## 3 Results  
### Differences in Fruit Quality  
The flesh was light green on the 0 d and turned to dark green on the 14 d, with the core beginning to become yellow on the 70 d, which was consistent with the sensory evaluation results. Most of the fruit collected on the 84 d had different degrees of water loss and exocarp shrinkage, with severe flesh water loss and overripe taste. The poor flavor of the fruit on the 84 d almost lost its edible value. Therefore, the sample time was up to 70 d (Figure 2). Soluble solid content is one factor applied for judging fruit maturity. Changes in soluble solid content of the cold group were similar to those in the on-vine group (Figure 3a). At 14 d, the soluble solid content in both groups increased rapidly and then slowed down. The on-vine group and the cold group showed a slight decrease in soluble solid content at 56 d and 42 d, respectively. The soluble solid content of the on-vine group peaked at 16.33% at 56 d, and that of the cold group peaked at 15.32% at 42 d. The soluble solid content of the on-vine group and the cold group were 15.63% and 14.32% respectively at 70 d.  
Dry matter is an essential index of the accumulation of organic compounds and the composition of nutrients in fruit. The dry matter content elevates as fruit mature. The change in the dry matter content of the cold softening group was similar to that of the on-vine group. Both groups exhibited volatile fluctuations in dry matter content. However, the range of the changes in both groups was not large (Figure 3b). The dry matter content of the on-vine group peaked at 19.52% at 42 d, and that of the cold group peaked at 18.61% at 56 d.  
Figure 2: Dynamic changes of on-vine soft ripening fruit. The AsA content of 'Ganlv-2' was between 425.70 and 701.39 mg\(\cdot\)100 g\({}^{-1}\) (Figure 3c). During the sampling period, similar trends of the AsA content existed in both groups. Over time, as the fruit matured in both groups, the AsA content enhanced slightly after 14 d and reduced slightly after 28 d. Moreover, the fruit in both groups continued to demonstrate a decline in the AsA content after 28 d. The AsA content of the on-vine group was slightly higher than that of the cold group, with no statistically significant difference. By the end of the experiment, the AsA content was 482.30 and 425.70 mg\(\cdot\)100 g\({}^{-1}\) in the on-vine group and the cold group, respectively. The soluble sugar content augmented as organic compounds accumulated due to postharvest respiration. The soluble sugar content of the on-vine group peaked at 16.89% at 56 d, and that of the cold group peaked at 15.53% at 42 d (Figure 3d). The soluble sugar content of the on-vine group began to diminish slowly after 56 d, and that of the cold group began to decrease slowly after 42 d. The soluble sugar content was higher in the on-vine  
Figure 3: Changes in fruit quality with different softening methods. (**a**) Soluble solid contents. (**b**) Dry matter. (**c**) AsA contents. (**d**) Soluble sugar contents. (**e**) Titratable acid contents. Data are expressed as mean \(\pm\) standard deviation of three biological repetitions. Error bars represent standard deviations of means. Different capital letters represent the difference between the two softening methods at the same harvest time, which are significantly different at \(p<0.05\). Different lowercase letters represent the difference in the different harvest times using the same method, which were significantly different at \(p<0.05\). Data were analyzed with [PERSON]’s multiple analysis. group than in the cold group. However, the gap was gradually narrowed over time. The final soluble sugar content of the two groups was 15.68% and 14.40%, respectively. The changes of the titratable acid content exhibited a fluctuating trend during the soft-ripening process. Eventually, the titratable acid content of the two groups was reduced slightly. At 70 d, the titratable acid content of the on-vine group and the cold group were 1.00% and 1.09%, respectively (Figure 3e).