Chapter 48 Thistle (Bonus chapter if over 2000 requests for more updates)
Although it's called a shrub, upon closer inspection it turns out to be a familiar mutated wild vegetable—thistle.
When I was a child, I would go with the neighborhood kids to gather pig feed, and this thistle was one of the plants we would use.
Wild vegetables that can be used to feed pigs can naturally be eaten by humans as well. However, the scavengers in District 50 do not like it. In the original owner's memories, they would always go around it whenever they saw it, as it was not on their menu.
The tender leaves of thistle are surrounded by a ring of thorny teeth. At first glance, it looks like it is covered in thorns and is not edible at all. This is why the green algae people do not eat it.
But what they didn't know was that the small thorns around this sow thistle, which only looked scary, would soften if blanched in boiling water, just like the thorns on the stem of an eggplant.
Besides being edible, the nodules that form in its stems after insects infest them also have the effects of stopping bleeding, removing blood stasis, and relieving summer heat, making it perfect to eat during this season.
A barefoot doctor in the village once said that its scientific name is *Cirsium japonicum*, a type of Chinese medicine. It is said that if you dry it and steep it in water, you can cure hepatitis.
However, his medical skills were mediocre, and only the village children would listen to him seriously; the adults didn't take him to heart.
She glanced around and found that there were seven or eight thistle plants in this area, and there wasn't a single mark left after they were cut and inspected. She couldn't help but smile.
She tested more than a dozen patches and found one with moderate radiation, which made her quite excited.
When she was scavenging in the wild, she was unlucky and couldn't find a single edible wild vegetable all day. But today she got off to a great start.
People around noticed her examining the patch of thistle and scoffed. Even if it was found to be edible, cutting off the thorns one by one would be a huge hassle.
Moreover, it doesn't taste very good. Of course, this is only because most wasteland scavengers are used to eating wild vegetables raw and don't know how to cook them.
In fact, most wild vegetables don't taste very good when eaten raw, especially those that are bitter. They must be blanched in boiling water first and then eaten with seasonings to bring out their fresh and wild flavor.
By the time the sun was high and everyone was sweating profusely, the left fan had detected 12 pieces of moderate radiation, plus two pieces of low-radiation sow thistle leaves.
This is a mutated sow thistle; each leaf weighs half a pound. She was already very satisfied with this harvest.
Until a way to make money is found, at least enough food must be provided for the family of three every day so that they don't run out of money.
The left fan was too lazy to move, so it lay down to rest in the shade formed by the thick leaves.
Suddenly, a cry and scream came from afar. Zuo Shan jumped up, first reaching for the dagger at his waist, then listening intently.
The cries gradually faded, and after a while, she saw Pandora dragging a burlap sack as she walked out from the shade of the trees.
"Sister Fan, you've really spent the whole morning here testing these prickly buds. They're not tasty and they're a hassle to prepare. How about I take you somewhere else?" Pan Duole said with a look of disgust.
“This might be a bit troublesome to deal with, but nobody’s going to compete with me for it. You’ve seen my current situation; it’s not good for me to get into conflicts with people. It’s better to stay away,” Zuo Shan said with a smile.
"My mom said you're pregnant, is it true?" Pan Duole stared cautiously at her already protruding belly.
"It's true, my sister is going to have a baby in a few months," Zuo Shan said. There was no point in hiding it; everyone would find out sooner or later.
“My mom says all men are bad. My dad used to lie to her, saying he would marry her, got her pregnant, and then ran away.”
"My mom said you must have been tricked by that jerk too. She also said that if you really manage to give birth to the baby, you absolutely mustn't be tricked again, or you won't be able to keep the reward silver coins," Pan Duole said, looking at her with a worried expression.
"You're only a few years old, yet you're already worrying about adults like this." Zuo Shan smiled and poked her forehead, a warm feeling welling up in his heart.
Zuo Shan followed Pan Duole through a maze of turns until they arrived at a small hill. Pan Duole looked around and, finding no one following, carefully moved aside a few large rocks to reveal a narrow passage.
After passing through a passage that was several tens of meters long, what appeared before us was actually a small ditch.
The original owner had been scavenging for many years and never knew that there was a small ditch hidden here. According to Pan Duole, she was scavenging when she encountered a rainstorm. She ran around aimlessly and ended up here, where she discovered the cave.
I was just looking for shelter from the rain when I discovered this small ditch outside the cave.
However, she usually doesn't dare to come over easily, for fear of being discovered.
Today, it just so happens that Tong Laosan overheard Aunt Zheng detecting a piece of low-radiation noodle dish while he was strolling around, and he insists that he was the one who discovered it and tries to forcibly take it.
Uncle Zheng was furious and started a fight. As you can imagine, Uncle Zheng was beaten half to death.
Most of the scavengers were drawn over to watch the spectacle, and she took the opportunity to come over and pull Zuo Shan along to fish in the stream.
The water in the ditch was very clear. Zuo Shan watched as Pan Duole took out an empty burlap sack, propped the sack open with a stick, weighed it down with stones on both sides, and then squatted down to wait for his prey.
"Sister Fan, don't just stand there! Grab a burlap sack and make a fishing net like this. If you're lucky, you'll definitely catch some fish," the little girl urged her from the side.
She expressed skepticism: could such a rudimentary "fishing net" really catch fish?
She was also deeply moved that the child was willing to share the stream with her.
Judging from her tone, it seems that she and her mother are the only two people in her family, and they are having a hard time. Even so, she is still willing to share with her.
Zuo Shan couldn't help but sigh. It seemed that his understanding of this wasteland was still too one-sided. Not everyone was as vicious and selfish as that old woman who hit him with a club.
Zuo Shan quickly wove a simple fish basket with a small opening and a large belly by cutting some vines from nearby.
After digging around in the nearby soil for a while, he dug out a huge mutated earthworm. He cut it into several pieces, put two pieces in Pandora's sack, and two pieces in her fish basket before sitting down to wait.
"Sister Fan, why are you doing this? This earthworm looks disgusting." Pan Duole said with a look of disgust.
"You don't understand. Only with this smell of blood can the fish be attracted to the hook," Zuo Shan said with a smile.
The two of them caught a total of 38 fish in the net throughout the afternoon, but unfortunately only four of them tested positive for moderate radiation.
That was enough to make them happy.
"Sister Fan, do you know? I've been here several times before, and each time I can only catch 5 or 6 fish at most, and sometimes I can't even catch a single edible one. Twice, the fish bit through my sack and escaped."
I've really learned a lot from you today. It turns out that a fish basket is much better than a burlap sack. It's sturdy, durable, and you don't have to keep an eye on it all the time.
"And using earthworms as bait is really amazing!" Pandora exclaimed excitedly.
Each person was given two fish, one large and one small. The large one weighed more than three pounds, and the small one weighed more than one pound. Zuo Shan did not recognize what kind of fish it was.
In the original owner's memories, she had never seen a fish, let alone eaten one; she had only seen them in pictures online.
The two waited until the sun was setting, estimating that most of the people gathering had left, before quietly emerging from the cave, making sure to cover the entrance with a large stone.
The two walked back together, and the fish naturally blended in with the wild vegetable leaves, so no one paid much attention. In particular, some people couldn't help but grimac when they saw the thistle in the left burlap sack.
This girl is such a waste of her looks. She got pregnant so early that she can't even hook up with a man anymore. Her life is really miserable.
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