Chapter 11 Changfeng, I like you.

The next morning, Jiang Mingxue got up with dark circles under her eyes, washed up, and went to the vegetable garden. As usual, she watered the herbs and vegetables, then took scissors to prune the branches and leaves of the herbs she had transplanted the day before. Then she called home, and Grandpa Jiang answered the phone.

"Hey, Mingxue, are you done with your work?"

"I'm sorry, Grandpa. I've been too busy lately and haven't had time to call you."

Grandpa Jiang chuckled and said, "It's not your fault. The Haining branch has had many problems. You've worked hard these past few days."

"It's no trouble at all, it's all what I should do," Jiang Mingxue said. "By the way, Grandpa, I called to ask you, do you know how to cultivate Dendrobium officinale?"

"Dendrobium officinale? I know a little about it. I planted it in the south before, and it even sprouted, but it died in less than a day after being transplanted to the north." Old Master Jiang said with heartache as he recalled the memory. "What, are you going to plant Dendrobium officinale in Haining?"

"Hmm, I'd like to try."

"Okay, I'll write down the method later and have Aunt Zhou send it to you."

"Okay, thank you, Grandpa."

The grandfather and grandson chatted about the clinic's recent situation and their family's circumstances. Suddenly, Grandpa Jiang asked, "By the way, Madam Rong came to our house a couple of days ago. That's when I found out Cheng Zhou is also in Haining. Did you two meet?"

Jiang Mingxue: "Yes, I saw him."

"It's good that you've met. You two haven't seen each other for a year, so catch up properly."

Jiang Mingxue remained silent and lowered her head to loosen the soil with a shovel.

We've only known each other for a few days, so there's no "old" history to reminisce about.

"How long will Chengzhou stay in Haining? When will he return?"

"Um..." Jiang Mingxue stammered, "It depends on the arrangements from above, he's not sure either."

I didn't even think to ask.

“Oh, that’s true.” Jiang Xingquan didn’t suspect anything and urged, “Once Chengzhou is done with his work, you two should hurry back and complete the formalities. What other young couple is like you, married for a year and still not having met each other’s parents?”

Jiang Mingxue answered without thinking, "Haven't you met before...?"

"Hey—you kid." Jiang Xingquan was so angry that he glared at her. "You're going to let both sets of parents meet before you get married, right?"

It's not impossible.

Jiang Mingxue thought to herself.

Afraid of upsetting Grandpa Jiang, she refrained from speaking: "Grandpa, I have to go now, the clinic is open, I need to go see my patients, bye-bye."

He hung up the phone immediately after speaking.

"Hey, I haven't finished asking yet... beep beep—"

Jiang Mingxue breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her head to continue tending to the lush green herbs.

If she had to go back and complete the necessary paperwork, she would rather stay in Haining.

Unfortunately, the North City headquarters is busy, and she needs to go back and keep an eye on things.

Jiang Mingxue sighed. There was no way to escape now, so she could only place her hopes on Rong Chengzhou and try to stall for as long as possible.

--

Grandpa Jiang quickly sent her the precautions for cultivating Dendrobium officinale, and also asked an old friend who had studied with him in the south to send her dozens of Dendrobium officinale seedlings, including mature plants that were about to bloom and seedlings that had just begun to be cultivated.

After receiving the plants, Jiang Mingxue, along with Lao Lin and several apprentices, transplanted the potted plants and built a simple greenhouse on the rooftop open-air platform using transparent plastic sheeting. Since Dendrobium officinale is an epiphytic plant, it cannot be grown in ordinary soil; instead, it needs well-aerated bark or perlite to simulate its natural environment.

Before receiving the Dendrobium seedlings, Bai Dong and Yan Ze went up the mountain and collected two large bags of fallen bark, sawdust, and stones. However, they were still missing some miscellaneous items, such as sufficient trays and fertilizer.

"Is there a flower and plant market nearby?" Jiang Mingxue asked.

"No, people in the village don't do that. Everyone just uses some sheep manure, pig manure, or chicken manure to plant it."

Xu Yan, standing to the side, widened her eyes and pointed at herself: "What? You mean the radishes I ate the other day were grown from sheep, pig, and chicken droppings??"

