Rebirth of the Millennial: Getting Rich After Parents Get Laid Off

Chapter 162 The Lychee Orchard (Part 2)

The reason for not choosing Saturday was that Li Chunchun was going to be taken to her maternal grandmother's house by her aunt. Shen Qingqing also remembered that she had not been to her great-grandmother's house since the start of the school year, so she specially set an alarm for Saturday morning and did not let herself sleep until she woke up naturally.

Shen Rongzhou didn't have to go to work on Saturday, so he could take her to her great-grandmother's house.

Unexpectedly, when Shen Qingqing woke up on Saturday morning, she saw her father coming out of his room with a mug in his hand.

As soon as he saw her, he quickly stopped her, put a finger to his lips, and whispered, "Your mother has a headache, she probably has a cold. She went to use the restroom over there today, and we took all her things with her."

Shen Qingqing glanced at the closed door. "Don't you need to see a doctor?"

Shen Rongzhou pulled her into the living room. "Let's try some Sanjiu and Xiaochaihu first. If the condition gets worse this afternoon, we'll have to go see a doctor."

Shen Qingqing nodded.

"Why are you up so early today?" Shen Rongzhou poured himself another cup of hot water and asked.

“I originally wanted you to take me to Grandma’s, I haven’t seen her in so long.” Shen Qingqing sighed, then glanced worriedly at the master bedroom. “But let’s take care of Mom first.”

Shen Rongzhou thought for a moment and said, "That's fine. You can take Yangyang and Xiaohong to visit Grandma today, so your mother can rest well at home. If she's feeling better this afternoon, I'll come and pick you up."

"If your mother needs to see a doctor this afternoon, we'll feel more at ease if you stay with Grandma."

Shen Qingqing thought that Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong would also be rehearsing at home, which would definitely disturb her mother's rest, so she agreed to Shen Rongzhou's suggestion: "Okay, then I'll go call them now."

Shen Rongzhou nodded and carried the hot water back to the master bedroom.

After washing herself up, Shen Qingqing went to the kitchen and took out a bag of corn buns and small longevity peaches from the refrigerator. She put them in the steamer to steam before waking people up.

Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong, who were forcibly dug out of the cool air-conditioned room by Shen Qingqing, looked bewildered.

Seeing the digital clock on the wall in the living room, which showed that it was not yet eight o'clock in the morning, the two of them grumbled and lay down on the sofa.

"Sister, why did you wake us up so early..."

Shen Hong fell down and stopped moving, while Shen Yangyang was still muttering to herself.

"Mom isn't feeling well today and needs to rest at home. We're going to visit Grandma. We'll come back this afternoon when Mom feels a bit better."

"You can also show the rehearsed program to Grandma while you're at it."

After Shen Qingqing finished speaking, the two children who were lying on the sofa sat up.

"What's wrong with Mom?" Shen Yangyang looked at Shen Qingqing with a somewhat bewildered expression.

Shen Qingqing pulled her up and pushed her towards the bathroom: "Dad said it's a cold and headache, and he needs to rest more, so he told us to go to Grandma's place and not disturb Mom's sleep at home."

After the two finished washing up, the corn buns and small longevity peaches in the steamer were also steamed and served.

When they had almost finished eating, Shen Rongzhou, dressed neatly, came out of the master bedroom.

When Shen Rongzhou drove them to the ancestral hall, they happened to run into Zheng Wanyu coming out of the alley.

"Grandma!" Shen Qingqing called out to the elderly woman with her silver hair as soon as she saw her.

When Zheng Wanyu looked over, she pulled Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong over and ran over.

Zheng Wanyu smiled when she saw Shen Qingqing. She stood there lovingly watching Shen Qingqing lead her younger siblings to her. She looked the three children over from left to right before turning her gaze to Shen Rongzhou, who was following behind them. Not seeing her beloved granddaughter, she asked, "Rongzhou, why are you the only one here?"

Shen Rongzhou told Li Xunli that she was not feeling well and was resting at home, and then said that the three children could stay with her until the afternoon and he would come to pick them up.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Wanyu immediately hugged the three children and said, "Alright, alright, I understand. Then you should go back and check on your sister! You can rest assured with the children here!"

Shen Rongzhou nodded, then gave the children a few more instructions, telling them to be obedient, not to run around, and to stay close to their great-grandmother before leaving.

