Chapter 36 - 32: Gray Sweet Potato
Picking up the damaged Earth Cage, Deng Guang gently fiddled with it. The connections between the grates were completely bent, and it could no longer be folded. "What a shame."
Qin Ziwen used a rock to smash the spearhead viper’s head.
Beside him, Deng Guang looked at the mangled flesh and felt it was a bit of a waste.
He walked around to its back and lifted the spearhead viper by its tail. The snake was as thick as a grown man’s arm. When he held his arm out straight, the snake’s head still dangled on the ground with length to spare.
"What a shame. The venom glands seem to have been smashed. We can’t eat this meat. It can only be used as bait for the Earth Cage."
Qin Ziwen recalled some biology he had learned before. "I remember that venom from poisonous snakes is a protein. Its toxicity is neutralized after being boiled in water."
Deng Guang held up the snake’s corpse. "So, are you going to eat it? I can take it back for you."
Qin Ziwen coughed. "Let’s just use it as bait."
Deng Guang placed a small piece of the snake meat into the cage, then put the Earth Cage back in the water further away, covering it with a layer of dead branches and aquatic plants. "It’s a shame the other Earth Cage is broken. I’ll take it back later and see if I can fix it."
Qin Ziwu looked at the damaged Earth Cage in his hands. "Bro, the crack in the Earth Cage doesn’t look that big. It should still be usable, right?"
Qin Ziwen shook his head. "What if it catches another snake? What if it slithers out through the crack and bites you? We don’t have any antivenom."
A venomous snake is nothing like a crocodile. If a crocodile bites your hand, with some luck, you might only lose a hand.
But if a venomous snake bites you, you’ll lose more than just a hand.
Qin Ziwu thought for a moment and decided his older brother had a point. "Alright."
Qin Ziwen heard footsteps on the slope behind him.
Turning around, he saw four people carrying buckets and fishing gear pass by on the path behind them.
One of them turned his head. Their eyes met, and he recognized the man as Liu Changgen.
Liu Changgen also seemed surprised to run into Deng Guang and the others here.
His gaze shifted between the few people below him, and he finally forced a slight curve onto his lips. "Old Deng."
Deng Guang turned his head. Seeing it was Liu Changgen, he said with a smile, "Yeah? You guys planning to switch fishing spots?"
"Yeah, it’s too crowded over there. We fished all day yesterday and didn’t catch much, so we’re going to check downstream." Liu Changgen’s eyes landed on the Earth Cage in Qin Ziwu’s hands, his tone laced with a hint of jealousy. "Is that an Earth Cage? Old Deng, you were actually holding out on such a good thing. I never saw you take it out when we were fishing together."
"It’s mine," Qin Ziwen said.
"Yours?" Liu Changgen was surprised by the answer. ’How could it be yours?’ His eyes darted back and forth between Qin Ziwen and the Earth Cage, a strange sense of regret welling up inside him.
’If I’d saved their fishing spot for them a couple of days ago, maybe I’d be able to get in on using the Earth Cage now.’
The man in the duck-billed cap to Liu Changgen’s right raised an eyebrow. "Hey, young man, is that Earth Cage for sale?"
Qin Ziwen lifted the Earth Cage. "Sure it is. Fifty pounds of fish, and it’s yours right now."
Not just the man who asked, but Liu Changgen’s face darkened as well.
"Fifty pounds? Why don’t you just rob us?" the man in the duck-billed cap said menacingly, sneering. "Do you have any idea how much fifty pounds of fish is? Probably not even a handful of families in the whole Gated Community could scrounge up that much meat."
Standing next to Qin Ziwen, Deng Guang thought to himself, ’That’s not necessarily true.’
’The people who participated in the first crocodile hunt basically all got several dozen pounds of meat.’
Liu Changgen thought for a moment and said sincerely, "How about ten pounds of fish? One pound of fish can sell for six or seven yuan, and your Earth Cage isn’t even that big."
