Modern autumn-harvest watermelons take about two months to ripen, and it's more or less the same for ancient ones. I was sitting around waiting for some news and it just went ahead and ripened on its own. Only, this thing looks so...
I've been thinking about it for over two months. After picking a few and patting them thoughtfully, I can't help but feel that ancient watermelons look more like some big, dark-skinned cantaloupe or maybe a more spherical bitter melon. Anyway, it's nothing like the huge watermelon I remember—way too small, only five or six catties each at most.
Ah Man happened to come by. She was really curious about these fruits, which even I treated as a big deal, assigning people to guard them through typhoon season. She flicked her bean-sprout brows and started patting the watermelon just like me, asking curiously, "It's finally ripe? Is this kind of melon tasty?"
