On the night of April 23, beside the campfire on the riverbank, Chen Zhou's dinner included several stalks of sugarcane along with meat soup and flatbread.
After eating the flatbread, he used a dagger to peel off the sugarcane's hard, dry outer skin, revealing the thick fibrous core inside, which he cut into small pieces and attempted to chew.
The sweetness of this wild sugarcane wasn't as low as he imagined, having a sweet taste with a slight hint of plant fragrance similar to that of corn stalks, not too overwhelming or greasy.
Perhaps because the rainy season had just ended, the sugarcane core still retained a lot of moisture, but the only downside was its fibers were too coarse and hard, making his mouth sore after chewing too much, even pricking his mouth slightly.
Chen Zhou guessed that this was likely because the sugarcane was too mature, with severe lignification of the inner fibers. If it had been tender sugarcane from the current year, it might have tasted better.
