The next morning, Yang Donghu hurriedly ate his meal and stood under the peach tree, feeling troubled.
The peaches on this tree are soft peaches. You can't knock them off directly when you pick them like you did the plums last time, otherwise the peaches will rot before you can eat them.
It was impossible to reach the destination without a ladder. The Zhao family's ladder was taken to the town by Zhao He to do work. Yang Donghu had no choice but to plan to borrow one from his neighbor.
The only acquaintances he knew were Tianniu's family. The summer harvest had just passed, and the whole family was staying at home together.
Aunt Zhao and Yinchun took advantage of the cool weather to do some chores around the house, because otherwise when the sun came out, they would be too hot to move.
Yinchun's husband was sitting aside, hugging Tianniu and playing with a rattle, while Jinbao was sitting aside, drawing on the ground with a branch he had picked up from somewhere.
Everyone in the family was busy, and the first person to see Yang Donghu was the little sweet girl.
"Brother Donghu." As soon as Tianniu saw him coming, she no longer wanted the rattle or her father, and twisted her body and threw herself into Yang Donghu's arms.
Yang Donghu smiled and took her into his arms. The two of them, big and small, put their foreheads together and smiled brightly.
"Donghu? You're up so early, have you eaten yet?" Aunt Zhao was washing clothes and saw Yang Donghu, still as enthusiastic as ever: "Come down quickly, sweet girl, you're tiring your brother out any longer."
"I don't want it."
Yang Donghu smiled and weighed Tianniu in his arms, then replied, "It's okay. Our Tianniu is light. Auntie, do you have a ladder? There are a lot of peaches in my yard that are ripe. If we hadn't picked them, they would have fallen into the mud. But the peach trees are so tall that we can't reach them without a ladder."
Aunt Zhao wiped her hands on her apron and said, "Yes, it's in the west room."
Then she directed Yinchun's husband, who was sitting in the corridor, "Go get the ladder for Donghu and take it back to his house."
The man stood up and went to his storage room to carry out a long ladder.
When they were going back, Tianniu wanted to follow them as expected. Although Jinbao didn't say anything, he stared at Yang Donghu with his eyes fixed.
Yang Donghu knew that the two children were probably craving peaches after hearing about them, so he turned around and said to Yinchun and Aunt Zhao, "Let them come with me. There are many people at home who can see everything. Aunt Cuilan also misses Tianniu."
Aunt Zhao seemed to know what was going on. She glanced at the two children with a hint of resentment, but without stopping them, she turned to look at Yinchun and said, "You should go too. The two children will fight if they leave you. You should go and look after them. There are only a few clothes left. I'll go and check on them after I finish washing them."
Yinchun and her mother-in-law have a good relationship. Aunt Zhao is even more grateful to her for adding to the family line. She usually goes along with the young couple in everything. Although Yinchun is the mother of two children, she got married early and is not much older than Yang Donghu.
Everyone in the family went out to join in the fun, leaving Yinchun alone at home feeling bored. It would be better to let her go with them.
"Okay." Yinchun stood up after hearing that and pulled Jinbao to go to Zhao's house.
The peach tree in Zhao Luochuan's yard is now more than decades old and has grown thicker than a person's thigh. The family is full of women and children. If a girl or a boy wants to climb the tree to pick the peaches, they must first put the ladder on the trunk, step on it to climb up the branches, push aside the layers of leaves, and stand on tiptoe to barely reach the peaches.
It looked quite dangerous. Yinchun's husband was the only man present, so he decided to help others and go up the tree to pick the peaches himself.
Holding the basket Zhu Cuilan handed to him, he climbed up the tree and hung the basket on a thick branch. When he raised his hand, he got a pink peach.
Yinchun stood under the tree and told her husband to be extra careful. There weren't many ripe peaches to begin with, and they were picked soon before the man came down the tree with a basket of peaches.
The peaches looked more tempting up close than those growing on the tree. Yang Donghu picked up one and squeezed it. The peaches grown in his own garden were just as good as those sold outside.
Not only did the adults like it, but the sweet girl's eyes were so fixed on the basket that she couldn't even take them out: "Brother, is this sweet?"
Zhu Cuilan cherished her, took out two big peaches from the basket and stuffed them into the arms of the two children, then gave half of them to Yinchun and said to Yinchun's husband: "Zhuzi, you have worked hard today. Take these peaches back and let your family taste them."
Since it was not something bought with money, there was no need for neighbors to be overly polite. After Yinchun simply thanked Zhu Cuilan, the family happily went back with the ladder.
The taste in memory was too hard to forget. With the peaches, Zhao Fangchu could hardly wait to pull Yang Donghu into the kitchen.
Yesterday, Zhu Cuilan explained how to make peaches in syrup. The peaches ripen naturally on the tree, and the skin can be easily peeled off without boiling in water.
Pour water into the pot, add rock sugar, put the peaches in and slowly boil with warm water. When the juice slowly changes color, you can take them out and put them in the well to chill. You can eat them after a few hours.
The sweet aroma of peaches filled every corner of the house. Zhao Fangchu stopped burning the fire, stood up and blew away the white smoke that blocked his eyes. After seeing what was inside, he seemed to be hesitant to speak.
"What's wrong? Different?" Yang Donghu noticed something strange and looked up at Zhao Fangchu.
Zhao Fangchu scratched his head: "Hmm...it seems a little different. I remember that the color made by my aunt was darker than this. This color is too light. I don't know if I remembered it wrongly."
The peach juice in the pot is sweet and has a light pink color, but the peach water can only be this color at best. If you want a darker color, you have to use other things to dye it.
"Do you remember what color it was?"
"It's lighter than plum water, a bit like, like... oh, a bit like the color of that new box of powder I bought yesterday."
Zhao Fangchu took out the powder from his bosom and handed it to Yang Donghu, then opened the lid of the box to reveal a bright red powder.
Yang Donghu compared the powder with the peach juice and found that the color was indeed much lighter. He pursed his lips, seeming a little distressed.
The color of the box of powder was very bright, similar to the color of the oleander flowers in some families in the village. However, oleander is poisonous and its juice can kill people, so it is obviously not suitable to be put in food.
However, as Yang Donghu looked at it, he suddenly felt that the color of the powder looked familiar. Suddenly, he remembered that the wild cherry honey brewed in his house was this color.
His eyes lit up, and he returned the powder to Zhao Fangchu: "We still have some wild cherry honey in the room. Go get me a small bowl."
Wild cherry honey was originally used to make pastries, but its color matched Zhao Fangchu's impression of candied peaches. Yang Donghu scooped a spoonful with a spoon and put it in the pot and stirred it evenly. The color immediately became much darker.
Zhao Fangchu shouted happily: "Yes, yes, this is the right color, this is the right color, Dong Ge you are amazing, you can make it right on the first try."
Only after getting Zhao Fangchu's affirmation did Yang Donghu feel relieved. He put all the peaches in a large bowl, placed them in a basket and covered them with a cloth. The bottom of the well was already cold, so there was no need to let them touch the water surface. He could just hang them halfway in the well to chill them in the air. After half a day, he could bring them up to taste.
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