Chapter 102: August Melon
She grabbed her basket and trotted over.
Sure enough, she spotted a chestnut tree.
The wild chestnuts weren’t very large, and each was encased in a spiky outer shell.
The spiky burs looked like sea urchins and were just as prickly.
It was the peak of chestnut season, and many of the burs had already fallen to the ground.
You didn’t even have to climb the tree. You could just pick one up off the ground and see two or three small chestnuts packed tightly together inside the cracked opening.
Though the chestnuts were small, they looked very plump.
Some of the burs had split open wider, and the chestnuts had already fallen out, ready to be picked up.
Yun Jiao squatted down and copied Brother Nine, stomping on a bur a couple of times with the sole of her shoe. The chestnuts inside were squeezed out.
Beaming, Yun Jiao picked up the small chestnuts and placed them in her basket.
While gathering chestnuts, Yun Xiaojiu didn’t forget to remind her, "Jiaojiao, be careful! It really hurts to get hit by a falling bur."
Still worried after he spoke, he used a branch to flick a bunch of the fallen burs into his basket, then patiently carried them to a spot a short distance away from the chestnut tree.
"Jiaojiao, come over here."
Yun Jiao walked over, and he pointed at the spiky burs on the ground.
"You can work on these. I’ll go over there and gather some more."
Yun Jiao grumbled in dissatisfaction, "I’m not that clumsy, you know. I won’t get hit."
Yun Xiaojiu patted her hair. "Be good."
Yun Jiao sighed. ’Fine.’
’I’m super fierce! I can catch tons of prey. Why do my brothers always treat me like a little kid?’
Yun Xiaojiu ran under the chestnut tree himself, but it wasn’t long before a pained cry rang out.
Yun Jiao’s head snapped up.
"Brother Nine!"
Yun Xiaojiu, who had just been so earnestly warning Yun Jiao, had been hit by a spiky chestnut bur from the tree.
Luckily, it had hit his arm.
But it was still very painful and had even drawn blood.
HISS... HISS... Yun Xiaojiu sucked in his breath, trying to endure the pain.
"Jiaojiao, don’t come over! I’m fine."
But his voice was already trembling on the verge of tears from the pain.
Yun Jiao didn’t listen. She walked over to look at his arm and blew on it gently.
With a sob in his voice, Yun Xiaojiu said, "Waaah... It hurts so much."
He was, after all, still just a child. He had only been pretending to be a grown-up because he felt he was the older brother and had to take care of Yun Jiao.
"You’re so clumsy, Brother. You weren’t even careful yourself."
Yun Xiaojiu sniffled, his eyes brimming with tears, but his voice was stubborn. "I’ll be very careful next time."
"Then I’ll work with you, Brother. And you’re not allowed to argue."
Yun Jiao put her hands on her hips, looking quite bossy.
Yun Xiaojiu was speechless. ’Fine.’
The two children gathered all the spiky burs from the ground and moved them to one side.
Only after they had collected them all did they start opening them one by one.
The burs looked like a huge pile, but after they were all opened, the chestnuts inside barely filled half the basket.
The two of them stared up at the spiky burs still on the tree.
Yun Xiaojiu summoned his courage. "I’ll go shake the tree."
Yun Jiao said, "Brother, with your strength, you couldn’t even make the tree budge."
The chestnut tree was quite large.
Yun Xiaojiu was immediately deflated. Among the children at home, he had the least strength.
"You’re not allowed to go."
’Getting hit by those things really hurts.’
Yun Jiao replied, "I’m not going."
She pulled out her slingshot, smiling smugly. "I’ll use this."
She was strong and had good eyes. After playing with the slingshot for a while, her aim had become exceptionally good. According to their Eldest Brother, she was a born sharpshooter!
Yun Xiaojiu said, "I brought mine too."
Yun Chen Nan treated all his younger siblings equally, making slingshots for Yun Xiaowu and all the younger ones.
The two of them gathered a pile of small pebbles, then drew back their slingshots and released in one smooth motion.
WHOOSH...
Yun Jiao hit her target on the first try. She had aimed for a branch, and it shook violently, instantly knocking down several spiky burs.
In contrast, Yun Xiaojiu’s first shot missed completely.
He pursed his small lips and stubbornly continued.
The second, the third... he missed several in a row.
An expression of utter defeat crept over Yun Xiaojiu’s face.
’Waaah... My little sister is so much better than me.’
Yun Jiao tried to comfort him, "Brother, do you want me to teach you?"
Yun Xiaojiu’s eyes welled with tears. "No, I can do it."
This time, as if giving up, he just shot randomly—and hit the target.
Yun Xiaojiu was speechless.
’I feel so completely humiliated.’
Yun Jiao blinked. (O.O)
’Didn’t he hit it? Why does Brother Nine seem even sadder now?’
’Brother Nine cries so easily, but you can’t say anything about it, or he’ll get mad.’
’Third Brother says that’s called being embarrassed into anger.’
The two of them were like busy ants, picking up the fallen burs, moving them to the side, and then continuing to open them for the chestnuts.
They bustled about like this until they had a full basket of chestnuts, and only then did they stop.
Both of them had gotten quite dirty. Their once fair little faces were covered in dust, and their sweat had created clearly visible gray streaks.
"Have some water, sister."
Yun Xiaojiu handed her the water canteen.
Yun Jiao was indeed thirsty. She held the canteen and drank for a long time with a GLUG, GLUG, GLUG.
"There’s not much water left."
Yun Xiaojiu said, "I know a spring nearby. Let’s go get some water."
"We’ll leave the chestnuts here. Hide them well."
They had another empty basket, which they brought along, just in case they came across something good.
Yun Xiaojiu carried the basket in one hand and held Yun Jiao’s small hand with the other as they walked forward.
"Brother Nine, there are melons over there."
After walking for a while, Yun Jiao saw a type of melon hanging from a tangle of vines.
"It looks like an August melon. Let’s go take a look."
The two walked over and found that it was indeed an August melon, and there were quite a lot of them.
There was a local nursery rhyme about it: "August melon, bursts in September, picked in October to please a toddler."
The skin of the August melon was a pale purple. At this time of year, they weren’t fully ripe and still had hints of green.
When an August melon is fully ripe, its skin splits open to reveal a long strip of white flesh inside, though the flesh contains many seeds.
They were delicious, but also a bit of a hassle to eat.
"It seems like none of them are ripe yet."
Disappointment was written all over Yun Jiao’s face.
Yun Xiaojiu couldn’t bear to see the disappointment in his sister’s eyes. He widened his own and said, "Hold on, let me look."
Yun Jiao suddenly exclaimed in delight, "I found one! There’s one over there that’s split open a little."
Yun Xiaojiu trailed off. ’I just started looking...’
"Where?"
Even more tragically, Yun Xiaojiu couldn’t see it even when he looked in the direction she was pointing.
’My eyesight is no match for my sister’s.’
The August melons grew on a vine, which was tangled between two large trees, making it impossible to climb up.
Yun Jiao’s slingshot wouldn’t work either. The vine holding the melon was too thin and a bit too tough.
The only way was to use a long branch, hook the ripe August melon, and twist.
THUD...
The melon fell.
Yun Jiao picked it up and saw it was a little bigger than her palm. The crack in the middle wasn’t large, but it was edible.
Afterwards, using her sharp eyes, she found five more.
And then there were no more.
Yun Xiaojiu comforted her, "If we come back in a while, all the August melons here will surely be ripe."
Yun Jiao replied, "Mhm!"
The two sat down under a tree. Just as Yun Jiao was about to open a melon to eat, she suddenly heard the frantic flapping of wings and the cry of a wild pheasant.