By evening, the village representatives came over to the house with the official farmland contract transfer documents, asking Shen Wuqiu and Father Shen to sign.
Jingrong Village was a large village, but over the years, few people from the village had made something of themselves, and even fewer were willing to return to this mountainous ditch. Coupled with the fact that Father Shen had contributed immensely to the village over the years, the village still held Shen Wuqiu, a female college graduate willing to return home to farm, in high regard. With Shen Yan helping mediate behind the scenes, they were also very attentive to her current orchard cultivation.
When they came to sign the documents, the village directly arranged for two experts to come over and assist her.
The experts arranged by the village were technical personnel specializing in guiding the bayberry base in their county town, making them much more professional than fruit farmers like Uncle Zheng.
With the guidance of these professionals, Shen Wuqiu followed them to Xishan the very next day and finalized the quantity and layout for planting the bayberry trees.
Shen Wuqiu had previously thought that with high-end machinery available nowadays, farming wouldn’t be too grueling. Once she actually got busy, however, she learned that farming was truly no simple task.
Because the weather was turning, they had to prepare all the tree pits for the bayberry trees before the rain hit. With a shortage of hands, Shen Wuqiu had no choice but to pitch in and work alongside the group of grown men.
For days on end, she was so busy her feet barely touched the ground.
On the other hand, although the white cat had shown extreme panic and resistance toward the mention of sterilization, she didn’t take Shen Wuqiu’s words as a real threat and continued doing as she pleased, vanishing entirely from sight every single morning.
Shen Wuqiu felt powerless against this behavior. Whenever she couldn’t find the cat, she could only silently reinforce her resolve that she definitely had to find time to take the cat to get spayed.
Busy all the way until the evening of the fourth day, she finally finished planting the two thousand bayberry trees.
With the bayberry trees in the ground, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Because the pomelo trees on the slope were three-year-old saplings, planting them a bit later wouldn’t have much of an impact, and the work itself would be somewhat lighter.
Moreover, with continuous spring rains making field work difficult, Shen Wuqiu took the opportunity to give herself a two-day break.
That morning, Shen Wuqiu woke up as usual from that unspeakable dream.
Habit really was a terrifying thing. After experiencing such dreams for seven days in a row, she no longer felt much shame, and could even recall and savor the experience with a sense of enjoyment.
The only difference was that during her reverie that morning, Shen Wuqiu actually pieced together the appearance of the woman from her dream.
When the woman’s face clearly outlined itself in her mind, Shen Wuqiu startled herself first.
The woman in the dream possessed the kind of flawless, jade-white complexion that every woman envied. Her facial features weren’t exceptionally exquisite, but her eyes were truly unique, resembling phoenix eyes, yet lacking their aloof coldness, instead carrying a hint of coquetting charm. Her pupils shimmered with moisture, blending innocence and allure to stunning effect.
A pair of eyes like that alone was enough to dazzle all living beings.
Not to mention the rippling waves of emotion surging within those eyes whenever passion stirred.
Every single expression and smile of the woman in her memory became extraordinarily vivid, causing Shen Wuqiu’s heart to beat like a furious drumbeat.
After a long while, she finally closed her eyes and pressed her hands over her chest, trying to calm the racing deer within her heart.
The feeling was both unfamiliar and bizarre, as she missed her so much, so very much.
This longing was light, passionate, unrestrained, and carried a trace of regret that it was only a dream, leaving behind an empty feeling in her chest.
Immediately afterward, a heavy wave of shame rushed up from the bottom of her heart. She actually harbored such strange sentiments toward a phantom that only existed in dreams.
These complex emotions tangled and pulled at each other inside her, leaving Shen Wuqiu’s mind a tangled mess. Daring not to stay in bed daydreaming any longer, she briskly got up, washed up, and headed downstairs.
Father Shen was already awake downstairs. Sitting on the sofa wearing his reading glasses, he was reading with such intense focus that Shen Wuqiu scrutinized him from afar for a long time without him noticing. It wasn’t until she reached for her teacup that he finally took notice of her:
“You’ve worked hard these past few days. Why didn’t you sleep in a bit longer today?”
