Chapter 15: 15 The Great Kindness of Peppa

Chapter 15: Peppa's Great Kindness

The siblings set out happily.

In the end, only one returned happily.

"Where is Qiaoqiao?" Wulan asked.

Song Tan let out a "pfft" and laughed. "He's right behind you!"

No sooner had she spoken than a young boy rounded the corner of the path behind them. He had a shiny, jet-black buzz cut and a tall, thin frame. At this moment, he was wiping his eyes with his sleeves, looking aggrieved, sobbing, and wailing...

"Pfft!" Wulan couldn't hold it back either. She laughed as she reached out to take the basket from his hands. "What happened? What's wrong? Why are you crying? Oh dear, look at Qiaoqiao's face, it's all messy from crying! You've cried yourself ugly!"

Feeling pitied, Song Qiao cried even louder.

"Mom... *hic*... Mom... my sister... *hic*... my sister isn't farming properly!"

Song Tan refused to take the blame. "Nonsense! I scattered all the seeds. How am I not farming properly? Didn't I leave a handful for you to plant slowly?"

She then whispered an explanation to Wulan: the seeds for the sainfoin only needed to be scattered directly onto the soil, but Qiaoqiao only knew how to plant corn, so he insisted on sowing them one by one.

In the end, Song Tan had scattered all the seeds, leaving him only a palm-sized patch with a handful of seeds—maybe thirty or fifty at most—and made Qiaoqiao plant them pit by pit...

Song Qiao cried miserably. "But you... but you! You scattered the seeds randomly! Corn won't grow in the future! I..."

He rubbed his face haphazardly with both sleeves, his voice growing more heartbroken as he spoke. "Waaaah, Mom, my sister... *hic*... she only gave me a little bit of seed. I planted them so carefully... When the corn grows, there will be too little to eat, and we won't be full, *hic*..."

He stared at Song Tan through tear-blurred eyes. "In the future... I won't be able to support my sister, *hic*..."

Oh, this silly boy!

Song Tan's heart instantly melted into a puddle—no wonder Qiaoqiao was crying so hard; he probably remembered her saying at the beginning that she would farm to support herself!

Because she had scattered the seeds haphazardly, he must have felt that not enough corn would grow, making him both sad and aggrieved.

Sure enough, Wulan gave her a sharp glare and hurried to comfort him. "It's okay, Qiaoqiao. Mom knows how to farm. Mom will support you!"

Song Qiao stopped crying, hesitated for a long time, and then began to sob again. "Then... then also support my sister."

As soon as he spoke, Song Tan pulled him into a hug by his shoulders. "Good brother! Good Qiaoqiao! Sister is so moved—come, stop crying. Wipe your face, let's watch Peppa!"

"We can watch two episodes today!"

Ultimately, the pink pig brought an end to the tears.

...

Early March.

The third day of the second lunar month, Jingzhe (Awakening of Insects).

All things begin; insects awaken.

Song Tan had been back for half a month.

During this time, Song Sancheng had led the villagers to tidy up the hillside, and a layer of fuzzy green had begun to rise in the fields.

It was the newly sprouted sainfoin. A soft, tender green was poking out from the brown soil, trembling as if it might snap with a single gust of wind.

The villagers looked on in wonder. "These modern seeds aren't afraid of the frost at all! Look at this—in previous years, we wouldn't dare sow until March, but here they are already sprouting."

Ten to twenty acres were covered in this fuzzy green. With the fields rising and falling in uneven terrain, one couldn't help but feel a sense of joy at the sight.

Whenever villagers passed by, they couldn't help but stop to take a few extra looks.

It was exactly like the saying, "Looking from afar, the grass is green; approaching, it is nowhere to be seen."

An elderly villager leading an old ox passed by and couldn't help but ask, "Tan Tan, once this sainfoin grows up, can I bring my ox to graze in the fields?"

Sainfoin was highly nutritious and tender; oxen and sheep would love it! Back when he needed the ox to pull water for the paddy fields, he would let it eat a feast every year. Now that he no longer farmed, the ox was old.

