Chapter 153: Green Gold
Gu Jiaojiao sat beside Su Shuochi, saying nothing. ’These weren’t matters you could resolve just by thinking about them.’
Not long after Uncle Song and his son-in-law left, the other VIPs also said their goodbyes. They were scheduled to tour the medical office belonging to Su Shuochi and his wife the next day, so they needed to get back to the guesthouse and sleep a bit earlier than usual.
Su Shuochi, his wife, and Grandpa Gu saw them to the courtyard gate, where Uncle Dong drove the VIPs to the guesthouse.
Mr. Sheng, who had been accompanying the VIPs along with Uncle Dong, had eaten both breakfast and lunch at the Su family’s home. But when evening came, he headed home for dinner.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to stay for dinner at the Su family home. Rather, if he didn’t return for the evening meal, his own household would descend into chaos.
Not only was the food at the Su family’s house delicious, but the atmosphere during meals was also incredibly warm and inviting.
’This is what you call living,’ Mr. Sheng thought as he pedaled his bicycle home.
’If only this warm breeze could blow away the past and let my family live each day in simple freedom. How wonderful would that be!’
He knew that if he didn’t go home for dinner, his daughter would surely act up again.
’His wife had gone to work without eating breakfast, and who knew if she even had lunch!’
Su Shuochi heard the phone ringing while he was still at the courtyard gate. By the time he got back to the living room, Second Brother Gu was already on the line.
"He’s coming, he’s coming! He’s just at the door now. Hold on a sec, okay?"
"Second Brother, who’s on the phone?" Gu Jiaojiao asked quietly as Su Shuochi went to take the call.
"I don’t know, I haven’t asked yet. He said he was looking for Su." It wasn’t the first time Second Brother Gu had answered the phone.
They’d had a phone in their home when he was a child, but that was a distant memory.
So, picking up the receiver again, he felt a mix of excitement and nervousness. The moment he heard the voice on the other end, he answered immediately without asking any questions.
Su Shuochi took the receiver and heard the voice on the other end. "Su, who was that on the phone just now?"
"Lin Haoshi. Say what you have to say. If there’s nothing, I’m hanging up."
"Whoa, don’t hang up! I’ve been driving all night and should be in the city by dawn tomorrow. I wanted to ask, should I head straight to your compound to find you, or...?"
"Once you’re in the city, go straight to the gate of Number 66 Xiangyang Street and wait for me there. I’ll bring breakfast for you and the guys with you tomorrow morning."
"Okay, got it. Oh, right, Su, my surname isn’t Lin anymore. My grandfather helped me get a new household registration. My surname is Geng now. I’m Geng Haoyi."
"Your grandfather’s surname is Geng? Is his name Geng Junshan?" Su Shuochi was stunned.
"You even know that? Holy crap, Su! Did you actually run a background check on me? Am I that untrustworthy to you?"
"We’ll talk more when we meet tomorrow. There might be a surprise waiting for you."
Geng Haoyi’s emotions went from surprise to a cry of anguish, from distress to disbelief. His heart felt like it was on a roller coaster.
BEEP... BEEP...
Geng Haoyi’s hand, still clutching the receiver, was trembling. It wasn’t that he was upset; he just had a strong feeling that something extraordinary was going to happen tomorrow.
He and Su Shuochi were brothers in arms who had faced life and death together. He trusted Su Shuochi’s character; there was no way he would investigate his background just because they were partnering to buy a car.
"Hao, what’s wrong? You couldn’t get ahold of your friend?" one of his men asked with concern.
"It’s fine if we can’t find him. We’ll just treat it as a sightseeing trip," another one of his men, who clearly wasn’t worried about money, said nonchalantly.
"Get in the car. The three of us will take turns at the wheel. No rest tonight. Let’s push to get into the city by morning."
Geng Haoyi suppressed his surging shock, hoping against hope that things were as he suspected.
His two men exchanged a look but didn’t dare to say a word. One obediently got into the driver’s seat while the other helped Geng Haoyi into the car.
