Chapter 208 A Simple Summer (1/2)
Chapter 208: A Simple Summer
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Li Du felt that the Amish were still not open-minded enough. Since they used electricity, he believed that they should learn to make full use of it.
An electrical loom would be twice as efficient as the foot-treadle floor loom.
He had wanted to ask something else as well: since they used electricity, why did they generate their own instead of connecting to a power station?
But he felt that this would be impolite of him so he chose to keep quiet.
When the chilled tea was ready to be served, Ricky invited the four guests to the backyard to enjoy the tea.
The backyard had tall, lush trees of different types. The scorching rays of the sun were blocked by dense foliage. When a breeze of wind blew past, the whole yard felt cool and refreshing.
Ricky handed Li a cup of chilled tea, cooled by the icy well water. The tea was clear, and it had a fruity fragrance. It seemed like diluted fruit juice.
”How’s the taste?” Tomasson sipped a mouthful of tea and asked.
Li Du nodded and said, ”It’s very nice, I like the taste.”
A few of the Amish people smiled and laughed; one of them spoke in their native language, which Li Du could not understand.
Tomasson explained to Li Du, ”This is Pennsylvania German. Benson isn’t good at speaking English, but he can understand it. He came from a very traditional family that speaks Pennsylvania German from childhood.”
Li Du asked, ”And he was saying?”
”Benson said that he thanks you for the compliment, and he thought you might like fruit juice better.”
Li Du shook his head and said, ”No, no, no—they’re not just pretty words, this is better than fruit juice. Fruit juices are too sweet, and I feel uncomfortable if I drink too much. This is perfect, especially good when chilled.”
Ashley brought some snacks over to the backyard. There were melon seeds, boiled peanuts, boiled black beans, and nuts such as chestnuts.
Li Du grabbed some melon seeds and noticed that they were raw melon seeds.
Raw melon seeds tasted better than the fried or roasted ones. Raw ones had the original taste and flavor that he never got sick of.
”What do you do for a living?” Ricky asked. ”Are you both into scientific research? I thought only ornithologists would be interested in bird skeleton specimens.”
Hans laughed, ”No. We’re treasure hunters in the storage auction business.”
Ricky nodded his head. ”Ah, I know this. This is similar to a second-hand auction right? I’ve seen this type of auction, it’s interesting.”
Hans took a sip of the cooled tea. ”There should be quite a lot of people coming here to barter. After all, you have some nice things being passed down from your family.”
”Aren’t you one of those people?” someone chimed in.
The group of men, both Amish and their guests, laughed. Li Du smiled. ”Well, I was interested in the specimen—I’m not trying to make money off of it.”
”You should have told us that the specimen wouldn’t sell for much,” Hans joked. ”I feel that unless it’s a dinosaur specimen, it’s pretty worthless.”
”It should be worth quite a sum of money,” Ricky said seriously. ”Ashley’s grandfather had been following adventurers around and saw that bird specimen. There was hardly anything like it seen in England. However, he forgot the name of the creature.”
Li Du did not think much of what Ricky had said. He was more interested in the Amish way of living and their culture.
It was almost lunchtime; Ricky invited Li, Hans, and their friends to stay for a meal, together with Tomasson and the other Amish men as well.
When Li Du politely refused the invitation, Ricky said, ”It’s just a simple meal—please, if you don’t mind, stay and try the food.”
Tomasson also tried to persuade him: ”Just stay for the meal; all of you are nice young men. We Amish like to be friends with good people. Moreover, we are neighbors as well!”