Pastoral Daily Life

When Lu Lingxi arrived home in the evening, he smelled a gorgeous fragrance from a distance. It smelled like tomatoes and like a rich sauce. The aroma filled the whole building, and before Lu Lingxi could do anything about it, Dahei was already dripping saliva remorselessly.

“Little foodie.”

Lu Lingxi flicked his finger on Dahei’s head, his tone intimate. He still remembered when he first met Dahei, Dahei didn’t even dare to eat a full meal, for fear that eating too much would make people dislike him and abandon him. In just a few days, Dahei had revealed his nature as a foodie, and almost half of the tomatoes ripening in the backyard ended up in Dahei’s stomach. Even he, Wang Shuxiu and Yi Hang couldn’t outeat Dahei.

After talking to Dahei, Lu Lingxi was about to look for the key when the door opened from the inside and Wang Shuxiu looked at him strangely, “Why are you back so early today?”

“I had to close the shop early because of something,” Lu Lingxi said obediently.

Wang Shuxiu left the door open and looked at Lu Lingxi who squatted at the door to wipe Dahei’s paws. The corners of her mouth twitched and she ordered, “You’re back just in time, I made some tomato sauce. You can pick some tomatoes later and take them and some sauce to Yi Hang and his family.”

Yi Hang and Lu Lingxi were good friends, and Lu Lingxi found a job thanks to Yi Hang. Wang Shuxiu saw that Yi Hang liked tomatoes, so when she made tomato sauce, she didn’t forget him.

Lu Lingxi nodded, washed his hands and didn’t go to Yi Hang’s house but squeezed to Wang Shuxiu’s side.

Wang Shuxiu was in the kitchen watching the tomato sauce boil. Juicy tomatoes were boiled with soy sauce, plus some ground meat, salt, glutamate and other seasonings. The whole kitchen was shrouded in a peculiar aroma, much stronger compared to the fragrance in the building.

Dahei squatted in the kitchen doorway, his eyes glowing as he gazed at the thick sauce in the pot.

Wang Shuxiu glared at him in amusement and hurried Lu Lingxi out of the kitchen. “Go, go, what are you doing here, it’s hot here. Hurry up and take Dahei out.” The kitchen of the old house was small and there was no air conditioner, so Wang Shuxiu was already hot and sweaty. Now there was another person and a dog in the kitchen, and they were all crowding around her, so Wang Shuxiu felt like she was about to die of heat.

Lu Lingxi didn’t leave, but took a stack of newspapers and dutifully fanned Wang Shuxiu. As he did so, he said, “Mom, I have something to tell you.”

“What?” Wang Shuxiu said casually, not caring much.

Lu Lingxi deliberated and said, “You know the gardening shop where I work, right? The shop owner, Sister Du, is going back to her hometown, and I…”

Before he could finish, Wang Shuxiu interjected quickly, “Is it that you don’t have a job anymore? It’s okay, Mom will support you.”

Lu Lingxi’s heart felt warm; the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously. He clung to Wang Shuxiu’s arm affectionately, shook his head and whispered, “I’m taking over the shop.”

“What?” Lu Lingxi’s words were tantamount to a bomb. Wang Shuxiu’s voice rose and she eyed him suspiciously, “Where did you get the money?” The little bastard didn’t do anything bad, did he? Wang Shuxiu muttered in her heart.

It would be complicated to talk about this matter clearly, and if one really wanted to look into it, one had to start with Lu Yishui. Lu Lingxi was not stupid and didn’t want Wang Shuxiu to worry, so he skipped over the previous events and started with the sale of the spring orchid this morning. However, he didn’t dare to say that he sold it for 300,000, but only that he sold it for 100,000 and bought the shop together with another person, the two of them being in half-and-half partnership.

To Wang Shuxiu it sounded like she was listening to a fairy tale. A broken flower he had picked up sold for 100,000?

“You take your mom for a fool, huh?”

“……” Lu Lingxi said seriously, “It’s true.”

Wang Shuxiu fiercely turned off the fire, “Little bastard, you’re not joking?”