They had followed Hao for a long time and had never seen him so agitated. ’Just who was that person on the phone?’
「Meanwhile...」
Su Shuochi hung up the phone and glanced upstairs. ’Uncle Geng must be asleep by now.’
For the past few days, Uncle Geng had been going to bed especially early because everyone he knew said his poor sleep quality was making him look particularly old.
The main issue was that Uncle Geng was now just skin and bones. For a few years, a lack of salt in his diet had caused his whole body to swell up with edema. Once the swelling went down, he was left with numerous deep wrinkles on his face.
Gu Jiaojiao had said that his own father wouldn’t recognize him if he saw him now, which motivated Geng Ruixian to go to bed on time every single day.
After dinner, he would take a walk in the courtyard. By eight o’clock, he would have washed up and be ready for bed, then wake up early to practice his military fitness routine.
Eldest Brother Gu followed the same disciplined routine. Grandpa Gu was still in the living room to keep his old friend company. Mr. Gu, Mrs. Gu, and Second Brother Gu were preparing the buns they would sell the next morning.
"Shuo Ci, who was that on the phone?" Grandpa Gu had also overheard Su Shuochi ask the person on the other end if their grandfather was named Geng Junshan.
"A friend of mine. He used to be called Lin Haoshi..." Su Shuochi held Grandpa Gu in high esteem, so he told him the whole story about Geng Haoyi.
"Tomorrow, take Ruixian with you to meet that young man. Don’t wake him now, or he’ll be too excited to sleep."
"Yes. Grandpa, you should also get some rest. Jiaojiao and I are heading back to our room."
"Shuo Ci needs to mind his health, and Jiaojiao has school. You two should go get some rest."
Grandpa Gu said with a chuckle. He’d been feeling so energetic lately that he could stay up a little later.
"Good night, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Second Brother." Gu Jiaojiao bid everyone good night and pushed Su Shuochi into their room.
Su Shuochi, for his part, carried a bucket of warm water in one hand. The couple each had their own bucket. Su Shuochi had been accustomed to bathing with cold water before.
But Gu Jiaojiao had told him that bathing in cold water was bad for his health, so Su Shuochi had followed his wife’s lead and switched to warm water.
After they washed up, they entered the "space" for his acupuncture treatment. Su Shuochi was now able to sit up straight.
Knowing that performing the acupuncture was mentally draining for his wife, he reined in his wandering thoughts and suppressed the feelings stirring within him.
After the silver needles were removed, he still needed an IV drip, as the toxins in his body hadn’t been fully purged.
"You’re tired today, so just rest here for a while. I’m going to check on the herb garden. When your IV is done, we can go feed the chickens and ducks together."
"Okay. I am pretty tired today. You go on ahead. If there are any weeds in the herb garden, leave them for me to pull."
"Alright, don’t worry."
The medicinal herbs in the space grew even more vigorously than the vegetables outside. The soil here was black and perfectly moist.
It required no watering or fertilizer, yet the young herbs grew lush and green. There was Codonopsis root, Paris polyphylla, Chinese goldthread, hyacinth orchid, butterbur, and Japanese knotweed...
...as well as more common plants like mugwort, mint, honeysuckle, agastache, sweet flag, and cloves.
Most of the seeds had been purchased, but some were from precious herbs Gu Jiaojiao had dug up on the mountain behind the farm, and there was even ginseng she had bought on the black market.
If coal was the "black gold" of some regions, then traditional Chinese herbs were undoubtedly "green gold."
’Every one of these unassuming seedlings would be worth a fortune once it matured!’
Gu Jiaojiao had a medical text from Grandpa Gu that detailed the effects and uses of every plant that could be used in medicine.
With this book in hand, once the herbs matured, Gu Jiaojiao could produce all sorts of medicine pills.
The herbs in the space were nourished by spiritual energy, making them even more potent than those found in the wild.
"Jiaojiao, you’re smiling from ear to ear. What’s making you so happy?"