Pastoral Daily Life
chapter-45

When Lu Lingxi followed Uncle Li into the house, Uncle Li told him about the young thug who had been caught. The youngster, Xu San, had been lazy, sneaking around and stealing since he was a child. The other young people in the village thought that farming was not profitable and went to work in the city. Xu San also disliked farming for not being profitable, but he focused his attention on other places. Every day, he would go around with the eyes of a thief and cause a lot of trouble.

The village had caught him several times and someone called the police to arrest him. But Xu San was a scoundrel who not only refused to admit what he had done, but also tried to screw people behind their backs. The people who had called the police to arrest him before got in trouble. After a few times, the people of the village had no choice but to guard against him. When he saw that he couldn’t take advantage of the village, he went away to a different place. But he was back again these days, and he even got his eye on the plant nursery.

“In the past, when the widow’s husband just died, Xu San used to torment the widow’s family a lot, bullying them for not having a man and taking whatever he saw when he entered the house. Later, several neighbours couldn’t stand it anymore, so they asked Old Man Xu, the senior in the family, to come forward and coax and scare Xu San to restrain him.”

Uncle Li said to Lu Lingxi solemnly, “You can’t be soft on this kind of person. if you let him off once, he won’t remember your kindness, he will only think that you are good to bully and take advantage of you, and will trouble you endlessly.”

The old man said this because he could also see the difference between Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue. He had lived a long life; not to say that he had become an expert in human beings, but at least he had seen a lot of human beings and worldly situations. Lu Lingxi, the child, was pure-hearted and probably didn’t understand the dangers of the human heart. Yan Yue was the opposite of him, and the old man knew from the first moment he saw him that Yan Yue was not a man to be trifled with.

Just now when Yan Yue asked Lu Lingxi to go back first, the old man guessed that Yan Yue probably planned to do some things he didn’t want the child to see. If you asked Uncle Li, he would say that you should be like Yan Yue when dealing with wicked people; they are wicked and you should be more wicked than them. But he was worried that the child would not understand, so he wanted to give the little boy a vaccination first. The two of them should not have any misunderstanding because of Xu San’s affairs.

Uncle Li was kind, and Lu Lingxi nodded obediently. In fact, he didn’t need to be told that by Uncle Li, he also believed in Yan Yue. Besides, Xu San was already a bad person, so it was only right for Big Brother Yan to teach him a lesson. As the old man and the young man were talking, Yan Yue pushed the door open and walked in, with Xu San following him like a little angry wife.

The old man hurriedly took a look at Xu San, and when he did so, he muttered a little in his heart. Xu San looked just like before, he was not bruised and swollen as Uncle Li expected. Did he think too poorly of Yan Yue?

This thought had just flashed through Uncle Li’s mind when Xu San rushed forward abruptly. Seeing that he was about to pounce on Lu Lingxi, Yan Yue let out a soft hum. This sound was tantamount to thunder in the clear sky for Xu San, and his body immediately froze in a comical position. Shaking his legs and cowering as he stole a glance at Yan Yue, Xu San turned around and flung himself at Uncle Li’s side instead, hugging his legs and shouting.

“Uncle, I was wrong, I really know I’m wrong, I won’t dare to sneak to the plant nursery again. I’m just a bastard.” Xu San said as he gave himself a slap, showing his loyalty to Uncle Li, “Don’t worry, Uncle, I’ll take care of the safety of the plant nursery from now on. Anyone around who dares to sneak to the plant nursery will deal with me, Xu San.”

Uncle Li: “……”

The old man was now convinced that he didn’t think too poorly of Yan Yue. Nor did he know what Yan Yue had actually done. It was summer and he didn’t see any injuries on Xu San. The old man was puzzled. Xu San was still hugging him and showing his loyalty. Uncle Li didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh. “All right, the plant nursery doesn’t rely on you, Xu San. Just stay away from it.”

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When Uncle Li said this, Xu San’s first reaction was to peek at Yan Yue’s expression. Yan Yue just gave him a faint glance. Xu San immediately understood and hurriedly promised again and again that he would get as far away as he could from the plant nursery from now on, and would definitely not appear there to get in the old man’s way.

“All right, all right.” Uncle Li was tired of being pestered by Xu San, so he sent him away and turned to Yan Yue to ask him what was going on.

Yan Yue said lightly that Xu San saw that the plant nursery had been doing well recently, was jealous and wanted to take advantage of it, and that there should be no more problems after this time. When he said this, Uncle Li was relieved and invited the two of them to his house for dinner.

“You’re hungry, let’s go, it’s goosebumps (sort of dumplings) tonight, I guess you don’t eat them much in the city now.”

As soon as Uncle Li left in front, Lu Lingxi, a little curious, came over to Yan Yue, eager to ask him what he had done. According to Uncle Li’s description, Xu San was a complete scoundrel, how could he be so quick to admit that he was wrong?

Meeting the boy’s curious eyes, Yan Yue said with a straight face, “I didn’t do anything, just gave him a lecture.”

Lu Lingxi: “……”

With a smile in his eyes, Yan Yue stretched out his hand and rubbed Lu Lingxi’s hair, coaxing, “Forget about Xu San, let’s go eat first and stay here for the night to give the plant nursery some boost.”

