Chapter 2: The End of Peach Blossoms is My Home

Li Feng lay on the shelf. At night, the croaking of frogs gradually rose, and from the mountains there were occasional roars of animals, or the occasional chirping of startled birds. The mountain nights were far from peaceful; all sorts of animals chirped and squeaked, seemingly avoiding the people as they went about their daily lives. Moonlight filtered through the windowsill, illuminating the wooden table once piled high with textbooks. Li Feng had been unable to sleep. He had been restless all day, feeling the joy of reunion, the anticipation in his parents’ eyes, the strange looks from the villagers. Li Feng gently stroked the base of his ear, the nipple on his cheek. He was the first person to leave these hills and head for the city, the first to go to college, the first to visit Beijing. These countless firsts had once weighed heavily on Li Feng. Now that he had experienced life and death, did everything else seem unimportant? It wasn’t bad to be with his parents, living a happy life. He had a little money and was thinking of building a small villa, but it was only a few tens of thousands, not even enough to buy a manure pit in the city.

In the morning, I went to the melon field with my father. The watermelon vines were already about a meter tall, and it was time to press down the stems and remove the branches. The melon field was located on a sandy riverbank, suitable only for peanuts and watermelons. It had plenty of sunshine and was close to the river, making it easy to irrigate. Li Feng heard from his father, Li Shan, that last year’s floods had flooded the riverbank quite a bit, and this year only a few families had planted watermelons. Li Feng’s watermelons were an early-maturing variety, already appearing lush green from a distance. Li Feng approached and examined the egg-sized watermelons, each with a pattern resembling blue and white porcelain, neatly arranged. He expertly used a lump of mud to press down the main stems and remove any extra branches. The melon seedlings were growing vigorously, thanks to the strong fertilizer from the riverbank. Other crops, unpredictable, would grow vigorously and often produce few fruits. Watermelons, however, were perfectly suited to this growth, as they thrived on fertilizer. Furthermore, watermelons grown on sandy land had a red, sandy flesh, making them much sweeter than those grown on more ordinary land and easier to sell.

“Twenty-one flowers bloom, twenty-one melons are eaten”—a phrase that describes the process of watermelons ripening and falling off the vine. It’s not that complicated; watermelons are ready to eat in just over twenty days. Thinking of the deliciousness of watermelon, Li Feng noticed some of the watermelons, the size of a bowl. They could be eaten in less than ten days. Watermelons that are still growing will usually not grow large. Many families don’t want the watermelons that are still growing, picking them to keep the fat for the next harvest. These few, Li Shan must have deliberately left behind, to enjoy fresh. It was a good bargain for Li Feng, so he found some tree sticks and stuck them around the sides of the watermelons to mark them so they wouldn’t be confused. Some people believe that ripe watermelons make a different sound than raw ones, but that’s probably wrong. A fully ripe watermelon makes a different sound than an unripe one, but no one waits for it to be fully ripe. It’s not that ripe watermelons are difficult to transport, but they’re just lighter. Farmers’ simplicity doesn’t mean they’re foolish. Seventy to eighty percent ripe is prime ripeness. At this point, you can’t just listen to the sound; you should also observe the rootlets around the root. Once the roots shrivel a bit, the watermelon is ready to be picked.

After finishing all this, Li Feng clapped his hands and looked at the water droplets on the deep blue melon leaves. It was still a bit chilly. Fortunately, his melon field was not large, less than an acre. Li Feng and his father, Li Shan, had finished it in less than an hour. Mother Zhang had prepared the meal early: red bean and rice porridge, sweet potato buns, cold cucumber strips sprinkled with cilantro, scrambled eggs with wild garlic, and braised fern.

The cucumbers were brought out from my own watermelon shed. Watermelon breeding is mostly done in the first month of the year, when the weather is cool. I added a plastic shed of over ten square meters, which happened to produce a lot of pepper seedlings, tomato seedlings, and sweet potato seedlings. These can be eaten earlier than others. I waited for the melon seedlings, removed the seedlings, and directly added bamboo poles inside to plant cucumbers. The shed was not idle either.

