Original text:
In autumn and October, my hometown is ripe.
My uncle, who lives abroad, took his 15-year-old daughter back to Yun Yun Town from far away South America.
The next morning, my cousin clamored to buy grapefruit.
Go ahead, go ahead, I'll go. Uncle smiled and said, "She has never seen grapefruit. I haven't eaten grapefruit for forty years. We all have grapefruit disease. "
Along the way, my uncle told with relish the story of stealing pomelo with friends when I was a child, which made us laugh.
Now is the peak season for grapefruit ripening. The villagers in the market carry their backs and pick and choose. Baskets of grapefruit from Huang Chengcheng piled up on the street, extending to the side of the road.
"Buy grapefruit, so sweet!"
"Eat first and then buy, no charge if it's not delicious!"
"Twenty cents each, buy one and get one and a half free!"
……
The cries of selling grapefruit and the quarrels of customers' bargaining are one after another. We looked around and didn't know who to buy.
"Miss, buy grapefruit, my grapefruit is imported from abroad, a new Australian variety!" A young man with a shaved head greeted us loudly.
"ok!" My cousin winked at him, walked up to him, picked up a grapefruit and smelled it.
"Not fragrant!" She said.
Everyone next to her smiled at her. If you don't peel the grapefruit, you won't smell it.
I pulled my cousin's skirt, put my mouth to her ear, and told her quietly that this is a two-way peddler who only plays tricks on people and is glib. Ignore him.
We came to a little girl selling grapefruit. She is about the same age as her cousin. Red face, printed with two shallow dimples, chest, hanging a "floating clouds town middle school" school badge. She sat there quietly, her beautiful big eyes staring at the open book in her hand. It seems that she has long forgotten her duty of selling pomelo.
"How much is it?" Uncle asked, pointing to her big yellow grapefruit basket.
Ten cents.
Quite cheap.
"Today is Sunday. I helped my mother sell grapefruit. She said she planted it herself, so it's cheaper to sell."
"What kind of grapefruit is this?"
"This is called cotton pomelo. It looks very big, but the meat inside is very small." The little girl closed the book and explained it to him seriously.
There was a satisfied smile on my uncle's face.
I can see that my uncle is playing dumb and deliberately testing. On the way just now, he boasted to us that he was an expert on grapefruit. When he was a child, he was familiar with white shrimp pomelo, red shrimp pomelo, green pomelo, yellow pomelo, early-maturing pomelo, late-maturing pomelo and sweet pomelo.
"Is it sweet?" Uncle asked.
The little girl shook her head shyly. "A little bitter."
Uncle is very excited: "OK, buy ten!" " "
"Ten?" The little girl looked at the old man with wide eyes, as if she didn't hear clearly.
"Yes, ten."
"Are you going to take it far away?"
"Yes, I live in San Diego. You studied geography, didn't you? Chile is in South America, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and there is a million dollars from here. "
"Buy less."
"Why?"
"This kind of grapefruit is really not delicious. After eating, the aftertaste in the mouth is bitter. Most people don't like this kind of grapefruit. " The little girl stood up and told him truthfully. "Besides, you finally came back from afar. If you want to bring grapefruit from your hometown to foreign countries, you should buy some good and sweet ones. "
"Yes, son, you are quite right." Uncle took the little girl's hand and praised again and again: "Son, that's very kind of you. With your kind heart and honest heart, bitter pomelo will become sweet. "
The little girl smiled shyly.
"I'll buy this basket of grapefruit!"
My cousin and I opened our travel bags, listened to our elders and packed a big basket of bitter pomelo.
After the cousin paid for the grapefruit, the uncle took out a brand-new bill with a face value of 100 yuan from the black briefcase and stuffed it into the little girl's hand: "Good luck, good boy!" "
The little girl refused to accept. She returned the new money to her uncle, lifted the empty basket and quickly disappeared into the crowd.
Surrounded by spectators, they stared at the rich and generous returnee with surprised eyes, and at the same time admired the little grapefruit girl who was not greedy for money.
The sunshine in autumn reflects the beautiful mountain city. On the way home, my uncle kept nagging the little girl selling grapefruit. My cousin and I walked silently carrying heavy bitter pomelo, and my uncle's meaningful praise sounded from time to time: in this world, money can buy delicacies and many beautiful things, but it can't buy noble souls!
Bitter pomelo, that bag of bitter pomelo, will remain in the memory of my life forever, teaching me to be a man and urging me to turn over a new leaf.