Seeing Father Shen look over at her, Shen Wuqiu sat down on the sofa next to him and raised a hand to massage her brow bone. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Is the pressure too high?” Father Shen adjusted his reading glasses, sizing her up with a trace of heartache in his brows. “Look at you, your face is pale and worn out. You must be exhausted, right?”
Shen Wuqiu subconsciously touched her own face, while the thought flashing through her mind was that immersive dreams could actually cause overindulgence.
As soon as that thought arose, she almost died of embarrassment. What on earth was she thinking in broad daylight, especially right in front of her aging father?
Shen Wuqiu guiltily lowered her hand and offered an awkward, guilty cough. “Maybe so. I noticed your spirits are much better recently, and your complexion looks a lot better than before, too.”
Mentioning this, Father Shen was also puzzled. “Ever since you came back, I haven’t felt as much pain, my appetite is much better, and I can walk around everywhere now.”
Shen Wuqiu looked at him. “Really?”
Father Shen reacted. “You don’t believe it? You thought I was faking it before just to trick you into coming back?”
Shen Wuqiu lowered her gaze. “I didn’t say that.”
She had looked at Father Shen’s medical reports and consulted his attending physician. Pausing for a moment, she added, “I’d rather you were tricking me.”
“Life and death are up to fate, everything is predestined.” Father Shen consoled her, though he couldn’t help sighing a moment later. “If things stay like this, I feel like living is actually quite nice.”
Shen Wuqiu felt a pang of ache in her heart. “Dad, why don’t we go to the hospital for a checkup?”
“No. I’m living quite comfortably at home right now, why go to the hospital to suffer?”
“What if you’ve healed on your own?”
Father Shen chuckled. “You silly child, where in this world are there so many miracles?”
Unwilling to dwell on such depressing moods early in the morning, Father Shen glanced around the room. “Did that cat run off again?”
Shen Wuqiu was still brooding over taking him to the hospital and didn’t feel like discussing the cat, so she distractedly replied. “Anyway, it’s like this every day. She’ll come back on her own later.”
“I wonder what this little thing runs off to do at this exact time every day.”
“Chasing wild cats, I suppose.” The moment Shen Wuqiu thought of the possibility Shen Wenjun had mentioned, her mood soured even further.
Father Shen took it quite easily. “Well, it looks like our family will have a few more cats soon.”
Shen Wuqiu couldn’t find any comfort in that. “One is already annoying enough. Anyway, since I have nothing special to do today, I’ll take her to the hospital for sterilization this afternoon to keep her from running around all day and driving me crazy.”
Father Shen actually wouldn’t mind having some kittens around, but the thought of how little time he had left made him swallow the words back down. “Alright, do as you like.”
However, what unsettled Shen Wuqiu was that by the time evening arrived, she still didn’t catch a glimpse of the white cat.
This time, not only was she panicking, but Father Shen and Shen Wenjun grew anxious as well.
After the three of them searched both inside and outside the house, Shen Wenjun looked out at the pouring rain and grew deeply worried. “Sis, do you think she got caught in the rain, ran off to find shelter, and that’s why she hasn’t come back yet?”
When she first took in this little ancestor, Shen Wuqiu had merely thought that such a spirited creature would make a fun pastime and didn’t plan on investing much genuine emotion. Yet after spending a few days together, she had truly grown attached to this pretty and clever little ancestor.
Without a word, Shen Wuqiu glanced at the heavy rain outside, grabbed the umbrella by the door, and walked out.
“Sis, it’s raining this hard, where are you going to look?” Shen Wenjun called out from behind.
Shen Wuqiu ignored him, holding the umbrella as she walked away in quick strides.
In truth, she didn’t know where to look either, but if she didn’t step outside, she felt even more unsettled.
Shen Wuqiu walked along the country road. The rain grew heavier and the sky darker, making the streetlamps along the rural road exceptionally dim in such weather.
The anxiety in her heart swelled. Shen Wuqiu wanted to call out into the misty rain, only to realize she didn’t even know what name to call.
At that exact moment, she suddenly regretted not giving the white cat a name.
Standing in the misty rain and looking around in bewilderment, a wave of powerlessness quietly washed over her heart. She suddenly dropped her umbrella and shouted out toward the surroundings: “Meow, meow.”
After calling out three times in a row, a coquettish voice suddenly rang beside her ear:
“Sister, you dropped your umbrella.”