Chapter 32 Gray Sweet Potato
Picking up the damaged trap, Deng Guang gently bent it. The joints between the compartments were completely bent and could no longer be folded. "What a pity."
Qin Ziwen smashed the head of the spearhead viper with a stone.
Deng Guang, looking at the broken flesh, felt a pang of regret.
He went around to the back and lifted the spearhead viper by its tail. This snake was as thick as an adult's arm; when he held his arm out horizontally, its head dangled to the ground with excess flesh.
"What a pity, the venom glands seem to be shattered. The meat is inedible; it can only be used as bait in the trap."
Qin Ziwen recalled his biology lessons: "I remember snake venom is protein; boiling it in water neutralizes the toxicity."
Deng Guang picked up the snake carcass: "Will you eat it? I'll take it back for you."
Qin Ziwen coughed: "Then I'll use it as bait."
Deng Guang put a small portion of snake meat into the trap, then placed it back a distance away, covering it with dry branches and water plants. "Unfortunately, the other trap is broken. I'll see if I can fix it when I get back."
Qin Ziwu looked at the broken trap in his hand: "Brother, the crack in the trap doesn't look that big; it should still work, right?" Qin Ziwen
shook his head: "What if we catch another snake? What if it crawls out through the crack and bites you? We don't have antivenom."
Venomous snakes are different from crocodiles. If you're bitten by a crocodile, you might only lose a hand if you're lucky.
But if you're bitten by a venomous snake, you'll lose more than just a hand.
Qin Ziwu thought for a moment and agreed with his older brother's reasoning: "Alright."
Qin Ziwen heard footsteps on the slope behind him and
turned around. Four people carrying buckets and fishing gear passed by on the path behind them.
One of them turned his head, and the two made eye contact. He recognized Liu Changgen.
Liu Changgen seemed surprised to run into Deng Guang and the others.
His gaze swept over the group below, and finally, he managed a weak smile: "Old Deng."
Deng Guang turned around, saw Liu Changgen, and said with a smile, "Hmm, are you guys planning to change fishing spots?"
"Yeah, there are too many people over there. We fished all day yesterday and didn't catch anything. We're going to check downstream." Liu Changgen's gaze fell on the fish trap in Qin Ziwu's hand, and his tone was a little sour: "This is a fish trap, isn't it? Old Deng, you actually have such a good thing hidden away. I never saw you take it out when we were together before."
"It's mine," Qin Ziwen said.
"Yours?" Liu Changgen was surprised to hear this answer. How could it be yours? His gaze lingered on Qin Ziwen and the fish trap, a strange sense of regret rising within him.
If he had reserved a fishing spot for them a couple of days ago, perhaps he could be using the trap now.
The man in the baseball cap to Liu Changgen's right raised an eyebrow. "Hey, young man, are you selling this fish trap?"
Qin Ziwen picked up the trap: "Sure, fifty catties of fish, I'll give it to you right away."
Not only the man who asked the question, but also Liu Changgen's face darkened.
"Fifty catties? Why don't you just rob someone?" the man in the baseball cap said sneered, "Do you know what fifty catties of fish means? Probably not many families in the whole neighborhood can scrape together that much meat."
Deng Guang, standing next to Qin Ziwen, thought to himself, "That's not necessarily true."
Those who participated in the first crocodile hunt basically received several dozen catties of meat.
Liu Changgen thought for a moment and said sincerely, "How about ten catties of fish? A catty of fish can sell for six or seven yuan, and your fish trap isn't that big."
Qin Ziwen was uninterested. "Your bargaining is pointless. You have no sincerity at all. Forget it."
Liu Changgen bargained again, "Fifteen catties." Qin Ziwen was too lazy to pay him any attention.
Liu Changgen took a deep breath, glanced around, memorized the location, and turned to leave.
He reassured himself.
A trap was just another hunting method, and leaving it outside wasn't necessarily safe; it might be destroyed by crocodiles in the river, or stolen.
He thought maliciously, "You'd better keep an eye on your trap 24/7, just in case it gets stolen one day."
Liu Changgen's thoughts raced as he memorized his surroundings.
Watching the four figures disappear, Qin Ziwen narrowed his eyes.
Deng Guang reminded Qin Ziwen, "Be careful, they might try to steal the cages."
Qin Ziwen thought of the harpy eagles and had an idea. "Yeah, I know."
Deng Guang blamed himself, "It's all my fault for misjudging people. I shouldn't have fished with those Liu guys in the first place. Now your cages are exposed."
Qin Ziwen comforted him, "It's not your fault. Even if it wasn't Liu Changgen, it would have been Li Changgen or Zhou Changgen. It's normal for others to see it. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I'll release the cages as usual tonight."
Deng Guang didn't ask what the plan was, but just said, "It's good that you have an idea. I'll listen to you."
After hesitating for a moment, Deng Guang asked, "If he really agrees to take fifty catties of meat, will you sell the cages?"
Qin Ziwen said without hesitation, "Sell them! Why wouldn't I?"
That's fifty catties of meat! If someone can come up with that much meat, it would be foolish not to trade. He just didn't know if meat traded this way would be included in the daily score. If it was, then he had found a little trick to boost his score.
After chatting for a while, the two went to the spot where they had fished yesterday. Deng Guang took out the repaired fishing rod from the bag and handed it to him.
After fishing all morning, or perhaps the beginner's protection period had passed, he only caught a small whitebait the size of his palm.
His back ached from sitting for so long, so Qin Ziwen got up and rubbed his lower back. He took a few steps, and his peripheral vision caught the leaves of a nearby plant. They seemed vaguely familiar,
but he couldn't quite place them.
After a moment's thought, he suddenly slapped his forehead!
This looked like the "gray sweet potato" recorded in the plant guide.
Gray sweet potato: also known as "mud sweet potato," a tuberous plant that grows in swampy environments. Its leaves are inedible and slightly poisonous. Its tubers, hidden in the mud, are edible, have a bland taste, are very filling, and are harvested twice a year.
Although it shares the character for "potato" with the same word as sweet potato, its leaves are completely different, and the exposed petioles are also quite distinct. The vines and leaves are grayish-green, covered with fine hairs, and the leaves are five-pointed star shaped.
He found a short piece of wood to help dig, and soon, a large cluster of gray, spherical fruits that looked like they had grown from the soil were pulled up by the roots.
These spherical fruits have rough skin with irregular ring-like patterns, making them look like mud-covered stones.
The one in his hand has five tubers.
Perhaps because it grows underground and isn't eaten by many animals, it's very plump, each one the size of an adult's fist.
This one alone weighs about two or three pounds.
He mentally calculated that if this thing could reproduce asexually through tubers like potatoes, it could definitely become a staple food in the future.
But right now, he has too few gray sweet potatoes, and he doesn't have the right environment to grow them.
Unless he can use a level 1 farm at home, but a level 1 farm requires 400 square meters of open space.
Hopefully, he can get a few blank expansion cards soon.
(End of Chapter)