Chapter 15

The siblings head out happily.

In the end, only one returns happily.

"Where's Qiao Qiao?"

Until Wu Lan asks.

Song Tan laughs: "He's behind!"

As soon as she finishes speaking, a tall boy turns the corner on the path behind them, his round buzz-cut hair black and shiny, his body thin and tall, currently wiping his tears with his sleeves, feeling wronged, sobbing, and crying...

"Pfft!" Until Wu Lan can't help but laugh, reaching for the basket in his hand: "What's wrong, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Oh my, look at our Qiao Qiao's tear-stained face, you've cried yourself ugly!"

With someone feeling sorry for him, Song Qiao cries even louder.

"Mom... sob sob sob Mom... my sister sob sob... my sister isn't farming properly!"

Song Tan refuses to take the blame: "Nonsense, I finished scattering all the seeds; how is that not farming properly? Didn't I leave you a handful so you could plant them slowly?"

She then whispers to Until Wu Lan: Chinese milk vetch seeds just need to be scattered directly onto the soil, but Qiao Qiao only knows the corn-planting method, so he insisted on sowing them one by one.

In the end, Song Tan scattered all the seeds, leaving him only a palm-sized area and a handful of thirty or fifty seeds at most, letting Qiao Qiao sow them hole by hole...

Song Qiao cries miserably: "But you... but you! You scattered the seeds randomly, and corn won't grow later! I..."

He wipes his face randomly with both sleeves, feeling more and more heartbroken as he speaks: "Sob sob sob Mom, my sister hiccup... only gave me a few seeds, I was planting so carefully... there won't be enough corn to eat later, sob sob sob..."

He stares at Song Tan with teary eyes: "I won't... I won't be able to support Sister later, sob sob sob..."

Oh, this silly treasure!

Song Tan's heart softens completely—no wonder Qiao Qiao is crying so miserably; he probably remembers saying he would farm to support himself!

As a result, with the seeds scattered everywhere, he must think there won't be enough corn to eat, which is why he is both sad and wronged.

Sure enough, Until Wu Lan glares at her fiercely and quickly comforts him: "It's okay, Qiao Qiao, Mom knows how to farm, Mom will support you!"

Song Qiao stops crying, hesitates for a long time, then sobs again: "Then, then support Sister too."

As soon as he finishes, Song Tan has already wrapped her arm around his shoulders: "Good brother! Good Qiao Qiao! Sister is so moved—come, stop crying, wipe your face and we'll watch Peppa!"

"You can watch two episodes today!"

Finally, the pink pig ends the tears.

Early March.

The third day of the second lunar month, Awakening of Insects.

Everything begins, insects and grass revive.

Song Tan has been back for half a month.

In these fifteen days, Song Sancheng has led the villagers to clear most of the hillsides, and a layer of soft green has appeared in the fields—

That is the newly sprouted Chinese milk vetch, its tender green color poking out from the brown soil, trembling as if it would break with a gust of wind.

The villagers click their tongues in wonder: "The seeds nowadays aren't afraid of freezing! Look at this, in previous years we only dared to sow in March, and now it's already sprouted in March."

The continuous ten or twenty mu of land is all this fuzzy green. The fields are staggered in height, and looking at them, one can't help but feel joy.

Every villager who passes by can't help but stop and take a few extra looks.

The saying "Grass color looks distant but is absent up close" is exactly this.

An old man in the village, leading an old ox, passes by and can't help but ask: "Tan Tan, when this Chinese milk vetch grows up, can I bring my ox to the field to graze?"

Chinese milk vetch is nutritious and tender; oxen and sheep love to eat it! When they needed oxen to plow the paddy fields, they used to let them eat it every year, but later they stopped farming, and the ox grew old.

No one planted Chinese milk vetch anymore either.

Song Tan quickly agrees: "Sure, Grandpa Li! When the time comes, for those two fields at the very bottom, just bring your ox over and let it graze freely!"

Chinese milk vetch grows fast; starting from the green leaves, it can be eaten for a month!

Grandpa Li thinks for a moment: "You're only planting these two fields this year, right? How about I bring the ox to plow the fields for you?"

An ox plowing a field certainly can't compare to a tractor, only doing five or six mu a day. But Song Tan only has three-plus to less than four mu here!

Otherwise, Grandpa Li wouldn't be willing: "But my ox is old, it has to plow slowly, you can't rush it."

"I'll have it plowed for you in two days, okay?"

Song Tan smiles: "Sure! That's perfect! Grandpa Li, then I won't mention money. When the rice is harvested, I'll send you fifty jin!"

The old man doesn't eat much; fifty jin is enough for half a year.

Grandpa Li is extremely happy!

Young people who come back now talk about money at every turn. It's not that you can't pay people for work, but neighbors helping each other out always feels a bit distant.

It's not that the young people aren't willing to help the villagers, but they don't know how.

For elders like them who are used to the village's human touch, it always feels uncomfortable.

It's better that Tan Tan is like this.

Besides, rice grown by oneself! How fragrant that must be!

Let's see, he hasn't eaten it in ten or twenty years...

He didn't expect that at the end of his life, he'd be able to eat it again.

The old ox seems to sense his joy and lets out a long "moo" in response. Grandpa Li pats its head: "Go, go, let's go home! In a while, there will be something delicious to eat!"

Song Tan is also pondering:

Chinese milk vetch, green leaves and purple flowers, old ox...

Beautiful material!

Song Tan had thought about it long ago, but now with the ox, it will feel more like real life.

As for whether she can sell goods after becoming popular—that's a must!

If she couldn't sell goods, why would she go through all this trouble?

She can guarantee: as long as they eat it once, no one will be able to resist becoming a repeat customer.

She spent over a hundred years farming on the back mountain of Yin Peak, removing insects and weeds to improve the flavor; those methods were learned perfectly!

She doesn't believe that vegetables grown with spiritual energy won't have a market!

Moreover, many of the vegetables she plans to plant are storage-resistant; black fungus and white fungus are even more suitable for online sales.

Logistics nowadays are so developed that as long as you're willing to spend money, most cities can get next-day delivery, enough to satisfy online shopping needs.

For those that aren't storage-resistant, once she makes a name for herself, the local area can digest them.

She farms, first to satisfy her own appetite, and second to make money.

As for how much she makes, as long as she can break even, she actually has no requirements.

With this calculation, there is still a lot to prepare.

In these few days, she must quickly prepare the filming tools and pick up her editing skills again. Whether she becomes popular or not depends on this wave!

Thinking about it, Song Tan stands at the edge of the field, her fingers moving slightly, and she silently draws in wisps of spiritual energy...

That white mist, invisible to the naked eye of ordinary people, slowly blends into the fields, and the green of the Chinese milk vetch seems to reach a higher level.

With a breeze, that hazy green becomes even richer at this moment.

The roots of the Chinese milk vetch are rapidly extracting nutrients from the soil, while the pale yellow rhizobia attached to the roots are feeding back into this piece of land.

Such is the life of nature.

Cycle after cycle, rhythm after rhythm.