My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 219 The Joy of a Baby

The early spring rain didn't last long, stopping by evening.

The next day, while the soil was still damp, Chen Ling once again led the ox to plow the field early in the morning.

After a busy morning, when I got home for lunch, I found that Wang Susu had added a fresh spring dish to my meal: scrambled eggs with toon leaves.

The newly sprouted toon buds after the rain were incredibly tender. Stir-fried with farm eggs, they were crisp and delicious, leaving a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth. Chen Ling ate them all in one go, followed by two large steamed buns and a big bowl of porridge.

After a satisfying breakfast, Chen Ling looked at the Chinese toon tree outside the courtyard and felt that there were not enough trees outside his courtyard wall.

The main reason is that our own yard is now quite large. It is a combination of two previous yards. The trees in the backyard were completely cut down when the house was built, so it looks a bit empty, with only two or three Chinese toon trees remaining outside the yard.

"Let's plant a few more trees."

"We should also plant grapevines in the yard and rebuild the grape trellis."

Chen Ling made a plan in his heart, then got up, hitched up the oxcart, told Wang Susu that he was going to the mountain to transplant some trees, and went out.

Inside and outside the village, on the hillsides, there are many miscellaneous trees. Last year, Chen Ling transplanted many into the cave, including wild fruit trees such as hawthorn, mulberry, and wild apple, as well as miscellaneous big banyan, ginkgo, camphor, and even locust and black locust trees.

However, there are not many species suitable for planting outside the yard.

He stopped the oxcart at the foot of the mountain, walked into the forest, and after confirming that no one was around, he entered the cave in a flash.

Inside the cave, Chen Ling looked around, deciding he didn't want to plant fruit trees outside the courtyard—they were too attractive.

In the end, I chose three: ginkgo trees, camphor trees, and locust trees.

The locust tree includes both the common locust tree and the black locust tree.

The so-called "stupid locust tree" is actually the Chinese scholar tree (Sophora japonica). This tree grows quickly, has beautiful flowers, and its fruit can provide food for birds.

The reason for planting locust trees outside the yard is that their flowers are very fragrant and sweet. When they bloom in spring, the trees are covered with flowers, and when the spring breeze blows, they are as beautiful as falling snow.

There's another interesting story about locust trees.

It is said that this tree was brought into China by the Japanese because their warhorses liked to eat the sweet locust blossoms. So, more than a hundred years before the invasion, they began to plant it in China to prepare military rations for their warhorses.

He is truly cunning and treacherous, full of evil intentions, and has a very wicked mind.

I don't know if it's true or not.

……

As Chen Ling entered the cave, with a slight thought, several half-grown trees in the forest were uprooted and suspended in the air. Their branches and leaves quickly became bare, ready to be planted.

This is something he can only do at will within the Sun and Moon Grotto, like the work of a deity.

Then they carried the trees out of the mountains one by one, piled them on an oxcart, and took them home.

Ginkgo and locust trees were planted outside the wall, while camphor trees were planted behind the house.

While digging a hole outside the courtyard, Aunt Wang came out, holding a steamed bun made of corn and wheat flour in one hand and a handful of pickled vegetables in the other. She ate as she walked to Chen Ling's side.

"Fugui, what are you up to now?" Aunt Wang asked.

When Chen Ling saw that it was the old lady, he smiled and said, "I want to plant a few trees outside the wall. They're all half-grown trees, so that when they grow up, we neighbors can enjoy the shade in the summer."

"Oh, these are trees planted for shade." Aunt Wang nodded, but her face showed a hint of hesitation.

She deliberately came over to remind Chen Ling to be careful when planting trees, and not to plant them facing her door. But then she thought about it and realized that Chen Ling was quite capable now. Wang Susu also respected her as an elder and had even given her two bowls of dumplings during the New Year. So she felt a little embarrassed to speak up when she got there.

Chen Ling had no idea about any of this. He thought the old lady had just come over to watch the fun, so he continued digging the hole, unaware that the hole was actually close to the edge of Wang Ershen's house.

He didn't know, but some people did.

As luck would have it, the muddle-headed old man Chen Gannian was passing by with his sheep. Upon seeing Chen Ling, he poked him in the backside with his sheep whip and said, "Jun Cai, don't plant trees facing people's doorways, or they'll come knocking on your door and beat you up."

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling instantly snapped back to reality and realized why Old Mrs. Wang had come over.

But seeing that his great-uncle had once again become confused and mistook him for his father, Chen Ling felt helpless. "It just rained, and the area outside the village is muddy. Great-uncle, if you want to herd sheep, you should wait until the ground is a little drier."

"It's alright, what's a little mud? I'm just taking a stroll." Chen Gannian said nonchalantly, flicking his whip with a flourish. "You kid, remember not to plant trees facing people's gates."

Then he drove the sheep away in a long stride.

Aunt Wang felt embarrassed when her thoughts were exposed.

But Chen Gannian was a confused old man, so she couldn't say anything. She just smiled at Chen Ling and said, "You can plant whatever you want, it's fine. I just came to see what you're doing."

Chen Ling had already figured out what was going on, and quickly explained that it wasn't intentional.