“Good.”

Lu Lingxi didn’t ask any more questions, but Xu San, who had left the plant nursery, was gnashing his teeth bitterly. They were all from the same village, and Xu San’s house was not far from Uncle Li’s. He was now stripped naked and standing in front of the mirror, looking for wounds on his body.

Dark, the guy is too dark!

Xu San had never seen anyone who was darker than Yan Yue. He looked at the mirror for almost a dozen times, but he didn’t see any redness and swelling on his body. It looked exactly the same as usual, but he was in real pain inside, so much so that he could hardly stand upright. Xu San slowly moved to the bed with shaking legs and holding onto the table, cursing Yan Yue half to death in his heart. But he was really afraid of him. He had never seen a man like Yan Yue before. He didn’t even blink when he beat him and he didn’t let him scream. He said he would beat him even harder if he dared to scream. There was also the dog, squatting aside and staring at him with feral eyes. When he dared to run, it bared its teeth and came to bite. How could he provoke these two gods of death!

Xu San cursed Yan Yue and then he cursed Qiu Jun. It was all because that bastard Qiu Jun told him to find a way to get close to the plant nursery to see if he could steal some secret technology. He had seen Du Lin a few times before and thought she was the owner, but the plant nursery had changed hands. The car that Yan Yue drove was not something he could afford to mess with. He was really blinded by money when he agreed to it. He was just waiting for Qiu Jun to suffer a loss at the hands of Yan Yue, so that Qiu Jun could also taste what he was feeling now.

Xu San cursed in his heart, but he still had to get dressed to go and guard the plant nursery for Yan Yue. He was not joking when he told Uncle Li that he would be responsible for the safety of the plant nursery. If he dared to let anything happen to it, Yan Yue would find him. Xu San couldn’t afford to mess with him and couldn’t hide from him, so he had to do as he was told.

Having settled the matter with Xu San, Lu Lingxi ate and went to the plant nursery. He believed, as did Uncle Li, that Xu San was only interested in the plant nursery to make money. Since Yan Yue said it was all right, Lu Lingxi stopped thinking about it and focused on the plant nursery.

Since the last time he had connected to the piece of land in the backyard through the white panel, Lu Lingxi discovered that the panel had one more function. Now he could see not only the plants, but also see the condition of the piece of land where the plants were growing. Of course, the range he could see was still limited to three metres, just like the mental scan.

In front of him, a small area of the plant nursery appeared on the white panel, and the colour of the soil was shown as light brown. Lu Lingxi had initially thought that all soil was the same colour, but the difference in the colour of the soil in the backyard and the plant nursery made him realise his mistake. He deliberately looked it up on the internet and found that normally the soil would vary in colour depending on the regional environment, but the panel’s display didn’t depend on the regional environment, but on the degree of pollution of the soil.

The soil in the backyard, for example, appeared transparent and light-coloured on the panel because it had been purified by the power of nature. As the soil became more polluted, the colour on the panel would be darker accordingly. Compared to the dark brown colour of the soil in downtown Fengcheng, the pollution here in the plant nursery was obviously much lighter.

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Lu Lingxi squatted on the edge of the plant nursery and studied the soil in his hand for a long time. The less polluted the soil was, the better the plants on it would grow, and the better the corresponding environment would be. The cycle would repeat itself to form a good ecological environment, just like his house’s backyard. If only the plant nursery could be purified like the backyard once in a while.

The thought flashed through his mind and Lu Lingxi brushed off his hands and stood up, walking around the plant nursery to the willow sapling that had been transplanted a few days ago. The space in the backyard was too small, and there was no way to plant the willow sapling in the backyard. As soon as this willow sapling got healthier, Lu Lingxi and Yi Hang transplanted it to the plant nursery.

After a few days of not seeing it, the leaves on the willow sapling seemed to have grown larger again and the branches were swaying and looking very energetic. When Lu Lingxi looked at the sapling, he couldn’t help but think of the saplings he had seen last time in Nancheng and wondered how they were doing.

Qiu Tian Gardening

Qiu Jun, with an obscure look on his face, directed the workers to gather all the 5cm willow saplings growing in the nursery, ready to go overnight to replace the saplings in several places in the city that might be investigated by the tops. When Lu Hongxin approached him a few days ago, he was thinking of saving as many saplings as he could and trying to spare some costs. But today, he suddenly received news that the authorities were going to check the results of the greening project ahead of schedule, so he couldn’t wait to take his time to find a way to save the saplings.

Qiu Jun calculated that Qiu Tian Gardening would have to bleed a lot of money. The money he had made on the project would have to be spent on this trip, and that was an optimistic estimate. If the city expanded the scope of the inspection, they would have to lose money on the project.

Qiu Jun was so upset that when a worker came over and asked him what to do with the saplings that had been removed, Qiu Jun waved his hand, “You guys pick and choose. If you can save them, bring them back. If you can’t save them, just throw them away somewhere on the road.”

With his words, the workers were relieved. That night, they picked their way through dozens of saplings, broke them and threw them on the road. As they passed through a village, the workers on the bus threw down the last few saplings.

“It’s a bargain for them, someone will pick them up in the morning and burn them for firewood.”