Pastoral Daily Life

“Am I getting greedy?” Lu Lingxi whispered to Dahei.

Dahei whimpered twice quietly, as if to refute Lu Lingxi’s words. Lu Lingxi puffed out a laugh and scratched Dahei’s chin with a smile.

It was still early in the morning and the road was empty, so Lu Lingxi didn’t put a muzzle on Dahei. Dahei trotted a few steps excitedly, turned his head and barked twice at Lu Lingxi. Lu Lingxi understood what Dahei meant; he was asking to run with him. He looked at Dahei helplessly; Dahei ran back to Lu Lingxi’s side in a flash, gently bit his pant leg and dragged him forward.

Lu Lingxi: “……”

Because of his poor health in the past, Lu Lingxi actually liked to be quiet and not to move much, but Dahei didn’t understand Lu Lingxi’s psychology. Every time he was having fun, he had to drag Lu Lingxi along. Lu Lingxi stroked Dahei’s head speechlessly and was forced by Dahei to trot all the way to the flower market.

The two of them went straight to the corner of the flower market where the half-dead flowers and plants were discarded, and carefully examined them.

Lu Lingxi soon found a few calla lilies that were not yet dead. The panel showed that these calla lilies had started to rot from the petioles (the stalk that joins a leaf to a stem), which seemed to be caused by improper fertilisation. He planned to take them back and try to see if they could be saved, so that they could be kept at home to add some atmosphere.

Dahei, who had been quiet, suddenly straightened up and gave a low bark. Lu Lingxi turned around and when he saw who was behind him, surprise flashed in his eyes.

“Grandpa Zhang, Grandpa Zhao.”

Not far from Lu Lingxi, two old men were looking at him with a smile. They were none other than Elder Zhang and Elder Zhao, who had fertilised the pansies with Lu Lingxi at the hospital before.

As soon as Lu Lingxi turned around, Elder Zhang burst into laughter and said cheerfully, “I thought it was Xiao Xi when I looked at him from afar, Elder Zhao, I am not wrong, right?”

Elder Zhao grunted at him and turned his head to smile amiably at Lu Lingxi, “How are you? How is your recovery going? Have you recalled anything?”

Lu Lingxi was now used to the excuse of memory loss and shook his head with a smile, “My body is fine, but I still can’t remember anything.”

Elder Zhang didn’t care, “You are still young, just forget it if you can’t remember, you have to look more towards the future.”

Lu Lingxi smiled and nodded.

Elder Zhang and Elder Zhao lived nearby. They woke up early every day to stroll around the flower market, not expecting to meet Lu Lingxi today. After some questioning, they found out that Lu Lingxi was now working in a gardening shop and that he had picked up an extremely fine spring orchid here last time, and wanted to come over again to try his luck. When Elder Zhang heard about the spring orchid, he was immediately interested and grabbed Lu Lingxi to ask him what the plant looked like. When he heard that the spring orchid had broken roots and was growing new roots, he couldn’t help but look distressed.

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“How is it doing? Is it alive?”

Lu Lingxi nodded; he had seen it through the panel, the newborn root system of the spring orchid was tiny but already growing out.

Elder Zhang’s eyes lit up, he held Lingxi and wanted to go take a look right now. “Come on, let’s go and take a look at the spring orchid.”

Elder Zhao shook his head helplessly and gestured to Lu Lingxi, “He is just like this, as soon as he hears there is a good orchid anywhere he has to go and have a look. Don’t be offended, Xiao Xi.”

Lu Lingxi curved his eyes in a smile. He thought it was good that Elder Zhang was like this, he would only be like this if he really liked orchids. Before Elder Zhang and Elder Zhao came, Lu Lingxi had basically seen almost everything. Except for the few calla lilies, all the other plants were dead. Without the power of nature, there was nothing he could do. After collecting the calla lilies, Lu Lingxi took Elder Zhang and Elder Zhao back to Tiny Garden.

As soon as they entered Tiny Garden, a strange look flashed in Elder Zhao’s eyes. He had been tinkering with flowers and plants every day, so he could naturally see that the potted plants in Tiny Garden were all quite well raised and could be described as vibrant, making people really like them. He looked at Lu Lingxi in amazement, only to feel that the boy’s future life was terrifying.

