Her Cultivation Diary

Chapter 83: 83. Young girl_1

Song Tan: …

Could she say that she had forgotten?

The so-called picking process involved using a tea holder made from fine bamboo twigs, and some tender twigs would inevitably break and fall into the tea during the high-temperature roasting process.

Moreover, during the picking of the tea leaves, some old leaves were bound to be mixed in, which would turn yellow in the frying process, making them easy to distinguish and remove.

But that was okay.

She kept her composure, “It’s fine, Mom, they can just have the first pick when buying tea in the future. You can find someone to do the picking later.”

Wu Lan was silent too—first pick, why didn’t you just reach for the sky?

She dreamt at night that people were coming back demanding refunds because the tea was too expensive.

But the sale had been made, so she could only think positively.

“There’s no rush. I saw the forecast, and there’s going to be rain the day after tomorrow. When it’s raining and we can’t work outside, I will call over the four aunts who pick tea. We don’t need to talk about money… let’s just sit together and chat.”

Five or six pounds of dry tea a day, and just a dozen or so pounds saved up over a few days, that’s just a moment’s work.

Talking about paying them for this is just embarrassing them, isn’t it?

Then she began to take pride again, “This year they can earn quite a bit of money picking tea leaves.”

Song Sancheng took a drag of his cigarette and contentedly said, “Our Tantan is really making something of herself, now not only farming well but also providing our fellow villagers with an opportunity to earn money…”

He wasn’t good with words, and couldn’t really summarize any more than that, just repeating softly, “Good, good…”

Song Tan found it hard to understand these feelings.

Her hometown was her obsession in both her past and present lives, and her kin was where her heart belonged, but as for the village itself… even in her last life, she hardly spent any time there once she started boarding school.

Forgotten for too long, she didn’t have such a strong sense of conviction.

Yet, seeing Wu Lan and Song Sancheng’s pride, her heart was faintly moved.

Qiaoqiao poked his head out from outside:

“Are we done yet?”

He said with a hint of sadness, “It’s getting dark, the convenience store is about to close.”

The village convenience store’s closing time entirely depended on how late the chatting people left, so Song Tan quickly stood up:

“Let’s go, Your Majesty.”

With one call, Da Wang obediently came over with the leash in his mouth. When the hook was attached to the loop, Song Tan passed the leash to Qiaoqiao:

“You lead him, walk slowly, Da Wang is very smart, you have to talk to him if there’s anything.”

While petting Da Wang’s head, the fluffy touch softened her heart, followed by a surge of Spiritual Energy that slowly flowed into him.

Da Wang made a whining sound from his throat and gave a low “woof,” stretching his body in silent ease.

After that, he looked at Song Tan and then nudged Qiaoqiao in the chest with his head.

That made Qiaoqiao ecstatic!

“Da Wang really likes me!”

He proudly held the leash, “Da Wang, let’s go buy bubble gum. Do you eat sausage? I don’t know how much of my wage is left, will it be enough to buy some?”

“Do you eat eggs? If grandma boils an egg for me tomorrow, I’ll share with—”

“No, that’s not right, I can’t just give to you, I have to give to the others too…”

He looked troubled again, obviously feeling that one egg wouldn’t be enough to share.

Then, seeing the dog tag on his neck, he immediately cheered up, held the dog tag and smiled at Song Tan, “Sister, Mom said that if I have this tag, I should go find the police with it if I ever get lost.”

He wrinkled his nose, “Qiaoqiao knows the way well, how could I get lost?”

The siblings chatted and laughed their way to the grocery store.

In front of the store was an activity square, which was pitifully small compared to city areas. But in their village, it was only paved after the villagers selflessly contributed a piece of land.

A few aunties, who looked familiar to Song Tan but whose names he couldn’t recall, were sitting there chatting and laughing. On a few nearby fitness equipment, there were also people swinging leisurely.

“Oh my, how come there’s such a big dog, looks just like a tiger!”

The presence of Dawang was too eye-catching. For a moment, even though the two solar street lamps on the square were not very bright, they still made everyone curiously gather around.

Of course, they didn’t dare to get too close, subtly maintaining a certain distance.

Song Tan noticed that among them, there was a young girl.

She was dressed in a simple black baseball outfit, her bare face wasn’t exactly fair, but her eyes were incredibly bright. She looked to be about the same age as Song Tan.

It was rare to see young people in the village, so subconsciously, Song Tan met her gaze and returned a smile.

Meanwhile, the other aunties were listening to Qiaoqiao’s loud introduction of the impressive Dawang, growing more and more interested, and exclaiming in amazement.

However, Dawang clearly knew his limits, retreating a step whenever someone dared get close, looking fierce!

Although he showed no intention of attacking, his demeanor alone was enough to make everyone a bit scared.

As they listened to Qiaoqiao’s childish talk about the seven dogs at home that needed to be taken to the mountain fields to watch over them, the expressions on the faces of the crowd subtly changed.

Song Tan knew that this news would definitely spread throughout the whole village by no later than tomorrow noon.

At that moment, an old timer said with a sharp tone, “Oh my! Back in our day, we couldn’t even feed people, now you’re feeding dogs? The young folks these days are willing to spend money, who knows where they earned it from.”

Song Tan also casually replied, “Yeah, indeed it costs quite a bit of money. This dog used to be abroad. Over there, they take him out for hunting, to hunt bears and bite tigers.”

“Now it’s not convenient for them, so they sent the dog to me.”

With her adept use of vague specifics, the crowd’s look at Dawang became even more fearful.

After a night’s fermentation, Song Tan believed that tomorrow’s rumor would be that she owned a dog that had eaten a tiger.

And someone might even add the phrase: “This is a dog sent from abroad, it dares to bite tigers, not to mention people!”

Those words said, the old lady indeed fell silent.

And with that, Song Tan achieved her aim. She now instructed Qiaoqiao, “Weren’t you going to buy some chewing gum? Go ahead quickly.”

Afterward, she watched as everyone looked at Dawang warily, and then slowly led Dawang onto the road.

Walking under the dim streetlights, a person and a dog exuded a sense of calm.

But at that moment, she heard footsteps behind her.

Turning around, she saw the young girl catching up:

“Song Tan, right?”

She pursed her lips and smiled, with cute dimples on her cheeks, her entire demeanor was indescribably cheerful.

“I’ve heard about you before.”

“I’ve tasted your Milk Vetch in the field, and it’s really good. I wonder if you used some kind of new fertilizer or a new variety?”

Song Tan raised an eyebrow: “You’ve bought it?”

The girl was taken aback, then her eyes lit up: “Are you still selling it?”

She shook her head immediately afterward: “No. I just happened to be passing by the field, and saw Old Lee struggling to pull his ox away for quite a while. I thought to myself, this must taste really good, so I went to pluck one and try it.”

She extended her hand:

“Hello, my name is Zu Jun. I was appointed last year as the village secretary of Yunqiao Village.”

She finished and blinked: “If you’ve seen the news, you should know that our province welcomed over nine hundred college graduate village officials last year—I’m one of them.”