On the way back, Su Tao had been looking somewhat downcast. Seeing this, Su Li couldn’t help but comfort her, “Didn’t Father say they’d probably be back in about ten days?”
These words were naturally meant to console her. No one actually knew when Su Fu and the others would return. In this dynasty, for military households like theirs, ordinary soldiers only gained certain freedoms and basic human rights after distinguishing themselves in battle and receiving promotions. Normally, they were either working at the garrison or stationed at the border—that was the norm.
But how difficult was it to earn military merits? Take the Su father and sons, for example. It wasn’t that they hadn’t achieved any merits. A couple of years ago, when they went to Weihai to suppress pirates, Su Fu had taken five pirate heads. Second Brother Su Qingshan was even more valiant, claiming ten pirate heads. Third Brother wasn’t far behind with three. By all reasoning, they shouldn’t still be ordinary soldiers now. Yet when it came time for rewards, they received nothing.
The reason was simple: they had no connections in high places, nor silver for bribes. Even if you performed meritorious deeds in battle, what did it matter? You still got nothing. Worse, you had to be wary of fellow soldiers using you to claim merits for themselves on the battlefield.
It sounded cruel, but that was reality.
“Yes, Sister Tao, don’t be sad,” Li Chunhua also comforted from the side.
“Mm, it’s fine. I feel much better now.” As the eldest among them, Su Tao felt somewhat embarrassed to continue being sad when two younger sisters were comforting her.
Still, she remained somewhat listless.
Just then, Li Chunhua suddenly pointed at the grass beside them and exclaimed in delight, “Ah, Sister Tao, Sister Li, look! What’s that?”
Su Li and Su Tao followed Li Chunhua’s pointing finger and saw that behind the grass was a large patch of raspberries—red and yellow fruits covering a considerable area.
It was worth noting that such snacks were almost never seen in the village. With so many children around and so little to eat, wild fruits like raspberries and jujubes would disappear before they even ripened. It was rare to find so many at once.
This was probably because this path was quite remote and seldom traveled, allowing so many berries to remain unpicked.
All of Su Tao’s bad mood instantly vanished. “They’re thorny gourds!”
“So many!”
“Indeed.”
“Let’s go pick them!”
“Okay.”
The three of them used sticks to beat the grass as they made their way toward the bushes. Just then, Su Li suddenly remembered something and reminded them, “Fourth Sister, Sister Chunhua, we should pick a few leaves to line the baskets.” Raspberries were quite delicate and would bruise easily if not handled carefully.
“Right, right.” The other two remembered and followed Su Li’s example, picking some leaves to place in their baskets before carefully beginning to harvest the berries.
“So sweet,” Li Chunhua couldn’t help but smile, her eyes curving.
“Fifth Sister, you have some too. These thorny gourds are really sweet,” Su Tao said, stuffing handfuls into her mouth while passing some to Su Li.
Su Li took the raspberries—what people here called “thorny gourds”—and carefully blew off the dust before putting them in her mouth.
Sweet.
The ripe raspberries had no trace of sourness, only a rich, distinctive raspberry fragrance and high sweetness. For Su Li, who hadn’t tasted any other flavors for nearly half a month, this was truly a happy moment.
If made into jam and put in cake, they would probably taste even better.
Su Li sighed wistfully. She loved raspberry jam cake more than anything.
But these days, they could barely afford regular meals, let alone cake. Even ordinary mung bean pastries were beyond their means.
…
After the three of them had eaten their fill of raspberries, they finally began picking.
Soon, all the ripe raspberries were harvested.
“It looked like so much, but why is there so little after picking?” Su Tao complained, eyeing the shallow layer in the basket.
It was indeed quite scarce, but there was no helping it – after three people had eaten so many, having this much left was already fortunate.
“Fifth Sister, let me see how many you picked.” Su Tao leaned over to check Su Li’s harvest.
Instead, she noticed Su Li kept gazing toward the woods on the left.
“Fifth Sister, what are you looking at?”
