Chapter 50: Garden of Herbs
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After the ceremony, all the guests were invited to a hotel nearby where w.a.n.g Mingbao had booked a few private rooms.
This was the usual process of an opening ceremony. After celebrating the opening of the store, all the guests would gather together to have a nice meal before they went home.
w.a.n.g Yao knew a few people at the table. They were all from the same village but they didn’t really speak to one another. The only person he was friendly with was w.a.n.g Zexiao. The two of them sat together and chatted while the others were cracking melon seeds, smoking and waiting to be served. A moment later, the dishes arrived.
They were all pouring wine, cheering and drinking. The room was full of smoke and smell of alcohol.
w.a.n.g Yao didn’t feel comfortable in the room. He forgot the last time he experienced something like this.
“You don’t drink, Yao?” asked w.a.n.g Zexiao.
“No,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“I won’t drink either!” w.a.n.g Zexiao put down the bottle of wine. Actually, w.a.n.g Zexiao liked drinking wine.
“Are you gonna go to work in the afternoon?” asked w.a.n.g Yao.
“No, I took a day off,” said w.a.n.g Zexiao.
“Why not drink some wine? Did you drive?” asked w.a.n.g Yao.
“No wine today,” said w.a.n.g Zexiao with a smile.
The others at the table were all drinking to their limits. After a short while, two bottles of wine had gone and everyone’s faces went red.
After about 20 minutes w.a.n.g Mingbao came to the table to propose a toast. w.a.n.g Mingbao had become very articulate after years of experience in doing business. His speech made everyone at the table laugh.
“Why not drink some wine?” asked w.a.n.g Mingbao.
“No, thanks,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“Okay, have some more food then,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao who didn’t insist.
“Sure, but don’t worry about me,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
After the meal, w.a.n.g Yao and w.a.n.g Zexiao chatted with w.a.n.g Mingbao for a short while. They made sure there was nothing w.a.n.g Mingbao wanted them to do before they returned to the village.
After returning to the village, w.a.n.g Yao stayed at w.a.n.g Zexiao’s home for a while. He then went back to his own house to see his parents and then went up to Nanshan hill again.
w.a.n.g Yao resumed his quiet life on the hill. He worked in the herbal field, practiced his breathing and read scriptures. His life was similar to monks that lived in a temple.
Three days later, both the shanjing and guiyuan sprouted. w.a.n.g Yao had been using the ancient spring to water for those two special licorice roots to make sure they received adequate nutrients.
Are these herbs ready to use? thought w.a.n.g Yao.
After watering the licorice roots, he noticed the other herbs in the field such as radix gentianae and radix sileris were growing crazily due to the nurturing of the ancient spring water. They grew fast regardless of the change in weather. They even kept growing throughout autumn and winter, which seemed to be against their nature.
Ding!
Series of tasks: Garden of herbs.
Task one: Plant ten different herbs successfully within seven days. Reward for success: Random.
Punishment for failure: unable to proceed with other tasks.
“Does it have to be ten licorice roots?” asked w.a.n.g Yao.
No. The answer from the system was short and clear.
Good. The task would be very tricky if I were asked to grow ten different licorice roots. It won’t be too hard to grow ten different common herbs.
w.a.n.g Yao had to visit town again for the task.
Later in the afternoon, w.a.n.g Yao returned to his home and b.u.mped into his parents at the door. His father and mother were on the motorbike. It was beginning to get cold so his mother’s face had turned red.
I should buy a car, thought w.a.n.g Yao.
w.a.n.g Yao expressed his thoughts of buying a car to his parents when they were having dinner.
“Well, I agree with you that we should buy a car. Quite a lot of people in the village have bought cars. A few days ago, Qing Bao’s daughter-in-law was just showing off her new car, which cost over 100 thousand yuan,” said Zhang Xiuying.
In fact, the villagers were very sensitive about losing face. w.a.n.g Yao knew his parents wanted him to become outstanding and successful. When his sister got a job offer from the Agricultural Bureau, his parents told everyone in the village about it.
“What car do you want to buy?” asked w.a.n.g Yao. He stayed on the hill most of the time, so he didn’t have many opportunities to drive. He only went to town occasionally. He purely wanted to buy a car for his parents.
“It’s up to you. Don’t buy something too expensive. I heard Volkswagen cars have good quality,” said Zhang Xiuying.
“Mom, I have to go to town tomorrow. Could you please look after the herbal field for me?” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“Sure.”
Zhang Xiuying went up to the hill very early the next day. w.a.n.g Yao also got up early. He came down after practicing breathing and b.u.mped into his mother.
“What were you doing on the hill?” asked Zhang Xiuying curiously.
“Exercise,” said w.a.n.g Yao with a smile.
“Okay. It’s getting cold. You should wear more clothes. Off you go,” said Zhang Xiuying.
“I know,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
w.a.n.g Yao rode his motorbike into town. The cold wind went straight through his clothes but w.a.n.g Yao didn’t feel cold. Instead, he felt a warm trace of Qi inside his body.
It didn’t take w.a.n.g Yao long to arrive. He bought some herbal seeds from the seller who seemed to still remember him.
“Young man, why do you buy so many seeds?” asked the seller as w.a.n.g Yao bought all kinds of seeds available in his store.
“I plan to plant all of them to see which ones suit me best,” replied w.a.n.g Yao with a smile.
“You don’t need to do that. I have a list here with all the herbs bought by big herbal growers frequently. Just give me one second and I’ll fetch it for you,” said the seller. “All the herbs on the list should be suitable to grow in the soil of Lianshan.”
“Thank you,” said w.a.n.g Yao. Although w.a.n.g Yao could grow all kinds of herbs using ancient spring water, he was grateful to this nice seller.
He went to a car dealers.h.i.+p after he had purchased the herbal seeds. All the car dealers in Lianshan were located on one street. He picked a store and walked inside. A pretty girl came to greet him as soon as she saw him.
“h.e.l.lo, sir, do you want to buy a car?” asked the girl.
“I just want to take a look first,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“What’s your budget? What car do you like?” asked the girl with a smile.
“Well, maybe a Volkswagen,” replied w.a.n.g Yao after some hesitation.
He walked into the showroom and unlike those 4S stores, there were different makes and models of cars on display. Apart from car sales, car dealers like this also made money from insurance, service and repair.