Chapter 4: Edible Bamboo Shoots

A dreamless night, and she slept very well. The sun hadn’t yet risen when she woke.

Ruan Ming sat up and remembered the large bag of soil she’d carried over yesterday. Leaving it piled up somewhere wouldn’t do; she needed a place to put it. Leaving it outside was also not an option—with Acid Rain and Plague Rain striking every few days, it would ruin perfectly good soil.

A greenhouse setup was too expensive, out of the question. The most practical solution was to create a small vegetable patch behind the house, cover it with a tarpaulin, roll it up to let sun in on clear days, and pull it closed when it rained.

But where could she get a tarpaulin? The image of Ah Yuan from the bus yesterday flashed in her mind.

She immediately got up to rummage through her bag and quickly found that “business card.” She was about to dial when she noticed it was only just past 6:10. After hesitating, she decided it was better to wait a bit before contacting him.

But before buying the tarp, she needed to build a frame first. She’d observed the mountainside yesterday; there was a bamboo grove halfway up. She decided to head up the mountain before the sun came out fully, cut some bamboo, and prepare for building the small vegetable patch.

She got up, washed, put on her protective suit and mask, pocketed her portable detector, grabbed a machete, and headed up.

Ever since awakening her Ability, her physical fitness had improved significantly. Climbing the mountain was a piece of cake for her now. In just over ten minutes, she easily reached her destination.

Most of the bamboo here had mutated, each stalk becoming incredibly hard and thick. Unlike animals and humans, plant mutations didn’t grant them sentience; they merely amplified their original traits. For instance, plants that were originally toxic became many times more poisonous after mutation. Vines, after mutation, became tougher and longer. And thistles, already covered in needles, now had even denser and sharper spikes… Of course, many plants still retained their original form and hadn’t undergone Mutation.

Ruan Ming picked out several suitably sized mutated bamboo stalks and began chopping them down. This type of bamboo was hard and resistant to decay, perfect for making a frame to support the vegetable patch’s tarp. However, the bamboo’s tough exterior posed considerable difficulty for the cutting. Luckily, Ruan Ming had strength.

What couldn’t keep up was the machete’s blade. After chopping only seven or eight stalks, the edge started to curl.

It’s already curled, she thought, ignoring it and hacking down another dozen or so before stopping.

Just then, she made a new discovery. It was early spring, and it had recently rained. The bamboo grove was full of shoots, some as thick as two of her thighs put together. Already lacking food, Ruan Ming couldn’t possibly pass up these dew-covered shoot tips.

She peeled back a layer of the shoot’s skin, cut off a small piece of the tender core, took out her portable detector, and placed the bamboo shoot sample on it for testing. As the device let out a beep, a small red light lit up.

Ruan Ming wasn’t discouraged. If Edible food was that easy to find, food prices in the market wouldn’t be so high, and people wouldn’t have to subsist on Fairy Peaches every day. She took the device and moved to the next shoot.

Red. Red. The next one, still red. After testing over twenty shoots in a row, every result was red.

Ruan Ming couldn’t help but sigh. It seemed she really shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. The greater the hope, the bigger the disappointment.

Just as she’d given up almost all hope and was just going through the motions to finish testing the last few shoots, the detector beeped, and a yellow indicator light came on.

Ruan Ming couldn’t believe her eyes. Suppressing her surging excitement, she cut another small piece and tested it again. Beep. Yellow light. She hadn’t been mistaken. It was indeed an Edible Bamboo Shoot.

This time, she was truly overjoyed. She quickly marked the spot, then proceeded to test the remaining few. Perhaps the heavens had taken pity on her, but two of the remaining shoots were also Edible grade. Even with Ruan Ming’s normally reserved nature, she felt like screaming with delight.

Not caring about anything else, she picked up her machete, whittled a sharp wooden stake as a digging tool, and began carefully excavating. These mutated shoots had deep roots. Not wanting to damage the edible part, Ruan Ming dug a rather large hole before she could unearth the shoot completely.

Three large bamboo shoots, each about twenty-plus jin. After removing the outer husks and tough bases, there were still sixteen or seventeen jin left, enough to last her quite a while.

Afraid the shoots couldn’t be stored for too long, she didn’t strip the husks immediately. Instead, she found some vines, tied the three large shoots securely together, and strapped them onto her back. Then, dragging the bamboo stalks she’d just cut, she made her way down the mountain step by step.

C-Rank Strength Ability was indeed no joke; her load had exceeded the total weight a tricycle could carry. Just like that, single-handedly, she dragged over twenty bamboo stalks all the way home.

Back home, she piled the bamboo behind the back door of the house and moved the shoots inside. After gulping down two large glasses of water, she sat on the front doorstep, pulled out her wristband, and contacted Ah Yuan.

Ah Yuan recognized her voice immediately.

“Ma’am,” he said excitedly, “out of all those cards I gave out yesterday, you’re the first to contact me. So tell me, what goods do you need? I can get you anything you want.”

Ruan Ming naturally didn’t take his claim at face value. “Do you sell tarpaulins?” she asked.

