Song Tan's Notes

As an editor, Yunfeng reluctantly took out his own savings to appease his wife. After the two women finished their afternoon nap and came downstairs, he was heartbroken:

"You guys are so unlucky for me!"

Qin Yun couldn't accept this: "Why are you only talking about the two of us? Does that mean Lu Chuan is doing well?!"

Yunfeng coldly replied, "It's thriving."

Qin Yunhekuang: ...It seems to be thriving.

After all, they are top-tier writers; they can only be considered slightly above average.

Damn it! Not only is my brother not suffering, he's actually driving a Land Rover!

But they were all just here to freeload in Lu Chuan, and since they were eating his food, they felt obligated to help him. So, they turned the page with a grumble and said, "Let's go to the city to buy some gear for the kids."

Lu Chuan chuckled: "What's the rush? With this blazing sun, nothing can be done before 5 p.m. — Let's have lunch first!"

Everyone quickly patted their bellies. In the village, every meal was delayed by two hours, and to be honest, it was really hard to get used to.

However, it wasn't too bad for these men, since they were used to working day and night in reverse.

Lunch was a masterpiece prepared by Chef Chai, Chef Jiang, and Uncle Qi. From the moment they smelled the aroma of the food, everyone forgot everything else.

Freshly grilled lamb chops, stewed lamb leg meat, boiled lamb slices, and stir-fried lamb offal.

Everyone had their own plans for the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, and other vegetables they picked in the morning.

There was plenty of tea, and they even made a sweet and refreshing white fungus soup. Everyone ate without looking up, their bellies full.

Only when the top is injured can the world be achieved.

At the moment the meal was served, he only smelled the aroma before he saw his father put the dog leash on his back and hand the other end to Xiao Shi, who was waiting to make a name for himself.

The other dog was an experienced, strong, and intelligent sheepdog. It pulled the rope forward, and He Tuoluo couldn't help but follow.

Getting from the foot of the mountain to the canteen on the mountain was quite an ordeal for him.

As for whether the food is good or not—

Oh dear, the couple really didn't have time to worry about that; they just wanted to stuff themselves into their own bowls and show off!

Everyone drove here especially, and they even brought gifts for Old Song's family! But after eating and drinking their fill and getting quite full, they completely forgot about it.

They only felt annoyed when the car drove back to the guesthouse.

Ulan was beaming with joy as she listened to everyone's words!
I thought to myself, Xiao Chuan's friends are quite particular!
Seeing that they were going to carry and lift things under the scorching sun, they quickly advised them, "No rush, no rush, we'll talk about it when we go tonight!"

Everyone ate at the guesthouse that night, but the sun outside was blazing hot, so they all quieted down after hearing that.

After discussing it, the four men finally decided that Lu Chuan would drive to the city to buy things.

Firstly, he is familiar with this place.

Secondly, each of them still had gifts for the Song family in their cars.

Putting everything else aside, the 100 sets of books that Yunfeng brought were really heavy, almost crushing the truck. Driving that truck into the city was really unnecessary.

Ulan also advised:
"If you're not in a hurry, you can buy it online. That thing will arrive the next day, right? Little Zhang from town will come over tomorrow to deliver it, and he can bring it along too. It's quite convenient."

Lu Chuan laughed and said, "It's alright, they just want to get familiar with the city and come back on their own later."

Ulan then stopped trying to persuade her.

In her eyes, it would take an hour to drive to the city center, even at a slower pace! (Song Sancheng's exclusive speed).

It takes others forty or fifty minutes, which is actually quite time-consuming.

But what about Lu Chuanyunfeng, who previously lived in the capital, and Qin Yun, who lived in another big city...?

Is an hour really that far?
They go out, get stuck in traffic, and that's about the same amount of time they take.

So each of them grabbed a melon and happily got back into the car.

Lu Chuan started the car: "Eat whatever you want, but don't get it on my car seat."

"Know, know."

Qin Yun quickly started peeling the melon, gazing at the rolling mountains in the distance, and then happily taking a bite, feeling a double enjoyment for both body and soul.

Yunfeng, however, observed: "The settlement habits in these mountainous and hilly areas are different from those in the plains."

Lu Chuan nodded: "Yes, in the plains, villages are basically clustered together. In Yunqiao Village, each household is separated by a distance, and in some places, there may only be one house on a mountain."

"But isn't the town quite remote?"

Besides, I've been to many places: "In the plains, some villages can be reached from the town by electric bike in 5 or 10 minutes. Here, I remember it takes more than ten minutes to drive to the town."