Actually, he really hadn't thought of that.

However, people in the countryside are particular about this; trees cannot be planted haphazardly. There are specific rules for planting trees in different locations, so you really can't just do it randomly.

In the local villages, almost every household has a variety of trees growing in front of and behind their houses, in the fields, and at the foot of the ditches. Most of these trees grow naturally and no one plants them intentionally.

However, there are some trees that cannot be planted at home or in front of the house.

The village elders often say: peaches nourish people, apricots harm people, and people die under plum trees, so apricot and plum trees are not allowed to be planted at home.

Of course, there is also a saying that mulberry trees should not be planted in front, willow trees should not be planted behind, and poplar trees should not be planted in the yard. It is said that the leaves of poplar trees are like the hands of ghosts, and when the wind blows, they make a clapping sound, like someone clapping. Planting such trees in the yard is very unlucky.

Both of these views are quite accepted here.

Besides, no matter what kind of tree it is, it's not good to have it facing someone else's door. It's said that trees are harmful to people. It's fine if your own tree is planted in front of your door, but if someone else's tree is planted in front of your door, it will absorb your wealth and good fortune.

Whether this is superstition or not is irrelevant; people simply believe it.

So Chen Ling quickly filled in the tree pit that was faintly facing Aunt Wang's house, moved it forward a bit, and then dug a new pit to plant the tree.

After planting the trees outside the courtyard, he went out and dug up two or three wild grapevines from the cave. After half a year of cultivation and improvement in the cave, these wild grapes tasted excellent and bore a good amount of fruit.

However, Chen Ling was still only transplanting grapevine roots.

The grapevines were planted on the west side of the yard, and a grape trellis was built against the wall.

It took a whole day of work to finish everything. The sooner we plant them, the longer the trees will grow, and the grape trellis will be ready.

Just thinking about enjoying the shade under the grape trellis makes me feel happy.

However, when Chen Ling went to bed at night, he discovered that the Sun and Moon Cave Heaven was trembling slightly, and for the first time ever, it actively sent him a vague signal.

【joy】

This emotion is faint, naive, yet very direct.

Like a starving baby who experiences the simple joy of drinking its mother's milk.

I wanted to drink more after I finished.

"What's happening here?"

Chen Ling was surprised. The last time the Sun and Moon Cave Heaven reacted, it expanded outwards, opening up a small area in the white mist to him, revealing a magical little tree planted in a pool of water.

Why is there even emotional exchange this time? It's like a little baby living in a cave.

They were begging him for milk.

Seeing that Wang Susu was fast asleep beside him, Chen Ling used his consciousness to enter the cave.

In an instant, the sky brightened, and the world changed. He found himself surrounded by fragrant flowers, singing birds, and babbling brooks. Before his eyes lay a scene of vibrant flowers and abundant fruit. Bunches of purplish-red grapes hung in front of the thatched cottage, with beautiful birds pecking at them. When they saw him enter, they fluttered away.

These are wild birds that were released earlier. Like the golden pheasant, they have multiplied and their numbers have increased dramatically in the past six months.

Chen Ling ignored them and let them reproduce and grow.

Once there are enough of them, then release them.

Especially for rare species like the golden pheasant, raising too many is simply for the purpose of releasing them into the wild.

However, these are all secondary matters and have nothing to do with the recent changes in the Sun and Moon Grotto.

The lush flowers and fragrant fruits before him are all thanks to the plants he planted last year.

It is also unrelated to change.

So he walked around the thatched hut, the irrigation ditch, the lotus pond, and along the stream, carefully observing everything. In the end, he discovered that the Sun and Moon Cave had not expanded again and was still within the area it had been after the last opening.

But when he turned to the strange, jade-green sapling, he stopped.

This jade-green sapling was like a cheerful and lively little girl, its branches and leaves swaying gently as if waving to him. The dewdrops formed from the white mist gathered on the leaves were also scattered everywhere.

This is a very strange scene.

But soon, something even stranger happened.

As the jade-green sapling swayed gently, a leaf of the same jade color slowly drifted down from the tree and landed in his palm.

"This is……"

"For me to eat?"

As Chen Ling walked up to the tree, he naturally understood what the sapling was doing.

So he put the leaf to his mouth and tasted it.

This taste was incredible. The leaf, which looked like jade, melted instantly in his mouth, turning into a cool liquid that made him feel light and refreshed.

Chen Ling quickly went out of the cave to experience it.

I felt incredibly energetic, as if every cell in my body was jumping for joy, and I felt several years younger.

After the spiritual water lost its effect on him, this was the first time in six months that he had experienced that blissful feeling of being cleansed by a clear spring.

However, after returning to the grotto.

Chen Ling stood in front of the sapling again, but the jade sapling did not react this time.

The previously conveyed emotion of "joy" was as if it had never existed.

Puzzled, Chen Ling tried to reach out and pick a leaf from the tree, but he couldn't pick it off no matter what he did, as if the tree was an iron tree.

Even when I tried to control it with my mind to make the leaves fall, there was no reaction.

"Huh? What exactly is going on?"

