Chapter 205 It's Edible
Xiao Cheng carried the large bamboo basket over.
In the lush cornfield, Bailu walked out with a big ear of corn in each hand, beaming with joy.
“Hongying said that the corn grown here is glutinous corn. Her family planted it the earliest and it ripened the earliest on the whole hillside. She told us to pick more to take home. There is no corn for sale on the street yet. Let’s pick some to take back for Xiaowei to try.”
Xiao Cheng, expressionless, reached out his bamboo basket to catch the corn, while his other hand snapped off the white corn leaves that had almost been cut.
After breaking off the corn leaves, he reached for the corn on the stalk, clearly intending to break off the corn as well.
Bai Lu quickly stopped him by grasping his hand: "This isn't ripe yet, you can't pick it."
Xiao Cheng glanced at the little hand holding his wrist, then at the corn, and with his big hand leading the little hand, continued to reach out.
“They’ve grown up.” A powerful explanation.
Bai Lu was both amused and exasperated. She squeezed the boss's hand again and said, "It's not something you can pick as soon as it grows up. The corn silk hasn't changed color yet, and the kernels inside are still small. They haven't grown up and the kernels aren't plump. You have to wait until the corn silk turns dark brown before the kernels become plump and taste better."
Xiao Cheng had seen corn sold on the street, but he had never seen anyone pick out corn: "Let me peel it open and take a look."
They clearly don't intend to let the corn go.
Bai Lu was really worried about the boss's stubbornness, so she grabbed his hand and turned to another ear of corn next to him.
"This corn is ripe, let's pick this one, it'll definitely taste better than the other one!"
Xiao Cheng obediently picked another ear of corn.
Bai Lu was so touched that she immediately let go of his hand and went inside to pick the few ears of corn she had been eyeing.
I thought Xiao Cheng would come along, but instead of footsteps, I heard a crisp "click!"
Bai Lu subconsciously turned around.
The corn stalks have become bare.
Xiao Cheng put the unripe corn into the bamboo basket and calmly added, "I squeezed it; there are corn kernels."
Bai Lu sighed helplessly, and to avoid the big boss ruthlessly urging her to eat corn again, she could only lead him inside.
Even as she walked, she couldn't help but mutter to herself, "Why do you have to pick on an immature ear of corn? The kernels aren't big enough, they're not plump, and there won't even be enough to fill your teeth after you bite into them... Didn't you pick corn when you were little? Didn't you know how to pick the big, mature ears of corn?... How come you've forgotten now..."
Having learned from his previous experience, Xiao Cheng no longer cared why Bai Lu knew about his childhood.
As long as it's her, that's fine.
But the incorrect fact needs to be corrected: "I didn't pick them, Abiao and Sixteen did."
Downstream from the river in the new town, there is land where some families used to grow corn. Luo Shiliu and Xiao Zhongbiao once stole corn from these families, while Xiao Cheng was actually there to catch them.
However, as soon as they entered, Luo Shiliu and Xiao Zhongbiao each stuffed an ear of corn into their hands. The cornfield owner, who happened to be picking corn, saw this and was immediately chased away.
Three little boys ran very fast, carrying ears of corn.
Bai Lu couldn't help but laugh whenever she thought of the scene that overturned the boss's aloof image.
"You must know that Luo Shiliu and Xiao Zhongbiao went to pick corn, otherwise how could they have arrived so quickly?"
Xiao Cheng said with a serious expression, "I didn't know beforehand."
"Then how did you get there so quickly?"
"Xiao Dazhuang told me."
Bai Lu kept laughing, and although she didn't say anything, her gloomy mood from the journey had improved considerably.
Xiao Cheng raised an eyebrow, his gaze lingering on her face, and said seriously, "I have never stolen corn."
"Okay, I understand..." Bai Lu smiled, leaning on the corn stalk. "Should I give you an award certificate?"
As he spoke, he broke off an ear of corn and handed it over.
Xiao Cheng accepted the unique certificate and commented objectively, "This certificate from Teacher Lulu is very good."
"Worth treasuring."
Bai Lu was amused by the boss's serious attitude; she couldn't even hold onto the corn stalks anymore, she had to hold onto him instead.
"I suggest that when you get home, you hide the certificate in the ground so that it will grow and multiply..."
Xiao Cheng nodded seriously: "Not a bad suggestion."
Bai Lu laughed until she was exhausted, but before she was too weak to continue, she picked a few more ears of corn for him: "Here, you can never have too many certificates of merit, the more the better."
"good."
Xiao Cheng, carrying a bamboo basket, looked at the girl's smiling face and suddenly asked, "Would you like to eat lychees?"
Bai Lu was taken aback: "There aren't any lychee trees here, are there?"
The surrounding area is all terraced cornfields, with no lychee trees, but there are quite a few on the big mountain opposite the small hill.
It takes at least ten minutes to walk there and up the mountain.
Moreover, "the lychees don't seem to be ripe yet."
Xiao Cheng said nothing, took Bai Lu's wrist and walked forward, around the small hill, through one green cornfield after another, deliberately knocking the corn leaves that stretched out of the path askew, or breaking them if they couldn't bend them.
The corn leaves were ruthlessly chopped off along the way.
Even though it was only the length of a palm, Bai Lu couldn't help but stop him. Her way of stopping him was to grab Xiao Cheng's hand every time he tried to let go of her wrist.
Five fingers intertwined with his five fingers, ten fingers tightly clasped.
This made it impossible for him to let go.
After walking for a while, the view opened up, and half of it—yes, it was just that the path beside the cornfield had widened.
What caught Bai Lu's attention was not the wider road, but the slope beside the road.
A huge lychee tree laden with fruit!
Although the lychees on the lychee tree are only just beginning to turn red and are not ripe at all.
But actually, it's edible. It's sweet and sour, and tastes pretty good. It's delicious.
Bai Lu's eyes lit up in surprise: "How come there are lychee trees here, and they're so big... With so many lychees, are they Uncle Fu's lychee trees?"
Xiao Cheng nodded slightly: "Xiao Guofu said that this lychee tree is half on his land and half on the villagers' land, so it is considered to be jointly owned by the two families. Both families can pick lychees, and we can come and pick them whenever we want to eat them."
Bai Lu recalled for a moment and announced her surrender: "I don't think I've ever heard Uncle Fu say anything like that."
Xiao Cheng gave her a deep look: "You were daydreaming at the time."
Bai Lu knew she wasn't feeling well today, and had been thinking about home several times. Not wanting to meet Xiao Cheng's all-knowing gaze, she let go of his hand and looked up at the lychee tree.
"The lychees aren't ripe yet."
Xiao Cheng clenched his still-warm palm, put down the bamboo basket he was carrying in his other hand, and walked toward the lychee tree growing on the slope: "It's ready to eat."
Bai Lu followed along, saying, "There are many lychee trees and other fruit trees on other mountains. We've come so many times, but I've never heard Uncle Fu or any of the villagers mention selling fruit. You can't possibly eat all this fruit yourself..."
Xiao Cheng picked a lychee that was turning from green to red and gave it to Bai Lu, saying, "The purchase price is too low."
Bai Lu immediately understood; it was probably like star anise, with its price so low that it couldn't even cover its costs.
However, unlike star anise trees, lychee trees are not straight and difficult to pick. Lychee trees branch out from the base with many large branches, making them easy to climb and easier to pick than star anise trees. The villagers will probably pick them and sell them to buyers, but they are not that enthusiastic.
As Bai Lu ate the sweet and sour lychees, she couldn't help but sigh, "If we could sell them to other provinces, that would be a huge business."
(End of this chapter)
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