The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 90 - 79: Unreliable

Chapter 90: Chapter 79: Unreliable

The system noticed her taking a knife to peel the skin and felt something was off, but couldn’t quite put its finger on what it was.

After a self-check within, the system found no issues, so it quietly waited.

Manbao, who had never had mountain yam and had never seen this thing before, was very curious about it, and for the first time, did not go inside to settle accounts with her mother and brothers, instead squatting at the kitchen doorstep, watching her sister-in-law peel.

Junior Ms. Qian gently scraped, revealing the mountain yam’s white flesh. Manbao, still curious, reached out to touch it and found it sticky.

Junior Ms. Qian slapped away her dirty little hand and continued to peel.

While peeling, Junior Ms. Qian felt something was not right, "Why do my hands feel itchy?"

Manbao, who had gone to pick up mountain yam skins out of curiosity, also felt her hands getting itchy, and the feeling was intensifying.

She couldn’t help but scratch, and once she started, she couldn’t stop, scratching her own hands against each other.

Seeing that Manbao’s little hands were quickly scratched red, Junior Ms. Qian was frightened and hurriedly dropped the knife and the peeled mountain yam to grab her hands, exclaiming in panic, "What’s happening? Is, is this poisonous?"

Ms. Qian, hearing the commotion, couldn’t help running out from the house. Seeing Manbao’s hands covered in bright red scratches, she immediately said, "Hurry and wash them with water."

Zhou Wulang quickly fetched water for them. After the aunt and niece rinsed their hands, they still felt itchy. Junior Ms. Qian could hold back, but Manbao couldn’t. She scratched and scratched, and finding it still very itchy, she couldn’t help crying out, while scratching, "Mother, mother, it’s so itchy..."

Ms. Qian held her daughter’s hands to prevent her from scratching. Seeing her daughter so distraught and crying, she felt distressed and turned to ask Dalang, "I thought it was something good, so why is it poisonous?"

Dalang and the others didn’t understand either, and he replied with sweat on his brow, "Well, it was Manbao who said so. The pharmacy owner also said it was good and edible."

Ms. Qian sternly asked Manbao, "Stop crying now. Didn’t the books you read explain it clearly?"

Manbao, sobbing intermittently, kept calling for Keke in her mind. As soon as Manbao felt itchy, the system had started looking into it, only to find that its internal data was rather limited, and it had to check the encyclopedia.

The confirmed data had no knowledge on the subject, but some novels and strange tales did have some records.

They said that when peeling mountain yam, the sapogenin from the skin could stick to the hands and cause itching due to an allergic reaction.

However, in the future, there was no species called mountain yam, and relevant botanists had not found the exact genes left behind, so they could not be certain of this fact.

Uncertainties would not be included in the encyclopedia entries to avoid misleading future generations. Science must be one hundred percent accurate.

Still, Keke was quick to react. It speculated that sapogenin might indeed exist, and neutralizing this plant alkaloid wasn’t difficult. The system didn’t need to search for data and directly said, "Just soak your hands in vinegar. It’s acid-base neutralization."

It explained to Manbao briefly about what plant alkaloids are and what acid-base neutralization meant.

Manbao tearfully told her mother, "We need vinegar to soak our hands."

Ms. Qian’s heart ached upon hearing this, but she still gritted her teeth and told Ms. He to fetch vinegar from the kitchen.

Ms. He did bring it out but said, "Mother, there’s only a little bit of vinegar left, not enough."

Ms. Qian grabbed the vinegar jar, pouring the little that was left onto Manbao’s hands, while saying, "Go borrow some from the neighbors. When we go to the market again, we’ll buy more to return."

Manbao, smelling the fragrant vinegar, felt hungry and couldn’t help but stick out her tongue to lick her hand. Ms. Qian almost slapped her face and quickly made her rinse her mouth with water, scolding, "You knew it was poisonous, and you still ate it. Are you brainless?"

Manbao felt wronged, "It smells so good, so good."

The system came back to its senses. The host’s wailing nearly made it forget the poverty of this era. It said, "Host, besides using vinegar, you can also use fire. Baking your hands over fire can destroy the sapogenin, so it won’t itch."

Manbao eagerly told her sister-in-law, and even used her own little hands to catch her sister-in-law’s hands, transferring the vinegar on her own hands to her sister-in-law’s.

Ms. Qian was somewhat partial because there wasn’t much vinegar, so she used most of it on her daughter.

Upon hearing this, Ms. He quickly made a fire for both of them to warm their hands.

As their hands slowly warmed by the fire, Manbao and Junior Ms. Qian felt less itchy and began to take an interest in the mountain yam skins.

Junior Ms. Qian said to Manbao, "You read books, but why do you only remember them in bits and pieces instead of the whole thing?"

Manbao, sniffling, resolved to read the entry on mountain yam carefully once it was available, and to meticulously review any future entries as well.

The aunt and niece slowly turned their hands over, and after a while, as they warmed up and the itchiness subsided, Junior Ms. Qian still felt apprehensive and looked at the peeled mountain yams, "It’s poisonous, huh? Are we still going to eat it?"

Manbao, already educated by Keke, hurriedly said, "It’s not poisonous. It’s just that mountain yam skin contains sapogenin, which causes itchiness. In the future, sister-in-law, just cover your hands when peeling."

She continued, "Mountain yam is really delicious, really delicious. And even if it were poisonous, don’t worry. Look, just baking our hands makes it alright, so even if the yams were poisonous, wouldn’t they be fine after boiling in hot water?"

Although everyone didn’t understand what sapogenin was, they all thought that Manbao’s explanation made sense. Besides, everyone was curious about food that wealthy families spent a lot of money on.

Indeed, in their view, the price of mountain yam was very high, even higher than meat.

Chicken was only twelve wen per jin, not to mention that Manbao said that mountain yam could be used as a medicinal plant.

In their impression, medicine was always bitter, so could there be one that tastes good?

No longer feeling itchy, Junior Ms. Qian went to chop mutton. She boiled the mutton until it was nearly done before adding the mountain yam, and stewed it for a good while longer. Worried that the mountain yam might not be cooked through, she used chopsticks to test it and found that she could split a piece of mountain yam in half, then served it.

The whole family waited eagerly. Since the scent of meat wafted out, Manbao had squatted in the kitchen and refused to leave.

Second Son and Sanya, who were about the same age as her, along with the toddler Sanya and Four Heads, all squatted in the kitchen, immovable. Zhou Wu called her several times but couldn’t budge her.

He tried to drag her away, but Junior Ms. Qian hit him, "Go play by yourself. Why are you always bothering Manbao?"

Zhou Wu pouted. Didn’t he just want Manbao to join him in settling accounts? They had a share in the earnings from the mountain yam, and they had pulled up all the Indian pennywort. But their eldest brother had handed all the money to Mother.

Without Manbao, even if they had the courage to ask for money, they lacked the ability to settle the accounts clearly.

Seeing that Manbao’s eyes were filled with thoughts of food and she couldn’t remember the money, Zhou Wu angrily went back to the room. He decided he definitely needed to learn arithmetic well. Second Brother was right, and his uncle could not be more correct: in this world, brothers could give your money to Mother, Mother could take your money, and sisters could be unreliable. Only the skills you learn yourself will always belong to you, and nobody can take them away.

Zhou Wu sat on the ground, grudgingly noting numbers.

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