Pastoral Daily Life

Chapter 65

When Lu Lingxi returned from dinner, Gao Yongliang and Xue Yongtong had already left. He was secretly relieved.

He had thought that Xue Yongtong would be a competitor, but he didn’t expect the other party to be the owner of Luxuan Gardening. He was not exactly a horticultural noob now. There was a local Fengcheng gardening forum on the internet, which referred to Qiu Tian Gardening and Luxuan Gardening as the two leading companies in Fengcheng. Thanks to Qiu Tian Gardening, Lu Lingxi was impressed by the name of Luxuan Gardening.

Yan Yue looked at him, relaxed and a little amused, “Don’t want to cooperate with them?”

Lu Lingxi nodded honestly.

Although Yan Yue had rejected the offer of cooperation, his opinion of Gao Yongliang was not low. “Gao Yongliang’s project is not bad. I’ve read his project description before, he has a lot of ideas.”

Lu Lingxi actually didn’t quite understand what Xue Yongtong was talking about in terms of cooperation. He was repelled by the vagueness of the words, so he just listened to them in a general way. Yan Yue looked at his bewildered look and patiently explained Gao Yongliang’s project. Lu Lingxi responded, “He’s developing purely plant-based cosmetic products and he’s looking for a plant nursery as a raw material supplier?”

Yan Yue nodded, “The plant nursery he’s working with should be Luxuan Gardening, but it looks like Luxuan Gardening didn’t meet his requirements. Now he’s taken a fancy to our begonias, so that’s why Luxuan Gardening thought of working with us.”

Lu Lingxi listened carefully; when Yan Yue said this, the project did seem good. He stole a glance at Yan Yue’s expression and hesitantly asked, “Big Brother Yan, do you want to cooperate with them?”

Yan Yue guessed what he was thinking and shook his head firmly, “I don’t want to.”

Lu Lingxi’s eyes immediately lit up. Although he didn’t say anything, the subtle expression on his face proved that he was happy with the answer. Yan Yue smiled gently, his heart softening as he said, “Xiao Xi, just do what you want to do, Big Brother Yan will support you no matter what.”

Lu Lingxi’s eyes shone brightly as he nodded. He seemed to have made some kind of decision and looked at Yan Yue solemnly. “Big Brother Yan, I have something I want to tell you.”

“What?”

Lu Lingxi was a little apprehensive in his heart, but still mustered up the courage to say, “I can see the state of all plants.”

Yan Yue was a little puzzled, “…can see the state of plants?”

Lu Lingxi had not said anything about it before because he didn’t know how to say it, fearing that Yan Yue would not believe him. Now that he happened to catch Xue Yongtong’s attention and the man wanted to cooperate, Lu Lingxi simply chose to confess. He wasn’t actually sure how to describe what was happening to him, and generalised it as being able to see the state of the plants. But it looked like Yan Yue didn’t seem to understand. Lu Lingxi thought about it and described the existence of the panel in as much detail as he could. This included the upgrades to the panel and the evolution of the plants, as well as the effects of the power of nature.

When he finished, Yan Yue didn’t speak for a moment. Lu Lingxi was a little uneasy and whispered, “Big Brother Yan?”

Yan Yue came back to his senses with a somewhat serious expression, grabbing Lu Lingxi and asking nervously, “Xiao Xi, are you feeling unwell?”

“?” Lu Lingxi looked at him blankly.

Yan Yue was vaguely worried, “You said there was something inside you, do you feel uncomfortable?” Lu Lingxi was a little dazed and shook his head, “No.” Yan Yue was talking about the white panel, but in fact Lu Lingxi himself didn’t know where the white panel was. He said it was inside him just because he couldn’t find any other more appropriate way to say it.

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Yan Yue frowned slightly, still a little worried about Lu Lingxi. However, he had been with Lu Lingxi for a long time, and the young man seemed to be looking healthy except for being a little thin. Subconsciously, Yan Yue’s mind flashed back to what Wang Shuxiu had said last time, that the boy had not been this thin before. Could it be because of the white panel? He made up his mind to take Lu Lingxi for a full examination tomorrow to ensure that there was nothing wrong with the young man’s body.

His reaction was quite different from what Lu Lingxi expected. Lu Lingxi was a little unsure of what Yan Yue thought and his eyes wandered to look at Yan Yue, “Big Brother Yan, do you really believe what I’m saying?”

Yan Yue knew what he was worried about and reached out to hold the young man, hugging him firmly as he looked at him and said seriously, “I believe everything Xiao Xi says.”

Lu Lingxi froze for a moment and couldn’t help but reveal a bright smile as he meekly said, “Big Brother Yan, I really didn’t lie to you.”

“I know.”

Yan Yue believed Lu Lingxi’s words. He had always known that there was a secret in the young man, he just didn’t expect the secret to be this astonishing. But when he thought back carefully on the bits and pieces after meeting the young man, it seemed that the plants grew particularly well where the young man was. Tiny Garden, small courtyard, the plant nursery… Yan Yue couldn’t imagine what the plant heart and the power of nature were, and from the young man’s descriptions, these seemed more like a form of energy. The plant heart was the energy that supported the upgrade of the panel, and the power of nature was a higher level of energy that could bring plants or land back to life.

