nucmednet Chapter 23 At the time, it seemed like nothing special.
Chapter 23 At the time, it seemed like nothing special.
Zhang Chunxue noticed Lin Jing hiding the photo and guessed that perhaps the photo held some hidden story.
However, she is not a gossip-loving person.
"Grandpa, we're going to pick strawberries in the greenhouse later, and then we'll have birthday cake with Xiaofan tonight. Would you and Grandma like to come along?"
"No, no, I'm not going. What's so great about picking strawberries? There are plenty in the vegetable garden if you want to pick some."
That's truly an irrefutable reason.
The older generation speaks so directly. Xu Qingfan stepped in to smooth things over, saying, "It's different, Grandpa. You should have learned from their business philosophy and seen if we could set up a self-service fishing pond in our family's fishpond."
"How can that be? The fish in the pond have already received a deposit!" Yao Shulun hung up her straw hat, patted his head, and said, "Grandpa will go kill a goose for you, and also a chicken!"
Zhang Chunxue was both amused and exasperated; she hadn't expected Xiao Fan's maternal grandfather to be so stubborn.
However, Xiao Fan's mind is really active. He was able to immediately connect picking strawberries to self-service fishing. If his execution ability could be maximized, he would be a born entrepreneur.
Soon, the desperate crowing of chickens came from outside.
Grandpa picked up the knife, and with a swift motion, made a cut on the chicken's neck to bleed it, and the world returned to silence.
Then came pouring hot water and plucking the feathers, with Lin Jing and Zhang Chunxue helping out together.
Lin Wanning couldn't stand seeing this, so he dragged everyone to climb the tree and pick mangoes to eat.
Their mango trees are an old variety, with large shells, slightly sour flesh, and lots of mango fibers, making them not as delicious as those sold in fruit shops.
However, it's still worth trying it out.
Xu Qingfan stood on a stool and used an extended sickle to cut the mangoes one by one. Xiao Ruanwen and Lin Wanning were the most enthusiastic, catching them with full concentration.
In the time it takes to finish eating a mango, a chicken and a goose have already washed themselves clean and undressed.
Just as they were about to leave, Grandma rushed back on her tricycle, which was loaded with a huge pile of fresh vegetables and fruits, filling the entire trunk.
Goodbye Grandpa, goodbye Grandma, goodbye Uncle!
"Ah B, come back and visit your mother-in-law more often when you have time!"
The car drove slowly, and the group leaned out of the windows to wave goodbye.
The car's music had just switched to "Butter-Fly," the song about the hat flying off and the Digimon chasing after the car with unwavering loyalty. Xu Qingfan was instantly pulled out of the scene.
Grandpa and Grandma could no longer be seen outside the window, so they pulled their heads back in and closed the car window again.
Zhang Chunxue glanced at Lin Jing and suddenly said, "When I woke up this afternoon, Xiao Fan said he would accompany me for a walk in the village, but suddenly a strong wind blew up and some sand got into my eyes."
The passengers in the car fell silent, waiting for her to continue.
"I helped Xiaofan blow the sand out, but I still shed a lot of tears. Suddenly, Xiaofan had an inspiration and wrote another poem!"
Xu Qingfan: ......
[Fine, since you're Aunt Sha Zi, you're right about everything.]
"What poem?"
"What kind of poem is it?"
Zhang Chunxue glanced guiltily at Xu Qingfan, saw his aggrieved and helpless expression and chuckled, then continued, "The poem goes like this: a person is like a tree. While shedding tears, they are also watering themselves. When the tears have dried, you have grown up."
"Is Xiao Fan like that?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Xu Qingfan had just said it on a whim at the time, and now he had almost forgotten the original sentence.
"Wow, Xiao Fan is amazing! Is this the legendary metaphor?" Xiao Ruanwen gave him a thumbs up in admiration.
It's just writing poetry; Qingfan can do it with his own hands. There's no need to make a fuss. If he weren't showing off in front of a newcomer, Lin Wanning wouldn't even bother praising him.
"Should we wait until the tears dry?" Lin Jing muttered, frowning slightly and shaking her head. "Wouldn't it be better if we said they all flowed out?"
"The image of tears drying up easily evokes the image of withering. For example, a person is like a flower. While shedding tears, they are also watering themselves, but when the tears dry up, the flower withers."
"Yes, yes, it's all gone. I remembered wrong!" Zhang Chunxue immediately corrected.
"That's more like it! I knew Xiao Fan wouldn't make such a small mistake!" Lin Jing smiled and ruffled Xu Qingfan's hair.
Zhang Chunxue was furious. She had originally wanted to show off the poem Xiao Fan had written for her to Lin Jing, but instead of showing off, she had made a fool of herself!
A strange competitive spirit arose.
"By the way, Xiaofan, did your sister say where she plans to work after graduating from university?" Lin Jing suddenly asked.
