A small plot of land in a mountain village

Reports of mysteriously fragrant cherries were circulating in the provincial capital, but Zhang Niu was completely unaware of it.

If Li Guangfei hadn't called later, Zhang Niu wouldn't have known about this, as the fat man next to him had heard everything clearly.

"Good lad, he's already reported it. We won't have to worry about selling cherries anymore." He said with a look of joy on his face.

In the past, Zhang Niu would have even gone out to promote himself. But now Zhang Niu doesn't like fame. Many people are desperate to get on the front page of the newspaper. If others knew about his intentions, he would definitely get scolded.

Zhang Niu shook his head. "Luckily, the newspaper only has photos of fragrant cherries. If they had included me in the picture, this place would never be quiet again." He sighed.

"How old are you? You've already learned to sigh and complain. Isn't this a good thing? I was hoping to use your name to promote my orchard." He could tell exactly what the fat man was up to.

"Reporting this will only cause more trouble. Don't you see how much celebrities hate those paparazzi?" Zhang Niu didn't know what to say.

Judging from Zhang Niu's eyes, he wasn't faking it. Had this kid learned the art of living a secluded life in the mountains?

"Dude, I've never seen such a peculiar man as you. In the future, just don't say I'm your friend, or you'll lose face."

Zhang Niu was speechless.

"Hey kid, do you remember that long-legged woman you ran into the other day?" the fat man asked suddenly, rubbing his forehead.

I don't know why the fat guy asked this out of the blue, but I still answered, "Well, isn't it that long-legged beauty who called you a pig?"

"I just thought about it, and the photo in the newspaper must have been taken by that girl," he said firmly.

"Fatty, stop bragging. It's just a girl. You're really something to give her such a title." He teased.

The fat man said mysteriously, "You don't know this, so you young people still need to go out and learn more. If I hadn't seen this newspaper today, I probably would have forgotten about this person. I remember the girl was carrying a big bag, and the camera was in there."

The fat man's words were insightful and to the point; even Zhang Niu had to admit he admired them.

Zhang Niu himself couldn't remember clearly, and gave a vague answer, "I think so, I do observe others when I'm walking."

Sure enough, the fat man put on a wise man's air again, saying, "People should learn to listen to all directions and keep their eyes open. That's the best way. Opportunities are all around us."

"The phone's ringing—"

The fat man's cell phone rang in his pocket.

Walking a distance away, I saw the fat man nodding at his phone from time to time before returning a while later.

"The phone rang at home. Shouldn't we go back to eat some zongzi and cherries? Buy some so my family can have some." He said to Zhang Niu with a smile.

It turned out to be a phone call from home: "Okay, don't mention buying them. If it weren't for your help, we wouldn't have been able to solve this problem for a while."

Zhang Niu said that, and the fat man was fine with it, but the half-filled plastic basket of cherries and the two potted cycads, the fat man insisted on paying for the cycads.

After loading it into the car, the fat man said goodbye, started the engine, and sped away.

I can't believe it's the Dragon Boat Festival today. Time really flies.

He carried a forklift in his hand, but didn't ride the bike. He strolled leisurely along the road back to the village.

"Zhangwa, what kind of fish is this? We've never seen one like this in our village before." Just as he reached the edge of the village, he ran into Uncle Shengming carrying a load of green grass back home.

"Forked tail, a species of fish from Guangdong, that only eats fish shavings," he answered with a smile.

The mountain was covered with tender grass. Shengming went out early in the morning and carried back two loads of green grass. He wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "It's a rare find. How about the price?"

Shengming knew that Zhang Niu raised fish, but he didn't know what kinds of fish he could find. Since he had the chance to meet him, he decided to ask.

"We're not sure about that over there, it's a little over six yuan per jin (500g), and you only need about six to seven jin. The heavier it is, the lower the price will be."

Shengming was puzzled. The bigger the fish, the lower the price; why was that?

Seeing the confusion on Shengming's face, he naturally knew what Shengming was thinking. He had the same expression as Shengming when he first heard it from someone else.

He brandished the forked fish in his hand. "This fish isn't for ordinary people. It's mainly bought by city workers. Four to five pounds is just right for one meal. If it's too big, nobody likes it. It's a waste of money, and we can't even finish it."

"Oh, these city people are really picky eaters. In our village, a meal of ten catties of fish is not enough for them."

The two chatted for a while before stepping into the house.

I ran into my mother, who was returning from the woodshed with mulberry leaves. "You're back! The rice dumplings are all cooked in the pot. The double ones have chestnuts and meat, and the single ones have colorful beans. Go get some yourself."

During the Dragon Boat Festival, every family wraps zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and places a clump of mugwort picked from the stream in front of their door, carrying a faint fragrance.

"Brother, time to eat zongzi!"

As soon as I stepped into the kitchen, my younger sister ran out of her room, seemingly on her way to school, with a steaming rice dumpling in her mouth.

"Be careful when you walk. Be more careful next time." Seeing his anxious look, Zhang Niu still had to put on the airs of an older brother.

Stepping inside, steam rose from a large pot on a mud stove. Lifting the lid revealed a huge pot of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), which appeared to have just been cooked and hadn't been taken out yet.

Take out the individual colorful bean dumplings tied with string. They're still quite hot when they're first taken out, so Zhang Niu tosses them back and forth between his hands to let them cool down a bit.

Tearing open the bamboo leaves reveals the white glutinous rice; a breath is blown onto the rice dumpling. A bite reveals the filling inside.

