Chapter 90 Chapter 90 The Soul-Returning Tree
At present, there are basically no factories producing insulation boards. Even in the corners of Beijing, there are large areas of earthen houses. Brick and tile houses like tube-shaped buildings are symbols of respectability and having a company. Even if this type of building is a little thin and not heat-resistant or cold-proof, the general public subconsciously thinks it is a good house. If you live in a good house, why be picky?
In fact, this kind of tube-shaped building is really not as comfortable as the mud house which is warm in winter and cool in summer, especially when a whole family is squeezed into a house of less than 30 square meters. The whole building has a public toilet, and even going to the toilet in the morning is like a battle. Not to mention the feeling.
But the four people in dormitory 301 have never experienced this kind of life.
Xiao Lanqin and Tan Yuemei were both longtime Beijing residents. Xiao Lanqin's family had a half-square-courtyard house with its own bedroom. Tan Yuemei's family had experienced a period of hardship in the past, but from her grandparents to her older siblings, they were all experienced antique dealers with extensive connections. Even when they were in trouble, the family had a separate, separate courtyard from the larger compound, where they lived in their own house.
Cai Weihong and Qi Jianmin are both working parents. Qi Jianmin's family has been settled there since their factory was founded. When the factory was built, the area around it was still barren, and the Qi family built a small courtyard. After they got married, they refused to accept the room they were given in the tube-shaped building. Instead, they exchanged the old brick house with the factory and added another floor and a half to Qi's house. Although it looks a bit old, the courtyard is spacious and has the feel of a rural courtyard. Furthermore, their former workplace has become a well-known large factory, and the surrounding area has long been incorporated into the city. Their land is even closer to the city center than the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Not to mention Lin Xinghuo. The two old houses she lived in when she first came down the mountain were renovated by the villagers into three main rooms, which was popular in the countryside. She lived alone in a courtyard with three rooms, and this was the most "down and out" time.
Suddenly, I was living in a building with thirty dormitories on one floor. There was a bathroom at each end, and each bathroom had only two rows of ten faucets. Not only did I have to queue to use the bathroom in the morning, but I couldn't even brush my teeth, wash my face, or hang out my towel without queuing... It was a wonder I could get used to it. Especially as the weather got hotter, the roof and floorboards were sunburned through, and the third floor was like a steamer. The smell was unbearable.
"If the dorm manager agrees, I would rather spread my mat and sleep on the front porch downstairs!" Cai Weihong said as she helped with the work.
"That's impossible!" The woman standing guard in the hallway, watching the men working to prevent them from wandering off while constantly reminding the female students that there were outsiders inside, spoke in a rather loud voice. "I can't give you that opportunity. That west courtyard is in such a mess! The boys' mats are blocking the path. Last week, someone with a stomachache went out in the middle of the night and woke up half the building on the way to the outer gate. He even stepped on someone's ankle... There are a dozen or so people who are sick over there too, all infected by mosquito bites."
As expected of the logistics aunt at the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, she even gave them some advice: "We had a stinky puddle here, which was filled in a few years ago, and there are too many mosquitoes in the summer. You can ask the teachers if they can cut some mugwort or something from the medicine garden. Then I can fumigate the corridor for you so you don't have to suffer so much." These healthy girls rarely have big red and swollen bumps on their faces, and they couldn't help scratching them. Even after they finally got rid of the scars, there were still marks left, and the aunt felt distressed seeing it.
However, the three people in 301 were all doing fine. The dorm aunt glanced at the four mosquito nets set up in the room, and there wasn't even a patch on any of them. Then she looked at the young man working so hard. He was so skillful that two or three other janitors couldn't match him. And yet, his shirt collar was snow-white... his sleeves were rolled up twice, and he looked energetic and clean-cut. The aunt knew for sure that this was someone from an educated family. No wonder they privately said that 301 was home to four golden flowers.
It is really precious, otherwise the family would not have gone to so much trouble to get these thermal insulation boards.
Tan Yuemei glanced at the small bedside cabinet that had been moved away by Lin Xinghuo. She knew that the reason why there were few mosquito bites in the dormitory was not because of the mosquito net, but because of Lin Xinghuo's small incense burner.
"Burning mugwort for fumigation? It's hot and choking, it's all in vain." Wu Nian patted the window frame. The window frame was quite solid, but there was no screen inside the glass window. It would be a waste of time to fumigate once the window was opened.
