Tai Zhu Xuan Xiang: Me and My Eight Golden Gourd Sisters

We're doomed.

No food was cooked for dinner, so Cai Xuan only ate snake meat stewed with Nine-Ox Divine Potatoes. He ate it with great relish, one bite after another, drinking every last drop, soup and all. Only after finishing and putting down the iron pot did he suddenly remember that he shouldn't eat such a nourishing dish at night, otherwise he wouldn't be able to sleep.

But what can he do now that he's already eaten it?

With no other choice, I could only practice boxing.

What a terrible fate! Shouldn't we be relaxing on the sofa or bed scrolling through our phones after a meal? How did it turn into boxing practice for him? Heavens above! Earth below! Are you trying to kill us all?

"Alas, why am I so destined to live like a stray dog? The world is so vast, yet people are so concerned with their own lives, and there is not a single path for me to take."

A laugh escapes me, love! Even the moon goddess weeps silently with me. Why, Heaven, must you torment me, shattering my hopes?

It's all fate, after all. I'll accept my fate and do what I'm supposed to do. It's all my destiny! ..."

Cai Xuan mentally reenacted the poignant and tragic Hokkien song "Good or bad, it's all fate" reflecting his current state of mind. However, he still had to practice his boxing, otherwise he would have to get up and do push-ups at night if he couldn't sleep, which was not something a human being should do.

Phoenix rises and dragon soars, wild goose flies with sword wings, tiger subdues on the altar, soul returns and cranes feast...

Cai Xuan stood on the second-floor platform and unleashed all 108 techniques of Crane Fist. Because of his emotions, he unconsciously added extra force to his movements. In an instant, the wind from his punches rose, and the booming sounds echoed continuously.

His figure moved nimbly and darted in the setting sun; at times, he was just a blurry black shadow, and at others, the exertion of every muscle was clearly visible.

Every punch and kick, every move, is as fierce as thunder and as gentle as willow catkins drifting in the wind.

Above his head, eight small golden gourds swayed violently with his movements, as if infected by his momentum. They swayed back and forth on the trellis, buzzing as if cheering him on.

After practicing several times and working up a sweat, Cai Xuancai finally felt his restless energy dissipate.

It was already dark, so he hurriedly went to the kitchen to get water, wiped himself down, and went back to his room.

At night, he rarely left his room. It wasn't that he was timid, but the area was full of towering trees, and at night it was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and you could hear eerie bird calls and animal roars from time to time.

He didn't know what kind of world this was, or what kind of things might come running at night, so it was best to be careful.

Having just finished his boxing practice, Cai Xuan lay in bed unable to sleep, and not wanting to scroll through his phone, so he picked up the "Great Wilderness Materia Medica," which had been converted from an illustrated book of Chinese herbal medicine. His initial intention in buying the illustrated book was to learn about herbs so that if he ever had any minor health problems, he could collect the herbs himself and treat them, saving him the trouble of driving a long way to see a doctor.

Unexpectedly, this place has become the Great Wilderness Materia Medica.

But no matter how the book title or the medicines inside change, they are still things for treating illnesses and saving lives. He still flips through it when he has time, and when he comes across a suitable medicine, he plans to collect some to try, so that he won't be at a loss if he gets sick in the future.

As he flipped through the book, drowsiness gradually crept in. He closed the book and went to sleep.

The next morning, he continued to handle the tasks he hadn't finished the day before.

First, peel off the outer skin of the dragon whiskers, cut them into small pieces, put them in an iron bucket to boil, and then go to the gravel area to find a rough, flat stone to prepare for grinding the Nine Oxen Divine Power Potatoes.

He cleaned and peeled the Nine Oxen Divine Potatoes, then placed the stone upright in the large iron basin he had made earlier, and began to grind the potato pieces on the stone. Under the influence of gravity, the not-yet-lignified potato roots touched the rough sand of the stone, slowly breaking into fine powder that fell into the basin.

Cai Xuan picked up a little of the ground powder, examined it, and nodded in satisfaction. This was the effect he wanted.

The basin is too small; it would be better if it were a bit bigger.

Unfortunately, he had used up all the usable steel plates on the tricycle, leaving only the thick steel plate at the bottom of the cargo bed that he couldn't move. Otherwise, he could have made a large basin to grind powder, and it would have been able to hold a lot of it.

