Her Cultivation Diary-Chapter 98 - : 98. Eagle Beak Peach_1
Chapter 98: 98. Eagle Beak Peach_1
“What kind of kiwifruit?”
Wu Lan asked, “Is it that wild type of yangtao from the mountains? Not even the size of a ping-pong ball. It’s so troublesome to have to wait until they’re ripe enough to eat.”
“And if they aren’t ripe, no matter how hard you knock them, they stay as hard as rocks. If you wait two days after they’re ripe, they go bad.”
She had eaten the kiwifruit sold in the markets, but she had never tried that ‘kiwi’ fruit, though she roughly understood it probably looked similar.
Zhang Yanping wanted to explain that it wasn’t the same thing, and that the fruit he was talking about would be sweet as soon as it was in your hands.
But since he sold fruit, not grew it, he didn’t quite understand the specifics of their harvest and simply dropped the topic.
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“How about pomegranates, then? They can be stored for a while. The good quality pomegranates can sell for twenty yuan per jin during the ripe season.”
Wu Lan nodded, “Pomegranates are good. When they flower, they’re so beautiful with their bright red blossoms! But will the nursery that sells us the saplings give us guidance when the time comes?”
“The pomegranate trees by our house just produce misshapen and bad-tasting fruit. They’ll need to teach us properly.”
Zhang Yanping thought for a moment, “Or we could plant peaches. The premium lake-view peaches in my WeChat circle are selling for more than forty yuan per jin this year!”
“It’s just that they’re soft and mushy, so we have to be extra careful when transporting them.”
But the more he talked, the more animated he became, “Tantan, once you get all the qualifications and certificates for your family farm, start an online store, and I’ll be your customer service rep!”
“I guarantee to handle every damaged order perfectly for you.”
As long as he didn’t have to do manual labor, he could spend days and nights arguing with people online!
Playing the role of a caring sister was also fine.
“Forty or fifty yuan per jin? Can peaches really sell for that much?”
Wu Lan started to feel nostalgic:
“There are hardly any peach trees left in the village. When you were kids, there were two peach trees by the pond, with green fruit that wouldn’t ripen until June or July. They were small, but one bite was sweet and tinged with sourness and bitterness, and the pits were red. It was truly delicious.”
Those two peach trees were cut down when the pond was renovated, and within ten miles, no one seemed to be planting them anymore.
At most, there were a couple of May peach trees left, neglected and flavorless.
The more Wu Lan talked, the more nostalgic she felt, “Life is better now, yet the food doesn’t taste as good as it used to. I bought peaches last year in town for two yuan per jin. Honestly, they were just so-so. I don’t even like them anymore.”
Her description instantly made Zhang Yanping, who was already tired from a half day’s work, salivate.
He thought about it and actually came up with an idea:
“Auntie, if you’re talking about a peach that’s somewhat similar to Tantan’s, I really do know of one kind.”
He pulled up a picture: “Look, it’s green even when ripe, just the tip is a bit red. They’re crispy and sweet, not sour or bitter, but they definitely have that peachy taste.”
“They’re durable for storage and transport. You can keep them in the fridge for about a month.”
He handed over his phone, showing a peach the size of a fist, green all over with just a hint of red at the tip, and a pointy beak-like end on top.
“Eagle Beak Peach.”
“These sold online last year for about ten yuan per jin, and people said they tasted like the peaches from our childhood.”
“Growing peach trees is something you’re familiar with, right, Auntie? With some guidance from professionals, you surely won’t go wrong.”
Just as Song Sancheng returned from outside, he overheard something about peaches and subconsciously asked, “Are we planting peach trees in the back mountain?”
“Sure, we can all plant peach trees here, no mistake about that. It’s just that I don’t know if they’ll sell well… Aren’t young people nowadays all into eating what, big cherries, blueberries, strawberries and the like?”
Zhang Yanping thought: With the taste of your family’s produce, how could you worry about selling it?
In any case, he looked over with an expectant face:
“Tantan, farming is a big deal, and you can’t just recklessly spend thousands of yuan on saplings. How about I do some thorough research this afternoon? Let’s make it fail-proof!”
Song Tan smiled gently, “Brother Yanping, there’s no such thing as fail-proof in farming. All we can do is learn more, listen more, observe more, and practice seriously—But I can’t disregard your kindness… How about this, you go ahead with your work in the afternoon, and then look up the information when you get back in the evening. We shouldn’t unnecessarily take up Brother Yanping’s personal time for improvement.”
Zhang Yanping: …
He tossed aside the harrow in his hands with a world-weary air and then pulled open his collar a bit more: “Tantan, this is April we’re talking about, and I’m still wearing a straw hat! Just look, what has my skin tone turned into with just two days’ torment?”
In reality, there wasn’t much of a contrast—just two days spent in the field, what kind of tan could that yield? It was just a slight clash of colors.
Qiaoqiao laughed smugly: “Brother, you got a tan, but Qiaoqiao isn’t afraid of the sun.”
That’s right, no matter how much this silly kid got sunburnt, his skin just turned red and peeled, he never got dark. What could you do about that?
Left without support, Zhang Yanping could only wash his hands sorrowfully and prepare to eat as he saw the others returning.
Eleven people crowded around one table, eating without lifting their heads from the large dish of Milk Vetch stir-fried with meat in the very center.
Wu Lan wasn’t stingy either, having prepared braised pork ribs and stewed meats. But judging by how everyone had been eating these past two days, no one would touch the other dishes until the Milk Vetch was finished.
Song Sancheng passed a bottle of beer to everyone, and as village men were seldom abstainers after a day’s work, he grabbed one for himself as well and then said:
“Chestnut, I’ve got something to do this afternoon and can’t make it to the mountain; if something comes up, just handle it for me.”
The man called Chestnut, surnamed Zhou, was a relation of Zhou Maozhu, who roasted tea leaves, and was now in his forties or fifties.
Upon hearing this, he nodded: “Sure. Just a little tidying up of the mountain, what could go wrong? You go ahead with your work.”
Then he casually asked, “What are you doing?”
Song Sancheng sighed.
“You know that family up the slope, around the corner of our back mountain, right next to Daqiao Village? The one our family had dealings with before. I heard from a phone call to their house this morning, the old lady… she’s gone.”
As village folks were all connected somewhat, once he mentioned it, everyone at the table reacted:
“Oh, that family! Isn’t that the family of… what’s his name… Zhang Wang? I remember he’s got a bit of a limp.”
“That’s the one.”
Someone at the side joined in: “Just a slight limp—doesn’t interfere with work, quite brisk really. Look at him, provided for two sons and a daughter. I think his daughter married into the town, and the sons are in the city.”
As everyone was around the same age, the topic of birth, aging, sickness and death was a bit melancholic. They couldn’t help but ask curiously:
“But I remember both of them being quite healthy, how come all of a sudden, she’s gone?”
Song Sancheng was also puzzled: “A few days ago, there was talk that Mrs. Zhang had a fall and either broke her leg or something like that.”
“I was planning to find time to visit her in the town’s hospital, but then this sudden news came, and I’m not clear on what happened.”
