Chapter 1: Strange Phenomena in the Underworld

  On the way back to the village, the village chief remained silent, thinking about the 3,000 yuan in Ouyang Qing's pocket. He was secretly calculating: every household in their village worked hard all year round, and the pure income from selling crops could not exceed 3,000 yuan, while Ouyang Qing easily earned several thousand dollars. Could growing flowers really make money?

  He was somewhat skeptical, but also began to believe that what Ouyang Qing said earlier was not false. The ancestors of the Cherry Blossom Village had been struggling with the problem of warmth and hunger in the fields for generations, but in the end, they still couldn't solve it. Thinking about it now, it's really pitiful. Now that Ouyang Qing has come to their village, could he really be here to help them?

  The old village chief was deep in thought!

  "Can planting flowers really make money?" He thought for a long time, and finally stammered to Ouyang Qing, his eyes fixed on Ouyang Qing, his eyes filled with doubt and expectation.

  "Yes," Ouyang Qing smiled and took out 500 yuan from his pocket and handed it over, then said, "You've had a hard time today, no matter what, I still have to give you the fare."

  The village chief flashed out his hand, and with a "Empty Hand Snatches White Blade" technique, he snatched the money at an arrow-like speed. The wrinkles on his face were rearranged into a chrysanthemum due to his very unnatural smile. He then said a few words of gratitude, and afterwards said: "I thought flowers were just for looking at, I didn't know they could be sold too. When I go back, I'll also grow flowers like you, but can you help me?"

  "Of course, it's okay," said Ouyang Qing. "I can find you some gold and silver flower seeds. You take them back to plant, and next year when the flowers bloom again, you can harvest the seeds and sell them for a good price. Actually, the climate in Cherry Blossom Village is not bad, and the environment is quiet and peaceful. It's just that because of the traffic congestion and people's backward thinking, it's hard to get rich here. If we plant economic crops, people will have money, and everyone can pool their resources to fix the road. Who knows, maybe we can even develop some tourism projects, and everyone can do business instead of having to work so hard under the scorching sun every day."

  "I also hope our village can become rich, but we've read few books and don't understand anything. What else can we do besides farming? I still hope you, a cadre from the city, will guide us in the future." The village chief now believed Ou Yangqing, this change was of course due to the face given by those three thousand yuan.

  Ouyang Qing nodded, looking at the old village chief, seeing the old village chief's excited appearance, he also became happy.

  Sitting at the back of the carriage, he looked far away. The muddy road to Cherry Blossom Village, which was slightly wider than a goat's intestine, had green mountains on both sides, with green trees shading the top and streams gurgling below. Birds flew freely in the sky, and white clouds floated in the clear blue sky, making the space between heaven and earth even more vast.

  In the mountains, quiet and beautiful!

  A horse-drawn carriage was moving slowly on the muddy road, jolting and swaying, with two people sitting inside discussing various ways to get rich, before they knew it, they had arrived at the village.

  Back at the village office, Ouyang Qing immediately called the florist and asked him to send more seeds. The florist readily agreed and said that the seeds would arrive in two days.

  After waiting patiently for two days, Ouyang Qing finally received the arrival of Huā Zǐ, and he came to the village chief's house with excitement and good imagination.

  They started working immediately. The two of them turned over the soil in a small plot behind the village chief's house, then watered it, weeded it, and finally planted flower seeds.

  After being busy for several days, he finally planted the flower seeds. All that was left was for Old Village Chief to wait anxiously. Ouyang Qing returned to his simple dormitory, leaving Old Village Chief to water every day and stand still beside the flowerbed, hoping that the seeds would sprout as soon as possible. He watered with great care, but also had an impatient mood, he even had the urge to dig up the buried seeds from the ground and water them directly on the spot so that they could germinate and bloom immediately.

  Daybreak and sunset, several rounds of wind and rain, after a few difficult months, the flower seeds planted by the old village chief saw hope, green seedlings swaying in the wind, growing on the smiling, weathered face of the old village chief.

  The villagers of Cherry Blossom Village were shocked to hear that the old village chief was doing something "treasonous" under Ou Yangqing's "seduction". They couldn't understand how a kind and honest old village chief who had led them to wear out several hoes could be so unscrupulous. Thinking about it, this is a terrible thing. So, these poor villagers were worried that Ou Yangqing would bring disaster to their village like a plague, and they all cursed the official from the city to die a bad death, scolding Ou Yangqing as a great evil person.

  Apart from cursing Ouyang Qing, the kind-hearted villagers were more worried about the old village chief being "bewitched". Everyone ran to the front of the village chief's flower garden, looking at the flowers and grasses that had grown in the ground, discussing them with seven mouths and eight tongues, their expressions extremely painful, as if what they saw was not flowers and grasses, but a demon that could destroy the entire village. Some even shook their heads regretfully, as if lamenting that the village chief had already gone mad and was beyond salvation.

