Pastoral Daily Life

Bamboo, from the Paoceae family, not only has many varieties but also grows rapidly. Some varieties are as low as grass, while others are as tall as trees. Most of them are distributed in tropical and subtropical areas.

This was the introduction to bamboo in the Illustrated Book of Plants, something that Lu Lingxi had been reading all night. Since Yan Yue had inadvertently mentioned the properties of bamboo during dinner, namely its toughness, flexibility and low density, the three of them had talked about it a little. It was just a casual conversation, but Lu Lingxi had something in mind and started looking for information on bamboo when he returned.

In fact, there were many records about bamboo in China. In the early days, bamboo was associated with Chinese calligraphy (bamboo calligraphy pen, one of the oldest calligraphy tools in the world), and was then used in technology, architecture, for tools and musical instruments. Lu Lingxi found quite a lot of information, but only skimmed through the irrelevant parts, focusing on the history of bamboo in the development of construction and tools. According to the information, bamboo had a long history of use in construction, with skilled craftsmen building a palace using bamboo as early as two thousand years ago. In the south, where bamboo was abundant, bamboo buildings were even the most common houses for ordinary people, and there were still people living in them to this day.

Lu Lingxi looked at these records and found out that around the 1950s, some buildings in China were actually built with bamboo instead of steel. However, the situation was unique at the time because of the lack of steel. It was a last resort, and this method wasn’t widely promoted. However, this also showed that there was a real possibility that bamboo could replace steel.

Closing the information, Lu Lingxi remembered what he had said to Yan Yue this afternoon, that he hoped to find some alternative plants to replace steel. At that time, he was actually thinking of trees such as hsienmu. Previously, Lu Lingxi had read in a book that there were several precious trees in nature that were as hard as steel, anti-corrosive, bullet-proof and erosion-proof, that were used as a substitute for metal, sometimes for ships, waterworks, vehicles, special buildings and so on. However, these trees were precious and rare, especially as they were slow growing and not easy to grow, which was not conducive to large-scale promotion.

In Lu Lingxi’s view, the biggest advantage of bamboo over them was that it grew quickly and was easy and inexpensive to plant. If bamboo could really replace steel after the proper treatment… just thinking about this possibility made his spirits high and he couldn’t wait to go find some bamboo right away. These thoughts were swirling in Lu Lingxi’s head until midnight when he fell asleep in a daze.

When he opened his eyes the next day, Lu Lingxi’s mind was filled with bamboo, so much that he seemed a little distracted all morning.

At half past eight, Yan Yue came to pick up Lu Lingxi to go to the shop, precisely as if checking in at work. Usually, Wang Shuxiu treated Yan Yue as air, but today, she actually smiled at him unexpectedly. Yan Yue was a little surprised but his face didn’t show anything. Only when he saw Lu Lingxi’s slow reaction did it dawn on him what Wang Shuxiu’s change in attitude meant.

As soon as the two of them left the house, Wang Shuxiu asked Xiao Feng in a low voice, “Did Xiao Xi have a fight with Yan Yue? Why does he look so listless?”

Xiao Feng didn’t believe that the two would quarrel at all, smiled and comforted Wang Shuxiu, “Why would they, don’t worry about it.” He then teased Wang Shuxiu, “Besides, isn’t it good for the two of them to fight? Don’t you dislike them being together, Xiaohua?”

Wang Shuxiu glared at Xiao Feng, who shook his head in amusement and said nothing else. Maybe all mothers are like that. Wang Shuxiu said she didn’t want Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue to be together, but if things went wrong between them, she started to worry about whether Lu Lingxi would be unhappy, hoping that Yan Yue could coax Lu Lingxi to be happy. As they say, care is chaotic, and so is worry.

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Wang Shuxiu was at home thinking about it while Yan Yue helped Lu Lingxi fasten his seat belt and asked him with a smile, “Is Xiao Xi still thinking about bamboo?”

