Pastoral Daily Life
chapter-56

The prompt to upgrade the panel was so unexpected that Lu Lingxi was stunned for a moment before he realised that he had already collected a thousand plant hearts.

Last night, when the willow ecological community was formed, the panel rewarded him with 500 plant hearts. Lu Lingxi remembered that he had even taken a look at it at that time, and he was still more than 30 points short of levelling up. Unbeknownst to him, he had actually collected all of them in one day today. A little surprised, but more excited, Lu Lingxi stared at the white panel without blinking, wondering what changes the panel would have after the upgrade.

System upgrade successful, mental scanning range extended by thirty metres, plant evolution activated and a pack of grape seeds randomly awarded.

As the prompt appeared, Lu Lingxi had a palm-sized black package in his hand. Having experienced it once before, Lu Lingxi was not surprised by the sudden addition of something in his hand. He turned it upside down out of habit, thinking that it was already September this year, so if he planted these grapes, he would have to wait until next year. After putting away the grape seeds that the panel had rewarded him with, he focused on the first half of the panel’s prompt.

As usual, the panel’s prompt was clear and concise, without any explanation. Lu Lingxi stared at the prompt and read it once more. He understood that the mental scanning range was extended to thirty metres, but what was plant evolution? In view of the fact that the panel’s functions required him to figure them out by himself, Lu Lingxi glanced around and picked out a pot of chlorophytum hanging on the balcony. The mental scan spread out and the chlorophytum appeared on the panel.

Plant name: Chlorophytum

Plant needs: none

Plant viability: very high

Plant status: primary peak

Plant evolution condition triggered, please select plant evolution direction.

A new prompt appeared at the bottom of the panel, followed by different evolution options: 1) Absorb formaldehyde +20% 2) Release oxygen +20%. Lu Lingxi was a little surprised and stared at the two different options for a long time before hesitantly choosing Release oxygen +20%. This pot of chlorophytum was kept at home and there was no formaldehyde to absorb. It was more realistic to release oxygen +20%. After he chose the direction of evolution, the chlorophytum in front of him didn’t seem to have changed, and Lu Lingxi didn’t know if it was considered a successful evolution. After thinking about it, Lu Lingxi scanned the other plants in the house and looked at them one by one.

Tomatoes, no. Calla lilies, neither. On the contrary, the same option appeared for a pot of caryophyllum placed in the corner.

Plant name: Caryophyllum

Plant needs: none

Plant viability: very high

Plant status: primary peak

Lu Lingxi looked at the plant status at the bottom and somewhat understood the evolutionary conditions set by the panel. It seemed that a plant had to reach the primary peak before the evolution selection would be triggered. But to his surprise, the evolution of the caryophyllum didn’t have two choices. There was only one evolution direction, Absorb sulphur dioxide +20%. Lu Lingxi didn’t hesitate this time and directly chose “yes”.

Wang Shuxiu cleaned up the kitchen and came out to see Lu Lingxi crouching in the corner, staring at the pot of caryophyllum for some reason. The mobile phone in his room had been ringing for a long time but no one answered. “What are you looking at? Didn’t you hear the phone ringing?” Wang Shuxiu walked over and gave Lu Lingxi a strange look.

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Lu Lingxi came back to his senses and realised that his phone had been ringing. He was just about to answer it when it had already cut off.

Wang Shuxiu looked at the dumb look on his face and couldn’t help but reach out and give his cheek a squeeze, “Don’t you see enough of those in the shop every day? Go take a shower and wash up, I’ll go next door to Auntie Hu’s house.”

“Auntie Hu?” Lu Lingxi was a bit surprised. Wang Shuxiu and the next door neighbours had a normal lukewarm relationship, usually rarely going to visit each other or something. What time was it? Why would she want to go there?

“Where did you put plastic bags?” Wang Shuxiu wanted to take a few tomatoes, and while looking for the bag, explained to Lu Lingxi: “Your Auntie Hu sold her place. I heard that the other party saw the environment of our neighbourhood and offered a lot of money. Isn’t your Brother Hu getting married soon? He’s short of money and it’s such a coincidence. We’ve been neighbours for more than ten years, and they’re moving out tomorrow, so I have to go and have a look.”

Lu Lingxi helped her find a plastic bag in the drawer, and Wang Shuxiu picked out a dozen large tomatoes, muttering casually, “In the past day or two, many people have come to our neighbourhood to inquire about houses, and I’ve met several agents. They all say that the environment in the community is good, and I don’t know how much this house of our family is worth. But…” she changed the subject, “the environment in the community is now really good, and I can’t bear to sell it. Your mom has taken roots here. I’ll save money to buy you something outside.”

Lu Lingxi took a bite of the tomato, not really caring about the house, “I think it’s pretty good here, and I don’t want to be separated from my mom.”

Wang Shuxiu laughed and casually slapped him on the head, “You only say that to make your mom happy. When you get a wife, you won’t say that anymore.”

Lu Lingxi: “……”

He hadn’t thought about it until Wang Shuxiu mentioned it, but how should he talk to Wang Shuxiu about Yan Yue? He had no thoughts about getting a wife, like Wang Shuxiu had been saying. He was used to being alone before, and Yan Yue was the first person he liked. But if he liked Yan Yue, would Wang Shuxiu like him too? Would Wang Shuxiu mind having a male daughter-in-law?

“What?” Wang Shuxiu saw that his expression was a bit wrong and was amused, “Are you shy?”

