Who knows! As soon as I returned to the mountains to farm, I encountered a natural disaster.

In this vegetable garden last year, except for sesame seeds and pepper trees with many branches broken by the snow, there were almost no valuable crops.

Overgrown weeds almost dominated the entire vegetable garden.

Mu Xi walked in front to clear the way, while Zhao Yeqing was responsible for observing the environment and determining the direction.

She still didn't believe it, "Is it possible that the whole village only has one or two vegetable gardens?"

A few hundred meters ahead was the location of the cracked ground. Zhao Yeqing planned to explore vertically upwards. He would walk to the top and look down like last year. The relatively empty area without trees might be the vegetable garden.

Unexpectedly, this exploration was beyond her expectation.

After walking a few dozen meters up, she saw rows of small trees planted on a large piece of ground. Each tree was a little more than ten centimeters taller than her. The small tree in the middle had been broken by the snow. Many branches and leaves.

Only the small trees near the edge of the forest, with the big trees as a barrier, were hardly affected.

Zhao Yeqing stepped forward quickly, her eyes full of surprise. She looked at the tree with shiny leaves and sharp thorns between the branches and leaves, and said excitedly to Mu Xi,

"It's an orange tree!"

How could she have forgotten that before their small mountain village was developed as a tourist area, the cash crops in the nearby villages were these citrus trees.

Mu Xi walked to the nearest citrus tree to check the condition of the tree and found that all the flowers on it had fallen off and small fruits had grown on the branches.

However, this fruit is now only the size of a marble. In the past, the fruiting period of citrus fruits was in autumn. Now the temperature and time are not accurate, and the ripening time can only be inferred based on the situation.

The citrus field was a slope. Zhao Yeqing climbed up to the top of the citrus field and observed the condition of the citrus trees along the way.

"The altitude here is slightly lower, and it is a sunny slope facing south. The freezing situation is not particularly serious, but many branches have been broken by the weight of the snow. The remaining half are in better condition."

Even if there is only half of it, it will be enough for two people if it comes out.

The labor force in the village is small, and the owner of this small orchard must be an old man. There are only about a hundred fruit trees in total.

Mu Xi: "It depends on the situation. As long as it can grow normally without falling fruit, it should be mature in three months."

It rained a lot some time ago, which caused some trouble for the vegetable fields, which were a bit waterlogged.

But for this citrus, it is a rare good weather. Citrus trees like water and sunshine. Now is the time when the sun is at its best, and the branches facing south have grown a lot.

"If the weather gets too hot after a while, find time to water them."

Zhao Yeqing is very much looking forward to the citrus in this orchard. There is no shortage of vegetables, food and meat now. Only the supply of fruits is very unstable. He can only find some fruits in the forest in season, and the output is small.

If you wait a few months and the citrus in the forest matures, you can pick them fresh, eat them fresh, and make canned jam, etc. Then you won’t have to worry about fruits in winter.

The current summer is too hot. If you want to water the orchard more, you have to find a water source nearby. Otherwise, it will be too hard to carry water up from the mountain.

Mu Xi looked around and calculated the distance from the orchard to the road they took down the mountain. He planned to come over and open up a direct road to make it easier to take care of it.

While Mu Xi was calculating the direction, Zhao Yeqing circled around the edge of the orchard, found the place where the surrounding plants grew the most, and shouted to Mu Xi, "Go this way!"

The two of them followed the path of vegetation growth, feeling more and more shady as they walked, but within a few minutes they saw a dry stream.

Zhao Yeqing was sweating profusely from walking, and now she had to save paper towels. She took out her handkerchief to wipe away the sweat, and breathed again: "The vegetation is growing this way, so the water source must not be exhausted."

Mu Xi handed her the kettle on his waist and looked at the top of the stream. The vegetation grew more lush as it went higher.

"I'll go up and take a look. The grass over there is too dense, there may be snakes, and the road is too narrow to walk on. In fact, it will delay the two of us. You can wait for me here first."

Zhao Yeqing took a sip of water and said, "Then be careful. I'm here to clean up the fallen leaves and dead branches in the stream."

When Mu Xi returned, Zhao Yeqing dug out the dead branches and leaves that might block the water flow from the stream.

There were overgrown weeds beside the stream, but she would not get caught in the weeds when she walked into the stream channel.

There were a lot of fallen leaves and broken branches inside, and she could probably clean them up.

Throwing the dead branches to the side, the thatch by the water was crushed, revealing the wide leaves that grew from underneath.

"what?"

Zhao Yeqing took a few steps forward and poked the grass a few times with another branch that he had not yet thrown away.

After making sure that there was no movement inside, Zhao Yeqing carefully opened the grass and found a few wide taro leaves in the two-meter-high thatch.

The land here is fertile, and the taro leaves are almost as big as lotus leaves. Generally speaking, there will not be only one taro plant in one place. There are more buds emerging from the taro plants, and they will branch out and grow many taro seedlings and roots.

Taro requires a lot of water during its growth period, so it is reasonable to grow it beside a stream.

Zhao Yeqing opened the thatch, and sure enough, there were several taro growing together next to him.

After carefully checking to make sure it was not confused with the poisonous wild taro, he took out the hatchet on his waist and started digging.

The only tools I have now are hatchets, hoes and backpacks, all abandoned in the citrus orchard.

When Mu Xi came back, he glanced back and forth but saw no one. After walking down a few steps, he noticed that the thatch was shaking.

"What are you doing?"

Zhao Yeqing's slightly excited voice came out, "Come and see!"

Mu Xi took a sickle to cut off the thatch and threw it away. He saw Zhao Yeqing squatting and pulling out a round taro from the soil.

Zhao Yeqing said with a pity in his tone, "This taro is relatively early maturing, but it's a pity that it doesn't grow very big yet. If it takes another two or three months, when the oranges are ripe, they will be the most delicious."

"Isn't this enough to eat a meal?" Mu Xi took the taro and patted off the remaining soil. "This taro sprout can also be eaten for several meals."

She has had the habit of eating taro sprouts since she was a child in her hometown. Zhao Yeqing also grew up eating taro sprouts, so she would not let it go.

The leaves and stems of taro can be eaten after being cooked, especially the tender parts of the stems, cut into small strips and pickled into sour taro sprouts. It is particularly refreshing and appetizing when used with white porridge in summer.

Zhao Yeqing bundled the taro leaves with water droplets on them with thatch poles, avoiding the broken stems, and planned to carry a large bundle of taro seedlings back in his arms.

The mucus on the broken ends of the taro would itch when touched with her hands. She accidentally touched a bit when she was digging it.

He was about to ask Mu Xi for some water in the kettle to wash his hands.

I saw the water flowing slowly down from the top of the stream.

In less than a minute, the water filled the entire stream.