Chapter 49 Chapter 49 (Part 1)
The experimental plots had just been demarcated, and the basic tool sheds hadn't been built yet, so the two heads of the Agricultural Technology Station had to make do in Lin Xinghuo's office at the new brigade headquarters. Coincidentally, Wei Chunfeng was there during her lunch break, copying the records of group personnel changes.
The two men would be stationed permanently in the brigade. Dormitories had been prepared for them, located in a newly built courtyard next to the Youth League compound. Taking advantage of the village's major renovations, two rows of single-person dormitories had been constructed. Each dormitory was only 15 square meters, three meters wide, with no kang (kang) in the room, but instead a uniform fire wall. There was only a wooden bed and a two-door wardrobe in the living room. A long wooden table and two chairs were also provided for the single room.
But this was a brick house, with plastic sheeting covering the south-facing windows. It was incredibly bright and tidy. The educated youth from the neighboring compound were also quite clever. They argued that building a fire-proof wall for an entire row of houses just to house two people at the Agricultural Technology Station was a waste. So, they persuaded the production team to let them move in too. The production team didn't make it difficult for them. The village had a lot of work this year, and the educated youth had been exhausted for a year. The house in the educated youth compound was indeed inferior to the brick houses currently under construction in the village, so they just moved. But there was one thing: they had to move into the row of dormitories now with the fire-proof wall. There were eight rooms in a row, and the remaining six rooms weren't enough for the educated youth. The current educated youth team leader, Yang Weibao, waved his hand. Since Chang Qing left, no new educated youth had arrived in Buxian Village to join the production team. The old educated youth had been working together for years, and their temperaments had pretty much rubbed off. Twelve of them, four women and eight men, could fit in a single dormitory, two to a room. The men could even use the two women's dormitories sandwiched between them, without any concerns about safety.
But the educated youth didn't have the benefit of desks and chairs, so Yang Weibao brought his men to the brigade headquarters to look for wooden planks and order a few. After all, they were educated youth. They could eat on the ground, but they needed a desk to write on. The two agricultural technicians came to Lin Xinghuo's office, which he had pointed out: "We'll be neighbors from now on. From the looks of it, who knows how many years we'll be living in the same yard. Making a good impression from the start is crucial."
These two would be close friends, dealing with each other frequently from now on. Wei Chunfeng wasn't there when they signed the contract, but later, when her siblings, the old branch secretary, and the team leader voluntarily signed the contract, the old branch secretary told them about it. So Wei Chunfeng was very enthusiastic, quickly putting down her pen, pulling out two wooden cups from the cabinet, and filling them with hot water to warm their stomachs. "Two leaders, please take a seat. Doctor Lin is at the health station and will be here soon."
This afternoon, the village elders hitched a ride on a Moose cart back to Nanshan and wandered off to meet with Lin Xinghuo. The brigade headquarters was so busy that the old men and women had even decided to discuss matters in the small brick-and-tile conference room, feeling uncomfortable with the tables and chairs arranged in a circle.
The small farm technician asked, "The brigade headquarters has moved here, why not move the health center here?" Just like in Fangmaji Commune, two rooms were added next to the brigade headquarters to serve as a health center, which looked neat and tidy.
Wei Chunfeng pointed to the curtained back room behind her desk and the row of floor-to-ceiling cabinets against the wall outside. "This is also part of the health center. Doctor Lin is mostly here during the day. But the health center on South Mountain can't be moved either. It's better to be closer to where the health workers are." In fact, the foot of South Mountain and the brigade headquarters were about the same distance from the village's residential area, but the foot of South Mountain was surrounded by the village, while the brigade headquarters was surrounded by fields. Especially at night, when it was dark, if a member fell ill, it would be much safer to send them to the foot of South Mountain rather than to the brigade headquarters. After all, Lin Xinghuo lived on the south slope. For these reasons, the health center did not move.
When helping farmers harvest rice, the team leader of the agricultural technology station knew that Comrade Wei, who was particularly tough and divorced her husband to live alone with her daughter, had a close relationship with Lin Xinghuo. Therefore, he also tried to improve their relationship and picked up some words to talk about it.
