When I was young, I lived in the village. There is a courtyard at home, with walls on the left and right. With the house facing forward, the front is the back of the neighbor's house, and the back is the home, so it is surrounded on all sides. There are some trees planted inside, all of which are fruit trees. Leizhou belongs to the tropics (I don’t know whether it is tropical or subtropical. The textbooks in junior high schools say it is tropical or subtropical, but it was not mentioned in high school). In summer, there are many tropical fruits to eat, including the most distinctive mango in my hometown ( Our town is known as the King of Fruits in Leizhou, which means mango). We have the popular jackfruit, pomegranate, yellow-skinned fruit, longan, etc.

There are many varieties of mangoes, and I have several varieties planted in my courtyard. With the use of grafting technology, there are even more varieties of mangoes. At that time, there were two mango trees in the center of the courtyard, opposite the door of the house. They were both of the same variety. We called them "No. 3 fruits." The fruits smelled very fragrant but tasted sour. My mother raised a group of chickens that were very obedient and didn’t need to be caged. Every evening they would jump to these two trees and perch like birds (haha, chickens are also birds), especially the chickens with white feathers - I don’t know. I really thought it was a bird; as time passed, the branches were filled with chicken droppings. No one comes to steal it, but at night you have to check the number of chickens, and you can rest assured when the number is reached. Jackfruit trees are found in almost every household here. There are three or four in my courtyard. One of them splits into two trunks from the root and grows upward. It looks like two trees hugging each other, but they actually have the same root. connected. Every year, jackfruit trees can bear a lot of jackfruits. One tree can bear seventy, eighty, or even more than a hundred jackfruits, which hang heavily on the branches. When I was a child, I went to the tree and looked up, worried that the jackfruit would strangle the branches. The jackfruit grows day by day, and the branches are drooped but not broken. There were originally two pomegranate trees. Later, the one with "white fruits" was cut down, leaving the one with "red fruits." There are different varieties of pomegranates, and the colors of the flesh are different. The red ones have a sweeter taste and are quite popular; the ones with "white fruits" I forget why they were cut down. The yellow-skinned fruit tree may be because it is close to a well. Its branches and leaves are lush and green, and it bears quite a lot of fruits. When the fruits are ripe, there are many yellow spots in the green, which is very beautiful. The longan tree in my family is tall enough. It is the so-called "local longan", that is, it is native to the local area. It is not like the short ones grown in orchards. The ones grown in orchards are mainly used for selling money, and the fruits produced by my family's trees are Not as big as others, but very sweet. Because the tree is big, it bears a lot of fruit.

I am the most greedy. Every summer when it bears fruit, I eagerly look forward to the ripening of the fruit. You can eat unripe mangoes, but the taste is very sour. If you cut them into thin slices and marinate them in sugar for ten minutes, they will taste sour and sweet. For unripe mangoes, I personally like to peel them, dip them in salt, and eat them directly. They are so sour that they make my teeth sore. When the mango turns from green to golden, it is ripe. Peel off the skin, and the orange flesh is exposed, with juice oozing out. Just looking at it makes you want to take a bite. There is also a kind of mango whose skin is still green, but is actually ripe. If the skin turns golden, it will be ripe; this kind of mango is called "Egg Mango". Because it is so delicious, it is called "egg". At that time, I always had to eat one or two mangoes every day, and sometimes more than that! Jackfruit is also called wood pineapple. It looks a bit like durian. There are many thorns on the surface and there are bags inside. However, the bags of durian are very big and very few. There are only a few. The bags of jackfruit are full of them. Usually there are only a few. They are about the size of two fingers, and there may be hundreds of them. Jackfruit is a bit troublesome to eat. Just like durian, you have to use a knife to cut it, but the fat inside (juice like resin) is thick and sticks to the knife, making it difficult to clean. It is also difficult to wash if it gets on your hands, but If you want to eat, don't worry about getting your hands on it. In addition to the mature big packages of jackfruit, there are also many very small packages that have not yet grown up. They are not very tasty and are generally not eaten. We have a saying here that "the most stupid thing is to talk while eating jackfruit." Because you spend time talking, you will eat less jackfruit! After eating the package, the core is left, which can be boiled and the outer shell cracked until it becomes very powdery. If you eat too much, you will be thirsty. Don't eat too much pomegranates, otherwise you will suffer consequences. In the past, when I ate too much, my stools became lumpy in my stomach and I couldn't pass them out. I cried in pain and had to keep drinking water. It's more interesting to eat yellow peel fruit. There are many branches, which are easy to climb, but the branches are tough and cannot fall down. I climbed up and lay down on the branches. I could pick the fruits with my hands and eat them while lying down. I couldn't feel better. This is often the case. I pick and eat the yellow-skinned fruits before they are fully ripe. In my mother's words, I "eat them before they are ripe." Longan is difficult to pick because the tree is too tall. You have to use a long stick with the top divided into a "Y" shape. Clamp a cluster and twist it to remove the fruit and branches.

