Xu Zifan and the villagers worked hard for several more days and finally harvested all the crops!
These past few days, while working, Xu Zifan and Yang Wanyun could always sense Su Qing's hostility, but when they looked at her, Su Qing seemed perfectly fine, diligently working as if nothing was wrong. Now that they were done and got home, Yang Wanyun breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness we're done. I don't know what's wrong with Su Qing, she was acting so strangely."
Feng Yuying frowned and asked, "What's wrong? What did she do this time?"
Xu Zifan said thoughtfully, "She keeps staring at Wanyun and me, but doesn't let anyone else notice. Everyone is in a hurry to harvest the crops, so Wanyun and I can't go over and say anything. I feel like she hates us."
Feng Yuying laughed as soon as she heard this. "I thought it was something serious. You guys don't chat much with others, so you don't know her story. She was originally supposed to marry into the Wu family after the autumn harvest, but a few days ago, Sister-in-law Wu said that Wu Zhigang has a mission in the army and won't be coming back to visit his family until the Spring Festival. How could she not be angry that she couldn't get married?"
Yang Wanyun asked in bewilderment, "What does that have to do with us? How can you blame us?"
"Sister-in-law Wu said she had a mission, but what mission could she have? Isn't she just using Su Qing's bad character as an excuse to delay things? Last time you two made a scene with Su Qing, that's how everyone found out about this. Doesn't she hate you two? This kind of person is selfish. She blames others for her own mistakes. We're not afraid of her. If she dares to make trouble again, I'll ruin her marriage! Sister-in-law Wu and I are distant relatives."
Yang Wanyun quickly said, "Mom, don't meddle in other people's business. What if they don't have a good life in the future and blame you? Anyway, Aunt Wu knows what kind of person Su Qing is, she will definitely think it over herself."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Feng Yuying waved her hand. She didn't like to meddle in other people's business, but if Su Qing provoked her daughter again, she wouldn't be polite.
Knowing that Su Qing's actions stemmed from this matter, Xu Zifan and Yang Wanyun didn't take it too seriously. As long as Su Qing still harbored thoughts of marrying Wu Zhigang, she wouldn't dare cause any more trouble before the Spring Festival.
After the autumn harvest, everyone had some free time, and there wasn't much work to be done in the village. Xu Zifan told Yang Yongqing that he and Yang Wanyun had shared their work with others. Earning more work points meant receiving more grain, so naturally, some diligent people were willing to take on the tasks. Yang Wanyun then spent her days busy with household chores and her other time writing articles. Xu Zifan, on the other hand, went to the mountains every day to gather wild fruits and delicacies, and also caught quite a few fish.
Locals all know how to process wild delicacies. When Feng Yuying had free time, she would help Xu Zifan clean the mushrooms and wood ear fungus and dry them in the yard. Following Xu Zifan's suggestion, she also tried to make canned wild fruits. This was very wasteful of firewood and sugar, and Feng Yuying nagged a lot, but she and Yang Wanyun still figured it out and made the canned fruits.
There are several kinds of wild fruits, among which hawthorn and wild apple are the sweetest, and they are also delicious when canned. Crab fruit is sweet, sour, and crisp; it can be sliced, pickled in sugar, and dried into dried fruit to eat directly as a snack, which is both appetizing and sweet. Hawthorn slices are dried and can be steeped in water to make a delicious and healthy drink. These are all easy to process, but no one has ever gone through all this trouble before. The neighbors have been saying that city people are so precious, making such a fuss over eating wild fruits, wasting so much food.
Then Xu Zifan asked them to start making canned fish, which was a real problem. Feng Yuying and Yang Wanyun had no clue what to do and could only try making it little by little according to Xu Zifan's description of the taste, ruining many fish in the process. The fish were fine, since they were free from the river, but all the oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar at home were used up, and they had to go buy more, some of which required ration coupons!
This was truly a waste. Rumors began circulating in the village that the Yang family were fools, always listening to Xu Zifan in these matters, willing to do anything to keep their daughter's husband. Xu Zifan also gained a reputation for being a spendthrift.
After her eighteenth attempt at cooking fish failed, Feng Yuying said dejectedly, "I think I should just give up. I've never eaten canned fish before, how would I know what to put in it? If it's not cooked properly, it will taste really weird, and I can't even eat it. It breaks my heart to see it like this."
Xu Zifan quickly cleaned the fish, put them in a bowl, and handed it to Feng Yuying, saying with a smile, "Mom, try again. This one is almost done today. How about we make some tomato sauce and a little less sugar?"
"How do you make sauce from persimmons? Oh, you have way too many ideas. Okay, I'll try again. If it still doesn't work, I'm not going to help anymore. It's such a waste." Feng Yuying washed her hands, carried a basin of fish, and went back into the kitchen.
Xu Zifan glanced at the dried hazel mushrooms and black fungus in the yard, then at the roasted walnuts and pine nuts, and thought it was about right. There was no need to show everyone all the good stuff at the beginning; just let the club president know that this path was indeed viable.
Yang Wanyun went to the storeroom and brought out two tomatoes. Xu Zifan saw them and said, "Do you call tomatoes 'persimmons'? What do you call the yellow ones?"
"Yellow? You mean this?" Yang Wanyun went into the warehouse again.
Xu Zifan followed her inside and saw her take out a yellow persimmon and an orange persimmon from the basket, but they weren't the ones he'd eaten before. He shook his head and said, "I mean the kind that's shaped like the character 'eight' on the persimmon tree. Don't you see them here?"
