When he was a child, if his elders called him to eat and he just sat there without moving, he would be scolded for dawdling. So Xu Qingzhi developed the habit of going over as soon as he heard this.

After typing a few words on his phone, Xu Qingzhi wished him, "All the best."

Then put the phone back in your pocket.

As soon as I entered the house, I smelled the aroma of celery and dried tofu.

Meicheng's dried tofu was famous in the past, but now only Internet celebrity products are more popular on the Internet, and historical local word-of-mouth delicacies like this have gradually faded out of history.

Xu Qingzhi really likes to eat.

This kind of dried tofu has a more tender texture, without the smoky taste of other dried tofu. Instead, it has the taste of salty and tender tofu, paired with celery and chili, and a bit of meat flavor. If more oil is used when cooking, there is some fat inside that is fried into lard residue, which is especially good with rice.

Xu Qingzhi filled a bowl with white rice and ate it with relish.

Lin Kai and his friends had long gotten rid of the reservedness they had on the first day of eating. After finishing their first bowl, they went to get their second bowl without Wang Yanmei having to tell them that there was rice in the pot and they could eat more.

He even took the initiative to arrange tomorrow's work.

"Uncle, didn't Grandpa say the day before yesterday that we also need to pick the persimmons? Let's help pick them tomorrow while we have a few days off."

"Yeah, more people means faster work." Xu Yi agreed, thinking to himself that food would taste better after work.

Xu Fuqiang also saw that these young men were really not afraid of the hard work in the fields, and they even enjoyed working it.

Unlike some young people in the village who help their families with housework during holidays, they would frown, sigh, and look reluctant when they went to the fields and swing the hoe, which made the adults feel unhappy just by watching them work. They would wave their hands and tell them to go away and stop being an eyesore.

Xu Fuqiang ate a handful of dried tofu, a mouthful of rice, swallowed it, and said without being polite: "Okay, let's go pick persimmons tomorrow."

"Okay, we'll finish harvesting these persimmons in one day." Lin Kai said proudly.

In fact, it is impossible to pick all the persimmons in one day.

Grandpa's family doesn't have many persimmon trees, but there are quite a few. There is not only one tree at the gate of the yard, but also one at the gate of Xu's house. There is also a persimmon forest on the back hill, with dozens of trees.

In the past, there were still people stealing, especially children in the fifth and sixth grades, who were young and energetic, and could climb trees to do things. There were always a group of them playing games on the mountain. If they picked some wild prickly ash, ox tongue, or hawthorn, it wouldn't be a big deal, but they either stole watermelons or pulled peanuts and sweet potatoes from the fields, and my grandfather's persimmon trees were often damaged.

People in the village are always more tolerant of children. Unlike nowadays when you encounter naughty children on the Internet, the unlucky parents of the naughty children will be exposed and have hundreds of thousands of comments scolding them.

In fact, I am angry, but I always think that they are just children, so I should solve the problem in a light way. It is not a big deal that will harm others, so I can just pay the money and forget about it.

Before Xu Qingzhi was old enough to go to school, he followed his second uncle's brother and stole watermelons from other people's fields.

She was the youngest and was the one who followed a group of boys and ate and drank for free.

Afterwards, when others asked for accountability, the boys stood there with their necks red and stubborn, and remained silent. This made the second uncle so angry that he beat her cousin with a hemp rope.

Grandpa asked her if she had eaten the watermelon that her brother had taken from someone else's field.

She tilted her head back and answered grandpa's question immediately, giggling and saying: Eat it, my brother smashed the watermelon with his fist and it opened, it was amazing.

She couldn't help but applaud, and even performed a non-physical demonstration of how her cousin had smashed the thing down with a "whoosh".

After all, before her cousin smashed it, he called her out: "Sister, look, I'm going to show you martial arts! I'm better than Bruce Lee, wow!"

She remembered the scene very clearly.

Later...the cousin from her second uncle's family stopped playing with her, saying that she was a traitor.

Boys are naturally energetic, and Xiao Qingzhi could never keep up with them. After being lost a few times, she stopped playing with them.

When I think about it, many of the emotions I had in my childhood were quite pure.

Unlike now, every Chinese New Year, when he met his brothers, sisters-in-law, and the like, he would not say a few words. Their faces were indifferent, and Xu Qingzhi had no intention of trying to please them.

There seems to be an invisible but thick wall between people.

It’s hard to say whether it was better when we were kids and knew nothing, or it’s better now that we know everything and know how to act appropriately.

But people will eventually grow up.

Just like those little kids who stole melons and potatoes, they grew up, settled down outside, and their children went to better cities. No one stole the persimmons from grandpa’s back mountain every year. Maybe someone would pass by and pick one or two, but it didn’t have much of a impact.

Compared to persimmons, the cabbages that sometimes grow luxuriantly along the roadside are more likely to be stolen by drivers passing by late at night.

Plus, these persimmons are not fully ripe yet, so they can’t be eaten immediately after being picked.

So the next day, Xu Fuqiang called his grandfather and the group went to pick persimmons. When they entered the persimmon forest, they could see that the trees were full of persimmons. Compared with the persimmon trees in the yard, there were many more and no less fruits. It was obvious that no one was picking them.

There are few people in the village who grow persimmons, probably only her grandfather does.

I don't know how other people pick persimmons, but ever since my grandpa started planting persimmons, he would have one person climb the tree to pick the persimmons, while a group of people would hold sheets below to catch the persimmons.

The persimmon is still a little hard at this moment. It is not the kind of soft persimmon, nor the crystal persimmon that will rot if squeezed. It is okay if it falls on the bed sheet.

As for the work of climbing trees, Lin Kai immediately volunteered to do it, but since it was dangerous, Xu Fuqiang refused and told the guys to continue below while he would do it.

Xu Fuqiang also has experience in hitting persimmons and knows what kind of force to use.

Lin Kai and his team were answering the calls on this side, while Xu Qingzhi, her brother, and her grandfather were answering the calls on the other side, for fear that anyone would slip through the net.

After all, although the persimmon is hard, if it hits the ground and breaks the skin, it will still go bad. It's painful to see such a big and good persimmon fall and go bad.

Xu Fuqiang took the pole and started hitting the persimmons. The persimmons fell down like rain and landed on the bed sheets.

Picking persimmons is not a very busy process. When we are tired, we can take a break and eat some sugar-coated peanuts made by Ms. Wang.

There were dozens of persimmon trees, so it took three days to finish them all.

Even the persimmon tree in front of grandpa's house was picked with all the fruits picked.

Wang Yanmei specially cooked the persimmons picked from the persimmon tree in front of Xu's house in rice, and then packed them in bags. On the first day of school, she asked Lin Kai, Xu Yi, Wu Bo, and Zhang Song to take them to school to eat.

Xu Zijun also brought some.

There were also salted duck eggs. Seeing that everyone liked to eat them, Wang Yanmei packed some for them as well.