As for coriander, there was plenty of it in the shed, and it was tender and juicy. Zhang Lan prepared a large basin of it and placed it next to her, knowing that her son liked to eat it.

I trampled the bracken yesterday. There aren’t many in the mountains these days. A few years ago, they were everywhere, but in recent years, the price of wild vegetables has risen, especially bracken, known as the king of mountain delicacies. People from outside come to collect them from time to time. During the slack season, adults and children go up the mountain to pick them. These days, bracken is rarely seen.

“It smells so good.” Li Feng ate two steamed buns in a row, drank a large bowl of porridge, and wiped his mouth. It was truly the most delicious and leisurely breakfast he had had in years. Li Feng was eating and drinking as much as he could. He had done some work that morning and was already hungry. Seeing the food he liked, his chopsticks didn’t stop. The crisp cucumber strips and the fragrant, tender cilantro dipped in the garlic, vinegar, and chili sauce were irresistible. The steamed buns with sweet potato flour were warm and fragrant. The tender bracken looked greasy, but when he ate it, it was soft and delicious. The bracken in the casserole was not much, but he quickly devoured it.

“Hehe, slow down, slow down! No one’s competing with you. Let your dad go into the mountains to pick more tomorrow.” Zhang Lan watched her son eat and drink with big mouthfuls, her eyes full of doting. She and her husband only had this one child, and all their love was placed on this child. In the past few years when the child was not around, Zhang Lan had cried a lot. Now, watching the child eat the food she cooked, the happiness in her heart made Zhang Lan want to cry. Secretly, not letting Li Feng see, she turned around and wiped her eyes, glaring at her old man Li Shan.

“Hehe, eat more, eat more.” Li Shan looked at his son, his face becoming more resolute. He was happy, but thinking that his son was already in his twenties and it would be bad if he didn’t have a wife, he looked at his wife and sighed. “Let’s talk about this later. The child just came back, and I don’t know if he will leave. What if…”

At breakfast, Li Feng was alone at home, studying the strange space at the base of his ear. After the fear he felt in the past few days, Li Feng had gone in there several times again.

Li Feng roughly measured the space. Adding the hut, the yard, the spring, and the fields, it came to about three acres. The rest was surrounded by a gray, elastic barrier. Li Feng tried several times, even using a knife, but within seconds, it was back to its original state, leaving no trace. After several attempts, Li Feng finally gave up. But it was a good thing. Otherwise, if it broke, who knew what was on the other side? Most importantly, Li Feng felt safe. He wouldn’t over-explore the unknown; he wasn’t a child anymore. He was no longer at the age of asking questions. Li Feng’s mentality had completely lost the competitive spirit of youth, becoming more calm and steady.

After finding nothing in the gray, gelatinous substance around him, Li Feng began to survey his surroundings. The space was small, its ceiling as vast as a starry sky, high and distant. Even without the sun, it wasn’t dim. The air was fresh, with a light, airy scent. The space was a rectangular shape. A thatched hut, a grayish-yellow hut, constructed of an unknown type of wood, had a rustic, elegant feel. It sat at the very back of the space. The wooden furniture inside the hut, judging by the style, Li Feng had researched online, didn’t appear to be from any particular era; it looked casually made. However, the quality was good. After cleaning the dust, it still looked like new, and it was quite comfortable, fitting more closely to the body than any other chair. Li Feng’s quilt from Beijing was placed inside, and it felt quite homely. The peach trees in front of the door were reduced to dead branches, crumbling to ash at the slightest touch like corn stalks in a field. Looking at the bare yard, Li Feng paused, wondering if he could get some seeds to plant something. Looking at the dust on the ground, Li Feng decided to plant a few peach trees. When he first came in, he’d thought they were beautiful. It seemed the previous owner had quite a taste for them. Didn’t he already have a small peach orchard at home? He could transplant a few and see how they fared.

