Chapter 122: Picking Persimmons, Cooking Taro Rice

The persimmon trees weren't planted very tall, just two of them squeezed into a small patch of extra earthen slope, and they didn't look very big either—probably hadn't been planted all that many years.

But the persimmons growing on them were really plentiful, all fist-sized, hanging heavy on the branches, some already starting to turn a faint red—clearly well-fertilized and very well tended.

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Ye Yaodong tilted his head back and gazed up, "So many! How is this little sack ever going to be enough?"

"It's enough. These can stay on the tree for a few more days—if we pick too many at once, they'll all ripen through and we won't be able to eat them all before they go bad. The fruit around here isn't worth much anyway, and ripe persimmons bruise easily, so they're hard to sell."

"In past years we mostly picked them to dry into persimmon cakes—those can earn a bit of money—or pickled them into crisp persimmons. The grown-ups and kids at home all love pickled persimmons."

"A typhoon a couple days ago knocked a lot of them off too, otherwise there'd be even more. Today we'll just pick a few to take back and pickle. After you leave the day after tomorrow, I'll have you take some home—I'll get up early and pick some unripe ones for you to bring back, whether for softening or for drying into persimmon cakes, either works."

The old father-in-law thinks of everything!

Persimmon cakes are nice—they can be brought out to sea as a snack. Ye Yaodong likes pickled persimmons too. No one in their village knows how to make them; they just pick them and let them ripen into soft persimmons. Only his father-in-law's side has people who pickle them, and in past years they often sent some over.

"We don't need too many, just a few jin will do."

"No harm in picking more—it's our own stuff, doesn't cost a thing. We can't eat it all either, and hardly anyone wants it when we give it away. The whole village grows them."

"Heh, let's pick, let's pick—those little rascals are already bouncing around impatiently, dying to climb the tree." Ye Yaodong hurried over and lifted his eldest son down from the tree. "You'll fall! Just wait under the tree—I'll throw them down for you to pick up in a bit."

Saying so, he nimbly scrambled up the tree. Hadn't climbed one in decades, but the skill hadn't gone rusty.

He stood steady on the trunk, broke off a branch, then plucked the persimmons and carefully tossed them down by his son's feet.

"Huh? Dad, it split open!"

"Split?"

He'd been so careful—how could it still have split?

"Then I'll toss them from lower down in a bit, into the grass."

He plucked three more at once, cupped them in his palm, then crouched to lower his center of gravity and gently tossed them into the grass.

"Now they're not broken!"

"Good then."

Lin Fu stood under the tree picking, handing each one to the kids to put into the sack, while the two elder brothers-in-law ran over to pick from the other tree.

The three little rascals ran back and forth like busy little bees, acting as porters, having the time of their lives, their cheeks flushed red from running.

But at some point, persimmons were rolling all over the ground and no one was picking them up—Lin Fu's picks were also just tossed onto the ground for the moment.

Ye Yaodong stood on the tree and glanced around, only to discover that Ye Chenghu had at some point run off to the pomelo tree nearby and was swinging from a branch heavy with pomelos.

That little rascal!

"Ye Chenghu, get your butt back here and work! What are you doing over there?"

"Oh, coming."

He trotted back eagerly, but when stepping on the earthen slope he slipped by accident and went sprawling face-first into the slope, getting a mouthful of dirt.

"Ptttt—"

"Hahaha~ Cousin's a dummy~"

"You're the dummies! I just slipped, that's all—pttt~"

"You are a dummy!"

The three kids squabbled childishly. Ye Yaodong couldn't be bothered to referee—as long as they weren't running off, it was fine.

He bent down the branches within reach and picked everything he could; the higher ones he couldn't reach, he could only count on the long hook the brothers-in-law had on their side.

He jumped down and first gathered the persimmons on the ground into the sack—once picked up, it looked about half full.

"How many have you picked over there? We've got half a sack here—don't pick too many or there won't be room."

The two brothers-in-law stopped at his words. After loading their picked persimmons in too, the sack was about seventy or eighty percent full, so everyone just called it a day.

No point picking too many—the rope would be hard to tie.

The kids looked rather reluctant to leave. Ye Chenghu, seeing they were heading back, said wistfully, "We've only just come out and we're going back already? Can't we play a bit longer? When can we come pick again? Can we go pick those pomelos over there? I want pomelos!"

"The morning after tomorrow, as long as you can get up, I'll bring you back to pick. The pomelos aren't ripe yet—that's next month."

"Oh Ye Yeye~ I'll definitely be able to get up! Then we'll come again the day after tomorrow."

Ye Chenghu happily jumped straight down off the earthen slope, not afraid of falling at all!

The other two boys followed suit, jumping down one after another—too late to stop them.

"Grandpa, Dad, we want to come pick the day after tomorrow too."

"We'll see once you can actually get up."

Lin Fu tied up the sack with rope and was about to carry it himself, but Ye Yaodong stopped him. He lifted the bag to test the weight, intending to help carry it.

But the brother-in-law snatched it away, shouldered it without a word of discussion, and said, "This still has some weight to it—I'll handle it."

Ye Yaodong could only follow behind, keeping an eye on Ye Chenghu so the boy wouldn't wander off and vanish as they walked.

But the moment he looked away, the boy had run into a vegetable plot at the foot of the mountain where a few rows of cowpeas were planted, and casually yanked up a big handful of cowpeas.

Kids just can't keep their hands to themselves!

