Dreaming of Lion Rock: Recipe in Hand

Not long after, the commune sent a notice, which basically said that the country had not forgotten us, and had cancelled this year's public grain, and would give some relief grain to the disaster victims as appropriate.

Not much, enough to keep people from starving to death.

The atmosphere in Shizishan Village suddenly relaxed, and people began to smile.

As the saying goes, emergency relief does not help the poor. The relief food distributed by the state is like a drizzle falling on the land of Lion Rock, but the rainfall is too little to moisten every piece of land and cannot solve the fundamental problem.

It was the off-season for farming, so the villagers stopped working and went into the mountains in groups of two or three. Pheasants, hares, and bamboo rats were all caught on the outskirts of Lion Mountain. Those that were not caught also fled to the deeper forests. All kinds of wild vegetables and mushrooms were also picked.

Chunni was a little nervous. Although her family had some food in stock, they could not eat until the winter wheat harvest. As for the food that He Yanqing and Yun Shu brought with them, it was barely enough for them to have enough food and clothing.

It is impossible for the three of her family to eat and drink for free, so how is the difference between them and Zhu Yanhong and her group?

There was no choice but Chunni took her younger brother and sister into the mountains.

There is no food to be found outside Lion Rock, and even the tender leaves and barks have been stripped clean.

"Sister, I heard that the area within hundreds of miles was affected by the disaster." Xia Zhi said as he walked.

Chunni knew that the surrounding area was affected by the disaster, but she didn't expect the scope to be so wide.

“Oh, life is hard!”

"We are lucky here because we are close to the mountains. I heard that some places have to eat Guanyin soil."

"Sister, what is Guanyin soil?"

Chunni didn't know either, so she could only rely on deception. "Guanyin clay is whiter than ordinary clay. It is said to be used to make ceramics. The famous Jingdezhen ceramics contain this stuff. Guanyin clay is rich in minerals and can be eaten. But I heard that eating Guanyin clay will make you unable to defecate and your hands and feet will swell. In severe cases, it can be fatal."

"Oh! How pitiful." Little girl Qiuguo is very compassionate!

"Who said that eating Guanyin soil makes you feel full?"

Guanyin clay is a clay mineral with montmorillonite as its main component. You may not have heard of montmorillonite, but you must know montmorillonite powder, which is a medicine for treating diarrhea.

"If my sister hadn't thought of a solution earlier, we would have had to eat Guanyin soil."

Xia Zhi saw that Qiu Guo was full of sympathy and retorted to him in a bad mood.

"If you are poor, you should take care of yourself. We just need to take care of ourselves."

Chunni patted Qiuguo's shoulder and asked her to walk in the middle.

There were many snakes, insects, rats and ants in the mountains. Xiazhi led the way and Chunni finished behind, and the group walked towards the central part of Lion Rock.

It was Dong Lin’s first time going up the mountain. He felt everything was new to him. He skipped and jumped in the middle of the mountain, feeling extremely happy.

Chunni thought too much and was very quiet along the way. Most of the snakes, insects, rats and ants were eaten by the villagers.

As they walked deeper and deeper, the four of them had reached the sparsely populated central area of ​​Lion Mountain.

Xiazhi pushed aside the overgrown weeds with force, beat the grass with dead branches, and walked forward.

"Forget it, let's not go any further. I'm afraid there might be a bear out there. Let's just walk around here."

Xia Zhi agreed and patted the surrounding grass.

Qiu Guo looked around and saw a bird's nest. "Sister, brother, look at that tree, is there a bird's nest?"

"It's true!" Chunni got rid of her myopia and could easily see the bird's nest.

It’s okay if some people and things are a little blurry, but some things need to be seen clearly, like the bird’s nest in front of you.

The summer solstice had already arrived under the tree and climbed up the tree in no time.

"Brother, you're so great, so awesome." Dong Lin clapped his hands under the tree and admired Xia Zhi for his skillful tree climbing skills.

"Oh, there are five bird eggs." Xia Zhi shouted happily and took out the bird eggs in one hand. His posture of taking out the bird eggs was very skillful. After all, this is a necessary skill for rural children.

Chunni ran over and wanted to respond.

"Ah!" Poor Chunni fell into a big pit.

Xia Zhi put the bird eggs in his pocket, and then he quickly climbed down the tree. He asked with concern, "Sister, are you okay?"

Chunni felt a little embarrassed and said awkwardly: "It's okay. I don't know who dug such a big hole here. Xiazhi, pull me up."

"Oops!" Chunni fell into the pit again. Apparently Xia Zhi was not strong enough.

"what happened?"

When Xia Zhi heard someone ask, he didn't even raise his head and immediately replied: "My sister fell into a pit."

"Oh, things change!" muttered the visitor.

Xia Zhi just realized that this was a remote place, and apart from the four brothers and sisters, who else could come here?

He was startled and looked up, only to find that it was He Yanqing and Yun Shu who were smiling.

"Brother He, Sister Yunshu."

Dong Lin was laughing secretly with his hands covering his mouth. It was obvious that he had seen the two people coming.

"Why did you go into the mountains?" Chunni asked curiously.

