Chapter 2 Roasted Taro
Walking up the path that was overgrown with weeds, you soon came to see the farmland outside the village, most of which was covered by various tender yellow grasses. In some places, you would be startled by a white bird or two as you walked by. I don’t know what kind it was. It was a big bird, but it was very quick. Before you could get close, it would fly away while chirping.
There was never a shortage of fields; the area surrounding the village was full of fertile land. When they arrived here last autumn, the two of them spent the entire winter collecting grain in the fields. The fields, which had not been tended for several years, had long since become wasteland, and the nearby paddy fields had turned into wetlands. Trees and weeds had invaded, and the increasingly active small animals had made the fields a chaotic mess.
She and Lu An were practically competing with field mice and birds for food: sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, all kinds of beans, and they even wanted to harvest every single grain of rice. Zhao Xuan didn't even spare the old loofahs, picking them one by one, drying them, scooping out the pulp, and carefully storing them, saying that they could be used to make excellent dishcloths.
They harvested all the grain they could see, but they didn't dare eat it all winter because Zhao Xuan planned to use it as seeds for the following year.
The amount of seeds needed cannot be calculated exactly; it must be more than planned. In the absence of fertilizers and pesticides, and without knowing what disasters might occur, the more seeds reserved, the better.
Last autumn and winter, in addition to collecting grain, they also prepared the land for planting the following year—simply weeding out the weeds, burning them to ashes, and then burying them in the loosened soil as nutrients for the coming year. Hoeing is hard work; in the winter, the soil was so hard that Zhao Xuan could only dig a shallow hole with one stroke of the hoe, so Lu An did most of the tilling work.
This spring, the two calculated for a long time and decided to plant five mu of paddy fields, seven mu of dry land, and half a mu of vegetable fields. The paddy fields would be used to grow rice, and the dry land would be used to grow crops such as potatoes and corn. The rice needed to be cultivated into seedlings first, and only after the seedlings had grown could they be officially planted in the fields. Zhao Xuan had never transplanted rice seedlings before, so when he actually started transplanting, he realized that it would take a long time to transplant one mu of seedlings.
The two of them worked very hard and it took them a long time to finish planting five acres of land. Yesterday was the last day. They were too greedy and wanted to finish planting the last corner of the field even though it was raining, which made Lu An fall ill.
The lack of proper clothing in winter, coupled with the hard work in spring, made it seem as if his illness was inevitable.
The field is now a lush green expanse. Because she is a novice, the seedlings are planted a bit crookedly. She doesn't care about the appearance; she's only worried that yesterday's rain will knock the seedlings over.
Walking slowly along the paddy field ridges, she would sometimes step into the field to straighten the crooked seedlings—she had never grown rice, let alone other crops, but she had seen others farm in the countryside when she was a child: raising seedlings, transplanting seedlings, harvesting... She had a vague impression of these things. She didn't know exactly which month the rice was planted, but she remembered that when the weather was slightly cool in the morning and evening, and the midday sun was strong enough for farmers to wear straw hats, the rice could be planted.
The fact that two rice crops can be grown in the south indicates that the warm days there are long enough. If she plants them at this time, even if her rice grows slower due to the lack of fertilizer, the forgiving spring will still give them enough time to grow.
Yesterday's spring rain did not seem to damage many rice seedlings.
Sure enough, the rain was gentle on everything except her and Lu An.
After Zhao Xuan carefully reworked the rice seedlings, the fallen seedlings were replanted in the paddy field with a thin layer of water. The five acres of rice swayed their thin leaves in the wind. The wind blew across the paddy field, and the ripples spread out in circles, as if by magic. This young man in his early twenties squatted on the edge of the field in a daze for a long time until he was pulled back by a dog's bark.
In the deserted wilderness, apart from the chirping of various insects and the occasional bird call, even the slapping sound of her shoes on the mud was clearly audible. Therefore, the dog's bark was extremely clear. Zhao Xuan turned around and saw a dark figure running towards her on the distant ridge.
