On the afternoon of the last day of the week-long holiday, Li Xiang took Jiang Cai'Er to the main road on his tricycle to wait for the bus.
Jiang Cai'Er had quite a lot of luggage: a large rolling suitcase and a backpack. This was mainly because the weather was about to get colder, so she had packed some warmer clothes.
The next time they would see each other would probably be in November.
Li Xiang gave her the instant coffee from before, telling her to take it to school. A cup every morning would help her stay alert and improve her study efficiency.
It was sugar-free, zero-calorie black coffee from a foreign brand, but its beans were small-grain coffee sourced from Baoshan in the neighboring Yunnan Province. The aroma was rich, the flavor was mellow and full-bodied—strong but not harsh.
Baoshan's small-grain coffee, a product with a national geographical indication, was also internationally acclaimed as one of the finest coffees in the world.
Ever since returning to his hometown, Li Xiang had been eating well and sleeping soundly. With plenty of rest and having stepped into the Extraordinary Realm, he no longer needed black coffee to stay awake.
He wasn't actually a big fan of black coffee. He much preferred tea brewed from the wild tea leaves grown on the mountains of his hometown.
The wild tea leaves were harvested every year in the period between early spring and the late spring rains. Only the first bud and leaf of the season were plucked. After being brought back, they were pan-fried by hand in an iron wok—one of the ancestral skills of Li Family Village. The brew was a bright, emerald green, with a mellow and refreshing flavor.
The only drawback was that these wild tea trees had a low yield, making the tea suitable only for daily personal consumption.
Li Xiang's grandmother went into the mountains every spring to pick tea, but being old and frail, she only searched for some near the mountain's edge. The leaves from deeper in the mountains tasted better, but for that, they would have to wait for next spring, when Li Xiang would go himself.
"Cai'Er, study hard at school, and whatever you do, don't get into a relationship too early," Li Xiang earnestly advised.
Even though the Apocalypse was coming, there was no harm in learning more. During the Apocalypse, less than a tenth of humanity would survive, and human technology would regress to World War II levels. Knowledgeable people would become even more precious.
A charming smile crept onto Jiang Cai'Er's lips. 'Brother Li Xiang is worried about me,' she thought. 'He's afraid I'll run off with someone else, haha.'
"Don't worry, I won't get into a relationship. My teacher says high school romances are unreliable anyway. Besides, there's no one in my class I'm interested in!" Jiang Cai'Er said with a grin.
As they were chatting idly, the intercity bus arrived. Li Xiang quickly helped her with her suitcase, saw her onto the bus, and peeked inside. Thankfully, there was a seat.
After watching the bus drive off into the distance, Li Xiang finally turned his tricycle around and headed back.
'I've always been indifferent about owning a car, but at this moment, I suddenly feel that buying one is quite necessary. At the very least, I could drive Cai'Er to school, right?'
With so much luggage, how nice would it be to drive her right to her dormitory entrance? When she went to college, if it wasn't too far, he could drive her there too.
Cars wouldn't be very useful in the Apocalypse since gasoline, diesel, and electricity would all be controlled and extremely difficult to obtain. But wasn't that still ten years away?
In those ten years, buying a few cars to improve their lives seemed like a good idea.
Besides, he could use his foreknowledge to hoard some fuel in advance.
...
With Jiang Cai'Er gone, Li Xiang's life returned to its usual routine.
He woke up early, practiced his Breathing Technique and Body Techniques in the backyard, then went to the kitchen to make breakfast for himself and his grandmother.
He mixed half a kilogram of flour with water to make dough, then rolled it out into noodles. He liked wide noodles, so he cut them to be a full centimeter wide. These were authentic, handmade noodles with a perfectly chewy texture.
Once cooked, he drained the noodles and divided them into two large bowls. He topped them with a stir-fried minced pork sauce and scrambled eggs with cucumber, then added a sprinkle of chopped scallions. Served with a side of chili sauce, a bottle of vinegar, and a few cloves of garlic, the dish was savory with a hint of spice and an irresistible aroma. It was, he had to admit, a very appetizing breakfast.
