Pastoral Daily Life

Chapter 49

The name of the neighbourhood where Lu Lingxi lived was Hongfu (Ever Rich) Community. Compared to the names like Xincheng (New Town), Tiandi (Universe), Shuiyunjian (Between Water and Clouds) and so on that were popular in Fengcheng now, this name could only be described as down-to-earth. However, as it was one of the earliest communities in Fengcheng, the residents still living in the Hongfu Community were basically old neighbours for more than ten years. The ones with a little money had moved away, and the rest had grown accustomed to the name over time and even found the name of the community to be friendly and attractive.

In the last two months, the residents in the neighbourhood had clearly felt the change in the environment. It seemed that the neighbourhood was still in the same messy and dilapidated state, but the air seemed to be different. The most obvious thing was that there seemed to be more birds that had been extinct for years in the neighbourhood. People talked about it in private, but they thought it was because of the removal of the garbage dump next to the neighbourhood.

The Hongfu Community was built a long time ago. Back then, it was still on the edge of the urban area. In order to solve the problem of garbage in the city centre, a certain mayor built a garbage dump in the area. At that time, people didn’t understand environmental protection and thought it was convenient to dump the garbage close to home. As time went on and the city expanded, the Hongfu Community was already close to the city centre and people gradually became aware of environmental protection and started to oppose the existence of the garbage dump.

The most crucial thing was that as the population of Fengcheng City increased, the amount of domestic waste also increased dozens of times. The amount of garbage dumped greatly exceeded the carrying capacity of the garbage dump, which directly led to untimely disposal of garbage, breeding of flies and mosquitoes, and stench, all of which affected the surrounding natural environment. At the beginning of spring this year, the first initiative of the newly appointed city leadership team was to move this dump to the suburbs, where a new environmentally friendly and harmless waste disposal site was built.

Therefore, although the environment of the neighbourhood had been changing day by day recently, the people didn’t think much about it. Apart from Lu Lingxi, who was a bit anxious, everyone gave credit to the new mayor for moving the dump, and their opinion of the new mayor improved greatly.

In the morning, after Lu Lingxi washed up, Wang Shuxiu exchanged a packet of tomatoes for two Chinese cabbage from the neighbour next door. When she saw that Lu Lingxi was almost ready, Wang Shuxiu remembered something, “We’ll make dumplings at home tonight, so call Yan Yue to come and have dinner. We’ve been troubling Yan Yue all this time, and there’s no other way we can thank him.”

“Okay.” Lu Lingxi agreed quickly and added after a moment’s thought, “Big Brother Yan likes to eat pork and scallion stuffed ones.”

“Got it.” Wang Shuxiu muttered in her heart, the little bastard knew what kind of stuffing Yan Yue liked to eat and remembered it clearly. She was just about to peel the scallions and chop the stuffing when Lu Lingxi thought of something else and ran to the kitchen door to ask, “Mom, can you make eggplants with garlic? Big Brother Yan likes them.”

Wang Shuxiu got a little impatient and waved her hand to shoo him away. “Hurry up and take Dahei out for a walk, there will be more people later.”

Lu Lingxi smiled at her flatteringly from the kitchen door, and Wang Shuxiu could do nothing about it, “Eggplants with garlic, right? I’ll go buy an eggplant later.”

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“Thanks, Mom!” Lu Lingxi curved his eyes, turned and ran out in a flash with Dahei.

Wang Shuxiu shook her head. The little bastard was quite attached to Yan Yue. But she didn’t take it seriously; Yan Yue was a nice person, and it was good for the little bastard to have such a friend.

After walking Dahei and eating breakfast, Lu Lingxi walked to Tiny Garden. On the way, he received a phone call from Yan Yue, who had to be late to the shop. A friend had arrived in Fengcheng and Yan Yue had to pick him up.

Lu Lingxi was inexplicably a little disappointed and didn’t mention anything about dinner on the phone. He thought he would talk about it when he saw Yan Yue in the afternoon. When he opened the door, Lu Lingxi first did a hygiene check, and then habitually sent out a mental scan to look at the condition of the plants in the shop. He watered the plants and pruned some of them. Only after he had finished and wiped the wicker chairs at the entrance three times did Lu Lingxi realise, as an afterthought, that he seemed to miss Yan Yue a little.

Yan Yue had been with him every day for some time, doing hygiene, watering and receiving customers, but today Yan Yue suddenly didn’t come. Tiny Garden was empty, and Lu Lingxi seemed to feel a little uncomfortable.

This kind of emotion was too unfamiliar to Lu Lingxi; he sat on the wicker chair at the entrance in some confusion and beckoned to Dahei who was squatting under the cashier’s desk. Dahei ran head over heels and squatted down in front of him.

Lu Lingxi stroked Dahei’s head and said with some embarrassment, “Dahei, do you miss Big Brother Yan?”

Dahei looked at him quietly with a somewhat serious expression.

Lu Lingxi was used to Dahei barking every time after he asked a question. This time Dahei suddenly didn’t say anything and Lu Lingxi was taken aback for a moment before reacting. Looking at Dahei’s serious expression, he snorted and laughed as he hugged Dahei. After laughing, Lu Lingxi felt that he was overthinking. Yan Yue was different from him and had his own job. Now that Yan Yue happened to be on holiday, he had time to stay in the shop every day. When Yan Yue’s holiday was over, he would still be the only one left in Tiny Garden. He had Dahei to keep him company, so it wasn’t necessary for Big Brother Yan to stay in the shop.

