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67: Picking Hawthorns, Shameless Sanlang

Su Zhi looked at the small red fruit in her hand and found that it was hawthorn. Speaking of hawthorn, she loved it very much. This hawthorn is also called mountain red. It can be made into hawthorn cake, hawthorn sauce, hawthorn juice, canned hawthorn, and the most common one is candied haws. These are all delicious. Add a little sugar and it will be delicious with a sweet and sour taste, which is very tasty.

When Chuncao heard Su Zhi say that she could make this sour little fruit taste good, she believed it instinctively. She had eaten the food cooked by Fourth Auntie, and it was so delicious. Even the most ordinary corn porridge, she could make it taste especially good, making her feel as happy as if she had eaten meat.

"Auntie Si, if you can make this sour fruit taste good, I will pick a lot of it for you! There are so many of these sour fruits growing over there! I will pick them all for you!"

Chuncao said this excitedly and turned around and wanted to run.

"Stop, girl!" Li called Chuncao and looked at Su Zhi a little embarrassedly. She felt that Su Zhi just said that just to avoid making Chuncao feel uncomfortable. She felt that Su Zhi was really a gentle person, and she felt better about Su Zhi. "Fourth brother's wife, you are still busy, don't pay attention to her."

Li said that she was thinking that if her daughter really picked a lot of sour fruits for her fourth brother's wife, it would be useless for her. What if her daughter was ignorant enough to ask her fourth brother's wife to cook the sour fruits? Wouldn't it be embarrassing for her fourth brother's wife if she couldn't cook it? She should not be unhappy then.

Chunyue also pulled Chuncao and asked her to hold Chunyun so that she wouldn't really go to pick the fruit. She also knew that the red sour fruit was not delicious. Only pregnant women liked to eat it. Few people with normal taste liked it. To be honest, there were many people who could eat bitter melon, but not many who were willing to eat the red sour fruit. Even the greedy kids didn't like to eat it!

Su Zhi saw Li's worry. She thought that the hawthorn, which was called the red sour fruit here, was really not popular at that time, so Li didn't believe that she could make the fruit delicious.

"Sister-in-law, I really like eating these red and sour fruits. I have nothing to do now, so let Chuncao take me to pick some. I will cook something delicious for you to taste later."

Seeing that there was still a lot of hot water, Su Zhi asked Chunlan if the place where she could pick the red sour fruit was far away. When she heard that she could get there just by walking to the foot of the mountain, without having to go up the mountain, she immediately became interested. She asked a few nephews and nieces who would like to go with her to pick the red sour fruit after dinner in the afternoon. She was a gentle person, and the children of the first and second wives liked her. Not surprisingly, they were all willing to go with her.

On the day of the beam raising ceremony, the family who built the new house did not set up a banquet, but only gave red envelopes to each worker. Although the amount was not much, it was for the sake of auspiciousness. The adults who came to watch the excitement drank tea, and the children had snacks. After the beam raising ceremony, the people who came to watch the excitement dispersed. There was no lunch, but there was something to talk about on this day. People would constantly talk about the house built by this family and the things of this family, as if it had always been like this.

The real banquet has to wait until the greenhouse is built. On that day, the guests have to bring gifts, and the host family has to set up the banquet and make a lively scene to show that the family will live a stable and prosperous life in the future.

Because there was no need to set a banquet, Su Zhi was not tired that day. She had dinner with Shen Zian, and then she mentioned that she wanted to go pick sour fruits with the children.

Shen Zian thought that his wife had only gone into the mountains and the city with him once these days. She had spent the rest of her time wandering around the house, and she must have been bored. Although he wanted to accompany her, the builders came early in the afternoon, and Su Zhi asked him to stay at home. He thought that it was safe at the foot of the mountain, and that adults and children went there to pick pigweed, dig wild vegetables, and pick fruits, and nothing had ever happened, so he nodded in agreement.

Li came in the afternoon and Wang stayed at home to do housework, but all the children came.

Su Zhi carried a backpack and went with the eldest and second brothers Chunlan, Chunxiang, Chunyue and Chuncao. The youngest Chunyun wanted to go too, but was stopped by Li. Her legs were too short and she walked slowly. She would probably be a burden to someone soon, and Li didn't want to cause trouble for Su Zhi.

The group chatted and laughed as they walked to the foot of the mountain, then turned a corner along the foot of the mountain, walked forward, climbed slightly, passed through a dense patch of pine and cypress trees, and walked forward in twists and turns so as not to be pricked by the pine needles. After turning about seven or eight corners, they finally reached their destination.

Su Zhi thought that she had gone up the other side last time, and it was going uphill, so no wonder she didn't see these fruit trees. But even if she went this way, she would have taken a detour when she saw these pines and cypresses. She didn't know if she could still walk up this hillside.

There are some trees on this not-so-high hillside. Some have lost their leaves, some are still green, and only a few seem to be blooming with red plum blossoms, adding color to the autumn scenery. They are hawthorn trees.

