Pastoral Daily Life

“The sacred tree, the tree god.”

Grandma Shen, who was already over eighty years old, looked at the old willow tree in awe with her mouth open and her hands shaking and couldn’t help but murmur in a low voice. Some of the people around the village were unimpressed, but many more muttered in their hearts that this old willow tree was really extraordinary and powerful. Perhaps it was an illusion of the villagers, but they felt that when they were close to the tree, they could breathe more freely, and that a breath of air was very refreshing and nourishing. The environment in the village was usually not bad, and especially after the rain the air was even fresher. But today it seemed to be particularly good; even the few wild flowers under the tree that were normally inconspicuous smelled fragrant.

A group of people were whispering around the willow tree, and Lu Lingxi took Dahei back to the plant nursery as soon as someone came over. As the night passed, the inside of the plant nursery had changed no less than the outside. Due to the formation of the willow ecological community, all the land in this vicinity had been purified. The effect of the purification was outstanding.

In just one night, the large-leaved golden pothos and money trees that were only half a person high, had grown almost 20 centimetres taller, with their branches and leaves spreading out and their leaves vibrant green. In the morning light they seemed like pure jade. Similarly to the large-leaved golden pothos and money trees, all the foliage plants in the plant nursery were lush and flourishing. At the other end of the plant nursery, flowers of all colours were competing with each other in blooming, fragrant in the light breeze. Even a few clivias that had obviously passed the flowering period showed new flower buds, swaying gently in the wind. The most exaggerated were the five small willow saplings planted at the edge of the plant nursery. Although they still looked the same thick as before, they had flourishing branches and leaves, quite like described in the poem: “A tree made of jasper is tall, and ten thousand green silk ribbons are hanging down”⁽¹⁾.

Lu Lingxi looked at the changes in front of him with some anxiety, wondering how he would explain in case Yan Yue asked him about it. He didn’t worry about Uncle Li. Uncle Li had never seen the courtyard before and only came to the plant nursery once in a while, so even if there were any changes, he wouldn’t think much of them. But Yan Yue was different. The changes in the courtyard were too similar to the changes around his house, so he wondered if Yan Yue would make the connection. When he thought of Yan Yue, Lu Lingxi remembered what Yan Yue had done in the morning. He didn’t understand why Yan Yue liked to kiss him so much and he felt like he was out of breath every time. After he realised what he was thinking about, the tips of Lu Lingxi’s ears reddened slightly.

Pushing Yan Yue out of his mind, Lu Lingxi concentrated and clicked on the white panel. The entire purified land was displayed on it. He found that it seemed that the purified land was free from the three metre limit of mental scan and could be displayed as he wished. This was the first time Lu Lingxi had seriously looked at the land since the purification last night, and it was much larger than the small courtyard. From the village head to the plant nursery, even the courtyard of Uncle Li’s house was included in it.

Taking into account the growth rate of the plants after the land was purified, one could only wonder what kind of cabbage and beans would grow in Uncle Li’s courtyard like crazy. Lu Lingxi hoped it wouldn’t scare the old man. He couldn’t help but smile faintly at the thought. His eyes swept over the panel and suddenly froze, somewhat suspicious of what he was seeing. After a few seconds of hesitation, Lu Lingxi gently tapped on the lower corner of the panel. As he manipulated it, the displayed image began to zoom in, and the edge of the purified land appeared.

As if it was alive; Lu Lingxi could clearly see that the edge of the land was not fixed, but flowed outwards like water, expanding the scope of the purified land little by little. This change was so subtle that one wouldn’t notice it without looking closely.

Lu Lingxi thought about it and the panel switched locations, this time showing him the backyard of the Hongfu Community. He carefully zoomed in on the purified soil in the backyard. Sure enough, the edges of the soil were likewise spreading outwards like flowing water. However, because the surrounding land was so heavily polluted, the effect was even less obvious than that of the plant nursery.

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This discovery surprised Lu Lingxi a little, but it was more than just a surprise. The purified land had a very strong self-cleaning ability and would not be contaminated again in the short term. If they could also expand the purification area, was it possible that the entire neighbourhood would slowly change and then continue to purify until the entire Fengcheng… He was absorbed in his thoughts when Yan Yue walked up to him at some point and naturally moved to wrap him in his arms, “What are you looking at? “

Lu Lingxi was startled; although he knew that Yan Yue couldn’t see the white panel, subconsciously he was still a bit guilty. This look of a shadow in his heart was noticed by Yan Yue, and Yan Yue’s eyes darkened, his expression a little obscure. If you like someone, you want to know everything about them, and Yan Yue was naturally not exempt from this rule. But he knew he couldn’t rush, he had to be patient with the young man.

“Is Xiao Xi angry?” Yan Yue lowered his head and whispered in Lu Lingxi’s ear.

Lu Lingxi froze for a moment, and then realised what Yan Yue was talking about. He had left Yan Yue in the morning to run back to the plant nursery by himself with Dahei. Thinking of this, Lu Lingxi blushed a little but still said seriously, “Not angry.”

Although he was not used to Yan Yue kissing him, he was not angry, he was just a little shy and afraid of being seen by the people in the village.

