044 Picking Chestnuts

Among the demon clan, if a demon kills an innocent human without cause, their path to ascension is severed, and their only future is to become a fallen demon. This is something the demon clan cannot tolerate. Now, with a powerful clan chief presiding, even if a fallen demon appears, he will deal with it, so there is no need to worry about it affecting the clan's reputation.

After chatting for a while, everyone logged off to rest.

Xie Yihuang slept soundly and woke up refreshed. She completed her morning exercise as usual, had breakfast, and set out with Qi Jianhua and Liu Fei to gather chestnuts. Since she had already been there the day before, Xie Yihuang could easily find the chestnut trees she had discovered previously.

Qi Jianhua looked up at the trees and nodded, saying, "There are plenty of chestnuts. Yihuang, Fei, stand back. I’ll knock them down, and then we can gather them together."

"Alright," Xie Yihuang replied without hesitation, running behind an old pine tree—after all, the falling chestnuts could never hit her there.

Liu Fei, amused, also found a tree to hide behind.

Qi Jianhua went to the bamboo grove and cut a three-meter-long bamboo pole, then began to strike the chestnut burrs hanging from the trees.

As he struck, countless burrs tumbled to the ground with a thumping sound, almost like a goddess scattering flowers, only these were fluffy chestnut burrs instead of blossoms.

Qi Jianhua was glad he wore a straw hat; otherwise, getting hit on the head by these burrs would hurt terribly.

His movements were swift. In less than an hour, he finished with the three chestnut trees here, knocking down at least eighty percent of the fruit.

"Yihuang, Fei, you two pick up the chestnuts here. I’ll go take care of the other two trees," Qi Jianhua said.

"Okay." Xie Yihuang’s eyes brightened. In fact, she had wanted to sneak some chestnuts into her space, and now, with Qi Jianhua gone, she could pick them up and stash them away.

"Senior Brother Fei, you pick from that side, I’ll pick from this side," she suggested to Liu Fei.

Liu Fei agreed, "Alright, just call if you need anything." He dragged a burlap sack to another spot and began gathering chestnuts.

Their speed was impressive: all the baskets and tubs they brought were soon filled, yet there were still plenty of chestnuts on the ground. Xie Yihuang piled them up in heaps to make it easier to bag them later, using the opportunity to transfer a portion into her space.

She didn’t take too much, just enough so each person would have about ten pounds, totaling around sixty or seventy pounds moved.

In reality, there were six chestnut trees here, each yielding about two hundred pounds of burrs, so six trees produced nearly a thousand pounds. Thus, her sneaking away sixty or seventy pounds went unnoticed.

Qi Jianhua returned after finishing with the other trees. Seeing the full baskets, he said, "I’ll carry these back first. Yihuang, there are some burlap sacks here—start packing them. You’re not afraid, are you?"

Yihuang pointed to the sky, "It’s broad daylight—what’s there to be afraid of? Besides, Senior Brother Fei is here. Go ahead."

Although they were in the hills, it wasn’t deep mountain country, so there were few venomous snakes. That’s why Qi Jianhua felt comfortable leaving Yihuang and Liu Fei to gather chestnuts here.

Qi Jianhua carried two baskets back, borrowed a tricycle from someone—one of those large pedal-powered ones—and by the time he returned, Xie Yihuang and Liu Fei had already packed several bags of chestnuts.

He tightened the bag openings and carried them away, while Xie Yihuang and Liu Fei kept picking.

Knocking down the burrs was satisfying, but gathering them was more time-consuming. It took the three of them nearly three hours to finish picking all six trees.

By the time they returned to the Qi family, it was already past one, nearly two in the afternoon, and they hadn’t eaten lunch yet.

Grandma Qi, feeling sorry for them, cooked each a bowl of vegetable noodles with an egg on top. The vegetables came from their backyard plot; the eggs were laid by their own chickens.

Hungry, Xie Yihuang devoured her bowl, even drinking the broth. "Finally, I feel alive again."

"You child, if I had known you’d be picking for so long, I would have sent some food with you," Grandma Qi said.

"Fresh chestnuts can be eaten, actually," Xie Yihuang replied with a laugh. "But seeing the ground covered with burrs, I just couldn’t rest until they were all picked up. It’s like a special kind of compulsion—I had to finish."

Grandpa Qi chuckled, "That’s why you’re not suited for farm work. If you insist on finishing before eating, you’d starve before the job’s done."

Yihuang shook her head, "Grandpa, it’s not the same. Yesterday, when we went up the mountain to find licorice, I didn’t feel that way. But today, seeing so many chestnuts, it felt like they belonged to our family. If we didn’t gather them all, I’d worry they’d be lost. Some strange compulsion, so I had to finish."

Grandma Qi looked at the chestnuts in the backyard. "There are plenty—about a thousand pounds, I’d guess. This afternoon, we’ll shell them, and then, Jianhua, you can send some to Jianhua, Yuhe, and Yulan. And Liu Fei should take some home too."

Liu Fei quickly waved his hands, "No, no, Grandma Qi. If I bring chestnuts home after picking them, my grandpa will break my legs." Worried Grandma Qi might insist, he finished his noodles, washed his bowl, and slipped away. His speed made Grandma Qi smile wryly. "Well, after we finish, Jianhua, take some to the Liu family too. Fei helped out; we can’t let him go unrewarded."

Jianhua agreed, "Alright."

After a brief rest, the family set about processing the chestnuts.

Handling chestnuts was simple: just press open the burrs and take out the nuts inside, though it did take time. Seeing the mountain of burrs, Qi Jianhua suddenly said, "Why should the four of us spend so much time shelling chestnuts? Let’s just give each family a hundred pounds of burrs. The rest, we’ll process ourselves—much easier."

Yihuang agreed, "Exactly. Like at my place—when my dad comes home at night, a hundred pounds of chestnuts won’t take much time to shell."

Grandpa Qi chuckled, "If that’s the case, send a hundred pounds of burrs to each of the three families. Once the burrs are removed, they’ll have at least sixty pounds of nuts. If they need more, they can ask us."