Lu Lingxi nodded, a little embarrassed, “Big Brother Yan, do you think I’m fanciful?”

“No.” Yan Yue affirmed, “The relevant technology is already available now, it’s just that we don’t usually care about it.”

Like Lu Lingxi, Yan Yue had also looked through quite a lot of information last night. He hadn’t paid much attention to this before, and only last night did he realise that replacing steel with bamboo wasn’t a crazy idea of his and Lu Lingxi’s, but a direction of development in the international environmental protection industry. Whether it was bamboo reinforced concrete in the past or high-tech research now, the people involved were working hard to put it to practical use. A certain number of pavilions at the World Expo in Haicheng two years ago were the best example of this.

Actually, Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue were looking at different information in different directions. Lu Lingxi didn’t know much about the technology Yan Yue was talking about, but he thought that technology was only one aspect, and the most fundamental thing was the bamboo itself.

Yan Yue nodded in agreement, “Xiao Xi is right, the most fundamental thing is the bamboo itself.”

“Then, Big Brother Yan, should we find a few suitable bamboo plants to try? I still have 5 points of the power of nature.” Apart from returning the owed power of nature from the reward by the last panel upgrade, Lu Lingxi still had 5 points left for himself. He had been reluctant to use them, thinking to save them just in case. Now it was just the right time to use them to evolve the bamboo and see what effect it would have.

His eyes were eager, and Yan Yue couldn’t help but smile as he watched him. “Good, let’s find a few suitable bamboo plants to try.”

There are many different types of bamboo, but not all of them are suitable for construction. Generally the most common is moso bamboo. Yan Yue spoke to Xue Yongtong and asked the other party to help him find a few bamboo plants. Xue Yongtong, who received Yan Yue’s call, was a bit surprised that Xiao Xi was thinking about bamboo. Although bamboo was mostly found in the south and not very common in the north, it wasn’t a difficult task for Xue Yongtong to find a few bamboo plants and he readily agreed to do so.

In less than two days, Xue Yongtong found the moso bamboo that Lu Lingxi wanted. He deliberately chose a five-year old healthy bamboo and planned to transplant the whole thing to the plant nursery of Tiny Garden. When they received Xue Yongtong’s call, Yan Yue and An Jie were accompanying Ye Kang outside to look for a suitable apartment. Ye Kang stayed at Ye Cheng’s house for two days. The first day Erha was able to restrain his nature and act innocent and well-behaved, but by the second day only Erha turned Ye Cheng’s house into a demolition site.

Even now Ye Kang didn’t dare to recall Ye Cheng’s expression when he saw the scene at home. He only felt a chill down his back, and Ye Cheng’s face was so gloomy it could scare people to death. Erha probably knew that he was in trouble, so he hid in the bathroom and refused to come out. After Ye Kang finished cleaning up the house, he wanted to go to the bathroom, but he had to go through Ye Cheng’s bedroom and was stabbed countless times by Ye Cheng’s eye knives. Ye Cheng endured for the whole night with supreme fortitude, and the next morning he packed Ye Kang and Erha and kicked them out.

Ye Kang was quite gloating when he talked about the incident, and he even made it a point to show Yan Yue and An Jie the photos he took at the scene. Anyone familiar with Ye Cheng knew that apart from being vindictive, he also had a slight obsession with cleanliness. Thinking about the tragedy of the demolition site, it was incredible that he could hold back and didn’t kick Ye Kang and Erha out immediately.

“How about this apartment?” Yan Yue asked Ye Kang.

Ye Kang circled around and touched Erha who was following him, “What do you think, Erha?”

Erha looked at Ye Kang with big, innocent eyes, and Ye Kang shook his finger at him in amusement, “You’re just pretending.” He chose to live in an apartment also because it was a place where he could keep his dog and there was someone to clean up after him no matter how much Erha tossed and turned; Ye Kang just had to pay for it.

“Okay, this is it. Next door is An Jie’s apartment and Erha will have an extra place to play.”