“The last earthquake in the plant nursery…”

Lu Lingxi nodded honestly, “It was the big willow tree at the entrance of the village that was evolving.”

“A plant evolving? What does it look like after it evolves?”

Lu Lingxi thought for a moment, “It’s not really a big change, it’s just that the root system is more developed. The whole underground of the village is filled with the roots of the big willow tree, and the big willow tree has more vitality and a strange kind of energy.”

Yan Yue listened without speaking, tapping on the desk thoughtfully, an action he was used to when thinking. The young man had a simple mind and no social experience. He thought that if he didn’t tell others, this secret would be kept forever. Little did he know that if the plants kept evolving the way he was saying, sooner or later they would attract the attention of interested people. No one took it seriously now because the current changes were still small enough to attract the attention of others. No, Xue Yongtong had already noticed, which was why he kept staring at the evolved begonias.

Fortunately, the change in the begonia was not so prominent that it couldn’t be explained by a plant mutation. What if some other plants changed? Wouldn’t it be unexplainable if it was more exaggerated? Yan Yue thought of the changes in the neighbourhood and the changes in the environment of Lingshui Village. With the smog in Fengcheng being so severe, it was only a matter of time before the changes in these two places were discovered. The problem now was that with Lu Lingxi’s presence in both places, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t be linked to each other. A way had to be found to get the young man out of it.

Willow? Evolution? Purification?

Yan Yue looked at Lu Lingxi, “Xiao Xi, you said that the power of nature can purify the land, and the purified land will slowly expand in scope? The plants on it will also grow like crazy?

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Lu Lingxi nodded.

“How much power of nature do you have left now?”

“Five points.” Lu Lingxi answered with a puzzled expression.

The amount was a little small, but they could give it a try. Yan Yue’s mind was spinning with various thoughts as he looked at Lu Lingxi seriously. “Xiao Xi, listen to me.” His expression was serious, and Lu Lingxi couldn’t help but raise his head and become serious, too. Yan Yue didn’t want to scare Lu Lingxi, but there were some things he couldn’t hide from the young man or solve for him. Some things the young man had to understand for himself. If his condition was discovered, he would either be hailed as the “saviour” of the environment or become the object of scientific research. If it was the former, it would be the best case scenario, but if it was the latter, the boy would lose more than just his freedom.

Yan Yue didn’t dare to gamble with Lu Lingxi’s safety. If they went along with his idea, the best solution would be for Lu Lingxi to shut down Tiny Garden immediately. They could take Wang Shuxiu and live abroad together, with Lu Lingxi never using any of the panel’s powers again. But now that the changes had taken place, Yan Yue was afraid the subsequent evolution of the plants was no longer something they could reverse. And he could see that Lu Lingxi really liked plants, and even had a happy attitude towards the evolution of plants and the improvement of the environment, so he was afraid Lu Lingxi wouldn’t agree with his idea.

Thinking of this, Yan Yue carefully talked about his concerns.

Lu Lingxi frowned slightly and didn’t say anything. He understood what Yan Yue had said. He didn’t want to cooperate with Luxuan Gardening because he was afraid that his secret would be discovered. He was lucky, thinking that as long as he didn’t say anything, no one would find out. He had always felt that land purification was a good thing and thought that through his efforts he could purify more land.

Yan Yue rubbed his hair and said softly, “The purification of the land and the improvement of the environment is a good thing, but Big Brother Yan hopes that the premise of all this is that there is no danger to you, Xiao Xi.”

Lu Lingxi was a little uneasy, “Is the change obvious now?”

Yan Yue shook his head and said soothingly, “The changes now won’t be noticed yet, but if the changes continue, it’s only a matter of time before they are noticed, so we need to prepare early.”

“Prepare? Can’t the panel be used to purify the land in the future?” Lu Lingxi asked, somewhat sullenly.

“No, on the contrary, we have to find a way to purify a few more places. Right now, only the environment of the community and Lingshui Village changed, which is certainly very conspicuous when compared to the entire Fengcheng. But what if there were more anomalies, or even if the whole of Fengcheng had changed? The community and the village would be inconspicuous when they blend in. Xiao Xi, didn’t you say that the power of nature can purify the land? We can find different places to try it out later, five points of power of nature is almost enough.”

Yan Yue’s proposal was somewhat unexpected to Lu Lingxi, who immediately nodded vigorously and hurriedly added, “I can find a way to earn more power of nature.”

Yan Yue laughed lightly and assured, “Don’t worry, with Big Brother Yan around, everything will be fine.”

He spoke with such confidence that Lu Lingxi couldn’t help but nod trustingly. Yan Yue looked at Lu Lingxi with a gentle gaze and hid another plan in his mind. A few more anomalies would reduce the conspicuousness of the changes in the district, but to be on the safe side, an excuse had to be found for these changes in the environment.

He thought about the second-class big willow tree that Lu Lingxi had mentioned. Its hundred-year age, the fact that lightning couldn’t kill it, the fact that it had the reputation of being a sacred tree near Lingshui Village, the changes that resulted from its evolution; all of this was too suitable to use as an excuse and incidentally to cover up the anomalies of the plants in Tiny Garden. It was just that it wouldn’t be necessary for the young man to know.

By the way, there was also Ye Sange. Yan Yue’s mind worked quickly and a thought vaguely came to him.