It was a small, newly grown mongrel dog, its entire body covered in black fur without a single stray hair, even its eyes were bright black. Upon seeing its owner, it wagged its tail very eagerly.
It hadn't returned home all night and no one knew where it had gone off to, but it still looked quite energetic. Zhao Xuan wasn't too worried about it; the little country dog had quickly integrated into the community and seemed more like its master than Zhao Xuan himself.
She got up, shouldered the hoe, and beckoned to the dog with her eyes. The dog immediately followed. The two of them walked into the forest, following the gradually brightening sunlight.
With several months to go before the rice harvest, she still needs to find other food for the family and their dog.
Beyond the farmland lay layers of mountains and forests. Zhao Xuan had become quite familiar with the surrounding forests, which contained various kinds of mountain trees and some bamboo groves. The bamboo groves, with their tender green and emerald green hues, were finally able to grow wildly in this rainy season after enduring the winter. And there must be bamboo shoots in the forest.
Without the care of forest rangers, the boundary between the bamboo forest and the fir forest has long been blurred. The bamboo forest that can be reached by crossing a few barren fields actually requires crossing a long strip of fir forest at the foot of the mountain. There is no path, so you can only move forward step by step.
The dog was already used to this environment, its nimble body weaving through the weeds and branches. After walking quite a distance, it realized Zhao Xuan hadn't caught up, so it turned back to wait for her. Sometimes, if Zhao Xuan didn't follow the route it had set, it would very patiently turn back and catch up, then overtake her again.
Last winter, Zhao Xuan did consider visiting this bamboo forest. At that time, there was very little food available. Grain was used for seeds and could not be eaten freely. So, the winter bamboo shoots buried in the soil were included in her diet. However, she came several times but returned empty-handed.
The ground, deeply buried with bamboo shoots, looked no different from any other ordinary land. Zhao Xuan recalled an uncle next door to her maternal grandmother's house in the countryside, a master bamboo shoot digger. He could always dig up a bamboo shoot with a single shovel, without damaging it in the slightest. When Zhao Xuan was a child, she loved to follow him around to watch the fun, but it was really just for fun. She only remembered the man, but not how he dug bamboo shoots.
In winter, she and Lu An dug many holes in the lush bamboo forest, like playing Minesweeper, and sweated profusely in return for a few fist-sized bamboo shoot tips.
In the end, Lu An felt that the effort they put in was completely disproportionate to the amount of winter bamboo shoots they obtained, which made them give up the idea of digging for winter bamboo shoots.
But things are different now that spring has arrived. After the rains, bamboo shoots will sprout from the ground, making them much easier to find.
The bamboo shoots that break through the soil are covered with a hard skin covered with fuzz. They can grow very quickly. Once they break through the soil, they can grow to the height of a person in just a few days. At this time, the outer skin will crack and fall off, revealing the tender bamboo nodes inside.
Bamboo shoots that are more than half a meter tall are no longer edible. The shoot inside the skin has turned into bamboo, and it's too old to chew no matter how long you cook it.
Zhao Xuan picked a few tender shoots, dug them up with a hoe, and used a sickle to cut open the bamboo shoot skins on the spot. He chopped off the slightly older roots and threw the tender shoot tips into his basket. Unlike in winter, bamboo shoots were everywhere at this time of year. They were heavy, and just a few would fill his basket.
She was thinking of digging up all the bamboo shoots she could in the next few days.
Digging bamboo shoots is hard work. When she got tired, she would find a rock to sit down, take a sip of water, take out the two pieces of cooked taro she had brought that morning, peel off the charred skin, and slowly start eating them.
Taro is a wonderful food. It tastes great on its own and doesn't require any teeth. If you chew it a little longer, you can even taste its sweetness. My grandmother said that when she was young, the things she ate most often were taro and pumpkin. These two things can be cooked very well without oil and are very filling.
