Chapter 80: The Orchard

The wild vegetable cornbread had a slightly bitter taste and even scratched the throat when eaten.

At noon, Liu Yinyin forced herself to eat the wild vegetable cornbread. There was no choice—food was food, and it couldn’t be wasted.

In the evening, Gu Cheng ate it too. The man showed no reaction while eating, just like Gu Yanyan—whatever was served, he ate, never picky.

Gu Cheng came home a bit late today since the steel factory had been busy lately.

Liu Yinyin, on the other hand, was about to start her holiday tomorrow and would finally have some free time.

During dinner, Gu Cheng said to her, “Tomorrow, I’ll take you both to the neighboring county to pick some fruit.”

It was Saturday today, and tomorrow, Sunday, he happened to have the day off, so he could take his wife and child out for a day.

Hearing this, Liu Yinyin was overjoyed and quickly asked, “Is it far? How are we getting there?”

Liu Village belonged to Xin’an County, while the neighboring county was called Chongyang County.

It sounded close, but Liu Yinyin had never been anywhere farther than Xin’an County. She had never even heard anyone mention the neighboring county before.

Not just her—no one else in the village had been there either.

Although there were cars at this time, rural folks were reluctant to spend money on transportation. Truth be told, the vast majority of villagers had never even stepped outside their own county in their entire lives.

Gu Cheng replied, “It’s not far. If we ride a bicycle, we can get there in about two hours. If we leave early tomorrow, we’ll arrive by seven or eight o’clock.”

Arriving around seven or eight was perfect—any later, and the weather would be even hotter.

A two-hour bike ride wasn’t far at all. Given the short distance, the climate should be similar as well.

Thinking about this, Liu Yinyin turned to him and asked, “That area must also be short on water, right? Are there still a lot of fruits on the mountain?”

Gu Cheng nodded. “They have a large reservoir for irrigation, so the situation isn’t as severe as it is here.”

The two counties were similar in size and population.

However, Chongyang County had a better geographical location and more convenient transportation, making it wealthier than Xin’an County.

The orchard industry was a key part of Chongyang’s economy, so it was well taken care of. As a result, the orchards hadn’t suffered major problems.

Liu Yinyin muttered, “…Then we can pick more fruit.”

It was frustrating—why did their county have nothing while others had everything?

That night, Liu Yinyin lit an oil lamp and, under its dim light, improvised a baby carrier.

That way, she could strap Gu Yanyan to her body while riding the bicycle tomorrow, rather than carrying him in her arms, which would be exhausting.

The Next Day

The couple woke up at around five in the morning. Outside, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

Liu Yinyin fed Gu Yanyan milk, while Gu Cheng quickly made a few egg pancakes for breakfast.

After eating, the family of three set off. Liu Yinyin carried the baby on her back using the carrier while sitting on the bicycle’s rear seat.

Before leaving, they stopped by Liu’s house. Liu Yinyin handed Jiang Cuihua the key to their home.

She asked her to help feed the two pigs, a few chickens, and a group of rabbits.

Speaking of rabbits, Liu Yinyin couldn’t help but marvel at how rabbit farming had recently become a trend in the village.

It all started with her family, which had loaned out quite a few rabbits. Now, they only had eighteen left.

Previously, two rabbits had been kept at the school. Later, they successfully mated and gave birth to a litter of six baby rabbits.

Since Jiang Zhiqing couldn’t raise pigs, he had indeed turned his attention to raising rabbits instead. He was a man of action.

With no dedicated space for raising them, he set his sights on the school’s unused classrooms.

If he wanted to use the classrooms, Liu Changquan certainly wouldn’t object. After all, they were sitting empty anyway. As long as the village didn’t have to pay for it, he didn’t care what Jiang Zhiqing did.

So, Jiang Zhiqing took charge of raising the school’s rabbits. Later, he even asked Liu Yinyin to lend him two pairs of breeding rabbits.

His goal was to breed more rabbits.

Of course, the rabbits he raised didn’t belong to him personally—they were considered either the school’s or the community’s property.

But he didn’t mind at all.

Previously, the rabbits at the school had been taken care of by the children, so it wasn’t a secret in the village.

Later, when people saw how easily rabbits reproduced—one litter after another—some of them started thinking about raising rabbits too.

However, they had no breeding rabbits, and catching wild rabbits in the mountains wasn’t easy.

So, when they heard that Liu Yinyin’s family had rabbits, they shamelessly asked to borrow a pair of breeding rabbits.

They promised to return them once the rabbits gave birth.

Liu Yinyin wasn’t a saint. If they wanted to borrow rabbits, they had to pay a deposit of one yuan.

Otherwise, what if they lost the rabbits or refused to return them?

On top of that, after the rabbits gave birth, they had to give her one baby rabbit as compensation.

Otherwise, why should she go through the trouble for nothing? Wouldn’t it be easier to just keep the rabbits for herself?

Jiang Zhiqing followed the same rule—when he borrowed two pairs of breeding rabbits, he didn’t hesitate to hand over two yuan as a deposit.

After all, he was from the city, so his family was probably well-off. It was said that in the few months since he arrived, he had already received several packages from his family, containing both food and daily necessities.

It seemed like he wasn’t short on money, but because of this, even more people in the village started paying attention to him.

Jiang Zhiqing had set a good example.

Later, when people came to Liu Yinyin’s house to borrow breeding rabbits and heard about the one-yuan deposit requirement, more than half of them backed out.

However, there were still those who sincerely wanted to raise rabbits. Over this period, Liu Yinyin had lent out ten pairs of breeding rabbits, including the two pairs to Jiang Zhiqing.

In total, she had lent out twenty-four rabbits.

That meant, including the eighteen she currently had at home, Liu Yinyin’s household had forty-two rabbits in total!

That was quite a lot, and in the future, there would only be more.

To be honest, raising so many rabbits on her own was becoming difficult. Maybe… she could consider working with Jiang Zhiqing.

Otherwise, keeping such a large number of rabbits at home was too conspicuous.

It wasn’t that Liu Yinyin was afraid of trouble, but sometimes, the less attention, the better. After all, she still had a child at home. As Jiang Cuihua had said, it was always best to keep a low profile.

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Gu Cheng steadily rode the bicycle, and before long, the sun was blazing.

The scorching sun hung high in the sky, without a single cloud in sight.

To avoid getting sunburned, Liu Yinyin wore a hat, and Gu Yanyan also had his little cap on.

It was still early, so the heat was just about bearable.

The little one was quite curious about the outside world. He widened his round eyes and looked around, neither crying nor fussing.

If he had been difficult, they might not have even made it to Chongyang County.

They stopped twice along the way to rest, taking turns carrying the child.

By around eight o’clock, the family finally arrived at the orchard.

The orchard stretched across several mountains. To prevent fruit theft, the entire area was fenced off with iron bars.

At the base of the mountain, a few buildings stood, serving as offices for the orchard staff.

Gu Cheng parked the bicycle at the entrance and took Liu Yinyin inside to find someone.

The person in charge of the orchard was named Zhao Jianguo. Coincidentally, he had once been Gu Cheng’s comrade-in-arms.

Gu Cheng knocked on the door. “Old Zhao.”

Zhao Jianguo was surprised. He stood up and said, “…Gu Cheng, you rascal, you finally came!”

The two former comrades were overjoyed to see each other again.