Xie Yu and Xu Tingting were thoroughly satisfied with the meal too. As they ate, they could not resist taking photos and posting them on Moments along with their earlier selfies.
Xu Tingting got along well with her father, Xu Fugui, so she never blocked him from seeing her Moments posts. As a retired old man with so much free time he was bored out of his mind every day, her father naturally liked her post right away. He then sent her a private voice message asking, "Sweetheart, where are you eating? That looks pretty tasty!"
Gnawing on a pig's trotter, Xu Tingting casually typed back: [Clear Breeze Temple. Can't you tell?]
Normally, whenever Xu Fugui heard about the food at Clear Breeze Temple, he would definitely ask Xu Tingting to bring some home for him. That day, however, he fell unusually silent.
In the end, Xu Tingting took the initiative to ask: [Want me to pack you a portion to bring home? I'm not going back to the dorm tonight anyway. I need to stop by home to pick up a few things.]
Xu Fugui: [Did Daoist Chang Kong make it, or did Daoist Priest Jingting? If Daoist Chang Kong made it, pack me a portion. If Daoist Priest Jingting made it, you can have some more yourself! Your dad wants to live a couple more years.]
Xu Tingting: "..."
Xu Tingting: "Of course Daoist Chang Kong cooked it himself! He even said he was making us something good because we're unofficial staff at Clear Breeze Temple."
Reading this, Xu Fugui wept bitter tears. "Unofficial staff get special treatment, so why don't their fathers? Last time I went to Clear Breeze Temple, I had to eat Daoist Priest Jingting's dark cuisine! Ask Temple Master Yun for me: what exactly do I have to do to eat food Daoist Chang Kong cooks himself?"
Xu Tingting relayed Xu Fugui's words to Yun Zhaozhao. After hearing them, Yun Zhaozhao said calmly, "He can come at mealtime. As long as he comes at mealtime, he'll generally get to taste Daoist Chang Kong's cooking."
Anyone else might have accepted that. But as one of Clear Breeze Temple's first customers, Xu Fugui had eaten Daoist Chang Kong's special smoked cured pork before. Back then, they could order whatever they wanted at Clear Breeze Temple. Now, even if they came at mealtime, they would probably have to eat whatever Daoist Chang Kong made. So he could not help negotiating with Temple Master Yun through Xu Tingting's phone. "Then what would we have to do if we wanted to order dishes?"
Yun Zhaozhao pondered for a long while before finally asking, "Do you know how to farm?"
Xu Fugui was originally from the countryside, and he really had grown rice when he was young. Strictly speaking, though, that had been several decades ago.
Now past fifty, he had never expected a farming assignment to fall into his lap again.
But to eat food personally cooked by Daoist Chang Kong-and, most importantly, to order whatever he wanted as he had before-Xu Fugui accepted Yun Zhaozhao's farming assignment without hesitation.
To ensure the assignment went smoothly, he even put out a call in his photography group for retired cadres. To his surprise, he actually managed to talk six or seven fellow old men into joining him.
Then the whole group headed off in force to the rice paddies where Grandpa Lin was.
These old men often carried cameras all over the hills, waiting for the right scenery to photograph, so they were all in fairly good shape. At any rate, they were much fitter than many young people who spent their days sitting in offices nowadays. Before coming, however, one or two of them had still been a little worried. On the one hand, they worried that after so many years without farming, they would not be able to manage transplanting rice seedlings. On the other, they worried that their age would make them a burden to their companions.
But once they met Lin Banxia's grandfather, those concerns vanished entirely. Compared with Lin Banxia's grandfather, little old men in their sixties and seventies like them still counted as youngsters.
Modern agriculture was largely mechanized, with specialized machines for plowing, transplanting seedlings, and other tasks. Because of terrain restrictions, however, some small plots still needed to be planted by hand. Those small plots were the stage for Xu Fugui and the others today.
Old Master Lin greeted Xu Fugui and the others with boundless enthusiasm, tolerance, and patience.
He practically taught the old men how to transplant rice seedlings by taking them through it hand over hand.
Xu Fugui was deeply touched. "Brother Lin, experienced hands as helpful as you are hard to come by these days."
Grandpa Lin calmly straightened his back and gazed ahead, his expression serene. "This very patch of land you're standing on had a bunch of eight- and nine-year-old little kids here just a few days ago. Compared with teaching them, teaching you lot is much easier."
Xu Fugui: "..." Clear Breeze Temple really was a reemployment training center! From toddlers who had only just learned to walk to ninety-nine-year-olds, everyone could find a job of their own at Clear Breeze Temple.
Chapter 32
Not only had Xie Yu and Xu Tingting somehow supplied Yun Zhaozhao with a group of elderly reemployment recruits during this visit, but they also learned for the first time that a relative of the female employee who had argued with them in the university cafeteria last time-a cook at their school cafeteria-had recently begun coming to Clear Breeze Temple's cafeteria for an internship every month.
