Chapter 14: Water Bamboo
Waking up early, Zhao Man skewered the fish he had salted overnight with bamboo twigs and hung them in the courtyard to dry. He added a little water to the bamboo joint; the water dropwort inside still looked vibrantly green. After standing quietly in the kitchen for a while, admiring the jar of rendered fat, he drank a vial of nutrient solution, slung on his backpack, packed his water flask, potatoes, dagger, and rope, and headed out to scavenge.
Zhao Man’s current diet was far too monotonous, so he had to consume a vial of nutrient solution every two days as a supplement. A few days ago, to save points, he had eaten nothing but potatoes and sand yams for every meal for three days straight. By the fourth day, he experienced chest tightness, shortness of breath, and dizzy spells. It was only after digging through educational forum posts that he learned everyone in the wasteland possessed mental strength. When a monotonous diet failed to meet the demands of one’s mental strength, nutrient solutions were required as supplements.
It wasn’t even five o’clock when he reached West Gate 3, but the gates were already open. Stepping up to the entrance, he noticed a recruitment notice posted on the wall: Sand Yam Cultivation Base is currently hiring 100 Alphas for site clearing operations. Daily wage: 2 points. All scavenged items found during clearing belong to the individual.
A pickup truck was parked next to the recruitment stand, where a female Beta was doing a headcount. “Thirteen people. We’re ready to head out,” she announced. Then, she shouted to the surrounding crowd, “Any other Alphas want to do site clearing? Two points a day, keep whatever you find! Sign up and we leave immediately!”
Met with silence, the driver gave a wave and drove the truck out the gate with a sputtering putt-putt-putt.
Let me go! Zhao Man screamed internally as he watched the truck drive away.
In the middle of the night, the base had issued a broadcast: A new high-starch food source, the sand yam, has been discovered. We are currently conscripting Alphas to complete the clearing of the sand yam cultivation base prior to the harvest season.
Barely a few steps out of the city gates, Zhao Man saw a massive crowd swarming the area where they had drawn water yesterday—all of them towering, fierce-looking Alphas. He changed direction, heading down the opposite side of the main road.
Wild weeds, shrubbery, and winding footpaths were everywhere. The few small groves were also packed with people. Because it was close to the base, the scavengers here were mostly the elderly, the young, or the sick.
Zhao Man took one glance and quickly walked away. After walking for nearly an hour and a half, he finally spotted a deserted small grove.
The grove sat on a small knoll, or perhaps more accurately, a small stone forest, dotted with five or six tall, pillar-like rocks. Beneath one of these rocks, Zhao Man spotted a small bush heavily laden with thumb-sized berries.
The berries were purplish-blue, coated in a fine layer of white powder, looking very much like blueberries from his past life.
He picked one to scan. The terminal indicated high radiation but no toxins. After testing eight berries and finding one edible one, Zhao Man looked at the bush, set down his backpack, stowed his potatoes in the inner compartment, slipped his water flask into the side pocket, and kept his dagger in hand. He lined the inside of his pack with two broad leaves, picked every single berry off the bush, and placed them inside.
The ground was blanketed in fallen leaves. Clusters of red, blue, and white mushrooms grew near the tree roots—looking distinctly poisonous at a glance. Zhao Man also spotted some chameleon plants, but sadly, not a single stem tested edible.
After picking the first bush clean, Zhao Man stumbled upon four more berry bushes. He decided right then and there to bring a sack tomorrow. He was currently carrying fifty or sixty berries on his back and didn’t dare make any large movements with his upper body, terrified they would get crushed inside his pack.
Marking the location of the knoll on his terminal, Zhao Man continued onward. Half an hour later, he came across a small pond. It wasn’t large—about the size of a four-person dorm room from his college days. It was choked with tall, upright plants with broad leaves. Stepping closer, Zhao Man realized the plants were one and a half times his height. More importantly, they looked exactly like water bamboo shoots.
Gaining yet another new appreciation for the chaotic growth cycles of wasteland crops, Zhao Man stood completely still, carefully making sure he didn’t feel any instinctive sense of dread. He picked up a few stones and tossed them into the surroundings and the pond, startling only a few insects.
Cutting down a stick, Zhao Man first circled the small pond, constantly whacking the grass as he walked. Finding nothing amiss, he whacked several clumps of water bamboo near the edge. Satisfied, he set his pack aside, crouched down, and began to harvest the shoots.
