Chapter 87 An unexpected surprise

Chapter 87 An unexpected surprise

Luo Ning stared at the white oval-shaped "white fruit" in his hand and was completely stunned for a moment.

If his guess was correct, the so-called ginkgo fruit was nothing else but the silkworm cocoon that Luo Ning had often seen in his hometown on Earth and had helped raise when he was a child.

"What's wrong?"

Irene blinked and stared at Luo Ning, not understanding why he was so surprised. Could it be that he thought the ginkgo nuts were so delicious that he couldn't resist?

Luo Ning came to his senses and asked quickly, "Is this ginkgo nut you mentioned made by a worm? And when you just said to peel it open, are you eating the pupa inside?"

"Is that thing called a 'pupa'? We've always called it a 'core'."

Knight Horn spoke. Compared to Jenny, who didn't work much, he often traveled outside and knew more about Ginkgo.

"Sir, as you said, the white fruit is indeed made of insects. I don't know if there are insects in other places, but there are quite a lot of them in the Purple Fruit Tribe."

Luo Ning's eyes lit up, "Come on, tell me."

Knight Horn said: "When Jenny and I led the team here, we discovered the purple fruit forest outside. Under the leaves, I saw a lot of fat gray worms. I named them 'big gray worms.'"

"Later, we settled down here. I observed them for a while and found that these insects feed on the leaves of the purple fruit tree. When they grow up, they will spit out this white pulp to cover themselves. One day, out of curiosity, I peeled off the white shell and found the core inside."

At this point, he chuckled, "When we first settled here, life was too hard, and there was nothing to eat, so I tried to cook this thing and ate it. I found that it was not only non-toxic but also nourishing to the body, so this thing became the unique food of my Purple Fruit Tribe."

Luo Ning finally confirmed that the so-called ginkgo fruit was actually a silkworm cocoon.

The "big gray worm" that Knight Horn mentioned should be the silkworm, but it is different from the domestic silkworm in that this type of silkworm grows outside.

As for the so-called purple fruit tree and purple fruit, Luo Ning guessed that they should be mulberry trees and mulberries.

The yellow forest he saw on the top of the crater should be the mulberry forest, and the fallen mulberry leaves were yellow.

Ronin's heart was pounding.

Silkworms are good things. The cocoons they spin can be used to weave silk threads, which are then made into silk.

Silk is even better.

In ancient China, this item was very expensive, and only the rich and powerful could wear it. If it were sold outside, it would be extremely expensive.

In this world, Luo Ning has no memory related to sericulture.

There are generally only three types of materials used to make clothes here: wool, leather, and cloth.

The cloth is basically made of flax as the main material, including coarse linen, fine linen, etc.

Ordinary people usually wore coarse linen, while nobles showed their status by wearing clothes made of fine linen, wool, and precious furs.

It is said that there is cotton cloth in the south, but it has not been promoted on a large scale and is very rare.

As for silk, I had never even heard of it.

Luo Ning never thought that there would be silkworms in the Ziguo tribe. If he could make these cocoons into silk, it would become the signature industry of Shanlin Town in the future and would be much more reliable than the black iron tree.

"How many of these ginkgo nuts do you have left?" Luo Ning asked.

"There are many more!"

Irene gestured exaggeratedly, "There are still several boxes!"

"Come on, take me to see it."

As Luo Ning spoke, he took Irene's hand and hurried towards the room that she had just entered.

Jenny and Horn looked at each other, and the latter was puzzled. "Why is the Baron so interested in the white fruit? He didn't even listen to your plan for the Gray Earth Tribe."

Jenny shook her head, "I don't know, but I feel that adults should know more about Baiguo than us, so let's go and take a look."

This room is more like a warehouse, with many wooden boxes placed inside.

Irene opened all four wooden boxes, which were filled with silk cocoons.

"My father would keep a box of seeds every year, and by next spring, the ginkgo trees would sprout and produce more offspring!" she said.

So many!

Roning squatted beside the box and observed carefully.

A few of the cocoons here are grayish yellow, but most of them are white, and there is no dirt such as broken leaves on them, which should have been cleaned by Horn.

These cocoons are at least half a circle larger than the cocoons produced by silkworms, which Roning remembered. Horn said they were greyworms, which should be different from ordinary silkworms.

"Horn, do you know how to breed?" Roning turned and looked at the knight who followed him.

"I guess... I know a little bit, right?"

Horn scratched his head. "My Lord, you know that life in the mountains is very boring. When I have nothing to do, I study them. Those big gray worms form shells to hide themselves in during the winter, and they will come out again in the summer of next year!"

Speaking of this, as if it was the most exciting part, Horn became a little excited.

"You may not know, Sir, that those bugs will actually turn into moths when they come out! Although moths exist for a very short time and die after laying eggs, they leave behind densely packed eggs, which will grow into more big gray bugs."

He pointed to a box in the house and said, "You only need to leave a small portion of the box every year, and you will be able to harvest several boxes of ginkgo nuts next year!"

Luo Ning listened and thought.

He has already confirmed that these are silk cocoons, and what they eat are the silkworm pupae inside.

However, the silkworms here are different from what he knew.

The silkworms he was familiar with generally hibernate in the spring and autumn in the form of silkworm eggs.

But this is not the case with the silkworms of the Ziguo tribe. They become cocoons in the autumn, pupate inside, spend the winter in the form of silkworm chrysalis, and will not break out of the chrysalis until the following summer.

Luo Ning guessed that the reason for this difference was probably due to the temperature.

Shanlin Town is located in the northernmost part of Wushan Territory, where the climate has four distinct seasons.

The temperature in spring and autumn is about 5~15℃, which is not very suitable for the growth of silkworms;

only the summer temperature of 20~30℃ is suitable for silkworm hatching and growth.

Since September, Ronin has felt his temperature dropping, but as a mid-level knight, the feeling is not so obvious.

Having said that, in the Ziguo tribe, under natural conditions, only one season of silkworms can be raised each year.

Unless the ambient temperature can be changed and a suitable environment can be created in spring or autumn, breeding can be carried out for multiple seasons.

But this is obviously unattainable.

Luo Ning squatted beside the box, picked up a few silk cocoons, and played with them while asking, "Horn, how many silkworm seeds do you keep every year, uh, the ginkgo nuts you mentioned as seeds?"

Horn hesitated for a moment and said, "About a dozen, no more than twenty."

"Why not leave more?"

Horn spread his hands and said, "Sir, I also wanted to leave more, but there are not enough purple fruit trees on the mountain. If there are too many, they can't survive."

Luo Ning nodded slowly, having forgotten about it.

He held up a silk cocoon and introduced it to Horn and the others: "What you call ginkgo nuts are actually silk cocoons and the kernel inside is called silkworm pupa. Silkworm pupa can be eaten, but silkworm cocoons have other magical uses."

"Oh, yes, and that purple fruit tree should be a mulberry tree, and the purple fruit is a mulberry."

Jenny and Horn couldn't help but look at each other. As expected, their guess was correct. The Baron in front of them knew a lot about purple fruit.

"We are deeply impressed by your erudition, sir!"

Jenny smiled and said, "From today on, we will correct these names."

Irene blinked her eyes, a little surprised. "Should we call it the 'Mulberry Tribe'?"

Luo Ning couldn't help but smile after hearing this.

"It doesn't really matter what it's called."

He said, "Originally, I was going to move all of you to Shanlin Town to live, but now I've changed my mind. Since the Purple Fruit Tribe has silkworms and mulberry trees, we must make good use of these resources!"

Luo Ning has already made up his mind. He wants to replace wheat with mulberry trees in the Ziguo tribe.

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