Aunt Erhu and her son each ate a strawberry. "They were really delicious, very sweet, they must have been very expensive!"

"It's not expensive. I'd rather eat one peach than a whole basket of rotten apricots. It's a bit pricey, but it's worth it. Take it and eat it. All three of you should finish this plate this afternoon. It won't keep after washing. If you don't eat it, the rest will go bad."

Aunt Guo often came to Chen Hong's house and didn't treat herself like an outsider. She knew that Erhu's mother and son were honest people, so she picked up the fruit plate and handed them fruit.

"Eat up. Chen Hong washed so many of these with all her heart, just for us to eat. Eating them will stop the pain and stop the pain. Don't waste such good fruit on her."

After chatting for an afternoon, Yang Xiaofeng gradually relaxed a bit. "Sister Chen Hong, you came late at noon. Did you know that Zhao Meili has been targeting Yang Xiaolian? They don't have any conflicts, so I don't know why?"

Aunt Guo chimed in, "You and your mother-in-law just bury yourselves in work all day; you have no idea about the intricacies of relationships between women. They have no conflict whatsoever. It's just that Zhao Meili is showing off her outfit, and when Yang Xiaolian came, she felt she was being overshadowed. She's deliberately causing trouble!"

Aunt Erhu also said, "You're such a simpleton. If I hadn't been sitting at this table with you, you would have been targeted too. Didn't you realize that?"

"Is she targeting me? I didn't know!" Yang Xiaofeng exclaimed, her mouth agape in surprise.

"Those leather sandals you're wearing, Xiaofeng bought them in the city the day before yesterday. When Wang's daughter-in-law asked you about them, you told her the truth. I heard Zhao Meili even got into a fight with a man last night over buying clothes and shoes. It must have been awful for her to hear that. Didn't you see her glaring at you like that?"

"No, I thought she dug up Yang Xiaolian!"

Hearing Yang Xiaofeng's words, Chen Hong couldn't help but laugh. Look how simple Yang Xiaofeng's life is! Zhao Meili is cunning and shrewd, but unfortunately, she met Yang Xiaofeng and it was all for naught—like a blind man lighting a lamp.

Aunt Guo and her sister-in-law laughed, "There's a good thing about being simple-minded. No matter how cunning you are, it's all for naught if you meet her!"

The four women chatted until five o'clock, when the village chief came looking for them. Only then did they leave to go home and take care of the men who had been drinking.

The village chief had also drunk quite a bit, and his speech seemed a bit muddled. Chen Hong quickly helped Aunt Guo take him home. Then she turned around and went home to get the village chief a bottle of honey, telling Aunt Guo that it would help him sober up before taking her son home.

Taking advantage of the ample time today, Chen Hong went to the village supermarket and bought some pork ribs, pig's trotters, and large intestines. She carefully cleaned them at home and cooked a large pot of braised pork offal. She also steamed two batches of buns and mantou, and cooked a large pot of congee with preserved egg and lean pork.

I set aside what I'd eat tonight, and stored the rest in my storage space as reserve food for when we go out to sea. We finished everything I prepared last time, so today is a good day to restock.

I took my son to the backyard and harvested all the vegetables we could. It's time to plant autumn cucumber seedlings. After another harvest, the green beans and string beans will be ready to be taken off the trellis. We'll plant another season of autumn string beans and green beans, which will be a good way to rotate the crops with the potato and celery.

After the children went to sleep that night, Chen Hong sorted and packed the vegetables she had picked that afternoon into cardboard boxes and stored them in her spatial dimension. She also picked tea leaves and roasted two batches of them, this time harvesting 10 jin (5 kg) of dried tea. The old tea tree had grown exceptionally well in her spatial dimension. She only drank the tea leaves from the old tea tree herself and had never dared to give them to anyone else.

Chen Hong believes that the reason she can do so much work and often stay up late in the space without feeling tired is because she often drinks old tea tree tea.

She picked a basket of strawberries and a basket of blueberries, and also gathered honeysuckle. Smelling the fragrance of orchids, Chen Hong approached them and was pleasantly surprised to find three orchid plants, each with five or six small seedlings. It seemed she would have to divide them.

Regardless of whether the flowering period allowed for division, Chen Hong simply dug them up with a shovel and violently separated them, resulting in sixteen small seedlings. She spaced them out and planted them separately, then watered them with water from her spatial storage, waiting for them to slowly recover and grow on their own.

Leisurely walking under the durian tree, watching the fruits she had personally combed slowly grow, Chen Hong seemed to already smell the special aroma of ripe durians. Closing her eyes, she first imagined a mountain of durians around her, a scene of abundance that brought her great satisfaction.

Chen Hong found it a little funny that she had touched each and every fruit herself; her love for durian had become somewhat obsessive. Actually, Chen Hong enjoyed all kinds of fruit equally and didn't have any particular preference. She would even sometimes casually put green peppers, onions, and raw scallion leaves into her mouth for fun.

My son, Yu Yang, is the one who truly loves durian, but durian is too expensive, and buying it is a luxury for us. However, every time I buy a small box of fresh durian for my son, he always puts the plumpest and best-shaped segment into his own mouth first.

Even now, I still occasionally recall the image of my son holding a small piece of durian flesh, squinting his eyes as he savored it. It seems to have become an obsession, a kind of heartache that's hard to cure.

Seeing that big durian tree with clusters of small bumps sprouting on its trunk, which are the budding durian flowers, I realized that the tree will soon be flowering and bearing fruit. Tonight is truly a delightful evening, with the plants in the space thriving and flourishing.

Chen Hong's life is full of vitality and hope; this is what a beautiful life looks like now.

The next day, Chen Hong returned to her life of fishing at sea to earn money. After working frantically for two days, selling nearly 90,000 yuan through three channels, Chen Hong began to slow down.

With September 1st approaching, the fishing moratorium has ended. Fish prices across the market have fallen, with common fish dropping by 5-10 yuan per jin (approximately 0.5 kg), and some fish even seeing a drop of 20 yuan per jin. For fishermen like Chen Hong, who have large catches, the same amount of fish means at least 5,000 to 6,000 yuan less in income each day.

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