Wu Nian took a roll of green window screen from the ox cart and asked the janitor, "Do you have any wooden strips here? I'll put a layer of window screen in it."
"How come you have everything?" The dormitory manager was stunned. No wonder you needed such a big animal to pull it. It had everything.
What could Wu Nian do? It was because the atmosphere at school was so intimidating that Xing Huo was driven to stay here every now and then. He could transform into a cub to keep him company, but since the beginning of summer, Xing Huo had pushed him away several times out of ten in disdain. They were both cultivators immune to cold and heat, but she had a reason to say she felt hot just looking at his fur.
But after it became a young cat, its nose became extremely delicate. If it was not close to the stars, it could not stand the smell coming from outside.
Wu Nian smiled and said, "I'll also put a gauze curtain on the door later and frame it with wooden strips so that the draft can't blow it up."
After a while, Room 301 changed drastically. Emerald green gauze curtains were hung on the windows and doors, and the walls inside the room turned grayish white, but they were very clean and a little soft when pressed.
When they pressed this light, fluttery material, two finger joints thick, onto the wall, several school workers were a bit skeptical. Wool, straw, hemp rope, and the like could keep people warm, but how effective it was was hard to say. Could such a light board really keep the heat out? But after they finished fixing the doors and windows, and, under Wu Nian's guidance, pieced together a desk from the remaining planks, they suddenly realized that the heat was indeed not that bad.
"It's like being under the shade of a tree?" Old Zhao, who was in charge of logistics and also worked on the school grounds, asked uncertainly.
"It's just the same as drying in the cool room." The dormitory manager stood at the door of Room 301, lifted the gauze curtain, took a step in, and then stepped out. She tried it over and over again: This really works. Although it's just one step, the feeling is completely different between being under the sun and being under the tree.
Old Zhao, who just thought the girl living in this room was spoiled and insisted on asking her family for special treatment, now stood up and shook hands with Wu Nian, and asked in his words which factory produced this thing and whether their school logistics department could purchase it.
The dorm manager tried to interrupt several times, but the young man had already told her that he was willing to build dormitories at both ends of the building. Old Zhao glared at his wife. With such good material delivered right to her doorstep, she only built a few dormitories? Was she stupid?
This insulation board wasn't simply a fusion of scraps from Lin Xinghuo's farm outside Beijing. Without Wu Nian's work, the natural materials wouldn't have been nearly as effective. But the production process wasn't complicated. Like Buxiantunsong wine, insulation board was a new industry accessible to ordinary people, provided they had Lin Xinghuo's wine infusion and pre-made wine jars inscribed with formations.
Now that Lin Xinghuo's team in Buxiantun had arrived, the three Wei siblings had all come to Beijing. Not only them, but also several young people who wanted to make a living but couldn't get into local schools on their own had also come out. Lin Xinghuo's farm in the suburbs of Beijing was beginning to take shape, and she had enough dilapidated houses to exchange for, so it wasn't difficult to accommodate these people, but how to accommodate them was not easy.
Wei Layue, who now oversees the farm, hasn't quite found her niche. Farming isn't her forte, nor does she have the management and assignment skills Wei Chunfeng possesses. She prefers to be a salesperson, and negotiating deals is her forte. But Lin Xinghuo's farm is different from others. She doesn't need to be out there doing sales; the people returning from Hetan Farm have already scooped up all the produce. Especially since Little Fairy has created the "Non-Salty Mountain Pine Eggplant," a product for cleansing lungs and quitting smoking, even those sales channels Wei Layue couldn't fathom are vying for orders.
Layue was having a bit of a hard time. She looked quiet and gentle on the surface, but actually she was as strong-willed as Grandma Wei. In the past half year since she came to Jingshi, she had accomplished almost nothing except finding some orders for Songjiu. Wei Layue didn't want to be a "freeloader". She negotiated business with the ships going to and from Jinshi, but she couldn't help Xinghuo Farm, which had no shortage of sales channels.
Unfortunately, apart from the expensive pine wine, it's not cost-effective to ship other goods from Buxian. The goods are good, but the price is too high with the shipping costs. No matter how big the market here is or how scarce the supplies are, it's not worth buying agricultural products that are more expensive than the black market.
