Chapter 102 Searching for Food
In fact, the method of making fern root powder written by Xiao Dingkun in the letter is relatively simple. It sounds like fern root powder is easy to make, but when you actually make it, you find that it is a very troublesome thing. It is really not that easy to make.
Gu Shengtian and Fubao cleaned the fern roots first, then began pounding them with hammers and stones. Initially, they hammered on a wooden block, but then realized the roots were too hard and they feared they would break the block. After some deliberation, Gu Shengtian suggested pounding them on the well platform.
Fu Bao's eyes lit up after hearing this. This is a good idea. There is a very smooth big stone on the well platform. Put these fern roots on it and then use the stone to hammer them. Wouldn't it be easy to smash them?
So the two little guys did what they said and ran to the street carrying the washed fern roots.
The two men first washed the stone on the well platform, then spread the fern roots flat on the well platform. Each of them took a stone and started beating it.
This was strenuous work, and soon both of their arms felt sore, they were panting, and sweat was pouring down.
But it seems that the fern root has not been pounded into powder...
Gu Shengtian rubbed his head, worried. "Fubao, can this thing really be pounded into powder? Is there something wrong with what Brother Dingkun wrote in the letter?"
Fubao was actually puzzled. She had read the letter over and over almost twenty times, but the part about pounding into powder only mentioned pounding into powder, nothing else. She couldn't make any sense of it, so she could only sigh and say, "I don't know either. Let's give it a try. Anyway, that's what Brother Dingkun said in the letter. He said he saw it in a book."
In the book?
Although Gu Shengtian is about to enter junior high school, he still maintains the original and most primitive reverence for books like his parents and grandmother, and believes that everything written in the books is correct.
Since the book says so, it is correct.
So the two little guys continued to hit the fern roots with stones, again and again, using all their strength to hit them.
At first, there was no one on the street, but later in the evening, some people came out and were a little puzzled when they saw the two of them busying around.
"Fubao, Shengtian, what are you doing? Isn't this a fern root?"
The person who asked this question was Wang Youliang. His family had sold the old grain and the new grain was gone. He was now worried every day and didn't know what to do. I heard that he only had two meals a day in the past few days, and each meal consisted of half a small steamed bun and half a bowl of thin soup. He immediately lost a lot of weight and didn't have much strength to go to work.
Fubao certainly knew about Chen Youliang's situation.
Chen Youliang is a bachelor who is almost forty years old and still hasn't married. However, he is a nice person and likes to joke with children. For example, he would tease Gu Sheng and Tianwang Zhuzi from time to time. The children all like him.
Of course, he would also do stupid things, such as secretly looking at other young girls and wives, and would foolishly follow them to sell old grain, because he thought that selling the old grain would help him save more money, which might give him a chance to find a wife.
He is just such a person, not perfect, but not a bad person either. He is just an ordinary person in Pingxi Production Brigade, a person with flesh and blood.
Fubao clearly remembered that in his dream, he would starve to death.
If he doesn't find a solution, he will starve to death.
His name was Chen Youliang, and he would eventually die from lack of food.
Fubao raised his head and looked at Chen Youliang: "Uncle Youliang, I heard that this fern root can be used as food if ground into powder. We want to give it a try by pounding it. If it works, Uncle Youliang, you can eat it."
When Chen Youliang heard this, he immediately became worried, as it brought back his sad memories.
But he looked at the fern root without any hope: "Fubao is such a good boy, but——"
He sighed heavily. "How can this be eaten? When we were starving, we ate everything, even tree bark, but never this. It doesn't taste good, and I can't chew it or move it!"
At this time, a few old ladies came over with needlework in their hands, thinking of doing something before dark. They all had no teeth, and looking at the fern root, their teeth felt pain. They usually took a long time to chew a piece of steamed bun, so how could they chew this thing? Even after steaming it, it would not be chewed through.
After hearing this, they all shook their heads and said, "Child, you can't eat this. If you want to eat, you have to find another way."
Not to mention the other old ladies, even the knowledgeable Grandma Hu couldn't help but advise: "You two little kids, you should hurry up and pick some wild vegetables and roots while there are still some on the mountain. Otherwise, when the weather gets cold, there will be nothing on the mountain. What will you eat then? Your children have to go to school and the burden is huge. I feel so worried for you."
Fubao heard everyone say this and knew that it was well-intentioned, so he smiled at Grandma Hu, but didn't say anything.
No matter what she said, it would be useless until she made the fern root powder that Brother Dingkun mentioned.
At this time, people who had gone to work came back one after another, including Nie Laosan's family. Everyone saw the two children of Gu Laosi's family chiseling fern roots on the well platform, and they all shook their heads and sighed.
What's the life like for Gu Laosi's family? Is the child starving and stupid? It's not easy. It's really not easy.
