Farmland

After lunch, before the afternoon break began, Zhao Danshi called his boss and told him he would not be going back for the time being.

His boss was extremely surprised and repeatedly asked over the phone, "What happened? Are you not planning to come back to work?"

Zhao Danshi let out a long breath. "Yeah, I'm not planning to work for now. Don't keep that position open for me. I'll stay here for half a year or so and decide after that. Boss, I want to work freelance during this time. If you have any design work that needs help, you can come to me."

His boss still could not understand. "Why do you suddenly want to freelance from home?"

"It wasn't that sudden. When I left today, I saw my grandfather wiping away tears behind my back. The old man is getting on in years, and who knows how many years he has left? Seeing him all alone here made me feel awful."

Zhao Danshi paused there, and the other end of the call fell silent as well.

He continued, "I still have some savings, and I can get by working from home. I'll first see whether this path works. Anyway, I've already quit my job. If it does work, I'll take on more commissions. Freelancing should be enough to support the two of us."

His boss did not know much about his family situation and assumed the two of them had always depended on each other. At this point, he could not bear to say more and could only reply, "Then give it a try. If it really doesn't work out, come back. I'll help you ask around for a suitable job."

"All right. Thanks, Boss. I'll have to trouble you to mail the luggage I sent to your place back to the village."

"Sure. Send me the address, and I'll mail it out this afternoon."

Zhao Danshi chatted with him for a few more minutes. After hanging up, he sent him the address on WeChat. Along with it, he sent a 660-yuan red packet to cover the cost of mailing the luggage.

His boss did not accept it, only saying, "You're not drawing a salary anymore. Save your savings and spend carefully."

With nothing to do that afternoon, Zhao Danshi simply sorted out the things his grandfather had specially given him from his suitcase. He also bought quite a few local specialties in the village, packed them all into cardboard boxes, and sent them to his boss.

The old man still did not know Zhao Danshi had already made up his mind to put down roots in the countryside. Cheerfully, he bought a chicken, specially slaughtered it and stewed it into soup. The chicken meat in the soup was not wasted either. Once it was cooked, he took it out, chopped it into pieces, and ate it with dipping sauce.

Dahei ate nearly half a chicken too, wagging his tail wildly in delight.

After mailing the package in town that afternoon, Zhao Danshi wandered around the village for a long time.

Back then, everyone had lived side by side, their houses built in rows, with a large ancestral hall in the middle. At lunchtime and dinnertime, everyone would lively carry their bowls to the ancestral hall to eat, chatting as they ate.

Now that people had money, they had moved out and built separate country houses, each family living quite far from the next. The old houses had been neglected and fallen into ruin. Some had even collapsed, their interiors overgrown with weeds taller than a person.

Other than a few especially poor households, no one lived in tiled houses anymore. Even families in less-than-ideal financial circumstances would borrow money to build one- or two-story homes.

Their village was not large, surrounded by green mountains. Zhao Danshi took a careful circuit around it in less than an hour.

After touring the village, he went to look around the farmland.

Most households had gone out to work, and the once-fertile fields had been abandoned, acre after acre turning into wasteland thick with weeds. Because the soil was so rich, the weeds here grew taller and denser than elsewhere.

Only a small portion of the once-fertile fields had been reclaimed and planted with crops.

Looking at those good fields, Zhao Danshi was already considering the possibility of leasing land.

That evening over dinner, Zhao Danshi asked his grandfather about leasing farmland in the village.

The old man said, "The village is already this abandoned. Who would still come here to rent fields?"

"Not even one acre has ever been rented out?"

"Not exactly. A couple of years ago, someone said they wanted to come here to grow rice and rented several dozen acres."

"What happened afterward? Why didn't they keep growing rice?"

"Our transportation is inconvenient. Machinery can't be brought in, and it's not easy to transport rice out after it's grown, so the costs are much higher. There are also plenty of abandoned good fields in the towns outside. It's far more convenient for them to plant there, so naturally they stopped coming here."

"Then about how much does it cost per acre to rent fields here?"

"Two or three hundred yuan a year, I think. I heard that when they rented land for rice, it was around 240 yuan per acre." The old man was puzzled. "Why are you asking about this?"

"Just asking. Seeing whether I can come back and run an agritainment business."

The old man gave a snort. "This backwater place has no attractions at all. How could we possibly run an agritainment business?"

Zhao Danshi did not say much more and urged his grandfather to eat.

After dinner, they each went to bathe and sleep. Zhao Danshi took out his laptop and began planning his future life.

He definitely had to farm, but he could not plant too much in the first year. He needed time to get some practice.

Watcher's words should not be too far off the mark. Once he started farming, he would see what Watcher could provide and then plan out the following year's work.

It was already autumn. If he wanted to plant something, he could grow a crop of vegetables.

