Crossing Over to Yamada Love

That one bite changed Mo Lan's opinion of the unassuming plum; that one bite made Mo Lan fall in love with this kind of plum from then on.

After taking two bites of the plum, Mo Lan's eyes lit up. So sweet! So incredibly sweet! Mo Lan truly hadn't expected the plum to be so sweet! She hadn't eaten such a sweet plum in all these years!

"Sweet, isn't it?" Aunt Shuisheng asked Molan with a smile.

"Sweet! So sweet!" Mo Lan nodded repeatedly.

"These plums are called 'dry bowl plums.' They break in half easily, unlike other plums that can't be broken apart. These plums are ripe when they turn yellow; they won't turn red. The yellow ones are very sweet. These green ones aren't fully ripe yet, and they're a bit sour. But they taste good too. The only problem is that these plums have a lot of worms; four or five out of ten have worms. You should definitely break them open and check them before eating," Aunt Shuisheng said as she picked up the plums from the ground.

"Okay, I understand, thank you, Auntie. These plums are so sweet, how could you bear to sell your land to my family?" Mo Lan broke off another plum and started eating.

"Your family offered a higher price back then, one tael of silver more per mu than usual, so my husband and I thought we should sell it. One tael of silver can do a lot of things. As for these plums, what difference does it make whether we eat them or not? It's just that the kids are greedy. Otherwise, why would I have the nerve to come to your house to ask for them?" Aunt Shuisheng finished picking the plums and spoke frankly to Molan.

"There are two trees here. Whenever Maozi wants to eat, Auntie can come and pick some." Mo Lan tossed a bad plum to Shui Sheng's face, agreeing that she could come and pick plums later. Actually, she was quite grateful to Shui Sheng's wife. She had planted two sweet plum trees and was now telling her that plums were delicious. She should thank her too.

"Okay, then Auntie will be going now. Please tell your grandma and mom later that I won't go in to say hello." Aunt Shuisheng looked at her little basket, which was almost full, and went back with a smile.

After she left, Mo Lan started drooling over the plum tree. Aunt Shui Sheng picked up almost all the plums on the ground, but the adults in the tree could pick them, not her. She was too short; she couldn't reach them even on tiptoe.

What to do? Mo Lan started looking around, and finally she found a thin stick. She raised the stick and began to gently tap the plums down. The plums fell down as soon as they were touched by the stick.

Mo Lan hit the stick for a while, then felt her arms ache and her neck stiffen. She threw it aside, pulled up her shirt to make a pocket, and started picking plums out of it.

Some of the plums were very ripe, but they were knocked down by sticks and fell to the ground, where they were ruined. Mo Lan felt a little sorry for them and had to think of a way to prevent them from being hit like that. She was worried about how many of the plums she would miss out on if they were ruined.

She put the plums in a basin and washed them clean. By this time, most of the Mo family members had finished their midday rest and were getting busy.

"Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Mom... San'er, come and eat some plums!" Mo Lan called out to everyone in the family and distributed the washed plums to them.

"Ptooey, ptooey, there's a bug in it." Qiu picked up one and took a bite. When she saw that the half in her hand was completely black, she quickly spat it out.

"Mother, you should break this plum open to check it first. Why did you just bite into it? Here, this one is worm-free, you can try it." Mo Lan was speechless looking at her mother who kept spitting. Her mother was too impatient and too straightforward.

"You know what, it really is sweet. Here, San'er, have half of this." Qiu Shi took a bite and fed the other half to Xiao San'er.

"Sweet, sweet. San'er wants more." The little guy's eyes lit up as he looked expectantly at the bowl of plums.

"Lan'er, why did you decide to pick plums?" Mo Changhe ate a few and then stopped. These plums were too sweet; the elderly, children, and women would probably love them, but a few would be enough for a man.

"Aunt Shuisheng came first and said her son, Damao, wanted to eat plums, so she came to pick some. She let me try one, and that's when I realized how sweet these plums are, so I knocked some off with a stick," Molan replied to her father while constantly breaking off plums.

“If you want to eat them in the future, Dad will pick them for you. Don’t go and hit them. The sticks are so heavy. What if you can’t lift them and hit yourself?” Mo Changhe felt sorry for his daughter.

"Okay, from now on, I'll just ask Dad for whatever I want to eat." Mo Lan smiled mischievously.

*************

The Mo family was busy that day. Mo Lan was tending the fire to thaw the corn. This was probably the last time the corn would be thawed. The corn was already old and a bit tough to chew. After this thaw, it would probably be next year before they could thaw it again.

"You damned family of Mo, get out here!" Mo Lan, who was tending the fire, suddenly heard a loud shout from the front yard.

She frowned, and everyone stopped what they were doing, looked at each other, and looked puzzled. What was going on?

"Hey uncles, don't barge in! Can't you talk things out? I'll go get some help for you right now." That was Qiu Dajun's voice; he was probably trying to stop the group.

