Summary

The third short story, “New Fruit”, recounts the reactions to a novel fruit by a group of villagers. The fruit seems to encourage them to chase their dreams. The fruit smells different to every villager. For Lao Zhu, it smells like his woodworking projects when he completes them and applies a creamy varnish. To Zhu Ayi, the fruit smells like her mother’s rice. Mr. Sun, Pang Ayi’s husband, is the only villager who refuses to try the new fruit because it is a cross-bred variety and thus not “natural”.

The villagers grow more obsessed with the qiguo fruit, causing a problem when the fruit goes out of season and the villagers are discontented with the remaining fruits available to them. Pang Ayi surprisingly remains in good spirits despite the hard winter.

When the qiguo season begins again in spring, the villagers...