Nie Laosan's wife glanced at Fubao and curled her lips: "We used to say that Fubao was a lucky child, but so what? No matter how lucky she is, she still has no food to eat like the rest of us."
The other one heard this and shook his head: "The third Gu family has four children to support, and they need to go to school and eat. Life is not easy!"
Nie Laosan's wife was even more proud when she heard this: "Right, right, right. Look at these two little ones now. They're so hungry they're eating fern roots. They don't even know how poor they are. Actually, now that I think about it, I was stupid for insisting on taking Fubao back. Whether he comes back or not, life will be the same anyway. No one is better off than anyone else."
Recently, Nie Laosan's family has been very unlucky, and everything has gone wrong. However, no matter how unfortunate or unlucky a person is, he needs someone to feel at the bottom. Seeing that others are living a worse life than himself, and knowing that he is not the worst off, he will feel better.
Especially the Gu family. The harder the Gu family's life was, the more comfortable she felt.
Gu Shengtian had certainly heard what everyone was saying. He looked at the fern root under his hands, which he couldn't crack at all, and began to doubt it. He couldn't help but ask Fubao, "Fubao, do you think this thing is really edible? Did we just waste our energy?"
In fact, Fubao had gone through so much trouble but still hadn't seen any fern root powder. She was a little skeptical, but after thinking it over, she said, "Brother Shengtian, if fern root powder was so easy to make, then the people in our Pingxi Production Brigade would have discovered it long ago. It's probably because fern root powder is not easy to make that no one knows about it. Let's give it a try. We've already put in so much effort, there's no reason to give up halfway."
Gu Shengtian thought about it and it seemed to make sense. He sighed softly and wiped the sweat off his face. "Forget it, Fubao, I'll listen to you. After all, you are my sister. I can't let you work here alone. Even if others laugh at us, it's better to laugh at us both together than at you alone. You still have someone to keep you company!"
Fubao couldn't help but burst out laughing when he heard this. He was being laughed at and still wanted to find a companion: "Brother Shengtian, you really think too much!"
Just when Fubao and Gu Shengtian were busy and sweating profusely, Nie Dashan came back from the field carrying a hoe.
Nie Dashan is now sixteen years old. At sixteen, he is tall and strong, and has great physique. Even in the middle of autumn, he is only wearing thin clothes. The coarse cloth tightly wraps around his strong body, and he looks like a strong young man.
He is very strong now and does heavy physical work on the construction site. The work points he earns in one day are equivalent to the work points of others in one and a half days.
A few years ago, Nie Dashan and Fubao Gu Shengtian got along well and often got together.
But in recent years, Fubao and Gu Shengtian have both been to school, and I heard that their academic performance is getting better and better. Sometimes they read quietly with a book on the rocks at the foot of the southern mountain, and you can tell at a glance that they are little cultured people.
Fubao and Gu Shengtian still treated him as their brother and were very happy to see him, but Nie Dashan gradually realized that he and Fubao and Gu Shengtian were not the same kind of people anymore, and the distance between them was getting farther and farther, and they would not be able to play together in the future.
Of course he felt a little regretful at this time, regretting why he didn't study back then. But there was no way, he couldn't concentrate on studying at all, so there was no point in regretting.
But at this time, he saw Fubao and Gu Shengtian working hard there, so he went over and asked, "Fubao, what are you doing?"
Fu Bao looked up and saw Nie Dashan, and immediately smiled: "Brother Dashan, I heard that if this fern root is ground into powder, it can be eaten as food. I was just thinking of trying it with Brother Shengtian!"
She lowered her head to look at the fern root under her hand and couldn't help but sigh. "But this thing is too hard. We can't break it at all. I'm starting to doubt whether the method in the book is correct."
Nie Dashan looked at Fubao's worried look, squatted down, picked up the fern roots, twisted them in his hands, and the fern roots that were almost broken by them became strands in his palms. He frowned and observed them for a while.
Fubao and Gu Shengtian were both worried because he seemed to understand a lot.
Fubao eagerly asked Nie Dashan, "Brother Dashan, do you think this will be a hit?"
Nie Dashan looked up at them and said, "It should be possible. Look, you can already feel some powder here. It's just that you are not strong enough to crush it."
As he said this, he took the stone from Fubao and said, "Let me try it."
Fubao quickly handed the stone to Nie Dashan.
Nie Dashan is now very strong, and his arms are as thick as Fubao and Gu Shengtian's.
He also needed strength, so he took the stone and began to chisel the fern roots slowly and hard.
Fubao and Gu Shengtian stared without blinking.
They finally saw how strong Brother Dashan was. The fern roots that they had been chiseling for a long time without any movement were now flattened and opened with a crackling sound.
And they finally saw a white powdery substance at the place where the fern root was broken and ground.
The two looked at each other, their eyes shining: "Got it?"
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