Wei Layue, who lacked a sense of accomplishment and couldn't find her own role, was very uneasy. She should have settled down and put her plan of bringing the triplets on hold. Layue felt ashamed to bring this up: she hadn't made any contribution to the fairy lady, so where did all the demands come from?
Even though Lin Xinghuo's initial plan required her help in many areas, the farm in Jing City would not be so small, and there would not be only this one. As long as the policy of contracting land came down, Wei Layue would find orders for countless productions... Wei Layue believed in these plans, so even though she was uneasy, she still persisted and worked hard.
But the contracting policy was supposed to be in the 1980s, still a few years away. Even for someone like Lin Xinghuo, there was no reason to let them suffer for years. The days of working hard but seeing no results were numerous during those years of the movement. Hence the advent of this new insulation material. Lin Xinghuo and Wu Nian had their first small workshop in a dilapidated house next to their farm outside Beijing.
Of course, private operation is not allowed now, so this small workshop is still under the name of a factory.
Thermal insulation material is a new thing. Although "Buxianshan Insulation Board" is very cheap, ordinary people cannot use or afford it. To support this small workshop, the first step is to let people know about it.
Although Wu Nian had selfish motives, what he did today was indeed a model for Wei Layue.
Because it was the school where Lin Xinghuo was studying, Wu Nian quickly made a preliminary agreement with the logistics staff, Lao Zhao, by half donating and half selling the school. The next step was for Wei Layue to negotiate the details with Lao Zhao's superiors.
As soon as Wei Chunxing and Zhou Liang arrived, Wu Nian sent them away, one to inform Wei Layue, the other to tell Wei Chunfeng to start work. Zhou Liang, of course, was helping Wei Layue. He had been admitted to a local engineering school and had helped assemble some of the equipment for the new workshop. Wei Chunfeng, on the other hand, had attended a top university, but she'd chosen a major in the unexpectedly named "library and archives management." However, she was able to gather a team wherever she went, and half of the people working in the new workshop were recruited by her.
They were all Wei Chunfeng's family members: their husbands, wives, and even their two teenaged children, about fourteen or fifteen years old. University students now received subsidies, but a dozen yuan a month wasn't enough to support a family, so those educated youth who refused to abandon their rural families lived a particularly difficult life. Wei Chunfeng had no idea how she had managed to bring everyone together, but their work ethic was even more dedicated than those from Buxiantun. Furthermore, they had Wei Chunfeng's classmates as their backers, making them, to a certain extent, the most reliable employees.
Of course, Wu Nian and Lin Xinghuo were not afraid of leaks. What supported the excellent performance of the Buxianshan insulation board were the machine cores refined by Wu Nian and the arrays engraved by Lin Xinghuo, rather than the preliminary processing of materials that required the most manpower.
While the East and West Gardens hadn't yet installed telephone lines, a dilapidated house in the suburbs of Beijing had already installed one, with the help of Old Ning and that big-headed Ding. Wei Layue quickly arrived at the school, and after Wu Nian had used up the entire roll of green gauze he brought with him and installed window screens in the corridors and other public areas, he and the other men were "invited" out of the dormitory building by the eager dormitory manager.
If Wu Nian hadn't said that he could get more rolls of mosquito nets, the aunt probably wouldn't even agree to Wu Nian's request to wait for someone downstairs.
Inside the room, Lin Xinghuo took out her small incense burner from the small bedside table made by Wu Nian and handed it to Tan Yuemei: "Touch it."
Cai Weihong wiped her face with a wet towel and sighed comfortably: "Open the windows on both sides, it's so cool when the breeze blows!" After the screens were installed in Room 301, in order to ventilate the room, several students in the room opposite also got a piece of screen, and installed it themselves.
"Xinghuo, how about we cut some mugwort leaves after class tomorrow? They can be dried in the sun in a short while. Then we can put a broken clay pot at the door and burn some of them to get rid of the smell." Cai Weihong twitched his nose. It was good to open the doors and windows for ventilation, but the smell from the toilet was a bit obvious.
Lin Xinghuo thought of the open space behind the building. It would be very convenient to plant some mugwort, mint, pyrethrum, etc. If he transplanted a few trees in front of and behind the building, it would probably be cooler.
"How about we start a small herb garden in the back?" Lin Xinghuo said, "I have a few recipes for incense blending. They use common herbs, and they're better at repelling insects and removing odors than burning mugwort directly."
