"Changyi, this black wood...no, this black flower is poisonous, but it’s okay for me to touch it."
An Jing had intended to refer to black wood-ear mushrooms, but considering she should adapt to local customs, she changed her term to black flower instead.
"Furthermore," An Jing continued to reassure her man, "it’s poisonous because it contains a substance called porphyrin that is phototoxic. Eating it fresh indeed leads to poisoning, but porphyrin breaks down when exposed to light. As long as we dry it out, it will be non-toxic, and it’s edible then—and actually quite delicious. People from my original world would often eat this."
The dried wood-ears sold in modern markets have already been treated by sun-drying, rendering them non-toxic. People would buy them, rehydrate them in water, and then they could be cooked and enjoyed immensely.
Porphyrin? Breaks down in light? Xiao Changyi didn’t understand these terms, but he understood that the black flower would be safe to eat once sun-dried.
Xiao Changyi furrowed his brows as he looked at those black flowers.
"Husband, didn’t you say you would believe anything I say?" An Jing put on an unhappy face.
"It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just ..." Xiao Changyi still gazed at the patch of black flowers, his eyes filled with complexity.
An Jing immediately smiled and interjected, "You’re just worried about me, right?"
Xiao Changyi nodded, "Mhm."
"Rest assured," An Jing commanded, giving his chest a pat. "I won’t be poisoned to death. I still want to grow old with you. How could I let it poison me?"
Only then did Xiao Changyi feel at ease and stopped holding An Jing so tightly.
Seeing An Jing move to pick those black flowers, he immediately stepped forward, picked them before she could, and threw them all into the basket.
His speed was astonishing.
Looking at the black wood-ears that she had not even touched all lying in the basket, An Jing felt both touched and amused. Her silly man, oh~
There was a small stream nearby, its water flowing down from the mountain, eventually reaching the river at the foot of the mountain. Xiao Changyi quickly went over to wash his hands, then came back, picked up the basket, and taking An Jing’s hand, they headed toward the bamboo forest.
Because Xiao Changyi had just rinsed his hands in the stream, his hand was somewhat cool. Feeling the coolness of Xiao Changyi’s hand, An Jingxin’s heart was filled with warmth.
Together, the couple picked up all the bamboo shoots they had dug up, placed them in the basket, and then descended the mountain.
Xiao Changyi had made several trips back and forth, and many people had seen him and An Jing digging for bamboo shoots, but nobody knew they were doing it to eat them.
"Did you see? They dug up another load." As Xiao Changyi and An Jing passed by from a distance, someone pointed at their departing figures and spoke.
"What are they doing with the bamboo shoots?" one person wondered.
"Who knows? Maybe they’re taking them back to plant in the yard." They paused, "Or perhaps they’re using them as firewood."
"As firewood? That seems too laborious. Chopping wood directly would be much faster," another person said.
"Let them be, it’s none of our business anyway."
"True," everyone agreed.
Unaware of the townsfolk’s speculation, An Jing had Xiao Changyi join her in peeling bamboo shoots as soon as they returned to their thatched cottage.
All the outer leaves of the bamboo shoots were peeled off and laid out in the yard to dry, later to be used as firewood, while the tender shoots were placed in a bamboo basket.
What looked like a mountain-sized pile of bamboo shoots ended up being just two baskets of tender shoots after being peeled.
And there was a large pile of leaves.
Looking at the result, An Jing laughed, "They really do peel down to so little. Fortunately, it’s the season for bamboo shoots to sprout. We’ve dug them all for today, but in a couple of days, new ones will surely emerge. We’ll go digging again then."