Before the apocalypse, Zhao Xuan didn't eat taro much; she was a picky eater. After the outbreak of the great disease, she and Lu An stayed in a camp that had taken over a granary. Although they weren't starving, the rations distributed to each person were still limited. By then, she had completely corrected her picky eating habits. She could eat expired food as long as it tasted okay. What she ate most often were various grains mixed with rat droppings and sand, including corn, millet, and various beans. After picking out the dirty stuff, she would mix them all together and cook them in one pot. They were tasteless, and eating too many beans would cause bloating, keeping her awake all night. Later, they left the camp and came to this village. Although the farm work was hard, the food available became much more abundant.
Pheasants and ducks, rice, small fish and shrimp, and various fruits and vegetables.
The various foods were hard-won and had a rich variety of flavors, so Zhao Xuan would never dislike any of them again.
She ate very slowly, carefully with each bite, making sure that not a single piece of taro flesh remained on the peeled taro skin. Even without salt or other seasonings, she would enjoy eating both taro pieces.
If nothing unexpected happens, taro will be her lunch.
After finishing the taro and drinking a couple of sips of water, Zhao Xuan found her basket at her feet already full of bamboo shoots. But she didn't leave. She planned to clean up the path she had taken so that next time she came, she could bring a small cart in and dig up all the bamboo shoots.
They worked until the sun was high in the sky and the sunlight had become scorching.
Wiping the sweat from her face, she looked at the narrow path in front of her and smiled with satisfaction.
"460, let's go!" In the dimly lit bamboo forest, Zhao Xuan struggled to put on his basket and called out the dog's name.
While she was working, the playful dog had long since disappeared. Just when she thought it was going to leave again and be lost for another day, she heard a few barks from afar. She waited for a while, but 460 didn't come after her.
"Are you coming or not!" she shouted again.
The dog whimpered again, poked its black head out from a clump of weeds, and barked at her.
Zhao Xuan walked over with a puzzled look, parted the grass, and saw a plate-like nest under the lush new grass, with several wild duck eggs lying inside.
She picked up the eggs and shook them, finding them to be very fresh. There were six eggs in total; she took four, wrapped them in some thick leaves, and put them in her basket.
When leaving, 460 didn't walk in front, but instead wagged its tail and circled around Zhao Xuan's side as if seeking praise, tilting its head back and looking at her repeatedly.
"I'll give you one when the eggs are cooked," she said.
The sun was high in the sky, and the surroundings were becoming increasingly hot. Birds had disappeared into the shade, and the chirping of insects grew louder. She walked slowly, and whenever she encountered a protruding stone on the road, she would tap it with her foot to shake off the mud stuck to the soles of her shoes.
Walking through the cedar forest, Zhao Xuan saw small, brownish-green seedlings peeking out from beneath the thick layer of needles. The seedlings had forked tips, curling into large, round shapes, each only about the height of a hand—a scene straight out of a fairytale. Those were bracken ferns, which were very expensive before the major disease outbreak because of their all-natural reputation. She remembered that before the apocalypse, around this time, many farmers in her grandmother's village would go up the mountain early in the morning to gather these wild vegetables. At first glance, they seemed to cover the entire mountain, but in reality, each fern was small and thin; after climbing the hillside for half a day, one could often only gather a few handfuls.
She doesn't plan to pick these bracken ferns that no one cares about anymore for the time being. Bracken ferns need to be soaked in water to remove toxins and then stir-fried with a lot of oil, which is very uneconomical. She might as well pick some and pickle them to change up the taste.
Knowing that Zhao Xuan was about to go home, 460 walked briskly in the direction of her home, glancing back at her every now and then as usual.
The way home was familiar and smooth, and soon she saw her small house, her home, hidden by lush weeds.
"Lu'an, I'm back!" she shouted as she pushed open the courtyard gate.
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