Ping drove his car, not taking the narrow paths between the houses, but instead taking the main road to reach the Zheng family's house.
The Zheng family's house is the kind of house they built themselves after buying the land. It has a strong local architectural style in Chaozhou and a touch of antique charm.
However, it looks very new from the outside.
Seeing Shen Qingqing looking around with her head tilted back after getting out of the car, Ping Ge chuckled, drove the car into the yard, parked it, and explained, "Do you think the house is very new?"
Shen Qingqing's hand was taken back by Zheng Wanyu. Upon hearing this, she looked at Ping Ge and nodded.
“The house is an old house, but it was just renovated two years ago.” Ping Ge pulled out a few pairs of slippers that looked like they hadn’t been worn much from the shoe rack at the front door and threw them in front of the three children.
Although Zheng Wanyu doesn't visit the Zheng family very often throughout the year, she still has her own shoes.
After changing her shoes, Shen Qingqing followed along as they walked inside, listening to Ping Ge's introduction.
In Zheng Wanyu's generation, there were five siblings in the Zheng family. The eldest brother is the current elder of the Zheng family. Zheng Wanyu is the youngest. There are two older brothers and one older sister. However, the third brother and the fourth sister unfortunately died during the famine.
My second brother later went into business and met his life partner overseas, so he settled there. He only comes back once a year, and sometimes he doesn't come back at all. He's not rich or powerful, just getting by.
Only the eldest brother and sister Zheng Wanyu have watched this lychee orchard grow from its humble beginnings to its present state.
Later, Zheng Wanyu got married, and only Zheng Laoda was left to support the lychee orchard. Fortunately, he got married and had children early, so the lychee orchard not only had successors, but also remained evergreen.
The brother and sister have supported each other for so many years. Even after Zheng Laoda passed away, the lychee orchard never lacked lychees for Zheng Wanyu.
Upon hearing this, Shen Qingqing couldn't help but nod. Indeed, whether in this life or the previous one, every year during lychee season, their family would receive lychees from their great-grandmother. Sometimes there were so many that they couldn't finish them all, so they were used to make lychee wine.
It wasn't until the early spring of 2015, when their great-grandmother passed away, that their family started buying a little lychee themselves and having their uncle send some over.
But whether it was Shen Qingqing's psychological effect or something else, the lychees she ate later always felt less sweet than the ones her great-grandmother had given her.
Thinking of this, Shen Qingqing looked back at her still energetic great-grandmother and smiled. She thought that her great-grandmother would be fine in this life and would definitely not pass away first.
Ping led them inside, "Grandpa! Great-Auntie is here! And a few little guests too!"
As soon as you enter, the coolness inside greatly relieves the heat outside.
After Ping Ge's voice fell, an old man dressed in a Tang suit opened the door and came out. His hair was not completely silver-white like Zheng Wanyu's, but rather somewhat gray.
Her features resembled Zheng Wanyu's. Upon seeing Zheng Wanyu, she came over and helped her up: "Auntie, why did you go to the lychee orchard first today? Didn't I tell you that we would take the lychees back after they were processed?"
Zheng Wanyu smiled and held Shen Qingqing's hand tightly. "I brought the children here today. They all wanted to go to the lychee orchard, so we went there first."
Grandpa Zheng then turned his attention to the children.
Shen Qingqing met his gaze, blinked, and spoke first, "Hello, Grandpa!"
Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong quickly followed suit and called for help.
Grandpa Zheng immediately smiled. Older people like lively and energetic children. He turned to Ping and directed him to get some frozen lychees from the refrigerator for the children to try.
Frozen lychee flesh has a sandy texture, just like eating popsicles. Kids have no self-control; once they start eating them, they can't stop. Luckily, Ping didn't take too many; he only took nine, three for each of them.
The Zheng family members haven't returned yet; they're at the lychee orchard processing the picked lychees and finishing the last remaining lychees in the western section.
However, more than an hour before lunchtime, three or four women of all ages returned from outside.
As soon as they entered and saw Zheng Wanyu, they started calling her "Auntie," "Old Auntie," and "Great-Grand Auntie."
Then they saw Shen Qingqing and two others. Ping introduced them to Zheng Wanyu, who had brought them as guests. The oldest woman looked very kind and immediately said that she would prepare a lychee feast for lunch.
Shen Qingqing and the other two had never seen anything like this before, and they were eager to take a look, but since they were guests at someone else's house, they felt embarrassed.
Ping noticed it and asked them if they wanted to go see how it was done.
It received a unanimous response from all three children.
The lychees used for cooking are all fresh lychees that have just been processed and brought back from the lychee orchard. The amount needed is not much, just enough to peel a stainless steel soup bowl.
Ping-ge is a junior, the same generation as Shen Qingqing and the others, so of course he was assigned to do this job.
Shen Qingqing watched for a while as Ping Ge peeled lychees and discovered that his method was different from theirs. He peeled them faster, and the lychee shell was split in two, revealing the tender white lychee. He then broke the lychee flesh in half from the stem and removed the pit.
Shen Qingqing felt she had learned it, so she sat down on a stool on the other side of the square table, reached for a lychee, and peeled it in the same way as Ping Ge.
Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong naturally followed suit and each took a lychee. However, even when the lychee was ripe, the thorns on the shell were still very prickly. The three children had very tender skin, and when they tried to peel the lychee using Ping Ge's method, their hands were already red from the thorns after peeling just three.
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