Lu Chuan nodded: "The town isn't very prosperous, and not many people stay in their hometown now, so if you want to buy things, it's more convenient to drive directly to the city."

As for what to buy, that depends entirely on what the kids want to play with.

Gloves for picking vegetables and fruits, swimsuits, swim caps, and goggles for playing in the river.

Song Tan's family has simple life jackets, but not ones specifically for such a small child, so they need to buy a few more swimming rings.

What else can we play?
Lu Chuan really has no experience; it's up to you dads to figure it out.

He simply reminded us, "By the way, a new square has been built in the village where you can play basketball, tennis, badminton, and the like."

Everyone should write this down; we need to make sure everything is arranged properly when the time comes.

We finally managed to bring the kids to the countryside, so we had to let them disconnect from their phones and the internet for a while so they could fully experience the wildness of the rural landscape.

Especially since.

Qin Yun asked him with amusement, "You should go to a sports equipment store and buy all the equipment, right? Otherwise, how will you get rid of your son's inexhaustible energy?"

Besides, it's speechless. In fact, He Luo has already enrolled in three extracurricular sports classes.

There's really nothing I can do about it, I still can't seem to exhaust all that energy.

Thinking of this, he asked Lu Chuan again, "Is that Xiao Shi reliable?"

Lu Chuan glanced at the rearview mirror and smiled:

“There are 150 sheep on the riverbank now, and they are all herded by Xiao Shi and Xiao Shiyi. You have seen those sheep before.”

The sheep, being semi-free-range, are incredibly energetic.

They were the kind of people who had to jump after taking just a few steps, and they had inexhaustible energy. They had even climbed the steep cliffs of the nearby rocky slope, and some were even eager to try their luck in the shallow waters.

Or perhaps they would sneak into the cattle pen to fish in the chaos, hoping to slip out through the larger, sparser fence after everyone had left...

Through their battles of wits and courage with these sheep, Xiao Shi and Xiao Shiyi have accumulated a lot of work experience.

What's more, there's that huge potted plant reward that Qiaoqiao promised.

If you don't take good care of him, Xiao Shi will lose face and start crying his eyes out.

Out of trust in him, and moreover, with a sigh and slumped shoulders:

"If all else fails, bring Big White over too. If he doesn't behave, just suck his butt."

"Don't worry, we're the kind of family that spanks our children; we don't feel bad about it."

Lu Chuan looked at him again: "I can tell." His movements as he pulled the rope on the mountain in preparation for the attack were exceptionally nimble, clearly showing his extensive experience.

"Oh my gosh!"

Qin Yun laughed from the side: "How can you hit a child? That's not good. As parents, we need to educate children with good character; corporal punishment won't work."

Moreover, he gave a cold laugh:
"Since you're so good at this, how about I leave my son with you for a week when we get back? You can try some 'well-rounded education'?"

Qin Yun: ...

He closed his little mouth.

Yunfeng chuckled beside him: "After all these years, how come you're still the same as when we first met? You're still bad at the game and love to joke around, yet you always lose."

However, his seemingly dull-wittedness actually made him more popular than others.

Lu Chuan doesn't have many friends, and the car is already full.

Besides, I only have three or five close friends.

But Qin Yun can summon a whole bunch of them.

All I can say is that God favors the simple-minded.

……

In the village.

The men left, and the families felt bad about eating and drinking for free while waiting for the meal to be ready.

But as soon as he mentioned his desire to help, Ulan shook his head repeatedly:

“How can that be? We don’t do much housework ourselves. We’ve asked Lianhua from the village to come and help.”

My family still does the usual tasks of picking vegetables, peeling onions, and cleaning garlic, but they certainly wouldn't say it like that when facing guests.

Lu Jing looked around and over:
Do you play cards?

Goodness, now that you mention it, we don't even have enough mahjong tables at home.

Ulan was incredibly resourceful. With a few phone calls in the village and a call to the security guards on the mountain, everyone huffed and puffed as they carried over three more mahjong machines from their homes, making a total of four, which they set up in the corridor behind the guesthouse.

That area is not open to guests of the guesthouse, and with the reed curtains drawn all around, the air conditioning from the living room can blow directly through there.

Enjoying the flowers and scenery in the cool breeze, and perhaps playing a game of mahjong – in this sweltering heat where there's nothing else to do, it couldn't be more pleasant.

Ulan was still saying from the side:

"Thanks to the attention of our leaders, the roads have been repaired and the water and electricity systems have been upgraded. In previous years, even if there were only a few air conditioners in the village, the electricity wouldn't be enough to power them, and there would be power outages every few days in the summer."