His grandmother didn't have a large appetite. She separated out more than half her portion, eating only a small bowl. She reminded Li Xiang to make less for her next time, saying the most important thing was that he ate his fill.
Li Xiang chuckled and said he understood. The leftovers all went into his stomach.
His daily practice of the Breathing Technique and Body Techniques consumed a great deal of energy.
After finishing the noodles and resting for a bit, he grabbed his tripod and phone, shouldered a hoe, rake, and shovel, and went out to prepare the vegetable garden.
Today was the Cold Dew, one of the twenty-four solar terms. After preparing the garden, he could plant rapeseed, fava beans, potatoes, bok choy seedlings, chives, napa cabbage, and radishes.
Rapeseed was especially important. Not only could it be used to press rapeseed oil, but when the golden-yellow canola flowers bloomed, they created a rare and beautiful landscape.
Imagine it: when spring came and the flowers bloomed, he would be sitting in the backyard pavilion, sipping sweet, refreshing wild tea. His eyes would feast on a sea of gold as a spring breeze carried the heart-soothing fragrance of canola flowers, and bees would be busy in the fields, BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ...
Previously, his grandmother had lived alone. She ate little, so she planted little. The vegetable patch in the front yard wasn't very big, so he planned to clear a small plot in the backyard for a new garden.
When spring arrived next year, he would clear even more land to grow more grains and vegetables. Because by then, there would be many more mouths to feed—not human mouths, but those of chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs.
His grandmother didn't raise geese, and she only had a few chickens and ducks. She didn't have any pigs at all. She could barely manage to grow enough food for herself, and with her limited physical strength, she simply didn't have the capacity to do more.
But now that Li Xiang was back, he could try to do more.
In the countryside, if you didn't slaughter a pig for the New Year, it felt like some of the festive spirit was missing. It was too late for this year, but for next year, he planned to raise at least five pigs.
Li Xiang chose a spot, set up his phone on the tripod, turned on the recording mode, and started hoeing the ground.
The area was originally overgrown with weeds, low shrubs, and vines. When Li Xiang had renovated the backyard, he had cleared them all away, leaving a flat patch of earth. Now, he needed to till the soil, break up the clumps, and prepare a loose, aerated garden bed.
He swung the hoe high, then brought it down hard. With a hook and a flip, a large chunk of earth was turned over, which he then broke apart.
As he repeated this motion over and over, Li Xiang suddenly realized that he was unconsciously using his Breathing Technique and Body Techniques.
'This movement... it's really similar to one of the Body Technique forms I've practiced, both in how it exerts force and in its breathing rhythm...' Li Xiang continued to train—oh, no, to hoe the ground. With this new insight, the work became increasingly effortless.
'Could it be? The Body Techniques I've been practicing come from everyday life? From hoeing?'
It wasn't impossible. The Dao follows Nature. Many of the great masters who created the Body Techniques might have drawn their inspiration from everyday life.
Li Xiang felt that integrating the Breathing Technique and its corresponding Body Technique forms into his farm work not only made him more efficient but also seemed to be more beneficial for his Cultivation.
He tilled the garden plot with his hoe for half an hour and felt that his Breathing Technique and Body Techniques had improved even more than during his usual, deliberate training sessions.
Suddenly, a notification from the system popped up in his mind: "Congratulations, Host. You have killed three Tier One Mutated Blazing Flame Ants. Reward: 30 Achievement Points."
'What the hell?'
Li Xiang looked closely. Damn, he had dug his hoe right into an anthill. To the ants, the hoe must have seemed "immeasurably huge" and to be "falling from the sky." That single strike had killed an untold number of them.
Among the dead ants were three larger, crimson-red Soldier Ants. He figured those must have been the three unlucky Tier One Blazing Flame Ants.