When Ye Caiping returned home, she saw Ye Jin'er and her sister, along with Ye Yinhua, hanging up clothes.

"Good morning, little aunt," Yinhua greeted timidly.

Ye Caiping smiled and asked, "Where are your grandparents?"

"Grandpa and my three older brothers carried firewood to town to sell," Yinhua said. "Grandma and my eldest uncle went to pick up my aunt. My parents are tending to the crops in the fields."

Qinghe Village is located in the south of Zhou Dynasty. The climate is warm and it is possible to grow three crops: two seasons of rice and one season of wheat.

So there's almost no off-season for farming; they still have to work in the fields now.

Ye Caiping nodded: "Jin'er, Huan'er, let's go for a walk on the mountain. Yinhua, stay home and take good care of the house."

Yinhua was taken aback: "Auntie, you're still injured..."

"It's alright. I can't stay cooped up at home all the time. I'm just going out for a walk to clear my head, and I'll pick some wild vegetables if I see any."

Ye Yinhua nodded, finding nothing wrong with what she heard.

Ye Caiping led the Ye Jin'er sisters into the woodshed, took two baskets and a hoe, and then took two sickles and threw them into the baskets.

The two daughters quickly picked up one of the two boys and carried them on their backs, not letting Ye Caiping lift a finger.

...

Following her memory, Ye Caiping quickly arrived at the back mountain.

Although it was late autumn, the mountains and forests were still lush and green.

Halfway up the mountain, Ye Caiping and her two daughters searched for a while and finally found cassava in a ravine.

It wasn't just one or two trees, but a whole grove, stretching across half the mountain valley, with what appeared to be over a thousand trees.

"Quick, let's get over there." Ye Caiping was delighted and quickened her pace.

When Ye Jin'er and her sister arrived at a patch of cassava with Ye Caiping, their expressions changed. They quickly pulled Ye Caiping back a step, saying, "Mother, this is poisonous. Let's go!"

It's as if touching it would cause poisoning.

"No. I came here to find the poison root. It's not called poison root, its real name is cassava. I've read about it in some miscellaneous books. If it's prepared properly, it's edible."

"Eat? But... someone was poisoned just last night..."

"That's because nobody knows how to handle it. Listen to me, let's dig some out."

Ye Caiping mentally calculated the time.

In my memory, cassava ripens around October, but judging from the weather in the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was calculated according to the lunar calendar.

It's August 23rd now, which is October in the Gregorian calendar, and the cassava is ripe.

Unlike Ye Caiping's excitement, Ye Jin'er and Ye Huan'er were pale.

This could kill people! But since their mother ordered them to dig it up, they didn't dare to object.

Ye Caiping picked a small one, chopped off the supporting stem with a sickle in a few strokes, and tried to pull it out with her hand, but couldn't.

She found a spot, struck it with a hoe, and then pried upwards: "Quickly pull up the tree trunk."

The two daughters rushed to pull it out, but with a forceful pull, the cassava fell backward and landed on its bottom, and was pulled out.

Ye Jin'er and her sister looked at the four or five huge root tubers growing under the small tree trunk, their faces turning pale. This... is the poisonous root?

Look...how scary!

Ye Caiping was delighted and quickly chopped down the cassava. Judging from its appearance, it weighed more than ten pounds.

And judging by the quality, it's definitely mature.

[Ding, poisonous bitter cassava detected, 1 coin per pound, would you like to purchase?] At this moment, the long-silent mechanical voice rang in my mind.

Ye Caiping was taken aback. How could it be so cheap?

She used to buy cassava, which cost five or six yuan per pound!

wrong!

In modern times, they eat bread cassava or sweet cassava, which are varieties that have been improved by scientists over generations, greatly reducing their toxicity. They can be eaten as long as they are cooked until soft and sticky.

These are the most primitive bitter cassava, which is highly toxic and requires many processing steps before consumption. Almost no one eats it nowadays, so paying only 1 cent per pound is already a very reasonable price.

Alright, since there's a lot of it, one penny is fine, every penny counts!

"Let's dig up a few more."

As Ye Caiping spoke, she began to act again.

Although Ye Jin'er and Ye Huan'er were terrified, they still did as instructed.

An hour later, the mother and her two daughters had dug up a total of five trees.

These cassava plants had been left unharvested for a long time, so they grew large and robust, and just five plants produced over 100 jin (50 kg) of cassava.

The three of them used vines to tie the cassava into three bundles. Ye Caiping took out three large cassava roots, peeled them with a sickle to reveal the snow-white flesh, and then chopped them into small sections about 15 centimeters long.

"It looks beautiful, but it smells...bitter," Ye Huan'er said fearfully. "Then...what do we do?"

"Come with me, let's go to the mountain stream."

Ye Caiping placed the peeled cassava into their baskets, and the three of them left together.

Not far from the cassava grove, there is a mountain stream about 1.6 meters wide, with water up to a person's elbows.

Ye Caiping tied the cassava into small sections with vines, put them into the stream, and tied the other end to a tree by the stream.

"Soak it for a day and a night, and it can be cooked tomorrow." Ye Caiping washed her hands and stood up.

Actually, you can soak it in a basin, but you need to change the water several times. Rinsing it directly in the stream is more effective than soaking it in a basin.

"Let's go, let's see if we can find any wild vegetables."

“But the bundles of poisonous roots we just dug up are still over there,” Ye Jin’er said.

"Leave it for now. Nobody's going to steal this anyway. Wait... I forgot my sickle over there. You guys wait here, I'll go get it."

"I'll go," Ye Jin'er said.

"No need, I know where it is, you guys wait."

As Ye Caiping finished speaking, she quickly left.

They quickly returned to the cassava grove, where three large bundles of cassava were neatly placed on the ground.

Ye Caiping turned around and saw that her two daughters were not following, so she reached out and touched the bundled cassava on the ground.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!