"My last name is Peng, just call me Old Peng." The team leader used his name to open up the conversation. "My name is Peng Buchu, and my brother's name is Peng Zhijin. They're just a few foolish wishes born out of the hardships my grandmother endured in the old society. So, when I graduated from university and was assigned a job, they used my name to report me, saying my family had capitalist ideas..." He could have stayed in school in the provincial capital, but this letter of accusation sent him relegated to the small county town. He didn't change his name, though. He and his brother's names were a New Year's greeting he'd heard from a scholar after a senior citizen braved the wind and snow to squat outside a bookstore for a day. It truly blessed the twins, allowing them to successfully survive the old society, where medical care was scarce.
His apprentice looked at his master. His master had never said these things to anyone in the county, but why did he dare to speak more boldly in Bushiantun than when he was at home?
The master glared at him and said: "What are you afraid of! When it comes to feudal superstition, who can compare to that little fairy lady in their village who looks like an eyeball?"
The apprentice quickly introduced himself: "My name is Bao Yu, you can just call me Xiao Yu." Sheerly, he added that his "Yu" was the same as in "elm tree." Originally, the child's name was indeed Abalone, but his master, Old Peng, learned from his mistakes and worried that people would think his apprentice was "eating abalone and sea cucumbers like a wealthy landlord," so he changed it to "Yu," the same as in "elm tree."
After discussing some things that were not suitable to be said in public, the two sides immediately became much closer. Xiaoyu asked, "Why are there so many people from other villages?"
Wei Chunfeng told the story of what happened in Liangzigou, and said, "The beds, cabinets, tables and chairs in your dormitory are all made of trees cut down from the West Mountain by Liangzigou. Not only did we confiscate the trees, but we also had to ask them to replant the seedlings." Not only the trees from the West Mountain, but also the wood obtained from the burned-out forest on the North Mountain were taken back. It was said that the people in Liangzigou were really bold. The wood they cut almost filled up the deep ditch of their brigade. These people did not cherish the wood they cut. When Lin Xinghuo led people to dig up the wood, they found that the two bottom layers in the ditch were rotten.
The good wood brought back could be used to make beams, while the inferior ones were planed and split into door frames, window frames, etc., saving the team a lot of money on purlins and rafters.
"What kind of saplings do you want to plant?" Old Peng was interested in this.
"Yew." Wei Chunfeng said.
Old Peng took a deep breath: "This tree is rare. I have only seen it in red pine forests before. It is difficult for it to grow into a forest." Yew is the scientific name, but it is actually the tree that people usually call red cedar or yew. This kind of tree grows slowly, and it takes a hundred years to grow to the thickness of the waist. Often, if it fails to grow, it is cut down and the tree core is extracted to extract pigments. Therefore, even in a place like Selangor where there are old forests everywhere, yew is very rare.
Wei Chunfeng didn't actually know why the sapling was replanted, but she knew it was a sapling raised by Lin Xinghuo, so she said without hesitation, "The sapling raised by Doctor Lin will definitely survive."
Of course it can survive, Lao Peng and Xiao Yu thought, even if it grows ten meters in one night it is not impossible.
Lin Xinghuo had her reasons for choosing the yew from among so many trees. Like the giant panda, this tree is a living fossil among plants. Lin Xinghuo has discovered that the older a plant is, the more readily it absorbs spiritual energy without distorting. In a sense, spiritual energy, like radiation and pollution, is an external stimulus; any living thing will undergo some change. The most significant change spiritual energy brings to plants and animals is perhaps a reversion to their ancestral roots. Since plants and animals have blended so many "ancestral" elements over generations of evolution, reversions are particularly unpredictable. For example, when she cultivated rice seeds using Lingbijing and village rice, she encountered all sorts of unexpected problems. Some had overgrown ears and were inedible, while others produced fragrant flowers but no fruit. It took even more effort than creating spiritual rice to finally create a slightly higher-yielding rice variety that was at the semi-spiritual level, slightly infused with spiritual energy. Currently, it can only be grown in experimental plots for a short time. But the yew tree is different. Lin Xinghuo suspects that this tree has slowly degenerated from a spiritual tree into an ordinary tree. If it is given enough spiritual energy, it will grow very fast. It can really grow as tall as a hundred years in a month. The most important thing is that in an environment with abundant spiritual energy, a kind of moss grows at the roots of this tree. It is an extremely delicate and difficult to grow moss, and this moss can release spiritual energy!
