Chapter 44: The Strange Bayberry Tree

The family had different reactions to Ye Zhen's decision.

Farming is the root of farmers. Grandpa Ye thinks that the land is just lying there, so at most it would cost some money for seeds, machines, and labor. As long as the villagers are willing, everyone can work together. So why can't they raise funds?

Thinking this way, I started to boast:

"We are still smart and think long-term. You are the one who does great things. Those short-sighted people don't want to do it, so forget it. We are close to each other and we can do it together. It seems that our Ye family still has to rely on Ye to carry forward its prosperity!"

Short-sighted Ye's mother: "..."

So you know it will succeed even before you even do anything?

This family filter is too thick!

If Grandpa Ye agrees, it also means Grandma Ye agrees. Now it depends on Mom Ye’s attitude.

Facing the gazes of the whole family, Ye's mother: "..."

"Okay, okay, do whatever you want! I don't care."

…………

Father Ye has already told the village chief about this proposal. It will depend on how the village chief organizes and tells the villagers next.

Ye Zhen estimated the seeds he would need, and after screening and nurturing them with spiritual energy, he bought nearly two hundred kilograms of strawberry seeds from several online stores.

Everything is ready, now all we need is the villagers' attitude to open up the land for cultivation.

Early in the morning, Ye's mother started to soak rice dumplings leaves. The Dragon Boat Festival is coming soon. This year, since everyone in the family is there, she plans to make more dumplings and give some to neighbors and relatives.

In addition to soaking mung beans, Ye Zhen strongly requested to get more other beans, such as red beans, peanuts, peas, etc. Ye Zhen didn't even know the difference between salty and sweet rice dumplings when he ate them before.

When she went to college, she was really enlightened. She realized that there were so many different ways to make zongzi. You could put candied dates, chestnuts, egg yolks, and even salted bacon...

Every year, Ye Ma makes two kinds of dumplings, mung bean and original flavor. Now that I think about it, isn’t it just eating glutinous rice wrapped in rice dumplings leaves?

How many delicious foods has she missed over the years!

This year's Dragon Boat Festival must be celebrated in a different way.

Ye Zhen had already bought all kinds of beans for making rice dumplings. This year's chestnuts are not yet ripe. The Ye family also has aged chestnuts, but they have been dried and become hard. Perhaps only people with steel teeth can chew them through!

After buying some miscellaneous things, Ye Zhen instructed Ye's mother to make rice dumplings.

"Put more beans in it," Ye Zhen said quickly as she watched Ye's mother scoop half a spoonful of beans into the rice dumpling leaves. "Mom, you didn't put enough beans in it."

"There's a lot of glutinous rice," Ye Zhen said, "but there are so few beans that I can't even taste the flavor."

"Don't be so stingy. We have to give it away this year. People will say we are stingy, and your reputation as Chef Xu will be bad if it gets out."

There really aren’t many beans, and Ye’s mother doesn’t know how much to put in. She has never made rice dumplings with so many things mixed together. Will it taste good?

"Mom," Ye Zhen took the spoon and scooped a spoonful into the rice dumpling leaves in Ye's mother's hand: "Mom, I saw that you used two spoonfuls to make rice dumplings before. Let's make one and a half spoonfuls today and stuff a few pieces of bacon in it."

"Let's wrap it the same way we wrap mung bean dumplings. Although the beans are bigger now, let's wrap them smaller so they cook faster and won't leak out."

Looking at the bulging dumplings, can they really be put together?

"Mom, don't put alkali in the rice dumplings this year. I don't like them." They like to add a little alkali when making rice dumplings here, so that they can be kept longer. In the past, there were no refrigerators, so the rice dumplings would easily go bad.

"Mom, put more bacon in there."

"Oh, Mom, don't make the dumplings too big. There are so many people to share!"

For the whole morning, Ye's mother could hear Ye Zhen chattering in her ears. She had never seen anyone like her daughter, who spent the whole day thinking about food.