Xu Qingfan's father has no relatives left, so "sister" naturally refers to his uncle's daughter, his cousin.
"It seems like I'm staying in Yanjing to work. Last time I called, I said I'd already gotten the lotus root starch from Sohu. Godmother, do you know what lotus root starch is?"
Zhang Chunxue was overjoyed and explained, "Xiao Fan meant 'offer,' right? That's English, and it means 'admission'."
"Oh, I see!" Xu Qingfan said, looking as if he had just realized something.
Xia Xiaoxiao couldn't bear to watch and buried her head, afraid that she would burst out laughing.
"Xiao Fan still has relatives in Yanjing, right? Yi Yi's grandparents are also from Yanjing," Zhang Chunxue asked.
She wasn't usually one to gossip, but Lin Jing seemed to know everything about Xiao Fan, while she knew nothing about him. Women's competitive nature can be so strange sometimes.
Who can blame Xiao Fan for being such a little angel?
"Yes, Auntie, my cousin's mother is from Beijing."
This statement is quite telling. A normal person would only say, "My aunt is from Yanjing," but Zhang Chunxue's ability to understand and interpret things is top-notch.
"Oh, I see. I was wondering why I didn't see Xiaofan's aunt at home. Did she go back to Yanjing for the holidays?"
"No, my aunt went abroad, and my uncle divorced her a long time ago."
"what?"
This turn of events left Zhang Chunxue bewildered for half a second.
Seeing that Xiao Fan had started talking, Lin Jing continued, "This matter is quite... convoluted."
"Xiao Fan's aunt used to be an educated youth sent to the countryside. Later, the whole family went back, but she stayed behind after marrying his uncle and became a teacher in the county."
"Xiao Fan's family is also good. They felt that they couldn't ruin the girl's future, so they encouraged her to take the college entrance examination. However, she failed the exam several times."
She was about to give up and didn't want to take the exam anymore, and she even got pregnant with Xiao Fan's uncle's child. But everyone encouraged her to persevere one last time. As a result, she didn't study at all for the last time and actually passed the exam without any preparation.
"Wasn't this a good thing? Why did they get divorced later?" Zhang Chunxue listened intently, and Xia Xiaoxiao, Xiao Ruanwen, Lin Wanning, and Zhang Yiyi also pricked up their ears and held their breath.
Listening to gossip is indeed ingrained in the Chinese psyche.
"Ugh, it's all because I went to this university!" Lin Jing was really angry when she said this.
"After Xiaofan went to university, her aunt was like a completely different person. She talked about freedom and women's rights all the time, as well as patriarchal society, and how she was oppressed and wanted to be an independent woman."
"After graduating from university, he didn't want his children. He took a large sum of money from his family and went to America with a foreigner."
"Where did she go to university?"
Yenching Normal University.
"Oh...no wonder."
"Pfft." Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao exchanged a glance, confirming with their eyes that it was difficult for them to keep their expressions in check.
Xu Qingfan only knew that his aunt had divorced his uncle in order to go abroad; he only learned about the rest now.
I can only say I suffered from not studying!
Fortunately, my maternal grandparents were open-minded and did not establish an ancestral rule that "from now on, no Yao family descendant shall be allowed to attend university."
The conversation ended abruptly there, and Zhang Chunxue lost interest in finding out whether her aunt had lived or died after going abroad.
...
The car quickly drove back to Licheng, where they first took the chicken, goose, and vegetables from the trunk home to prevent them from spoiling in the hot weather.
Xu Guoqiang and Yao Jinping had already gotten up for work. They put their things at the food stall, sat down and drank a bottle of iced cola before continuing their strawberry picking trip.
The strawberry greenhouses are only seven or eight kilometers from the city center; it's just a short drive away.
After getting off the bus, the sweltering heat on the road was clearly visible, so they quickly ran into the farm to save their lives.
Farmhouses are a unique feature of Guangdong. Small farmhouses specialize in a single signature dish, while larger farmhouses offer a variety of agritourism activities such as fishing, lychee picking, and strawberry picking.
Larger farms used to offer foot massages, karaoke, mahjong, and all sorts of entertainment (but those no longer exist).
Xu Qingfan and his friends came simply to pick strawberries. It cost 20 yuan per person. After paying, they received a small basket and could go to the greenhouse to pick strawberries.
The strawberries in the basket can be taken away, so it's time to put architecture to the test.
Xu Qingfan whispered something in Lin Wanning's ear, and Lin Wanning's ahoge twitched, his eyes lit up, and he quickly took action.
Xia Xiaoxiao, Zhang Yiyi, and Xiao Ruanwen's baskets were quickly filled with strawberries, and to hold as many as possible, they all made pointed pyramids on top of their heads.
However, because the basket is not big, it can only hold a limited number of strawberries.
