Chapter 63 Several Twists and Turns

  The New Year was spent in joy and laughter, with several days of toasting and celebration. After the third day of the first month, Ou Yang Qing couldn't wait any longer and proactively called the florist, who promptly sent over some flower varieties such as lilies, peonies, honeysuckle, and peonies. Having obtained the flowers, Ou Yang Qing bid farewell to Lan Jingqiu and Huo Jucai on the eighth day and returned to his humble village dormitory.

  After the New Year, the climate in Cherry Blossom Village has warmed up. Although it occasionally rains lightly, the village is refreshed as if washed by water. In the mountains and fields, the fine grass has already sprouted, and from a distance, it seems to have formed a green landscape. Peach blossoms and pear blossoms are beginning to adorn the village's spring scenery. The village, which was as quiet as death in winter, is now full of vitality. Villagers have put away the smiles they wore on their faces during the New Year celebrations, and they walk out of their homes, carrying traditional labor tools that seem primitive, into their own fields. They are busy with preparations for next year's livelihood.

  Ouyang Qing also started to get busy, he once again freshly turned over the spring mud, carefully sowing the flower seeds that he treasured as precious jewels into the ground. This time, in order to be safe, he only sowed one-third of the seeds given by the flower merchant, fearing someone would cause trouble again.

  However, as soon as he saw him busy in the field again, some people secretly made plans, and others wandered around the flower bed from time to time, seemingly waiting for an opportunity to take action.

  All of this was seen by Ouyang Qing, who felt helpless in his heart and couldn't think of a good way to protect his flower bed from being destroyed.

  Suddenly, he thought of a perfect solution, one that no one would have ever thought of.

  One night, two drunken villagers passed by the flower bed. One of them was about to rush into the flower bed and cause damage when he felt a cool breeze on his back. He seemed to think that someone had flashed past him from behind, but when he turned around, there was nothing.

  He thought it was just a drunken illusion, so he didn't take it seriously and continued to creep towards the flowerbed.

  He hadn't walked two steps when he felt someone's shadow flash by in front of him. This time, he saw clearly that it wasn't an illusion, but a very unfamiliar stranger.

  "Who are you?" The villager asked with his dazed eyes.

  The other party did not respond.

  The villagers looked again, and the stranger's shadow went to the village office, but it didn't walk, its feet didn't touch the ground, its hair was disheveled, its limbs were stiff and vertical, it floated over the village office, and rushed into the mountain forest behind. At the same time, a mournful and chilling cry that made the listener's hair stand on end was heard, crying and shouting "Return my life to me, return my life to me", the voice was desolate, echoing in the mountains, making the whole village shrouded in a layer of terrifying ghostly atmosphere.

  "Ghost!" - The two villagers heard the voice and cried out in fright, rolling and crawling as they ran back to the village.

  The next day, the villagers began to discuss it, saying that the village office was haunted. The slightly older elderly people suddenly remembered and said that the village office was built on a tomb site, and before the construction of the village office, a woman had been killed in the tomb site with a very difficult-to-look-at death appearance, and until now the murderer has not been found.

  The news of the haunted village office spread like wildfire, and the village office was suddenly shrouded in an eerie atmosphere. Even during the day, people couldn't help but sneak a glance at the village office as they passed by, and what they saw wasn't a building, but rather a gloomy tomb. As a result, no one dared to approach the village office at night. The village chief also instructed the villagers not to let Ouyang Qing know about the haunting, fearing that if she found out, she would refuse to live there, which might bring more trouble for him. He didn't want a young woman who didn't work to freeload off of him.

  In this way, Ouyang Qing's flowerbed will no longer be destroyed.

  Day by day, Ouyang Qing also guarded his flower bed every day. A month later, the seeds he sowed sprouted, and a cluster of tender seedlings swayed in the wind, making Ouyang Qing delighted.

  More than a month passed like this, and his beloved flower finally bloomed, with each blossom competing in beauty.

  He became more careful, staying in the flower bed every day, staring foolishly at the blooming flowers with excitement, and even if he didn't eat or drink, he had to protect the flowers from being destroyed again.

  To appreciate his flowers, to get the village chief's approval for his idea of leading villagers to prosperity, he went to the village chief's house early that day and seriously expressed his thoughts. He sincerely invited the village chief to come and admire his labor achievements. The old village chief reluctantly agreed to go to the village office at noon to see Ouyang Qing's masterpiece out of respect for the cadre. Seeing the village chief's reluctant agreement, Ouyang Qing waited until noon at the village chief's house. When the old village chief returned from working in the mountains and had lunch, he saw the devoted cadre still waiting at his house. Although he was extremely unwilling, he went with Ouyang Qing to the village office.

  Ouyang Qing directly took him to the flower bed, excitedly just about to point out his own flowers to the veteran old village chief one by one, but unexpectedly, when he looked at the flower bed, he found that it was in a mess, with footprints all over the place trampling his beloved flowers, and many lilies that were still fresh and beautiful in the morning were broken and gone, leaving a trail of destruction everywhere.

  Seeing this scene, he was heartbroken and ran to the flower bed to pick up the broken branches of flowers and burst into tears.

  He didn't know who had ruined the flowerbed, looked up and glanced around, except for a group of children's laughter behind the village public house on the mountain, he couldn't see anyone suspicious who deliberately destroyed his flowerbed.

  He ran towards the back mountain, following the sound to find a group of laughing children. These children were herding cattle in the back mountain, and most of them were little girls. They had several sprigs of fresh lilies inserted into their hair, looking very festive. Among them, one little girl was dressed as a bride, with all sorts of flowers inserted into her hair, including lilies, peonies, paeonias, and cockscomb flowers. Her entire small head was wrapped in fresh flowers. The other children also had flowers inserted into their hair, and they were playing very happily.