Tan Yuemei caressed the small incense burner, turning it over and over, unable to let it go. She looked up and said, "Don't use your family's secret recipes; we have them in books. Besides, we can borrow books from the library and try the ancient remedies recorded there." A few of her classmates had basic knowledge, like squad leader Ge, who could be called an "old" doctor. But Lin Xinghuo was the most unique. Her approach was different from others, more closely aligned with the ancient medical traditions that began with Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. She had many secret recipes and acupuncture techniques that were different from others, but the results were surprisingly good—Lin Xinghuo had even received exemptions from professors for several courses.
Cai Weihong nodded. "That's right. When it works, it'll be difficult to give it to someone who asks for the recipe." She gave it to him. This was Lin Xinghuo's own recipe. It wasn't just a few years ago anymore. Some recipes could truly feed several generations. But if she didn't give it to him? Lin Xinghuo's reputation would only get worse, and people would inevitably gossip about it. Cai Weihong was especially worried about her recipe being leaked. After all, she had just said it used common herbs, and everyone was learning the recipe. Someone might steal it and steal it.
"It's quite feasible to open a herb garden in this vacant space at the back. Some people in our class said before that the herb garden was too far away and inconvenient." It would be a pity to leave it empty. The dormitory manager has planted a few loofahs and pumpkins in the flower bed in the front. I'll ask the aunt for some seeds, set up a few racks around the place and plant the pumpkin seeds. In less than a month, the vines will surround this place.
For those studying Chinese medicine, more contact with raw materials helps them better understand the course, especially the upcoming processing course. Hands-on practice is much more effective than rote memorization. Cai Weihong, who previously worked in a pharmacy and now receives a monthly stipend from the staff hospital, understands firsthand the importance of herbal quality and processing techniques.
Wu Nian's ears moved slightly downstairs, and he couldn't help laughing: His son Xinghuo is really going his own way, and is determined to be a farmer.
Are herbal farmers also farmers? Lin Xinghuo retorted in a voice transmission.
She neatly packed up her things and was about to go downstairs to go home for the weekend. Tan Yuemei quickly grabbed her and returned the small incense burner. Seeing Lin Xinghuo put it in the drawer of the small cabinet, Tan Yuemei grinned, leaned on her mat, and covered her chest with her hands, feeling sorry for her.
"This thing is used after it is burned." Lin Xinghuo said with a smile.
Her Master Fang used to use real antiques. The vases for arranging flowers and the brush washers were all genuine things that were hundreds of years old. If he didn't value things made by Wu Nian more now, I'm afraid he would have dug up more than just the cellar of books.
Cai Weihong had already spread out the book and asked Tan Yuemei in some confusion: "You are so fond of those antiques, how did you get admitted to our school?" Although both things become more popular as people get older, Chinese medicine and antiques have nothing in common.
Tan Yuemei pounded the pillow twice with her fists and said dejectedly, "That means I didn't get in." Last year, time was so tight that each candidate could apply to five key universities and five ordinary schools. No one in her family had ever done well in exams, so she applied to four schools with majors such as cultural relics and archaeology in the dark. She couldn't think of what to apply to for the last key university, so she filled in a Chinese medicine college.
I don't know what the admissions rules are, but she was accepted anyway. She was young, so taking the exam another year wouldn't hurt anything. But her useless father was afraid she wouldn't pass this year, so he forced her to enroll.
This is also the reason why Tan Yuemei unexpectedly did not report on the first day. She was protesting at home that day.
Tan Yuemei waved her hands at Lin Xinghuo listlessly: "Don't forget to find me at the flea market tomorrow. I'll show you my precious stamp album. I also have several sets of coin albums..."
"Oh, my grandfather exchanged a gourd inlaid with gems for something. It's really, really rare. I'll steal it out and show it to you tomorrow." Tan Yuemei suddenly remembered something and came over to whisper to Lin Xinghuo, "That gourd feels warm to the touch. It's said that it won't freeze your hands even in winter. You've definitely never seen it!"
"I'll let you touch it. Can you lend me this incense burner to play with for two days?" Tan Yuemei was reluctant to let the small incense burner stay in the dormitory. Tomorrow was the weekend and the three of them had to go home. What if it was lost?
