“I’m going to the orchard for breakfast. Have you eaten yet?”

　　Emily Thompson waved his hand. “I’ve already eaten.”

　　David Sullivan went down the riverbank and headed toward the orchard. From a distance, he could see the familiar blue-brick, blue-tile buildings in the orchard. The houses were not only tall, but there were also mysterious mythical beasts perched on the roof ridges.

　　Those beasts stared coldly at the ground, giving off an inexplicable sense of eeriness.

　　This was the columbarium of Lyu Family Village, and the much lower houses next to it were the orchard’s living quarters.

　　Because of his father Mark Sullivan, the village took great care of their family, also treating them as the columbarium’s caretakers. The village didn’t pay them, but only charged a very small contracting fee for the more than twenty mu of orchard land.

　　However, given the social and economic environment, they still had to rely mostly on themselves.

　　The orchard grew Guoguang apples, but in recent years Red Fuji apples had become popular, making Guoguang hard to sell at a good price.

　　These days, farmers barely made any money from farming, and it was the same with the orchard. The village leased it to you at a low price, but there was no way they’d pay the public grain tax for you.

　　For more than twenty mu of orchard, just the public grain tax was a huge cost.

　　There were plenty of people who couldn’t even pay the public grain tax from their fruit harvests.

　　David Sullivan followed the sour jujube branch fence to the orchard gate. After entering, he saw his mother Grace Howard.

　　In her forties, years of hard labor had left her skin rough and reddish-black, with a few strands of silver in her hair.

　　“Dongzi, come eat!” Grace Howard called to her son.

　　David Sullivan had a thousand things to say, but in the end, it all condensed into one word: “Mom…”

　　Grace Howard asked, “What’s wrong?”

　　“Last night the water was high, I was worried the dike would collapse…”

　　David Sullivan hadn’t finished when Grace Howard interrupted, “Don’t say such unlucky things.” She pointed to a small table under the shade of a tree. “Go on, I’ll bring you your food.”

　　David Sullivan didn’t go over, but instead helped Grace Howard carry out the dishes and rice bowls.

　　There were three dishes: scrambled eggs with tomatoes and cucumbers, pig’s ear salad with cucumber, and deep-fried cicadas—far better than their usual meals.

　　“Mom, you eat too,” David Sullivan called to his mother. “It’s just breakfast, something simple is fine.”

　　Grace Howard picked up her chopsticks. “You worked hard last night, eat more. Hey, this is good—our village has always treated us well. If something happens, you have to step up.”

　　She urged David Sullivan, “Try it, the pig’s ear is from Eric Clark’s butcher shop, freshly braised last night. Their offal is always good.”

　　David Sullivan ate a piece of pig’s ear, the cartilage crunching loudly. “I think your braised offal is still the best.”

　　At this, Grace Howard was not to be outdone. “There are quite a few people in Lyu Family Village good at this, but our family is among the best. But unless it’s a holiday, we can’t just buy offal to braise.”

　　She pushed the plate of cicadas toward David Sullivan. “Try some, you’ve liked them since you were little. I caught these in the orchard the past couple of days. When it gets hot and rainy, cicada nymphs crawl everywhere. Last night, it was cool by the door, and one even crawled onto my shoe.”

　　David Sullivan could see that there were many finger-sized holes in the ground around them, most left by cicada nymphs emerging.

　　Because of the columbarium, few people came here to catch them. The orchard had been here for over a decade, with many trees, and “overrun” was hardly an exaggeration.

　　For the orchard, cicadas were pests, and at one point they were even on the pesticide control list.

　　Grace Howard continued, “I saw your uncle. He wants you to come over for dinner the night after tomorrow—your big brother is coming home. Gavin Sullivan has been transferred to the University Town police station, and it’s rare for him to have a day off…

　　“Guoguang apples don’t sell for much, and the contract is up this winter. The town had a meeting, and they want all the village collective orchards to switch to Red Fuji. All these old trees will be cut down. With our situation, we can’t wait for new trees to bear fruit. After this season, we won’t renew the contract and will look for other work.”

　　Listening to his mother’s chatter and eating home-cooked food, David Sullivan felt a deep sense of happiness.

　　Once, when he realized this was also a kind of happiness, he could never hear it again.

Chapter 5 Ryan Sullivan

　　After breakfast, Grace Howard urged David Sullivan to go to the river, and also to bring some pickled cicada nymphs to his uncle’s house.

　　Maybe he was too emotional after seeing his mother again and tried to hold it in. As he left the orchard, his right eye felt uncomfortable. After rubbing it a few times, his right eyelid started twitching.

　　David Sullivan first went to his uncle’s house in the south of the village.

　　His aunt was home alone. David Sullivan specifically asked, and found out that his eldest cousin Ethan Sullivan wouldn’t be back from University Town until the afternoon the day after tomorrow, and his second cousin was in the army and wouldn’t be home on leave until the New Year.

　　David Sullivan didn’t stay long. He walked north along the main street from the south of the village, thinking about the once-familiar University Town.

　　If he remembered correctly, University Town would officially open this September. Many universities from the Quannan South District would be moving there, at least partially. In a few years, University Town would become Quannan City’s new high-tech industrial area, and Qingzhao County would be reclassified as Qingzhao District.

　　The emergence of a new city always brought countless opportunities.

　　But David Sullivan knew even better that only those with the ability to seize them could call them opportunities.

　　He’d once drifted aimlessly into his thirties before truly understanding the importance of being practical.

　　So, David Sullivan first reminded himself to keep his feet on the ground and not get carried away.

　　After all, someone who drifted until thirty-four or thirty-five before scraping together a down payment for a three-bedroom in Quannan New City had no reason to get carried away.

　　The main street was the widest in Lyu Family Village, wide enough for two old Liberation trucks to drive side by side with room to spare.

　　There were seven or eight trucks and tricycles loaded with sand, gravel, and other materials parked on the east side of the street. David Sullivan asked around and found that most of them were from nearby villages not by the river, who had come to help on their own initiative.