Choy sum, lettuce, romaine lettuce, radishes, garlic... These vegetables had short growing periods and sold for decent prices. If he could grow them successfully, and their quality was really as Watcher claimed, he could haul them to the county town to sell and earn his first pot of gold.

Before he earned his first income from selling vegetables, he still had to continue doing his old work. At the very least, he could not let his design skills go to waste. Starting out as a freelancer might be a little difficult, but the income would still be better than simply staying in the countryside. With money coming in and going out, he would not be living off his savings alone.

Zhao Danshi listed each item one by one. In the end, he realized that the most urgent matter was persuading his grandfather.

He had been observing the old man these past two days. His grandfather had been in an excellent mood, full of energy every day. The first thing he did upon waking was plan what to eat that day, going to great lengths to nourish his youngest grandson.

Zhao Danshi found an opportunity and deliberately brought up his desire to stay here and work freelance while they were having lunch one day.

Yet there was no joy on the old man's face after hearing it. He set down his chopsticks. "Nonsense. Your job in the city is so good. Why come back to be some kind of freelancer?"

Zhao Danshi lowered his head and counted the grains of rice in his bowl. "The pressure in the city is too much. After finally earning a bit of salary, it all goes toward rent and transportation. I'm busy from morning till night every day, and after a whole year, there's barely anything left over. I might as well work here, save on rent and travel costs, and not tire myself out so much."

His grandfather disagreed. "How can someone so young be afraid of hardship? What if you stay cooped up in the countryside too long and become disconnected from society?"

"I'll be working here too. I'll stay in touch with people online every day. I won't become disconnected."

Across the table, the old man said, "What about your social insurance and housing fund? How will you pay them? And aren't you going to buy a house in the city? If you stay cooped up in this countryside, how will you find a partner?"

Zhao Danshi's sexual orientation was somewhat different from most people's. He certainly would not be able to find a partner in the countryside.

Though the old man was old, he had weathered a lifetime of storms and saw things more clearly than these young people. "At least in the city, you can find people who share your ideals. There are only a few old men and women in the countryside. Where are you going to find someone like you?"

Zhao Danshi was speechless. The old man earnestly said, "I know you're filial and want to stay to keep me company. But everyone's fate is set. I'm doing quite well here. Go back and work without worry. Come visit me when you have time. If I can see you a few more times, I'll be completely satisfied."

"Grandpa, I didn't quit my job only to keep you company." Zhao Danshi sighed and could only play the pity card. "I'm under a lot of pressure outside and want to come back to rest and recover for a while. You don't know what my job is like. As a designer, I carefully produce a drawing, but my supervisor messes with it recklessly. To save money, he even dares cut back on the steel reinforcement. Isn't that harming both others and himself? If a building collapses, whose responsibility would it be?"

The old man listened carefully from beginning to end before finally saying, "Resting for a while is fine. One month, two months, even half a year. But you can't stay cooped up in the countryside long-term. A perfectly good young man will be ruined if he stays here too long."

Hearing him relent, Zhao Danshi did not care about the time limit he had set. He happily said, "I'll stay for half a year first. I can't be idle during that time, either. I want to take design commissions online while growing some vegetables to sell, just to try a new way of life."

This time, the old man did not object. He asked, "What vegetables do you want to grow? How much land do you need? Grandpa will help you negotiate for it."

"I need to look into it more first. Maybe some greens, garlic, and tomatoes. I'll see which vegetables are expensive before deciding what to plant. As for land, how about three acres to start?"

Zhao Danshi knew his own limits. "I haven't farmed much before. If I take on too much land, I might not be able to manage it."

"Think it over slowly." The old man picked up his bowl again. "Our family has more than three acres of land. If you want to farm, I'll clear some out for you."

"No, Grandpa. Let's rent some land. Mainly because our own fields are already planted, and it wouldn't be worth it to clear them now. Besides, it's only a little over two hundred yuan a year. Renting for one year won't cost much."

The old man still hoped Zhao Danshi would return to work after farming for a few months. If it was their own land, they could abandon it whenever they wanted. Renting someone else's fields would not be so convenient.

The old man could not say that directly to Zhao Danshi, so he insisted, "It's fine. Those fields weren't planted with much anyway, and they'll be easy to clear out."

The next day, Zhao Danshi followed his grandfather to carefully inspect the fields they planned to cultivate. They were close to the village and right beside the main road, which would make it convenient to transport vegetables out later.

The only drawback was that these plots had been abandoned for quite a long time. Aside from a few pumpkin and winter melon plants, the ground was full of weeds. The old man also took him to see other vegetable plots. Seeing eggplants and yardlong beans still growing there, Zhao Danshi simply did not take them. These few plots would be enough for him to work on.

After returning from the fields, Zhao Danshi estimated that he would need to buy a few bottles of herbicide, clear the weeds first, and then reclaim the land.