Qin Ziwen had lost interest. "Your counteroffer is just pointless. There’s no sincerity at all. Forget it."
Liu Changgen countered again. "Fifteen pounds."
Qin Ziwen couldn’t even be bothered to respond to him anymore.
Liu Changgen took a deep breath, gave the surroundings a long, hard look, memorizing the location, and then turned to leave.
He comforted himself internally.
’An Earth Cage is just one more way to hunt, and it’s not necessarily safe to leave it out. It could be destroyed by the crocodiles in the river, or it could be stolen by someone else...’
He thought with a touch of malice, ’You’d better watch your Earth Cage twenty-four hours a day. Don’t let it suddenly get stolen one day.’
As these thoughts churned in his mind, Liu Changgen committed the surrounding environment to memory.
Watching the four of them leave, Qin Ziwen narrowed his eyes.
Deng Guang reminded Qin Ziwen, "Be careful, they might come back to steal the cage."
Qin Ziwen thought of the Beaked Eagle and an idea formed in his mind. "Mhm, I know."
Deng Guang blamed himself. "It’s all my fault for being a poor judge of character. I never should have gone fishing with those Lius in the first place. Now your Earth Cage has been exposed."
Qin Ziwen comforted him, "It has nothing to do with you. Even if it wasn’t Liu Changgen, it would have been Li Changgen or Zhou Changgen. It’s normal for other people to see it. Don’t worry, I have a plan. I’ll still put it out tonight as usual."
Deng Guang didn’t ask what the plan was, only saying, "As long as you have an idea, that’s good enough. I’ll follow your lead."
After a moment’s hesitation, Deng Guang asked, "If he had actually agreed to fifty pounds of meat, would you have sold the Earth Cage?"
Qin Ziwen answered without a second thought, "Of course I would. Why wouldn’t I?"
’That’s fifty pounds of meat. If someone could actually offer that much, you’d be a fool not to make the trade. I just wonder if meat acquired through this kind of trade would be included in the daily settlement score. If it is, then I’ve found a little trick to boost my score.’
After chatting for a while, the two returned to yesterday’s fishing spot. Deng Guang took the repaired fishing rod out of his bag and handed it over.
He fished all morning, but perhaps his beginner’s luck had run out. He only caught a single, palm-sized white striped fish.
His lower back was a little sore from sitting for so long. Qin Ziwen stood up, massaged his back, and took a couple of steps. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the leaves of a nearby plant that felt vaguely familiar.
But he couldn’t recall where he had seen it before.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly slapped his forehead.
’This looks like the "Gray Sweet Potato" recorded in the plant encyclopedia!’
Gray Sweet Potato: Also known as "Mud Sweet Potato," a tuberous plant that grows in marshy environments. Its leaves are inedible and slightly toxic. Its tuber, hidden in the mud, is edible, has a bland taste, is very filling, and can be harvested twice a year.
Although its name included "sweet potato," its leaves were completely different from a regular sweet potato’s. The exposed petioles were also very distinct. The vine’s leaves were grayish-green, covered in fine fuzz, and shaped like five-pointed stars.
He found a short piece of wood to help him dig. Soon, he uprooted a large cluster of gray, spherical fruits that looked like they had grown in the soil.
The skin of these spherical fruits was coarse and had irregular, ring-like patterns on it. From the outside, they looked like stones caked in mud.
The plant in his hand had five tubers.
Perhaps because this thing grew underground, no animals ate it. They had grown plump and luscious, each one as big as a grown man’s fist.
This one plant alone weighed about two or three pounds.
’If this thing can be asexually reproduced from its tubers like potatoes,’ he calculated, ’it could definitely become a staple food source in the future.’
But right now, he had too few Gray Sweet Potatoes, and he didn’t have a place to plant them.
Not unless he could use the Level 1 Farmland at home, but the Level 1 Farmland required a 400-square-meter open area.
’I hope I can get a few Blank Expansion Cards soon.’
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