The next day at daybreak, the people of Dawancun began packing their belongings and continued their journey with the Lu family.

Last night, Lu Shiyan told everyone that they had found a river with a large flow of water.

After carefully inquiring about the terrain of Lu Shiyan's place, Village Chief Song learned that in addition to a river with a considerable flow of water, there was also a lot of flat land suitable for reclamation.

Everyone felt they saw hope.

Previously, people would naturally want to find a large capital city to see if the government had any relief policies, and then find a way to settle down.

But now, the drought is not over, the internal strife is not quelled, and external troubles have arisen.

People prefer to live in seclusion in the mountains rather than go to major capital cities.

As long as there is water and one is diligent, one will not starve to death in the mountains.

This was the first time in so long of fleeing famine that everyone had seen such clear hope. The villagers were full of energy, and after asking Lu Shiyan for directions, they began their journey.

Since Lu Shiyan used his spiritual energy to soothe Jiang Tangtang's meridians yesterday, all her pain and fatigue have disappeared.

I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and invigorated, as if I had taken a super tonic.

Everyone was busy on their journey, and the Lu family hadn't prepared breakfast this morning. Lu Shiyan boiled a pot of water with honey and mint, let it cool, poured it into a water pouch, and handed it to Jiang Tangtang.

Boiling mint and honey together creates a drink that combines the sweetness of honey with the coolness of mint, making it incredibly refreshing.

Jiang Tangtang was in a good mood. While on the road, she turned on the scanning system and asked Lu Shiyan to pick up anything useful she found.

“Husband, that looks like sumac. Pick more and wash it with salt when we rest tonight.”

Salt is expensive to begin with. Now, due to drought and war, it's impossible to buy even with money. The villagers were astonished to hear that some trees could be washed to extract salt.

Someone muttered quietly, "That tree doesn't look special at all. Can it really be washed to produce salt?"

"I'm not sure, but judging from her expression, it should be okay."

"I've never heard of her having any formal education before. How could a woman like her know all this?"

...

Regardless of the villagers' doubts, Lu Shiyan had already nimbly climbed the tree and, following Jiang Tangtang's instructions, began picking the fruits of the sumac.

The roots and leaves of the sumac tree are edible, but the fruit of the sumac tree is generally used for washing salt.

The fruit of the sumac tree can generally only be harvested in winter.

However, perhaps due to the remote location and lack of harvesting, as well as the drought and lack of rain, many of the fruits from last year are still on the branches and have not fallen.

Liu Chengfeng and the others also put down what they were doing and rushed over to help.

With many hands making light work, they quickly picked two large baskets of sumac. Seeing this, many villagers followed the Lu family's example, picking some sumac fruit and packing it up to take with them.

Besides sumac, Jiang Tangtang would also stop from time to time to call on the Lu family to dig up wild plants such as aconite, lily, and konjac.

On a slope, Jiang Tangtang used the system to scan and found a large amount of cassava. So Jiang Tangtang called the Lu family to go to the slope to dig up cassava.

When the villagers saw this, they all went over to dig as well.

Suddenly, a villager said, "Everyone, stop digging! This thing is poisonous and you can't eat it."

Feeling embarrassed, Village Chief Song didn't let his family go dig cassava with him. Instead, he picked wild vegetables along the way. When he heard the villagers say that Jiang Tangtang had told the Lu family that what they were digging was poisonous, he quickly ran over to check.

Upon seeing this, Village Chief Song immediately panicked, "Sanlang's wife, you can't eat this. This stuff is poisonous. Old Zhang's family at the village entrance died from eating this stuff."

Upon hearing what Village Chief Song said, many of the village elders also remembered it and nodded repeatedly, saying, "Yes, yes, yes, more than 20 years ago there was a famine. Old Zhang's family went up the mountain to dig this up and cooked it to eat. In the end, the whole family was poisoned to death."

Because they trusted Jiang Tangtang, Old Man Lu and Madam Su hadn't seen what she was telling people to dig for. Now that they saw it, they rushed over to see what was going on.

The two men were old and remembered the tragedy that occurred more than twenty years ago. When they saw the tree roots that Jiang Tangtang and her men had dug up, their faces turned pale.

Jiang Tangtang asked, "How did Old Zhang's family cook the fish they dug up? Did they just peel and wash them and then put them directly into the pot to cook?"

An elderly man in the village said, "We don't know. We didn't see them cooking it. We only found out it was poisonous after the incident."

The main reason was that there was a famine at the time, and Old Zhang's family didn't tell anyone after they found food in the mountains.

He secretly dug up the stuff and took it home to eat, until later when his family members all met with misfortune, and only then did the villagers realize that the stuff was poisonous.

Jiang Tangtang said, "This is cassava. It needs to be peeled and soaked in water for six or seven days to remove the toxins before it can be eaten."

If detoxification is not performed beforehand, the consequences can range from mild nerve damage leading to paralysis and even death from poisoning.

After hearing Jiang Tangtang's words, the villagers suddenly realized, "So it has to be done this way?"

"Yes, as long as it is handled properly, there will be no poisoning."

Despite Jiang Tangtang's words, many villagers were still afraid and dared not dig cassava anymore.

Luo Taohua secretly chuckled to herself upon seeing this, and quickly squeezed through the crowd to break off the cassava that the villagers had dug out but didn't want, and put it into a sack.

She was heartbroken and wanted to drive the villagers away. However, since this was unclaimed wasteland, if she drove the villagers away, she would inevitably be gossiped about.

Now that the villagers dared not dig anymore, it suited her just fine. As for the fact that this thing was poisonous, she wasn't worried at all. Since Jiang Tangtang had said that soaking it in water could neutralize the poison, then it must work.

Like Luo Taohua, the Lu family completely trusted Jiang Tangtang. The Lu family, together with Li Shi, Liu Chengfeng, and others, worked together to dig up all the cassava from this wasteland.

Perhaps because the soil is fertile and there is groundwater, this patch of wild cassava hasn't dried out, so it produces a particularly large quantity of cassava.

After the Lu family used all the sacks and baskets to pack cassava, there was still a large pile left to pack.

Seeing this, Madam Su looked anxiously at Jiang Tangtang and said, "There's still so much left, what are we going to do?"

Aside from lacking the tools to carry it, it was simply too heavy to move. Even Liu Chengfeng and his group couldn't move it.

There were simply too many cassava plants in this area, and many villagers were afraid they were poisonous, so they stopped digging. The entire land ended up belonging to the Lu family.

Lu Shiyan said, "I'll make a few more trips tonight."

Shi Dali walked over with a basket in his hand. "Brother Lu, I have some extra baskets at home. We don't have much luggage, so I can help you carry some. Take some and we'll help you carry them, so you don't have to run back and forth."

Song Chaoyang also said, "I don't have much luggage, I can help carry some."

Thinking that the Lu family didn't have any extra bags and baskets, he added, "I see there's bamboo over there. Should we weave a few baskets from the bamboo strips to hold them?"

Besides Shi Dali and Song Chaoyang, several other villagers came over and offered to help.

Jiang Tangtang did not refuse everyone's kindness. After thanking them, she asked Zhou Qiongniang to bring out the wild bayberries she had just picked and make plum juice to treat everyone.