A small ditch ran alongside the yard, connecting to a spring just outside. However, it had dried up, the lotus leaves in the ditch having long since turned to ash, leaving only stalks. Outside, a small spring at the edge of the field was still bubbling with clear water. Perhaps because it had only been there for so long, it was only about ten square meters, a tiny fraction of the hundreds-square-meter pond. Li Feng thought that perhaps he would fill the ditch with water in the future, plant lotus flowers, and raise a few carp. It would be quite enjoyable to play with them when he had nothing to do. As for the larger pond outside, raising some edible fish and shrimp, and growing some water chestnuts and lotus roots would also be a good idea. As Li Feng made his plans, he walked to the two acres of land at the front of the space.

Li Ming dug a piece of mud from the gray-black land near the spring and tested it. Although it was a little dry, it already had a hint of earthy flavor. He glanced at the spring water. It seemed that the spring water nourished the land, while the areas far from the spring were mostly dusty. It seemed that it would be difficult to grow crops in the short term. However, these areas did not look like soil at all. They were white-gray, a bit like cement. Li Feng secretly paid attention to the spring water, and secretly formed a plan in his mind. He pinched his ears slightly and exited the space.

Leaving the space and the room, my parents were already gone. In the yard, a few chicks were digging for food near the pressure well. The area was moist, and there were many insects and earthworms. The chicks looked fuzzy and yellow, and they had already started to fend for themselves in just a few days. Li Feng watched, occasionally teasing them, digging the soil with a stick and teasing a small earthworm. The chicks kept jumping and spinning.

“Oh my god.” It was a shame, perhaps because Li Feng was too unkind. Not only did he play with someone else’s penis, but he actually refused to feed it. The old hen nearby, who had noticed Li Feng early on, was very disrespectful and pecked him, leaving a purple bruise. Li Feng watched as several chicks fought over an earthworm on the ground and glanced disconsolately at the hen beside him, her head held high and her chest puffed out, beaming with pride.

“Forget it, I won’t bother with you.” Li Feng shook his head helplessly. He’d only taken a few steps when he felt a chill on his face, and wiped it away. The grayish-white bird droppings, still warm, were still on his face. He looked up at the jujube tree and saw a swallow gracefully fly down to his house’s eaves. What the hell was going on? This was bullying, wasn’t it? He had been planning on teaching this swallow a lesson, but then he saw its little yellow beaks chirping, waiting for food.

Li Feng sighed and said, “I’ll spare you for a while, but it’s not for your sake.” Li Feng stared at the old swallow under the eaves. He turned to the little swallow and showed a kind little face. “Next year, these little guys will have many children, so leave a good impression.”

After washing my face at the well, I felt bored being home alone, so I headed towards my own peach orchard. Peach blossoms followed the falling catkins of poplars, yellow birds sometimes joined white ones. Now was the time for peach blossoms to fall, following the flowing water, and willow leaves to scatter. Li Feng’s peach orchard wasn’t large, only about an acre, with about thirty peach trees and a few plum trees.

The grass was green, the willows were yellow, the peach blossoms were in full bloom, and the plum blossoms were fragrant. Many peach blossoms had fallen, and the green, fuzzy little peaches looked adorable. Unfortunately, the peach tree was a bit old, and even after pruning, it still didn’t produce many peaches. Li Feng walked around and saw that most of the peach trees were worm-eaten, which was heartbreaking. Li’s father had said that morning that they would cut down the peach trees in a few years and plant crops instead.

Li Feng felt it was a shame. He had spent most of his childhood tuition here for so many years. It would be such a shame to have it gone. After walking around, he saw a small thatched cottage on a flat piece of land deep in the peach forest. His eyes lit up, and he ran down the hillside, thinking of something.