“Fourth Sister, are those jujubes over there?” Su Li had been wanting to mention this since they started picking raspberries. She’d looked repeatedly toward the hillside ahead, trying to confirm whether those were jujube trees. The more she looked, the more they resembled jujubes, but being hidden among other trees made them difficult to identify clearly.
Su Tao took two steps forward to look. “Yes!!! They’re definitely jujubes!”
Excitement filled her voice. What luck they had today – discovering so many edible fruits at once. Though jujubes couldn’t really be considered delicious, being extremely sour instead, their unique flavor was oddly addictive. One bite made you crave another, just thinking about them made your mouth water.
Li Chunhua equally rejoiced, “They really are jujubes!”
This lifted all three girls’ spirits again.
They resumed their tasks – some gathering branches, others carrying baskets.
Jujubes were easy to harvest, especially ripe ones that fell with a simple shake of the branches, making them even quicker to collect than raspberries. Any stubborn ones could be knocked down with sticks.
Where jujubes grew, there usually wasn’t just one tree. After harvesting the first tree, Su Li and the others successively discovered three more.
“Heavens, there are so many! We can’t possibly gather them all.”
Su Tao hopped about happily like a little squirrel, picking here and there until her hands could hold no more.
Soon, both baskets they’d brought plus the backpack Li Chunhua used for cutting pigweed were completely filled. Even their clothes were stuffed with the fruits.
By the end, the three moved mechanically, their initial excitement replaced by numb exhaustion, faces showing utter weariness.
“Let’s leave the rest for later,” Su Li suggested when they truly couldn’t gather any more.
Su Tao and Li Chunhua agreed. “Then let’s head back.”
But then Su Li suddenly asked, “Are we taking all these back with us?”
Su Tao looked puzzled – where else would they take them?
Li Chunhua also watched Su Li with confusion.
Su Li organized her thoughts. “We have too many to eat ourselves. Why not sell them?”
In her memory, villagers often specifically harvested fruits to sell, especially during this season. Quite a few did so, which made Su Li think perhaps there would be buyers.
Sell? Su Tao had never considered these fruits could be sold for money. In her young mind, earning silver only involved selling rice, grains, or doing manual labor in town.
Hearing they could sell these fruits surprised her.
“Will they sell?” Actually, some villagers had tried before, but those who did reported they couldn’t sell them or fetched very little money.
Su Tao voiced all her concerns aloud.
“Definitely possible.”
Su Li said, then proceeded to analyze for the two why some people would claim it wasn’t profitable.
“It’s actually quite simple. If everyone knew selling these fruits could earn money, they’d all follow suit and start picking them. Then those people wouldn’t be able to make money anymore.”
There was another point Su Li didn’t mention: if everyone stopped working to search for fruits in the mountains to sell, the price of fruits would drop, affecting their business.
Hearing Su Li’s words, Li Chunhua showed a suddenly enlightened expression. “No wonder Erdan’s family always eats meat.”
??
Seeing Su Li and Su Tao’s confused looks, Li Chunhua explained what she meant.
It turned out Li Chunhua’s neighbors were a family who made their living by gathering fruits and mountain products. They would complain about poverty to anyone they met, but their immediate neighbors all knew that the family often had the aroma of meat wafting from their home. Although her mother always said they were so poor they were eating rats, Li Chunhua had seen with her own eyes – those were large pieces of meat, definitely not rats.
So was this how they were earning money?
“Must be,” Su Tao wasn’t stupid. After hearing Li Chunhua and Su Li’s conversation, she immediately understood the reason.
“Then let’s go sell sour jujubes too.” If they could earn six wen, that would be good enough. Yes, in Su Tao’s mind, six wen could buy six steamed buns – enough for everyone in the family to have one each.
“But where should we sell them?” The original host rarely went out and wasn’t familiar with the roads. In contrast, Su Tao often pestered Wu Pozi and Chen Shi to take her out shopping.
“Going to the county town would make us return too late. Let’s go to Ma Tou instead.”
After Su Tao described the approximate location and Su Li learned that Ma Tou was closer to their current position, she made a decision. “Then we’ll go to Ma Tou.”