Chapter 337: Donkey Cart

The day after arriving at his hometown, Jiao Ba was still resting in the morning; this period he didn't have much rest time, as at school he had to watch over students and be busy with project assignments, and driving back to his hometown also tired him out; after arriving, his whole body relaxed, and he slept soundly through the night, a rare good rest.

Early that morning, many people in the village were already up; only some children and part of the workers who had returned home after working away were still resting indoors.

Although Zheng Tan was still a bit sleepy, Xiao Youzi and Jiao Yuan had gotten up; hearing they were to follow Old Master Jiao to help in the orchard, Zheng Tan thought he had nothing else to do and tagged along to see, while inside the house Jiao Ma and the elderly lady were busy preparing New Year goods, and Zheng Tan staying there couldn't help much.

The orchard wasn't Old Master Jiao's, but he was familiar with the people there and had helped them a lot; this is also one reason the Jiao family usually never lacks fruit. Now, because of the snow disaster and freeze damage, Old Master Jiao goes there every day to help, and so Jiao Yuan and Xiao Youzi, who had nothing to do at home, have been following him to the orchard for a few days—even if they can't really help, it's good to have a look.

From the old residence, the orchard isn't too far away, but because of the weather the roads aren't easy to travel, and it's cold in the morning, so these past few days they've all been taking the donkey cart.

Another reason Zheng Tan followed them was the donkey cart itself—whether he was still human or had been a cat these past few years, he had never ridden a donkey cart; at first glance it felt quite novel, full of rural charm.

The family raising the donkey wasn't far from the old residence either; after walking less than about five minutes, they saw a house with blue-gray tiles. Behind the tile-roofed house stood a newly built bungalow, but when constructing it they hadn't demolished the tile house completely, leaving part of it intact. This family also bore the surname Jiao; Jiao Ba called the old man 'Fifth Maternal Uncle'. By rights, Jiao Yuan should address him as 'Fifth Maternal Great-Uncle', but it felt awkward, so Old Master Jiao had the two kids call him 'Fifth Grandfather' instead, which felt closer. It was said that the day Jiao Yuan and the others returned, Old Master Jiao had planned that if they couldn't get a vehicle from the county to this place, he would have the donkey cart help out. 'Fifth Grandfather' was old and couldn't drive the family's farm vehicle, but handling the donkey cart he was quite adept at.

Jiao Yuan and Xiao Youzi were taken inside by Old Master Jiao, but Zheng Tan didn't follow right away; his attention was on the donkey shed nearby. Yesterday he had heard Xiao Youzi and Jiao Yuan say that this donkey was just over a year old, and that Old Master Jiao had encountered it while going into the mountains—back then it was still a small donkey, and no one knew where it came from. After meeting Old Master Jiao, it had followed him back.

At first, the family of 'Fifth Grandfather' had considered raising the donkey to sell it for meat. There were plenty of donkey‑eaters in the county town, and restaurants paid a decent price for donkey meat. But one day, the old man watched the little donkey kick up its heels and race his own son who was on a motorcycle, and something clicked in his mind—after that they came up with the donkey cart.

At that moment, the donkey tethered there was perking up its two long ears, staring wide‑eyed at Zheng Tan's side, with a white ring around its eyes.

Zheng Tan was always a bit wary of creatures with a colored ring around their eyes; although he knew many donkeys look like that, looking at the donkey before him he couldn't help but think of that pesky bird in the compound.

He shook his head, feeling he was probably overthinking it.

Just then, Zheng Tan saw the donkey walk to the low wall beside the donkey shed; on the section of the low wall that protruded outside the shed lay a cotton mat, presumably for the driver to sit on, and not far from the low wall stood a two‑wheeled wooden flatbed, which also had a similar mat on it.

However, at that moment a yellow‑and‑white spotted cat was lying on the cotton mat on the low wall; villagers basically keep cats to catch mice, so they aren't as particular about them as city dwellers, rarely bathe them, and this cat—who knows where it had rolled—had some gray dust and grass bits in its white fur. The cat seemed indifferent to its surroundings, digging its paws in, curled up on the mat with its head tucked, eyes closed, dozing.

The donkey wasn't very tall—noticeably smaller than an ordinary horse—but when it raised its head it could just barely show half its head above the low wall.

Watching the donkey amble over, Zheng Tan saw it approach the low wall and puff air from its nose at the spotted cat; the cat couldn't be bothered to open its eyes, aside from a twitch of its ears it remained unchanged.

When Zheng Tan thought the donkey would give up, it instead crept closer again, this time not blowing air but grabbing a corner of the cotton mat in its mouth and tugging lightly—though it didn't budge, and the cat on the mat didn't move.

The donkey pulled hard again; the cat, unprepared, rolled straight off the mat to the other end of the low wall, and Zheng Tan heard a soft 'thump' from over there—a haystack lay there, and the cat landing on it produced that sound.

The donkey released the mat, flicked its tail, and opened its mouth to utter an 'ah‑ang‑ang‑ng‑ang‑ng' call, somewhat tuneful, looking thoroughly smug and nasty.

Zheng Tan: '……' His first impression was indeed correct!

Just as the donkey was feeling pleased with itself, a shadow darted up onto the low wall from the other side.

The spotted cat leapt onto the low wall, propped itself on its hind legs, stood upright, spread its two forepaws, and slapped the donkey's face left and right.

While the donkey and cat were fussing over there, Old Master Jiao had already come out with the people, and the old man following him should be the 'Fifth Grandfather' that Jiao Yuan and the others called; his back was slightly stooped, but his spirit was good and his steps steady, and he too had been running to the orchard to help during this period.