"Persimmons on trees? Really? All the persimmons here came from the persimmon vines in the ground."
"So all of these are called persimmons, without any classification?"
"No, oh right, this green one has a nickname, 'Thief-proof', because it looks unripe. But it's really delicious, very flavorful, would you like to try one?"
Xu Zifan picked up a washed tomato and took a bite. It was indeed exceptionally delicious, with a taste unlike any other tomato, and unlike anything he'd seen elsewhere. He then ate a yellow tomato, which didn't taste as good as the tomato or the "thief doesn't steal" tomato, but during the meal, Yang Wanyun stir-fried some eggs with yellow tomato, and he found that this was even tastier than tomato and egg stir-fry.
If you don't fry eggs properly, they'll have a slightly sour taste, but if you fry yellow persimmons, they won't have any sour taste at all.
Anything that can't be found elsewhere is considered a local specialty and can be sold. Xu Zifan included this in his sales list, but that can wait. People in the neighborhood have already tried these things, but they're not very appealing because they're filling. They can wait until they can sell them to other places in the future.
Feng Yuying covered the canned fish she made with a plate and placed it in a shady spot. She got up early the next morning to try it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually delicious! She quickly knocked on the door to wake Xu Zifan and the others.
Yang Wanyun rubbed her eyes, stood up, and said, "What's Mom calling for? What's ready?"
Xu Zifan took her coat and draped it over her shoulders, then put on his shoes and got off the kang (heated brick bed). "I heard from Mom that the canned fish is ready. You stay here, I'll go check on it first."
This time, Feng Yuying's canned fish was really delicious. Although it didn't taste quite the same as Xu Zifan remembered, it was delicious enough. He tidied everything up. The canned fish and wild fruit were packed into small jars. The rest, including hazel mushrooms, black fungus, walnuts, pine nuts, dried crabapples, and dried hawthorn, were all wrapped in paper and tied with string.
Yang Yongqing had to go to the county to report on the autumn harvest to the commune leader, and Xu Zifan planned to go with him this time. The Yang family had a bicycle, but this time they had a lot of things to carry, and the county was quite far away. So Xu Zifan borrowed the Party Secretary's bicycle. The two of them each rode a bicycle, tied all their belongings to the back seat, and set off before the neighbors woke up in the morning.
Yang Yongqing had been worried the whole way. Seeing that Xu Zifan seemed unaffected, he asked in bewilderment, "Fanzi, what do you mean? In the past, selling these things from the mountains was considered taking advantage of the country. Even if it's not controlled now, these things still belong to the country. Can't we open a factory to sell these things?"
Xu Zifan replied, "If the village head says the land belongs to the state, then we can contract it. Just like how we have to hand over a portion of the crops we grow in our fields to the state, and the rest is distributed among the villages, right? It's the same in the mountains as in the fields, and the state has no precedent for this. We don't even have to pay that much. All of this is negotiable."
Yang Yongqing glanced back at the things in the back seat and said worriedly, "These things look novel, but they're actually quite simple. Anyone can figure them out after a little thought. Let's cover them up when we get there, so no one can see them."
Xu Zifan curled his lips and smiled, "No, we have to let others see it. Not just let them see it, but let them think we're being unrealistic. The more they see it, the easier it is for us to negotiate the price. After all, things that are looked down upon by others are worthless in the eyes of the club president, and he doesn't care about the profits. Once we lay the foundation the first time, it won't be so easy for him to share the profits later."
Yang Yongqing glanced at Xu Zifan, then looked back at the things, unable to understand what benefits they could possibly bring. But he thought his ignorance stemmed from his lack of worldly experience. Xu Zifan spoke so eloquently and confidently; perhaps it really could work? After all, this son-in-law was from the capital, Beijing, and had seen the world.
Even if it doesn't work out, at most I'll get a scolding from the club president and become a laughing stock among the other teams, it's not a big deal.
With this thought in mind, Yang Yongqing felt more at ease. The two quickly arrived at the commune office, carrying their belongings to find the commune leader. They encountered two other brigade leaders, and Yang Yongqing led Xu Zifan forward to greet them and introduce him. Xu Zifan behaved politely and smoothly, which impressed the two brigade leaders, who felt he was quite different from the other educated youth who had come from elsewhere.
The two of them had already noticed the large and small bags Xu Zifan was carrying, and after exchanging pleasantries for a while, they asked him about them out of curiosity.
Xu Zifan laughed and said, "I see that no one likes to eat the wild fruits in the mountains, and a lot of them are just waiting to rot, which is a pity. I was wondering if the president could exchange some with other units."
The two laughed when they heard that. "Who wants this stuff? It's sour and disgusting. People only eat a couple occasionally as a snack. If they eat too much, they'll go hungry. What can they trade it for?"
Xu Zifan laughed and said, "I'll just give it a try. If it doesn't work, so be it. I still have mushrooms and wood ear fungus, which can at least make a dish. Stir-fried wood ear fungus with cabbage would be pretty good. I had my mom cook the fish, so it's ready to eat. There's also dried fruit, which women and children should enjoy. I think there's a lot of potential here. Food is popular everywhere."
The more they listened to his explanation, the more amused they became. Yang Yongqing's village was on the west side of the river, called Hexi Village. Their villages were on either side of his, some distance away, and while they weren't as abundant as their mountain villages, they still had all sorts of things. There wasn't a single rare or unusual item here—what was there to gain? He was clearly still young and a bit too eager for quick success.