「On the high-speed train.」

Li Xu’s seatmate was a talkative, middle-aged businessman.

After a brief conversation, Li Xu learned that the man’s name was Li Da, and he was the head of a local sour jujube processing company in Xingtai.

The topic of sour jujubes really got Li Da talking.

But his expression was one of helplessness and anxiety more than anything else.

"Young man, you have no idea. This year’s sour jujube market is completely insane!"

Li Da took a dried sour jujube from his bag and handed it to Li Xu. "Look at this little thing here. In past years, the purchase price for the best quality red ones was only five or six yuan a pound. But now? I don’t know which investors are speculating, but the price has just skyrocketed. For a single pound of red sour jujubes, the farm-gate price has been driven up to over ten yuan. I’ve been processing sour jujubes for over twenty years, and I’ve never seen prices this high. A lot of people have gotten completely carried away."

Sour Jujube Seeds are a traditional remedy known for their calming and sedative effects, as well as for nourishing the liver and reducing perspiration.

The market demand for them has always been high.

Otherwise, it would be hard to inflate the price through speculation alone.

"Aren’t high prices a good thing for you?"

Li Xu asked.

"A good thing? What’s good about it?" Li Da shook his head with a bitter smile. "Once the price gets high, all sorts of chaos breaks out.

First and foremost is poaching. Our company has a contract for over sixteen hundred acres of wild sour jujube forest in the Taihang Mountains. To prevent poaching, we’ve hired people, assigned them to different sections, and have them stand guard and patrol the mountains day and night.

But the mountains are just too big; it’s impossible to guard everywhere at once. The poachers play cat and mouse with us. You’ve barely left an area when they’re sneaking back into the woods.

Often, by dawn, we’d find that entire swathes of sour jujube trees have been stripped bare."

"And what gives us an even bigger headache than poaching is ’green-picking’." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Li Da’s expression darkened.

"The prices are so high that the temptation for the pickers is just too great. Think about it—if you pick a few dozen pounds, you can earn several hundred yuan. That’s more than you’d make in a day working in the city. This means a lot of people can’t even wait for the jujubes to ripen and turn red. They scramble up the mountains to pick them while they’re still green. To them, anything they grab is pure profit."

"The harm from this ’green-picking’ is devastating!"

Li Da said in anguish, "For the past two years, nine out of every ten sour jujubes we’ve bought have been green.

What’s worse, to make picking easier, some people just hack off the branches or even chop down the entire tree. Then they just squat on the ground and leisurely strip the fruit.

They give no thought to next year’s harvest.

Last year, we went to some production areas in Shaanxi to procure our supply. Because of this destructive harvesting, this year’s yield there plummeted by more than seventy percent. It’s completely killing the goose that lays the golden eggs—a practice that destroys any future for the industry."

"Isn’t anyone doing anything about it?" Li Xu asked with a frown.

"It’s not that no one’s trying." Li Da sighed. "Many local governments have issued bans, setting a specific date for when harvesting can begin. For example, they’ll state that you can only go up the mountains to pick sour jujubes after ’White Dew.’ But the pickers just ignore the bans and scramble to get into the mountains ahead of time anyway."

This exchange gave Li Xu a deeper understanding of the complex conflicts hidden within the sour jujube industry.

Coincidentally, Li Da’s destination was also Neiqiu County, where Professor Gao was located.

After getting off the high-speed train, Li Xu hitched a ride with him.

...

Following the coordinates provided by Professor Gao, Li Xu arrived at Dashan Village, a remote mountain village in Neiqiu County.

As soon as he reached the village entrance, he saw dozens of villagers gathered in an open space, forming a large, dense crowd.

A swarthy, solidly-built man was standing on a large rock, speaking loudly.

"...I’ve gathered everyone here today because of the ’green-picking’ issue with our village’s sour jujubes!"

"Let me emphasize this again!

First, in the mountain forests contracted by our village, ’green-picking’ is absolutely forbidden. I know some of you are probably grumbling to yourselves, saying, ’If we don’t pick them, people from other villages will come and steal them. Won’t we lose out then?’.

Let me tell you, you don’t need to worry about that. Starting today, if anyone from another village—I don’t care who—dares to enter our village’s territory to pick jujubes, you report them to me immediately. If you catch someone, call me.

I’ll personally go and confiscate their vehicles and their tools. I’ll handle the unpleasant business of making enemies. You don’t have to be the ones to step up!"

"Everyone needs to understand one thing: whether you pick the jujubes on this mountain early or late, they’re still there. They’re not going anywhere. Sooner or later, they’re going to be money in our pockets!"

"It’s not that we’re forbidding you from picking. We want you all to earn more money. Red jujubes can sell for over ten yuan a pound, but you insist on picking them green now to sell for three yuan. Tell me, isn’t that just stupid?!"

"And another thing, don’t you go sneaking onto other villages’ lands to pick, either. If you get caught, don’t even think about asking me, your village chief, to go and bail you out.

I’m telling you, I won’t go. When that happens, you can figure out how to handle it yourselves."

The man speaking was Liu Jun, the village chief of Dashan Village.

His words, though rough, were reasonable and fair.

Professor Gao Guanghui was standing at the edge of the crowd, listening quietly.

Li Xu approached him and called out softly, "Professor Gao."

"Ah, Li Xu, you’re here." Professor Gao’s face broke into a smile when he saw him. "What do you think? A vivid ’lesson on the state of the nation’ right as you arrive, eh?"

"It’s certainly eye-opening," Li Xu nodded. "And you are..."

"I just finished giving a lecture on the science of sour jujubes at the town hall here, for all the village chiefs and major growers."

Professor Gao pointed to Liu Jun. "That’s Village Chief Liu, a real man of action. I’m planning to go with him on his patrol up the mountain in a bit, and take the opportunity to see for myself what the local sour jujube industry is really like."

After Liu Jun finished speaking, the villagers dispersed in twos and threes.

He jumped down from the rock and saw Professor Gao and Li Xu.

"Professor Gao, sorry you had to see that. This is a critical time, so I have to keep hammering the point home every day."

Liu Jun smiled.

Professor Gao introduced Li Xu.

After a bit of small talk, Liu Jun led the two of them along a rugged mountain path toward the sour jujube forest behind the village.

"Professor Gao, Doctor Li, don’t underestimate these sour jujubes. They’re recognized worldwide as a ’Fifth-Generation Fruit’! Their nutritional value is incredibly high. When you talk about the best sour jujubes in the world, they’re right here in China. The best in China are in the Taihang Mountains. And in the entire Taihang Mountain range, the very best are right here in our Xingtai region!"