Lu Lingxi shook his head; he had already said the price was two hundred thousand less.

Wang Shuxiu was no longer in the mood to make any tomato sauce. She wiped her hands haphazardly and pulled Lu Lingxi into the living room, “Come on, tell Mom what’s going on?”

Dahei struggled for a while between the iron pot exuding a rich aroma and Lu Lingxi, but chose Lu Lingxi and squatted quietly at his feet.

Lu Lingxi habitually stroked Dahei’s head and re-told the whole story in a shortened and redacted form. Wang Shuxiu finished listening and began to worry about another matter. “What about the guy you’re in partnership with? Don’t be stupid to be sold and still count the money for the other party!”

“No, Big Brother Yan is a good man.” Lu Lingxi defended Yan Yue.

Wang Shuxiu thought about it and slapped the table, “All right, a good guy or a bad guy, whatever. He is in partnership with you, so invite him to come and have a meal together some day.”

“Oh.” Lu Lingxi obediently agreed, thinking that Yan Yue had helped him a lot, so it was really time to invite Yan Yue for a meal. He just didn’t know if Yan Yue was used to home-cooked food. He shouldn’t be too picky, right?

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No matter how apprehensive Wang Shuxiu was in her heart, fearing that the little bastard would suffer, Tiny Garden was neatly put under Lu Lingxi’s name, in black and white; even the legal person on the business licence was changed to Lu Lingxi.

During this series of events, Lu Lingxi kept a very low profile and didn’t deliberately publicise the change of ownership, but other shop owners on the street soon knew about it. Dong Zhi was the first to jokingly ask Lu Lingxi if he wanted to hold a grand opening ceremony, but Lu Lingxi rejected this idea. He thought it was pretty good as it was now, and he wasn’t even going to change the signboard of Tiny Garden. It would still be the same as before anyway, and it was good enough that everyone knew that the owner had changed.

Dong Zhi laughed and discussed with a few other shop owners to chip in and give Lu Lingxi a silver ecological fish tank, along with several goldfish of various shapes and sizes. To paraphrase Dong Zhi, water represented wealth and fish also represented wealth. With flowers, grass, water and fish, Xiao Xi’s shop could be considered to be blessed with a unique source of wealth.

Lu Lingxi didn’t believe in this, but accepted it because it was a kind gesture from everyone. The main thing was that Dahei liked this fish tank very much. Since the fish tank was placed on the cashier counter, Dahei had another pastime of looking at the fish every day, crouching under the counter with his eyes following the fish inside the tank. Fortunately, Dahei was a dog and not a cat, otherwise Lu Lingxi would have been worried about the lives of these fish.

He didn’t know if it was really the fish tank that brought in the fortune, but before Lu Lingxi could straighten out the things in the shop, Brother Han, who hadn’t been here for a while, once again came looking for him.

“Xiao Xi, Xiao Xi.” Brother Han’s loud voice sounded from far away. Lu Lingxi, who was tidying up the cabinets, stopped and looked over to see Brother Han walking in, his head sweaty. “This damn weather is so hot,” Brother Han couldn’t help but complain.

Lu Lingxi poured a glass of ice water and brought it to Brother Han, who drank it all in one gulp, then sighed in relief, “It’s so comfortable here, Xiao Xi.”

Because the shop was full of flowers and plants, Du Lin hadn’t installed air conditioning before, and naturally Lu Lingxi wouldn’t either when he took over. But although the shop didn’t have air conditioning, it wasn’t hot at all. The lush greenery filled all the spaces in the shop, and when you were inside, you unconsciously had the illusion of being in the wilderness. The dryness in your body was swept away and you felt refreshed and indescribably comfortable.

Lu Lingxi smiled. He was so used to the environment in the shop that he felt hot when he went outside. “Something’s happened, Brother Han?”

“Yes!” Brother Han confirmed, “I’ve come to you on business.”

