Chapter 11: Rain of Orders in the Orchard
# Chapter 11: Rain of Orders in the Orchard
The day after the interview aired, Chen Wang was awakened by the incessant vibration of his phone. He checked his phone, and dozens of messages popped up on the screen—an e-commerce platform's invitation to join, titled "Cultural and Creative Collaboration on Traditional Crops"; a tourist's private message asking for tomato picking directions, with the message "I want to bring my children to experience tomato farming"; and most prominently, a message from the County Cultural and Tourism Bureau: "Cultural and creative products are becoming popular. Three travel agencies have booked picking tours for next week, with an estimated 30 people per tour!"
Chen Wang slipped on his slippers and ran to the next yard. The lights in Lin Xiaoman's house were still dark. She had been helping sort out the supply list for old-variety crops until late last night. As Chen Wang left, he saw her rubbing her sore shoulders. He knocked gently on the door, his voice soft, "Xiaoman, are you awake? I have good news."
The door opened quickly. Lin Xiaoman was wearing a light gray housecoat, with a faint dark tint under her eyes. Her hair was casually tied back, and she was clutching a half-eaten cookie—probably from last night's hunger. "What's wrong? So early..." Her voice was still hoarse from just waking up. When she saw the message on Chen Wang's phone, her eyes lit up instantly, and she almost dropped the cookie in her hand. "Is there really a travel agency booking a fruit picking tour? And someone wants to order a hundred servings of strawberry jam?"
Her voice was full of surprise, yet deliberately kept it low, as if she was afraid of disturbing this unexpected good luck. Her fingertips repeatedly swiped across the order information on the screen, and the tips of her ears turned red.
The two hurried to the backyard and saw Grandma Zhang sitting on the stone pier at the gate from a distance. She held up her phone to show the aunties: "Look, Xiaowang and Xiaoman are on TV! These tomatoes are growing so well, just like the children in our village!" Uncle Li came over carrying a pile of newly woven bamboo baskets, which still smelled of fresh bamboo strips. "I heard from Grandma Zhang that there are a lot of orders, so I got up early to weave a few. We can use them for picking tomatoes and storing strawberry jam later."
Chen Wang pushed open the gate to the courtyard. Several young villagers were already busy in the backyard. Some were sorting the unpacked vanilla soaps from yesterday, while others were watering the tomato seedlings. Seeing them approach, they all smiled and greeted, "Brother Chen, Sister Xiaoman, our cultural creations are a hit! My friends in the city are all asking where to buy strawberry jam!"
There was no fantastical scene of grapes spelling out numbers, but there was a more real bustle: the order statistics board that Chen Wang had nailed to the wall before was already filled with words written in red pen by the villagers - "E-commerce platform: 50 cans of strawberry jam", "Supermarket supply: 200 kilograms of star-shaped tomatoes", "Picking groups: 3 sessions, 30 people each", and every stroke was full of seriousness; there were several empty ceramic jars beside the strawberry patch, which were the strawberry jam jars that were sold out yesterday. Aunt Wang was squatting beside them, cleaning them and preparing to fill them with fresh jam; there were several pieces of paper drying under the lemon seedlings, which were the supermarket address list sent by the County Cultural and Tourism Bureau. Lin Xiaoman had specially printed it out before and pressed it with stones to prevent it from being blown away by the wind.
"There are so many orders, it's like it's raining!" Uncle Li came to the statistics board and sighed. He reached out to pat Chen Wang on the shoulder, but then remembered what he said yesterday about the tender tomato vines and that they had to be handled gently. Instead, he patted the bamboo racks next to him and said, "We have to quickly build a picking path so that tourists don't have nowhere to go."
Lin Xiaoman nodded and took out the notes she had sorted out earlier from her canvas bag - the old variety record she had given to Chen Wang, and turned to the page of "Picking Precautions": "Pick the tomatoes when they are completely red, leaving a little bit of the fruit stem so that they are not easy to rot; put the strawberries in a small bamboo basket, with two leaves on a layer to prevent them from being crushed." As she read, her fingertips gently tapped the words, and occasionally looked up at Chen Wang, her eyes full of inquiring "Do you think this is right?"
Chen Wang took the notebook, flipped through two pages, and said with a smile, "It's just as I thought. Let's divide the work—you lead the ladies in making fresh strawberry jam and packaging vanilla soap, and I'll work with the young people to set up the picking path and sort out the orders. Uncle Li, could you please take a few people to town to get some packaging materials? We need those breathable paper boxes, perfect for tomatoes."
