Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn

Chapter 883: Chapter 29: Galloping Without Reins at the Cliff’s Edge

~Happy New Year~

"Is this considered an abandoned farm?" Xiao Xian discovered that working with Locke had its perks, as she didn’t have to follow the usual nine-to-five routine for exchange students at the research center.

Locke’s research center was mostly computerized, with a dedicated drip irrigation system that sprayed water once a day. As for pruning, thanks to Xiao Xian’s diligent major cleaning, the plants at the research center wouldn’t need much maintenance for a while.

Now, both of their work focuses were on that hive of bees. Locke even assured her with a pat on his chest that if Xiao Xian could find any signs, he would certainly give her the highest rating in the final personal assessment. For someone like Locke, such a promise was quite rare.

The suggestion to take the bee box directly to Mr. Hu’s farm was proposed by Xiao Xian.

Although Locke didn’t quite agree, that one hive of queen bees hadn’t produced suitable honey on schedule, it was still the only successfully cultivated box of bees he had.

Xiao Xian’s impression of the farm still lingered on the concept of Yanqing Farm.

She remembered that when she first arrived in Yanqing, the scene of wild grass everywhere and sheep jumping around chasing people. Zhuo Feng and his wife spent more than a month tidying up the weeds and repairing the broken fences outside the farm.

Locke had also mentioned that after this farm was burned, due to traffic and land prices, the original owner had abandoned it nearly two years ago. Most farms in China maintained the image of old-style farms with rough wood and dirt paths. Although the construction of new rural areas in recent years had shown some results, even a tidied-up farm in China could not compare to Locke’s so-called abandoned farm.

The farm was built alongside a raised patch of low grass mounds, and the only concrete-painted building was a Mediterranean-style white bungalow. Mixed among the staggered flowering shrubs, it appeared quaint and distinctive. There were no fences acting as barriers around it, allowing the house to blend well with the environment.

This season was a transition between spring and summer, the period when flowers bloom most brilliantly. On the ground, there was a carpet of yellow daffodils, while unnamed purple flowers bloomed within the shrubs.

Higher up were pink magnolias the size of a bowl’s mouth, their pastel color emitting a refreshing floral scent that lingered in the air.

From low to middle to high, three different colors and types of flowers, like excellent dancers, eagerly presented a visual feast for Xiao Xian’s eyes.

The so-called abandonment simply meant no one lived there. After all, plants, unlike humans, could thrive with lush greenness even without care for a period.

"The environment here is quite nice, why is no one living here?" Xiao Xian couldn’t understand, as in the country, places like this couldn’t be found even if one wanted to.

"It’s not that no one lives here, it’s just that this area is close to the bay," Locke pointed behind, indicating that beyond the hill, half a kilometer ahead, was a natural bay.

"During the day you might not notice, but at night, especially in winter, the reverse sound of the bay’s wind is very loud, making it nearly impossible to sleep in the house. Only an elderly person like Mr. Hu wouldn’t be too affected by it. Furthermore, this side of the house facing the sunrise, due to the influence of the sea wind and sunlight, tends to rot easily. So, little girl, you can’t just look at the surface of things," Locke said meaningfully. When Hu Song bought this place, the Hu Family opposed it entirely, but the elderly man’s stubbornness came through, and he insisted on buying it with his own money, leaving his children with nothing much to say.

Xiao Xian walked to the back of the house, and indeed, just as Hu Song said, the front area was still grass covering the ground, flowers clustered together, but once you reached the back, it gradually turned into sparse mud and stones, or even entirely abandoned tidal flats.

"Actually, there’s no need to specifically look at it. Honestly, I’ve also once let bees roam in this area, and the honey produced here was even worse than the honey cultivated in the research center," Locke specialized in research, and he had experimented with every usable method and possible places, so he didn’t expect much from Xiao Xian’s move here.

"Let’s release the bees first," Xiao Xian walked onto that dense floral grassland and opened the bee box.

The queen bees flew out, perhaps due to the unfamiliar environment, they didn’t scatter but hovered around Xiao Xian.