"Get lost, you brat! What do you know? I'm settling scores with the Mo family, what business is it of yours? Get out of the way!" The loud voice clearly wasn't going to back down and made Qiu Dajun move aside.

"The Mo family is heartless! They killed my daughter-in-law! What sins have I committed to deserve this? In my old age, I have to bury my child. How am I supposed to live from now on?" A weeping old voice reached the ears of the Mo family members.

"Is that Sister Shuiqun's voice? Is that the troublemaker Da Gouzi? Let's go take a look." Mo Quan frowned and led Mo Changhai and Mo Changhe forward, with Mo Lan and Wang Shi following behind.

"Smash it! Smash their shop! If it weren't for them running that shop, my wife wouldn't be dead. They killed my wife, and they still want to run that shop? No way!" Just as the crowd reached the front, they heard a crashing sound, probably from a table that had fallen over and the bowls and chopsticks on it had shattered on the ground.

"How could you smash up the shop? Explain yourself!" Qiu Dajun shouted anxiously, unable to stop them.

"Stop it, all of you! What are you doing, you big dogs?!" Mo Quan shouted as he looked at the chaotic scene.

"You old geezer, you still have the nerve to shout! What? Trying to show off your loud voice? You killed my wife, I'll tear you apart!" A burly man roared and charged at Mo Quan.

Mo Changhe quickly stepped forward and blocked the man's path.

"You heartless bastards! Why doesn't God strike you down? My poor daughter-in-law, what are we going to do now that you're gone? I don't want to live anymore! My poor grandson, he's only two years old and he's lost his mother. How are we going to live?" An old woman, seeing her son being stopped, sat down on the ground and began to cry. Her crying was different from that of Madam Feng and Madam Cui; tears were truly streaming down her face, and her expression was genuinely heartbroken.

"You think we Liu family has no one to rely on? Mother, get up! How many people can Mo Changhe hold off? We have four brothers. I'll go up and beat these heartless bastards to death right now!" Several more men rushed forward.

Mo Changhai also rushed out to defend, and Qiu Dajun also rushed to the front. However, how could the three of them withstand four strong men? They watched as the men of the Mo family were beaten several times.

"Stop! All of you, stop!" Wang shouted, picking up a chair and throwing it at the burly men. Mo Lan also picked up a plate from the table and threw it at them.

The chair was dodged and fell to the ground, shattering the plates on the floor.

"Do you have to kill someone before you'll stop? What exactly did our Mo family do to offend you? Big Dog, come out and explain yourself!" Wang stepped forward, her fierce aura startling everyone.

At this moment, Qiu also ran over, carrying two rolling pins in one hand and two kitchen knives in the other. She gave one of the rolling pins to Liu, and stood next to Wang with the two kitchen knives in hand, saying fiercely, "Let's make things clear. If anyone dares to hit my father-in-law or my husband again, I'll chop them down first."

Mo Lan thought to herself: Mother is mighty! Mother reacted quickly today. Seeing the situation in front, she ran back to the backyard to get weapons. I must say, she looks quite intimidating now.

"You've even brought knives? What? You want to kill someone? Come on, try and cut me! You killed my wife, and now you want to kill us too. You Mo family are nothing but killing animals, none of you are human!" The troublemaker stood in front of Qiu, pointed to his head, and stared at Qiu with bloodshot eyes.

Mo Lan was secretly puzzled. She recognized all these men. The one confronting her mother was Liu Da Gou, and the one sitting on the ground crying was her mother. There were four brothers, and those men were Er Gou, San Gou, and Si Gou. They didn't usually have much contact with the Mo family; they would just nod and greet each other when they met. What was going on today? Why were they insisting that they had killed his wife? They hadn't even seen his wife recently; how could they have killed her?

Mo Lan picked up a rolling pin and stood on the other side of Wang Shi, shouting loudly, "Explain yourself clearly! Don't start fighting before you explain yourself, or the Mo family won't be bullied!"

Seeing that even a child dared to take up a rolling pin, Liu Dagou was about to step forward again when Mo Changhe grabbed Mo Lan, took the rolling pin from her hand, pointed it at Liu Dagou, and said, "Try going forward again!"

Mo Changhe had been punched twice before, and his lip was bleeding. Now, he opened his eyes wide in anger, exuding righteousness and looking quite imposing.

Mo Quan took the kitchen knife from his daughter-in-law and stood in front, saying, "Explain yourself! If you make another move, I'll risk my old life and cut one of you down with my life."

Mo Changhai also had a bruise on his face, but he still stepped forward without hesitation.

"Speak," Wang coldly uttered a single word.

The four Liu brothers and their mother were all stunned. They had heard that the Mo family had chased away gambling debtors before, but they had only heard about it and had not seen it with their own eyes. Seeing how they were all willing to fight to the death today was really frightening.

"Your family killed my wife, and you even tried to fight me with knives! What kind of logic is this?! You killed someone, so you should pay with your lives!" Liu Dagou stubbornly raised his neck and started shouting again.