Old Lin shook his head: "It could also be cow dung."

Xu Yan: "......"

The sky has fallen.

Bai Dong laughed so hard he bent over, and even Yan Ze subtly twitched the corner of his lips.

Jiang Mingxue smiled lightly, "It's alright, it's been washed."

Xu Yan burst into tears: "Waaaaah..."

Old Lin chuckled: "But there's a market today, you can go and have a look, maybe they'll sell it."

"A market?" Xu Yan's eyes lit up again. "Is it the kind of market where people go to fairs?"

"Yes, it happens once a month, and almost everyone goes to the market to stock up on goods."

"Go ahead, go ahead, I've never experienced going to a market before."

Jiang Mingxue: "Okay, let's go take a look."

Just as Old Lin said, everyone had gone to the market, and the clinic had far fewer patients today. Old Lin was old and had difficulty walking, so Jiang Mingxue took several apprentices to the market in town.

The rural market is no less bustling than during the Spring Festival. The streets are crowded with people, and four rows of stalls line the narrow road, leaving only gaps for pedestrians to walk through. The stalls sell a wide variety of things, including clothes, nuts, bulk snacks, fried snacks, and more, making it difficult for people to choose.

Xu Yan excitedly grabbed Jiang Mingxue's clothes and looked around, saying, "Luckily we didn't eat before we came, otherwise I would have regretted it so much today."

Jiang Mingxue was also visiting a market for the first time and found it novel, so she walked slowly: "See if there's anything you want to buy, I'll pay for it."

Xu Yan: "Yay! Long live Sister Ming!!"

Bai Dong: "Thank you, Sister Ming. Then we won't be polite."

She looked at Yan Ze, who remained silent, and said, "Yan Ze, take a look too. After today, you might not be able to buy anything you need."

Yan Ze slowly shook his head, showing no interest in the dusty items on the stall: "No need, I don't need anything."

Jiang Mingxue stopped trying to persuade him and looked around, searching for the trays and fertilizer she needed to buy that day.

Xu Yan strolled around buying snacks and was almost full in no time. Passing a small stall, someone suddenly grabbed her arm, pointed to a coconut lamp on the stall while holding fried chicken strips, and said, "Sister Ming, look how pretty this lamp is!"

Jiang Mingxue looked over and saw an old man running a coconut carving stall, a non-material cultural heritage handicraft. Seeing them stop, she quickly stood up and enthusiastically introduced, "Want to see coconut carvings? They are all handmade."

The old man spoke in a thick local dialect, and it took Xu Yan and Jiang Mingxue a few seconds to understand him: "Okay, let's take a look first."

"Coconut carving" refers to carving the shells of coconuts, a local specialty, into exquisite patterns. These are mainly decorative handicrafts and a traditional intangible cultural heritage technique.

The coconut lamp is essentially a combination of a coconut and a scented candle, making it more practical.

The stall displayed a variety of coconut carving patterns, such as classic coconut trees, starfish, frangipani, and butterflies, each labeled with a different fragrance. The candles also had Haining dialect printed on tracing paper on the top layer.

Xu Yan couldn't put it down: "Sister Ming, let's buy one to take home. We've come all this way, let's keep it as a souvenir."

Jiang Mingxue held a coconut carving, carefully smelling the aromatherapy scent. It was from the sea breeze series, fresh and natural, with a faint coconut fragrance, very characteristic of the region. She gently put down the coconut carving in her hand: "Sure. You can all pick one. I haven't given you any gifts yet after we've been out for so long."

"Yay! Long live the boss!!"

Bai Dong politely declined: "Thank you, Sister Ming, but these are all things for young girls. You two should buy them. Yan Ze and I won't take them."

Xu Yan: "Sister Ming, let's ignore them and pick out a pair of matching outfits!"

Jiang Mingxue chuckled: "Okay, which one do you like?"

"So many kinds!" Xu Yan exclaimed, her eyes dazzled. She picked up a candle with a sunflower pattern and pointed to the handwritten words on it. "But I can't understand the words on it. Sister Ming, do you know what 'Ding Dio Xi Jia' means?"

Jiang Mingxue thought for a moment but couldn't figure it out: "I don't know, should we ask the boss?"

Xu Yan: "Grandpa, what do the words on this mean?"

