Chapter 53: Harvest

The next day, when Shen Yanming woke up, it was already 10:00 AM. He carefully lifted the quilt, got out of bed, and quickly tucked it back in. He picked up his slippers from under the bed, quietly opened the door, squeezed out, and gently closed it. After putting on his slippers, he walked to the living room bathroom to freshen up.

After washing up, Shen Yanming opened the refrigerator, filled with drinks, milk, beer, and eggs. He took out two eggs and closed the fridge. In the kitchen, he scooped a bowl of rice from the cupboard, poured it into the rice cooker to wash, and added water to cook.

Then, he retrieved a sea bass from his space, washed it clean, stuffed it with scallions, ginger, and garlic, placed it on a ceramic plate, poured steamed fish soy sauce over it, and steamed it on high heat for fifteen minutes. Feeling the need for a vegetable dish, he took two tomatoes and a bunch of chrysanthemum greens from the space, washed them, stir-fried tomato and egg, and sautéed the veggie.

Half an hour later, the rice was ready. Shen Yanming looked at the delicious meal in front of him, feeling extremely satisfied. Being able to cook to this level was already quite remarkable, he thought to himself.

He walked out of the kitchen and saw that Bi Qiao’an was still not awake. He put the plated rice and dishes into the space, cleaned the kitchen knife and cutting board, washed the pot, wiped the stove, and sat on the sofa to browse Weibo, quietly waiting for Qiao’an to wake up and eat.

It wasn’t until 12:30 PM that Bi Qiao’an finally woke up, her hair a mess. After washing up, she walked to the living room with a tired gait and sat next to him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, rested her chin on his left shoulder, raised her head, and said softly, “Honey, I’m hungry!”

He shuddered at this languid voice, his adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Okay, let’s eat right away!” he replied, trying to compose himself.

Bi Qiao’an gave high praise to Shen Yanming’s lunch, saying it was an outstanding performance. Seeing her blissful expression, he gave himself a mental thumbs up.

After finishing the meal and cleaning up, she pulled him into the planting space. At this moment, only half of the fifty acres in the space had been cultivated.

There were about fifteen acres planted with various grains, two acres with various vegetables, one acre with flowers, and of the remaining seven acres, three were planted with fruit trees already laden with fruit, and the remaining four were planted with grafted fruit tree branches that had taken root but were still young and yet to bear fruit.

Due to feeling a deeper connection with the space earlier, Bi Qiao’an wanted to try using her mind to harvest the fruits. She walked to an apple tree, looked up at the big, red apple at the top, and silently chanted, “Come down, come to my hand, quickly, quickly!”

That apple seemed blown by the wind, swaying left and right, and suddenly, it fell. Bang! She covered her nose and squatted on the ground, about to cry. The pain was intense.

Bi Qiao’an secretly glanced at Shen Yanming in the wheat field. Hmm, he was fiddling with the harvester he had just taken out and didn’t notice her embarrassing situation.

So, she stealthily moved behind the apple tree, making sure that even if he looked over, he wouldn’t see her. Then she covered her nose and stomped her feet, silently howling in pain.

Shen Yanming had already noticed the situation. He caught a glimpse of her behavior out of the corner of his eye and couldn’t help but smile. He shook his head, sat in the harvester, and decided to harvest the wheat first.

Bi Qiao’an waited behind the apple tree until her nose no longer hurt, then picked up a small basket and started picking the fruits.

The fruit trees in the space were not very tall, mainly growing horizontally. Fortunately, when planted, the spacing between each fruit tree was very large, so she could pick most of the fruits by tiptoeing and raising her arms.

She picked up the apple that had hit her earlier and inwardly mocked, ‘Newton was hit once and discovered the law of universal gravitation, Jobs was “hit” once and changed the world, and Bi Qiao’an was hit once and almost got a nosebleed.’ She sighed, stood up, and picked the apples she could reach, putting them into the cardboard box in the center of the orchard.

After picking the apples, she picked a mango and sniffed it. The aroma was intoxicating, sweet and blissful. She gently squeezed it, and it was firm and slightly soft. It seemed that after the fruits ripened in the space, they could be kept in the best condition.

After picking the mangoes, there were still lychees, cherries, loquats, and so on, most of which couldn’t be knocked, squeezed, or pressed. She put the same kind of fruits in one cardboard box, sealed the box when it was full, and wrote the type of fruit on it with a marker.

In the orchard, the ten cardboard boxes that Shen Yanming had prepared in advance were quickly filled up. Bi Qiao’an looked up and saw that he had already finished harvesting the wheat and was now harvesting the soybeans. She didn’t call him but directly put the picked fruits on the ground, piling them under each tree.

When he came to look for her, she looked up and saw that half of the grain fields had been harvested. She glanced at her side and saw that she hadn’t even picked half of the fruits. She pouted, feeling a bit unconvinced, and asked, “Is this the difference between manual labor and machines?”

He took a tissue and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Yeah, they are all integrated machines. It takes about twenty minutes per acre. I’ve been harvesting for three hours,” he explained, his voice filled with pride.

Shen Yanming found an empty spot in the orchard, took out a hammock lounge chair and a coffee table from the storage space, and also took out a pot of tea and several plates of snacks, placing them on the coffee table. He waved at her, “Come and rest for a bit. Look how tired you are!”

She didn’t stand on ceremony. After sitting down, she patted the spot next to her. “You should rest too,” she urged, concern evident in her voice.

He shook his head. “I’ve been sitting in the car the whole time. It’s good to stand up and move around now,” he replied, stretching his arms.

She didn’t insist and leisurely started drinking tea. As for Shen Yanming, he first put the ten cardboard boxes from the center of the orchard into the storage space, then took out a pile of cardboard boxes, collected the fruits under the trees into the boxes, and finally stored them in the storage space.

By the time he finished collecting all the fruits under the trees, half an hour had passed. He sat down next to her, picked up a cup, and drank some slightly cool tea. “Let’s go out first. It’s already five o’clock. I think we’ll have to go collect the desserts in a bit. After dinner, we’ll come back in and pick the rest,” he suggested, his eyes seeking her approval.

She nodded and pulled him out of the space. Bi Qiao’an picked up her phone and saw that Manager Bai had indeed sent a message saying that a batch of desserts was ready and could be picked up.

“It seems there’s no time to buy an oven today. Let’s go collect the desserts first,” she said, pointing to the message on her phone.

After changing their clothes, the two drove out. It didn’t take long for them to arrive at Sweet Dessert House. Manager Bai and the waiters helped pack the desserts into the car, filling up the trunk and the back seats. They also confirmed to come back at the same time the next day to collect the second batch. The entire order would be completed in about a week.