Song Tan’s Chronicle - Chapter 37

The red-haired auntie proved to be a top-notch promoter. Under her leadership, old customers casually bought three to five pounds, while new customers hesitated but still took one or two pounds.

So, when another group of customers saw the messages and rushed over, they found—

“I was only half an hour late, how is it all gone?”

“Exactly! Didn’t they say no one liked clover today and wouldn’t buy it?”

“Yeah! I hesitated for a long time before coming, planning to buy just a pound to support the seller!”

Song Tan: ???

Were there really such outrageous messages in the group chat?

She quickly opened her phone and saw many familiar avatars discussing how clover was unpopular and that this business wouldn’t last. But when she checked her WeChat payments, several of them had paid 80 to 100 yuan each.

Song Tan: … The world is full of tricks!

The customers soon realized what had happened and looked at her empty baskets in despair. Their eyes finally landed on the half-eaten cold clover salad in Qiao Qiao’s hand, eager to try.

“What’s this?”

Song Tan handed them disposable chopsticks. “This is the unpopular clover.”

With mixed feelings, a few customers each took a bite, and tears of regret instantly welled up—

“Next time I believe their nonsense, I’ll be a puppy!”

Qiao Qiao’s eyes lit up, “Woof woof woof!!!”

Stimulated by this, the customers finished the remaining salad with tears, promising to buy a lot more the next morning before reluctantly leaving.

Song Tan: … No need to be so dramatic.

After they left, Song Tan checked the small basket of clover in the back seat of the car. “Let’s go, Qiao Qiao, to the courier station.”

She needed to send some clover to the customer from out of town.

…

Back home, Song Tan counted the money they made today and found they had collected another two thousand yuan, even without picking extra.

Wu Lan had moved from being incredulous to accepting it calmly, and she even started planning for the fields. “If this is so profitable, maybe you shouldn’t bother feeding the cows and pigs.”

Song Tan shook her head. “Mom, the main purpose of growing this is to fertilize the fields. These fields haven’t been cultivated for years and need to be taken care of.”

“Besides, clover grows quickly. We have so many fields that we can’t sell it all, so there’s no need to be frugal.”

Just then, Song Sancheng was heading out with a hoe. She looked at the overcast sky that seemed ready to rain. “Dad, where are you going?”

Song Sancheng replied, “I’m going to the tea garden. I noticed the tea bushes are starting to sprout new leaves. The old leaves are lush and green, so I thought I’d apply some nitrogen fertilizer before the rain.”

Fertilizing the tea garden should be done before it rains. The soil should be lightly turned over, and the fertilizer spread so the rain can help it absorb without burning the plants.

He seemed quite pleased with himself. “I think our land is blessed this year. Everything we grow tastes great. We might as well pick more tea leaves. They should taste great too!”

His words reminded Song Tan of their old tea garden.

In previous years, they could sell the tea leaves for some money. But as the internet became more prevalent and marketing grew more intense, their unbranded tea lost its market.

So, they let a few acres of the tea garden go, only picking enough for their own use each year. If they wanted to earn money, they would go out for work in the second half of the year.

In Song Tan’s family, because of Qiao Qiao’s condition, the couple was reluctant to take him to the factories, so one of them stayed home every year.

Naturally, they spent more time tending to the fields at home.

The air felt heavier with moisture, indicating a spring rain by evening. Song Tan remembered the refreshing, slightly bitter, but sweet aftertaste of the tea leaves from her hometown, and she was tempted.

She picked up a hoe and said, “Dad, let’s go together.”

Song Sancheng wanted to stop her. “This is hard work, and you’re a girl…”

But then he remembered how his daughter was hardworking, effortlessly carrying two large baskets at a time, and he fell silent.

He called his son, “Qiao Qiao, let’s go work in the fields!”

Qiao Qiao rushed out. “Are we planting corn?”

…

The tea garden was some distance from home.

They had to go around the front to the back mountain, climb the path over the back mountain, and then reach the other side to see the tea garden.

A large patch of it, naturally, belonged to the Song family.

Looking at the lush green leaves, Song Sancheng sighed, “The weather is good this year. The cold snap wasn’t too bad. Usually, it would snow around this time, and most of the tea leaves would be ruined.”

He started digging furrows as he spoke.

Song Tan didn’t have any experience with fertilizing, so she just followed his lead.

As she worked, threads of spiritual energy intertwined around the tea plants, row after row…

The sky grew darker, about to rain any moment.

Seeing the large patch of shallowly dug soil and the areas Qiao Qiao had carefully fertilized, Song Sancheng was astonished—

“Did we dig this fast?”

This tea garden would usually take a long time. If it were October, when they dig deeper for the base fertilizer, it would take him more than a week.

But now, in just over an hour, they had covered a large area—though it required only light digging, the efficiency was surprising.

An experienced farmer, he couldn’t help but wonder:

“Have I been eating better lately? Am I getting stronger? Why do I feel more energetic?”

Song Tan stayed silent, pretending it had nothing to do with the spiritual energy she had spread.

Song Sancheng didn’t suspect her. Instead, he looked at the area she had dug, amazed at her quick and skillful work—

“My goodness! You’re really cut out for farming! Look at how fast and well you’re working!”

“Daughter, it seems the water and soil at home are nourishing you. You’re much stronger now!”

Qiao Qiao followed behind with the fertilizer, sticking his tongue out at Song Sancheng. “Daddy is slow at farming!”

Song Sancheng chuckled, “As long as I’m better at planting corn than you.”

“Qiao Qiao, don’t follow your sister. Just spread the fertilizer row by row.”

Busy with many things recently, he had started this too late and missed the best time for fertilizing.

Plus, the rain seemed to be arriving earlier than forecasted, leaving no time for more digging.

They could only dig as much as they could, spreading the rest on the soil’s surface.

Looking at the tea garden, Song Sancheng sighed, “If we seriously pick tea leaves, we could harvest a hundred pounds of dry tea by the end of spring.”

“But there’s so much to do in spring, we don’t have time. What a pity.”