Part 2
Shortly after moving in, Xi Jing and her mom were busy making their house feel like home. Although they didn’t have a lot of money, with some creativity and with the belongings they brought with them, it felt like home by the end of the week.
Mr. Xi and the dad in the other family started looking for work and ended up working as carpenters in the same shop. Xi Wei, Xi Bing, Chen Min, and Chen Yang met up every day and started exploring their new city. By the end of the week they knew every little street in the city.
After they explored the streets of the city, they set about exploring outside of the city.
“Hey, have you noticed that there are no big gardens here? Where do they grow their food?” Xi Bing asked his brother and friends when they were out one day.
“Maybe they are hidden underneath the city,” Xi Wei suggested.
“No, don’t be silly, they have to be here somewhere,” Xi Bing said,
“Our old city had lost of gardens outside of the city. Each family took care of at least one, sometimes 3 or 4 fields,” said Cheng Yang.
“Yes, ours did too,” put in Xi Bing.
“My favorite thing to grow was the tomatoes. It was so fun to pick them off!” Xi Wei said with a smile on his face.
“Yes, I know! We hardly got any tomatoes because you used to pick them off when they were still green!” Said Xi Bing.
“The gardens must be somewhere outside of the city. For a city this size, they must have a lot of gardens- somewhere!” Said Chen Min.
“Let’s explore!” Xi Wei said excitedly.
The four boys left the city just after lunch and started walking around the mountain. The mountain was full of trees, which was great for the city: it made it hard for any army to find where the city was! This also meant that the boys had to be careful to remember where they walked so they could find their way back.
“Let’s do something so we won’t forget out way back. I’m afraid we might get lost,” Xi Bing suggested.
“I know, what if we take this stick here,” Xi Min said as he picked up a stick. “We can make a mark on the trees that we go by so we can find our way back. Or if we find the right rock, we can use that to mark on the trees.”
“That’s super smart! We can take turns marking the trees,” Xi Bing said.
Xi Bing became the unofficial leader of the four of them. They walked about ten minutes until they came across a small patch of spinach growing by some trees.
“Wow, this is strange. I wouldn’t expect to see spinach here,” Xi Yang commented.
“Look over there,” Xi Wei said as he pointed out to an opening in the trees. There seemed to be things growing in the opening.
“This is what they must do,” Xi Yang thought out loud. “They must grow food in openings in the forest like this.”
“But what about the spinach?” Xi Min asked.
“I don’t know,” said Xi Bing. “We’ll have to have a good think about it. Why is there spinach growing way out here?”
“Well, we’re not that far out of the town. What if someone purposely planted spinach here?” Xi Min suggested.
“Hmmm, now that is an idea,” Xi Wei said with a smile on his face. He liked to smile.
“Let’s keep walking,” Xi Bing suggested.
The group came across more places where other vegetables like carrots and potatoes were growing in between the trees. Finally, Xi Wei saw some tomatoes growing!
“Di Di, (“little brother”), don’t pull any of those tomatoes! They don’t belong to us! Someone must’ve planted them here. They obviously don’t naturally grow here in the midst of trees like this!” Xi Bing said.
“What if they just plant their vegetables here and there in the forest where they can. So, instead of each person having their own field, they just plant some things where they find room and sunlight to grow their food.” Xi Yang said.
“Yes, that’s probably it. However, we saw fruit in the market and I think it must be hard to grow fruit in the middle of these trees! They wouldn’t get enough sun! Where are the fruit trees?” Xi Bing thought aloud.
“What if they just buy them from other cities and have them sent here?” Xi Wei said excitedly. “Ohh, a good, juicy apple sounds great about now!”
“Yes, you’re right, Di Di. We should start heading back,” Xi Bing said.
“Can we come out here again tomorrow?” Xi Wei asked. He always loved exploring and adventure.
“Well, we still haven’t figured out where they’re growing all the fruit yet, so I think we should explore some more tomorrow,” Xi Bing said. They followed the trees with the marks back to the city.
The next day they went out again, marking the trees as they went. Xi Wei got this job because he enjoyed it so much! They walked a different direction and ended up climbing more up the mountain. They came across a wall.
“What do you think this is? It doesn’t look like a city. Can it be another city so close by?” Xi Yang asked.
“No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t make sense,” Xi Bing answered.
“Quick, hide. There’s someone coming,” Xi Wei said.
Although they didn’t know why they should be hiding, but their instincts told them to hide. They each hid behind a tree. Sure enough, they saw a man walking by and disappear behind the wall.
“There must be something there. Why else would he go there?” Chen Min asked.
“Let’s check it out!” Xi Wei said.
The four boys slowly walked to the wall. Oddly enough, this wall was just as big as the wall that surrounded the city. However, the more they walked around it, the more they thought that it couldn’t be a city because it was so quiet. Finally, they found the door. It was a simple wooden door that was closed, but not locked.
“Di Di, wait,” Xi Bing said to his brother as he was about to open the door. “Remember, we just saw the guy go this way, probably inside! Let’s wait a few minutes.”
The few minutes seemed to go at a snail’s pace, but finally they agreed that was it was ok to go in. They were surprised when they opened the door to find fruit trees! There was one or two small buildings, but inside the walls were rows, and rows of fruit trees.
“This is where they grow their fruit,” Chen Min said.
“Yes, look at those apples!” Xi Wei said.
“Di Di, they are not our apples and they aren’t ripe!” Xi Bing told his brother.
“Ok, fine,” Xi Wei said.
They walked around for a few minutes until they heard a voice.
“Hey, what are you kids doing here?” Said a man’s voice.
Fear seized them.
‘What do we do?” Chen Yang said.
“It’s ok. I don’t think we’ll be in trouble. Let’s just try and be friendly,” said Xi Bing.
“I’ve never met you kids before. Do you live in the city?” The old man asked. “Well, you’d have to live in the city because there are no other towns that close. You might be from families that are moving to the town.” He started to say to himself. “There are so many new faces and I don’t particularly care to get to know any of them.”
After a minute of silence, Xi Bing said, “Yes, we are. We are from the city.”
“Did you just move here? What families are you from?” He asked.
“Yes, we did just move here,” Xi Bing answered. The four boys took turns introducing themselves.
“What exactly is this place?” Xi Wei asked.
“It’s a garden, of course,” the old man answered.
“But why are there walls around it and why is it so far from the city?” Chen Yang asked.
“We’ve lived in this area a long time. In the last ten or fifteen years there have been many new families, like yours, that have moved to our town, which means that we have to be careful and make sure that we can protect ourselves. Having food to eat is one of the most important things, so we made a wall around this garden to make it a little harder for bad people to come in and take the food.”