"No one picked these fruits? Although they taste a little sour, they are still juicy and beautiful. You will take them home to play with them instead of just letting them hang on the tree or fall to the ground and rot, right?"

Su Zhi looked at the three hawthorn trees that still had a lot of fruits on them and thought it would be a shame if no one picked them. Firstly, it was a shame for the fruits, and secondly, it was a shame for the people here to have food but not know how to eat it.

Dalang said, "Auntie Si, these fruits are beautiful, but they are not edible. What's the point of just looking at them? Won't it make you even hungrier? It's better not to pick them. These fruits are so small, and it's troublesome to pick them. You might as well pick some other fruits or do some work if you have that time."

Seeing Dalang talking like a grown-up, Su Zhi smiled and said, "If people are hungry, they don't care whether it tastes bad or not. Children love to have something in their mouths. It seems that you are still not hungry."

Chunyue smiled and said, "Auntie, all children love snacks, but not many like this red sour fruit. Not only is it sour, but eating it will make you even hungrier."

Chuncao nodded and said, "Yes, my sister and I came here to dig wild vegetables. We were hungry, so we ate this small fruit. It made us even hungrier and we felt very hungry."

Su Zhi thought hawthorns were good for appetite, but they were not good for hunger. They could only be eaten as snacks or as medicine, but not to relieve hunger. And the children in the countryside all ate snacks for the sake of taste and hunger relief, not for hunger! No wonder no one picked hawthorns anymore.

Chunxiang asked, "Auntie Si, can you really make this red sour fruit delicious?"

When she asked this, the other children all looked at her. They were all very curious about whether the fourth aunt, who cooked delicious meals, could make such sour red fruits delicious. Children were interested in food, and the older ones like Dalang and Erlang knew that if Su Zhi could really make these red sour fruits delicious, then all the fruits from these trees could be eaten, and the more they could eat, the better. The children in the Shen family could only eat 70% full at every meal, so they cherished food very much.

"Of course I can! I'll treat you to some when I'm done. But once people know that this fruit can be used to make delicious food, I guess there won't be so many fruits waiting for us to pick every year. So hurry up and pick all of them now, don't leave any behind."

"Okay! Watch me!"

Erlang brought a bamboo pole and started hitting the branches and forks with it. The leaves of the hawthorns had already fallen off, and soon the hawthorns would dry up on the trees. Now the fruit stalks were almost dry, and they fell off easily with just a hit. The people standing under the trees were all hit on the head and face by the rain of fruit, and they ran away screaming and holding their heads.

After a while, most of the hawthorns on one tree had fallen off, but there were still some left for the last harvest. Erlang went to pick hawthorns from another tree. Su Zhi led the children to pick hawthorns. They picked about a basket and a basket from this tree. Fortunately, there were many people and everyone brought something, so they were able to take all the hawthorns back at once.

With the cooperation of these seven people, they picked all the hawthorns from the three trees in less than an hour.

The group of people walked back carrying things on their backs or in their arms. Only the youngest Chuncao held a handful of sour dates. She took a bite and stuck out her tongue because they were so sour. She wondered how Fourth Auntie was going to make this sour fruit taste better.

When going down the mountain, Su Zhi met Sanlang and Silang. When the two guys saw them coming towards them with their backs and arms around each other, they did not hide but walked towards them and stared at the things in their hands. The look in their eyes made people feel uncomfortable.

Su Zhi thought that they were of the same blood and lived under the same roof, but why were the people from the first, second and third branches of the Shen family completely different? The children from the first and second branches were so cute, but the children from the third branch just took after their parents, and it was obvious at first glance that they were not good people. Look at their eyes bulging with anger, as if they were trying to steal something!

"Sanlang, Silang, what do you want?"

Sanlang glanced at Su Zhi, then his eyes fell on the basket in Chunyue's hand. There was nothing covering it, and red fruits could be seen. He said, "Are those sour fruits in your hands? It looks like you picked all the fruits! The tree doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the village! How could you pick them all? Give me a basket, or I'll go to the head of the village and sue you!"

Su Zhi frowned, thinking what kind of child is this, he really is worthy of being the eldest son of Shen Ziping and Sun!

Dalang said, "This fruit is not yours! Everyone knows whoever picks this wild fruit belongs to him. Why are you talking nonsense?"

Erlang also said, "If you say that again, return all the pears you picked from the pear tree next to the mountain! They are worth much more than these sour fruits. If you do that, I will beat you to death!"

Saburo shrank his neck.

Si Lang bit his finger and said, "Auntie Si, my mother wants to eat that fruit."

Sanlang raised his head again and said, "Yes, my mother wants to eat sour fruits. If you don't give them to me, I will tell Grandpa and Grandma that you picked all the sour fruits and didn't give them to my mother! I will say that you did it on purpose!"