Wen Xi straightened up, looked directly into her grandmother’s eyes, and answered solemnly,
“An agricultural scientist.”
Her grandmother’s eyes had not grown cloudy with age. They were still bright, dark, and full of life.
When she heard Wen Xi’s ambition, there was no mockery or doubt in her eyes.
Only encouragement.
“Our Xiaoxi has such a grand ambition? Then Grandma will have to look forward to seeing it come true.”
Wen Xi had to admit that her grandmother’s response deeply touched her.
After all, she had always been seen as a pampered rich young lady. Even though she occasionally came to the countryside to stay with her grandmother, she had never spent all that much time here.
What was more, even when she was in the countryside, she had never paid any attention to the land or crops.
She had once been such a genuine city girl that she couldn’t even tell wheat seedlings from rice seedlings.
If she happened to run into a dog in the countryside, all she would do was shout,
“Grandma, save me!”
Yet now, when she solemnly told her grandmother that she wanted to become an agricultural scientist, there wasn’t the slightest trace of doubt in the old woman’s eyes.
There was only wholehearted anticipation.
Wen Xi felt her eyes sting again.
Unable to hold back, she suddenly threw herself into her grandmother’s arms and rubbed her soft, fair cheek against her grandmother’s stomach.
“Grandma, I love you so much.”
“Grandma, you have to live to be a hundred. I promise I’ll let you see me become a successful agricultural scientist.”
Her grandmother easily caught the girl as she rushed into her arms, wrapping both arms around Wen Xi’s shoulders as she laughed warmly.
“Hahaha, all right. Grandma will do her best to live to a hundred and watch our Wen Xi make something of herself.”
Wen Xi’s ears turned faintly red, but she still declared firmly,
“Wen Xi loves Grandma the most.”
Because her face was buried against her grandmother’s stomach, her voice sounded slightly muffled, making her seem even more adorable and childlike.
“And Grandma loves Xiaoxi the most.”
The grandmother and granddaughter remained wrapped in each other’s arms for quite some time.
When Wen Xi finally pulled herself out of her grandmother’s embrace, her little face was flushed a deep pink from being pressed against her.
She looked so sweet and娇气 that her grandmother couldn’t resist gently tapping the tip of her nose before urging her to eat some more snacks.
Wen Xi leaned against her grandmother and nibbled on the fried broad beans one at a time while thinking about her grandmother’s life.
Her grandmother had originally been a city girl too.
She had even received an education and was a proper intellectual.
Later, she had voluntarily answered the call to go to the countryside as a teacher and help develop the rural communities.
This was the very place where she now lived.
When she was young, Grandma had been graceful and well-educated, carrying herself with the refined air of a well-bred young lady.
Naturally, her arrival attracted the attention of quite a few young men from the surrounding villages.
There weren’t many students at the school to begin with, yet there always seemed to be two or three young men conveniently “passing by” whenever Grandma was around.
Unfortunately for them, Grandma had no interest in romance at the time.
She simply ignored them all.
But among those men, there was bound to be a shameless piece of trash who would do something unforgivable.
One man had tried to force himself on Grandma.
Fortunately, Grandpa arrived in time and rescued her.
After such a frightening experience, Grandma was afraid to let any man get close to her for a long time.
It was Grandpa’s gentle protection and constant reassurance, day after day, that eventually helped her emerge from the shadow of that experience.
After that, the two naturally came together.
But when Grandpa was young, he had worked desperately hard because he didn’t want Grandma to suffer and wanted to give her a better life.
He had worked so hard earning work points that as he grew older, his health became increasingly poor.
Two years earlier, he had passed away, leaving Grandma behind.
Wen Xi’s parents had originally wanted to bring Grandma back to Haishi so she could enjoy her retirement in comfort.
But Grandma refused.
She said that if she left, Grandpa would be lonely.
She wanted to remain in the countryside and watch over the home and land that she and Grandpa had shared.
Wen Xi’s parents had tried to persuade her again, but Grandma had told them that the contributions she had made to Huangni Township in her younger years had never been forgotten.
The village chief and the villagers all remembered what she had done for them.
They would absolutely take good care of her.
Only after hearing this did Wen Xi’s parents finally stop insisting that she move to Haishi.