The backyard soon became lively: the big pot of sauce wafted with the sweet aroma of strawberries, mixed with the refreshing taste of lemon; the bamboo poles building the walkway collided with each other, making a light "dong dong" sound, and no one dared to use force for fear of damaging the tomato vines nearby; the children also came to help, squatting by the strawberry patch to pick up fallen leaves and put them in bamboo baskets for later use; Wangfu ran around with the label paper in his mouth, and handed the label of "Old Variety Strawberry Jam" to Aunt Wang, and then handed the label of "Star-Shaped Tomatoes" to Chen Wang, his tail wagging like a blooming flower.
At noon, the first wave of self-driving tourists arrived. As the family of three entered the courtyard, the little girl was drawn to the tomato racks. Pointing at the angular, star-shaped tomatoes, she exclaimed, "Mom! This tomato looks like a star!" She gently touched the skin of the tomato, then quickly withdrew her hand, looking up and asking Lin Xiaoman, "Auntie, can I pick this tomato? I want to take one home."
"Of course you can." Lin Xiaoman squatted down and handed over a small bamboo basket. "If you want to pick the red ones, just turn them gently and they will come down. Don't pull the vines." As she spoke, her hair hung down to cover half of her face. The sunlight fell on the ends of her hair. The little girl reached out to touch it, but shyly shrank back.
Visitors tried the lemon tea and strawberry jam, and were full of praise: "This lemon tea is more refreshing than milk tea and not as sweet!" "You can taste the fruit in the strawberry jam, it's so tangy!" In less than half an hour, all the cultural and creative products left over from yesterday were sold out. Someone even asked Chen Wang to make a reservation: "I want to sign up for the picking tour next week and order 20 cans of strawberry jam as gifts for my colleagues."
After a busy evening, when the last group of tourists had left, the two finally had a chance to sit down on bamboo chairs and take a break. Chen Wang handed Lin Xiaoman a bowl of cold porridge—it had just been delivered by Grandma Zhang, still cool from the porcelain bowl. "Have some quick, you must be tired after making the sauce all afternoon."
Lin Xiaoman took the porridge and drank it in small sips, but her eyes were fixed on the numbers on the statistics board: "We sold more than 300 products today, and there are more than 50 spots for picking. It's much more than we expected." There was a satisfied smile in her voice, and the curve of her mouth looked like the newly ripe heart-shaped strawberries in the strawberry patch.
"It's all thanks to everyone's help." Chen Wang looked at the villagers who were packing up their things in the yard, then looked at Lin Xiaoman, "And the notes you compiled were a great help, otherwise I would definitely remember the precautions for mixed picking."
Lin Xiaoman's ears turned red. She lowered her head to stir the porridge in the bowl and whispered, "I just wrote it down. When I was learning to grow crops with my grandfather, I always wrote these down..."
At this time, the village director held up a loudspeaker and shouted at the gate: "Xiao Wang, Xiao Man, come out quickly! There is a surprise!"
Confused, they walked out and saw the villagers setting up a simple stage under the old locust tree at the village entrance. They used wooden boards as the platform and hung red silk for decoration. Grandma Zhang came over with some freshly fried sugar cakes and handed them two. "This is what we all agreed to do. We're having a little celebration to thank you two for making our village's traditional crops famous!"
The setting sun painted the sky a warm orange, and the celebration slowly began. The villagers gathered in a circle around the stage, and someone sang the old village tune, the simple lyrics of "You reap what you sow." Children chased each other around, and Wangfu ran after them, clutching a small cloth bag in his mouth—the same grape-dyed bag Chen Wang had given Lin Xiaoman. He hadn't noticed.
Lin Xiaoman saw the cloth bag, picked it up with a smile, and handed it to Chen Wang: "Look, Wangfu likes this very much."
Chen Wang took the cloth bag and handed it back to her, gently touching the back of her hand with his fingertips: "Take it, it's perfect for your notes, and it will be convenient for taking down orders in the future."
Lin Xiaoman didn't refuse. She clutched the bag tightly in her hand and looked up at the stage. The moonlight slowly rose, illuminating her face with a gentle smile. Chen Wang looked at her profile, then at the bustling villagers around him and the flourishing old crops in the yard, and suddenly felt at ease.
I sincerely feel that life is like cooked strawberry jam, slowly becoming sweeter and more delicious.
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