Every time the longan tree blooms, the fragrance of the flowers attracts bees buzzing and many insects that eat the flowers. I don’t know how to describe this kind of insect literally. I really don’t have much research on biological classification. The Leizhou dialect also has its own explanation, so I can only use a literal translation and call it “mangnawing”. Mangna is my childhood playmate. Use a bamboo pole to hit the flower clusters, and some insects will fly up. The insects cannot fly high or far. They will fall off after flying for a few times. Some of them are lucky enough to escape. Grab a plane crash victim and remove about one-third of its wings on both sides. Then it will be unable to fly. It can only flap its wings and spin around on the ground, pushing away the sand like a bulldozer. Then break off the jointed limbs with claws and call it " It can't even crawl. Although this has some sadistic implications, it has other uses.

Take two wild beasts and let them meet in a narrow road. If they collide, they will head each other - to see who is stronger. You can also remove the wings so that one side is longer and the other side is shorter. Because of the imbalance, the beast will spin on the ground like a top. My companions and I often compete to see who can chew the longest. Manqie will spurt out a liquid from the back of his "butt", which we call Manqie's urine. This liquid is a powerful weapon for Barbarians to protect themselves. One time, my eyes were sprayed and they hurt so much that I washed them with water, which only relieved them. If this liquid gets on your hands, your fingers will be dyed light yellow; at that time, my fingers were often this color. There is also an insect on the longan tree, which looks like a butterfly. It is colorful and beautiful, and has something that looks like an elephant trunk. There are only a few of these insects in a tree, and they are very flexible and difficult to catch. I have caught them several times, but even if I did, they were killed by me. The insects that accompany me the most are only called "savage gnawing" insects in this article.

Later, the two mango trees in the center of the courtyard were cut down. It is said that they were facing the hall, which was unlucky according to the custom here. It's not bad, it's a lot empty, so I can play games with my friends in the open space. Because there are many trees and the longan tree is big, it is shaded and the breeze blows, making it very comfortable to play in the summer. There are many kinds of games I play with my friends, but apart from throwing sandbags, I can't even name them literally. The names in Leizhou dialect are too difficult to translate. If they are transliterated like foreign languages, many people won't understand them. Just like what was said above "Breaking." And our sandbags are different from those elsewhere. We don’t use sand, but we use paper to make a ball and wrap it tightly with tape. It should be better described as a "paper bag"; it is said to be a sandbag, but the gameplay is somewhat similar. The courtyard provides us with a good place to play happily, and we often make dusty noises. Mom was not satisfied with our crazy play. She was unhappy and said angrily, "Go play outside!" But nothing outside is as good as my courtyard!

The front of the house is also the back of the neighbor's house. The land is so black and fertile that earthworms can be pulled out. I don’t need earthworms for fishing. Even if I have them, I’ll kill them. The land is fertile and you can grow things! I tried growing corn. Soak a few shriveled corn seeds in water until they swell, bury them in the soil, pour some water, and they will sprout soon. However, the corn never grew big, and as soon as it sprouted, it was eaten by chickens. Home chickens are no better than feed chickens. Home chickens can eat anything! I have also planted other things, but I have never harvested anything. After all, I only plant them for fun. There is one thing you can get without planting, and that is the "cat's ear mushroom", also known as black fungus. "Cat's ear mushroom" is the name of Leizhou people, probably because it looks like cat's ear. Where corn was grown previously, a lot of firewood was piled up for firewood, and many small cat-ear mushrooms often grew after rain. The cat's ear mushrooms don't live long and will die without water after the rain. My mother never paid attention to them because the firewood is used for making fires. The cat's ear mushrooms will absorb the nutrients of the firewood, and the firewood will rot and cannot be used to make fires. ——It happened to be a bargain for me. If there is no one to water it, just let me do it! When I have nothing to do, I will fill a basin of water and pour it on, hoping for them to grow up like the stars and the moon, and I will come and see them every day or two. I imagined that the cat's ear mushrooms would grow up and be cooked and eaten. They were so delicious! But the firewood was always burned, and my cat's ear mushrooms were gone.

When I got older, my family moved to a small town and no longer lived there, leaving the house empty. My fifth uncle and grandpa both came to live there, but they couldn't get used to it and left again. No one took care of the yard, and there were fallen leaves all over the ground. Grandma only came to sweep occasionally. When no one is around, there is a sense of silence. From time to time, birds fly down to look for food. When they find something, they fly away again. When no one lives there, many things in the house are dilapidated. The windows of the room have not been opened for a long time, and the air is turbid. . For various reasons, most of the fruit trees in the courtyard were cut down. There were no mangoes, no pomegranates, no yellow-skinned fruits, and the longan was almost sold. My brothers and I strongly opposed it, so my mother kept it; A mango tree has not lost its roots, but now it has sprouted several branches. There are fewer trees, and the whole courtyard looks empty. The only four trees - a longan, a newly grown mango, and two jackfruits - can't find their former partners and stand lonely in the courtyard. Every time the longan flowers bloom, no one sprays pesticides, and few children catch them to play with. The flowers are all eaten up by barbarians, and there is no fruit to eat. Only jackfruit produces many jackfruits every year.