The old man smiled and translated the text into speech: "Ni Si 'Ding Dio Xi Jia'."

Xu Yan: "......"

They know how to pronounce "叮dio习家".

Jiang Mingxue patiently asked, "Excuse me, Grandpa, we are from out of town and don't understand Haining dialect. Could you please say it again in Mandarin?"

The old man was very good-natured and replied to them, "What do you mean, 'ding dio xi jia'? Do you hear me?"

Jiang Mingxue smiled and said, "Hmm... I understood everything except those four words."

She turned to the other two and asked, "Do you know what this means?"

Both of them shook their heads.

The elderly in Mengshan generally don't speak Mandarin, which is a common problem when seeing patients at the clinic. However, because Lao Lin was there to translate, no problems arose.

But today their personal translator has been left at home, leaving the young people in a dilemma.

Jiang Mingxue muttered repeatedly, "'Ding dio Xi Jia'..."

"Standing tall and upright? Resigning to fate? Stopping the clouds and letting the moon fall?... No, none of these are right. What does it really mean?"

Jiang Mingxue, who minored in a less commonly taught language in college and was fluent in Chinese, English, French, and German, was stumped by a simple dialect. She couldn't come up with a series of idioms to match them, and was just about to give up when a faint scent of cedar wafted by, as familiar as his voice:

"May all your wishes come true."

Rong Chengzhou approached without her noticing, looking down at the coconut carving in her hand, and spoke in a soft, unhurried tone.

Jiang Mingxue turned around in surprise. Behind him were Xing Kaiyu and two other teammates, who were probably also going to the market to buy supplies.

The two have maintained contact over the past few days, but it has all been very formal.

[CZ]: Training went smoothly today, everything is fine.

[Jiang Mingxue]: Okay, good night.

[CZ]: Today's military drills went smoothly.

[Jiang Mingxue]: Okay, good night.

【CZ】: I have a flight mission today, so get some rest.

[Jiang Mingxue]: Okay, good night.

The above is a summary of the couple's conversation over three days, more like AI than AI itself.

"Hey, sister-in-law, hello everyone!" Xing Kaiyu greeted her warmly as always, pulling her back to reality.

She smiled in response, then murmured repeatedly, "Ding dio Xi family...may your wishes come true..."

The pronunciation difference is so huge, even if you gave her a whole day and night, she still wouldn't be able to figure out this idiom.

"The Haining dialect is quite distinctive," was the only conclusion she could draw.

“Brother-in-law is so knowledgeable!” Xu Yan was practically a hair on Rong Chengzhou’s leg. “The meaning of ‘wishes come true’ is good. I’ll take this ‘Ding Dio Gets Married’ one! It’s your turn to choose, Sister Ming.”

"Okay, let me see."

Jiang Mingxue picked up another coconut carving depicting a coconut tree and asked Rong Chengzhou behind her, "What does this 'Xi Xi Ru Ji' mean?"

Rong Chengzhou replied calmly, "May everything go as you wish."

Jiang Mingxue changed to another one: "Where's this 'Gong Yi Wa Sai'?"

Rong Chengzhou: "Wishing you prosperity."

"What about this 'Dintijinkang'?"

"In good health."

Jiang Mingxue wasn't too interested in picking out souvenirs; she just wanted to take the opportunity to secretly learn the Haining dialect.

"Where's 'Rudy the Elephant'?"

Rong Chengzhou looked up at her and said slowly, "You are very beautiful."

"Oh my gosh~~" Xu Yan and Xing Kaiyu teased.

Jiang Mingxue blushed, but pretended to be calm and changed the subject, picking up the coconut lamp with the last different slogan: "What about this 'Wa Yi Wan Lu'?"

He lowered his eyes and asked in a low voice, "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

Jiang Mingxue felt uneasy at his question, but still nodded: "Of course."

The preceding sentences were all blessings; this one couldn't possibly be an insult, could it?

The market was bustling, with vendors' cries rising and falling, the smells of dust and flowers mingling together, and crowds of people passing by behind them.

In the noisy environment, Rong Chengzhou lifted his thin eyelids and spoke clearly, each word penetrating the 80-decibel noise to reach her ears: "It means—"

"I like you."