Chapter 20: Do Not Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Wu Meixia was wondering what Tang Yao had run off to do when the girl came dashing back, clutching something round and bulky.

"Yaoyao, what is this?" It was a yellowish color and covered in dirt. Had she found new food?

Tang Yao placed the jicama on the table and smiled at the group gathered for dinner. "Grandma, Xixi and I found this on the mountain this afternoon. I didn't know what it was, but I tasted a piece and realized it was edible."

"You silly child, how could you dare to eat something you don't recognize? What if it were poisonous? Yunnan is not like our hometown; many mushrooms on these mountains are toxic." Wu Meixia pinched Tang Yao's cheek. Though her words were filled with reproach, her eyes brimmed with heartache.

It was useless of them, the adults, to rely on a child to find food. Just the thought of her granddaughter scouring the mountains for the past two days made her heart ache. The terrain was treacherous, and searching for food all day just to ensure everyone didn't go hungry at night was a heavy burden. She wondered what good deeds she must have done in her past life to be blessed with such a thoughtful granddaughter in this one.

"Yaoyao, isn't this a jicama?"

Fang Bosong looked in shock at the jicama, which was as large as two of his fists. He had eaten them at a villager's home in his youth. Jicamas were juicy; they could be eaten as fruit or cooked as a vegetable when one grew tired of the raw taste. Even more exciting was that jicamas, like peanuts, grew in clusters. If one appeared, there were bound to be more.

He asked urgently, "Yaoyao, where did you find this? Are there more?" If so, they had to dig them up immediately before someone else got to them.

Tang Yao gave a sweet smile. "Grandpa Fang, that’s exactly what I wanted to say. I found a large patch of them on the mountain. I dug up a lot this afternoon, but it was too heavy for me to carry back."

"That's wonderful! Let's go!"

The men at the table were stirred with excitement. Skipping their meal, they went back into their rooms to grab their wicker baskets. Tong Lingxian and Wu Meixia followed suit, first putting the food away and locking the doors to make it look as though everyone had gone to sleep. Then, with Fang Mingxi on her back, the group snuck off toward Red Leaf Mountain.

The mountain path was even harder to navigate in the dead of night. In the pitch black, they could barely see the road, and it was easy to trip. Yet, no one thought of turning back; their eyes were fixed on the joy of the impending harvest.

Soon, they reached the mountain. In the darkness, they couldn't see exactly how many jicamas there were, but under the faint moonlight, they could make out a large patch of lush green vines.

The group dared not light any lamps, so they used whatever tools they could find. Old Yu happened to have a hoe; although the edge was chipped, it was the best tool they had. Old Yu began to dig, while the others collected the exposed jicamas into their baskets.

On Tong Lingxian's back, Fang Mingxi kept a close eye on Old Yu. Of course, there were no jicamas in the ground, only the vines on the surface. Taking advantage of the poor visibility, whenever Old Yu struck the ground with his hoe, she secretly slipped the real jicamas from her virtual inventory into the soil along with the vines.

Every time Old Yu struck the earth, he unearthed a large quantity of jicamas. He was stunned, thinking there were simply too many in the soil; it never occurred to him that someone might be helping.

Once the baskets were full, they transported the jicamas down the mountain in shifts. After half an hour of labor, the jicamas stored in Fang Mingxi's virtual basket were cleared out, and the group finished digging up the patch.

She closed her eyes in dismay. She had hoped that with so many jicamas, she could finally unlock the "small cart" feature tonight. However, when she had tried to store the jicamas in her inventory earlier, she discovered that the mushrooms she had put in the day before had been locked. Or rather, while she could take them out individually, they could no longer be mixed with the "fake" jicamas. This meant that any food entering her inventory could not be mixed with the generated items; only food stored in her virtual basket could be "poured" out.

If she put the food in her inventory, her grandparents would have nothing to eat tonight, and she couldn't explain the sudden appearance of the food. If she didn't, her progress toward the small cart would stall, but everyone would be fed.

After a moment of hesitation, she chose the latter. Having a full stomach was the most important thing. The dozens of pounds of jicama they had found tonight would be enough for a while. She could just wait a few days to unlock the cart.

After digging, the men didn't want to leave the ground exposed. They cleared away the vines, leaving not even a root behind, and then filled the holes with soil. They trampled over the area to make it look undisturbed. Fortunately, this was the north side of Red Leaf Mountain, a place rarely visited by anyone other than those living at the foot of the mountain. This gave them a window of opportunity; once the sun baked the soil over the next few days, it would look perfectly natural.

Back inside, the group gathered in Wu Meixia's room. The kerosene lamp illuminated their sallow faces. There were at least fifty jicamas on the floor, each weighing at least a pound. With eight adults and two children in the cowshed, and four months left until the end of the year, everyone could basically be allocated five jicamas each. With careful rationing, five or six pounds could last them half a month; with even more thrift, twenty days wouldn't be a problem.

It was a night of great harvest. After a quick dinner, they divided the loot, but then a new worry arose: where to hide it. Everyone had developed a sense of paranoia after today's events; they didn't dare keep the surplus food in their rooms. The precious supplies had to be hidden well.

Zhong Zhicheng, who had been there the longest, suggested hiding the food outside. He thought there might be caves on the mountain, or if not, they could dig a cellar. Though this carried risks, it was better than having people come to the cowshed to ransack their rooms again. If the food was stolen from outside, no one would immediately suspect them, but if it were found in their rooms, the charge would be undeniable. He added that they should hide the food in multiple locations to avoid losing everything at once.

The group unanimously agreed. Everyone knew not to put all their eggs in one basket, and they saw no flaw in his plan. So, in the middle of the night, despite their exhaustion, they carried the food away in a grand procession.

Fortunately, heaven was on their side. After circling the area near Red Leaf Mountain, they found a deep pit in the woods, likely an old, abandoned trap, filled with dead leaves and branches. Fang Bosong and the others cleared it out, placed the jicamas inside in separate batches, and then covered the top with branches, leaves, and dirt to camouflage it.

Once they were certain the pit wouldn't collapse, they went to find other spots to bury the rest of the food. By the time they returned home, it was nearly four o'clock in the morning. Despite having stayed up all night, they were in high spirits and headed out to work after a quick breakfast.