Chapter 6 Luling
The time agreed with Yao Lingling soon arrived.
Qiao Yu booked a high-speed rail ticket to City Y at 5:30 in the morning, so the two agreed to meet at the high-speed rail station at 5 o'clock.
"Qiao Qiao!" As soon as Qiao Yu got out of the taxi, Yao Lingling rushed over and hugged her.
Qiao Yu stiffened, paused, and then raised his hand to stroke her back. Having lived in the apocalypse for so long, Qiao Yu was no longer accustomed to such a warm greeting. Yao Lingling was completely oblivious and happily pulled her into the station.
While waiting for the bus, Qiao Yu kept looking down at her phone to check Jiang Zhan's news, and did not notice that the eyes of the people around her were more or less fixed on her, but Yao Lingling next to her noticed it.
"Qiao Qiao, what skin care products have you used recently? Your skin seems to have gotten better, so white and tender, and you feel like you're glowing. You were pretty before, and now you look like a fairy. Those boys over there have been looking at you for a long time. I think they may want to come over and chat with you, which makes me feel embarrassed to stand next to you!" Yao Lingling joked with some envy, pulling Qiao Yu's sleeve and motioning her to look to the left and front.
Qiao Yu glanced at the boys calmly after hearing this, then lowered her head and replied softly, "I haven't used any skincare products. Maybe I haven't been staying up late lately, so I look a little better."
Despite this, Qiao Yu was well aware that all this was due to the fruit water. Ever since discovering its benefits, Qiao Yu had become particularly attentive to the fruit on the jade tree, wanting to drink it but afraid to, fearing that once all the fruit had been picked, there would be nothing left. Unexpectedly, the day after picking the fruit, Qiao Yu discovered another half-grown fruit on the jade tree vine. Two days later, it was as large as a full-grown fruit. Reassured, Qiao Yu immediately switched all his usual water to fruit water.
As a result, the effect of the fruit water became even more pronounced. The amount of waste excreted from Qiao Yu's body decreased day by day, and after three days, there was no waste at all. Furthermore, as the waste was excreted, Qiao Yu could clearly feel her overall state improving, and her bodily functions gradually becoming stronger.
But such a bizarre thing naturally could not be told to Yao Lingling.
Fortunately, the two of them didn't have to wait long before their tickets were checked and they boarded the bus. Yao Lingling, always a carefree person, stopped talking about the boys once she was on the bus. She remained excited, telling Qiao Yu about the scenery and agricultural products of her hometown. Qiao Yu listened intently, asking questions from time to time, and roughly grasped the types of crops grown in Luling Village and the terrain.
Y City is not particularly far from S City, and it only takes more than two hours by high-speed rail. However, Luling Village is very remote. After getting off the high-speed rail, you not only have to take a bus, but you also have to change between two buses.
It wasn't until after two in the afternoon that the two finally arrived at Luling Village. Qiao Yu, following Yao Lingling, spotted from a distance a young woman and two older, middle-aged men waiting at the village entrance.
Yao Lingling first ran over and hugged the girl standing in front, then pulled Qiao Yu over and introduced the three people to her one by one: "This is the village chief, this is my dad, and this girl is my friend, you can just call her Ningning."
The village chief and Mr. Yao seemed very kind, and the girl named Ningning also smiled shyly at her in a friendly manner. Qiao Yu politely greeted the three people one by one before following them into the village. After walking a few steps, he saw an old-fashioned ox cart parked in front.
"Our village is still inside, and the roads are all mountainous. It rained a few days ago, so the roads are not easy to walk on. It will be easier to take a ox cart." Yao Lingling explained to her while helping her put the luggage on the car.
This ox cart is very simple. It is actually just a thick wooden board on the wheels, surrounded by low wooden fences. People sit on those wooden fences. It looks a bit old, but it does save a lot of effort.
The oxcart moved slowly for about fifteen minutes before Qiao Yu could vaguely see the outlines of houses in the distance. Yao Lingling had been showing her the farmland along the way, and she even saw greenhouses growing off-season vegetables and fruits in the village.
There are dedicated growing areas for tangerines, strawberries, apples, kiwis, cherries, and oranges. There's also a rich variety of vegetables, including Chinese cabbage, bok choy, potatoes, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, celery, and spinach, as well as plenty of mushrooms and out-of-season eggplant and lettuce.