Elder Zhang’s mind was so absorbed by the spring orchid that he didn’t pay attention to the potted plants around him and pulled Lu Lingxi to look at the orchid. When Lu Lingxi carefully held out the spring orchid, Elder Zhang’s eyes lit up and he exclaimed, “The leaves are green and verdant, with the right combination of rigidity and softness, lofty and unyielding as if made by Heaven. A good orchid!”

As the saying goes, “When you look at an orchid, look at the leaves and you will see the flowers”. It meant that the quality of the leaves corresponded with the quality of the flowers after blooming. Although the spring orchid in front of him was not in bloom yet, he could see that the leaves were delicate and firm, so he could tell that the quality was definitely not bad. Elder Zhang’s heart stirred. He couldn’t sit still as if a kitten was scratching his heart. He looked and looked at the orchid and touched it carefully, his eyes shining like Dahei’s when he saw a chicken leg. Elder Zhao saw what he was thinking and smiled, not arguing with him.

Elder Zhang looked for a long time, made up his mind and said to Lu Lingxi, “Xiao Xi, are you selling this spring orchid?”

Lu Lingxi could see that Elder Zhang liked this spring orchid very much, but he didn’t expect that Elder Zhang would want to buy it. Just…

Elder Zhang took one look at Lu Lingxi’s expression, guessed what he was thinking and laughed, “Is Xiao Xi worried that Grandpa Zhang can’t afford it?”

Lu Lingxi blushed and got a little embarrassed. He was not sure about the identities of Elder Zhang and Elder Zhao. The value of the orchid was too high and he needed to sell the orchid to pay back Yan Yue, so he could not lower the price too much, and he was worried that they would not be able to agree about the price.

Elder Zhang didn’t care, “A good orchid is hard to find. This orchid is of good quality and is definitely worth a lot of money. Come on, Xiao Lu, let’s discuss it.”

He was old, had worked hard all his life, and his only hobby after retirement was these flowers and plants, and he didn’t care about money at all. Without waiting for Lu Lingxi to ask, he offered a price of 300,000. Lu Lingxi froze for a moment, hesitantly wanting to lower the price a bit. Grandpa Su had said at the time that it would be worth 300,000 if it was raised well, but now this spring orchid was still growing its roots, so it was definitely not worth that much.

He was telling the truth here, and Elder Zhao smiled suddenly. This child, Xiao Xi, was honest and didn’t understand the secret. A superb orchid was hard to find, and if it was raised well, it was not a matter of 300,000 yuan at all. At that time, you could make a lot of money a year by selling pollen and offspring. Many orchid breeders had such an orchid as a family heirloom and made a fortune from it. Of course, Elder Zhang was reluctant to toss this orchid, so he offered 300,000 yuan, which was a realistic price.

Elder Zhang insisted, and Lu Lingxi ended up accepting 300,000. The old man was afraid that the news would get out and he would be robbed, so he left Elder Zhao to look after the precious orchid for him and went home alone to transfer the money to Lu Lingxi.

When the tossing and turning was over, Lu Lingxi was holding a thin card and Elder Zhang was ready to leave with his orchid in his hands, smiling. Lu Lingxi gave Elder Zhang a bag of orchid soil and a bag of water moss and carefully instructed Elder Zhang on some precautions to take. The orchid’s new roots had just grown, so it needed careful attention for a while.

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Elder Zhang nodded repeatedly. He understood all these, but hearing the child’s serious instructions, the old man still listened with a smile on his face. When he was leaving, he didn’t forget to tell Lu Lingxi to remember to inform him the next time there was such a thing.

After sending the two old men away, Lu Lingxi looked at the bank card in his hand and still felt that the morning’s events were somewhat mysterious. Although he had always known that the spring orchid was worth 300,000 yuan, the words “300,000 yuan” and the feeling of actually holding the money in his hand were completely different.

Dahei whimpered at him. Lu Lingxi immediately guessed what was on Dahei’s mind and looked at him in amusement, stroking his fur soothingly and coaxing, “I was the one who told Grandpa Zhang to take the orchid away, it’s not that Dahei didn’t look after it well. How about an extra chicken leg for lunch today?”

