Chapter 17: Going Up the Mountain
The next morning, the Great Brigade Leader dragged all the sons from his household out very early.
To be honest, there wasn't a confirmed number yet, so he only brought out his own family members.
Gu Qianshan had only just woken up; the moment he opened the door, he saw the Great Brigade Leader with bloodshot eyes.
Behind him were the three sons of the Brigade Leader, looking completely bewildered.
"Whoa, why is the Great Brigade Leader here so early? Have you eaten yet?"
The Great Brigade Leader nodded. "I have. I was just in such a hurry that I came early. You guys eat first."
When Gu Xue came out of her room, she saw four grown men sitting in the courtyard. The Great Brigade Leader was staring at her expectantly, his gaze looking as if he wanted to see right through her.
Literally, as if he were trying to pierce holes in her.
Under the gaze of all four men, the grandfather and granddaughter ate a simple breakfast.
Coincidentally, there wasn't much to do in the fields today, so most people had woken up late.
By the time the six of them headed up the mountain, there wasn't a soul in sight along the way.
Gu Xue led the others up the mountain at a leisurely pace. There was a long, trampled path leading up the mountain, and when they reached the end of this path...
Gu Xue stood there, hesitating for a moment.
Just as the Great Brigade Leader was about to lose his patience, she headed toward a nearby direction.
On the way, they encountered patches of flattened grass; these were traces she had made yesterday to prevent any unexpected issues later.
As they continued up the mountain, the Great Brigade Leader's youngest son began to feel restless.
"Dad, where are we going? If we go any deeper, we'll be in the deep mountains. If we run into wolves or tigers, we're all finished!"
Upon hearing this, the Great Brigade Leader swung his shoulder pole directly against his youngest son's body.
The pain made the youngest son let out a howl. He was feeling a bit aggrieved at first, but seeing his father's dark expression, he didn't dare say another word.
The eldest and second sons originally wanted to say something, but seeing their brother's fate, they obediently followed behind.
Soon, Gu Xue led them to that patch of grassland.
After a night of growth, having absorbed her superpower, the wild grass had grown even longer, and the sweet potato vines had also grown considerably.
Tangled together with the accelerated wild grass, a small pit could be seen nearby. This was the pit Gu Xue had dug yesterday; sweet potatoes could be seen inside the pit, and they looked quite large.
Seeing this, the Great Brigade Leader couldn't hold back for a moment. Without even performing a basic inspection, he lunged straight forward.
The three sons following behind were momentarily stunned by how well the sweet potato vines were growing.
"These are sweet potatoes? Good heavens, they've grown so well."
As he spoke, he took a hoe and dug a little, and soon, a large sweet potato was revealed.
It was as large as two palms put together; picking it up, it must have weighed about five or six jin.
The Great Brigade Leader's three sons looked at this large sweet potato with amazement.
"Holy heavens, I've never seen a sweet potato this big in my entire life. This is enough to feed our whole family for two days."
Looking at the large sweet potato, Gu Xue was also startled herself.
She continued to use her mental power to observe the remaining sweet potatoes and found that only this one was this large; the rest were roughly the size of a palm.
She immediately breathed a sigh of relief. This one must have been a bit mutated because it absorbed too much of her superpower, while the others were all normal.
The seeds for these sweet potatoes were from her space—specifically, a variety that had undergone several rounds of cultivation in the future.
The biggest advantages were the sweet taste, high yield, and short growth period, but there was one drawback: the starch content was relatively low, so they could only be used for eating.
The reason Gu Xue chose these sweet potatoes was that they could provide seeds, which could solve the food problem to a large extent.
Looking at these sweet potatoes, Gu Qianshan's eyes also burned with intensity. After all, he was a former soldier; seeing these crops that could change their current situation, his heart couldn't help but be stirred.
Within a short time, the five men had completely filled all five carrying baskets. A rough calculation suggested they weighed a total of over five hundred jin.
And they had only dug up a small section of this area; there was still a large patch left unharvested.
"Such high yield and such good quality... it's like a dream."
The Great Brigade Leader left his youngest son behind, while the other four carried the sweet potatoes and walked down the mountain.
Many people saw them along the way, all wearing expressions of confusion.
Even the aunts who had originally come to pick wild vegetables stopped what they were doing and rushed over to ask what was happening.
Looking at these people, the Great Brigade Leader finally made a decision.
He went to the village's broadcasting station to call an assembly.
"Attention all residents of Gu Family Village, please come to the threshing floor immediately for a meeting. Please come to the threshing floor immediately for a meeting. Please come to the threshing floor immediately for a meeting..."
The broadcast was very loud. The Great Brigade Leader's two sons ran through the village carrying iron basins, shouting for everyone to come to the meeting as they ran.
There were over sixty households in the village, and everyone looked outside in confusion. Nothing major had happened, had it?
In just a short while, the threshing floor was packed with people—over three hundred people in total, filling the entire area.
Up front, next to the Great Brigade Leader, were four large baskets filled with sweet potatoes. Each sweet potato was as large as a palm, and the largest one was placed right on top.
The Village Chief explained the specific details of what had happened, and twenty able-bodied men and ten women were pulled from the village to stand by the side.
After hearing the news, the crowd immediately erupted. Everyone stood on their tiptoes to look at the sweet potatoes next to the Great Brigade Leader, discussing them in a low, buzzing murmur.
"Gu Xue is truly blessed. She only got lost in the mountains and actually found such good things."
"A-Xue is so beautiful; she looks like a Bodhisattva from the old days."
"That's right, you can tell just by looking at her that she is a blessed person."
...
The people around began to praise Gu Xue, a string of flattering compliments that even someone as thick-skinned as Gu Xue felt a bit embarrassed by.
Even Auntie Gu, who was usually sarcastic, looked at Gu Xue with a much more enthusiastic expression.
Her previous jealousy had long since vanished; what could be more reliable than actual, tangible food?
Especially a sweet potato this large.
As the Women's Director, Auntie Gu had already taken a sweet potato and was examining it closely in her hands.
This sweet potato looked exceptionally fresh. Once washed, it had pink skin and red flesh inside; even a tiny nick revealed a rich, sweet potato aroma.
One couldn't imagine how delicious it would be once steamed.
A large crowd went up the mountain one after another, everyone carrying the largest carrying baskets from their homes. They spent an entire day finally digging up all the sweet potatoes in that area.
They even went through several extra turns of the soil just to ensure nothing was left behind.
The sweet potato vines were also tied up by the women; these would be perfect for cuttings.
Everyone had smiles on their faces.
From just over one mu of land, they had harvested over 3,000 jin. Over 3,000 jin of food—it felt just like a dream.
This was even more surreal than a dream!