Yu Yao noticed that there were many tall coconut trees and mango trees near the small beach, which were now laden with fruit.
Some of the fruits have already turned yellow.
Lu Ze climbed the tree and picked two mangoes.
Yu Yao took a bite.
Although it was a bit sour and the pit was a bit big, it didn't have much sinew, and the larger ones had more meat.
"This mango is good. It would taste good if we added some sugar and made it into dried fruit."
"When the mangoes are ripe, come and pick them if you want. Pick as many as you want."
Yu Yao asked in surprise, "Isn't this military property? Don't we need to report to the military?"
Lu Ze shook his head. "No need. Let alone the military, the entire island has more mangoes than it can eat. Nobody wants these wild mangoes with little flesh and big pits. If you don't pick them, they'll just rot."
Yu Yao hadn't expected this reason and felt a little regretful. "These mangoes are a bit sour, but with a little effort, they could have been made into delicious dishes. It's such a waste that they've just gone rotten."
Yu Yao loves eating fruit and spends a lot of money on it every year. After transmigrating into the book and arriving at the island, although she achieved fruit freedom, she still felt a little reluctant to watch the fruit rot.
"Didn't the military ever think of making use of these mangoes?"
"It's not that the military doesn't want to utilize it, it's just that there's too much fruit. Do you know how much the mangoes grown by the purchasing station cost per kilogram last year?"
Yu Yao shook her head. "How much?"
Lu Ze sighed, "Five points."
Yu Yao's eyes widened. "So cheap?"
This price was somewhat unexpected for Yu Yao.
Cultivated wild berries can only sell for five cents, so wild ones will fetch even less. Plus, the taste is mediocre, the trees are tall, and harvesting is troublesome, so it's no wonder nobody wants them.
As expected, Lu Ze's next words proved her guess.
"These wild mangoes are only picked by the kids in the compound; no one else wants them."
Not only mangoes, but also other fruits, when there was a bumper harvest, the commune leaders were not happy at all, but often worried until their hair turned white.
Unlike other things, fruits are not resistant to transportation and storage. The amount that purchasing stations collect each year is limited. When there is a bumper harvest, supply exceeds demand, and prices continue to fall.
If it weren't for the government's safety net, we wouldn't even be able to sell it for five cents.
Even if it's just five cents, they don't buy as much as you can get. Once the purchasing station has bought enough, the farmers have no choice but to keep the rest for themselves. If they can't finish it, it just rots.
"Didn't the military ever think of turning these mangoes into canned goods or dried mangoes to sell?" Yu Yao asked.
Lu Ze said, "Do you remember the side business group that Song Yiming mentioned? Commander Lei's initial idea was to let the side business group try it out first, and if it succeeded, then expand production and build a military factory."
Hearing Lu Ze say that, Yu Yao finally remembered, "The side business group you mentioned, is it the one that Deputy Regiment Commander Ning's wife is in charge of?"
"That's right, this is it. The side hustle group hasn't been doing well these past two months and is on the verge of disbanding."
The side hustle group had many complex issues, which Lu Ze didn't elaborate on, and Yu Yao didn't ask any more questions either.
After returning from their workout, it was still early, so Yu Yao and Lu Ze went to the cafeteria for breakfast and waited at home for Wu Huaiqing and Wu Wanying to go bird's nest picking together.
Lu Ze had other things to do at home, so he didn't go.
Yu Yao called out to Wu Huaiqing and Wu Wanying, while Su Meihua called out to Grandma Miao and Grandpa Lei.
Six people and a dog carried baskets and bamboo hampers on their backs and went up the mountain.
This time, Yu Yao also had a little one in her backpack.
It's the swiftlet we rescued last time.
The swiftlet was injured last time, and Yu Yao took it home, treated it with medicine, and carefully nursed it back to health for a week. Now its injuries have almost completely healed.
Yu Yao brought it out, ready to release it into the wild.
This time, instead of taking the path through the cave, they detoured through the Kapok Valley and passed under the cliff.
When Lu Ze was inspecting the cave, he discovered a crevice in the rock outside that led to the cave.
The reason so many of them went was twofold: first, to tidy up the rugged rock crevice; and second, to see if there were any valuable items in the cave below the cliff.
The mountain walls here are steep, and few people usually come here. There are caves everywhere at the bottom of the cliffs. When the tide comes in, the caves are filled with seawater. When the tide goes out in the afternoon, there must be a lot of good stuff there.
After a morning of hard work, the six of them finally cleared the path through the crevice and sat on the clean rocks to eat.
During the break between repairing this rocky road, Wu Huaiqing couldn't stay idle, so he went around to explore the surrounding area and discovered that there were several other caves like this on the rock face, all located halfway up the mountain.
You can also see swiftlets going in and out of those caves, where there should be bird's nests.
However, there are no passageways to those caves; to get in, one must climb, which is even more dangerous.
Yu Yao and the others had no choice but to give up for now.
Lunch consisted of rice balls that Yu Yao and Su Meihua had made together that morning.
As soon as Yu Yao took out her rice balls, they attracted everyone's attention.
Although the rice balls were cold and didn't smell as good as when they were hot, they could still smell an enticing aroma from close proximity.
This aroma is a blend of meat, rice, vinegar, and lychee notes... The rich fragrance is not overpowering, but rather subtle and gentle, yet with a lingering aftertaste.
Today's work is all physically demanding, so I can't do it without eating enough.
Each rice ball is about the size of an adult's palm and is filled with various fillings that can be eaten cold.
"Sister-in-law Su Meihua and I picked some large leaves. You can wrap the rice balls in the large leaves and eat them."
Yu Yao handed over a stack of clean leaves.
Wu Huaiqing wrapped a rice ball in a leaf and smelled it. "It smells delicious."
I took a bite, and it tasted even better.
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