“If it’s that dangerous, why pick it? And how can you identify it so clearly?” Lucy asked after a pause.
Ethan’s tone was measured, like he was lecturing: “Typhonium trilobatum, also called khoai nưa or củ chóc. Soft stem, clustered roots, sap full of needle-shaped calcium oxalate crystals. Chew it raw and your throat burns. But if you soak it long in lime water and boil it three times, it becomes a poultice for pain, swelling, surface wounds.”
“So it’s medicine.” Lucas clicked his tongue: “How do you even remember all this? The name alone is harder than physics formulas.”
Ethan said nothing. But in his eyes burned a rare gravity, not pride, but the understanding that every root, every leaf was worth blood, sometimes worth a life. He had lived long enough in the wild to know mistakes he