Xu Qingfan and Lin Wanning were hiding in a corner, acting suspiciously. When the two appeared carrying two large baskets of strawberries, they startled everyone present.
"Aren't we awesome?"
"Wow!"
"So that's how it can be done!"
It turns out that he had just told Wan Ning to leave the stems when picking strawberries, and these stems are now strung together outside the basket.
The strawberries in the basket are also linked together by the leaf stalks, so that even if the strawberries exceed the basket's capacity, they will not fall to the ground.
"Little friend, you can't do that. Only things in the basket can be taken. These are all outside the basket!" The boss rolled his eyes instantly.
This guy clearly doesn't know how to do business. If Xu Qingfan were to keep the photos, it would definitely inspire other tourists to be competitive, and the customer base would be endless.
"It's alright, we'll buy the extra later." Zhang Chunxue didn't seem to care, and kept taking pictures of the two of them with her camera.
"Wow, Xiao Fan, how heavy is this? I feel like it weighs 20 pounds!" Lin Jing took the strawberry basket from Xu Qingfan's hand; it was quite heavy.
No one paid any attention to the boss's chatter; everyone took turns taking photos with the two "strawberry waterfalls," as having fun was the most important thing.
After picking strawberries, there are also lychees, longans, and wampee in the neighboring orchard.
It was already late July, and the lychees still hanging on the trees were overripe and not tasty.
The longan is still very green, only the yellow-skinned ones are ready to be used.
The yellow-skinned fruit, unique to the south, later gained popularity again because of a fruit tea.
However, the taste is actually quite ordinary, with little meat and many seeds. Not many children in the south like to eat it, and it is often used to dry yellow skin.
...
They didn't stay at the farm for long, leaving around 4 p.m.
They first went to the pastry shop to pick up the birthday cake they had ordered long ago, and then everyone returned to the food stall.
All five of them were covered in sweat. Lin Jing and Zhang Chunxue stayed at the shop to help out, while Xu Qingfan led everyone back to take a shower.
Xu Qingfan acted as the locomotive, and Xia Xiaoxiao acted as the tail train. The little train slowly and leisurely traveled home.
"Brother Qingfan, let's hurry up. There's a strange person over there who keeps staring at us," Lin Wanning whispered in his ear.
A young man of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight stood under the eaves. Xu Qingfan glanced at him, smiled, and said, "He's not looking at us; he's probably seeing himself as a child."
"I don't understand." Lin Wanning shook his head.
"Then let's hurry up. Wan Ning, remind the people behind us to speed up."
"Oops! Attention, attention! The little train is going to speed up! The little train is going to speed up!"
When I was little, I heard adults say that when you sneeze, it means someone is thinking of you. Later I realized that the person was actually myself when I grew up.
Xu Qingfan sped up, and amidst laughter and exclamations, they quickly ran back to the staff compound.
...
Back home, Xu Qingfan gave the four of them the chance to shower first. Wan Ning and Yi Yi showered together at his house, while Xiao Xiao and Ruan Wen showered together next door.
Xu Qingfan sat on the living room floor, unwrapping the gifts!
The first thing to be opened was Xia Xiaochou's ugly gift box. Xu Qingfan guessed that it would contain something practical, and sure enough, it was a fountain pen.
Then he opened Ruan Wen's gift and reached inside...
Holy crap!
Xu Qingfan felt as if he had been stung by something, which startled him so much that he immediately threw the gift box away.
After completely tearing open the gift box that was blocking the view, what was inside was actually a large black beetle!
Xu Qingfan suddenly had an urge to rush into the bathroom, drag Ruan Wen out, and beat her up.
Oh, you can't beat them? That's alright then.
I'll settle the score with her later!
Xu Qingfan put the large beetle back into the cage and continued to unpack Yi Yi's birthday presents.
Yi Yi's birthday gift was much more normal: an MP3 player.
"Oh, there's one more letter."
Xu Qingfan picked up the letter, which was filled with more than three hundred words.
However, all three hundred characters in the text are his name.
Below his name was the message Zhang Yiyi had written to him.
Grandma said that writing someone's name a hundred times on a piece of paper can bring them good fortune. Happy birthday, brother!
Xu Qingfan couldn't help but smile like an aunt. What else was there to say? From now on, he would treat Wan Ning the same way, giving her the stars, the moon, and even her phone chat history!
All that's left is Wan Ning's birthday present; the gift box is taller than him.
Xu Qingfan gently untied the bow on the box, opened it, and sure enough, there was a plush toy inside, the little penguin that he had described to Wan Ning.
Moreover, this little penguin has a single tuft of hair on its head, and it looks just like Wan Ning.
"Wow!"
Wan Ning's status in his heart instantly returned to being in a league of its own.
From now on, I'll pluck the stars from the sky for you, I'll pluck the moon from the sky for you, I'll give you my phone chat history, and I'll give you my browser history too!
......