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Xiao Bao watched the fruit-picking activities with great interest. “Daddy, pick the big peaches!”
“Sure, Daddy will take you to pick big peaches,” Su Yu said, carrying the constantly moving Xiao Bao, feeling somewhat helpless.
When they arrived at the second orchard, Su Yu looked at the orchard owner. “Do you have baskets? Could you give me one? I’ll pick a few fruits with my son. Don’t worry; we’ll weigh them together later.”
The orchard owner fetched a basket for Xiao Bao and waved his hand. “It’s not a big deal. Picking a few fruits for the young master won’t cost much, and we should thank you. Otherwise, these fruits would have gone bad on the ground.”
Su Yu couldn’t refuse, so he accepted the basket with gratitude. “Thank you so much.”
“I’ll leave this to you, Yuan Bao. I’ll take Xiao Bao to pick peaches.”
“Understood.”
Wang Jinhe didn’t go with them since Yuan Bao had to handle weighing the fruits, inspect their quality, and make payments, which kept him quite busy. She stayed behind to assist.
Xiao Bao had never seen such large peaches before. “Daddy, these peaches are so big!”
“We can’t pick these yet; they’re not ripe.” The peaches were still green with just a hint of red; they definitely couldn’t be picked yet. Picking them prematurely would be a waste.
“Daddy, over there, over there!”
Xiao Bao pointed to a big peach not far away and asked Su Yu to go pick it.
Su Yu, feeling helpless, carried Xiao Bao over. “This one is big too. Do you think it’s ripe?”
“It’s already ripe.”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Bao quickly reached out his hands to pick it. After picking it, he turned to Su Yu and asked, “Daddy, is this peach big?”
“It’s huge, it’s so big that if I put it in front of your face, I wouldn’t be able to see you. It’s even bigger than your face.” Indeed, the peach was much larger than Xiao Bao’s face.
“Lets Take it to Mommy.” Xiao Bao asked Su Yu to lift the basket, placing the peach inside, and then he continued picking.
After picking four or five more peaches, the basket was full.
“Daddy, I want to pick more.”
“Sure, after we take the peaches to Mommy, we can come back to help Uncle and Aunt pick more fruits, okay?” Su Yu was willing to fulfill Xiao Bao’s simple request.
“Okay.”
The two of them left the peaches aside since Yuan Bao needed to weigh them. The orchard owner quickly intervened, saying, “These are for the young master; there’s no need to weigh them.”
“Thank you so much for that,” Wang Jinhe quickly expressed her gratitude.
“It’s just a few fruits; there’s no need for thanks,” the orchard owner waved his hand.
“Daddy, pick peaches!” Xiao Bao, seeing Su Yu talking with Yuan Bao, tugged at his clothes and gestured towards the orchard.
Su Yu held Xiao Bao. “Xiao He, I’ll take Xiao Bao to pick peaches; he hasn’t picked enough yet.”
“Sure, just watch him closely. There are many branches in the orchard; make sure he doesn’t fall,” Wang Jinhe said, clearly concerned.
“Don’t worry; I’m here. Nothing will happen,” Su Yu reassured her.
As soon as they entered the orchard, Xiao Bao insisted on getting down and walking on his own. Su Yu couldn’t resist him, so he put him down and followed closely behind him.
When Xiao Bao saw the large, red fruits, he hugged Su Yu and started picking them. After picking, he placed the fruits in a bamboo basket, swaying slightly.
The villagers who came to help saw Xiao Bao searching for fruits all over the orchard and smiled kindly. They didn’t say anything about his assistance.
“Xiao Bao, it’s time to go. We’ve picked all the fruits.”
“Okay.” Xiao Bao ran to Su Yu and placed his hand in front of him. “Daddy, itchy hands.”
“Of course, peach fuzz can make your hands itchy. We’ll wash your hands when we go out, and then it won’t itch anymore.” Despite the modest conditions at home, Xiao Bao was well taken care of by Wang Jinhe and the others. His skin was delicate; even a slight touch of these things would cause redness. There was a red patch on his neck; Su Yu wasn’t sure if he had scratched it himself.
“Sure.” Su Yu took Xiao Bao to the stream to wash his hands.
“Daddy, come and see, what’s this? It’s hard and it’s moving.” Xiao Bao called out excitedly.
Su Yu walked over and saw a fist-sized turtle.
“It’s a turtle.”
“Daddy, can I keep it?” Xiao Bao looked at Su Yu with eager eyes.
How could Su Yu resist Little Bao’s pleading look? He nodded. “Yes, we can”
“Then what does it eat?”
“Cabbage should be fine, and meat too. Fruits are also good for them,” Su Yu thought for a moment. “We’ll ask your mother when we get back home; she’ll know what’s suitable for the turtle.”
“Then let’s hurry.”
Su Yu followed behind Xiao Bao, watching him run eagerly towards Wang Jinhe. Su Yu’s eyes were filled with helplessness. “Be careful not to fall, slow down.”
“Mom, look at the little turtle I found!” Xiao Bao completely ignored Su Yu’s slow pace. He ran up to Wang Jinhe and handed her the turtle, standing on his tiptoes to show it to her.
“Xiao Bao, can you wait for Mommy for a moment? Mommy needs to pay this grandpa first, and then we can look at your turtle,” Wang Jinhe said, looking at Little Bao.
Seeing that Wang Jinhe was busy, Xiao Bao obediently stood aside, waiting until she finished the payment. Then he presented the turtle to her again.
Wang Jinhe reached out and picked Xiao Bao up, looking at the turtle in his hands. “Where did you find this little guy?”
“In the stream over there. It was crawling, so I caught it,” Xiao Bao said proudly. “Even Daddy didn’t see it, only I did.”
“So quick, huh?”
“Mommy, when are we going back home?” After showing the turtle to Wang Jinhe, Xiao Bao asked.
“Don’t want to play anymore?”
“I’m hungry,” Xiao Bao said, patting his little tummy.
“Alright, let’s go back and have some food. We can come back to play after eating,” Wang Jinhe said, holding Xiao Bao and getting ready to head home.
“Miss, my family has prepared lunch. Please join us,” said Hu Lin, the village Chief. Yesterday, the families in the village had taken out some money to buy meat and vegetables, intending to host a meal for everyone at noon.
“No need, Uncle. We can go back and have our meal. It’s alright,” Wang Jinhe hurriedly declined, not planning to eat at their place.
Hu Lin looked at Wang Jinhe and insisted, “Miss, our meal is ready. Let’s have it together. You still have to pick fruits in the afternoon.”
“That’s right, we don’t have much to repay you, so let us treat you to a meal,” another villager added.
Under their sincere invitation, Wang Jinhe and the others had no choice but to accept and went to the village Chief’s house for lunch. Although there were only four dishes, each dish was plentiful, enough to feed everyone.
After having lunch and resting for a while, Xioa Bao started feeling sleepy.
“Yuan Xu, carry Xiao Bao to the carriage to sleep, and you stay there with him,” Su Yu instructed. The carriage was a bit far from where they were, and he didn’t feel comfortable leaving Xiao Bao alone to sleep.
“Yes,” Yuan Xu carefully took Xiao Bao from Su Yu’s arms. When Xiao Bao opened his eyes, Yuan Xu was taken aback. “Uncle Yuan Xu.”
Hearing Xiao Bao’s soft voice, Yuan Xu felt his heart melt.
“Master, I’ll take you to bed.”
“Okay,” Xiao Bao mumbled sleepily in response.
Once Xiao Bao was asleep, Su Yu and Wang Jinhe helped Yuan Bao. With everyone pitching in, the work progressed much faster.