Following Hongdoushan's words, the topic turned to the repayment of labor debts in Liangzigou. Xiaoyu felt that Buxiantun was at a disadvantage. Those people outside were too greedy. Not only had Buxiantun paid all the public grain, but it also handed over a million kilograms of sweet potatoes. Could it still afford to support so many outsiders?
Wei Chunfeng smiled and said: "It's true that he can eat a lot, but he is also very hardworking." The work he does is no less than during the busy farming season.
"There's still so much work?"
Old Peng rolled his eyes at his apprentice. Even if this city kid studied agriculture, he couldn't understand the hardships of farmers. The country's decision to send students to the countryside to work was far-sighted. Otherwise, within two generations, they would have forgotten the essence of hard work and perseverance. "Do you think that harvesting the crops is enough? Don't you have to dry the grain, sieve it, and sort it? Just take the sweet potatoes. They have to be sorted bit by bit manually. The ones with broken skins can't be kept, and the ones that are too big and too small have to be sorted out separately. Some of the good sweet potatoes are dried and stored, while others are chipped, dried, and ground into powder... Guy, you've been an agricultural technician for several years, and you're still so unreasonable! Fine, the county only had that little experimental field before, so you couldn't do much work. Now there are more than a hundred acres of land. You have to work hard for me. Not only from picking to harvesting, but also the subsequent handling, storage, and processing. Work for a year and I'll see if you still say that!"
Lin Xinghuo just walked in when he said this, and he smiled and said, "That's fine! We're working on the corn noodles right now, and Mr. Bao would be a good opportunity to experience it."
Hearing Lin Xinghuo's words, Wei Chunfeng said happily, "Are the corn noodles really ready?"
"It's done, and it tastes pretty good." Lin Xinghuo said, "Grandma Wei also said that it's softer than two-grain noodles." This is mainly because a small amount of corn starch is mixed into the corn noodles, and the corn noodles are particularly thin, so they are very soft when cooked.
"The yard with the well is used as a 'side dish workshop', and corn noodles occupy one workshop." Lin Xinghuo pointed in the direction of the workshop, but his eyes unconsciously looked towards Nanshan.
Wei Chunfeng saw this but didn't say anything. When Master Peng and his apprentice happily went to the corn noodle workshop to try the noodles, she asked, "Is there still no movement from Lotus Peak?"
Lin Xinghuo nodded, and the caracal on its back patted her and stretched out its furry tail in front of her for Lin Xinghuo to grab and play with.
Every year at the end of September, the fog on Lotus Peak dissipates, and Buxian Temple reappears, remaining closed until heavy snow blocks the road. Buxian Temple isn't always hidden during the rest of the year. Sometimes, during severe spring famines, the old fairy opens the gates to Buxian Temple and shares her surplus food with the villagers below. This is why everyone firmly believes that the old fairy possesses magical powers. If nothing else, she can at least control the fog on Lotus Peak.
But this year, even after waiting until now, the fog over Lotus Peak hadn't dissipated. Lin Xinghuo went up the mountain to search, but just like in summer and autumn, even using her spiritual sense to explore the path couldn't find the correct path. She kept returning to her starting point, as if trapped in a maze. She suspected it was a complex formation, similar to those deployed by ancient immortal cultivation sects, with layers of concealment, trapping, and defense arrays stacked on top of each other, creating an extremely complex formation. The key to controlling the formation lay in the hands of her master. But why didn't her master want to see her?
"The only good news is that if you put the thing next to the fox pine, it will disappear at midnight. It must be that the master has accepted it." Lin Xinghuo smiled bitterly.
This fox pine suddenly appeared after she entered the formation several times. She didn't know about it before until she accidentally mentioned this strange-shaped pine tree to Wei Chunfeng. Wei Chunfeng said, "It's the fox pine. It turns out it's just to the right of the front gate of Buxian Temple." Lin Xinghuo realized that this tree was really not sure whether it was trimmed by humans or created by the magic of nature. The crown of the tree really looked like a fox running towards the sky, especially the dense crown below, as if the fox was dragging several tails.
