Chapter 25 Harvest

"Xia Xiao, don't run around," said Wang Aihua.

Yang Xuehua also pulled on Xia Xiao, "Let's not get lost."

So with Gao Jiaxing's instructions, Xia Xiao could imagine being followed closely by Wang Aihua and Yang Xuehua, treating her as if she were a child.

Xia Xiao was speechless, but this time she could only obediently follow Wang Aihua and the others in picking mushrooms and wild fruits, thinking that next time she had to find an excuse to sneak out, so as not to let Gao Jiaxing and the people in the dormitory know.

There were plenty of wild fruits on the mountain, but they were quite sour. Tasting one or two was fine, but eating more was unbearable.

Suddenly, Dong Meihua called out, "There's a tree here with really big fruits."

"Don't let them be poisonous," said Liu Haihua. "There are plenty of poisonous fruits in these mountains, and you mustn't eat them carelessly."

As she spoke, Liu Haihua led the group over. Upon seeing the fruits, she immediately said to the young women behind her, "Pick them all."

Wang Aihua looked at Liu Haihua, "Didn't you say they might be poisonous?"

Liu Haihua picked up a somewhat spoiled fruit from the ground and took a bite, nodding, "Sweet, tasty, definitely not poisonous. I used to follow my dad into the mountains when I was a child, but I've never seen fruits like these before. Let's pick them now and share them later, how does that sound?"

Seeing Liu Haihua eat without any problems, Wang Aihua nodded and let Xia Xiao and the others go pick as well.

Xia Xiao quietly asked Shitou, "Could these fruits be poisonous?"

"You'll know if you taste one," Shitou replied.

Xia Xiao was at a loss for words. What if they were poisonous? She wasn't a doctor and certainly didn't dare to use her own body to test it. Moreover, Xia Xiao also admired Liu Haihua's boldness—not to mention eating fruits directly from the tree, she dared to eat even the spoiled ones that fell to the ground.

"Isn't there spring water in the space? If you put the fruit in the spring water and it turns black, it's poisoned."

Xia Xiao's eyes brightened. The spring water had that function.

"Or you could break a wild fruit and drop a drop of spring water into it. If it turns black, it's also poisonous."

"I can't enter the space at this moment," said Xia Xiao, seeing so many people around, and with Wang Aihua and Yang Xuehua watching her closely, how could she find a chance to enter the space?

"Silly, don't you have gege here?"

"It's so good to have you," said Xia Xiao as she hurriedly picked up a spoiled fruit from the ground, broke it open, and, while no one was paying attention, got a drop of spring water from Shitou to drip onto the fruit flesh.

"It's not poisoned, Xiaoxiao, you can eat it with confidence," Shitou said.

"I don't even know if it's sour," said Xia Xiao. She didn't have much tolerance for sourness and had already tried several kinds of wild fruits, nearly sour enough to make her teeth fall out.

"Xia Xiao, what are you talking about?" Yang Xuehua came over and asked.

Xia Xiao laughed, "Nothing much, am I not just bad at climbing trees?"

"No worries, I can't climb either. Let those who can do it, and we'll just pick up from the ground," Yang Xuehua said, as she started weaving some vines she pulled from nearby.

Seeing this, Xia Xiao followed suit and learned. They hadn't brought baskets to carry their finds, not like the Red Star Production Team; they came prepared.

Their production team was actually heading into the county town, and Gao Jia's group just happened to run into the Red Star Production Team, which is why everyone decided to come together.

People at that time were quite skillful with their hands; everyone quickly wove many baskets that could hold wild fruits and mushrooms without any trouble.

Soon, the young women from the two production teams climbed the tree and picked all the fruits. Wang Aihua and Liu Haihua divided them among everyone, with each person getting two.

Xia Xiao bit into a wild fruit, finding it sweet and crunchy, indeed delicious, reminiscent of a pear but aware that pears didn't grow in the tropics.

Unfortunately, there was only one tree, and women from both production teams gathered to pick from it, each person only managing to get two, nearly insufficient for everyone.

"Xiaoxiao, move that little sapling next to you into the space."

Xia Xiao looked at the small sapling beside her and asked in a low voice, "What kind of tree is this?"

"It's of the same kind you just ate. If you like it, move it into your space to grow."

As soon as Shitou finished speaking, Xia Xiao excitedly pulled the little sapling into her space while no one was paying attention.

"So tasty."

"It's really yummy."

After trying it, everyone couldn't stop praising it, primarily because they had already tried several sour wild fruits. Finding one that was crisp, sweet, and the size of an egg, they were all very fond of it.

"Let's keep looking, see if there are any more?" Liu Haihua looked at Xia Xiao and the others with a touch of regret, inwardly ruing her decision to invite the people from Guangming Production Team. Without them, her own team might have gotten more of the wild fruits from this tree.

Unfortunately, despite a long search, they found no more of such wild fruits. It seemed there was only that one tree on the outskirts, whether there were more deeper in the mountains was unknown.

"Let's not waste more time. Let's go back with some mushrooms and wild vegetables," Wang Aihua finally refused to follow Liu Haihua any longer. After all the effort, they hadn't collected any mushrooms or vegetables and had only spent time on wild fruits.

Wild fruits were only snacks and didn't fill the stomach, so once Wang Aihua spoke up, everyone nodded in agreement.

Xia Xiao carried her woven basket, filled with mushrooms she picked—ones too brightly colored and pretty, she didn't dare to pick, and generally, she picked whatever the others did.

When the basket was full, Xia Xiao quietly stashed her finds into her space. Having a space was truly convenient, and she even took to planting some tasty wild fruit saplings in it.

"Look, there are egg-fruits here!" exclaimed a woman from Red Star Production Team.

Everyone swarmed to the spot, including Xia Xiao, who managed to pick several.

In an instant, the egg-fruits were all picked clean, with some not even sparing the small ones.

Liu Haihua complained, "The small ones are sour; don't pick them. Let them grow, so they'll be ripe for us the next time we come."

Xia Xiao agreed with Liu Haihua. Although Liu Haihua was somewhat domineering and bossy, she was alright in certain respects.

"Tasty," Yang Xuehua said after tasting them, "Xia Xiao, you should try some too."

"Eh, isn't this passion fruit?" Xia Xiao recognized at a glance. In her past life, she had tasted passion fruit, and these egg-fruits were very similar, even in flavor.

"It's called passion fruit, which is right," Wang Aihua nodded and let out a sigh of appreciation, "The flavor is so nice, tangy and sweet, with a fragrant smell. This southern region really has an abundance of wild fruits; I've tried quite a few."

Yang Xuehua and Dong Meihua, among others, nodded in agreement.

This time not needing a reminder from Shitou, Xia Xiao directly found small passion fruit saplings and uprooted a few to place in her space.

This trip to the mountains, despite the disappointing episode with Gao Jiaxing, was overall very satisfying for Xia Xiao.

"Right, why haven't I seen Luo Mingzhe and Liu Yue?" Xia Xiao suddenly thought of the two.

Yang Xuehua said, "They might have gone down the mountain."

As they were talking, sudden cries, calls, and hurried footsteps came their way, and they saw Gao Jiazhi and several others carrying Gao Jiaxing, followed by Luo Mingzhe and Liu Yue.