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Brother Han worked in a public institution and they had just received notice that a superior was coming for inspection in a few days. After thinking about it, Brother Han’s chief decided to buy some potted plants and put them in the offices for decoration. Brother Han had long wanted to persuade the chief to buy some potted plants to improve the environment and for the employees to have something to rest their eyes on when tired of working. This time he was happy to hear about the plan and volunteered to do the job. The first person he thought of was Lu Lingxi. The green plants in the young man’s shop were really good. Brother Han didn’t know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that the pot of clivia at home was indescribably refreshing when he got close to it, similar to the feeling he had when staying in Tiny Garden.

With a little selfishness, Brother Han thought about setting up many pots like this in the office. “Xiao Xi, what do you recommend?” He simply handed over the choice to Lu Lingxi.

There were actually some rules for placing flowers and plants in the office. The first rule was that they needed to be easy to take care of. After all, no one in the office was a professional in raising flowers and plants, and Lu Lingxi himself couldn’t go to see them every day. If it happened to be some delicate plants that were difficult to raise and they died in two days, it would ruin the brand of the gardening shop. In addition to easy maintenance, Lu Lingxi thought of choosing some large-leaved plants or succulents. An office was, after all, an office, and green decorations should be mainly elegant, creating a quiet, simple and bright environment. One or two pots of flowers with more vivid colours could be placed here and there for embellishment, but more fresh green plants were better.

When Lu Lingxi mentioned this, Brother Han nodded. “Whatever you say, Xiao Xi.”

Lu Lingxi smiled shyly and took the initiative to ask: “Brother Han, what kind of flower pots do you want?”

Anyone who had ever raised flowers knew that there were many different kinds of pots, and different plants needed different pots. But most people who purchased plants for the office liked the pots to be in a unified style, so Lu Lingxi had to ask.

Sure enough, Brother Han hesitated for two seconds and said, “Let’s make it uniform, how about brown clay pots?”

“Okay!” Clay pots were quite breathable and water-permeable, and the pots were also weighty, so the plants were not likely to tip over. The only trouble was that the pots were heavy and not very convenient to carry, but since it was an office and the location shouldn’t change casually, it didn’t really matter.

There were many offices in Brother Han’s unit, so the overall amount purchased was quite a large one. Lu Lingxi patiently recorded down all that was needed. After this deal was done, at least a quarter of the shop’s green plants would be gone. After the two of them made a deal, Brother Han readily left a deposit of three thousand yuan, and the rest was to be paid when Lu Lingxi went to deliver the goods. Brother Han had great faith in Lu Lingxi’s character, and after making an appointment for the time and place of delivery, Brother Han left in a hurry.

Taking advantage of the fact that there was no one in the shop, Lu Lingxi began to work on the order. What Yan Yue saw when he came over was Lu Lingxi biting the tip of the pen, writing and drawing on a blank piece of paper.

“What are you doing?”

“Big Brother Yan, you’re here?” Lu Lingxi was a little surprised. He hadn’t seen Yan Yue for a week since they came back from their trip to the plant nursery that day. It seemed that Yan Yue had been busy with something but the two of them were in touch by phone every day.

After not seeing Lu Lingxi for a week, Yan Yue missed him terribly. Under the pretext of seeing what Lu Lingxi was doing, he quietly squeezed beside the young man, almost sticking to the young man’s body. Lu Lingxi didn’t notice anything and happily pointed out what he had written before to Yan Yue.

“Big Brother Yan, look, Brother Han has ordered over thirty potted plants from us. This is the biggest deal I’ve done since I came to Tiny Garden.”

The total amount of Lu Lingxi’s so-called biggest deal was only tens of thousands of yuan, and the profit left after removing the costs was not much, so it was nothing in comparison to Yan Yue’s wealth. But as he looked at the boy’s elated expression, as he watched the boy bite the pen and calculate the final profit, as he watched the boy carefully record this business deal, his heart suddenly softened. This was their business, his and the young man’s, the one that belonged to just the two of them. This sense of accomplishment was much stronger than the one when Yan Yue had signed a contract for Hopewell Group, making millions, or even the sense of accomplishment brought to him by Dezhi Investment.

Yan Yue met Lu Lingxi’s bright eyes and nodded solemnly, saying, “Xiao Xi is amazing!”

Lu Lingxi curved his eyes and smiled happily.