The corners of An Jie’s mouth twitched slightly as he heard that. He didn’t really want the place where he lived to become the place where Erha played, as Ye Kang put it.

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As they were laughing and joking, Yan Yue received a call from Xue Yongtong. On the phone, Xue Yongtong talked about how he had already transplanted the bamboo to the plant nursery and asked when they would go to see it.

“So fast!”

Xue Yongtong laughed, “Naturally Xiao Xi’s affairs are top priority.”

After hanging up the phone, Yan Yue planned to pick up Lu Lingxi and go to the plant nursery with him to have a look, so that they could stay there at night. Before he had the chance to speak to Lu Lingxi, Ye Kang excitedly decided to go with him. Yan Yue had no choice but to bring An Jie with him as well to join the fun.

As they had to rush back to the city in the evening, they left after lunch and it wasn’t yet two o’clock when they arrived at the plant nursery. Compared to downtown Fengcheng City, the change in the environment of Lingshui Village was more obvious. The first thing Ye Kang saw before he even entered the village was the large willow tree growing at the entrance to the village. Seen from the road, the big willow tree was towering and majestic, its branches flourishing, its dense wickers hanging down like thousands of green ribbons fluttering in the wind.

Ye Kang was taken aback. When he came to the plant nursery last year, the big willow tree wasn’t so tall. In just over half a year, the big willow tree seemed to have risen by two or three metres.

“I remember you saying that this willow tree was struck by lightning once?”

“Yes?”

Ye Kang joked, “I suspect that it was struck by lightning as a tribulation.”

Yan Yue glanced at him speechlessly, and Ye Kang laughed.

Ye Kang was obviously more interested in the big willow tree than the newly transplanted bamboo. As soon as he got out of the car, he called Erha and wanted to go and have a look at the big willow tree. An Jie had been to Lingshui Village quite a few times and wasn’t as sensitive to the changes in the big willow tree as Ye Kang was; he was just intrigued by what Ye Kang said and followed along to the vicinity of the big willow tree.

Both of them knew the way, and there was no need to worry about them getting lost. Yan Yue confidently left them behind and went with Lu Lingxi to look at the few moso bamboos that had been transplanted. Moso bamboo does not require much soil, as long as it is fertile, moist and has good drainage and breathability. The soil in the Tiny Garden plant nursery had been purified and met almost all the requirements for the growth of moso bamboo.

When the two went over, Uncle Li was looking curiously at the few lone bamboos. This southern plant, Uncle Li had still seen once in the Fengcheng Botanical Garden a few years ago. He asked Lu Lingxi with a smile, “Does Xiao Xi want to eat bamboo shoots?” Otherwise he couldn’t think of a reason why Lu Lingxi would transplant so many bamboos.

Lu Lingxi blushed a little at this, and wondered which would sound more funny, the real reason or his desire to eat bamboo shoots. Uncle Li saw that he didn’t speak and thought that he had guessed Lu Lingxi’s mind. The child was thin-skinned; Uncle Li smiled and didn’t continue asking.

Uncle Li watched for a while and then went to work. Lu Lingxi clicked on the white panel and the information on moso bamboo appeared on it.

Plant name: Moso bamboo

Plant needs: none

Plant vitality: high

Generally, newly transplanted plants needed a process of adaptation, and the vitality level of moso bamboo indicated that it was clearly very well adapted to the environment here. Lu Lingxi looked at the panel and considered what to do next. According to his experience, the panel would show when the current state of the plant fulfilled the conditions for evolution, and since the moso bamboo clearly didn’t meet the conditions for evolution at the moment, he could only consume 5 points of the power of nature to induce it to evolve. The problem was that the last time the donglingcao had evolved he had done it accidentally, and he couldn’t find any hint on the panel how he could choose the bamboo to evolve.

As this thought flashed, the panel displayed a line of green text.

After receiving the host’s spiritual instructions, consume five points of the power of nature to start evolution?

Lu Lingxi was startled but decisively chose yes.

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