…………

In the morning, Dad Ye went to the creek to cut calamus and mugwort. These things are very pungent, but they are very effective in repelling mosquitoes. When the weather gets hot in the countryside and mountains, swarms of mosquitoes will stare at people and bite them, making it difficult to sleep.

We passed a stone bridge on the way. The plums on the trees were ripe and a layer of them had fallen to the ground. Dad Ye picked a large bunch of plums from the trees. This variety of plum was different from the ones we have at home. They were not big in size and had red flesh. They tasted pretty good.

Now that the young people have left and the children have to go to school, many of the ripe fruit trees in the village have no one to pick the fruits. They can’t be sold, and they can’t be eaten up. It’s a pity that they just fall to the ground.

Continuing to pass the slope, Ye Minghai saw some climbing vegetables and fruits that needed to be topped. Thinking that there were not enough racks at home and that he had to chop some bamboo, and remembering what he had to do in the afternoon, he slowly went back.

As soon as he entered the room, he saw that Ye's mother was very annoyed by Ye Zhen, and the veins on her forehead were throbbing, which scared Ye's father.

"What's going on?"

"Take your daughter away quickly. You've been so annoyed this morning. Aren't the bayberries in the yard ripe? Pick them quickly." Mother Ye assigned the job to Ye Zhen as if she had seen a savior.

Go away quickly, my old mother can’t stand it anymore!

The despised Ye Zhen: “…”Okay, then I’ll leave.

With a "humph", Ye Zhen found a few baskets and followed his father Ye to pick bayberries.

…

The bayberry trees were the old seedlings that Ye Zhen had transported home. After Ye Zhen irrigated them with spiritual energy every day and night, they finally lived up to expectations.

In terms of color, the white bayberry is crystal clear and lovely, and looks juicy, while the red bayberry is dark red and unusually large.

Judging from the size, there are bayberries as big as ping-pong balls on the market, and they are doubled in size in Ye Zhen’s case.

The taller fruit trees are planted in the northwest corner of the house. The lychee trees have obviously adapted well, with green fruits hanging from them. The grapefruits and oranges have small white flowers. Among them, the bayberry is the most eye-catching. I haven't visited it for a few days, and the bayberry looks different every day.

Anyway, Dad Ye has never seen such big bayberries in all his years. In a daze, Dad Ye discovered that the fruits grown on his own fruit trees were all very big. If he hadn't been sure that no pesticides had been used, Dad Ye himself would not have dared to eat them!

"Ye Zi, is there really nothing wrong with the fruit tree you bought? Why does it look wrong to me?"

Dad Ye reached out and picked a few, so many that he couldn't even hold one in his hand. This was the first time his family had grown bayberries. Although they looked tempting, he was still hesitant and didn't dare to eat them.

Ye Zhen: "This is a new improved variety. It tastes good and has large fruits."

The Ye family loves to eat bayberry, but strangely, they can’t grow it.

Dad Ye has bought bayberry saplings many times, but either they died within a few days of transplanting, or he bought only one sapling, and it was still a sapling when it grew up.

Literally, it is a main trunk with two leaves on the top. It is now two or three meters high. You might say it is dead, but it still grows leaves. You might say it is not dead, but it does not branch or bear fruit. It is quite unique!

"Dad, please dig up those seedlings of yours. I can't bear to see them. Look at the huge contrast."

Ye Zhen pointed to the bayberry trees planted by Ye's father, which looked like small sticks and were set off by the abundant fruits.

In the past, Dad Ye never gave up and applied fertilizer every once in a while. But after a few years, the plant is still the same, like a wooden root stuck there, with no respect at all!

Some of these are wild bayberry trees transplanted from the mountains. They can obviously bear fruit, but once the Ye family took root, they seemed to be in conflict with the Ye family. The leaves grew densely, but no fruit was seen.