Everyone agreed that made sense.

Zhao San laughed. "I’ll give it to anyone who’s willing to work through the night, gathering by torchlight. Even if they pick every last acorn, I won’t have a thing to say about it."

Li Gengtian’s voice was sharp. "What nonsense are you spouting? You might be joking, but there are stingy folks out there who don’t understand the consequences. They’d light torches just to get a little ahead. If the mountain catches fire, you’ll all be crying then—and even killing the person responsible won’t fix it! Now listen to me, all of you! No one is to gather at night. When it gets dark, you go home. Are you that desperate for a few extra acorns?"

That gave everyone a shock, and they all promised they would never gather by torchlight.

With the village chief’s warning, the acorn gathering remained peaceful. Often, several families would crowd under a single tree without any arguments.

Everyone headed for the mountain behind Juhua’s home. Since it was so close, it was only natural to start gathering there before moving on to the more distant hills.

Once they gathered a full load, the men would carry it home on their shoulder poles while the women continued to work.

When the men returned from home, they couldn’t find their wives. It wasn’t practical to shout "Hey, wife!" or "Mother of my child!"—if they did, the entire mountain would echo with calls for "Ma!" and "Pa!," and no one would know who was calling whom. So, they had no choice but to shout their wives’ names at the top of their lungs.

For a time, the mountain was filled with the constant sound of people calling out names.

Juhua’s family naturally had the biggest advantage. Their house was right at the foot of the mountain, so their whole family was out gathering. As soon as they had a full load, Zheng Changhe would carry it back home.

Those on good terms with the Zheng Family, like Zhao San and Zhang Dashuan, immediately started leaving their loads at the Zheng’s as well to save themselves the trip. Later, even Fatty Liu started bringing his acorns to the Zheng Family’s place—after all, his daughter and Juhua were good friends.

The other villagers felt it would be improper to do the same. It wasn’t that they weren’t on good terms with the Zheng Family, but the Zheng Family Courtyard was already piled high with the harvest of several other families. Bringing more over would just be taking advantage.

Juhua gathered acorns with Qingmu, and the two joked that it was because of their hard work last year that the whole mountain was now filled with people gathering acorns.

From a short distance away, Zhang Huai asked what they were laughing about.

Qingmu told him.

Zhang Huai didn’t respond, just sighed to himself. ’That was right around the time Qingmu was mad at me.’

He changed the subject, asking Qingmu if he had dug up any saplings to plant back home.

Qingmu replied, "These trees are better off planted on the mountain; they take up too much space. My backyard has a little room, but I’d rather plant more fruit trees there. I was thinking of telling the village chief that we should plant more of these on the empty plots on the mountain next year. Once the trees are planted, you have to look after them for a while. You can only leave them be once you’re sure they’ve taken root. That’s why we can’t just pick every last acorn, leaving none behind."

Zhang Huai nodded, saying he wanted to try growing them from the acorns to see if they would sprout. If it worked, it would save everyone the trouble of searching the mountain for saplings. Waiting for fallen acorns to sprout on their own wasn’t nearly as reliable as planting them deliberately.

Juhua’s eyes lit up, and she immediately said to him, "Huai Zi, that’s a great idea! It might not work, but you’ll never know if you don’t try, right? You should tell the village chief. You could set aside a dedicated plot of land just for this. When people have free time, they can work on figuring it out, and you can ask the experienced elders to take a look. Maybe in the future, we’ll be able to have as many acorn trees as we want."

She saw Zhang Huai’s eyes light up at her words and felt his gaze was too intense, so she quickly lowered her head to avoid his stare.

’Whether it’s Qingmu or Zhang Huai,’ she thought, ’they’re both very smart. They’re just limited by their experience and aren’t used to thinking outside the box. With a little nudge from me now and then, they’re gradually starting to shine.’

Zhang Huai had only mentioned his idea casually. He never imagined that Juhua would not only praise him but also help him flesh out the plan with so many suggestions.

When he saw Juhua lower her head, seemingly shy, his heart melted. He was so delighted he blushed and nodded eagerly in her direction—not caring that she had her head down and couldn’t see him—promising he would definitely tell the village chief.

Zheng Changhe, Zhang Dashuan, and Qingmu all chimed in that it was an excellent idea.

As they were speaking, they saw the village chief, Li Gengtian, shouldering a pole laden with acorns and about to head down the mountain. He called out, "What’s all this excitement? You two families are talking up a storm. Let me in on it."

Zhang Huai and the others were delighted to see the village chief arrive and quickly told him what they had just been discussing.

Li Gengtian was so pleased he set down his shoulder pole. "A great idea! A solid plan! Why didn’t we think of this last year?"

"These acorns can sprout right after they fall on the ground. If we plant them ourselves, won’t we get even more? This is a fantastic idea! Ah! You two have had some schooling, and it really shows. You’re different now, one great idea after another. I bet this year’s fish pond will raise a lot more fish than usual, too!"

Hearing this, Zheng Changhe and Zhang Dashuan were so happy they grinned from ear to ear.

Li Gengtian turned to Zheng Changhe. "Changhe, I’m a straightforward man, and I hate to dawdle. This is a good plan, and we should treat it like a major project. But these things are best planted on the edge of the mountain, so the village will rent a plot of your land for it. No one else has as much land as your family—I might have more paddy fields, but I have less dry land. Anyway, we’ll pay whatever the proper rent is. We can’t use your land for free. What do you say?"

Zheng Changhe quickly replied, "Of course, that’s no problem at all. Go take a look later and just mark out whichever plot you want. If I plant a little less, it just means less work for me."

Li Gengtian nodded, satisfied. He said to them, "Once we’re done with all this, we’ll select the biggest, plumpest acorns to set aside. Every family will need to contribute some for the village. Then we’ll do a trial planting. Ah! I need to go home and ask my father when exactly these acorns sprout. We’ve never paid attention to it before, so nobody knows!"

Qingmu smiled. "Don’t worry, we can just run a few experiments. For example, we can plant some deep and some shallow, some in damp soil and some in dry soil. We try a bit of everything, and by observing which ones sprout best, we’ll know what to do next year!"

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian.com to vote with recommendation tickets and monthly passes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)