Seeing the situation at the low wall, the old man walked over, patted the donkey's head, then began tidying the items on the wooden flatbed; as for the squabble between the donkey and the cat, he was long used to it—they were always causing a ruckus.

Having secured the rope, checked the harness, and placed the bags he was carrying onto the wooden flatbed, he called out for the others to get ready to go.

On the rugged mountain road, the donkey cart jolted and squeaked.

The donkey looked unimpressive, yet no one expected it to have the stamina for pulling; carrying four people, a cat, and several bags didn't seem all that difficult.

On the road the two old men kept chatting, talking about the latest news from various TV and radio stations. This disaster's overall losses were huge, especially for forestry workers: in the affected areas, forestry income accounts for over 50% of total income, and this snowstorm not only sharply reduced this year's income for the disaster‑zone forestry workers, but will also affect their earnings for the next three to five years. According to some official stations, several southern agricultural‑forestry provinces have forestry losses making up 40% to 60% of their total disaster losses.

Seedlings, bamboo groves and newly planted forests suffered severe damage, just as Old Master Jiao had been lamenting lately. Frozen‑to‑death seedlings are a very common sight. The province's bamboo forest area affected amounts to nearly 80% of its total bamboo forest, and in some regions where farmland has been returned to forest, 75% of the fruit trees are damaged. According to the survey results, the disaster‑stricken areas are mostly those with the fastest‑growing, most vigorous forestry sector and the best forest resources, which will have a serious impact on the nation's ecology. Many things cannot be recovered even by throwing money at them. Whenever the topic comes up, Old Master Jiao's face fills with worry.

After a journey of about twenty minutes, they arrived at the orchard Old Master Jiao had mentioned.

The orchard's planting isn't limited to a single type; citrus is just one of them, and many new varieties are being promoted for planting, but Zheng Tan saw that the people working in the orchard basically all wore worried expressions.

For some varieties, the edges and backs of the autumn shoots turn brown from freeze damage, then curl; the tips of the tender shoots become brown and dry from freezing, while others besides curling also shed leaves. Moreover, some fruit left on the trees over winter had iced up earlier; after the snow melts, the fruit quickly loses water, shrivels, the juice sacs contract, yielding little juice and no flavor. Every condition is recorded by someone.

Clear away ice promptly, bundle and timely prune broken branches. Some pruning can't be done yet, to prevent secondary freeze damage. Jiao Yuan and Xiao Youzi followed Old Master Jiao and the others; although they rarely got to pitch in directly, they weren't idle, sometimes voluntarily handing over tools. They did little chores like cleaning up; moving around also kept them warm. Coming here they'd also gained quite a bit of knowledge. Once the freezing weather passes, things will get even busier here.

After the freeze there will be pruning and fertilizing work; in a year of severe freeze, for citrus the autumn shoots that suffer freeze damage are replaced by spring shoots as the fruiting mother branches—one effective measure to ensure citrus bearing. Spring shoots are the new growth that sprouts in spring, while new growth sprouting from August to October is called autumn shoots. Different varieties also require different treatments, with cold‑tolerant and non‑cold‑tolerant types calling for distinct methods.

Zheng Tan had thought pruning would be simple later on, but hearing those people talk he realized there were many details: some cuts are made below the branch node, some trunk bark that's split from freezing should be cut a certain number of centimeters below the crack. The cut surface also needs treatment—some use nylon wrapping to seal it, others apply lime slurry to the wound. When young trees suffer severe freezing cracks, splitting above the graft union, one cuts back to leave one or two buds, while also selecting and retaining spring shoots to retrain the canopy, and so on. Listening to all this made Zheng Tan dizzy.

Realizing he was completely unsuited for this, Zheng Tan decided to wander around the vicinity; anyway, Xiao Youzi and the others would be staying here a while—perhaps half a day, or perhaps not until dinner—so as long as he made it back before lunch, he'd be fine.

There were relatively many people in this part of the orchard, so Zheng Tan decided to stroll farther out; the folks working in the orchard who saw Zheng Tan stared at him as if he were a curiosity, simply because he was wearing a vest.

After arriving at the old residence yesterday, Zheng Tan had moved around the things stashed inside his vest; now the vest held only the packet of pork jerky that Jiao Ma had slipped in, with nothing else, making it lighter and less likely to draw inspection. Previously Zheng Tan hadn't liked wearing the vest often, but yesterday afternoon, while he was out walking, an icicle fell vertically onto his back; luckily it wasn't thick, and since he was wearing the vest he only felt a slight sting without injury. Hence Zheng Tan decided that when he went out for a stroll he would wear the vest—it would be safer.

After jogging a stretch, Zheng Tan saw no one around, so he began to stroll leisurely, walking all the way to the orchard's perimeter, where it was enclosed by wire mesh with a gate—but the gate was locked.

Zheng Tan glanced at the tall wire mesh, turned to go elsewhere, but suddenly his steps halted and he twitched his ears.

He heard a faint sound, and since he wasn't sure, he listened more carefully to identify it.

It sounded like a human noise, but it wasn't clear.

Should he go over to have a look?

After a moment's hesitation, Zheng Tan still climbed over the wire mesh and headed toward the direction the sound was coming from.

Beyond the wire mesh lay an open patch, then a strip of woodland; the sound was coming from there.

Since no one had cleared the snow here, the ground snow hadn't completely melted.

Having listened to the sound, Zheng Tan judged that the person making it was probably in bad shape, so he crept forward at a quiet jog.

Hiding behind a tree, Zheng Tan looked over. There were two people there, both tied to the trees. (To be continued…)

PS: I'm still typing the second part; I don't know when I'll finish, so don't wait—check back tomorrow morning.