“Tarpaulins? Yes, I have them. And if I don’t, I can source them,” Ah Yuan said, clearly pleased about a potential sale. “Ma’am, what size tarp do you need?”

Ruan Ming mentally calculated the size of her small vegetable plot. “What are the prices?”

“All my tarps are the same thickness. Price is per square meter, 12 Credits per square meter. But since you’re a new customer, I can give you a discount—10 Credits per square meter.”

Ruan Ming had dealt with tarps during her work at the Safe Zone cultivation farm and had a rough idea of the market price. Ah Yuan’s quoted price was actually quite reasonable.

“I need it to cover a vegetable patch, but I’m only planning a small plot for now. I want a size of twenty square meters first.”

Ah Yuan didn’t mind the small quantity. For him, selling goods didn’t make much profit; he made his earnings from the delivery service. If he couldn’t even provide good service in this regard, how could he compete?

He agreed readily: “Sure thing. Where do you live? I’ve got to deliver to a few other places today, so I can bring it over to you first thing tomorrow morning. Will that work?”

Ruan Ming had no objections and gave him her address. Just as she was about to hang up, she remembered the three large bamboo shoots in the living room and quickly stopped him:

“Do you buy bamboo shoots?”

Ah Yuan’s voice immediately went up an octave: “Yes, yes! How many do you have?”

Unless someone specifically mentioned the food grade, it was generally assumed to be Edible. After all, the probability of Organic Food appearing throughout the entire base was simply too low.

“Two, each one about twenty-something jin.”

“Ma’am, save them for me. I’ll come get them tomorrow morning when I deliver the tarp. Don’t worry, my buying price is absolutely fair!” Ah Yuan swore confidently.

After ending the call, Ruan Ming felt happy knowing her little vegetable patch plan was taking shape. She then silently calculated her finances.

Before, when she worked in indoor cultivation in the Safe Zone, the job was low-risk and low-difficulty, but the pay in Credits was pitifully low—only 5 Credits a day. After deducting expenses, she had just over a thousand Credits left a year. Fortunately, her father had been covering her living and boarding expenses all those years, transferring the money directly to her uncle. Otherwise, there would have been nothing left to save.

Over five years of work, she’d saved up six thousand Credits. Half a year ago, her grandma was hospitalized with a serious illness, and Ruan Ming contributed five thousand. Now, only a thousand remained in her account.

Logically, there should have been some Credits on her father’s card. But when Zhang Ci handed over his belongings yesterday, the card showed a balance of zero. It had clearly been emptied out entirely. Zhang Ci offered no explanation, and she could only swallow her anger. Same with the food in the kitchen that had been swept completely clean.

Ruan Ming clenched her fists.

What could a thousand Credits do? The tax exemption period for the territory would end this year; next year, she would have to pay taxes. Five hundred Credits in tax was no small sum.

The one saving grace was that the fifty mu of cacti her father had planted over two years ago would be ready to harvest Fairy Peaches this year. Moreover, they would bear fruit every year thereafter, bringing in at least several thousand Credits annually. That should keep her afloat.

Currently, the prices of vegetables and staple foods were absurdly high. As long as she could grow edible crops, she wouldn’t have to worry about income. But to grow high-grade crops, investments like a greenhouse or a tarp were indispensable. Even though it pained her that nearly half her Credits were about to be spent on a tarp, Ruan Ming understood the reasoning and could only silently console herself.

After she had rested enough, her stomach began to growl again. She got up to prepare the bamboo shoots, intending to make herself a delicious lunch.

Though the bamboo shoots could be sold for money, earning money was meant for enjoying life. She couldn’t put the cart before the horse and sell off all the good stuff. She should enjoy it when the opportunity presented itself.

Back when her grandma was still alive, she managed the family’s three meals daily. Though food was scarce, her grandma had skillful hands and could always make delicious meals from simple ingredients. Raised by her grandma’s side since childhood, Ruan Ming had naturally picked up cooking skills. She might not be as masterful as her grandma, but whipping up a few dishes to please herself was no problem.

Right now, besides some dried Fairy Peaches, she had neither vegetables nor staple food at home. Edible rice and wheat cost 20 Credits per jin. Organic grade versions were ten to over fifty times that price—truly a case of priceless goods with no market. Edible meat was generally upwards of 50 Credits per jin. Vegetables also went for around 10 Credits per jin, depending mainly on the specific type and variety.

She peeled away the shoot’s layers until only the tender, white core remained. She sliced and shredded the core, then blanched it in boiling water. After blanching, she scooped it out and drained it. It could be pickled with vinegar and later stir-fried with meat, or dried to make dried bamboo shoots.

Ruan Ming made herself a plate of cold-dressed bamboo shoots. No chili, just oil and salt. She picked up a piece with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.

The moment her teeth sank into the shoot, her taste buds exploded with saliva, and she couldn’t help but close her eyes in pure enjoyment. Crisp, tender, and with a refreshing sweetness—a long-missed delicacy.

So much more delicious than dried Fairy Peaches. And no one was here to fight her for it.