Pastoral Daily Life

On the first weekend of December, the grapes that Lu Lingxi had been waiting for were finally ripe.

In the Yongchun vegetable greenhouse, Erfei was waiting to pick grapes from the vine early in the morning. Xiao Feng, who was also trying to curry favour with Lu Lingxi, deliberately set aside a piece of land for growing grapes. The workers in the greenhouse took a look at the grape seeds and privately discussed that Xiao Feng was an amateur. Who would use seeds to grow grapes? It would be next year when the grapes grow, not to mention the fact that it would be at least two years before the fruit was ready. But Xiao Feng was the boss, so if he wanted to plant, they had to plant.

After the seeds were planted, no one expected that they would sprout in just a few days. These little shoots then started to grow like they were on hormones. Whereas normal vines sprout in early spring until August/September, these vines were full of fruit in less than two months and were ripening day by day.

The entire vegetable greenhouse was a complete sensation. Although the other vegetables grown in the greenhouse were also growing fast, the grapes were astonishing. It was not just that they grew fast. The clusters of grapes looked heavy, with large, round berries, each one purple and red in colour, looking sweet at the first glance. Some of the workers tried a few of them secretly and felt that they were soft and juicy with a sweet taste and a faint rose aroma lingering in their mouths, giving them an endless aftertaste.

Erfei soon shifted his attention from the tomatoes to the grapes. The greenhouse was strictly controlled. Although these workers looked at the grapes with greedy eyes, few dared to steal, which meant that Erfei ate them openly and honestly. Tiger scolded him a few times, did Brother Feng not give him enough food? Couldn’t he wait until they were fully ripe before eating them? It was just a few days anyway. Erfei agreed under Tiger’s pressure, aggrieved, and then he couldn’t stop visiting the grapes ten times a day, waiting eagerly for them to ripen.

As soon as the grapes were ripe, Erfei said hello to the people around and started picking them. Brother Feng was also very surprised when he looked at these grapes. He deliberately weighed them. The average weight of the cluster reached 1000g, and the individual berries were more than 10g. Generally, grapes of the same weight on the market were red grapes imported from abroad. Not to mention that the taste of these grapes was more attractive than of the imported ones, the juice was sweet and creamy. Even Brother Feng, who didn’t particularly like grapes, ate a bunch in one sitting.

Brother Feng washed his hands and specially instructed Tiger to pick two baskets of good ones to give them to Lu Lingxi and Wang Shuxiu respectively. He didn’t have time to go over today, so he left the job to Tiger.

Tiger simply obeyed.

Erfei was puzzled and asked secretly, “Can’t you just send them to our sister-in-law? Our little brother Xiao Xi will also be able to eat them when he comes home in the evening.”

Tiger glared at him speechlessly, “The important thing is not for Brother Xiao Xi to eat, but for Brother Feng to let Brother Xiao Xi give them away. Didn’t you see last time that there were many shop owners around who got on well with Brother Xiao Xi? This is a gesture from Brother Feng’s heart, to earn good points in front of them for Brother Xiao Xi.”

Erfei really couldn’t understand how Tiger could infer such a profound meaning from such a whimsical remark by Brother Feng. But he had always been used to following Tiger, and whatever Tiger said was what he said.

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When Lu Lingxi received the call from Tiger, he was chatting with Elder Su in the shop. The old man had come to see Lu Lingxi today. A few days ago, a student gave him a pot of chimaera cactus. He pondered whether there were any cacti in Tiny Garden and brought it here to show Lu Lingxi how rare it was. When he arrived, Yan Yue had just left and Lu Lingxi was the only one in the shop.

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The chimaera cactus, also known as the dragon pearls, is a hybrid cactus that had been popular in China for a while, but was now rare in the market. The ‘dragon’ in the chimaera cactus is a mixed red and green variegated stem. Generally speaking, the parts of the ‘dragon’ are brightly coloured in red and green and have an oddly twisted shape, the more twisted the better. At the top of the ‘dragon’ plant are small, round, red-coloured balls, known as ‘pearls’, which together give it the name ‘dragon pearls’.

“How’s that? Rare, right?”

Elder Su showed off to Lu Lingxi for a long time. He was now in the mindset of an urchin and whenever he had something good, he wanted to offer Lu Lingxi his treasure. Lu Lingxi looked at the plant for a long time but couldn’t see what the old man was talking about in terms of its ornamental and interesting nature, but still complimented it over and over again with great enthusiasm.

Elder Su was happy and from the chimaera cactus the conversation turned to Su Lang.

Lu Lingxi was moved by the thought of the still-growing seedlings of the donglingcao at home and enquired about the progress of Su Lang’s research on donglingcao.