What's wrong with that? Wu Nian refined quite a few in one cauldron, and Lin Xinghuo picked out the ugliest and worst one before bringing it to the dormitory to use.
It was a coincidence that Tan Yuemei asked her to go and see the antique gourds in her house tomorrow, and in the West Garden of Sajin Hutong, the gourd on the earliest treasure gourd vine planted by Lin Xinghuo himself had finally matured.
The small gourds have been bearing fruit for several years. I don’t know if it has something to do with Lin Xinghuo whispering about “Seven-Colored Gourd Baby” to the gourd vine, but the gourd vine really produced small gourds of different colors.
"It's a pity there are not seven." Lin Xinghuo circled the treasure gourd vine in the water jade jar twice, and with his hands pinched, he passed a stream of pure wood spiritual energy to it. The gourd vine shook, and the emerald-like leaves opened slightly, revealing a green palm-sized gourd, which absorbed all the wood spiritual energy in one go.
"Huh?" Fang Tongjian took a closer look. The green gourd seemed to dislike people. The two leaves on the vine closed again, covering the green gourd tightly.
Such a lush gourd vine only produced four small gourds, which were orange, yellow, green and purple, but the colors were not pure. For example, the largest orange gourd was actually closer to orange-red.
But the pure wood spiritual energy transmitted by Lin Xinghuo seemed to have coated the green gourd with a layer of glaze, and the green light was refreshing to look at.
"Let me try?" Wu Nian said, and sent out a stream of water spirit and earth spirit respectively. The earth spirit made the leaves of the yellow gourd separate, but the water spirit was absorbed by the gourd vine.
Wu Nian pondered for a moment and summoned a small cloud. A thunder dragon, as thick as a fingertip, hovered above it, its lazy demeanor somewhat reminiscent of Wu Nian on a June day. But as the cloud approached the gourd vine, the smallest and deepest purple gourd, hidden deepest, extended a tender vine and swept the thunder dragon away. "Puff!" the vine at the top of the purple gourd curled up, making a sound similar to a burp.
"This one is of wood attribute, this one is of earth attribute, and there is also one of thunder attribute." Lin Xinghuo pointed at the orange gourd at the highest point. Could this one be of fire attribute?
She twisted her wrist, and Zhu Longdan, who was fast asleep, clutching her natal spirit vine, flew out. Zhu Longdan was the essence of earthly fire, purer than any other fire in the world, save for the eight kinds of heavenly fire. But such a pure and powerful fire had its entire flame tail snatched away by the orange gourd, leaving the bald Zhu Longdan flaming in anger.
But the orange gourd that had been stripped bare of its gentian was in a bad state. Its lower half had become a rich orange, but the upper half seemed to have faded...
Not only is it fading, it's also drying up, and it seems like it's about to break in the next second?
Lin Xinghuo used the Quanyu technique with his fingers, but it had no effect. The Quanyu technique could make plants grow quickly, but it couldn't help the small gourd mature quickly.
Is it going to fail?
Six years had passed since Lin Xinghuo planted the gourd seed. During this time, the Jinglian, which could prompt demonic beasts to transform, had risen in rank, blossoming and bearing fruit several times under the influence of the Quanyu technique... Lin Xinghuo had used his talents to cultivate many spiritual plants and discovered several spiritual herbs that accompanied spirits. Only the treasure gourd vine remained unharvested. After years of bearing fruit, it had dwindled from a dozen or so finger-sized gourds to only four left.
When it is about to mature, the biggest and most popular one will be finished.
Even Lin Xinghuo felt bad, as landlords didn't have any surplus food these days.
Suddenly, Wu Nian formed seals with his hands, and a small stream appeared out of thin air, flowing happily towards the orange gourd, and in the blink of an eye it wrapped up the upper half of the gourd.
The orange gourd seemed to have finally received a downpour after a long drought, and its layer of water coat was becoming thinner and thinner.
Wu Nian continued to summon Jing Lian's lotus heart water. Just when it was full, the three of them heard a "crack" sound, and the large blue and orange gourd broke apart.
A small orange sapling with a faint blue bud on top was revealed.
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The author has something to say: The Soul-Returning Tree Baby is online. Guess what the role of Lin Xinghuo’s version of “Huluwa” is?
Happy New Year, little angels! New Year, new beginnings, bring the fat fish home!
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