Yun Shu smiled and said, "I saw that everyone in the village had gone into the mountains. I felt uneasy and uncomfortable. I thought of asking you to go into the mountains to find some food, but I didn't expect that the three of you were not at home, so I had to ask Yan Qing to go up the mountain with me! It's a coincidence that we met in the mountains."

Chunni patted the dirt on her palms and replied: "We thought you had enough food and didn't need to go into the mountains to find food!"

"Chun Ni, stretch out your hand, I'll pull you up!" He Yanqing offered to help, but Chun Ni did not appreciate it.

"Wait." Chunni held the vine in her hand and looked at it. The more she looked, the more familiar it became.

"I think I might have found something to eat." Chunni said thoughtfully to her friends.

He Yanqing squatted down, jumped suddenly, and successfully reached the bottom of the pit.

He pulled the vine and looked at it for a long time, but couldn't recognize it, so he decided to ask: "This leaf looks old, can it really be eaten?"

Chunni was a little uncertain, so she asked Xiazhi to drop the sickle. She then used the sickle to dig the soil under the vines with great effort.

After a while, I saw something that looked like a sweet potato.

Chunni laughed out loud like a duck, "Haha, it's true, we have food now!"

He Yanqing took the sickle and continued digging. There was also a piece of rhizome like this next to it. He asked Chunni: "What is this? Why haven't I eaten it before?"

Chunni...

Can she say she had seen it in her previous life? Of course not.

She quickly thought of a response. "My mother once told me, look at the leaves on this vine, don't you see that they have three petals? They are easy to identify. This thing is called Pueraria root, a Chinese medicinal herb. Its rhizome can be cooked and eaten, or processed into Pueraria powder like sweet potatoes, and then brewed with boiling water. I heard that the leaves can also be used as medicine, so they should be edible."

He Yanqing observed it carefully and said, "I think the yield of Pueraria root is not low."

The faces of the onlookers were all smiling; this was truly a pleasant surprise.

With this Pueraria root, they had enough confidence to survive this natural disaster.

There was only one sickle, so the others picked up sharp stones to help dig.

Soon, the dug out kudzu roots piled up into a small hill, weighing about 100 kilograms.

"Okay, let's not dig today. Let's come back tomorrow." Seeing that there were quite a lot of them, He Yanqing quickly stopped everyone from digging.

"There are so many that we may not be able to get them back."

Chunni was the first to react. The six of them brought four backpacks, and it was impossible to fill them up completely. Once they got back to the village, they would be exposed. It was better to fill the backpacks halfway and cover them with kudzu vines, so that they would be less conspicuous.

"Okay, we'll come back tomorrow."

None of them are stupid, and they all understand the principle of not showing off one's wealth.

The six of them walked down the mountain, and He Yanqing asked Chunni, "Chunni, how do you eat this kudzu root?"

Chunni had never eaten it before, and thinking that it was similar to sweet potato, she said, "Wash it and boil it in water." It shouldn't be poisonous, so Chunni decided to try it first when she got home, and then let Xiazhi Qiuguo and Yunshu eat it.

He Yanqing had no idea what Chunni was thinking, otherwise he would have been scared to death.

He nodded with satisfaction and asked, "I think this kudzu vine looks familiar. It seems that there are quite a few of them around Lion Mountain. The yield is not low! Don't you plan to tell the team?"

Chunni thought for a while and shook her head. "You can call me selfish. I want to tell the village in a few days when I have saved more money."

She is not a saint and would not abandon her own family at the expense of the public. She has to make sure her family has enough food to survive the disaster before helping others.

He Yanqing nodded in agreement.

If you are poor, you should take care of yourself; if you are rich, you should help the world. In this situation, you should take care of yourself and your family first!

On the way home, Chunni and her friends met many villagers, but fortunately no one came forward to check. The villagers looked at the baskets on Chunni and Xiazhi's backs, which were full of old leaves, and they felt very sorry for the four siblings!

Villager: Poor child, eating old leaves!

Chunni...

Chunni cooked the Pueraria root and told Xiazhi with many instructions: "I will eat it first. If anything unexpected happens, please have someone send me to the clinic." She also explained in detail that the possible accidents include: dizziness, vomiting, hallucinations, coma, etc.

Holding the scalding kudzu root, Chunni, who was afraid of death, told him again: "You must wait for an hour after I finish eating before you eat it. Don't eat it secretly!"

Chunni was of course safe and sound. This Pueraria root was fine except that it was a bit bitter and had a strange taste. It was soft and sticky and filling.

Qiuguo and Donglin watched Chunni eat with relish, swallowing their saliva.

The next day, Chunni and her group of six went into the mountain together. This time, five of them carried backpacks and went back and forth two or three times. Finally, they dug out all the kudzu roots in the big pit.

On the third day, Chunni found Pueraria lobata outside Lion Rock. This time she no longer hid it and exposed it to the villagers.

After dinner, Chunni took a piece of Pueraria root and went to find Yang Anzhang.

After that, Lion Rock fell into a frenzy of searching for Pueraria root, and almost dug out all the Pueraria root outside Lion Rock.