Um...

Cai Xuan suddenly realized that the roof of the tricycle was also made of steel plate.

Huh, why didn't he think of that before? Could it be that he's been here too long and his brain has rusted? Otherwise, how come he hasn't realized it?

However, after thinking it over, he ultimately decided against removing the steel plate from the roof. With the roof on, at least he could be sheltered from the rain and sun. Without it, wouldn't the sun and rain just pour down on him? Although he didn't know how much longer the tricycle would last, as long as it lasted a day, with the roof on, he wouldn't have to endure the sun and rain for another day.

So he continued to grind it slowly in the iron basin.

After grinding, he needed to wash out the starch. Luckily, all the dragon beard vegetables had been cooked and the iron bucket was empty, so he used the iron bucket to fill with the ground potato root bits and went down to the mountain spring to wash out the starch, saving himself the trouble of running back and forth.

After washing, the starch needs to be clarified, filtered, and dried.

Clarifying the fertilizer wasn't too difficult since there were iron buckets and basins available; filtering was a different story, as he didn't have any filtering tools. He couldn't very well use his clothes to filter it! What would he wear then? After some thought, he decided to remove the burlap sack from the compound fertilizer plant, wash it clean, and use it as a filter.

There's no other way; these are the conditions we have, so we have to make do.

The dried Jiuniu Shenli potato starch is very white and smooth, similar to sweet potato starch, and the yield is also similar, about two ounces of starch can be obtained from one pound.

After the powder is dried, it's natural to try it out.

Cai Xuan first took some flour, added salt and MSG, mixed it with water to make a paste, and fried it in oil to make savory pancakes; then he took some more, added honey, and fried it into pancakes as well. He also made a small dough ball, wrapped it with chopped dried dragon whiskers, and made it into a bun.

After making them, I tasted them and felt that the buns weren't as fluffy as the flour ones, but they tasted good and were quite filling. The savory flatbread and the honey flatbread each had their own flavor, but Cai Xuan preferred the honey flatbread a little more.

After being cooked, Jiuniu Shenli potato starch tastes somewhat like sweet potato, but with a hint of sweetness, and it doesn't have the bloating feeling that sweet potato starch can give you.

Overall, there are no major drawbacks.

But he was still worried, fearing something might go wrong, and decided to observe further.

The next day, after discovering that he not only had no diarrhea or other abnormalities, but also that his strength had increased, he decided to vigorously develop the Nine Oxen Divine Power Potato industry. He cut down the forest where he had dug up the Nine Oxen Divine Power Potatoes the day before, and planted the entire hillside, including the one on the other side of the spring ditch, with Nine Oxen Divine Power Potatoes.

He felt he would be missing out if he didn't grow more of this good stuff.

Of course, this also included the consideration of protecting oneself from venomous snakes and wild beasts. He passed through that forest every day, and it was full of towering trees. If there were wild beasts or poisonous insects lurking inside, and he accidentally got bitten, wouldn't he be doomed?

However, that's all in the future.

The most important thing now is to store up food. He doesn't want to do anything else until he has stored up enough food for a month.

When he had a spare moment, he went to check on the fish traps he had set, but they were all gone and he couldn't find them anywhere. He had originally wanted to catch some fish to eat, but there were none. Disheartened, he caught some three-colored crabs and hooked a red eel to vent his frustration. Only by filling his stomach could he dispel the gloom in his heart.

Then, he began his grain hoarding project, riding his tricycle to dig here and there, and picking some dragon beard vegetables along the way.

The sweet potato starch and dried dragon's beard vegetables in the house piled up more and more, looking quite messy. So he wove baskets out of mountain vines, lined them with large leaves, and stacked them layer by layer, neatly piling them in a corner.

This frantic hoarding of food continued until he felt he had enough to last for more than a month.

At this point, the food he brought was finally gone, leaving only salt, peanut oil, fermented bean curd, goji berries, chrysanthemum buds, honey, and condiments such as garlic sauce, satay sauce, sweet chili sauce, tomato sauce, beef chili sauce, Maggi soy sauce, Jiangzhe sweet vinegar, chicken essence, and MSG, as well as daily necessities such as yeast, baking powder, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and toilet paper.

From now on, we will have to rely on this land for all our food.