Lu Lingxi shook his head and urged Wang Shuxiu to hurry to Auntie Hu’s house as it was almost nine o’clock. He was so bad at changing the subject that Wang Shuxiu wanted to tease him a bit, but when she looked at the time it was really getting late. While muttering in her heart about how the little bastard looked completely ignorant, she hurriedly left.

Lu Lingxi washed his hands and went back to his room with some anxiety, wondering whether Wang Shuxiu would mind having a male daughter-in-law or not. The phone rang once again; he glanced at it and the caller ID showed that it was Yan Yue.

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“Big Brother Yan.”

“What were you doing just now? No one answered the phone all the time.” Yan Yue’s voice on the other side of the phone was low, magnetic and very nice.

Lu Lingxi took off his shoes and sat on the bed with his legs crossed, and after some thought answered, “I was watering the tomatoes.” Yan Yue never mentioned the changes in the plant nursery, and Lu Lingxi didn’t know if Yan Yue had noticed anything. He hesitated whether to tell Yan Yue about the panel. The difference between Yan Yue and Wang Shuxiu was that Wang Shuxiu didn’t care about Tiny Garden, but Yan Yue was with him every day. The changes in the plant nursery and the courtyard, and the future evolution of the plants, these things simply couldn’t be hidden. Besides… Lu Lingxi didn’t want to lie to Yan Yue. But he didn’t know how to say it. If he just said that he had a magical panel on him, would Yan Yue think he was lying to him? Lu Lingxi was torn for a long time, but still kept this matter secret for the time being.

Hearing about watering, Yan Yue smiled. He knew this habit of Lu Lingxi’s. “Are you tired? I’ll help you water from now on and I can do all the work in the backyard.” Yan Yue said in a soft voice. Three months ago, he would never have thought that one day he would use his ability to do manual work to please someone.

Sure enough, Lu Lingxi laughed, “How will you do it, Big Brother Yan? It’s not like we’re living together?”

Yan Yue didn’t hold back and coaxed, “Xiao Xi, do you want to live with me?”

Lu Lingxi froze for a moment, somehow thinking of the male daughter-in-law again. He spoke with some hesitation, “Big Brother Yan, do you want to tell Mom about us? But I don’t know if Mom will mind having a male daughter-in-law.”

Lu Lingxi said this all of a sudden, but Yan Yue understood what he meant at once. His heart instantly became soft as he remembered the words the young man had said in the morning. He was not lying to him, he wanted to try being with him. The young man might not understand his feelings yet, but his attitude was not perfunctory, he was seriously considering the future, and even the somewhat awkward words “male daughter-in-law” made Yan Yue feel indescribably happy. He didn’t want to burden Lu Lingxi with anything. These things were for him to consider and solve. Lu Lingxi just had to be happy.

“Xiao Xi, don’t worry, leave all these matters to Big Brother Yan, trust me.”

“Okay.” Lu Lingxi said obediently.

Yan Yue laughed silently and decided to tell Lu Lingxi in advance, “Xiao Xi, I bought the house next door to your house and will move there soon. Then we can live together.”

“Big Brother Yan, you bought Auntie Hu’s house?” Lu Lingxi was surprised.

Yan Yue nodded, realised that Lu Lingxi couldn’t see it, and gave an “en”. Lu Lingxi thought of something and said with some excitement, “Then, Big Brother Yan, can we unite the backyards?”

“Sure.” The house Yan Yue bought was next door to Lu Lingxi’s house and its address was Building 3, Gate 2. The small backyard that came with it connected to the backyard of Lu Lingxi’s house. Yan Yue’s idea was to remove the fence between the two backyards, so that he and Lu Lingxi could not only see each other conveniently but also live together to some extent.

“Can I grow grapes in the yard?” Lu Lingxi was struggling with how to distribute the proportion of tomatoes and grapes for next year when Yan Yue offered him such a good opportunity.

“Of course.” Yan Yue said patiently, “Whatever Xiao Xi wants to plant is fine.”

All the way to falling asleep at night, Lu Lingxi was excited about this matter. When he thought about it, being with Big Brother Yan every day in the future seemed to make him happier than being able to grow some grapes. Lu Lingxi wrapped himself in the blanket and turned over, scratched Dahei’s chin at the head of the bed and whispered, “Good night.”

Dahei barked, seemingly saying the same thing.

Waking up with a start, Lu Lingxi couldn’t be bothered to wash his face and went straight to chlorophytum and caryophyllum. After he had chosen the plant evolution last night, chlorophytum and caryophyllum had not changed. He didn’t know what they would become. Was last night’s evolution successful?

Lu Lingxi was a little apprehensive and very excited, but when he saw chlorophytum and caryophyllum, he couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. From the looks of them, there was no difference between now and before. The mental scan spread out and the image of the chlorophytum appeared on the white panel.

Plant name: First-class chlorophytum

Plant needs: none

Plant viability: very high

Plant evolution direction: Release oxygen +20%

When he saw the end row, he finally put his mind at ease. After scanning the chlorophytum, he scanned the caryophyllum, and the evolution was also successful. Lu Lingxi became curious and planned to go to the shop today to evolve all the plants in Tiny Garden that could evolve. In the evening, he would go to the plant nursery and try there. It would be good if the big willow tree at the entrance of the village could also evolve. He wondered what the evolutionary direction of other plants was. Thinking of all the strange possibilities of plant evolution, Lu Lingxi washed his face and brushed his teeth, full of motivation, ready to go to the shop right away.

Wang Shuxiu came back from the morning market with a bag of egg-plants, saw that he’d gotten up and mentioned, “Remember to talk to Yan Yue about dinner tonight.”

Lu Lingxi: “……”

He was so focused on going to the plant nursery that he almost forgot about it.