After Shen Rongzhou left, Shen Qingqing turned to Zheng Wanyu and asked, "Grandma, were you going out just now?"

Zheng Wanyu hugged Shen Qingqing and said with a smile, "Yes, I originally wanted to go to my parents' house, but since you're here, I'll play with you."

Shen Qingqing thought for a moment, "Then what are you going back for?"

"Let me go back and get the last batch of lychees." Zheng Wanyu led her three children home.

Shen Qingqing's eyes lit up: "Shall we go pick them?"

“No, I just went to get it; they picked it themselves,” Zheng Wanyu replied.

Shen Qingqing had never experienced picking fruit before. In her previous life, she was a homebody and was restricted from going out by her elders. As a result, she stopped liking to go out and could only hear her classmates discussing where they went to pick strawberries or lychees when she was at school.

But this time, she was no longer confined to the house by her parents. Although she still didn't like going out, she now had the opportunity to actively explore the outside world.

To make up for some small regrets I didn't experience in my past life.

Zheng Wanyu understood Shen Qingqing's unspoken meaning, "Do you want to go pick lychees? If so, we can find a tricycle and go right now!"

"Yes, yes!" the three of them immediately gave an affirmative answer.

Zheng Wanyu put away the key she was about to use to open the door, and then tightly took the three children's hands again and walked towards the main road.

As Shen Qingqing listened to Zheng Wanyu haggling over the fare with the tricycle owner parked on the main road, her eyes fell on the tricycle with a touch of nostalgia.

Yes, back in 2010, you could still see quite a few of these tricycles parked on the road, but later on, there were fewer and fewer tricycles on the road, and you could only see them at some intersections, such as the intersection she passed when she was in Hongxing Middle School in her previous life.

Later on, as there were more and more cars on the road, there were fewer and fewer tricycles. You could only see one or two very occasionally.

In her past life, she often rode in tricycles with her maternal grandmother and great-grandmother.

However, as time goes by, tricycles seem to have slowly faded from the scene, replaced by Didi Chuxing and private cars.

Soon, Zheng Wanyu, relying on his years of experience riding tricycles, negotiated a price with the tricycle driver and let them get on the vehicle one by one.

However, Shen Hong was still young, so Zheng Wanyu held him in her arms while he sat.

After Shen Qingqing sat down, she skillfully tried to pry up the canopy folded up behind the seat. However, the canopy was made of a very thick waterproof cloth combined with an iron frame, and it was very heavy. She couldn't pry it up on one side by herself.

Fortunately, Zheng Wanyu reached out to help from the other side, and successfully covered the heads of the four members of the family with the military green canopy, shielding them from the not-yet-scorching sun.

The tricycle started up quickly, the roar of the engine, the strong wind blowing in her face, and that familiar shaking made Shen Qingqing laugh for no reason.

She seems to have truly rediscovered the feeling of riding a tricycle from her childhood memories.

Although the car wasn't as stable as a private car, and could even be described as very bumpy, the high speed and the feeling of having to hold tightly to the fan-shaped metal frame supporting the canopy when turning gave her a long-lost sense of carefree joy.

The tricycle was very fast, and although it was a distance of two or three villages, it took them a long time to get there safely.

Zheng Wanyu took out cash from her bag and handed it to the tricycle driver. She got off the tricycle first, then carried Shen Hong off. Shen Qingqing and Shen Yangyang didn't let her carry them and jumped off on their own.

"Hold hands tightly, the road here is a bit winding." Zheng Wanyu, like a big mother hen, firmly protected the three of them under her wings, sheltering them.

In her previous life, Shen Qingqing often passed through the village where Zheng Wanyu's mother lived when she was attending Hongxing Middle School. Hongxing Middle School was located on the edge of the village, and next to the archway with the village's name engraved on it was a rice noodle shop. Shen Qingqing often had lunch at this rice noodle shop with her classmates.

It's only around nine in the morning, but the store is already open and there are quite a few customers.

When Shen Qingqing saw the familiar aunt and uncle, she subconsciously gave them a polite smile and nodded when their eyes met.

The shop owner and his wife returned the smile in kind.

Seeing that Shen Qingqing kept looking at the kueh teow shop, Zheng Wanyu asked, "Are you hungry? Would you like to have a bowl of kueh teow before you go?"

Shen Qingqing snapped out of her daze and quickly shook her head: "No, no, I ate breakfast when I left home this morning."

