Chapter 279 Growing Rice (II)
After a long period of publicity, when the audience is bombarded by the advertising on TV and the Internet, the first patch of products of Lins’ Pharmaceutical Factory are finally released.
The name of the product is very Huaxia-styled. It is originally extracted from pure traditional medicine to be patent medicine. Therefore, it is called “Lins’ Typhoid Pill”. To put it straight, it deals with colds. Do not perceive colds as trivial matters. Ordinary people catch colds at least two times a year, which leads to more than two weeks of nose-running, headache, and sneezing. Therefore, the little cold holds a huge market.
Because of the huge market, medicine targeted at cold keeps thriving, which means strong compet.i.tion among producers. It is not easy to go into the market with this kind of medicine.
The factory spent a lot of money on publicity. When it came to the price of the pill, the joint three families held their own opinions. The operation groups said that they needed to seize the market with price advantage, yet objected by Zeng Tian.
These pills are extracted from pure traditional medicine with high quality. Therefore, the cost is higher than other patent medicine. Zeng Tian was hoping that the factory could help the Lins earn a lot of money so he could not accept selling them at a very low price.
“Whatever medicine on the market nowadays costs dozens of RMB. And it takes hundreds to go to the hospital to get an IV or injection. We set the price at 66, which is not expensive. This should work.”
Everyone gave it a thought. If a box of medicine costs 66 yuan and could cure a cold without bearing any IVs or injections, they would be willing to buy it. Therefore, they all agreed on this.
Selling the medicine and going into the market is not Zeng Tian’s business, or else he would waste his money on the operating group. After they had the meeting, Zeng Tian left hurriedly.
The reason is none other than the Lins’ are transplanting rice seedlings today.
When Zeng Tian comes to the villa, the labor already started. Even two kids are in the lake. The water is freezing. Lin Luoran made efforts stopping Mrs. Lin from getting into the water, yet she couldn’t stop Lin Luodong.
Li Xi’er wears household clothing and comes to the field with her trousers rolled up above the ankle. She is holding the seedling without knowing where to start.
Yuan Ye seems to know everything about it. “You’ve never done it before. No one would laugh at you because you don’t know what to do.”
Is this sharp tongue not sneering at her? Li Xi’er now has some courage to go on. When she sees Zeng Tian and Liu Zheng, she is even happier. She will write her name backwards if they know how to transplant the seedlings. She’s glad that she is not the only one who knows nothing about it.
Seeing that Li Xi’er starts again, Yuan Ye holds back his thought to sneer at her and moves aside. For heaven’s sake, he is not trying to bully her. She is being so dumb herself!
“What are you guys doing here? You don’t know how to transplant seedlings.” Seeing that Zeng Tian and Liu Zheng are losing their shoes and coming down to the water, Lin Luoran stands straight and smiles.
Zeng Tian comes up with the response quickly. “It takes practice before we can do it. Master Lin, you need to grant me this opportunity.”
Lin Luoran purses her lips. Zeng Tian is such a slippery fellow. She knows exactly what he is thinking. It’s just she doesn’t know how to teach Yuan Ye yet after taking him in as an apprentice. As Zeng Tian hasn’t spoken out himself, she will just pretend that she doesn’t know and follow the course of nature.
Liu Zheng is under the order of his master. “My master said, he wanted to ask for some rice when the harvest season comes and asked me to work to pay you back.”
The original words of the crazy Taoist are, “Son, I’m trying to create an opportunity for you and I’m willing to be called a glutton because of this. Remember to pay me back in the future.”
Although Liu Zheng is used to the mad talks of the crazy Taoist when he is momentarily crazy, he cannot speak these words out.
Lin Luoran leaves the questions in mind, leading a group of people to transplant the seedlings. She just taught Li Xi’er how to line up the tiny seedlings and leave proper s.p.a.ce in between. Then, she sees two people coming far away from the winding mountain road.
When she gets a closer look, she finds one of them an old acquaintance—tall Mu Tiannan. The other one looks familiar. Isn’t he the young man who purchased all of the clay pots at the foot of Mount Qingcheng the other day?
“We’ve got some guests. I’m sorry you need to do all the labor.”
Liu Zheng has seen Mu Tiannan coming for certain. He knew what he’s been up to since a few years before. At first, he held hostility against him since they were rivals in love. But now, since he is now a cultivator, there is distance between them so he is not so hostile. Moreover, Lin Luoran refers them as guests. What an indifferent t.i.tle! So he nods to greet them, and goes back to his work.
