Chapter 122 - 108: Dandelion Ball

Chapter 122: Chapter 108: Dandelion Ball

If such high-quality goods from the mountain were ruined, Boss Tang would want to beat someone up if he found out.

Huai Yu gritted her teeth, spread a brand-new plastic bag on the ground, and emptied out the heavy, tightly packed locust flowers from her basket.

The basket was packed so solidly that when she tilted it, nothing fell out at first. She had to dig into it with her hands before the locust flowers rapidly spilled out. However, after only a few handfuls fell, another tightly compacted layer was revealed, forcing her to reach in and dig them out again.

Her sore, aching arms felt increasingly heavy. By the time the entire basket of locust flowers was emptied onto the ground, the plastic bag beneath them covered half the room, topped with a small mountain of stark white blossoms.

Huai Yu’s eyes widened. She lifted the bamboo basket again to inspect it. It was still the same size—how on earth could it hold so much?

But she didn’t have time to dwell on it. She quickly sifted through the pile with her hands, picking out broken twigs and stray leaves, then scooped them into a large plastic bag. She carried it straight to the barnyard grass tree and washed them using the water sphere.

She had to admit, the water-soaked locust flowers were incredibly heavy. But if she wanted to preserve the locust flowers properly, she couldn’t rely solely on the spring sunlight to dry them.

Taking a deep breath to encourage herself, Huai Yu turned around, grabbed a handful of dry bamboo leaves to start a fire, and began boiling water. While waiting for the water to boil, she surveyed the room and realized that even with a chimney, she should avoid cooking indoors as much as possible in the future. It was visibly obvious that fine ash was being swept up by the thermal currents, and a fresh layer had already settled on the table.

But she was too exhausted; figuring out how to clean the house would have to wait until tomorrow.

A short while later.

The hot water boiled, BUBBLING vigorously. Huai Yu snapped out of her daze, grabbed a large handful of washed locust flowers, tossed them in to blanch, and then scooped them out.

Meanwhile, the fire beneath the other pot was roaring. The pot was heated bone-dry, and as soon as she tossed the drained locust flowers in, a faint SIZZLE echoed out.

Boiling water on one side, stir-frying the locust flowers dry on the other, and then spreading them out to sun-dry—Huai Yu kept moving non-stop until her arms no longer felt like her own.

If she had even a single green vegetable growing in her field right now, she wouldn’t have to work this desperately! And there were simply too many locust flowers!

She had returned at noon, but it wasn’t until the sky grew dark that she finally finished packing the dried and sun-baked locust flowers back into plastic bags and sealing them for storage.

Looking at the five massive bags packed full of locust flowers, she silently calculated, "I’ll sell one large bag to Boss Tang, give half a bag to Zhou Qian, and grab a handful for Uncle Zaozi..."

No matter how she divided it, her own stockpile would be more than enough! Huai Yu collapsed onto her bed, feeling that the day’s hard work had all been worth it.

But just as she closed her eyes, she groaned in agony and forced herself up from the bed—she hadn’t fed her baby chicks yet!

She couldn’t take this anymore. The chicks had grown and it was time to let them free-range. Tomorrow, she would leave them to Big Pup and Second Pup! Whether in the bamboo forest or the grassy meadow, they could always scratch up something to eat.

She didn’t have the energy to chop up wild grass for the chickens today. With trembling hands, she scooped out a bowl of rice and shuffled unsteadily to the edge of the chicken coop like an octogenarian.

Just as she scattered the rice inside, she noticed that Ke Taichiro had slipped out from behind the curtain at some point and was watching her curiously.

Huai Yu waved a hand weakly. "Taichiro... if you rolled any more balls, just put them in your own bowl for now. I don’t have the strength... I’m too tired..."

Her arms were so swollen and painful that she couldn’t lift them, and her legs felt like lead. Aside from the couple of days she spent building the house and digging the vegetable plot, it had been a long time since she had worked this hard.

However, Taichiro simply flapped his wings, followed her straight into the house, and stopped in front of the eighty-percent-full glass jar, standing perfectly still.

Huai Yu was speechless. She simply lifted the lid and asked weakly, "What do you want to do?"

The opening of the pickle jar wasn’t very large. Ke Taichiro propped his upper body on the rim of the jar while his remaining four legs slipped and slid against the smooth glass, as if he were trying to fish something out from inside.

Huai Yu was slightly stunned. A moment later, she brought over a basin and emptied the jar’s contents into it. "What are you looking for?"

Ke Taichiro was indeed looking for something. He quickly scurried to the edge of the basin, dug around with his two front claws, and fished out a yellow-and-green intertwined ball. Then, he obediently offered it to Huai Yu.

Huai Yu was at a loss for words.

She carefully pinched the ball between her fingers, vaguely recalling that this was the Dandelion Ball Ke Taichiro had rolled up yesterday. From the flowers to the stems and leaves, it was thoroughly mashed together.

But... "Is this for me to eat?" She held the ball and pointed at herself, then quickly rejected it three times in a row. "No, no, no, this isn’t on my diet—and I can’t use it to brew tea either."