Dahei’s ears perked up; he squinted his eyes and licked Lu Lingxi’s fingers, quietly lying at his feet.

The morning passed; Yan Yue stuck to the point of rushing in before Lu Lingxi ate. This time he didn’t bring the geranium; instead he carried a few bags of imported dog food. Dahei sniffed the dog food, looked up at Yan Yue and continued to lazily lie on the ground.

“Big Brother Yan, you’re here?” Lu Lingxi was a little happy to see Yan Yue; he actually was looking forward to seeing him in order to return the money.

Yan Yue looked intently at the boy’s smiling face and nodded slightly, “I’ve come to see Dahei.”

Lu Lingxi had already seen the dog food in Yan Yue’s hands and looked a little shy, “Big Brother Yan, you can just come to see Dahei, you don’t need to bring anything.” What he didn’t dare to say was that Dahei didn’t eat dog food, he didn’t even want to smell it.

Yan Yue nodded indifferently at this, glancing at Dahei on the ground. Dahei gave him a face-saving bark as if greeting him.

Lu Lingxi poured a glass of water for Yan Yue and at the same time placed the bank card in front of Yan Yue. The young man’s voice was cheerful, “Big Brother Yan, I was looking for you. You still remember that spring orchid, right? It was sold this morning, and here is 300,000. Give me some more time for the remaining 100,000, I will definitely pay it back.”

Yan Yue’s gaze fell on the bank card, his eyes obscure. He already knew that the shop owner of Tiny Garden intended to leave Fengcheng and return home and was looking for someone to sell Tiny Garden to. When he came to the shop yesterday, Lu Lingxi was probably worried about this. Yan Yue wanted Lu Lingxi to take over Tiny Garden but when he thought about it, he guessed that the boy probably didn’t have the money. After a night of debating between offering to lend Lu Lingxi money and buying the shop and hiring him, Yan Yue came here today to find out what Lu Lingxi wanted to do. He didn’t expect the boy to have the money and not use it for business but instead to pay him back.

This kind of alienation put Yan Yue in a somewhat bad mood. He made a decision almost immediately to tie the boy to him anyway, no matter what. Yan Yue looked at Lu Lingxi and asked patiently, “I heard that Tiny Garden is being sold?”

Lu Lingxi looked up in surprise, “Big Brother Yan, you’ve heard about it too?”

Yan Yue nodded and said, as if inadvertently, “You do a good job here, have you considered the next step?”

Lu Lingxi was slightly surprised, then he curved his eyes in a smile and was about to speak, when Yan Yue hurriedly said, “If it’s because of the money, you can pay it back later, I’m not in a hurry. This is a good opportunity, better not miss it.”

Yan Yue sounded like he was thinking of him, and Lu Lingxi was grateful to hear that, but he really didn’t want to owe Yan Yue such a big favour. Guessing Lu Lingxi’s thoughts, Yan Yue continued quietly: “Or you can do this. You treat the money you pay me back as my share. I will pay and you will contribute your skills. How about we buy this store together?”

“This way…”

Yan Yue kept paying attention to the boy’s expression. When he saw that there were doubts, his expression became more and more sincere, “I have been very interested in these flowers and plants recently, and I have been thinking about opening a shop to try. But I don’t understand anything. Now I just happened to encounter Tiny Garden, and our cooperation together is a win-win situation. ”

Although Yan Yue said this, Lu Lingxi was not stupid and knew that Yan Yue was trying to help him in a roundabout way. He became a little excited; this opportunity was really good. He couldn’t ask Yan Yue to borrow money, but if they worked together, he would definitely try hard to make money for Yan Yue. He looked at Yan Yue hesitantly, and Yan Yue was also looking at him with a burning gaze.

Lu Lingxi could see the trust in Yan Yue’s eyes and smiled, making up his mind.

“Big Brother Yan, thank you.”

The young man’s tone was solemn and he clearly agreed to his proposal. The corners of Yan Yue’s mouth curled slightly; from a-stranger-acquaintance to a stranger-partner, he took a step closer to the boy.