Xiao Jiu felt extremely honored to be able to personally experience the joy of the autumn harvest. Especially when she and her brother had fed the chickens, ducks, and geese to their hearts' content, and the little rabbits and ewes were circling around them, and the chicken and rabbit droppings were cleaned up neatly, they received pleasantly surprised praise from their elders.
This is all thanks to her good leadership. Although the two of them are young, they are not stupid and know how to cooperate with each other. The key is that they are not afraid of getting dirty or smelly. Although the young man was reluctant at first, when he heard that there would be delicious food as a reward, he did whatever she said without hesitation.
"These are dates? How come they're so big? Look at the date tree in our backyard, it only bears this many dates, but they're still quite sweet. Grandma waits until they're ripe before picking them every year. Look, they're already ripe, but I haven't even thought to pick them. Your dates are so much bigger than ours, aren't they? Where did they come from?"
The timing of jujubes' availability varies depending on factors such as regional temperature. The jujubes she's holding are as big as wild green-skinned eggs. They were taken from the warehouse and are summer jujubes. Despite their size, they aren't as sweet as you might imagine.
"The person at the door gave it to me. I don't recognize it. I didn't want to eat it, so I hid it. Now we can each have one. You should try it!"
Actually, she also had peaches in her space, big, juicy peaches that looked very precious. But her older brother couldn't see the peaches because their grandmother only gave each of them one peach to taste from the peaches on their family's peach tree. The rest were all exchanged for grain. Her older brothers were so envious back then that they could still remember how her older brother cried.
The Tao family planted two peach trees in the front yard because they used to make peach blossom wine. Both trees were in the courtyard of the front building.
There was a jujube tree and a persimmon tree planted in the back building (to make persimmon vinegar).
Grapevines (for winemaking) were planted in the courtyard.
Actually, there's a purpose to all the trees they planted. The peach and grape trees are for making wine, the persimmons can be used to make persimmon cakes in winter and also to make vinegar, and the jujubes are the most direct. The reason for planting this tree is that when my mother gave birth to my eldest brother, she was anemic, so they dug up one of the original persimmon trees and planted the jujube tree in order to help her replenish her blood. Unfortunately, it seems that the fruit hasn't been very plentiful in the last two years.
At this time last year, she didn't pay attention to the jujube trees, and when the peaches ripened in the summer, she didn't care either, mainly because she felt that the peaches didn't taste as good as those in her warehouse. Over time, the ownership of these fruit trees at home became less of her concern.
Even the grapevines at home were a different story. She had personally witnessed flies buzzing around them, which was utterly disgusting. Even after peeling the skins when she ate them, she still felt that grapes were not suitable for eating directly, unlike in later generations when they were all bagged, which made things a bit better.
So no matter how much fruit the grapevines in her yard bore, she didn't care. The warehouse had raisins, lychees, and all kinds of grapes, none of which tasted better than the ones she grew herself. Of course, Grandma didn't let them eat much either, because wine was more expensive than spirits, so Grandpa picked it all to make wine.
After all, they were a family of winemakers, and those who could make wine would never leave it for their children to eat. However, before the grapes were fully ripe, the older brothers had already stolen quite a few and had their fill of them.
The trellis made of grapevines in their house has been there for many years. They enjoy the cool shade and meals under the trellis in the summer. They even specially crafted a large stone table and several stone benches for it, which has a touch of the elegance and enjoyment of a wealthy family.
Xiao Jiu felt comfortable everywhere in the Tao family home, except for the outhouse which gave her a bit of a headache. Even though there were many mosquitoes, flies, and rats, it didn't affect her love for the home.
She was terrified of the outhouse because it was too deep; she was afraid of falling in. Plus, in the summer, maggots crawled everywhere, which was disgusting.
Fortunately, she was quite young, so for her safety, her grandmother let her go to the vegetable garden in the backyard to pick up the vegetables.
At first, she was a little disgusted by eating vegetables grown with manure, but she got used to it later. The key point is that eating this is better than eating vegetables grown with pesticides, right?
No matter how much you complain, this is how our ancestors planted the land. How can you possibly complain about everything?
So now she has fully adapted to the current farm life. Otherwise, why would she be so uninhibited in the peanut field, just biting into them and eating them?
Even if the land and vegetables are dirty now, they are still a hundred times better than anything grown with pesticides and fertilizers in later generations.
I would rather eat what I grow myself than what I take from a warehouse.
Even the two dates they were holding at this moment, Xiao Jiu washed them again and again before daring to give them to her brother, who knows if they had been soaked in chemicals.
"It's quite crisp, but it doesn't seem very sweet. It's not as sweet as the jujubes from our family's jujube tree. When we pick the jujubes in a few days, I'll wash a few for you to try."
It's not sweet, but it's quite juicy. I don't know where it's from. my country is a vast country with many varieties of dates; there are so many that we can't possibly eat them all.
In the evening, before the family had returned, the brother and sister picked up all the eggs in the chicken, duck and goose nests again. They always remembered their grandmother's words: they couldn't pick them all up, or they would stop laying eggs. The rooster patrolled back and forth like a guardian. Fortunately, it was already very familiar with the two of them and never dared to peck at them, probably intimidated by the little brother's imposing manner.
"You dare to mess with my sister? I'll have my dad slit your throat and see if you're still so arrogant!"
With a single shout, the rooster that was crowing immediately fell silent, and even the large white goose next to it dared not squawk.
"Brother, have we ever fed dogs before?"
The young man nodded. "Yes, we had a dog before our eldest brother was born. We fed it for several years, and it grew up with our eldest and second eldest brothers. It passed away when it was nine years old. Our eldest and second eldest brothers were heartbroken for a long time, and they never raised another dog again after that."
Xiao Jiu immediately understood that this was a fear of separation. However, the fact that the young man could express it so clearly showed that the dog had been mentioned quite often at home.
The brother and sister had just collected the eggs and herded the chickens, ducks, and geese back into the house when they heard a knock on the back door.
"Is anyone home? Is your wife home? Is anyone home?"
Upon hearing the voice, the young man immediately covered Xiao Jiu's mouth. Xiao Jiu blinked and struggled to cover her mouth herself, not wanting the young man's hand, which had just touched the egg, to touch her. So she preferred to cover her mouth herself.
After everyone left, she asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? Wasn't that Grandma Niu's voice?"
“She comes to our house to drink free goat milk. Grandma said she comes every day, and every time she comes she brings a big basin. After she finishes milking, we can’t drink any more. Haven’t you noticed that we haven’t had goat milk for three nights in a row?”
Xiao Jiu was taken aback for a moment, then realized that she hadn't noticed it before. She was eating her main meal, so she had forgotten about the goat milk.
I never expected such an unexpected turn of events.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com