??Chapter 343: No Prospect Wu Lei_1
Chapter 343: No Prospect Wu Lei_1
As she thought about Datian’s career planning, Qiaoqiao racked her brains all day long—Teacher Xin had once said that when considering anything, you should start by thinking about its strengths.
What are Datian’s strengths?
He’s very pretty, with a golden fur that no other field mouse has. But the other animals at ho are all pretty too.
He’s very smart, but there are many smart treasures at ho, even Daxiong is pretty smart. What’s more, Daxiong can fly and make honey to protect the bees!
His size isn’t big either, can’t even scare a bird, let alone guard the house and protect the yard.
He thought and thought and could only pick out one strength in the end—
“Datian… his incisors are really powerful, especially good at gnawing. Is there any job that requires gnawing?”
Song Tan: …
He kicked the ball to her court, but she was at a loss too.
A job that requires gnawing… what job would that be?
The siblings heaved a long sigh together, both starting to worry.
And just then, the car bumped and climbed up the mountain road.
Ahead lay Grandma’s house.
…
Uncle also grew about twenty acres of tea leaves, making a modest inco from it every year, although it was all hard-earned money.
For instance, right now he was busy puffing and panting in front of the frying pan, unable to stop even when Song Tan arrived.
Once the machine started, soone needed to watch it on both ends. This was especially normal during the busy farming season, and nobody would make a fuss about it.
Instead, it was Grandma who was pushing Grandpa in the yard to enjoy the cool air, as it was quite hot. Around the yard light sward a bunch of moths and insects, and Grandma, while fanning with a cattail fan, casually slapped and killed a mosquito.
Next to her, Aunt who had picked tea leaves all day found a rare mont of rest and quickly handed her an electric mosquito swatter:
“Use this.”
“No need!”
Grandpa stubbornly waved his hand: “Once you turn it on, it sparks and crackles like electricity, doesn’t sound good to .”
“Besides, with my old skin, mosquitoes don’t fancy .”
Seeing Song Tan arrive, Grandma hurriedly asked, “Have you eaten? Shall I cook you so dumplings? Does Qiaoqiao still like instant noodles? Grandma has so.”
“No need, no need.”
In the middle of the night, Song Tan and Qiaoqiao quickly stopped her: “We’ve already eaten.”
Then hurriedly unloading six big waterlons:
“Grandma, you’re still not sleeping so late, were you waiting for us?”
It was already past 9 o’clock by this point, and normally Grandma would go to sleep by eight.
“It’s okay,” Grandma smiled: “We didn’t do much during the day, sleeping late won’t affect us.”
Aunt helped take the waterlons: “Why bring so many? Bringing two to taste the flavor would have been enough, waterlons are selling for a good price right now.”
There it is, that phrase again.
Song Tan had already gotten used to it and directed Qiaoqiao: “Go get a knife to cut the waterlons.”
“Let
do it! You’re still young, careful not to cut your hand.”
Aunt hurried to stop her, then took the lon from Qiaoqiao’s hands to rinse.
These lons had been sitting in the back seat, cooled by the air conditioning; now they were at the perfect temperature, just right for grandma and grandpa.
A single slice cut smoothly through. The thin green-white rind contrasted sharply with the bright red flesh inside—the colors clashed in a particularly vivid display.
Aunt praised as well, “Wow! This waterlon tastes so authentic! Look at the thin rind; it’s bound to be sweet!”
She even called out to Uncle: “Co over and have a piece quickly!”
With another firm slice, the refreshing fragrance wafted through the night air, and grandpa couldn’t resist leaning in for a look.
The noise of the tea roasting machines was in motion. Uncle, having hastily wiped his face, ca over and sat down: “Oh my! This lon ca just in ti—it’s stifling hot!”
Indeed. Roasting tea leaves is done in a separate room where the heat from the machines bakes everything, and the people inside really suffer.
Everyone was gathered around the small square table, crunching into waterlons without even lifting their heads.
Even Song Tan joined Qiaoqiao in eating slowly, Uncle munched on his piece like chewing peony petals, and after finishing, he let out a long sigh and wiped his sweat-covered face and neck with a towel: “Tantan, if I had known you were so gifted in farming, you should have studied agriculture back then. By now you could’ve been a professor.”
Song Tan couldn’t help but laugh—since when could farming make you a professor?
So she could only respond, “Even if I wanted to farm at ho back then, my mom wouldn’t have allowed it. Farming is too hard.”
That was true indeed.
They were all farrs who had known hardship. Farming was no life of luxury.
anwhile, grandpa sat in his wheelchair, taking his ti to enjoy a small piece of lon and couldn’t help but praise it:
“Delicious, it’s as good as dumplings.”
“Tasty, isn’t it?” said Song Tan, smiling at him. “Help yourself, eat up; if we run out, I’ll get you a few more. I don’t mind since we grew them ourselves.”
“By the way, I’ve also brought you so silver ear mushrooms. It’s hot these days, so Aunt, you should stew a pot every day for everyone to share, it’s good for the health.”
Worried that Aunt might hesitate to use them, she quickly added, “Look at grandma and grandpa, they’re getting older, and Uncle is tired from work every day. He needs to take care of himself for the future. Otherwise, what will Brother Wu Lei do when he gets married and has kids?”
Just as Aunt was about to politely decline, she heard Song Tan ntion Wu Lei and frowned:
“Don’t even start, your Brother Wu Lei is really… How did I end up raising such a kid! In his twenties and thirties and still doesn’t understand anything.”
Suddenly, Qiaoqiao looked up: “Brother Wu Lei is quite alright; last ti, when offered to help him package tea leaves, he didn’t take any.”
She was referring to the small package of tea leaves Song Tan had promised to Zhu Li and Wu Lei, but since both had left in a teary ss, they hadn’t had the chance to take it.
However, Aunt scoffed: “He snuck his girlfriend in at midnight and didn’t even notify us the next day when they went to your place. And he still has the cheek to take tea leaves?”
“It’s a good thing he didn’t. He’s still the older brother! Did he even consider buying sothing for our Qiaoqiao? Qiaoqiao, don’t you learn from him—no ambition!”
Qiaoqiao thought for a mont: “Teacher Xin says it’s okay to not be ambitious. It’s not possible for everyone to be successful.”
Song Tan nearly burst out laughing, thinking to herself that this Teacher Xin is really quite frank with his teaching.
Aunt, however, was blunter: “What I ant was, it’s forgivable to lack ambition, but to also lack understanding and awareness—that’s different! Can’t he at least excel at sothing? I just can’t see it!”
Now that was a true mother’s criticism, growing angrier as she spoke. She nudged Uncle: “Wu Chengtao, just look at your son, what a great job you’ve done with him! If this goes on, we might have to call him back next year to work on Tea Mountain. He needs a good few months’ grounding at ho.”
“Otherwise, when it’s ti for him to start his own family, we can’t be watching over all his social interactions, can we?”
Uncle also let out a sigh: “Alright. We’ll call him back next year to help out—speaking of which, Tantan, isn’t Yanping at ho? How’s he doing?”
“He’s doing quite well,”
She candidly revealed, “Brother Yanping knows a lot of people, and sotis he can help
find so channels. He’s taken charge of so things at ho too; he’d rather stay in the mountains than go back and take the civil service exams.”
“See,” Uncle spread his hands towards Aunt: “Isn’t that fine? If all else fails, let Wu Lei work with Tantan. Order him around as you please; he won’t need a cent, just make sure he’s fed and warm.”
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