Chapter 83 University Classmates
Ji Hefeng first took a military vehicle to the city, then transferred to a black SUV, and arrived in Kyoto the next morning.
He slept almost the entire way in the car, so the journey wasn't too difficult. His ability to fall asleep had evolved along with his physical body; he could fall asleep within two minutes, anywhere, if he wanted to. This was his favorite ability, besides his overall physical evolution.
With training intensity like theirs, and without enough sleep, their bodies can easily break down, and their mental health will suffer as well.
Ji Hefeng got out of the car yawning, and the moment he looked up, he met a face that was both unfamiliar and familiar.
"Long time no see." The young man smiled warmly and extended his hand to Ji Hefeng. His palms were large, with rough knuckles and thick calluses, showing that he hadn't missed a beat in his daily training.
Ji Hefeng narrowed his eyes slightly, his tone cold, "Do I know you?"
The young man's smile froze for a moment, then quickly returned to normal. "It seems you have a bad memory, Hefeng. It's all my fault for not being good enough to leave a deep impression on you. In that case, let me reintroduce myself. My name is Zhao Chengfeng, and I was your classmate in university."
Zhao Chengfeng is thirty years old and a regimental-level officer in the Kyoto Military Region.
Ji Hefeng chuckled, "Oh, it's you. You've aged a lot, no wonder I didn't recognize you."
"Is that so?" Zhao Chengfeng gritted his teeth so hard they almost broke.
“We’ve gotten old, but you haven’t changed a bit, Hefeng,” the woman beside him said, winking playfully at Ji Hefeng. “Hefeng, you don’t remember me either, do you?”
"Sorry, I really don't remember," Ji Hefeng said honestly.
The woman sighed, a sad expression on her face. "I am Sun Yixin."
Sun Yixin, Ji Hefeng's classmate in college, was once the most beautiful girl in their class. At the age of twenty-nine, she was like a mature rose, dazzling and captivating.
Ji Hefeng nodded slightly to the other party as a greeting.
"He Feng, you should thank me this time. I was the one who recommended you to the higher-ups." Zhao Chengfeng's smile didn't reach his eyes.
"Such a good opportunity, you should keep it for yourself. I'd rather avoid it." Ji Hefeng glanced at Zhao Chengfeng. "How about we switch the person doing the task? You take over, what do you say?"
Zhao Chengfeng choked. If he could go himself, why would he recommend Ji Hefeng?
“He Feng, stop joking with Cheng Feng. Time is of the essence. Let me explain the mission objectives and the current situation.” Sun Yixin gestured for Ji He Feng to proceed. “Let’s talk as we walk.”
Ten minutes later, Ji Hefeng sat on the mahogany sofa, his handsome face expressionless, his deep eyes as unfathomable as the night sky.
"Should we pretend to be a couple and go to the port city?" Ji Hefeng asked.
Sun Yixin nodded, "We'll go to the neighboring country first, and then cross over from there. We need two people who can speak English, and you and I are a good fit."
“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” Ji Hefeng said.
Sun Yixin asked, puzzled, "What's wrong with it?"
“You look older than me, so it’s not appropriate for you to pretend to be my boyfriend. I think it would be better if you pretended to be a businessman. You can be my secretary, and I’ll be a businessman investing in Hong Kong.” Ji Hefeng said, leaning back and crossing his legs. His relaxed and aloof demeanor, if he were to smoke a cigar, would give him the air of a capitalist.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said the middle-aged man who hadn’t spoken until now. “Investors have more control, so let’s go with it.”
Sun Yixin's face darkened as she glared fiercely at Ji Hefeng. There was plenty of time; she wasn't sure she couldn't win him over. Before, Ji Hefeng was too young to understand matters of the heart, but now, she was confident he would fall head over heels for her.
Zhao Chengfeng glanced at Sun Yixin, then at Ji Hefeng, and sneered inwardly. This time, he was determined to make sure Ji Hefeng never returned.
Five miles from the camp was a market organized by the commune, held every five days. Except for grain, all other agricultural products could be freely bought and sold at the market. Besides food, there were also useful items, a fairly wide variety. The military dependents in the camp frequently came to this market to buy things.
Today was market day, and Molly brought some children to take a look. She planned to buy some ducklings to raise in the river, but after walking around for a while, she couldn't find anyone selling ducklings.
"Five cents for a gosling is too expensive; it's almost enough to buy a pound of meat." The woman shook her head, turned around, and left.
The young man selling goslings opened his mouth as if to say something, but the woman had already walked away.
"Geese are prone to illness and difficult to raise. Selling them for 50 cents each is indeed too expensive. Ducklings only cost 20 cents each," said the old woman selling vegetables nearby.
The young man lowered his head and remained silent.
“Mom, there are ducklings here,” Lu Lu said to Molly, pointing to the goslings.
“It’s not a duck, it’s a goose. A gosling is bigger than a duckling,” the young man explained, his face turning red when he looked up and saw Molly.
"Is it a goose? I've never seen a goose before." Lu Lu was extremely curious and wanted to reach out to touch it, but Mo An stopped him. "What did I tell you before we left? Chicks and ducklings are weak. If you're not sure you want to buy them, don't touch them."
"Okay. They're so cute, I couldn't resist." Lu Lu looked at the fluffy little goslings, his heart itching to try them.
“Geese are prone to illness and difficult to raise,” Mo Chuyang said. “I’ve heard that unless you’re an experienced goose farmer, it’s best not to raise geese.”
