Her Cultivation Diary

Chapter 2161: Do you know me?

On the fourth day, the rain finally eased slightly at dawn.

Professor Song sluggishly made his way from the dormitory building to the factory early in the morning. As he strolled around, he turned into the vegetable garden and picked a watery cucumber.

Oh dear! Rain!

He stepped into some yellow mud, not to mention the impact on the vegetables. Without sunlight and too much rain, the branches and leaves easily grow excessively, wasting nutrients for no reason.

In his repeated regrets, he picked two short, round, plump "Yu Nu" cucumbers and took them to the factory courtyard to wash them with water.

"Yu Nu" cucumbers don’t have many prickles, a coarse hand twist is enough, just as he was flicking water off them, he noticed a young man standing beside him, staring at him with a forlorn gaze.

Professor Song: ...

"You... you know me?"

The young man didn’t answer, just asked gloomily, "What did you eat last night?"

Professor Song was taken aback, then recalled last night’s dishes and couldn’t help but savor them carefully again: "Braised beef ribs."

"We added a few hawthorns in the beef ribs, the whole pot of meat was tender, fragrant, and rich. Taking a bite of that broth... it’s just delicious with rice!"

He ate so much that in the end, even the hawthorns were scooped up to be chewed on.

"Also, there was celery stir-fried with dried bean curd. The dried bean curd was a bit bland, but the celery was crispy and tender, and flavorful. Ah, fresh, and tasty!"

There was also cold salad corn shoots, cold and moist, tender in texture. Having a few bites before the meal, that taste was amazing!

And the last batch of pumpkin tips.

These start to age by August, but if eaten from May till July, you never tire of them, really delicious!

Lastly, there was stir-fried eggs with earth skin vegetables — the portion wasn’t large because it was troublesome to wash, and with the rain not really stopping, Lao Song’s family could only pick a small amount during a break, each person took a couple of chopsticks and it was gone.

In short, Professor Song was happy to share this taste with others. Once he was done talking, he was drooling slightly and quickly took a crunch of cucumber.

If one says, when people age, they should take better care of themselves! If not properly maintained, all their teeth would fall out by now, and even eating cucumber wouldn’t be as satisfying.

But looking at the person opposite him, their face turned dull, and the resentment in their eyes seemed almost to overflow.

Only then did he realize:

"You... who are you?"

Was he someone who knew him and wanted to say hello?!

The young man withdrew his gaze, with a somewhat numb expression: "After eating dinner yesterday, I was unwilling, took an umbrella, and walked down the hill again, smelling at the gate for a long time."

But alas, it was raining heavily at that time, and couldn’t smell anything.

After saying this, he realized: "Oh. I am Chen Xiangyi, here in the village for landscape planning."

The admiration and craving from the other were obvious.

Even if Professor Song is old and highly respected, he couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of pride and vanity at this moment.

At this age, he doesn’t seek fame or benefits, but the ability he fought for all his life allows him the fortune to eat such good food every day. He can freely enter and leave the vegetable garden, picking anything he wants directly.

If not carefully savored, one might not realize, but now, pondering over it, comparing with others, a sense of superiority arose again unexpectedly.

Oh dear, oh dear, growing old, yet one’s virtues not entirely cultivated!

But due to this, he became even more delighted:

"Landscape designing? Is it that kind of unified planning for new rural areas across different regions?"

Plant some cherry blossoms here, verbena there, fields of wildflowers. When the season comes, someone might re-plan, and set up a long corridor in the village, covered with wisterias...

At first glance, very beautiful, but Professor Song had visited countless villages and found that they almost wish to have a unified template, after seeing it too long, there is instead a sense of constraint.

As for Yunqiao Village...

He thought of seeing the households’ vegetable gardens, old yards, and places plowed into ridges along the way, not quite saying maintaining the original flavor is good.

But if just following such templated planning, it feels like something misses some flavor after all...

Chen Xiangyi also surged with some pride:

Most rural planning focuses on being able to have no achievement, but preferably no mistakes. Thus, a mature template saves them many hassles.

But his fame wasn’t due to templates, but because of the ability to adapt to local conditions.

If previously he thought himself being used by his boss as a favor, exiled to the countryside, now after two days, he is eager to showcase his talents, hoping the Song Family in this village ends up admiring him, full of esteem!

Thus inviting him formally to their home for a nice meal...

Emmm... even informal would be fine. Even just a polite question:

Would you like to come to our house for a meal?

Then he would surely not be polite.

But the problem is —

Being here for two days, the rain hasn’t stopped. Just taking advantage of the rain stopping for a bit, wearing the same rubber shoes, walking alternately on asphalt and yellow mud, observing, only managed to acquire some harvest.

The food also couldn’t be said to be bad, he tried the cafeteria’s craft, even better than the internal group! Especially with rural proximity, vegetables, and fruits are fresher.

But, but!

As the ancients knew: Beyond Wushan, there is no other cloud!

Just finished brushing the mud from his shoes, seeing that old black skinny man almost entering the factory, his footsteps turned and again directly went into the vegetable garden.

Swaggering, without fear of being stopped, even picking some vegetables...

On the first day he came, Secretary Xiaozu hinted about the principle not to mess with people’s cash crops casually...

Such contrast, indeed heart-wrenching.

If to blame, could only be blamed on not working hard enough for decades before, unable to earn enough respect!

But Professor Song became interested: "How do you adapt to local conditions?"

When talking about his field, Chen Xiangyi spoke eloquently:

"Our company’s main focus is agriculture, hence adapting to local conditions primarily revolves around crops. Secretary Zhu also mentioned that villagers have limited economic sources, during planning, we should minimize using pure flowers and ornamental plants, but consider cash crops more."

"According to my past design philosophy—"

He talked until excited, inviting Professor Song to sit under the corridor at the cafeteria entrance, then took out his portable tablet:

"Look here, this is a turning area near the village entrance, the red area indicates the ownership and planting responsibility belongs to a senior over 60 years old."

"Therefore, priority is given to selecting low-maintenance, easy-to-manage crops in this piece of land — following landscape design, this place should be planted with bamboo, exactly seeking municipal approval for ancient architectural aesthetic subsidies for the adjacent old flats..."

During the beautiful rural construction times, the government offered subsidies for the sloped eaves and white walls gray tiles along roadsides, revealing their eaves and shapes through a lush bamboo forest.

Not excessively blocking driving views, with a touch of winding paths and the elegance of ancient charm and meaning.

However, considering the low economic value of local bamboo and its destructiveness to farmlands as well as its later spread and ecological exclusivity, bamboo is naturally not considered for farmland planting.

Chen Xiangyi asked: "What do you think about planting corn or sorghum? Or pasture?"

He noticed elderly villagers raised sheep, maybe in the future every household might raise some, fulfilling that demand?