Elder Su knew about the donglingcao, so he didn’t hide it from Lu Lingxi when asked. “I heard from Ah Lang that it’s not going too well.” The old man said honestly: “Research like this is, to put it bluntly, two words “burn money”. Ah Lang and the others are just a charity organisation, and they usually rely on fundraising to keep it going. Small-scale research can still be sustained, but once it gets real, the follow-up won’t be able to keep up.”

Lu Lingxi listened with some regret. He still remembered how excited Su Lang looked when he talked about the research last time. In his heart, Lu Lingxi was also hoping that Su Lang would succeed in his research. Unfortunately, the donglingcao at home was still in its growth phase and wasn’t at all ready to evolve, so there was nothing he could do to help.

Elder Su followed with a sigh, “Last time one of Ah Lang’s former patients came to see him. He seemed to have heard about this research of theirs and was willing to spend money to fund it. But for some reason he was rejected by Ah Lang.”

Lu Lingxi was just about to ask what was going on when Tiger’s phone call happened to come in, and his attention quickly shifted to the phone. Lu Lingxi was surprised to hear that the grapes they had planted had ripened and were on their way to him.

“They’re growing so fast? Are they tasty?”

“Yes, delicious and extra sweet.” Tiger said simply and concisely.

Lu Lingxi smiled, hung up the phone and told Elder Su that he was lucky.

“Why?”

“My dad grew the grapes and someone will bring them later.”

Elder Su was aware of the situation in Lu Lingxi’s family. He was taken aback when he heard the words, but quickly smiled. “That’s great, I won’t leave and wait for them.”

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The old man and the young man changed the subject to food. Meanwhile, on the other hand, An Jie was showing Yan Yue a PPT that Su Lang had given him. As Elder Su had said, Su Lang’s research reached a bottleneck and they were currently short of money. Su Lang knew that Yan Yue had his own investment company, and he and An Jie also knew each other. Out of caution, he didn’t approach Yan Yue directly, but contacted An Jie first and sent him a copy of the information in full accordance with the normal procedure, waiting for An Jie’s side to screen it.

An Jie was very surprised to see the information, and after investigating and researching, he approached Yan Yue. “Boss, what do you think? This research by Su Lang and the others is very valuable, and if it succeeds the economic benefits are totally immeasurable. I’ve checked it out, and there are quite a few pharmaceutical companies in China that are interested in this research, but the person in charge of Su Lang and his team just doesn’t agree. According to Su Lang, their organisation wants to take the initiative of developing themselves, rather than being reduced to working for a pharmaceutical company.”

“Like you said, it’s valuable.”

Yan Yue finished reading the information and tapped on the desktop quietly. He had known about this research of Su Lang’s institution for a long time, and if it was really as effective as Su Lang said, it was indeed well worth the investment. Especially since he had received an interesting piece of news, the investment was all the more necessary.

An Jie kept an eye on Yan Yue’s expression and immediately asked, “Is there a problem?”

Yan Yue nodded, “I just received news that Hopewell is planning to open a new biotech company, and they probably want to cooperate with the Lu family.”

An Jie immediately understood what Yan Yue meant; the Lu family in Zhongjing started out as a healthcare and pharmaceutical company, so it was normal for Hopewell to want to cooperate with the Lu family. What wasn’t normal was that Yin Ya and Lu Wei’an were very close, and some time ago Lu Wei’an had come to Fengcheng to meet Su Lang on purpose. “Is Hopewell also looking at this project?” He said tentatively.

“There is that possibility.”

“Then we?…”

“If we can’t eat it on our own, contact the people at N.T. and ask if they’re interested in investing together.”

An Jie was a bit startled and quickly nodded.

Yan Yue closed his computer. This wasn’t the first time he had dug into Hopewell’s corner. In the past, he was far away from home and his investments were all in high-tech companies and Hopewell’s focus wasn’t there. Every time his digging went quite smoothly. But this time it was different. Judging by his father’s attitude, he probably valued this biotech company very much. The fact that Yin Ya dared to jump out and act meant that Yan Yue’s father also knew about the project and had his heart set on it. If Yan Yue wanted to dig in smoothly this time, he had to find a strong ally.

As for Lu Wei’an, Yan Yue didn’t think he was worth caring about at all. Elder Lu had three sons and nine grandchildren. Lu Wei’an’s father, Lu Guangjing, gave up the inheritance rights of the Lu family at an early age, so even if Lu Wei’an tossed and turned, he wouldn’t be able to be noticed by Elder Lu. All he could do was to help Yin Ya with the matchmaking and run errands for his cousins if he wanted to have any sense of presence.