Mu Tiannan, on the other hand, is not so calm. After all these years, at the sight of beautiful Lin Luoran, he recognized her right away.
He thought he has forgotten all about Lin Luoran’s face, yet he found that he remembered it vividly. When she squints her eyes to look at his direction, his memory drifts back to the sketch he drew years ago. These are the starry eyes he could not get enough of. Several years went by. He is struck again by the even purer eyes of hers before he can notice any internal changes.
What makes him so fascinated by those eyes? He doesn’t know the answer.
They didn’t experience near-death difficulties together, nor did they stay together for a long time for a relations.h.i.+p to spring out. They had but a few encounters yet they kept him thinking about her for several years. Maybe this is what they call love at first sight?
The young man beside him gives him a light push. “Hey, Brother Mu, what’s the matter with you?”
It hits Mu Tiannan that Lin Luoran just finished was.h.i.+ng her feet by the lake and is smiling at them, inviting them to get in the house.
Mrs. Lin comes out from the house and recognizes Mu Tiannan instantly. She exclaims, “It’s you! We haven’t seen each other for several years. Why didn’t you drop by?”
Mu Tiannan’s words mesmerized Mrs. Lin years ago, making her feel that he and her daughter were a perfect match. Time flies, and she feels it lamentable.
“Mu, why didn’t you bring your child?”
Mu Tiannan coughs embarra.s.singly and says, “Mrs. Lin, I haven’t found a girlfriend yet.”
Mrs. Lin’s eyes brighten up immediately and murmurs to herself yet she is pushed away by Lin Luoran. The three of them sit down at the flowery hall. Lin Luoran finally asks, “Mr. Mu, who is this guest?”
The young man stands up and gives a junior salute. “I’m Xuan Yuanchen. Greetings to Master Lin. I didn’t know it was Master Lin at the foot of Mount Qingcheng. Please forgive me.” In fact, he is thinking to himself that he mustn’t show any sign that it was Brother Mu who told him to buy the clay pots.
Lin Luoran smiles, “Your family developed this villa, didn’t you? Since you are not a cultivator, we can just call each other as equals.”
Xuan Yuanchen shakes his head. “You are not master now. It doesn’t mean it cannot happen in the future. There are cultivators in my family, so I am from a cultivation family. Now we are preparing to s.h.i.+ft the family business back to the country. You are my master.”
He talks all by himself, not realizing his “Brother Mu” is staring at him. This young b.a.s.t.a.r.d. What he means is that if anyone in the Mu family is cultivator, he himself has to salute as a junior as he did? Then how can he develop a relations.h.i.+p out of it!
They chat for a while and Lin Luoran learned that the Xuan Yuan family were originally living on an island and went abroad at the end of Qing dynasty. As for Xuan Yuanchen, he is from the State of Huaxia with several other nationalities. He has the Taoist root, yet he did not believe in the cultivation system. If it was not for the appearance of cultivators in Huaxia, the Xuan Yuan family could have become an ordinary family with the unwillingness of the only child Xuan Yuanchen.
Lin Luoran feels a little bit embarra.s.sed about taking up a whole lake area of other people, so she is very polite to Xuan Yuanchen. But her att.i.tude makes Mu Tiannan very envious, thinking to himself that he is going to kick his a.s.s when they go back. On the other hand, he maintains a smiley face, but because of his psychological activity, the smile looks as if it is faked.
Lin Luoran chats with Mu Tiannan about old times. After a while, Mrs. Lin declares to start the meal and all the working people come back to eat. Mu Tiannan finally recognizes Liu Zheng in Taoist robe.
Lin Luoran feels a familiar, silent war commencing between them.
Seeing that Lin Luoran is apparently more acquainted with Liu Zheng, Mu Tiannan blames herself for having fallen behind for so long that the other man took advantage of it.
Mrs. Lin prepared loach dishes so that they can eat the fish first and then add vegetables to the pot later. Everyone is pleased with this course except for Xuan Yuanchen, who is used to bread and sausages and not accommodated to spice, and Mu Tiannan, who feels the meal tasteless because of his struggle inside. Other people are delighted to have a delicious meal after a day’s labor.
After the meal, everybody goes back to work. Mu Tiannan insists on joining in. Lin Luoran says, “Aren’t you going back downtown? The night falls early in the mountain.”
