Pastoral Daily Life

Inside the new biotech complex of Hopewell, Yan Shihui looked at the investigation data in his hands, his face as gloomy as a stormy sky.

He knew that Yan Yue had always been unhappy about his attitude, and he was also on guard against Yan Yue playing some small tricks behind his back, but he never expected that Yan Yue’s intention was not to inherit Hopewell, but to completely destroy it. Did Yan Yue even know what he was doing? This was the question Yan Shihui wanted to ask Yan Yue the most. The loss of foreign clients, the failure of the donglingcao investment, and nearly hundreds of millions of losses were placed in front of Yan Shihui. What really made Yan Shihui angry was that the loss of the latter meant the failure of Hopewell’s transformation and the complete ruin of the biotechnology complex that Hopewell had invested seven to eight hundred million to build.

From the window, it could be seen that the construction site that was still abuzz a month ago was empty. There were half-finished buildings everywhere, scaffolding, cement and sand, all piled up in a mess, accentuating the desolation of the biotech complex even more.

“Work has been halted for half a month,” Yan Shihui thought gloomily. With this incident with Sun Li, Hopewell would no longer be able to transform into a biotech company. In that case, the biotech complex would either have to be sold or the current buildings would have to be demolished and rebuilt into something else. In any case, there was no way to recover the money Hopewell had invested.

“Chairman, Madam wants to see you for a moment?” The assistant knocked gently on the open door and said softly.

A hint of disgust flashed in Yan Shihui’s eyes and he waved his hand, “Tell her I don’t have time.”

The assistant was a little embarrassed, but still nodded.

As he listened to the assistant’s footsteps go away, Yan Shihui’s expression didn’t improve in the slightest. He could imagine what Yin Qinglan was looking for him for; it was nothing more than hoping that he could help Yin Ya. Just a week ago, Yin Ya had been taken away from her home. As the head of the donglingcao project, she had been asked to assist the police in their investigation into Sun Li’s bribery. Seven whole days had passed and there was no sign of Yin Ya being released, so Yin Qinglan looked desperate and had gone so far as to find him.

In Yan Shihui’s opinion, that Yin Ya girl was just like her mother, completely unable to succeed and more than likely to fail. Now that he thought about it carefully, there was something wrong with the donglingcao project from the very beginning. The researcher who reported Sun Li was not a newcomer, but an old man who had been around since the beginning of the project, otherwise he wouldn’t have had so much evidence in his hands. It was funny that Yin Ya had been sifting through the personnel but in the end, she missed a spy planted by Yan Yue. It could be said that Hopewell’s current troubles all came from this project, as well as the problems of the Lu family.

Thinking of this, Yan Shihui left the half-finished biotech building with a cold face. He didn’t care about Yin Ya’s life or death, but he was concerned about Yin Yongde’s reaction. Especially what would Yin Yongde do when he knew that it was all Yan Yue’s scheme? Whether Yan Shihui wanted to admit it or not, he had lost control of Yan Yue. Whether it was the succession to Hopewell or the affection between father and son, Yan Yue didn’t seem to care anymore, or perhaps he had never cared at all.

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These disturbances in Zhongjing had not affected Yan Yue’s life for the time being. After a few days’ rest from Kunnan, Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue packed up and prepared for a trip to Lingshui Village. They were accompanied by Ye Kang and Elder Min, who was very interested in Zhugang. Lu Lingxi didn’t know when Yan Yue had contacted Elder Min, let alone when Yan Yue had given Elder Min a copy of the introduction to Zhugang. It was only when Elder Min approached him and suggested that he wanted to see the moso bamboo that Lu Lingxi remembered that Yan Yue had once said that Elder Min was an opportunity for them. He thought this opportunity referred to the copaiba balsam tree, but could it actually be Zhugang?

These thoughts only circled in Lu Lingxi’s mind for a short while before he stopped paying attention and drifted off to sleep with Dahei in his arms. Yan Yue saw in the rearview mirror that Lu Lingxi had fallen asleep and considerately slowed down the car. They had gone to sleep a little late last night, and Lu Lingxi probably hadn’t rested well.

“Are we about to arrive, Big Brother Yan?” Lu Lingxi asked in a daze.

Yan Yue glanced at the time, “There’re still a few minutes left.”

Since the purification of the soil accelerated, an entire area had been purified from the downtown toll station to the Qiu Tian plant nursery a little further south. The consequence was that the plants on both sides of the road began to grow wildly, completely blocking the sight of the village not far away. If there was a car passing by, it was difficult to tell where they were by just relying on the scenery on the side of the road.

Hearing that there were still a few minutes to go, Lu Lingxi became energetic. He was looking out of the window when he suddenly smiled, “Big Brother Yan, look outside.”

Yan Yue followed the direction Lu Lingxi pointed and saw two three to four metre high wooden pillars in the vegetation by the roadside. At the top of the pillars was a large wooden board with the name of the village painted on it, indicating where they were. Both the pillars and the board were covered in the green vines common to Fengcheng, with small purple flowers dotted all over them, looking wild and eye-catching.

“I wonder who came up with that.” Lu Lingxi asked with interest.

Yan Yue guessed irresponsibly, “Uncle Li?”

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A few metres away, in the other car, Elder Min likewise saw the sign outside. “This is quite interesting.”

Ye Kang was a little smug; the sign was his idea. He had run to Lingshui Village a lot during the month Yan Yue was away. After he became familiar with the people in the village, he would help to plan something from time to time.

Not long after the sign, they saw the iconic big willow tree in Lingshui Village. Despite the fact that Elder Min had adapted to this kind of life surrounded by greenery in Fengcheng over the past few days, the environment of Lingshui Village still struck him as somewhat unbelievable. “It’s simply a paradise.” That was the only thing that came to Elder Min’s mind when he got out of the car.

He had been to many places, big and small, over his years of work and had seen many places with beautiful environments. The rainforest he had visited some time ago was very nice. But he could say that there was no place like Lingshui Village, where humans and nature had blended together perfectly. As far as he could see, quite a few homes had green vines crawling all over the eaves, on the roofs and on the gates. Red enkianthus, colourful gazanias, strings of upright lupines… The whole Lingshui Village simply looked like it was located in a sea of flowers.

As they walked into the village, the big willow tree stretched out its branches and leaves, blocking out the harsh sunlight. There was a wind blowing, bringing the moisture of the Lingshui River, mixed with the fragrance of the grass and trees, energising and refreshing.

“Come on, let’s climb the hills in one go.”

Elder Min said in high spirits, pointing to two small hills not far away. It had only been two months since the moso bamboo was transplanted to the hills in early April, and the two hills that used to be previously barren had already become a sea of bamboo. As far as the eye could see, the hills were covered with seven to eight metre high bamboo, and when the wind blew, the waves of bamboo were like sea waves. From afar, it was as beautiful as a poetic painting, verdant and lush, and close by, it looked like a forest of bamboo flutes.

Lu Lingxi knew that bamboo grew fast, but he didn’t expect it to grow so fast. According to Ye Kang, the bamboos were basically ready to be harvested. Only a few days ago Zheng Xinhe had come over and cut down a lot of bamboo and took it to make samples of Zhugang.

“What about the test results of these samples you mentioned?” Elder Min asked with interest.

“One hundred per cent up to standard.” Ye Kang was very confident about this.

Elder Min nodded thoughtfully. Ye Kang looked at them and exchanged an extremely quick glance with Yan Yue, guessing that the old man was tempted.