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Chapter 315: Chapter 305 The Persimmons Are So Sour
The time had entered July, and Pangpang was half a year old. He was sturdier than other children his age and crawled about briskly on the kang bed. Therefore, Shen Yunfang dared not leave him alone in the room anymore. Whenever she went out to work, she took him wherever she went.
Moreover, Pangpang was becoming picky with his food. Simply drinking milk was no longer enough to satisfy his little stomach. These days, Shen Yunfang had added some egg yolk or vegetable purée to his diet, and the little guy ate it with great relish.
"Let’s go, son, come plant veggies with mommy," Shen Yunfang dressed her son in light long-sleeved clothes and pants, then carried him out to the backyard.
Pangpang waved his hands and feet excitedly. It was finally time to get some fresh air. Ah, I’ve been waiting all day for this.
Shen Yunfang placed her son in a modified crib and let him play inside it by himself while she went to weed the garden.
In this weather, watering could only be done in the morning and evening. Shen Yunfang’s main reason for coming out now was to take her son out for some fresh air.
The backyard was relatively scenic, much nicer to look at with its fruits and vegetables than the dull, dusty earthen walls outside.
Pangpang energetically wriggled his limbs, managed to roll over, then quickly crawled to the edge of the playpen, grabbing the fence with one hand and reaching out with the other, then calling out with a grunt.
By the time Shen Yunfang returned after pulling weeds from a row, Pangpang had worked up a fine sweat on his little forehead from the sun.
"Oh, my silly son, why are you sunbathing? If you keep it up, you’ll look even more like your father, like a little charcoal ball." Shen Yunfang took a small handkerchief by the crib, carefully wiped her son’s forehead, and then carried him to sit under a sun umbrella.
Pangpang’s crib had been modified for convenience so that he could often come out for some fresh air. Li Hongjun had nailed a wooden frame to one end of the bed, and Shen Yunfang had made a large sunshade cloth to spread over it. To protect against rain, she had even covered it with another layer of plastic sheet, ensuring that even if it rained lightly, mother and son could still sit outside.
The sunshade was quite large, covering not only a good half of the crib but also a small area next to it. Shen Yunfang had placed a chair there; when she didn’t feel like working, she would sit with her son, one catching dragonflies in the crib, the other reading and watching over the child.
"Aaah, aaah..." After being put down, Pangpang didn’t give up and crawled up again, extending his hands toward the courtyard while looking at his mother.
Shen Yunfang was puzzled. What could her son want? She looked at her son skeptically, then at the direction of his pointing hand, and asked uncertainly, "Son, do you want some persimmon?" Beyond the eggplants and green beans, there were the persimmons. She remembered feeding him a few bites of persimmon yesterday. Could it be that he wanted more?
Pangpang’s response remained "Aaah, aaah..." but with an urgent tone, as if annoyed that no one understood him.
Shen Yunfang tentatively picked a big, ripe tomato and held it in front of her son. "Son, is this what you want to eat?"
Pangpang sat down on the crib, held the tomato with both hands, then bowed his head and started to gnaw at it with his two tiny front teeth that had just come in.
Seeing her son’s voracious appetite, Shen Yunfang couldn’t help but chuckle. Her son was a little foodie, too.
"Oh, son, you don’t have to work so hard. Wait, mommy will scrape it for you with a spoon." His little teeth were hardly up to the task of breaking the skin of the tomato.
Shen Yunfang fetched a small bowl specially for her son from the house, along with his spoon, and of course, she didn’t forget his little bib.
Seeing the tools for his big meal, Pangpang started calling out to his mother.
"Ah, I know, I know, don’t rush, don’t you know haste won’t get you hot tofu? Just calm down, mommy’s preparing it for you," Shen Yunfang first put the bib on her son, then picked up the small bowl onto her lap, took the persimmon and used an iron spoon to etch a cross at the very top. She then peeled off the top layer of skin and gently scooped out the juice, spoonfeeding her son, one mouthful at a time.
"Does it taste good?" Shen Yunfang watched her son smacking his lips and couldn’t help but swallow her saliva too.
"Ah ah..." It was delicious indeed.
"Son, isn’t it sour?" Shen Yunfang was a bit uncertain and turned the spoon that was headed for her son’s mouth back toward her. She gave it a lick to taste... Eh, it was still sour.
It was just the beginning of July now, and the persimmons had not yet fully ripened, mostly red on top but green below. They needed to wait another ten days to fully ripen, become red all around, and turn sweet and tangy. Right now, they were still predominantly sour.
"Ah ah..." Pangpang saw the tasty morsel snatched away by his mother and was discontented, but being small and weak, he could only voice his mood with cries—alas, with no hint of threat.
"Alright, alright, so sour, mommy doesn’t like it either, it’s all yours." Shen Yunfang hurriedly scooped another spoonful of the soft persimmon pulp into Pangpang’s mouth, quieting him down.
"Auntie, Auntie, I’m over here." Tingting’s voice came from the neighboring yard.
"Tingting, you’re back from school?" Shen Yunfang, in the usual spot, indeed saw Tingting’s little face again.
"Yeah, Auntie, does Pangpang like persimmons?" Tingting noticed her aunt feeding Pangpang persimmons and she smacked her lips as well, but no, the persimmons were still too sour right now.
"Yes, Pangpang had some yesterday and he insisted on having more today."
"We have them in our yard too, Auntie, wait and I’ll go pick some more for Pangpang." After saying this, Tingting turned and disappeared.
"Hey, Tingting, don’t pick them, Pangpang can’t eat that many, he can’t even finish this one." Shen Yunfang quickly got up to look into the next yard.
Though it was a wooden fence, it was now covered with climbing vines, filling in the gaps, and someone a bit shorter really couldn’t see inside the yard.
"Sister-in-law, do keep an eye on Tingting, don’t let her pick so many persimmons, Pangpang can’t eat all that, picking too many is just a waste." Shen Yunfang couldn’t see Tingting inside the yard, so she raised her voice slightly, calling out to Sister Wu in the house.
And Sister Wu was indeed called out by Shen Yunfang.
"Sister-in-law, please watch Tingting closely, don’t let her pick persimmons, this one is enough for Pangpang, anything more goes to waste." Shen Yunfang knew Sister Wu treasured the garden’s produce deeply, now the backyard was gradually yielding eatables, but Sister Wu was reluctant to consume them, feeling the beans and eggplants were still too tiny, if nurtured for a couple more days they would grow bigger, and only then would it be the right time to eat.
As expected, Sister Wu stood at the side, hands on her hips, yelling for Tingting. Tingting, hearing her own mother’s voice, didn’t dare hide any longer and came out slowly dragging her feet.
"Oh my precious troublemaker, haven’t you plucked all our persimmons?" Sister Wu looked at the persimmons in her daughter’s hands and the bulging pockets with a pained expression twitching on her face.
"I didn’t, I wanted to get them for brother Pangpang, he loves them." Tingting argued back, her dad had already said she’s the big sister, and if the little brother wanted something tasty, she should save some for him. Now that she knew Pangpang loved persimmons, what was wrong with picking a few for him?