After thinking about it, Lu Lingxi regained his focus and logged on to Taobao. Since Big Brother Yan was not here, he hurriedly bought the seeds he had been interested in while no one was around, otherwise he would not have time to do this when he had customers later.

Fengcheng Airport

An Jie got off the plane, looking dazed and fatigued. Anyone who had been on a plane all night would find it hard to bear, not to mention the jet lag he had to suffer. After collecting his luggage and walking out, An Jie saw Yan Yue who came to pick him up.

In the messy airport parking lot, Yan Yue was half leaning against the car door, his aura calm and steady like a scenery. As long as he was standing there, he could easily turn everyone around him into a background.

An Jie laughed silently and walked towards Yan Yue with big strides. However, he couldn’t help but have some doubts in his heart. He had already heard from Ye Kang that Yan Yue had recently fallen in love and was quite happy. He had been following Yan Yue for a long time and had always regarded him as a kind of robot. When he heard that Yan Yue had found someone he liked, An Jie was really surprised. He thought that since Yan Yue had a girlfriend, he should have changed a bit. But who knew that when he saw Yan Yue, the man would still have the same indifferent look. An Jie didn’t know how that girlfriend could stand Yan Yue with such a look on his face.

“Boss.” While gossiping in his heart, An Jie stopped in front of Yan Yue, looking very enthusiastic.

A small smile appeared on Yan Yue’s face as he gestured for An Jie to get in the car. “I’ll take you back to the hotel to rest first.”

An Jie snickered, “Boss is personally driving, I’m afraid I won’t rest well from the excitement later.”

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Yan Yue glanced at him lightly, “That’s just as well, I have something for you to do.”

When An Jie heard this, he thought it was something important and immediately perked up. “What is it?”

Yan Yue had always been generous to those who followed him. An Jie had been with Yan Yue for five years, and not counting his usual salary and bonus, Yan Yue had also given him five percent of the shares of Dezhi Investment, which was enough for him to be devoted to Yan Yue.

When Yan Yue got in the car, he said casually, “Help me buy a house.”

An Jie was puzzled, “Boss, you’re planning to move out of the Yin family’s house? If you’re not going to live here permanently, I’d rather suggest finding a hotel apartment. The environment in Fengcheng is not very good, there’s smog all year round, and houses here don’t have much investment value.” His status was that of Yan Yue’s assistant, and he immediately entered the working mode, counting everything in Yan Yue’s interest.

Yan Yue didn’t explain, and directly quoted an address, specifically to the building, gate and floor. “I want to buy this place. Find a way to arrange it with the owner as soon as possible.”

An Jie was a little surprised but instantly had a thought. He gave Yan Yue a somewhat frightened glance and quickly withdrew his eyes before Yan Yue noticed. An Jie had already guessed where this was: next door to his future sister-in-law. No wonder the boss looked like a stranger; so he hadn’t had a success with his sister-in-law yet. An Jie had never imagined that the boss would ever have a problem with chasing a woman. How discerning she was if even the boss couldn’t get ahead with her. But An Jie really didn’t expect that the first thing he would do when he came to Fengcheng would be to help the boss buy a house and chase his girlfriend. An Jie had some vague premonition about his future; he needed to have a good talk with Ye Kang.

Ye Kang soon learned of An Jie’s arrival in Fengcheng. He had been in Fengcheng for a little over a week, and apart from spending almost every day with Yan Yue and Lu Lingxi, he had also taken the time to see Su Lang a few times. He came here just for Yan Yue, and now that Yan Yue was alive and kicking, Ye Kang was ready to pack up and go back to Zhongjing. He was away for a few days and his phone was about to explode with calls from his secretary at the psychological clinic.

When he received a call from An Jie, Ye Kang was quite happy, “Let’s have dinner tonight.” He was ready to postpone his return to Zhongjing for a day.

“No problem.” An Jie said cheerfully, “That’s fine.” He glanced outside and lowered his voice, “What you said last time about the sister-in-law, did the boss catch up with her or not?”

An Jie had now arrived at the hotel, and Yan Yue was outside reading the information he had brought with him. An Jie secretly hid in the bedroom to gossip about the boss.

The corners of Ye Kang’s mouth twitched as he listened to the word ‘sister-in-law’, his expression a little odd. In fact, he didn’t mean to mislead An Jie, it was a complete accident. He was chatting with An Jie and casually mentioned that Yan Yue stayed in Fengcheng because of someone. How could he have imagined that An Jie would be so good at brainstorming and without waiting for him to say anything would let his mind drift off to the point where he couldn’t control it at all. Ye Kang planned to talk to An Jie to make things clear, but before he could say anything, An Jie had already mentioned Yan Yue’s asking him to buy a house.

Ye Kang: “……”

As soon as Ye Kang heard the address, he knew that it was next door to Lu Lingxi’s place. He was speechless for a long time, no longer knowing how to tell An Jie that in less than two months his boss had evolved from a robot to a lunatic.