Chapter 986 Pale
The surveillance footage showed several people wearing baseball caps driving a vehicle with the words "Modern Agriculture Association" printed on it. Before leaving, they left a note saying, "Freak that violates scientific laws should be eradicated."
Liang Lu's hand holding the note trembled slightly: "My father's old subordinates, they are still..." Before she finished speaking, the little fox suddenly jumped out of the haystack, its tail pointing to the sky. Dark clouds had covered the manor without knowing when, and a bolt of lightning struck the old locust tree in the distance, and the prayer pattern on the trunk that had been dormant for many years actually emitted a dazzling golden light.
"The ground veins are warning us." The little fox's voice had a metallic tremor, "Humanity's definition of 'correct' is cutting the pulse of nature." Qi Tongwei looked at the destroyed test field and found that under the remains of those seemingly "failed" mushrooms, there were actually strains of fungi that he had never seen before. Their caps showed scripture-like patterns, and they shone with a warm luster in the rain.
After this incident, doubts came flooding in. Agricultural experts wrote articles in academic journals criticizing "sonic planting is unscientific", environmental organizations accused "moonlight rice of consuming ecological energy", and even some elderly people in the village began to waver: "Tongwei, are we really too unorthodox?"
In the study room late at night, Qi Tongwei flipped through the account book soaked by rain. Under the flickering candlelight, a few lines of small words appeared next to the data with smiley faces: "Tomato sweetness is 18.7, 3 degrees higher than conventional planting; rice disease resistance rate increased by 60%..." His eyes stayed on the last page, where a yellowed photo was posted - the scene of the fungus disaster years ago, in the devastation, a wild chrysanthemum was blooming tenaciously.
"Do your best and leave the rest to fate." Qi Tongwei muttered to himself as he wrote these six words on the cover of the account book with a brush. Before the ink had dried, a sudden downpour began outside the window. He rushed out the door and saw Liang Lu trying to rescue the tea trees that had been blown down by the wind in the rain. The roots of these tea trees that coexist with earthworms revealed a strange spiral structure under the heavy rain, just like the fingerprints of the earth.
The turning point came with an unexpected visit from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The chief expert held the soil sample under the microscope, his voice trembling with excitement: "Do you know what this means? The microbial community produced by these symbiotic systems is twenty times more active than ordinary soil!" He pointed to the roots of the tea trees, "Look at these mycelium networks, they are simply natural intelligent fertilizer delivery systems!"
After the news spread, the manor welcomed all kinds of visitors. There were scientific research teams with doubts, young farmers eager to learn, and even representatives of multinational agricultural companies. Qi Tongwei never defended himself, but took them into the fields to show them how tomatoes that listened to Buddhist scriptures stood firm in the rainstorm, how rice that absorbed moonlight headed in saline-alkali land, and how tea trees that coexisted with earthworms produced tea soup with the fragrance of soil.
On a full-moon night, the little fox told stories to the children as usual. This time, it opened the "Qimin Yaoshu" and talked about the wisdom of ancient farmers: "You see, 'follow the weather and measure the advantages of the land, then you will use less effort and achieve more success'. This is not superstition, but respect for the laws of nature." When the story reached its climax, the old locust tree really dropped fluorescent leaves, one of which floated into the hands of an agricultural engineer from Silicon Valley.
"This... this is biological fluorescent protein!" the engineer exclaimed, "Our laboratory has been researching this technology for ten years but has not been able to solve it. It turns out that it is hidden in nature!" Qi Tongwei smiled and said nothing, looking at Liang Lu who was tuning the radio channel for the tomato vines in the distance. Her white dress was still covered with mud, but the night-scented mushroom pinned between her hair was emitting a warm glow.
The manor has gradually expanded in size, but it has always maintained its original appearance. There are no tall walls, only fences woven with vines; there are no roaring machines, only old cows pulling wooden plows to turn the soil. Whenever the mountain breeze blows, the richness of compost, the sweetness of crops and the fragrance of soil interweave to form a unique rhythm of life.
One day, when Qi Tongwei was sorting out old things, he found the sewing box left by his mother. There was a note on the bottom of the box: "Being a person is like farming, don't always think of taking shortcuts." He suddenly burst into tears - it turns out that the most profound philosophy of life has long been hidden in ordinary daily life.
Today, the manor has become a bridge between tradition and modernity. Young people are studying the scientific codes of ancient farming here, while the elderly are rediscovering the magic of the land. The little fox still appears late at night, but its audience includes more doctors holding notebooks and internet celebrities holding mobile phones to broadcast live.
The mountain wind started to blow again, bringing with it the smell of freshly turned soil. Qi Tongwei stood at the highest point of the manor, looking at the old locust tree in the distance and the lights of the monitoring station echoing each other.
The mountain breeze on the eve of the Ghost Festival carried the smell of damp humus soil. Qi Tongwei stood at the highest point of the manor, watching the old locust tree stretch its branches in the night fog. The lights of the monitoring station in the distance flickered, like candlelight controlled by an invisible hand. He turned around and prepared to go back to the house, but caught a glimpse of a white shadow flashing in the moonlight - the white shadow floated along the ridge of the terraced field towards the old locust tree, and where the skirt passed by, the rice that had just emerged was actually frosted.
"Uncle Qi!" Chen Xiaolong's voice was tearful in the intercom, "The patrol system captured... captured two women! One in white, one in red, right over at the mushroom greenhouse!" Qi Tongwei grabbed a flashlight and rushed out the door. The sound of his shoes crushing fallen leaves was particularly clear in the silent night. When he turned the corner, he suddenly saw two figures floating in the air half a meter above the ground. The woman in white was as pale as paper, while the woman in red had a strange smile on her lips.
"Don't come over here!" The red-dressed woman's voice seemed to come from deep in her chest, with a long tremor at the end. She raised her hand and waved it, and the plastic film of the greenhouse instantly cracked into spider-web-like patterns. The night-scented mushrooms growing inside expanded wildly, and a distorted human face appeared on the mushroom cap. The white-dressed woman stretched out her finger like a dead branch and pointed behind Qi Tongwei - in the moonlight, his shadow was separated from his body and twisted into a strange totem on the ground.
The alarm ripped through the night sky, and the screens of the monitoring stations all lit up with dazzling red light. The little fox appeared on Qi Tongwei's shoulder at some point, with its hair standing up like steel needles: "It's a ground-bound spirit! The gates of hell are open during the Zhongyuan Festival, and the resentment of the polluted land has taken the opportunity to materialize!" Its claws drew a golden spell in the air, but it dissipated into green smoke the moment it touched the woman in red.
When Liang Lu and the villagers arrived, they saw Qi Tongwei being pinned against the old locust tree by an invisible force. The long hair of the woman in white was wrapped around his neck, and the woman in red was playing with the account book in his pocket, the yellowed pages turning into ashes under her fingertips. "You took away our shelter!" The woman in red screamed, and the tragic scene of the fungus disaster 20 years ago suddenly appeared behind her, with countless pale arms stretching out from the pile of rotten mushrooms.