In other words, the two of them now had another teammate at University A. Although his work had nothing whatsoever to do with their campus representative business, both Xu Tingting and Xie Yu were immensely excited about it.
After all, who would not want the cooks at the cafeteria where they ate every day to improve their skills and make tastier food? If they could, they would have sent every cook in University A's cafeteria to Clear Breeze Temple to become an apprentice and learn to cook!
That said, Clear Breeze Temple's range of operations really was getting a little too broad. Many big companies might have only one main line of business, yet Yun Zhaozhao and the others had managed to run a dozen or so out of a little Daoist temple with only three to five people.
And their operations were so broad and varied that they offered more options than the career prospects for Xu Tingting and Xie Yu's major.
Yet Yun Zhaozhao still was not particularly satisfied. "We have plenty of lines of business, but unfortunately, none of them are traditional Daoist temple services." If they were traditional Daoist temple services, she could have gone to Lawyer Wang to collect another payout by now. Although Clear Breeze Temple had temporarily escaped poverty, who would complain about having too much money?
Xu Tingting comforted her. "It's fine. Who cares whether they're traditional Daoist temple services or not? Any business that makes money is a good business. It's like us graduates. Whatever university or major we're from, if it gets us a good job, it's a good university and a good major."
Yun Zhaozhao nodded. "That makes sense too. Speaking of which, when I went back to my alma mater for a graduate career guidance meeting last time, I nearly recruited a university student to become a Daoist priest. But that student hasn't contacted me lately. I don't know whether they found a job or went to intern at another Daoist temple."
Xu Tingting: "...You even went to a university to hold a graduate career guidance meeting? Just tell me, is there anything you can't do?"
Yun Zhaozhao sighed. "I really can't tell fortunes."
Xie Yu said, "That's not right. After my aunt-the one whose property was being acquired for redevelopment-came back from seeing you last time, she specifically called me to say your fortune-telling was incredibly accurate."
Yun Zhaozhao smiled faintly. "I've only told a fortune once in my life, and that was the only time I got it right."
Xie Yu: "..." Apparently, that fortune had been a limited edition!
Xie Yu and Xu Tingting spent the afternoon at Clear Breeze Temple that day. When they left toward evening, they made a point of taking another batch of talisman tube blind boxes and several packets of lotus leaf powder back with them, saying they wanted to brew their own weight-loss tea in the dorm.
Both girls actually had perfectly standard figures and were not fat at all. But young girls loved looking pretty and always hoped to be a little prettier and have a slightly better figure. This was especially true of Xie Yu. Busy with her studies lately, she had not seen her boyfriend in some time, so she was all the more eager to be slimmer and prettier the next time they met-ideally dazzling enough to blind him.
Having been single since birth, Xu Tingting had no such concerns. Something else was on her mind. She had promised that afternoon to bring her father, Xu Fugui, some good food, but she had not expected him to go so far as to reenter the workforce after retirement just to eat food Daoist Chang Kong cooked himself.
If she went home now, she would be the only one there anyway. She might as well go see what exactly was going on with her father.
With that thought, she parted ways with Xie Yu right at Clear Breeze Temple's entrance, then took a detour to where Xu Fugui was.
Xu Fugui was hard at work in the fields.
It had been so long since he had transplanted rice seedlings that doing it again felt quite nostalgic. And although it was hard work, Grandpa Lin had not set any quotas for them, so the group chatted and laughed, looking less like they were doing manual labor and more like they were having a team-building activity.
Xu Fugui was rather surprised to see Xu Tingting arrive. "What brings you here?"
Xu Tingting first politely greeted the uncles beside Xu Fugui before answering her father. "I came to bring you something tasty! Isn't that why you went to all this trouble to come plant rice seedlings?"
What Xu Fugui really looked forward to was Daoist Chang Kong's cooking, rather than transplanting seedlings. Yet hearing Xu Tingting's words now, he did not seem particularly pleased. Instead, he looked at her warily. "What tasty food? Temple Master Yun already promised me we could go straight up to Clear Breeze Temple and order dishes once we finished transplanting the seedlings. She'd better not think she can fob me off with a little food."
Xu Tingting was speechless for a moment before she could not help explaining, "Relax. This doesn't interfere with what Temple Master Yun promised you. These are shepherd's purse and pork pan-fried dumplings I snagged from Clear Breeze Temple. They're just to tide you all over."
Only after hearing that this would not affect his dinner did Xu Fugui beam and walk out of the paddy. As he walked, he made sure to show off to his old buddies. "See? You've got to have a daughter, haven't you? Only a daughter would come all this way to bring us pan-fried dumplings. What boy would ever be this thoughtful?"
Seeing this, the others said nothing, but inwardly they agreed with Xu Fugui.
Knowing there were a lot of them, Xu Tingting had brought plenty of dumplings. There were about ten for each person, including Grandpa Lin.
They were already doing farmwork, so nobody was fussy. Everyone gave their hands a quick, haphazard wash in the little ditch beside the paddy, then sat cross-legged on the grass along the field ridge to eat the pan-fried dumplings.