Looking at the flourishing vegetables growing in her grandmother’s courtyard, Wen Xi took a deep breath of the clean, unpolluted country air.
She had to admit that perhaps Huangni Township really was a better place for Grandma to spend her later years.
The environment was beautiful, the air was clean, and the villagers were simple, kind, and warm-hearted.
This was where Grandma had lived for forty-eight years.
It was the place she knew best.
Of course, when you were surrounded by warmth and happiness, you rarely noticed the passage of time.
The sky, which had still been brightly lit moments ago, suddenly darkened as though it had put on a cloak of night.
Wen Xi glanced at her watch.
It was already eight o’clock.
Because Wen Xi had been leaning against her grandmother the entire time, Grandma hadn’t moved either.
After sitting like that for so long, Grandma must have been uncomfortable.
Wen Xi immediately stood up and began massaging her grandmother’s shoulders and gently pounding her legs, helping her loosen up.
Grandma didn’t stop her.
She simply smiled and enjoyed the attention.
Once she felt that her body had loosened up again, she took Wen Xi’s hand and said,
“Xiaoxi must be hungry, right? Grandma will make you some noodles with sliced meat and eggs.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Grandma noticed Wen Xi preparing to follow her into the kitchen to help.
She turned around and stopped her.
“Xiaoxi, you don’t need to come into the kitchen. Go unpack your things first. Grandma will be done soon.”
Wen Xi glanced at the unopened suitcase beside her and decided to listen.
Because of her memories of living in the mountains in the modern era, she was confident that she could handle a traditional wood-fired stove.
Starting a fire, cooking, frying, boiling—none of it would be difficult for her.
But the Wen Xi who had grown up in Haishi had never learned how to operate one of those old-fashioned stoves.
It was better to reveal her changes little by little.
After all, in this era, stories about supernatural beings and strange creatures were still common conversation.
One of the reasons she had loved coming to the countryside to stay with her grandparents when she was young was because they always told her all kinds of fascinating legends.
For example, there was a wave-shaped mountain opposite her grandparents’ home called Mount Ma’an.
According to Grandpa, it was actually part of the body of a giant serpent that was about to transform into a dragon.
There were even villagers who claimed to have found golden eggs in the mountains.
They said the giant serpent had left them behind as a blessing while preparing to transform into a dragon.
Thinking about these things, Wen Xi quickly unpacked her suitcase and carried everything into the clean guest room Grandma had prepared for her.
She hadn’t brought many personal belongings, so she finished organizing everything fairly quickly.
As for the entire trunk full of raw materials for her fertilizer formulas, the driver had already helped stack everything in the woodshed before leaving.
With nothing else to do, Wen Xi sat on the bed and openly examined the entire room.
The posters pasted on the walls were unmistakably from the era.
Some featured portraits of revolutionary leaders, while others displayed red stars, sickles, and other revolutionary imagery.
Even the drinking cups in the room were ceramic, with a design printed on them depicting the unity and cooperation between soldiers and farmers.
The furniture was all wooden and sparse.
There was a nearly rectangular cabinet, a long bench, and a stone storage container covered with a wooden lid.
Wen Xi reached out and picked up the pillow.
She squeezed it.
It was filled with tiny grains.
From the little hole in the fabric, she could see that the filling was rice husks—the empty shells left after the rice grains had been removed.
Wen Xi liked this pillow.
She had never liked soft, squishy pillows.
They didn’t provide enough support.
This rice-husk pillow was perfect.
It didn’t make her head feel hot, and it provided excellent support.
Wen Xi was thoroughly satisfied with it.
For a while, she flattened the pillow and patted the husks inside until they were evenly distributed.
Then she stood it upright so all the husks gathered at one end.
Then she folded it in half.
After playing with the pillow to her heart’s content, she turned her attention to the bed.
She lifted the bedsheet.
Underneath was a thick layer of dry straw.
When she leaned closer, she could even smell the faint scent of sunlight lingering in it.
Wen Xi carefully touched the straw, her heart filled with emotion.
Grandma really was too good to her!
Knowing that Wen Xi was coming, she had taken the straw from the bed and dried it in the sun beforehand.
She had even deliberately dried extra straw so she could make Wen Xi a softer mattress, all so her precious granddaughter could sleep comfortably.
The more Wen Xi thought about it, the more she wanted to hug her grandmother.