“But geese can grow very big, up to twenty or thirty pounds.” Mo An looked at the goslings, then turned to look at his sister. “Geese are more expensive than ducks. When the geese grow up, I’ll make you stewed goose in an iron pot, roast goose, and braised goose.”
Molly: "......."
Can this child please stop looking at her while she says these things?
"They might not even grow big," the young man selling geese whispered.
"Hey, what's wrong with you? Do you still want to sell your goose?" Mo An said angrily.
"Only my grandfather in our village knows how to raise geese. Everyone else tried, but the geese all died." The woman across from him was so beautiful; he didn't want to take advantage of her.
“If my grandfather hadn’t gotten sick, I wouldn’t have brought these goslings out to sell.”
Molly raised an eyebrow. "How much for each one? I'll take them all."
The young man was stunned, and muttered, "I just said they're not easy to raise."
“Oh, that’s exactly what I’d like to try,” Molly said.
"I have twelve goslings here, five cents each, six dollars in total. Will you buy them all?" The young man still seemed a little skeptical.
Molly counted out six dollars from her pocket and handed them over, saying, "Take them all."
The young man took the money and then believed that Molly really wanted to buy geese. "Since you've bought all the geese, I'll give you this cage as well, and these vegetables to feed the goslings too."
"Thank you." Molly carried the cage in her hand, and put the vegetables into the basket on Mo An's back.
After buying the geese, Molly saw some homespun cloth for sale and bought some more. The children grow quickly and use up a lot of cloth. They didn't have enough cloth coupons, so homespun cloth would do.
“Sister, there’s a stall selling cloth shoes over there.” Mo An pointed to the stall next to him, knowing that his sister didn’t like making shoes.
Sure enough, as soon as she heard that there were shoes for sale, Molly immediately went over and bought two pairs for everyone in the family, including Ji and Feng.
Next, they bought some vegetable seeds, some dried wood ear mushrooms and dried mushrooms, and four pieces of maltose, one for each of them, and slowly licked them as they walked back to the camp with sticks.
Back home, Molly went up the mountain to cut some branches to build a shed for the goslings.
"Sister, let's build a trellis for the grapevines while we're at it, right by the corner of the wall," Mo An suggested.
The grapevines planted a few months ago have grown to two or three meters long. Moan tried to get them to climb up the wall, but they kept falling down.
“Okay. The goose shed will also be built against the wall, and made a bit longer so the grapes can climb up it.” Molly gestured roughly. “It needs to be made of thicker wood and sturdier. I need to go up the mountain again.”
"It's getting dark, why don't we go tomorrow?" Mo An advised her.
"I'll walk faster and be back before dark." Molly hadn't even finished speaking when she was already outside the house.
As she said, she was very fast. Before Mo An had even finished cooking dinner, she was already carrying back six pieces of wood, all of which were trees that had been washed away by the flood some time ago.
Molly spent a day building a shed for the geese, providing them with a temporary home in the yard. She fed them vegetables every day, and also threw them some cooked potatoes and various melons.
After settling the goslings, Molly decided to harvest the peanuts.
Uncle Wang thought it was a bit early to harvest peanuts in early August, until Molly picked a peanut plant and asked Mo An to take it to the cafeteria, at which point Uncle Wang had nothing to say.
Whose peanut vine has more than two hundred peanuts growing on it?
Whose peanuts are so plump, with the kernels packed so tightly into the shells that they're impossible to break apart?
Could this young lady be the reincarnation of Shennong? Otherwise, how come the things she grows are all so extraordinary?
On the day Molly harvested peanuts, many military dependents came to join in the fun. Seeing the densely packed peanut kernels, everyone's eyes turned red with envy and jealousy.
Molly must have known she could grow good things, so she deliberately chose a spot right in front of the camp gate for her vegetable garden, making it impossible for those people to steal any.
There are guards at the camp gate at all times, and no one has dared to steal anything from Molly's vegetable garden yet.
"Molly, I'm planning to plant peanuts next year too. Your peanuts look great and would be perfect for seed. I'd like to trade some with you, is that alright?" Sister-in-law Zhu said to Molly.
With her taking the lead, the others followed suit.
Molly naturally had no objection. "Okay, sisters-in-law, how many do you want? Go back and make a list, and I'll keep some for you."
Besides saving seeds for them, Molly also gave each of them a dozen or so peanuts to taste. Seeing the plump peanut kernels inside the shells and the rich, oily flavor when they bit into them, the women became even more determined to have Molly save seeds for them.
The vegetable patch was six fen in total, and Molly planted peanuts on four fen. Harvesting the peanuts was easy; it was all done in less than an hour. Next, the peanut kernels were pulled off the vines.
Zhu Lezhi, Yu Chen, Cheng Cai, Qi Nian, and others arrived at this time.
"Sister, we'll help you harvest peanuts, and you'll take us fishing tomorrow. Do you agree?" Zhu Lezhi negotiated.
“I agree,” Molly replied.
With the children's help, Molly managed to collect all the peanuts that day.
The peanut vines were left in the vegetable garden; once they dried, Molly planned to burn them.
"One, two, three, four... fifteen bags." Mo An was stunned. Whose four-tenths of an acre of land could produce so many peanuts?
“It will shrink a bit more after it dries,” Molly said.
“That’s plenty.” Mo An smiled with satisfaction. “Now, we won’t lack oil for cooking.”
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