot and bone soup several times. Every sip of it in the winter was so delicious that he would never forget it.

Jade shoots are different from wild vegetables. They can fill the stomach. When famine occurs in the south, many people rely on them to fill their stomachs, which is similar to sweet potatoes.

Old Man Ye asked with burning eyes: "Daya, where did you dig this thing?"

Ye Daya danced with joy: "It's on the mountain, deep in the mountain, a large area is full of them, so many..."

Old Man Ye made a prompt decision: "Daya, call your father and uncle back, as well as Dazhu and Erzhu. Fill your stomachs quickly, and the whole family should go up the mountain."

Old Mrs. Ye understood that this jade bamboo shoot could save lives.

She turned and went into the house and divided the cooked wild vegetable porridge into twelve bowls and brought them out. The young working man in the family got a full bowl, the second and third daughters-in-law each got half a bowl, and the children each got a small half bowl. Even with this little food, they used up two kilograms of corn and three or four kilograms of wild vegetables.

After the meal, Old Mrs. Ye stayed at home to guard the house, actually guarding the food hidden in the house, while everyone else went up the mountain.

These days, when there is no rain, there is actually not much work to do in the fields, so many men from many families go up the mountain to chop firewood or dig wild vegetables. It is not surprising that so many people from the Ye family go up the mountain together.

Keep walking deep into the mountains, and then after passing through a broad-leaved forest and thorn fields, you will see a valley.

The dried-up pond was filled with dried lotus leaves.

"This is a lotus leaf!" Old Man Ye said confidently, "This thing will bloom and grow lotus seeds. Lotus seeds are more precious than jade shoots. Only the dignitaries in the capital can eat them."

Ye Dazhu said admiringly: "Grandpa, you know so much."

"As long as you travel more, you will know more." Old Man Ye stroked his beard. "There is a saying that goes, reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. This is why Grandpa doesn't let you study."

The corners of Ye Er's mouth twitched: "Dad, are you sure it's not because our family has no money to study?"

Ye Dazhu and Ye Erzhu burst into laughter.

Old Man Ye glared at them fiercely, then jumped down from the lotus pond holding onto a big tree beside him. He walked from one side of the lotus pond to the other. It seemed that he was walking, but in fact he was measuring how many acres there were here.

After walking around, Old Man Ye had a rough idea in his mind. The six-acre pond would not produce much because of insufficient rain. One acre could probably produce about 700 to 800 kilograms, which means about 4,000 kilograms.

The soft silt in the pond turned into hard mud. Digging bamboo shoots is not an easy task. It takes at least half a year for a family of more than a dozen people to dig.

Old Man Ye stood on the shore for a long time before he slowly said, "Boss, go and ask the head of the village to come over."

"Dad, you don't want the whole village to come and dig up the bamboo shoots, do you?" Ye Er frowned and said, "We were the first to find this, so it belongs to our Ye family. Why should we tell others?"

"Such a large pond, with thousands of kilograms of grain, is too much for our family of more than a dozen people to eat and dig up." Old Man Ye disagreed, "Also, if Daya can find this place, so can others. Going south from this mountain is Huaihua Village. If the people of Huaihua Village find this pond, there will be no place for Hehua Village."

Ye Er looked unconvinced. Li didn't say anything, but her pursed lips revealed her inner emotions.

Old Man Ye sighed and said, "Forget it, forget it. Let's just dig first. I'll bring the headman here tomorrow morning."

Li heaved a sigh of relief.

She also wanted to hide some to send to her parents' home. Her parents' home was in Huaihua Village. If she leaked some information in advance, the people in her parents' home would not go hungry.

The Ye family started digging bamboo shoots. Jiang Wan and his five children went down the mountain.

It was noon. She handed two lotus roots to Xiaohui, washed them, cut off a small piece, and walked towards the headman's house with the small piece of lotus root.

All along the way, there were dry fields. The strong and middle-aged farmers sat weakly on the edge of the fields, sighing constantly.

Jiang Wan also sighed, but drought is a natural disaster that cannot be reversed by human power.

She could only try to ignore these things and move forward.

"Ohha-san, why are you here?"

The headman's wife was sewing in the yard. When she saw Jiang Wan coming, her eyelids twitched.

Last year, Ye Jiang came here to ask the head of the village to preside over the division of the family. It caused a lot of chaos at that time. Now that he comes here, I don’t know what trouble he will cause.

Jiang Wan walked in with a smile: "Aunt, is the village head here?"

"I went to the town." The village head's wife sighed, "It hasn't rained for a month or two, and the county magistrate's hair has turned white with worry. Today he called all the village heads to discuss matters, mainly to ask about the farmland. Your uncle, the village head, has been so worried that he hasn't slept well for half a month."

The implication is that the head of the village is very busy and has a lot of worries, so don't bring up Ye Jiang's little affairs.

"Then I'll come back later."

Jiang Wan didn't say what it was about and just turned and left.

It was getting dark.

A fragrance wafted through the yard.

A dish of lotus root balls was served on the table. Two lotus roots were chopped and mixed with flour, then kneaded into lotus root balls and fried. There were two large bowls in total.

Ye Xiaofang lay on the dining table, drooling uncontrollably.

Jiang Wan stuffed a meatball into his stomach and said unhappily, "You've been full these past few days, why are you drooling every day?"

"The food my mom cooks is so delicious!"

Ye Xiaofang swallowed the meatball in one gulp. It was so crispy, sweet and she couldn't get enough of it.

Jiang Wan picked up fifteen meatballs and piled them into a full bowl and handed it over: "Send it to your grandma."

Ye Xiaofang ran out holding the bowl.

The old lady was the only one at the Ye family at the moment. The wild vegetable porridge had been cooked, but no one else had come back. The old lady was a little worried, fearing that something had happened.

After all, it is a deep mountain forest. If some ferocious beast jumps out, the whole family will be doomed.

As I waited, I smelled an alluring aroma, and then saw Ye Xiaofang skipping into the yard: "Grandma, my mother sent it over!"

There was a big bowl full of meatballs, fried until golden and crispy, and you could tell a lot of oil was used.

"Why is your mother destroying things again!" Old Mrs. Ye was very disappointed. "What is this?"

"Mom said it was fried meatballs." Ye Xiaofang smiled, "Grandma, try it, it's so delicious, I want to swallow my tongue."

(End of this chapter)