Zheng Wanyu then asked the two younger children, and after receiving the same "no" response, she led them behind the archway.

If we include the years since my rebirth, it has been about fifteen years since I came to this village in my previous life.

Shen Qingqing looked at the surrounding road, which felt both familiar and unfamiliar. It was familiar because she had seen it in her memory, but unfamiliar because of the long time that had passed and the fact that she had only been there four or five times. Compared to the long fifteen years that had passed, four or five times was really insignificant.

As they walked, those memories faded away, because Zheng Wanyu led them onto a path she had never walked before.

As they walked, Zheng Wanyu began to tell them about interesting things that happened on this road when she was a child.

The path was actually quite difficult to walk on. Shen Hong and Shen Yangyang were not very old, and they started to get tired after walking for a short while. Zheng Wanyu distracted them by telling stories and finally led them to the lychee orchard of her mother's family.

When Shen Qingqing and her two younger siblings saw the huge lychee orchard in front of them, they all exclaimed "Wow!" in unison, as if they had never seen anything like it before.

The lychee orchard was enclosed by two simple fences. Behind the fences was a table, next to which was an iron shed. On the table was a pot of boiling water and a half-finished cup of tea.

Upon hearing the sound, someone came out of the iron shed.

Upon seeing her, she said with some surprise, "Grandmother? What brings you here?"

Then, looking down, she saw three children standing in front of Zheng Wanyu. "These are...?"

“Call him Brother Ping. He’s the grandson of Grandma’s brother. He’s your peer, but a bit older than you.” Zheng Wanyu patted Shen Qingqing on the back.

"Brother Ping."

Shen Qingqing led her younger siblings in a respectful greeting.

Ping Ge understood the relationship, smiled憨厚ly, greeted Shen Qingqing and the others, and asked again, "Grandma, did you bring them to the lychee orchard today so they could pick lychees?"

Zheng Wanyu readily agreed, "Yes, I happen to have nothing to do today, so I brought them over to have some fun."

Ping thought for a moment, "Right now, there's only a small part of the lychee orchard left in the west section that hasn't been picked yet, but it's a bit far from the entrance. If you want to go, I'll take you there now."

The Chinese people's four-character principle: Since we're already here.

The three children had come all this way, so of course they wanted to experience it before going back.

Seeing that they were all going, Ping didn't try to persuade them further and simply led the way.

As he led the way, he explained the situation in the lychee orchard to them.

They said that the lychees from their orchard ripen relatively late, so they still have some left when other lychees on the market are almost gone.

They also mentioned how many acres their lychee orchard covered, how many lychee trees they planted, and how many kilograms of lychees they produced.

The three children, who had never seen the world before, were completely stunned.

But Ping-ge really didn't lie to them. That small lychee patch in the West District was really far away. Shen Qingqing was exhausted from walking there before she finally saw the place with the dark red lanterns hanging there.

"Wait, there are a lot of bugs in the garden. You need to put on your protective clothing and gloves, and bring your tools. The scissors are for cutting lychees..."

Ping carefully wrapped each of the three children up tightly, and then demonstrated to them how to cut lychees with scissors and how long to cut them.

Zheng Wanyu had been helping out in her family's lychee orchard since she was a child, but now that she's older, she doesn't play with the children anymore. Instead, she puts on protective gear and follows behind them, watching them pick lychees.

The three children picked the lychees, while Ping helped them carry bamboo baskets and move ladders.

After trimming the lowest drooping part of a lychee tree cleanly, the three children were exhausted, their arms so sore they could barely lift them.

Ping Ge could tell they were at their limit, so he smiled and told them to stop. "How about trying some of the dishes Lizhi makes? It's the weekend, everyone's home, so show off your skills to our three little guests."

Shen Qingqing turned her head to look at Zheng Wanyu.

"Alright, let's go then. Thanks to these three little guests, I'll have something delicious to eat when I get back today." Zheng Wanyu smiled humorously.

Ping helped Shen Qingqing and the others take off their equipment, then carried the small half-basket of lychees onto the bed of the open-top tricycle, and threw a few small stools onto the bed as well.

Zheng Wanyu easily climbed onto the truck bed, and together with Ping Ge, they brought the three children onto the truck bed, told them to hold on to the side of the truck bed and sit down, and then they set off!

See you tomorrow night~