Chapter 3: Let’s Go Back Home to Farm

Chapter 3: Let’s Go Back Home to Farm

Song Tan came to her senses and took her takeout—this was a premium meal from the best-reviewed private kitchen in town, costing 188 yuan.

However, the moment she opened the box, the aroma of the food mingled with the murky, stagnant air—the kind of air she had become particularly unaccustomed to lately.

Song Tan felt a wave of nausea churn in her stomach. No matter what, she couldn't eat it.

Just then, her boss, whom the employees referred to behind his back as "Wang the Skinflint," walked in. Seeing her, he immediately barked in anger

"Song Tan! You still have the heart to eat? Where is the PPT I asked for? I’m telling you, if you don't hand it in by 2:00 PM, you might as well just quit!"

Song Tan stood up abruptly: That’s right, she had forgotten something! She was here to fire her boss!

"Fine. Make sure my salary is processed on time. I’m quitting right now and going back to my hometown!"

The entire office went silent.

Seeing Song Tan already starting to pack her things, Wang the Skinflint stood there, looking bewildered and aggrieved

"I... I didn't mean it like that..."

It wasn't easy to find an employee who was obedient, hardworking, capable, and cheap.

Huo Xueying stopped eating her meal and walked over, wanting to persuade Song Tan not to be impulsive. The current economic climate was poor, and changing jobs wasn't easy.

But then, she suddenly noticed the patch of hair on the side of Song Tan’s head that had been shaved bald, along with the gauze covering it. For some reason, she suddenly felt a sense of grievance herself

"If you're going, then go! Tantan, I’ll help you pack! You focus on recovering your health, and I’ll come visit you after work!"

Song Tan’s words from earlier had been a wish buried deep within her for years. After saying them, her mind had already begun to recall the green hills and clear waters of her home, the clucking fat hens, and the snorting, plump pigs...

She didn't know if the pigs back home had impurities, but they certainly had to be better than the ones in the city, right?

At this moment, her heart was already racing to get home.

"No need, I’m serious. I’ll head back to my rental, pack up, and then head straight home!"

This time, even Huo Xueying was stunned.

...

Song Tan packed with incredible speed.

Hadn't she spent two lifetimes struggling and working hard just to have a better life?

Now that she possessed the skills of a cultivator (even if she hadn't started practicing yet), wouldn't it be comfortable to go home and be self-sufficient?

After picking up her temporary ID from the police station, she grabbed her box and took a taxi back to her rental.

The 20-square-meter room had a few clothes hanging by the window and a stack of work-related study materials on the desk.

On the 1.2-meter bed, the cotton bedding was still wrinkled from her frantic departure the day before. Looking at it, Song Tan couldn't help but think of how frugal she had been.

She sighed silently.

She dug out a cardboard box she hadn't had the heart to throw away, packed some simple toiletries, stripped the bedding, and added a box of clothes and three pairs of shoes.

That was it.

After a quick tidy-up, she called the landlord—she was leaving early, so she forfeited the deposit but got the remaining rent back.

After calculating, she still had 63,500 yuan!

Time to go home!

...

High-speed rail, taxi.

Four hours in total. Song Tan, who was now willing to spend money, didn't travel by train and bus like she used to.

She stood by the side of the road five or six hours earlier than she usually would have.

Looking at the babbling brook on the other side of the road and breathing in air that was different from the city (though still a bit murky), she finally felt detached from her previous state of instability.

On the road up the distant hillside, a motorcycle roared toward her, heading downhill, passing through fields planted with tea trees, and finally stopping in front of her.

A short, dark-skinned man looked at her, a simple, honest smile appearing on his face

"Tantan, why are you on break?"

The middle-aged man got off the bike, placed her large suitcase on the iron rack behind the seat, and tied it down tightly with bungee cords. He gave it a shake before speaking

"Get on. Dad will take you back. Your mom baked sweet potatoes at home, and I caught a few crucian carp yesterday to stew for you—what happened to your head?"

This was her father, Song Sancheng.

Tears welled up in Song Tan’s eyes as she looked at this ordinary man filled with worry. She forced a smile and touched her head, pretending to be nonchalant: "It's nothing, I bumped it when I got off work. But the company has been asking for overtime lately, so I just decided to come back and rest for a few days."

"You have to rest. If you get a chronic ailment while you're still young, what will you do?"

The kick-starter was pressed down hard, and the engine roared to life. Song Tan instinctively gripped the rear rack, feeling the increasingly fresh breeze blowing against her face.

Up the mountain, around the bends, past increasingly dense trees—even in the dead of winter, she could see the lush green tea hills and pine forests...

This was her hometown: Yuncheng, Qingxi Town, Yunqiao Village.

A home with mountains and water, where the four seasons were distinct.

This was her new life.

...

The motorcycle climbed over hills and ridges for ten minutes before finally approaching the village after a long descent.

Yunqiao Village was tucked away in the mountains. Although the "village-to-village" road project and the daily shuttle bus meant that getting out wasn't a problem anymore, the winding mountain roads still caused inconvenience. In recent years, the number of young people in the village had dwindled.

The elderly were passing away, the young were moving away, and those left behind in the village were becoming fewer and fewer.

All told, there weren't even 30 households left in the vicinity.

But what did that matter? As a cultivator, what deep mountain forests hadn't she stayed in? Retreats could last months, or even decades; whether there were people around or not didn't matter at all.

...

Song Tan stepped off the motorcycle, feeling a strange sensation stirring within her body—it was the fluctuation of her spiritual roots. Having this reaction proved that the deep mountain forests were indeed more suitable for cultivation.

Thinking of the abilities she would have once she restored her cultivation, Song Tan felt more confident about the future.

In the cultivation world, she had dual Water and Wood spiritual roots, and she practiced techniques for both—the most vital of all.

But the Heavenly Dao was harsh, and the Golden Core was difficult to achieve. Without reaching the Golden Core stage, the cultivation world was a place where the strong preyed on the weak, and she couldn't control her own destiny.

To seek a breakthrough, Song Tan had spent a hundred years in the back mountains growing spiritual plants, carefully savoring the cycles of life and death, the wind, frost, snow, and rain, the sunlight, and the morning dew.

Her ability to nourish plants with spiritual energy had almost become an instinct.

Now that she was lucky enough to have another lifetime, she wouldn't ask for anything else upon returning to the countryside—she would just start by growing things she could actually eat.

The food in this mortal world was too impure; she really couldn't swallow it!

Thinking of this, her stomach, which hadn't eaten all day, rumbled even louder. Suddenly, a mouth-watering aroma wafted over.

A short, plump woman emerged from the kitchen on the other side of the courtyard

"Tantan, what do you want to eat tonight? I stewed some crucian carp soup, fried a few more, and I’ll scramble some eggs for you. You love eggs, don't you? It’s too late to kill a chicken now, so I’ll stew one for you tomorrow—Old Song, go pick some coriander to put in the fish soup later."

Coriander was cilantro, and the whole Song family loved the flavor.

Song Tan looked at her mother, Wu Lan, and smiled: "Add some 'dafei' too. They never put that in fish in Ningcheng, and I’ve been craving it for so long."

The locals in Yuncheng loved adding this to fish; it had a unique fragrance. Song Tan only realized after she started working in Ningcheng that the scientific name for "dafei" was *Houttuynia cordata*, and people from other places (including Ningcheng) didn't seem to eat it.

Wu Lan laughed: "Can the food in those outside restaurants even be good? But it’s the middle of winter, where would you find *dafei*? Coriander will have to do."