The fox cubs were particularly fond of this tree. The eldest fox even climbed up a branch and struggled to strike a pose similar to the treetop's crown, nearly falling from the tree. This reminded Lin Xinghuo of the crooked tree above the yellow fox's lair. These little animals had similar mindsets; they all loved having trees shaped like themselves placed outside their homes. So, what was the connection between the old master and foxes? Or, to put it another way, what was her relationship with him?
The appearance of this fox pine tree suddenly made Lin Xinghuo realize something she had always overlooked: she didn't seem human, at least not completely human! But this issue didn't matter much. She was already a cultivator, so being a fox-human hybrid wasn't a big deal. At the very least, she just had to avoid living like an alien.
"After work today, can you teach me how to sew a cotton-padded jacket?" Lin Xinghuo said to Wei Chunfeng. She wanted to use new cotton to make a new cotton-padded jacket for her master. This time she wanted to line it with a layer of rabbit fur. Anyway, her master would wear it in the temple, and no one could report her.
Wei Chunfeng agreed readily. Ever since Lin Xinghuo had salvaged the sewing machine she'd brought back from the black market the previous year and taught her how to operate it, Wei Chunfeng had fallen in love with sewing machines, as if she'd discovered a new world. She was patient enough to figure it out, and after two trips to the commune, she could now embroider with a sewing machine. But Lin Xinghuo still preferred to sew by hand. Wei Chunfeng couldn't understand the strange patterns she added to her clothes, so she simply didn't ask and taught her all her techniques for cutting cotton coats. Lin Xinghuo was a quick learner anyway, and the claws of her wild cat were incredibly sharp. Without even a knife or scissors, the cat would whip out a paw and cut anything, whether it was leather or fabric, with a few strokes...
Lin Xinghuo's current attainments in formations were still far from reaching the core, so she had no choice but to suppress her doubts for the time being. She simply piled things onto the fox pine tree, everything from food to daily necessities. Once she was done, she would wait until midnight, only then would she feel at ease when the things disappeared. At least that meant the master was fine. Perhaps because she had bothered the old man too often, the master had grown annoyed. One day, the fox pine tree disappeared again, leaving only a tree pit. Inside the pit was a yellow talisman, still with the familiar four characters "Infinite Life and Blessings" on it, and a line scribbled on the back: "Do not go up the mountain except on the first day of the month. Live your life well!"
This note made Lin Xinghuo feel truly relieved. She wrote a long letter and put it into the tree pit with hope. However, the letter paper was soaked by frost and no one took it away. She could only wait until the first day of the next month to come back.
But by some strange coincidence, at the end of October, the identity that the old fairy had painstakingly arranged for Lin Xinghuo suddenly encountered a minor problem. On the last day of October, a heavy snow fell, and Lin Xinghuo saw He Qing, carrying a bicycle, approaching the warm door of his new office.
Minister He looked in a mess, with snow and mud mixed together on his body, but the wheels of the bicycle were still relatively clean.
Even though Lin Xinghuo had good eyesight, he didn't recognize He Qinglai at first glance: "What are you doing?" Is the car being ridden by others, or are people being treated like slaves by the car?
But the two agricultural technicians who were working and heating in Lin Xinghuo's room, as well as Wei Chunfeng and Wei Layue, all agreed. Old Peng also said, "It looks like it's going to snow, and you're still riding a bike? If you fall into a snowdrift and your bike is buried and you can't find it, you won't be showing off!" This kind of thing has happened many times in the countryside. The snow is too thick and people fall off their bikes. They can't get their bikes out for a while, so they think of going home first and then trying to find the bikes later. But the snow in the Snow Province is not something you can remember just because you want to. If it's close to a village, you can still have a good idea of where you are. If it's in a place where there's no village or shop, you can only look for the bikes the next year after the snow melts. After being buried in snow and water for several months, the tires and chains of the bikes will be basically useless when you dig them out.
He Qing first handed his precious bicycle to Lao Peng, asking him to help him carry it inside. Then he stomped his feet and patted his head to shake off the snow under the eaves. As he did so, he said to Lin Xinghuo, "The city of Beijing called our county to verify your situation."
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