Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 353 - Chapter 353 353. Fairy and Village Cadre_1

Chapter 353: 353. Fairy and Village Cadre_1 Chapter 353: 353. Fairy and Village Cadre_1 Zu Yuntao’s feelings of regret echoed in his heart, but his hand involuntarily reached for that cigarette.

When the lighter clicked on with a snap, the flame dancing along, he suddenly froze.

Zu Yuntao took the unlit cigarette from his mouth, inspected it meticulously, and asked once more, “Dad, where did you get this from?”

Director Zhu looked at him warily, “What’s it to you? If I give it to you, then smoke it. If I don’t, don’t even ask for one!”

Zu Yuntao: …They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but why did he feel like his worth as a son plummeted ever since his dad was admitted to the sanatorium?

He hadn’t even said he wanted the cigarette!

It had no label, and it looked like it was casually rolled with plain paper–wait a minute!

He realized something and once again studied the cigarette in detail, saying incredulously, “Dad, you couldn’t have rolled this cigarette yourself, could you?”

Director Zhu tried to hold back but couldn’t suppress the upward curl of his lips, “How’s that? Not bad, right?”

He wasn’t bragging, but in order to be worthy of this tobacco, he had practiced many times in private–look how well the cigarette was rolled, not too tight or too loose, the seams even, and aside from the paper at the filter not being colored, it was virtually indistinguishable from what he usually smoked. He truly was the great Director Zhu!

However, Zu Yuntao was both amused and dismayed, “Dad, what are you doing? We have plenty of cigarettes at home, you don’t need to go to this extent.”

Old Zhu was stunned for a moment, taking a while to understand.

As his son got older, his mind wasn’t what it used to be. Didn’t he understand his own father at all? Did he seem like the type to compromise?

Thinking this, he felt a pang of regret for the 5 cigarettes he had just pushed over: “If you’re not going to smoke them, give them back to me.”

Zu Yuntao tensed up, and seeing his dad squinting his eyes, which was all too reminiscent of him unbuckling his belt when he was a child, he instinctively sparked up the cigarette with a snap.

With the crude cigarette back in his mouth and a deep inhale, it felt like an indescribable warmth surged straight to his crown, scattering the mess of emotions in his head.

For a while, he sat there dazed, taking a long time to come back to his senses.

Afterward, he looked at the cigarette in his hand with a complex expression, “Dad, no wonder you only smoke 10 cigarettes a day now.”

With this cigarette, nothing else seemed to matter.

And when he smoked other cigarettes, it was puff after puff, relentless until the end.

But now, after just one puff of this cigarette, his heart seemed to quiet down, void of any other cravings.

He tentatively snuffed out the cigarette in the ashtray and sat pondering, without feeling any different.

“Is this the tobacco?” he examined, “Could it be that you’ve added something to help with quitting smoking?”

There were products on the market to assist with quitting smoking, like certain medications–varenicline tartrate, for example–but they were expensive and often accompanied by side effects that many people couldn’t tolerate, so they were not well known to the general public.

But this cigarette was comfortable to smoke, not to mention anything given to him was surely reliable, with the accompanying doctor wishing he could check on him daily…

His interest piqued, but Director Zhu was on full alert, “Why think so much? If I give it to you, then smoke it. If you don’t want to, give it back to me.”

He had been through several old men’s relentless hounding, which made him suspicious of everyone, seeing them all as thieves after his belongings, including his own son.

Zu Yuntao was genuinely at a loss for words.

But he was merely scorned by old Zhu, not truly brainless. After a brief moment of thought, he laughed and said, “This was Xiaojun who brought this back for you, wasn’t it?”

It wasn’t hard to guess. Although he hadn’t had the chance to try the things his child had sent back, he could basically figure out where they came from based on what his dad had said since the moment he walked in.

After all, good mountains and waters do nurture many good things, which is normal.

Moreover, his dad had no way to get anything else on the mountain, except for things given by close acquaintances.

With tobacco of such quality, who else would sell it to him privately?

Old Zhu became proud, “How about that? You’re not up to the job as a dad, but at the crucial moment, my granddaughter still has her grandpa in her heart!”

“But you’d better not go looking for her just because you think the goods are good. My granddaughter is having a tough time in the village! Up the mountain, down the fields, not to mention how much work to do and how many disputes to settle… you better stay put!”

Zu Yuntao was both amused and exasperated: That’s really not necessary!

Moreover, his need for tobacco wasn’t as great as his dad’s.

He said this, but his hand reached to the side, pocketing the remaining four and a half cigarettes into his bag.

…

Meanwhile, Zu Jun, who had been working on the mountain and in the fields, was indeed sweating profusely and in a sorry state.

She was squatting beside the watermelon field with Song Tan, and the two picked a melon from the vine nearby. With a punch, Song Tan split it in half.

Now each holding half a melon, they squatted there eating, faces dripping with juice–one not at all like a fairy, the other not like a village cadre at all, but their chat was still somewhat interesting–

As Zu Jun munched noisily on her watermelon, she asked, “These melons taste so good, are we going to expand the planting area next year?”

“We’ll see.”

Song Tan was always true to her original intention–making money was secondary; more importantly, she wanted to ensure she could eat everything she desired.

So production wasn’t important, but the variety was.

Zu Jun wasn’t discouraged, just surveying the Peach Forest echoing with everyone’s laughter, “Next year you won’t be able to grow watermelons under here, right?”

“I think the peach trees are growing too fast this year and next year they will enter the fruitful period. The branches and leaves will thicken, and there won’t be any sunshine underneath.”

That was certainly the case. If she wanted to plant watermelons next year, she really needed to find a specific place.

Song Tan considered the money she could earn this year, then said unabashedly, “You help me keep an eye on the mountain up there and give me a fair price. After July, I can pay off the debt I owe to the village in one go. Next year I’ll take care of the rest.”

By July the house will be built, the final payment settled, the rice harvest bountiful, the peaches on the market… There are plenty of opportunities to make money.

In fact, she already had that amount of money now, but since there were quite a few things going on at the moment, Song Tan decided to keep it as a reserve for the time being.

“Okay.” Secretary Xiaozu is the one in the village most eager for their family to expand their operations, “But if you have extra money in hand, I suggest you still discuss a deal with the village in advance–your fruits on the mountain are growing so well, the price at that time is likely to be high.”

With high prices come high earnings. While everyone knows their family’s products are of good quality, everybody has a bit of wishful thinking: land adjacent to Song Tan’s, similar soil and sunlight–surely the taste, if not the same, could benefit from the proximity a bit, right?

Definitely a money-maker.

Then, it would be inevitable that someone would want to take over the mountain next door.

You have to understand, although there are few able-bodied people in the village, it doesn’t mean they lack resources. Honestly, contracting a barren mountain costs little to nothing, for those in business it’s just a drop in the bucket.

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