Chapter 274: Unexpected Joy, Beetroot Brought Back by Four Little Girls!
After lying with the Beast-eared Girls and Winged Girls under the moonlight for a while, Lin Ye returned to the wooden house to sleep.
The next morning, Xing prepared the carriage to depart for the rock salt.
Seeing Xing about to leave, Sakura, Diona, Setsuna, and Ling all clung to Xing, insisting on going with her.
Xing thought about it; taking them, four girls, was no different from taking others. Anyway, they would just pick up rock salt from the ground there. In case of danger, all four of them could use the Zhuge Liang Crossbow to fight back.
Finally, Xing agreed to let the four of them go. Together with Shi and Ming Yun, they set off for the salt field.
Upon hearing Xing’s agreement, Sakura, Diona, Setsuna, and Ling all jumped up excitedly. Sakura had wanted to go along before, but at that time, there was no carriage, and Sakura’s speed couldn’t keep up with Lin Ye and the hunting team, so she hadn’t been taken. Now that she could finally go, Sakura was bouncing around with excitement.
Soon, they set off in the carriage. The Unicorn had already been to the salt field once, so Xing didn’t need to drive along the way. The Unicorn automatically navigated towards the salt field.
Meanwhile, Lin Ye had also emerged from the wooden house. After stretching, he came to the open space. The remaining Beast-eared Girls and Winged Girls were there, carefully carving their chopsticks with small knives. Lin Ye smiled and nodded upon seeing this. Then, he went to the water pipe to wash his face and continued with the iron smelting.
After finishing their chopsticks, the Beast-eared Girls and Winged Girls ran to the furnace and watched Lin Ye smelt iron. Seeing that they didn’t know what else to do, Lin Ye took the opportunity to teach them how to make arrows for the ballista. Lin Ye was smelting iron now to continue making the ballista. With iron, many of the ballista’s components could be cast using iron.
With work to do, the Beast-eared Girls and Winged Girls immediately went to chop trees with axes. Lin Ye continued to smelt iron. This time, Lin Ye melted all the iron he smelted into ingots. This way, they could directly heat and cast them later.
When the sun reached its highest point, the Unicorn, pulling the carriage, returned to the tribe. After the carriage stopped, Sakura, Diona, Setsuna, and Ling, each holding a few plants, ran towards Lin Ye.
“Ye, Ye, look! We found edible plants! These plants are so sweet,” Sakura shouted to Lin Ye from a distance.
Upon hearing Sakura’s words, Lin Ye’s expression immediately changed. He was afraid they might have eaten some random plants on the way and gotten poisoned. So, Lin Ye dropped the tools in his hand and hurried towards Sakura.
However, as he got closer and saw the plants in the hands of the four girls, Lin Ye relaxed. He then revealed a smile again.
Seeing the plants in their hands, Lin Ye immediately recognized them as beetroot. They looked very similar to radishes, but the taste was very different. Soon, Sakura and the other three arrived beside Lin Ye. Ling still circled Lin Ye once before slowing down, flapping her wings gently, and landing on the ground.
Standing in front of Lin Ye, Sakura said excitedly, “Ye, look, we saw a group of rabbits eating these plants on the way. We shot two, and the rest burrowed into their holes. Then… then the Unicorn ate two more of these plants. I also tasted one, and I found this thing is really sweet, so sweet, I’ve never eaten anything so sweet.” Sakura was out of breath, pausing to catch her breath before continuing. Diona, Setsuna, and Ling beside Sakura, having presumably also tasted the beetroot, nodded continuously at Lin Ye.
Lin Ye reached out and patted Sakura’s head. Then, pretending to be angry, he said to Sakura, “You can’t casually eat plants from outside anymore. If you want to eat something, bring it back for me to see first. Have you forgotten what happened last time you ate mushrooms?”
Hearing Lin Ye’s words, Sakura froze. Diona, hearing this, also widened her eyes, remembering what happened the first time Sakura went mushroom picking. However, Setsuna and Ling didn’t know what had happened. They weren’t here then. One Wolf-eared Girl and one Winged Girl looked at Sakura and Diona in confusion.
Unable to contain their curiosity, they quietly asked Diona, “Diona, what happened before? What happened after Sakura ate the mushrooms?”
Setsuna, Ling, and Diona were right there, so even though they lowered their voices, Sakura and Lin Ye could still hear them. Lin Ye watched as Sakura’s cat ears twitched sharply upon hearing Setsuna and Ling’s question. Diona, who was being questioned, blushed. Although Diona looked about the same age as Sakura, she understood everything. After all, she was a legal loli.
Seeing Setsuna and Ling’s curious expressions, Diona stammered, “Sakura didn’t listen to Ye before and secretly ate a mushroom, and then she was poisoned. It scared me half to death back then.”
Upon hearing Diona’s explanation, Sakura’s cat ears flattened. Setsuna and Ling, hearing Diona’s words, didn’t overthink it and nodded in realization. Sakura then looked up at Lin Ye and said with a smile, “Ye, I know. It won’t happen again.”
… Requesting flowers.
Hearing Sakura’s words, Lin Ye nodded in satisfaction, then reached out and patted Sakura’s head again. The feigned anger on his face had disappeared, replaced by a gentle smile.
At this time, Setsuna and Ling on the side seemed to have suddenly thought of something. They nervously asked Lin Ye, “Ye, we all ate this thing just now, it won’t be poisonous too, will it?”
After Setsuna and Ling finished asking, Diona also reacted and looked at Lin Ye nervously.
Lin Ye smiled and shook his head, then said, “This thing you brought back is called beetroot. It’s an edible plant, and it can also be planted. How much did you bring back?”
When the four of them heard that beetroot was edible, their faces bloomed with happy smiles. Then, upon hearing Lin Ye’s question, they pointed at the carriage together and said, “It’s all on the carriage! We dug up all the beetroot from there!”
Lin Ye was astonished to hear them say that. “Good heavens, didn’t you leave any for the rabbits?” Lin Ye muttered to himself. Then, he took Sakura and Diona’s small hands and walked towards the carriage.
As they walked, Sakura blinked, turned her head, and asked Lin Ye, “You just said these beetroots can also be planted. Let’s plant them quickly. These beetroots are really, really sweet.”
Hearing Sakura’s words, Lin Ye smiled and nodded, then said, “Let’s check the carriage first. As long as the beetroot roots are intact, we can try planting them in the vegetable garden.”
After walking a few more steps, they arrived at the carriage. Opening the front door of the carriage, Lin Ye saw it was filled with beetroot. Seeing this scene, Lin Ye looked at the four little girls beside him with some surprise. Then, he silently muttered to himself, “Good heavens, you’re not even tired and dug it all back.”
However, seeing so much beetroot, Lin Ye still showed a happy smile on his face. Besides being used as fruits and vegetables, these beetroots had another important use: they could be used for sugar making! According to the Plant Encyclopedia, beetroot has a sugar content of 16% to 18%, with the rest being mostly water. Furthermore, the entire beetroot plant was valuable. The stems and leaves of beetroot were excellent fodder. In addition to containing the general nutrients required by livestock, they were also rich in carotene. Beetroot stems and leaves could also be returned to the field as fertilizer, enriching the soil and increasing its organic matter content.
The four little girls saw Lin Ye smiling and giggled along with him. However, Lin Ye noticed that most of the beetroot roots seemed to have been broken off. So, he said to the four little girls, “Call everyone over first. We need to find the beetroots that can be planted.”