"Tell me, there's so much work to do up the mountain. If the power goes out, the losses will be enormous!"

Otherwise, we wouldn't have dared to plant crops that don't store well in the first place.

In conclusion, good policies can change lives.

This topic drew unanimous praise from the men.

Everyone sat down at the mahjong table, poured themselves a cup of hot tea, and started talking about politics—they could talk endlessly about profound principles.

Among them were three grown men who were smoking.

Ulan came to her senses and saw that they were taking advantage of a break from playing cards to stand outside the corridor and smoke a few times, but they still brought the smell of smoke in.

I couldn't help but think of Song Youde and Song Sancheng again.

Actually, both father and son smoke, but Tan Tan grows tobacco leaves, and somehow manages to make them strong and pungent, yet they taste exceptionally mellow to smokers.
Once you start smoking, other cigarettes just don't feel quite right.

After a while, I actually don't smoke much anymore.

The cigarettes and alcohol that Secretary Zhu's grandfathers sent him before are still piled up at home.

She was extremely satisfied with Lu Chuan, and naturally, she was also very enthusiastic about Lu Chuan's friends, greeting them at that moment.
"Tan Tan, go home and bring over another pack of tobacco. I'm not playing cards right now, so I can make them a few cigarettes."

It would be best to quit smoking once you've started, because secondhand smoke really doesn't smell good.

Song Tan knew what her mother meant just by looking at her expression, and she laughed too.
"Row."

No tobacco was planted this year, and Ulan herself had almost forgotten about the stockpile.

When Xiao Zhu, the village secretary, asked for some cigarettes at the beginning of spring, it was clear that the cigarettes were very strong, so much so that her grandfathers' need for cigarettes actually decreased, and they didn't mention it again for a long time.

Song Tan pondered: I'll have to plant some more next year.

Putting everything else aside, when relatives and friends come over and want to smoke, you can offer them a little smoke so that others don't have to smell secondhand smoke.

Upon hearing this, the smokers burst into laughter:
"We also grow tobacco."

Ulan said proudly, "Tantan is good at planting; she can grow anything well. This tobacco is no exception. Many bosses came to want it, but she didn't sell it to them. She only gave a little to some acquaintances."

"You guys should try it too. After smoking this cigarette, you won't smoke other cigarettes as much, and you can even quit smoking."

Everyone laughed when he said that.

They believed that the food from the Song family was delicious, but cigarettes, once the addiction got stronger, how could they stop smoking after a while?
However, the people of Ulan are warm and cheerful. Even when they boast about their own products like a peddler selling melons, it doesn't feel fake. Instead, it makes them seem even more genuine and simple.

A few burly men who were smoking joked around and decided that they would at least give it a try later.

……

When Song Tan went home to pack her things, she happened to run into Secretary Zhu, and she couldn't help but laugh:

"How come your nose is so sensitive? I was just sorting through the tobacco."

Party Secretary Xiao Zhu laughed: "I had forgotten about it if you hadn't mentioned it. Give me some more, and I'll use it to appease my grandfathers during the Mid-Autumn Festival."

Song Tan picked up a bag and showed it to her: "There's not much left, just this much. I'll give you half."

Secretary Zhu wasn't picky at all. After taking the tobacco, he asked curiously, "Why did you think of this?"

Song Tan said helplessly, "Some of Lu Chuan's friends and family members smoke. They were playing cards together. My mother felt it wasn't good for others to smell secondhand smoke, and it wasn't appropriate to send the guests outside to smoke, so she asked me to take this and appease them first."

Believe it or not, even now, Secretary Zhu still doesn't understand the principle behind this magical tobacco.

I heard that Professor Song did send it for testing, but he didn't notice anything different, except that the taste was different.

In short, it's quite good for smokers.

When it comes to being hospitable and courteous to guests, Secretary Zhu is a hundred meters ahead of everyone else in the village. But now he's offering his opinion:

"Don't just take the tobacco. The cigarettes my grandfather brought you last year were all top-quality stuff for internal use. Take a carton with you."

Who cares if they smoke or not? Let's save face for Lu Chuan.

Whether it's a couple or friends, whatever the level of intimacy, mutual respect is something that needs to be cultivated.

Since no one smokes these cigarettes at home anyway, Song Tan didn't care and just picked out a pack and took it with her.

"I haven't even asked yet, why did you suddenly come here?"

Then Secretary Zhu remembered: "Oh right, let me tell you in advance, a leader might be coming to stay for a couple of days around the middle of the month."

"If there are any mid-range guesthouses in Luchuan, reserve two. Nothing too fancy, just mid-range ones will do." (End of Chapter)