After land reform entered a stable period, Su Ran's life became much easier than before.
Most of the fields in the village have already been plowed, straw ash has been mixed in, and the irrigation ditches have been dredged again. All that's left is to wait, to wait for the soil to recover on its own, and to wait for the rice seedlings to grow on their own.
Su Ran still goes for a walk in the fields every morning. He walks from one end of the village to the other, and he can tell which field's soil is drying out faster, which field's irrigation ditches are blocked, and which field's rice seedlings are pale in color by squatting down to take a look and touching them.
Most of the time he just takes a look, occasionally squatting down to dig up the soil and check the moisture and color of the bottom layer. But he no longer needs to do anything—he points out where there is a problem, and the villagers standing nearby can handle it themselves without him having to say anything.
One morning, Su Ran went for his usual walk in the fields. When he returned, Ye Qingyu was setting the table in the yard. She looked up at him and said, "You're back earlier than yesterday."
"There's nothing else to do." Su Ran scooped water from the water tank to wash her hands. "They can do it themselves."
Ye Qingyu didn't say anything more and brought the porridge to the table. Su Ran sat down at the table, took a sip of porridge, and looked up to see that Shitou was already sitting at the gate of the courtyard, squatting there turning over the soil.
Before, after meals, Shitou would go to the fields with Su Ran, but recently Su Ran been going less often. However, this doesn't have much of an impact on Shitou; now he squats in the yard turning over the soil early every morning.
Su Ran looked at him for a while, then put down her bowl and said, " Shitou, come with me later."
The Shitou raised its head, put down the dirt in its hand, and stood up to wait.
After finishing their meal, Su Ran led Shi Shitou to the edge of the field outside the village that he had first turned over. That field had completely changed; the rice seedlings were neat and tidy, the leaves were a bright green, and the ears of rice had already emerged, full and firm. Su Ran squatted down, placed his hands on the soil of the field ridge, and gestured for Shitou to do the same.
Shitou squatted down beside him, placed his hand on it, closed his eyes and remained quiet for a while, then opened them. "... It's hotter than before."
"It's not that it's hot," Su Ran said, "It's that it's come alive. What you need to learn now isn't how to feel it, but how to walk alongside it."
Shitou looked up at him, as if he didn't quite understand.
"You learned how to send your Soul Power in before, that was the first step. Now you're practicing how to retain it—"
If Soul Power can enter but cannot be retained, it's like water poured into sand—it flows away and is gone. Only when the Soul Power remains upon entering and doesn't dissipate can it be considered a true passage.
Su Ran paused for a moment and then said, "Try it now. After you input your Soul Power, don't rush to take it back. Let it go on its own and see if it comes back after it finishes going."
This exercise is to stabilize your Soul Power, so that it will be more effective when you encounter larger 'grounds' in the future—not just farmland, but possibly other things as well.
Shitou listening, Shi Tou looked down at the soil under his hands, seemed to think for a moment, and then pressed his hand back down. "Okay, teacher, I'll try it now."
Su Ran stood up without urging him, walked back to the edge of the field and stood there for a while. In the distance, she saw Father Ye bending over to look at the rice ears in another field, and she also saw the family at the east end of the village drawing water into their own field. The sun shone on the edge of the field, and the smell of the soil rose with the heat, faint but steady.
He stood there for a while, then walked back to the Shitou. The Shitou was still squatting there, its palms pressed against the ground, its eyes closed, as if it were asleep. But Su Ran could feel that a very thin strand of Soul Power was slowly flowing through the soil beneath its hands. It wasn't fast, but it wasn't interrupted.
Su Ran remained silent and sat down on the ridge beside the field.
After a while, Shi Tou opened his Shitou and looked down at his hands. A thin layer of warmth still lingered in his palms, as if something had just left them. He turned his palm over to look at it, then closed it again, and looked up at Su Ran: "Teacher, it's still there."
"That's right," Su Ran said. "Do this for a little while every day from now on. It doesn't have to be much, but you have to do it."
Shitou nodded, stood up, brushed the dirt off his hands, and followed Su Ran back. He didn't ask any questions on the way back, but he looked down at his palms as if he was still feeling the lingering warmth, and his steps were a little more steady than when he came.
In the afternoon, Su Ran did not go out again. Ye Qingyu was playing the zither in the courtyard, and he sat on the stone steps next to her, listening to the melody slowly flowing through the courtyard.
He didn't deliberately listen to the melody; he simply let the sound spread around him, as naturally as afternoon sunlight falling on stone steps.
A breeze blew in from outside the yard, carrying the scent of freshly turned soil and straw from the fields. Su Ran sat leaning against a pillar for a while, her gaze falling on the leaves of the tree in the corner of the yard. The leaves swayed gently in the wind, and sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, dappling the ground with small patches of light.
Su Ran sat for a while, then stood up, walked to the courtyard gate, and glanced again at the distant fields.
The sun was setting in the west, and the plowed fields shimmered with a uniform color in the light, neither too dark nor too light, as if they were slowly growing back to their original shape.
There was no one left on the ridge of the field; only a few birds landed on the turned soil, heads bowed as if searching for something.
Ye Qingyu stopped playing the piano behind her and asked, "What are you looking at?"
"Look at those fields," Su Ran said, "They're much better than before."
Ye Qingyu didn't reply. She placed the zither on her lap, followed his gaze for a moment, and sat quietly.
Su Ran stood there for a while, then turned around and went back into the courtyard. She sat down next to her and casually picked up the book she had half-read yesterday from the stone table and flipped through a couple of pages.
The turning of the pages carried a faint scent of paper and ink, mingling with the earthy smell of the yard without clashing. He didn't read the words carefully; he simply turned a couple of pages, closed the book, and put it back in its place.
Ye Qingyu glanced at him but said nothing. She picked up the zither and put it inside. After a while, she brought out a bowl of water and placed it beside him. Then she sat on the other side of the stone table without saying a word.
The two of them sat there, the light in the courtyard gradually dimming, and the wind blowing in from the edge of the field, carrying the unique dampness of evening.
(The next chapter will begin the return trip to the Far North route~)