Yan Yue heard that Lu Lingxi was not perfunctory in his answer and his heart settled down somewhat. He gently kissed Lu Lingxi on the ear, watching the young man’s earlobes slowly turn red, and his heart simply softened into a puddle. Before his confession yesterday, all he thought about every day was to stay by Lu Lingxi’s side as much as possible, to keep him company and watch him. He knew that his feelings were too crazy and that the young man was naive and inexperienced, so he had always tried his best to suppress these emotions for fear of scaring Lu Lingxi. But if feelings could be controlled, there wouldn’t be so many infatuated men and women in the world. Yan Yue had not expected his sudden uncontrollable outburst; not to mention daring to hope that the young man would actually be willing to give him a chance to try.

Happiness was so sudden that Yan Yue couldn’t help but feel fearful that it would all turn out to be just a delusion. Only by holding the young man in his arms and actually being close to him could Yan Yue calm his heart that had been suffering from gains and losses.

Yan Yue let go of Lu Lingxi a little, looked him in the eyes and said seriously, “I want to apologise for what happened in the morning.”

He shouldn’t have been so impulsive outside. He could ignore the strange looks of the people around him, but he couldn’t let the young man suffer even a little. Luckily there was only him and Lu Lingxi under the willow tree and no one else saw them.

Lu Lingxi was a little embarrassed. Yan Yue reached out and touched his face, saying seriously, “Xiao Xi, I was afraid. I was afraid that I would wake up and find out that everything last night was an illusion, that you would suddenly tell me that you regretted it and didn’t want to be with me. I didn’t find you in the morning and thought all my fears had come true, and only after I saw you under the willow tree did my heart settle down.”

What Yan Yue said seemed to make sense to Lu Lingxi. When he thought about it, Yan Yue’s feelings were probably like his own when he was in the Lu family in Zhongjing and his father suddenly promised to send him abroad to study. Dreaming at night, he would definitely wonder if he really could go abroad to study. After thinking about it in this way, Lu Lingxi understood it somewhat. He looked at Yan Yue with a bit of a blush and said in a small voice, “Big Brother Yan, I’m not lying to you. I’m happy with you and I miss you when you’re not around. I want to try being with you.”

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Although the young man might not yet understand what he meant by these words, to Yan Yue’s ears, they were truly the most beautiful words of love in the world, bar none. In this instant, Yan Yue felt his whole body tremble with happiness and his heart beat as if it was about to pop out of his chest immediately. He hugged Lu Lingxi tightly, trembling a little, and lowered his head to gently kiss him on the forehead.

“Xiao Xi, I love you.”

Lu Lingxi somewhat shyly reached out to hug Yan Yue’s waist and buried his head in his chest.

The two didn’t stay much longer in the plant nursery and went back to Tiny Garden after breakfast. The morning was hectic and towards noon Yan Yue received a call from Ye Cheng. He was informed that Lu Hongxin had been arrested for traffic offences.

Regarding the circumstances of this incident, Ye Cheng found it quite amazing. When Ye Kang first told him that Lu Hongxin might have hit someone, he didn’t think much of it. The dog couldn’t talk, and it was almost three months ago that it was hit, so how could they be sure that it was reacting in the way they understood it to mean. But Ye Kang was excited, and Ye Cheng thought it was an entry point, so he gave a casual order. Who thought that the investigation showed that the hit-and-run that happened more than half a month ago in the street of Tiny Garden was really done by Lu Hongxin, only that his father used his connections to erase the clues and suppress the matter.

As soon as the investigation results came out, Ye Cheng was quite interested. He purposely called Yan Yue to ask him to take Dahei to identify the culprit. He had already made arrangements to see if Dahei was as amazing as Ye Kang said.

Yan Yue thanked Ye Cheng politely, hung up the phone and beckoned to Dahei.

Dahei calmly walked up to him. Yan Yue hooked the corner of his mouth and said lightly, “The person who hit you has been caught. I’ll take you to identify him.”

This time Dahei was not calm; his ears swished up and he gave a low growl to Yan Yue.

Yan Yue smiled, stroked Dahei’s head and told Lu Lingxi about it. Lu Lingxi was taken aback, not expecting it to be confirmed so quickly. He gave Dahei a somewhat hesitant look, squatted down and said to Dahei, “Dahei, you have to be restrained.” After saying that, he was still a bit uneasy, pulling Yan Yue and instructing in a low voice, “Big Brother Yan, you watch Dahei, don’t let anything happen to him.”

Lu Lingxi was a bit worried that if Dahei was impulsive and bit Lu Hongxin, it would be bad. Although he believed that since the other party had hit Dahei and hit Grandma Wang and fled, but now was caught, it could also be considered Dahei’s revenge. But if Dahei bit the other party in the process of identifying him, the others would not think that Dahei’s actions were justified and would only decide that Dahei was dangerous.

“Good.”

Yan Yue agreed with a smile, reaching out and rubbing Lu Lingxi’s hair to assure him, “I will definitely listen to what Xiao Xi says, and Dahei will listen too.”

Dahei immediately cooperated and gave a bark.

Lu Lingxi curved his eyes, believing the words of the man and the dog.

1. From “The Willow ” by He Zhizhang of the Tang Dynasty