Song Tan’s Chronicle - Chapter 4

The courtyard of her home was quite large, with cracks spreading across the concrete ground. Despite the winter, a small violet flower had sprouted from one of the cracks, trembling in the cold wind.

Song Tan gazed intently at the flower, feeling that even the little wildflowers seemed more delicate and charming in this new environment.

Song Sancheng placed her luggage in the main room and quickly called out to his daughter,

“Tan Tan, it’s cold outside, come inside to warm up.”

He rubbed his hands and feet together. “Riding a motorcycle is really cold!”

Song Tan took a moment to react—yes, it was indeed very cold to ride a motorcycle in winter.

But she hadn’t felt much of it.

She spread out her hands, noticing that her palms were smooth and jade-like. It seemed that the desperate effort to repair her body during the car accident had provided some tempering.

However, it was still limited.

For example, a gust of cold wind blew by, and Song Tan shivered uncontrollably. She quickly dashed into the house.

This was a small room meant for warmth.

It wasn’t very large, with a tin stove in the corner by the window. A square iron plate sat atop the stove, and the smoke pipe extended long, bending at the ceiling and stretching towards a wall vent.

With this setup, the roaring flames in the stove kept the room warm, comparable to a heated room in the far northeast, without the smoke suffocating them.

Song Sancheng hadn’t seen his daughter for a long time—working in the big city had its downsides, few holidays and difficult-to-buy tickets during peak times.

The last time he saw her was during the New Year.

But that was only a three-day holiday, and she had to return to work on the fourth day, working very hard.

She was his first child, and he always let her have her way. Even after her younger brother was born, this habit persisted.

At this moment, he didn’t know what to say, so he reached out and took a roasted sweet potato from the stove,

“Are you hungry? Have a sweet potato to tide you over!”

He didn’t mind the heat, and neither did Song Tan. She took it and said, “Dad, you have some too.”

“I won’t eat it!” Song Sancheng quickly waved his hand. “When I was young, your grandmother gave us sweet potatoes every day. Eating too many of them made my heartburn.”

Song Tan fell silent for a moment.

Finally, Song Sancheng found a topic, “How long are you staying this time?”

Song Tan opened her mouth. In the cultivation world, she was always straightforward and unyielding, but now, speaking these words felt incredibly heavy.

“Dad, I quit my job. I want to come back home and farm.”

Song Sancheng fell silent instantly. After a long while, he sighed, “Tan Tan, you don’t know how hard farming is.”

“A university graduate coming back to farm—I’m not afraid of what people will say, but you won’t be able to bear the hardship.”

In other words, he didn’t approve.

Song Tan remained calm, “Dad, when I was a child, I pulled peanuts, picked corn, harvested tea leaves, and watered the vegetable garden. I’ve done farm work.”

“You only did a few chores!”

Song Sancheng pointed to the sprayer in the utility room, “You can’t even carry that tank!”

It was an old blue plastic sprayer, weighing thirty pounds when full of water, used for spraying pesticides. Compared to harvesting tea or rice, this was light work.

And don’t think that rural areas don’t use pesticides. These days, pests and weeds are resistant to treatments. If others use pesticides and you don’t, your crops will be eaten up!

At that moment, Wu Lan entered the room with a pot of milky white fish soup. The fragrance filled the room, and though there was still a hint of impurities, it was much better than what she had tasted in the city.

“Tan Tan, drink more soup tonight. The fish your dad caught from the wild pond is very nutritious, you need to replenish yourself.”

Seeing the bandage on her daughter’s head, Wu Lan became even more determined to serve her two extra bowls of soup tonight!

Wu Lan placed the pot on the iron plate of the stove to keep warm, then noticed the sweet potato in Song Tan’s hand,

“Tan Tan, don’t eat the sweet potato yet. It’s a local white sweet potato, very starchy and filling. Save it for later so you won’t be too full for dinner.”

Without waiting for a response, she hurried back to the kitchen.

Song Tan placed the sweet potato aside and, seeing her father’s complicated expression, went to the utility room to lift the heavy blue sprayer, turning on the faucet to fill it with water.

“Tan Tan!”

Song Sancheng followed her out—watching his daughter effortlessly handle the sprayer, he felt a pang of heartache.

His daughter had always been obedient and thrifty, working hard outside without spending much, all for the family.

Now, with an injury on her head, she came back saying she had quit her job. She must have faced hardship in Ning City… Every call had her working overtime, living in such a small room. How could she not suffer?

At that moment, Sancheng had already wavered.

If she wanted to come back and farm, let her farm. If she couldn’t handle it, they could find a job for her in the city, at least closer to home.

He was about to speak when he saw the sprayer filled to the brim, and his “can’t handle hardship” daughter lifted it like a toy.

At this moment, fifty-eight-year-old farmer Song Sancheng looked at his rough hands and felt bewildered,

Why did I think that tank was heavy?

Am I getting old?

…

Just then, a joyful shout came from afar,

“Sis! Sis!”

Song Tan instinctively turned her head and saw a young boy in a black cotton vest running towards her. He was tall, about 1.8 meters, but slender. His skin was fair, with a small dimple on his cheek, smiling brightly as he ran over, full of joy,

“Sis!”

This was her brother, Song Qiao, physically eighteen but mentally… six.

Wu Lan had him when she was forty, and rural areas didn’t have prenatal care habits. As a result, he was born with a permanent childlike mind.

But he was obedient and sensible, raised by Song Tan since childhood.

Until she left for school and stayed in Ning City…

Song Qiao stood in front of Song Tan, his eyes sparkling, looking at her like a little puppy.

Song Tan reached out, and the boy lowered his head obediently, letting her touch his cold face, “Qiao Qiao.”

“Yeah!”

“I’m back to stay with you, okay?”

“Okay!” he shouted loudly.

Then he hesitated, looking at Song Sancheng, “But Dad said you need to work and make money, I can’t bother you.”

Song Tan laughed, checking his hands and nails to see if they were clean—good, he hadn’t been playing with dirt in the winter.

“Making money is too tiring. I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m back to stay with Qiao Qiao and take care of Mom and Dad. Is that okay?”

Song Qiao didn’t understand what it meant for a rare university graduate to return to farming. He just cheered,

“Great!”

“Don’t worry, Sis! I’ll grow corn to support you!”

Even the always serious Song Sancheng couldn’t help but laugh,

“You only know how to plant corn seeds and pick them from the stalks. What do you know about growing corn!”

Thank you all for your support! This story is still a slow burn.

Prices, rural life, farming, environment, and climate all have different habits in each place. Rest assured, I haven’t written anything without research. So if you see differing opinions, don’t worry, just think of it as traveling to a distant countryside.