  "Where did you pick it?" Ouyang Qing was very angry, but facing such an ignorant and innocent child, he helplessly sighed and said, "Really beautiful!"

  The little girl dressed as a bride saw the official and asked, "Are you going to take us away?" The other children were also frightened and huddled together on the ground, not daring to say a word.

  Ouyang Qing glanced at this group of children, sighed, and turned back to the village office in silence.

  "I've seen it," said the village head, puffing on his cigarette. "It's quite nice, this flower is really beautiful, but what's the use of it?"

  Ouyang Qing awkwardly shrugged his shoulders, the old village chief saw that he was no longer speaking, nodded and turned to leave, and as he turned around, the old village chief secretly smiled, his two thick lips parted, revealing teeth like Bao Qingtian's dog-headed guillotine.

  Ouyang Qing sat numbly on the cement steps of the village committee, his eyes fixed on the wilted flower seedlings, feeling heartbroken and pained. Fortunately, he still had some seeds left; if all of them had been planted, then all his hopes would have been lost.

  The next day, he pulled out the damaged seedlings and re-turned the soil, then re-selected seeds to plant according to the current season.

  He takes care of it with the same care, and tends to it with the same meticulousness. Every day before sunrise, he starts his work, weeding, fertilizing, pest control and pruning.

  Two months later, the roses and cockscomb bloomed again, and in front of the village office, it was once again a vibrant scene of a hundred flowers competing in beauty. And his face, once again wore a joyful expression.

  The flowers have bloomed, and he no longer invites the village elder to come see them. After last time's lesson, he won't leave his beloved flowers for a single step, guarding them in front of the flower bed every day, staring at his flowers with a silly smile.

  The ancients said, success is inevitable, but the road is tortuous.

  That night, he lay in the village dormitory with happiness, and soon fell asleep due to joy. This sleep was supposed to last until dawn, but at midnight, he was still awakened by thunder. A flash of lightning tore through the dark night sky, a burst of thunder rumbled like giant rocks rolling across the sky, he felt the house shaking with the thunder, and the hail pounded against the ground, pounding his shrinking heart - he had already gotten used to treating the borrowed body as his own.

  When the hail came, all his efforts were in vain again.

  He got out of bed and stood in front of the window, watching as lightning illuminated the earth, listening to the thunder god's roar, imagining that the seedlings in his flowerbed were struggling and wailing in the hail, and he was powerless.

  The next day, the old village chief and the village director came. This time it was not Ou Yangqing who personally invited them, but they came on their own initiative, bringing sincere words of comfort and a secretly joyful attitude.

  "Ah, it's all over," the old village chief pretended to sigh, looking at the petals scattered all over the ground with a mixture of sympathy and schadenfreude. "I heard the thunder in the middle of the night and thought I'd come to inform you, but...you know, how can humans compete with heaven? Don't worry, I think you'll succeed one year or another, if not this year then next, if not next year then in ten years, you have all the time in the world, unlike me, an old man in his fifties, who might just go to bed tonight and never wake up again tomorrow morning, so we can only take things as they come."

  "What you said is right," Ouyang Qing said, "but I think it won't take that long, this year I will definitely succeed, just wait and see me get a lot of money from selling flowers."

  "Is that so?" said the village head, "Congratulations to you, but...you didn't make a lot of money, yet you spent a lot of time."

  Ouyang Qing realized they were mocking him, but he didn't get angry. He told himself not to be angry either, because getting angry at the words of two ignorant people would make oneself even more ignorant.

  But in his heart, he was secretly calculating that he would not give up, he would persevere, he would work hard, and he wanted to make this Cherry Blossom Village a truly famous flower village within three years.

  After the village director and old village chief left with a satisfied smile, Ouyang Qing took action again. He planted all the golden and silver flowers given by the flower merchant, putting all his hopes on them. As for those fresh flowers that had been trampled by little girls and washed by hail but still looked spirited, he transported them to the city alone to sell. To prove that he hadn't made a wrong choice, he asked the village chief to use his horse carriage to transport the flowers to the city on a day when the chief was free. The price was 50 yuan and a bowl of mutton noodles, which had to be a large bowl, as small bowls wouldn't be enough for the old chief.

  As they approached the outskirts of the city, the tall buildings of the county town stood before them. The old village chief refused to enter the city, saying that his horse carriage was too dirty and he didn't want to pollute the clean and beautiful city. Unable to persuade him otherwise, Ouyang Qing had the village chief's horse carriage stop at the outskirts while he himself entered the city alone. His first stop in the city was a flower shop, as he believed they would definitely buy his flowers. He had always trusted his own judgment and exceptional wisdom.

  Fortunately, the estimate was correct, and a flower shop heard that he had beautiful flowers, so they agreed to come and buy them.

  The flower shop owner followed him to the outskirts and saw a horse cart full of beautiful flowers, immediately became excited and said: "I want them all, I'll give you 3,000 yuan for this car of fresh flowers. If you have more, you can bring it again, even if I don't want it, I can introduce several flower shop owners to help you get to know each other, and then we will specifically order flowers from you."

  "Three thousand yuan," the village chief's eyes rolled around, filled with envy and resentment as he stared at the yellow bills in Ouyang Qing's hand - it was human nature to have a selfish side, and as long as it belonged to someone else, but was something they themselves liked, they couldn't help but wish it would somehow magically become their own.

  When he saw the money, the village chief's eyes moved slightly.