Xuan Yuanchen acts as if he was surprised. “Master Lin, don’t you know that Brother Mu purchased a house years ago in the villa? Of course, we have a place to stay.”
What? He bought a house here as well? Lin Luoran feels that the whole villa is going to be taken all by her acquaintances. Li Xi’er said a lot of cultivators tried to get in too.
Subconsciously, she overlooks a detail. If she asked, she would know that the “early years” Xuan Yuanchen said was the same year as when Liu Zheng bought his house, only in a different month.
………………
The sun goes down. Xuan Yuanchen gives the mud-ridden clothes to the butler, throws himself to the sofa, whining, “Brother, way to go! You seduced your future wife while dragging me to do all the labor. It is the first time in my life that I’ve been in the field.”
Mu Tiannan throws a chestnut he got from the Lins on his head. “What future wife? Watch it.”
Xuan Yuanchen shouts and cries, complaining that he forgets his friend when he’s in love.
“Brother, why do you want me to be a cultivator?” Xuan Yuanchen nibbles on the raw chestnut. He didn’t know this ugly chestnut can be crispy, sweet and has a long-lasting scent, which exceeds his expectation.
Mu Tiannan clenches his teeth. “Because you have the Taoist root. The heaven will punish you if you waste it.” Maybe those who do not have it feel it very precious. Xuan Yuanchen has the Taoist root yet he is not interested in cultivating. However, Mu Tiannan doesn’t have the Taoist root yet he is always dreaming that he could have it one day.
There are some other things Xuan Yuanchen wanted to say. Mu Tiannan throws him several chestnuts. “We share a bond. I’ve always considered you my blood brother.”
Xuan Yuanchen nods his head. Mu Tiannan went abroad when he was very little and the Xuan Yuan family is in New York too. He has been following Mu Tiannan since he was a child. To put it in a harsh way, even if going to the red-light district, he was led by Mu Tiannan. Therefore, although they are not families, they have more genuine affection than real brothers.
Mu Tiannan cracks a chestnut casually. “Say ‘yes’ would be fine. If I told you to train, you’d better do it. Do not ask questions.”
Xuan Yuanchen appears to understand, thrown into deep thought.
………………
The field of outside the Lins’ door has just been transplanted rice seedlings, yet in Lin Luoran’s s.p.a.ce, it is already a world of gold.
The wind riffles, the blond rice and wheat waving. The rape flower is bearing with fruits, tiny seeds hiding inside.
Others cannot enter this area, so Lin Luoran has to harvest herself. She has to work while others are sleeping.
Lin Luoran is not as extravagant as trying to exploit only a little water rice seedling by the tiny pond. The water comes from the lake she secretly using her right hand to guide. She wanted to put some fish and shrimps along with water, yet these living creatures were extremely hard to enter her s.p.a.ce. So she had to give up.
Lin Luoran put some water from the s.p.a.ce to the field inside the s.p.a.ce and the field outside in hopes of bringing the flavor and function to a higher level.
Witnessing her hard work, the fire phoenix watches the scene with the silver fish while making comments.
Lin Luoran cuts the stems of the rape first and lies them on the ground, waiting to take out the seed a few days later. When she starts to collect the wheat, she finds herself dumb using human labor in the s.p.a.ce, especially with the laugh of the fire phoenix.
One cannot cast a spell in the s.p.a.ce, but it doesn’t mean one cannot on the outside! Then, she cuts all the wheat and rice and takes it to the backyard to thresh it. The night is quiet while people are sleeping. Only Goldie who built its nest on the villa notices its master’s behavior.
After Lin Luoran used the Gold spell to thresh the wheat, she sees the white grains on the ground, feeling happiness and a sense of achievement of harvest, which makes her overnight-work worthy.
A mu of rice can yield a thousand jin, even without the sh.e.l.l. One harvest can provide for her family for a long time.
She collects rice and wheat. She is sleepless tonight anyway, so she goes back to her room, finding out Chronicle of the Nine Provinces Hui Zhu sent her, turning to the last page and staring it blankly.
Although Mount Penglai is as mysterious as a mirage, she does not want to give up.
Can Mrs. Lin wait until she finds it?
She doesn’t know. She even forgets to think: if there is no immortals or magic weapons that can rebuild the Taoist root on Mount Penglai, what would she do?