And no one was planting sainfoin anymore.

Song Tan quickly agreed. "Of course, Grandpa Li! When the time comes, just bring your ox to those two bottom fields and let him eat as much as he wants!"

Sainfoin grows fast; they could graze on the green leaves for a month or so!

Old Man Li thought for a moment. "Are you only planting these two fields this year? How about I bring my ox to plow the fields for you?"

An ox plowing certainly couldn't compare to a machine, managing only five or six acres a day. But Song Tan had barely three or four acres!

Otherwise, Old Man Li wouldn't have been so willing. "But my ox is old, so he has to plow slowly. You can't rush him."

"I'll have it plowed for you in two days, okay?"

Song Tan smiled. "Sure! That's great! Grandpa Li, I won't ask for money then. When the rice is harvested, I'll send fifty pounds your way!"

The elderly didn't eat much; fifty pounds would last him nearly half a year.

Old Man Li was overjoyed!

When young people returned these days, everything was about money. It wasn't that you couldn't pay people for work, but among neighbors, always paying felt a bit cold and distant.

It wasn't that the young people were unwilling to help their fellow villagers, they just didn't know how.

To a group of elders used to the village's system of social reciprocity, it always felt uncomfortable.

Tan Tan was much better this way.

Besides, it was his own grown rice! How fragrant it would be!

Calculating it, he hadn't eaten it in twenty years or so...

He never expected he would get to eat it again in his twilight years.

The old ox seemed to sense his happiness, letting out a long "moo." Old Man Li patted its head. "Let's go, let's go, go home! There will be delicious food in a while!"

...

Song Tan was also pondering

Sainfoin, green leaves, purple flowers, an old ox...

What beautiful subject matter!

Song Tan had planned this long ago, but now that there was an ox, it would feel even more grounded in daily life.

As for whether she could sell products through live streaming once she became famous—she absolutely could!

If she couldn't sell products, why would she bother with all this?

She could guarantee: once people tasted it once, no one could resist becoming a returning customer.

Having farmed on Yuyue Peak in the back mountains for hundreds of years, her methods for pest control, weeding, and enhancing flavor were perfectly mastered!

She didn't believe that vegetables grown with spiritual energy wouldn't have a market!

Furthermore, many of the vegetables she planned to grow were long-lasting; black fungus and white wood ear fungus were especially suitable for online sales.

With modern logistics being so advanced, most cities could receive deliveries the next day if one was willing to pay, which was more than enough to meet the needs of online shopping.

As for the perishable ones, once she gained fame, the local market would absorb them.

Her farming had two purposes: first, to satisfy the appetite; second, to make money.

As for how much she made, as long as she broke even, she didn't have high demands.

With such a plan in mind, there was still much to prepare.

In the next few days, she had to quickly prepare her filming equipment and brush up on her video editing skills. Whether she would become a sensation would depend on this wave!

Thinking about it, Song Tan stood by the field. Her fingers moved slightly, silently drawing in wisps of spiritual energy...

The white mist, invisible to the naked eye, slowly merged into the fields, and the green of the sainfoin seemed to ascend to a higher level of vibrancy.

As a breeze blew, the hazy greenery became even more lush.

The root systems of the sainfoin rapidly absorbed nutrients from the soil, while the pale yellow rhizobia attached to the roots gave back to the land.

Such is the life of nature.

A cycle of repetition and rhythm.

There is more today.

Hiring someone to plow is expensive, and with the aging population in the countryside, for many tasks that could be done with machines, Tan Tan might hire more villagers.

One shouldn't look purely at the economic balance, or they would certainly lose money. But harmony between people and people, and between people and nature, is never a loss.

Of course, if some elderly people were unreasonable, Tan Tan certainly wouldn't let herself be taken advantage of.

Also, it's Jingzhe; it's time to eat some wild vegetables... what do you all like to eat?

(End of Chapter)