"I just planted some trees at home today, and this reaction happened."

"Huh? That's not right. I think the last time I saw the changes in the cave was when I was planting flowers in the yard."

"Could there be some connection between them?"

This sudden discovery filled Chen Ling with excitement, making him feel as if he had grasped something crucial.

But now I can't try it right away. As night deepens and my wife and sister-in-law are asleep, I'd better not bother with it.

Forced to suppress the urge to act.

The next day he got up very early and started arranging flower pots in the yard.

He decided that since the previous two attempts at planting flowers and trees had yielded positive results, he would try bonsai this time.

He had long wanted to transplant so many ancient tree species that could not be seen in the outside world into the Sun and Moon Cave, but if he just picked one out, it would be too conspicuous. So Chen Ling decided to plant them as bonsai first, so that they would not be too eye-catching. After pruning and arranging them into shapes, they would look better.

Sure enough, after he finished treating one tree, although there was no change inside the Sun and Moon Cave, he keenly noticed that tiny buds had sprouted from the leaves that had fallen off the previous night on the jade tree.

This discovery thrilled him, and he thought he had uncovered an incredible secret.

He then excitedly went to work on the second bonsai.

But to his surprise, after finishing the second bonsai, the buds showed no signs of growing and remained just bud tips.

"It's not working again?"

Chen Ling was stunned. He wanted to try again, but Wang Susu called him to dinner, so he had to suppress his doubts once more.

After dinner, I took Wang Zhenzhen to school in the county town.

When she got back, she was about to continue tinkering when she suddenly found that people had come to her house. It was Sister Xiuying and a few other women who came to borrow vegetable seeds from Wang Susu.

Spring is here, and everyone likes to plant some common vegetables in their gardens so that they won't lack vegetables to eat after summer arrives.

In the countryside, it's quite normal to borrow vegetable seeds or grain seeds, and exchanging vegetable seeds is also a common occurrence.

When someone came to borrow, Wang Susu wrapped up the vegetable seeds she had saved from last year in newspaper and gave them some of each kind.

Originally, this was just a trivial matter.

But Chen Ling sensed the joy emanating from the little tree again. This time, the joy was even weaker and more indistinct than the one from the previous night. It was intermittent. If Chen Ling hadn't consumed its leaves and enhanced his perception, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

So he went into the room and entered the cave, and he found that the tender buds on the small tree were emerging from the buds, revealing the tender, green buds.

"What do you mean?"

"The vegetable seeds that Su Su lent out were not seeds from the cave, but seeds from the vegetables I watered with spiritual water. Does that mean that as long as I distribute the seeds cultivated in the cave, the Sun and Moon Cave will benefit? And the saplings will also benefit?"

With these guesses in mind, Chen Ling visited several familiar households, saying that he was going to plant vegetables and had a lot of seeds left over, so he came to give them some.

After delivering the vegetable seeds, some sweet corn seeds and sorghum seeds were also given out; all of them were seeds that had grown in the cave.

These families were all very happy, and Chen Ling was also very happy because he noticed that the buds on the saplings had changed again and grown a little bigger.

"It seems that the seeds nurtured in the grotto-heaven have indeed brought unknown benefits to the grotto-heaven after being sown. In the future, when I have nothing to do, I can cultivate some superior seeds to sell at the market. Later, when the children grow up, I can even set up a seed station in the small courtyard in the county town..."

"As long as I keep a low profile and don't cultivate seeds to an exaggerated degree, it will benefit the country and the people, as well as our own family."

"Um……"

"Based on the reactions from the previous two grottoes, flower seeds and tree seeds should also work."

Chen Ling pondered in his mind, his thoughts wandering.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was another way to make money while lying down. Originally, he was a little eager to figure out the situation of the cave, but now he suddenly relaxed and was not in a hurry at all.

Of course.

It's useless to be anxious.

Once the cultivated seeds are sown, regardless of their quality, there is a process of dissemination. The difference between one person planting a seed and ten thousand people planting a seed is naturally different. This requires time to ferment. Only during this process of dissemination and fermentation can the cave continuously benefit.

Now that the initial stage is over, the buds on the magical little tree inside the Sun and Moon Cave have stopped growing.

Clearly, it will take time for it to mature.

"No wonder I was busy for half a year last year before I was allowed to pick a single leaf..."

Chen Ling clicked his tongue. Of course, some people would use the peanuts and soybeans he sold as seeds, but unfortunately, there were still too few of them.

"Don't rush, take it slow. The more people who plant my seeds, the greater the benefits will be."

"Grain seeds, vegetable seeds, flower seeds, and tree seeds should all be developed gradually. Taking too big a step can easily lead to disaster."

Chen Ling reminded himself of this in his heart.

After figuring out how to use the Sun and Moon Cave for two or three days, he continued to plow the fields and supervise the construction work at the farm every day.

I have time to spare every day despite being busy, so my days are quite fulfilling.

But to his surprise, as his wife's belly grew bigger day by day, his father-in-law and mother-in-law, worried that he would be too busy and that no one would take care of their daughter, actually came over themselves.

The house is now quite lively.

(End of this chapter)