As Qiao Yu listened, he couldn't help but sigh again that Luling Village was indeed a treasure land.
After entering the village, Qiao Yu was arranged to stay at Yao Lingling's house. After a simple tidying up, Qiao Yu asked to see the goods. Yao Lingling did not hesitate and quickly took her to the village chief's house.
The village chief poured Qiao Yu a cup of tea, then sat on a wooden bench beside him, rubbed his hands, and smiled a little nervously: "Miss, I heard Lingling say that you want a lot of goods. Do you really want as much as you can?"
"Yes, village chief, we are planning to open a large-scale storage and supply market, so we want to find a stable source of goods. If the products here are good and the prices are fair, we may get goods from here steadily in the future." Qiao Yu had thought of his words early in the morning, and his calm and steady answer made it easy for people to believe him.
The village chief nodded, but he was a little confused: "With so much stuff, why are you the only one here? How are we going to move it out?"
Qiao Yu smiled and said, "Village Chief, don't worry about that. Everyone, please prepare the goods first. I'll check them out and if there's no problem, I'll send someone to move them. We have workers and vehicles, so the villagers don't have to do any hard work!"
After hearing this, the village chief thought Qiao Yu had misunderstood that they didn't want to help, so he waved his hands repeatedly: "Hey, that's not what I meant. If you guys move the goods, we definitely have to help!" After thinking for a moment, he said, "Okay, since you said so, let's go check out the goods first!"
When Yao's father left, Yao Lingling and Ningning went with her. When the villagers heard a "big client" had arrived, they all went out to see her out of curiosity. When they met her, they would smile and say hello, very kindly.
The village chief first took her to the large granary on the mountain, where the villagers' surplus grain was stored. Detailed records of each household's contributions were kept. In reality, it wasn't so much a grain storage facility as a temporary storage facility for those whose crops were abundant and who couldn't store their grain. Luling Village, with its vast land and sparse population and hardworking people, was indeed a bountiful source of grain. Unfortunately, no one was interested in buying it, so the excess grain was left piled up here until the village chief organized people to sell it by ox cart to nearby towns and villages.
The granary is composed of hundreds of small granaries, all of the same size, cylindrical, with a base diameter of three meters and a height of about three meters. The total area of the granary is roughly half the size of a football field. The granary is divided into six sections, storing wheat, rice, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and peanuts. Each granary is affixed with a nameplate. The village chief said that almost all of the granaries are full. The nameplates indicate the ownership of each granary, allowing each household to rotate the granaries when the grain is taken out for sale, making management easier.
"Boss Qiao, what's wrong? Is it too much? It doesn't matter, just take as much as you want." Seeing that Qiao Yu didn't say anything, the village chief thought that there were too many things and their "market" couldn't take them all.
Qiao Yu came back to his senses and smiled. "No, I just didn't expect you to have so much food stored here. Village chief, you're welcome. Just call me Xiao Qiao."
"Okay, Xiao Qiao, look, do you want all of these?"
"Yes, but Village Chief, there will be rats in such a large granary, right?" Food is not like other things. What you put into your mouth must be clean.
"Haha, I guessed that's what you wanted to ask. Don't worry, our granary is very clean. Each granary is made of thick iron sheets. Look at the bottom, it's all iron sheets and it's not even touching the ground. This granary is precious, and the village arranges people to come inside and outside every day to check for rats and insects. The grain inside is packed in bags, and someone goes to check them. There's no way there will be rats or anything like that, so don't worry!"
After listening to this, Qiao Yu smiled and nodded. "Okay, then please find someone to weigh the goods. We're also doing legitimate business, so we'll just settle the price according to the market price! But I want to ask you, is there a mill in the village? I'd like to grind all the wheat into flour. And for the peanuts, can you have someone shell them, keep half of the kernels, and press the remaining half into oil? I'll pay for the labor."
Although the village chief was a little puzzled as to why Qiao Yu wanted to process the grain, he thought it was necessary since he had asked. He agreed without further questioning, "No problem! We have a mill and an oil mill. Even though our village is remote, we have plenty of these. And now we use machines, which is so convenient! We don't need to shell peanuts manually, we have machines, so there's no labor cost!"
Qiao Yu once again experienced the simplicity of Luling Village. Even with such a good opportunity to raise the price, the village chief had no intention of extorting money from her.
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