Chapter 146 Why Does This Durian Smell So Bad?

Chapter 146: Why Does This Durian Smell So Bad?

Once the fight was over, it was time to clean up the mess.

The crowd, seeing the show was over, slowly drifted away.

A few families close to the Fu family even approached Fu Dajun and said to call if they needed anything.

Looking at the puddle of filth on the ground, Fu Yanju got right to cleaning it up.

Seeing this, the other wives jumped in to help.

Su He wanted to join too, but Fu Tinghua stopped her.

“Go check on Zai Zai and Niu Niu. They’ve been hiding inside—they’re probably scared stiff.”

Su He figured he was right, so she turned and went into the house.

Fu Tinghua, meanwhile, pitched in to help clean up the mess.

He didn’t want Su He doing dirty work like that, so he decided to handle it himself.

“Oh, Ting Hua,” Zhang Xiaohua called out when she saw him with a bucket, “we’ve got this—go ahead!”

“Don’t worry, I can handle it.”

Seeing this, the other men from the Fu household grabbed buckets and started hauling water to wash the mess away.

Fu Ziyao took the bucket from Fu Tinghua’s hands and said, “Leave this to your brothers. Get inside—this place reeks!”

Fu Tinghua had to give in. Ever since middle school, his family wouldn’t let him lift a finger.

Not only did his parents baby him, but his brothers were even worse.

When he returned to the house, he found Su He talking to the two kids.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Niu Niu just got a little spooked,” Su He replied, holding their daughter.

Just then, Wu Yanhua came in and said, “Ting Hua, Su He, stay for lunch, won’t you?”

Fu Tinghua didn’t answer, instead looking to Su He.

After thinking it over, she nodded.

“Mom,” Su He said, “why don’t everyone come over tonight for dinner? Since Ting Hua and I are heading to the city tomorrow, we’d like everyone to help pick some durians this afternoon to take with us.”

They could also kill those two chickens and have a meal together. The birds were nice and fat by now.

Of course, she didn’t mention the chickens part to Wu Yanhua, in case she protested, not wanting to lose them.

“Oh, perfect!” Wu Yanhua beamed. “I’ll tell your brothers and sisters-in-law later. We’ve got the day off anyway, so everyone can go pick the… oh right, durians—might as well do it quickly.”

Wu Yanhua was practically over the moon with Su He—once again, unintentionally saving her daughter’s life.

They had lunch at the Fu house, a quick bite before Su He and Fu Tinghua took the kids home for a nap.

Around three in the afternoon, once the sun let up a bit, Su He and Fu Tinghua left Zai Zai and Niu Niu with Wu Yanhua and followed their brothers and sisters-in-law up the mountain.

The two children were unusually obedient today, perhaps aware that they would soon be leaving the countryside and not staying here long-term, so they were also sad to leave the Fu family kids.

Really, this was the place that changed their fate.

After all, it wasn’t until their mother came to the countryside that she really started loving them.

Once they arrived on the mountain, the Fu family men couldn’t help pinching their noses.

"Su He, why does this durian stink so bad?" Fu Guoqing couldn't help but ask.

Su He was embarrassed—she didn’t know why durians stank so much either.

"What are you talking about? I think it smells quite fragrant," Zhang Xiaohua said, giving her husband a light smack on the shoulder.

The other Fu family men just stared: ......

"Well, I think it’s strong, but not exactly stinky, right?" Chen Sufen chimed in.

"Let’s get moving. Su He, the tree is so tall—how do we even pick these durians?" He Fangfang asked, looking at the durians hanging high up in the tree.

Su He took out the tools she had prepared earlier and said, "Someone’s gotta climb up and cut the durian’s stem, while two people hold a net below to catch it."

Right away, everyone thought that sounded risky.

Hadn’t they noticed the durian’s thorny shell?

"Not many durians are ripe yet, and I can’t take too many to the city for now. But if business picks up later, or if the durians reach a point where they must be harvested, we may need to pay some villagers to help out," Su He shared her thoughts.

"Huh? Our own guys can do this—why throw money away hiring outsiders?" Fu Guoqing couldn’t help but interject.

The Fu family barely scraped by doing hard labor all year—how could they justify spending money to hire people for this?

Su He dropped the subject and instead said, "Guys, figure out who’s climbing and who’s catching. The ones catching need to be strong—after all, those durians are dropping from way up there, and we don’t want anyone spraining their hands."

That got everyone thinking. Initially, they had assumed the men would climb while the women caught.

"I... I’ll climb the tree. I’ve always been a good climber," Fu Yanju, who had been silent until now, spoke up.

Ever since coming back to the Fu family, she’d jumped at every chore, terrified her brothers and sisters-in-law would resent her later.

In truth, no one in the Fu family thought that way—after all, she had just arrived and wasn’t lazy by nature.

But after years under the Chen family’s thumb, Fu Yanju had grown somewhat insecure, always feeling inadequate.

It was Su He who’d given her the guts to dump manure on the Chens that morning.

Her sister-in-law was tough—she couldn’t be a pushover herself.

"Sis, you’re still injured," Fu Tinghua couldn’t help but say.

The next day, they were supposed to take Fu Yanju back to the city for a full medical checkup.

"It’s fine, really, I’m fine," Fu Yanju insisted quickly.

"Alright, then Fourth Sister, you climb up first. If you get tired, someone else can take over," Su He responded with a smile.

Fu Yanju looked at Su He with gratitude. Honestly, what scared her most now was being treated differently by the Fu family.

She wanted to integrate into this family—the one that should have always been hers.

Su He, however, thought she was thinking too much—after all, it was because she'd been pushed around so much by the Chen family over the past few years.

That’s why she always wanted to work harder at home to avoid being seen as a burden by the Fu family.

If they stopped her, Fu Yanju might start worrying even more.

So in the end, there were three durian-picking groups, each spread out so no one would get hit.

Fu Yanju climbed the tree, while Su He and Fu Tinghua waited below to collect the fruit.

The other brothers and sisters-in-law had also divided themselves into groups of three.

Actually, Fu Yanju hadn’t lied—she really was quite agile when climbing trees, definitely much better than Su He’s struggling climb last time.