Chapter 193: Peach Blossoms All Over the Mountain

It was already mid-April. Zhao Fangyuan was wandering around the mountain, trying to capture some inspiration, when she stared at the deep trenches surrounding the peach orchard and asked:

"Are these drainage ditches?"

She was indeed a designer, but she mostly frequented construction sites and farmyards; she rarely saw such rough-and-ready farm orchards.

Song Tan sighed helplessly: "I originally wanted to make a plant defensive wall here, but I haven't been able to find the Cherokee roses I wanted to order, so it's been put on hold for now."

"What do Cherokee roses look like?"

"There are some over by the chestnut orchard; they're about to bloom."

Zhao Fangyuan was dying of curiosity—what a beautiful name!

However, before she could go over to take a look, she stared at the tightly woven wire fence in front of her and asked curiously: "You already have this, what else do you need to plant?"

In front of her was a row of green wire protective fencing. Zhao Fangyuan estimated it was at least 1.8 meters high, enclosing the entire orchard with only two gates left, and it looked very sturdy.

Song Tan sighed helplessly: "Isn't it better to be safe than sorry?"

She had wire fencing like this everywhere—the pigpen in the back mountain, the chestnut orchard—but this stuff only stops the honest, not the wicked.

Once her business was booming, there was no telling what kind of stupid things the jealous might do. If she planted Cherokee roses, at least there would be thorns both inside and out. If they really tried to get in...

Either way, whether they got in or not, they'd be losing a layer of skin.

It was a pity; the orchard's yield this year wouldn't be small, and they had specifically gone looking for large Cherokee rose plants, but they just couldn't find any suitable ones.

However, Zhao Fangyuan had reminded her: as the weather gradually warmed up, it would soon no longer be the best time for planting.

She had to hurry.

But for now...

Zhao Fangyuan had already rushed into the peach forest: "So beautiful!"

The twenty mu of eagle-beak peaches had already sprouted many leaf and flower buds when they were planted. Now, nourished by spiritual energy, their roots were firmly anchored in the soil, and the trees were radiating vitality!

Looking from afar, it was a sea of pink, no less impressive than any influencer hotspot!

Zhao Fangyuan dove into the peach forest, only regretting that she wasn't wearing Hanfu and hadn't brought a camera. The endless pink clouds, dotted here and there with tender, lovely little green leaves, branches and vines—

"Ahhh—"

She couldn't speak; at this moment, she was just excitedly gripping the fence and shouting.

That's right, the fence.

Because she ultimately didn't walk deep inside—the ground was full of lush watermelon vines!

The peach trees' flowers and leaves didn't spread wantonly, and the sunlight underneath was just as intense. It absorbed spiritual energy, and the watermelons absorbed it too; they were all growing thick and strong!

Those early-ripening melons, how long had they even been planted? They were even eager to start budding!

"What a pity," Zhao Fangyuan sighed deeply: "If you weren't growing watermelons, you could attract people to take photos right now, and the whole village could have a wave of popularity."

Song Tan shook her head: "How many of my peach trees would be ruined after the photos were taken? No way, no way."

Besides, the peach blossoms bloom, and the village gets popular for a wave. What about when the peach blossoms fade?

What's the use of fleeting prosperity? If the local infrastructure can't keep up, it's easy to leave a bad impression instead.

However, Zhao Fangyuan was right about one thing!

This place is just too beautiful, hahaha! And it belongs to her! When it blooms, there's nectar; when it bears fruit, there's produce; when there's nothing, there's peach gum...

Peach trees really don't just eat spiritual energy for nothing!

Zhao Fangyuan didn't want to leave the peach forest at all, but looking at Song Tan, she felt a bit guilty—after all, she was being treated to big fish and meat, and they were counting on her for the blueprints.

Now...

"Ahem!"

She said solemnly: "Actually, I'm not here just to play. The main thing is to see the land at your home, so I can better integrate it with the style of the house."

Song Tan smiled: Look, look all you want! The more guilty you feel, the easier it is to negotiate the price!

She pointed to the opposite hill: "That's the chestnut forest. Black fungus and white fungus are planted inside, and the Cherokee roses are blooming too; it's very beautiful... Shall I take you there now?"

Zhao Fangyuan:...

What to do? How to combine the design of a farmyard with peach trees, Cherokee roses, chestnuts, and black fungus?

She secretly condemned and comforted herself, her psychological process flowing like water: Is it called slacking off and sightseeing when it's an artist's business?

There was a village-to-village road from the back mountain to the chestnut orchard.

The newly paved road wasn't too wide, but it was definitely no problem for a car to pass. Because it was against the mountain, there weren't many households here, and very few cars passed by this road.

Looking at it now, it was much newer and smoother than the main road.

Zhao Fangyuan already had the mindset of a homeowner, and she commented: "This road is quite good. When the harvest comes on the mountain later, you can drive up and load it directly."

Song Tan nodded too: "The policy is quite good. When I was a child, these were all small paths where you couldn't even ride a motorcycle. If my dad wanted to transport chestnuts back from the mountain, he had to carry them back with a shoulder pole."

Sometimes her mom would help carry them too.

After carrying them home and piling them in an empty room, she would have to take old-fashioned, heavy, large scissors with her family, step on the chestnut burr with one foot, and use the scissors with one hand. She would reach directly into the four-petaled mouth, pry the chestnut burr open, and reveal the three or four oily, large chestnuts inside.

It looks quite easy and interesting, right?

But the large scissors were heavy and strained the hands. After working for just two hours longer, your hands would be rubbed raw with bloody blisters.

Would wearing gloves be better?

The blisters might not appear, but the skin would still be rubbed raw and hurt just the same.

Moreover, chestnuts are very prone to worms. Once you take them out, if you leave them for a day or two, they'll be eaten through by worms, so everyone was racing against time. They would peel the chestnut burrs here, sort them there, and then send them to the town in the early hours of the morning.

Because they couldn't delay their daytime work, many of the big purchases here started in the early hours of the morning.

It was okay when they used motorcycles; they would pile the chestnut burrs high, swaying and dangerous, and then ride to town.

In earlier years, they were all carried over with shoulder poles.

From home to town, it was a full two-hour journey, crossing mountains and ridges.

The bitterness of it is something those who haven't experienced it simply cannot imagine.

Song Tan now recalls herself in junior high school in town, walking home every week and then walking to class, and feels it's incredible.

Neither she nor Qiao Qiao are short, but Until Wu Lan and Song Sancheng... Song Sancheng is only a little over 1.6 meters tall.

Could it be that their innate genes made them unable to grow tall?

It was purely because they didn't have enough to eat when they were young, coupled with the pressure of hard farm work.

At that time, every household's paddy fields grew rice, and just carrying the rice was enough to exhaust people to death.

Rice couldn't fetch a good price, and for so many years, the price hadn't risen. Chestnuts had grown, but thinking back to childhood, the brown, oily, shiny large chestnuts, at their freshest and best quality, when sent to town, only sold for eighty cents.

This income was a family's entire annual income. Because after National Day, there were no other crops to sell.

Grafting, fertilizing, harvesting, transporting...

Every penny a farmer earns is not easy. ===== CHAPTER 194 =====