Song Tan’s Chronicle - Chapter 3

Song Tan snapped back to reality and accepted her delivery—a premium meal from a highly-rated private kitchen costing 188 yuan.

However, as soon as she opened the box, the aroma mixed with the city’s impurities, much like the air she was no longer used to.

Her stomach churned, and she couldn’t bring herself to eat it.

At that moment, her boss, known among the staff as “Boss Wang the Skinflint,” walked in and immediately fumed,

“Song Tan! You still have time to eat? Where’s the PPT I asked for? If it’s not on my desk by 2 PM, you might as well quit!”

Song Tan shot to her feet—oh right, she did forget something! She was here to quit!

“Fine, make sure my salary is paid on time. I’m quitting and going back home!”

The entire office was stunned.

Seeing Song Tan already packing her things, Boss Wang stood there, bewildered and aggrieved,

“I… I didn’t mean it like that…”

Finding a diligent, uncomplaining, capable, and cheap employee wasn’t easy.

Huo Xueying put her meal aside and walked over to persuade Song Tan not to act impulsively. In today’s tough job market, switching jobs wasn’t easy.

But then she noticed the shaved side of Song Tan’s head and the bandage, and she felt a sudden wave of sympathy,

“Fine, if you’re leaving, I’ll help you pack! You need to rest first, I’ll visit you after work!”

Song Tan’s decision to quit was a long-held desire within her. As she spoke those words, memories of the green mountains and clear waters of her home flooded back—plump hens clucking and fat pigs grunting…

She wasn’t sure if the pigs at home were free of impurities, but they had to be better than city pigs, right?

At that moment, she couldn’t wait to return home.

“No need, I’m serious. I’ll pack up my rental later and head straight home!”

Now Huo Xueying was also stunned.

…

Song Tan packed her things with remarkable speed.

Two lifetimes of hard work were supposed to lead to a better life, right?

Now, with her cultivation skills (though she hadn’t started practicing yet), wouldn’t it be nice to live self-sufficiently at home?

After getting temporary identification from the police station, she took a taxi back to her rented apartment with her suitcase.

Her small, 20-square-meter room had clothes hanging by the window and a pile of work-related study materials on the desk.

The 1.2-meter bed still had the creased cotton sheets from her hasty departure yesterday. Looking at it, Song Tan couldn’t help but think of how frugal she used to be.

She sighed silently.

She found an old cardboard box and packed some basic toiletries, dismantled the bedding, packed a box of clothes, and three pairs of shoes.

That was it.

After tidying up a bit, she called the landlord—leaving early meant no refund on the deposit, but the remaining rent was refunded.

After calculating, she still had 63,500 yuan left!

Time to go home!

…

High-speed train, taxi.

It took four hours in total. Song Tan, willing to spend money, didn’t take the long route of train and bus as she used to.

She arrived several hours earlier than usual.

Standing by the roadside, she took in the sound of the stream on the other side and breathed the air, which, though still a bit polluted, was fresher than the city’s. She finally felt steady.

In the distance, a motorcycle roared down the mountain road, passing through fields of tea bushes, and stopped in front of her.

A short, dark-skinned man looked at her with a simple smile,

“Tan Tan, are you on vacation?”

The middle-aged man got off the bike and secured her large suitcase on the motorcycle’s back rack with a rubber strap. After shaking it to ensure it was secure, he spoke,

“Hop on, Dad will take you home. Your mom is roasting sweet potatoes, and I caught some carp yesterday to make soup for you—what happened to your head?”

This was her father, Song Sancheng.

Tears welled up in Song Tan’s eyes as she looked at this worried, ordinary man. She forced a smile and casually touched her head, “It’s nothing, I just bumped it after work. But the company has been making me work overtime, so I decided to come home and rest for a few days.”

“Rest you should. You don’t want to fall ill at a young age.”

He stomped on the kickstarter, and the motorcycle roared to life. Song Tan instinctively grabbed the back rack, feeling the increasingly fresh air on her face.

Up the mountain, winding roads, and ever-thickening trees. Even in the cold winter, she could see the green tea hills and pine forests…

This was her home, Yun City, Clear Creek Town, Yunqiao Village.

A place with mountains, water, and four distinct seasons.

This was her new life.

…

The motorcycle rumbled for over ten minutes, finally nearing the village after a long downhill stretch.

Yunqiao Village was nestled in the mountains. Although the roads were paved and a daily bus service was available, the winding mountain paths still posed challenges. In recent years, young people had become increasingly scarce.

The elderly were gradually passing away, and the young were moving away, leaving the village sparsely populated.

There were barely 30 households left in the area.

But so what? For a cultivator, what remote mountain haven hadn’t she stayed in? Solitary retreats lasting months or even years were common; the presence or absence of people didn’t matter.

…

Song Tan got off the motorcycle and felt a strange sensation stirring within her—the resonance of her spiritual roots. This reaction indicated that the deep mountains and forests were indeed more suitable for cultivation.

Thinking of her potential abilities once her cultivation was restored, Song Tan felt increasingly confident about the future.

In the cultivation world, with her dual water and wood roots, she practiced dual-element techniques, which were the most life-affirming.

However, the path of cultivation was demanding, and forming a Golden Core was difficult. Without achieving this, she couldn’t control her destiny in the cultivation world’s survival of the fittest.

To seek a breakthrough, Song Tan had spent a hundred years nurturing spiritual plants on the mountain, meticulously experiencing the cycle of life and death, frost and rain, sunshine and dew.

She had honed her skills in nurturing plants with spiritual energy to the point where it had almost become instinct.

Now, blessed with another life, she decided to start by growing food she could actually eat.

The mundane food was so impure she could hardly stomach it!

As she thought of this, her stomach, empty for a day, growled even louder as a delicious aroma wafted through the air.

A short, plump woman emerged from the kitchen on the other side of the yard,

“Tan Tan, what do you want for dinner? I’ve made carp soup and fried a few pieces. Should I scramble some eggs for you? You love eggs, don’t you? I can’t kill a chicken right now, but I’ll cook one for you tomorrow—Old Song, go get some cilantro to add to the soup.”

Cilantro was a family favorite.

Song Tan looked at her mother, Wu Lan, and smiled, “Add some more perilla leaves too. They never use it in Ning City, and I’ve missed it for so long.”

Locals in Yun City loved perilla leaves in their fish dishes for their unique aroma. Song Tan only learned after working in Ning City that this plant, known scientifically as Perilla frutescens, wasn’t eaten by people there.

Wu Lan chuckled, “Can food from outside restaurants ever taste good? But in this winter, there’s no perilla, just cilantro.”