The plants grew tall and robust, and the water bamboo shoots they yielded were equally plump, each as thick as a wrist. From this single clump, Zhao Man snapped off over a dozen shoots, but when he finally tested them, only two were edible.
After harvesting two more clumps, Zhao Man took the potatoes and water flask from his bag and sat in the shade of the broad leaves to eat lunch. Once finished, he went back to harvesting. Thankfully, the massive leaves shielded him from bearing the brunt of the sun.
He harvested two more clumps before checking the time; it was already approaching two o’clock. He had gathered a massive pile of water bamboo. Sitting in the shade, Zhao Man began scanning them.
Out of more than sixty shoots, only ten proved edible. Draining the last drop of water from his flask, Zhao Man carefully packed the berries into the empty container and stuffed the water bamboo shoots into his backpack before starting the trek back.
The wrist-thick water bamboo shoots were each twenty to thirty centimeters long. Stuffing ten of them into his bag caused the whole pack to bulge outward.
As the footpaths began to multiply and intersect, Zhao Man drew his machete and cut some tall grass. He hid the water bamboo inside the grass, bound it tightly with rope, and moved his backpack to his chest. Gripping his dagger, he carried the bundle of grass and headed toward the main road.
The moment he stepped onto the main road, Zhao Man saw Ye Shu emerging from a path on the opposite side. He was carrying a massive 15-liter water jug in one hand, humming a tune with a bright smile plastered across his face.
Spotting Zhao Man, the memory of the two points his family had been forced to pay a couple of days ago seemed to resurface. His expression instantly darkened. He took two steps toward Zhao Man before seemingly remembering something else, stopping in his tracks and settling for glaring intently at him.
“Hand over whatever you found,” a vicious voice spat from across the way.
Zhao Man silently withdrew his gaze, ducked his head, and kept walking toward the base. Hearing footsteps approaching from behind, Zhao Man clamped the bundle of grass firmly under one arm, spun around, and thrust out the hand holding his dagger. A pity—he missed.
“Stay away from me, or I’ll call the patrol and report you for robbery,” Zhao Man warned, lifting his eyelids to look at him, his voice calm but laced with threat.
The base was extremely strict regarding property laws. Anyone caught robbing or stealing was subjected to a tenfold penalty.
Not to mention that Tang Heng had just recently issued a warning to his captain; causing trouble now wouldn’t end well for Ye Shu.
Swiping his terminal to enter the city, Ye Shu trailed right behind Zhao Man, staring at him with a dark, brooding glare. Zhao Man acted as if he hadn’t noticed; the base wasn’t the lawless wilderness, and the security was decent enough.
Back home, he poured the berries from his flask into a basin, placed the water bamboo on the table, and tossed the wild grass next to the firewood.
Zhao Man began testing the berries. Two bushes’ worth of berries filled nearly half the basin, but the edible ones only amounted to a small bowl. He tossed one into his mouth. Yeesh—so sour.
After testing the berries, Zhao Man boiled potatoes in his electric kettle. While waiting for them to cook, he sliced the washed water bamboo, sprinkled salt over them to draw out the moisture, and submerged four glass jars in boiling water to sterilize them. Then he went out to the courtyard to check on the curing fish, and finally brought his dried clothes back inside.
Once the potatoes were done, he set more water to boil in the kettle. Adding a bowl of water to the cooking pot and using the leftover rendered fat from yesterday, Zhao Man enjoyed his first bowl of mashed potatoes with actual rich fat since arriving in the wasteland.
After finishing dinner, he continued processing the water bamboo.
After the salt had drawn out their moisture, the water bamboo shrank from filling most of the basin to just under half.
Zhao Man remembered living in the countryside with his grandmother as a child. When the older folks sun-dried water bamboo, some blanched it first while others didn’t. Not knowing which method was better, he simply opted to do half and half.
Once the water boiled, he dropped the water bamboo in to blanch for two minutes before scooping it out. He left a small portion in a bowl and spread the rest onto a woven sack, placing the unblanched slices on the other side. Since the weather wasn’t as blazing hot in the evening anymore, Zhao Man planned to let them drain overnight and lay them out properly to sun-dry the next day.
By the time he finished all this, it was nearly eight o’clock, and the sky finally carried a hint of evening.
