Min Yueqing smiled and said, "It's a rare opportunity to come all this way, so it's more fun to do it yourself. Da Shu and the others can lead the way, so you can go ahead."
Seeing that although his wife had a smile on her face, her eyes held an inherent authority, clearly indicating that she insisted on doing things this way, Li Er dared not say anything more and had no choice but to take his leave.
When Da Shu, Er Zhu, and Ma Mao saw that Li Er had left, their expressions became much more lively. They skipped and hopped over to Min Yueqing and said all at once, "Madam, we'll take you there. We come every year, we know it very well."
Min Yueqing smiled and said, "Then it's up to you."
The three children nodded repeatedly, looking smug and as if they had everything covered for me, which made Shi Tou laugh uncontrollably. "Hurry up and go, you haven't even started working yet, and you've already bragged a lot."
The three of them, including Mao Mao, refused to listen and continued arguing with Shi Tou as they carried the basket forward.
Min Yueqing put Pei Ji down and said gently, "Lele, try walking around and see if you feel better now."
Perhaps infected by the lively atmosphere of Shi Tou and the others, Pei Ji did not feel any leg pain when she got out of the car. She then tried to take a few steps and found that she could walk normally without any awkwardness. She immediately turned to Min Yueqing and said happily, "Mother, my legs don't hurt anymore, and I can walk properly now."
Min Yueqing naturally feigned surprise and said, "You've recovered so quickly. It seems the medicine I applied at noon is working."
Pei Ji cheered and stepped back to take Min Yueqing's hand, "Mother, let's hurry and follow them."
Once inside the woods, Pei Ji was even happier, constantly pointing out things he found interesting to Min Yueqing. The woods were planted with persimmon trees, all laden with fruit, though some of the persimmons were clearly unripe and still quite green.
Mao Mao and the others, familiar with the area, led them through a maze of paths and quickly found an area where the persimmons were riper than the ones they had just seen.
“Mother, look, the persimmons at the top of this tree are the reddest.” Pei Ji pointed to the top of the fruit tree diagonally in front of her.
The persimmons at the top were indeed much redder than those at the bottom, almost entirely red, while the other persimmons were either half red or had an orange-yellow hue.
Standing to the side, Big Tree pointed to the orange-yellow persimmons and said, "Madam, don't be fooled by the fact that these persimmons aren't red yet; they're quite sweet."
Even the stone was wary of these greenish-yellow persimmons, so it asked the big tree, "Won't they taste astringent? The wild persimmons we used to pick on the mountain were this color, and they were so astringent."
Big Tree shook his head and said, "No, Grandma will soak it in warm water first, and then let it sit overnight, and it won't be astringent anymore."
After listening, Shi Tou scratched his head. It turned out that it wasn't that the persimmons were bad, but that they didn't know how to eat them.
Pei Ji then asked, "The persimmon tree is so tall, how are we going to pick them?"
Mao Mao shook the bamboo pole in his hand and replied, "You can use this to hook it down." He then demonstrated how.
Pei Ji saw him holding up a bamboo pole and using the hooked end to pull up a relatively red persimmon. Sure enough, the persimmon fell into the bag below the hook.
Pei Ji let out a small "Ah!" in surprise, his eyes widening in surprise.
Seeing this, Mao Mao asked, "This is very simple, young master, would you like to try?"
Pei Ji looked up and examined the long bamboo pole again. He wondered if he could lift it. He wasn't really sure, but he couldn't resist his curiosity. He nodded and reached out to Mao Mao.
Seeing that he nodded, Mao Mao took the persimmons she had hooked out of the bag, then held the bamboo pole vertically and handed it to him. Pei Ji took the bamboo pole with both hands, at a height similar to his own.
Shi Tou looked a little uneasy. Although Pei Ji was not short among his peers, he was still much shorter than this long bamboo pole. After he grabbed the bamboo pole, the top of the pole was swaying.
Shi Tou, who was already standing next to Pei Ji, stepped back slightly to support him.
Pei Ji suddenly felt that his hands were lighter and the bamboo pole was no longer swaying. He looked back and saw the stone. Instead of trying to be brave, he thought it was fine this way and said to the stone, "Let's try it together."
Shi Tou readily agreed. He was afraid that if Pei Ji really wanted to go out and hook the persimmons by himself with a bamboo pole, he would fall down before he even hooked the persimmons, which would only make things worse.
Pei Ji pointed to the red persimmon at the top of the tree he had just praised and said, "Let's pick this one."
Seeing this, Min Yueqing chuckled inwardly. "She's small in stature but has big ambitions. She actually chose the highest tree on the whole tree."
Shi Tou looked at Pei Ji's hand and was also very interested. He and Pei Ji had the same idea: if you're going to pick one, you should pick the best one, otherwise what's the point? He immediately said, "Okay, this one is the best."
With the help of the stone, Pei Ji shakily lifted the long bamboo pole. It was their first time trying, so they were bound to stumble a bit. After a while, they finally found the right way to apply force and successfully got close to the persimmon.
At this point, Pei Ji's hand had moved to the bottom of the bamboo pole. Because the persimmons were too tall, they had to raise the bamboo pole higher as well.
Min Yueqing appeared to be standing idly to the side, but her eyes were actually keeping a close eye on the two children. This posture was actually not safe, because if Pei Ji's hand did not hold on tightly, the bottom end of the bamboo pole could fly up and hit his face.
However, after observing carefully for a while, Min Yueqing was no longer worried. It was obvious that Shi Tou had also noticed the problem, and he would promptly remind Pei Ji to adjust his position according to the direction of the bamboo pole. In this way, even if Pei Ji did not hold on properly, he would not be bounced off by the reaction force of the bamboo pole.
Min Yueqing was satisfied. Her apprentice seemed carefree, but when it came to caring about someone, she was very thoughtful.
"Young Master, Stone, raise your hooks a little higher, just hook the branches at the top of the persimmon tree." Mao Mao followed Pei Ji and the other man with a concerned look, feeling even more nervous than they were.
As expected, Shi Tou led Pei Ji to raise the bamboo pole slightly and sway it against the branch above the target persimmon.
Mao Mao shouted again, "Hook it down! Hook it down!"
Pei Ji saw the hook get caught on a thin branch and quickly said to Shi Tou, "Pull!" The two of them pulled the bamboo pole downwards together, and the thin branch snapped in response. The persimmon they were after fell into the bag with a "thud."
Pei Ji and Shi Tou jumped up at the same time, laughing heartily. They slowly laid the bamboo pole down, then took out persimmons from the bag. Perhaps because they hadn't gotten them easily, the two of them thought the persimmons looked even more beautiful.
Pei Ji and Shi Tou exchanged a glance, as if they had reached some kind of consensus, and then ran to Min Yueqing in a flash, "Mother/Master, you eat!"
Min Yueqing could already taste the sweetness of the persimmons before she even took a bite. She felt that she hadn't spoiled the two children for nothing. She smiled and took the persimmons, praising them, "You two are great. Go pick two more and we'll eat them together."
Pei Ji and Shi Tou both agreed and ran off happily to continue picking persimmons.
Seeing that they had already learned how to do it, Mao Mao joined Da Shu and Er Zhu's team. The two of them had already climbed up the tree in a flash, picking the pieces by hand. They had already picked half a basketful.
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