If this were his own village, Ye Yaodong might have covered for his son, but this was his father-in-law's place—no making a fool of himself here.

He winced and quickly scolded him, "Those are someone else's beans—don't go grabbing them. If you get caught, you'll get a beating!"

"Isn't this Grandpa's place?"

"It is Grandpa's—you can pick as you like. Pick some and we'll cook taro rice tonight. There's some taro planted by the back door—once we're back we'll dig it up." Lin Fu said with a smile. His son-in-law rarely visited, so naturally he had to entertain him well.

"Aowwow~ I want taro rice! I love taro rice the most!"

Taro rice is also called savory rice locally!

On the ninth day of the ninth month, the Double Ninth Festival, their local custom is to climb high, cook outdoors, and eat taro rice. It's not far off now—when they get back, they can cut some pork belly and cook up a pot of taro rice.

Usually they eat sweet potato shreds and thin porridge every day; only on the Double Ninth Festival does everyone get to have a meal like this. Now they can just count it as eating it early.

The other two kids, hearing they could pick and cook taro rice, all rushed forward in a panic, afraid of falling behind.

"The ones from my house—you pick less, I want to pick more."

"It was my grandpa who planted them, not you. There are so many—pick yours, I'll pick mine…"

"It's still from our house!"

"It's my grandpa's!"

"You're not even one of our family…"

"Right… you can only pick a little. The beans were planted by my grandpa, my dad, and Second Uncle—they've got nothing to do with you…"

Three boys picking beans and they couldn't even divide the work fairly, ending up in an argument. Don't be fooled by their young age—each one of them could state his case clearly.

Ye Chenghu, squeezed and needled by his two older cousins, got angry and stopped picking too. Seeing cabbages planted in the vegetable patch beside them, he simply set the cowpeas down on the ground and ran off to pull up cabbages.

But cabbages aren't that easy to pull. Everyone usually takes a knife and hacks at the root. He was so small, hugging a big cabbage, exerting all his might to pull—yanking away, yanking away—pulling and pulling. It looked a little funny; this wasn't pulling radishes.

The other two boys watched and copied him, and in the end all three used too much force and fell on their bottoms.

Several adults hurried forward, picked them up, and dusted off the dirt on their bodies. Seeing they still hadn't had enough and wanted to keep pulling, they quickly stopped them. Playing was fine, but they couldn't waste food either—these would last two days, and they couldn't serve cabbage at every meal.

Only then did they purse their lips, hugging the cabbages and looking back with every step.

"Grandpa, what else have you planted at home? Do we need to pick anything?" Without waiting for Lin Fu to reply, he went on, "Dad, Grandpa's fruit mountain is too much fun. Can we come back tomorrow to pick more?"

Ye Yaodong smacked the back of his head, took the cabbage from his hands, and said, "There's nothing left for you to pick. The day after tomorrow we'll pick some persimmons and then head back."

Lin Fu smiled until the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes narrowed into a single line. "Still haven't picked enough? Then just stay here for a few months. I'll take you up the mountain every day. If you want to pick things tomorrow, I'll bring you to pick pumpkins and crown daisies, and we'll grab some more sweet potato leaves on the way back to feed the pigs."

"Yay yay yay～Ye Yeye～there's something fun to do again tomorrow～" Ye Chenghu bounced up excitedly, nearly three feet off the ground.

"Time to go back. You've been playing until you're covered in dirt—your mother's going to scold you when we get home."

"I can say it was you who took me to play! Let Mom scold you instead—what would a little kid like me know?"

The father-in-law and brothers-in-law all laughed. "Quite the clever one."

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. He hadn't known his eldest son was actually this sharp. The boy even knew how to make him take the blame, and he talked in one neat little set of lines after another.

"Believe it or not, if your mother doesn't smack you, I'll smack you first? Get your butt home obediently. If you go around stirring up trouble again, the first thing I'll do when we get back is take off your pants and give you a beating."

"Bleeh bleeh bleeh～"

Ye Chenghu wasn't scared at all. He even made a face and ran ahead.

Lin Fu hurried after him, afraid the child would fall while running. Elders always dote on their grandchildren.

Many hands make light work—they didn't spend much time on the mountain. But they had set out rather late to begin with, and by the time they got back to Lin Fu's house, it was already past four o'clock. Lin Mu had already started preparing dinner.

With extra guests at home, she had to prepare properly. To that end, Lin Mu had even killed a chicken.

When they returned, she was plucking the chicken. Lin Lin Xiuqing and the two sisters-in-law were also helping—picking vegetables and washing taro.

The original plan was to simply boil the taro and, once cooked, peel it and dip it in fish sauce. But seeing they had brought back cowpeas, Lin Mu immediately changed her mind. It happened that she had just gone to Zhu Bin's place in the village, who slaughters pigs, and bought a piece of leftover pork belly.

Taro rice was also a local specialty. The pork belly was cut into thin strips, a little minced ginger was added and stir-fried in the pot until the oil came out, then the taro and cowpeas, cut into small chunks, were tossed in and stir-fried. After that, some dried shrimp were added, seasoning was added, washed rice was added, everything was tossed once more, water was poured in to cover the ingredients, and then they just waited for it to cook through.

Super fragrant!

Depending on the situation, dried scallops or oysters could also be added.

With nothing to do, Ye Yaodong sat at the doorway chatting with the neighbors and his father-in-law's family, asking about the recent autumn harvest and how many more fruit trees had been planted this year…

As they talked, the aroma of taro rice drifted out from inside the house…