I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 287: Chapter 271: The Figs Are Ripe

The two of them chatted for a while longer about planting soursop. Looking at the time, it was only 10:30 AM, still too early for lunch.

Chu Yiwei then said, ”I’m going to take a look around the Hundred Fruit Garden. It’s been a long time since I’ve been inside.”

Li You nodded. ”Okay, Teacher Chu, you go on ahead. I’ll join you after I take these two soursops back and put them away.”

”Okay!”

Chu Yiwei entered the Hundred Fruit Garden, while Li You carried the bag back to the shop and went upstairs.

Ye Shengge was lying on the sofa, playing on her phone.

Li You walked over, took a soursop out of the bag, and handed it to Ye Shengge, saying, ”Here’s a piece of fruit for you.”

’Since Ye Shengge is here, it’d be rude to eat by myself. I’ll just give one to her.’

”Soursop?” Ye Shengge’s eyes lit up. ”Boss, where did you get soursop? This fruit is pretty rare around here.”

Li You wasn’t surprised that Ye Shengge recognized the fruit. ”Teacher Chu just brought them over. She gave me two. A classmate of hers mailed them from Zhejiang Province.”

So that was it.

Ye Shengge said, ”But Teacher Chu brought these specifically for you. It wouldn’t be right for me to eat one, would it? Why don’t you have it? Don’t waste Teacher Chu’s kind gesture.”

Li You said, ”Just take it. Teacher Chu knows you’re here, so she probably brought two so we could each have one. Besides, I’d feel bad eating it all by myself!”

Only then did Ye Shengge accept the soursop. ”Well, thank you, Boss. And I should thank Teacher Chu, too. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of these.”

Li You added, ”I’m planning to try growing this fruit in the Hundred Fruit Garden. I wonder if it’ll work?”

Ye Shengge’s eyes lit up again. ”That’s a great idea! If it were anyone else, the chances of success would probably be slim. But with you growing it, Boss, I feel like the chances are much higher.”

”Oh?” Li You smiled. ”You have that much faith in me, too?”

Ye Shengge said, ”It’s just a feeling I have for some reason.”

Li You said, ”Well, I’ll do my best not to disappoint you then.”

Ye Shengge said, ”I believe in you, Boss. If you really manage to grow what’s known as the world’s sweetest fruit, it’ll be a huge draw. After all, so many people around here have never seen, heard of, or even tasted it.”

Li You nodded. ”That’s true. But even though soursop is known as the world’s sweetest fruit, it probably isn’t, actually.”

”Oh?” Ye Shengge asked. ”Is there another fruit that’s sweeter than it?”

Li You said, ”There’s a fruit in Africa called the arrowroot fruit. That’s the real sweetest fruit in the world. In fact, it’s the sweetest substance in the world. They say the sugar content of its pulp can be thousands of times higher than sucrose.”

”Arrowroot fruit?” Ye Shengge asked, confused. ”Isn’t that an ornamental plant? We have a lot of those in the southern regions of our country!”

Li You shook his head. ”It’s a different kind of arrowroot. The one I’m talking about is a fruit native to the African rainforests, called the African Arrowroot. The fruit is red and has a strange shape. I’ve never seen or eaten one, though. I just read about it somewhere. Who knows if it’s true?”

”I see,” Ye Shengge said. ”Well, whether that’s true or not, this soursop is definitely very sweet. You can’t eat too much at once, or it gets overwhelming.”

Li You nodded. ”Definitely. Anyway, I’m heading down. Teacher Chu is still in the Hundred Fruit Garden. I’m going to go check on her.”

Ye Shengge said, ”I’ll go with you.”

Li You nodded. ”Alright.”

The two of them went downstairs together, left the shop, and walked into the Hundred Fruit Garden.

When they found Chu Yiwei, she was standing next to a fig tree. They heard her say joyfully, ”Boss, Miss Ye, come quick! Some of the figs are ripe and ready to eat.”

”Really?” Li You was also delighted to hear this and hurried over. ”Let me see.”

As he got closer, he saw that sure enough, quite a few of the fruits were already very red. He gave one a gentle squeeze; it was already soft.

They were definitely ready to eat.

Figs have a unique texture, and not everyone finds them delicious. Some people can’t stand figs, thinking they taste strange and are hard to swallow.

But those who do like them find them incredibly tasty.

Li You was one of those people; he loved them.

These fig trees, like the loquat trees, had been there from the start. They were wild fruit trees, not ones he had transplanted later.

That was why they were already bearing fruit.

Although they were wild, Li You had later used his fruit tree fertilizer on them. As a result, they were now growing vigorously and producing a lot of fruit.

”Do you two want some figs?” Li You asked Ye Shengge and Chu Yiwei.

”Yes! Figs are delicious,” they both said.

Li You said, ”I only ask because some people don’t eat figs. Since you both do, that’s great! Let’s pick some and eat.”

Ye Shengge and Chu Yiwei both nodded.

The three of them each picked a fig.

He wasn’t sure if it was because of the fruit tree fertilizer, but these figs were all huge, not much smaller than a fist.

Normally, wild figs shouldn’t grow this large.

’But size alone is useless; the crucial thing is that they have to taste good.’

’What would these figs taste like? This was Li You’s first time eating them, and he was full of anticipation.’

He broke a fig open down the middle. Inside, there was a fruity nectar, and it looked sweet and delicious.

He quickly took a bite.

A moment later, Li You was pleasantly surprised and completely relieved. The texture was excellent; it was incredibly delicious.

It tasted even better than any fig he had ever eaten before.

’This is great!’

This proved that the fruit tree fertilizer had a significant effect. It didn’t just help the trees grow better; it also improved the taste of the fruit, making it more delicious.

Without the fertilizer, not only would these figs not have grown so large, but their taste would also have been much worse.

If this was the case for the figs, then the taste of all the other fruit trees in the orchard, as well as all the wild fruits in the wild section of the garden, was something to look forward to.

Therefore, Li You was incredibly surprised and pleased.

Ye Shengge and Chu Yiwei were just as surprised. They also thought the figs were delicious, even better than they had imagined. It seemed they had never eaten such tasty figs before.

Chu Yiwei said joyfully, ”These figs aren’t just big, they taste amazing too. They really hit the spot. The fruit you grow is really delicious, Boss.”

Ye Shengge also said, ”They’re even better than I imagined. I wonder what variety they are?”

Li You said, ”I don’t know what variety they are either. But as long as they’re delicious, it doesn’t matter what variety they are.”

Ye Shengge said, ”That’s true. I’m having another one.”

Li You smiled. ”Help yourselves. You too, Teacher Chu.”

Chu Yiwei nodded.

Of course, Li You was going to have another one as well.

The three of them started eating again.

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