Zhang Niu can eat three zongzi in one meal, just for the delicious filling. If you only eat the filling, the taste isn't that great.

My dad went to the field to pick mulberry leaves. He turned around, went back to the kitchen, took out a few zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), put them in a plastic bag, and gave a few to my dad to try while they were still hot.

Now that spring silkworms are in season, most people have already started raising them. They're busy picking mulberry leaves all day long. Originally, my family didn't want to raise them, but my mother insisted that we had nothing else to do, so we had to agree to it.

"Young man, can I ask you something?" They had just stepped onto the newly paved asphalt road.

A car was parked nearby, and a middle-aged man with a ruddy complexion leaned out of the window.

"Tell me what's wrong." Zhang Niu often encountered people asking for directions like this.

"Zhangjia Village Dafan should be in this area."

"Okay, just keep driving forward, that's the place."

The middle-aged man expressed his gratitude, saying, "Thank you very much."

Through the glass, you can see that there are still several people sitting in the back seat.

Zhang Niu doesn't care where you go; you still have to send the zongzi over first.

There are two large fields, one dedicated to rice and rapeseed, and the other planted with mulberry trees, including along the foot of many mountains. In recent years, with the price of silkworm cocoons rising, most of the family's few acres of land have been planted with mulberry trees.

Walking down into the field, I saw that group of people talking with the villagers. After a while, the group of people went into the mulberry field.

Are they picking mulberries?

"Dad, time to eat zongzi!" Zhang Niu called out as he walked into his mulberry grove.

"Coming, coming out now."

The lush green mulberry trees were taller than Zhang Niu. Beneath the mulberry trees was open ground, free of weeds.

While eating the zongzi, Dad said with a smile, "Your mom's zongzi-making skills are getting better and better."

"Dad, do you know if those people were here to pick mulberries?"

Taking a bite of the zongzi, he said, "Yes, you weren't in the fields, so of course you wouldn't know that these past few days, a lot of city people have been coming to these fields to pick mulberries."

"These city folks are out of their minds, why would they go out of their way to pick mulberries?" They're just asking for trouble.

"It seems that doctors from the Lishui Affiliated Hospital came over these past few days to pick these mulberries to make medicinal wine, and the effect is very good."

Oh, so he's a doctor. No wonder those unremarkable mulberries in the field have suddenly become such a treasure.

"Someone came to our field and offered ten yuan per pound. They went in and picked the fruit themselves," Dad said with a chuckle.

Ten yuan a pound, that's really expensive, but these mulberries are quite heavy.

"This year, there are more mulberries in everyone's fields than in previous years, and picking 20 jin at a time is not a problem."

In a bumper year, there are indeed many mulberries.

I decided to go inside, pick some mulberries and try them myself, and plunge into the mulberry field.

Mulberry leaves are picked from the bottom up, or perhaps "picked in batches" is a better word. They are picked by sweeping them all the way up. This is basically how mulberry leaves are picked.

Walking along the path, purple mulberries hang from the branches under the mulberry trees; these are already ripe, while many red mulberries nearby indicate they will soon be ripe.

When picking mulberries, you should be gentle. These mulberries are made up of small purple berries clustered together. If you apply too much pressure, the purple juice will come out and drip onto your clothes, which is difficult to wash off.

Zhang Niu has eaten mulberries for several years. Mulberries shouldn't be eaten in large quantities; they should only be enjoyed occasionally and not as a snack. Eating too many can turn your tongue purple, and in some cases, your entire face can turn purple.

I'd only eaten a few mulberries, and my tongue was already stained purple. Quite a sight to behold.

Zhang Niu roughly picked half a bag of mulberries and crawled out. There were quite a few mosquitoes flying around inside, which was very annoying.

"Don't pick too many."

"Enough is enough; this isn't a meal to be eaten," he said with a smile.

The two loaded bags of mulberry leaves onto the tricycle, preparing to transport them to their bamboo shed by the field.

The road wasn't far, it was very close, but Dad was riding the tricycle, not Zhang Niu. Anyone who rides a bicycle knows that if you try to ride a tricycle, you definitely won't be able to control the handlebars. The tricycle kept tilting in one direction, and you couldn't correct it no matter what you did.

People who can't ride a bicycle can easily handle a tricycle, and you can often see little kids riding tricycles around the village. Zhang Niu belongs to the former group.

Stepping into the bamboo shed, the smell of bleach was quite unpleasant.

"Shh—shh—shh"

In the quiet bamboo shed, you can hear the sound of silkworms munching on mulberry leaves, the rustling sound forming a symphony.

I lifted the curtain and went inside. The white silkworms, which had already shed their skin once, were now a bit thicker. They spent all day eating and eating, rustling as they gnawed on mulberry leaves.

My dad came in carrying a basket, poured all the clean mulberry leaves on it, and in the blink of an eye, the white silkworms were submerged in the vast expanse of mulberry leaves.

This year's silkworms have a good survival rate. However, the silkworm eggs raised this spring are too small and not as large as those raised last year. I'm afraid the cocoons they produce will mainly be small.

Before leaving, Zhang Niu took a few useless silkworms that his father had picked out, intending to put them in his spatial storage to see if they would change.

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but it turned out to be an unexpected and wonderful thing.

Zhang Niu's father and his companion returned home, but the car on the road had already driven away, indicating that they had returned with a full load of mulberries.

P.S.: Third update complete. (To be continued. For more chapters and to support the author, please log in and read the official version!)