Chapter 77: Talking at cross purposes (Page 1/2)

The yard here is close to the hospital's sanatorium and Houhai Village, which makes it convenient for her to take Huo Qinghuan to the sea in the future.

Although the house is a little old and dilapidated, at least it has a small yard in front and back. The yard is not big, but it is still possible to grow some vegetables for your own consumption.

Not living with those colleagues in the hospital would save her a lot of trouble in the future. Thinking of this, Lin Man no longer minded the dilapidated state of the house.

Huo Qingci took the information to report to the hospital, and Lin Man took Huo Qinghuan to clean the house. There were people living in this yard last year, so naturally there were cleaning tools at the back.

The two of them first tore off the moldy newspapers in the two rooms. Lin Man then took the torn waste newspapers, threw them into the middle of the yard, and set them on fire to burn them cleanly.

Then he took a feather duster that was almost free of feathers and dusted the cobwebs on the doors and windows of the two rooms.

She wanted to use a rag to wipe the dirty bed, but found that there was no bucket. There was indeed a bucket in her space, but it was inconvenient for her to take it out because Huo Qinghuan was there.

After thinking for a while, Lin Man took Huo Qinghuan to the front yard to pull weeds. After pulling out two weeds, Huo Qinghuan said that his hand was cut by the weeds.

"Sister-in-law, my hand was cut by the grass?"

"Show me where it is."

Huo Qinghuan showed his hand to Lin Man. Lin Man looked at the red marks on the back of his hand and comforted him, "Okay, don't pull it out yet. Sit on the stool and rest for a while! Wait for your brother to buy a hoe and we can use it to dig it tomorrow."

"Sister-in-law, I found a strange tree in the backyard, and it's full of strange fruits."

"What strange fruit? Let me go and take a look."

Lin Man followed Huo Qinghuan to the backyard and discovered a papaya tree laden with fruits in the corner. It turned out that this was the strange fruit Huo Qinghuan was talking about!

"Qinghuan, this is called papaya. You can eat it raw when it turns yellow. If it's not yellow, you can cut it into strips and make a cold salad, or dry it and make shredded papaya."

"Sister-in-law, is this papaya delicious? Is it a fruit or a vegetable?"

"It's a fruit and can be used in cooking. It's okay when ripe. I wouldn't say it tastes particularly good, but it's not terrible either."

Huo Qingci was originally curious about whether it tasted good, but after hearing what Lin Man said, he immediately lost interest. He then asked, "There are many tall trees in the hospital with big balls growing on them. Can those balls on the trees be eaten?"

There are big balls on the tree. Huo Qinghuan is talking about the coconut tree, right?

"That's the coconut tree you're talking about. The ball-shaped coconuts on the tree are edible. We just open the coconuts and drink the water inside. We can take the white flesh from the old coconuts and make other foods."

Huo Qinghuan asked again: "Sister-in-law, is the coconut water delicious? Is the coconut candy we ate on the boat that day made with coconut water?"

"No, coconut candy is made from the juice of coconut flower core. If you still want to eat coconut candy, we will go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy you two kilograms next time."

"No, I don't want to eat coconut candy. I want to try coconut water now. I wonder what coconut water tastes like."

"Coconut water has a coconut fragrance and is slightly sweet. But the coconut trees are too tall for us to pick them.

Go shopping at the supply and marketing cooperative tomorrow to see if there are any fresh coconuts for sale. I'll buy you a few to try and I can peel the coconut eggs for you."

(This chapter is not yet finished, please click on the next page to continue reading) Chapter 77: Talking at cross purposes (Page 2/2)

"Thank you, sister-in-law."

After a while, staff from the hospital's logistics department came with two experienced craftsmen to help them repair the roof.

The two masters were both locals, and they spoke fluent Hakka. Lin Man was familiar with Cantonese in her previous life, but not very familiar with Hakka, so she could only prick up her ears and barely understand some simple words.

After they gestured, she finally guessed that they were probably saying that they would try their best to repair the roof in the afternoon before leaving.

Huo Qinghuan was confused the whole time and felt that his life was so difficult.

He couldn't understand Cantonese to begin with, and now two old masters who spoke Hakka came. He felt like there were three thousand ducks quacking in his ears, and he couldn't understand what they were saying at all.

He could only look at Lin Man helplessly. Lin Man also found Huo Qinghuan's expression somewhat amusing. It was like a foreign goose flying into an old house, and the chickens and ducks were talking at cross purposes.

There is a long way to go, and she believes that everything will be fine. Children have strong imitation skills, and Huo Qinghuan is not stupid. He will naturally be able to speak Cantonese after listening to it more.

After a while, Huo Qingci came back with two iron buckets in his hands. There was a thermos in one bucket and a washbasin on top of the other bucket.

"Manman, has the roof repairman arrived?"

"They are here, they are repairing it. Qingci, we may have to go out again later to buy two mats."

"Oh, good! When I left just now, I asked the commander for a large stack of newspapers and two bottles of glue. I can use newspapers to paste the walls tonight."

"We can do the wall tonight. Let's figure out how to make the bed first. Qinghuan and I will be home tomorrow morning pasting the wall, and weeding in the afternoon."

"The hospital leader knew we were getting a house, so he told me to take a two or three-day break and report to the department after I was completely settled."

"Well, we should get the house ready first, and then get to know the surrounding area."

With Huo Qingci's joining, the beds, desks and wardrobes in the two rooms were cleaned thoroughly and wiped over and over again.

Even the floor of the room was cleaned several times, and Huo Qingci even poked around to see if there were any rat holes in the room.

For the next two days, they were either shopping for daily necessities or cleaning the house and clearing the weeds in the front and back yards.

On the third day, Huo Qingci finally had to report to the hospital, while Lin Man took Huo Qinghuan to dig the ground at home.

She plans to cultivate the few acres of land in the backyard first and plant onions, ginger, and garlic. She also wants to plant a mango tree next to the papaya tree.

Yesterday, when she came back from the supply and marketing cooperative, she saw a one-meter-tall wild mango sapling on the roadside and wanted to plant it today.

Huo Qinghuan had been at home for two days when he began to feel restless. He said to Lin Man, "Sister-in-law, I heard that we can go fishing in Houhai Village. When can we go fishing?"

"Let's clean up the yard today. In the afternoon, we'll ask someone when the high tide is. When the tide goes out, we can go to the beach to catch seafood."

"Sister-in-law, it must be fun to go to the beach. Let's go tomorrow. I heard that the tide will go out at noon tomorrow, and there should be a lot of small seafood on the beach."

"Really? Then let's go check it out tomorrow afternoon."

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