  Faced with people's painful expressions, the old village chief did not get angry, and when he heard everyone's dissuasion, he just smiled it off.

  Seeing the village chief's radiant smile, they changed from regret and disappointment to anger, and were even more convinced that the village chief had gone mad. Even the village chief's partner was quarreling about divorce. Some suggested destroying the village chief's flower bed immediately, while others shouted to "fix" Ouyang Qing for a while, and even said they would drive Ouyang Qing out of Cherry Blossom Village.

  Perhaps Ou Yang Qing was after all a government official, and the villagers who shouted for his capture were just spouting nonsense. If they really went to find him, no one dared. In this chaotic situation, the old village chief stood up and casually stopped it, but this does not mean that they accepted the old village chief's "treasonous" behavior.

  The villagers, unable to save the old village chief and also unable to destroy the village chief's flower garden, all sighed endlessly, finally carrying painful expressions each returned home, continuing their diligent labor under the scorching sun and pouring rain.

  After several months, the village chief's honeysuckle finally had a harvest. He called Ou Yangqing to discuss how to deal with these honeysuckles. Ou Yangqing told him that he could help sell them to the medicine merchant. The village chief was overjoyed and kept saying words of gratitude.

  This time, the gold and silver flowers were not many, but the old village chief still received 5,000 yuan from the medicine merchant. Looking at the money in his hand, the old village chief took a long time to react, his whole body trembling slightly, his eyes moistening almost to tears, his trembling hands stroking this thick stack of banknotes, and he simply regarded Ouyang Qing as his reborn parents.

  When the old village chief handed over the five thousand yuan to his partner, he looked as solemn and cautious as an emperor handing over a scepter to a minister. His partner, the old woman who had been quarreling with him about growing flowers and wanting a divorce, stretched out both hands, respectfully receiving the "scepter", her face twitching, stunned, and excited to the point of almost bursting into tears. Honestly, they had never thought that one day they would see so much money.

  She held the money in both hands, foolishly reluctant to let go of it for a long time, as if she was tired, only then did she put the money in a secret compartment in her closet, which was usually empty, although it was called a closet, there were no clothes inside.

  She put away the money, closed the wardrobe door and locked it with a key. This time, she unexpectedly added five more locks to the wardrobe.

  The next day, the short but stout village head's wife was showing off everywhere in the village early in the morning, telling everyone she met that she had become a rich person, and when speaking, her head was also held high, making people who listened to her have to look up at her.

  She and several women who loved to gossip about others sat under the tree, doing their needlework while chatting. To attract attention, she first let out a long sigh, "Hiss, lah, tu" three times, followed by spitting out a mouthful of phlegm, then shouted loudly: "Really can't believe it, flowers can actually be sold for money."

  "My goodness!" An old woman with a wrinkled, dark-skinned face heard the village head's wife say this and let out a sharp cry, as if she had been bitten by a village dog on her calf. The people present were frightened, their bodies trembling, and they stared at her in confusion. She shook her head and said, "We thought it was pitiful enough that Old Village Head was possessed by a ghost, but we didn't expect you to be infected too, you old hag."

  "Yes, ah," another old woman said, "it's really unfortunate. I think the culprit is that Ou Yangqing. If it weren't for him, the village chief's family wouldn't have ended up so tragically. We must report this to the government."

  "That's right!" Several people echoed, "It must be done."

  "Also," someone seemed to have thought of something, and was seen with a thoughtful expression saying, "We will drive Ou Yangqing out of Cherry Blossom Village. If he doesn't leave, we'll call the police to catch him."

  "What you said is right!" someone else said. "To be honest, I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but no one has helped me out, so I haven't been able to teach him a lesson."

  "This time we must unite and eliminate the scourge of the people! Get rid of this evil that harms the country and its people!" The crowd roared in unison.

  The matter was settled, and everyone went home. Each woman reported back to her husband, demanding that he stand up for justice like the heroic Xiaofeng they had seen on TV recently, a man with great courage and charisma.

  The men who heard the suggestion rushed to the town government gate the next day, loudly complaining to the mayor about Ouyang Qing's various "crimes", demanding that the mayor remove this great harm and restore peace to the villagers.

  Fortunately, the town head was not present. A government official listened to everyone's noise and nodded in agreement, vowing to eliminate harm for the people, but when and how to take action were not indicated.

  The villagers were very dissatisfied with the official's response and reluctantly left, from then on they were filled with worry.

  The old village chief, since he had benefited from that one good deed, was now obedient to Ouyang Qing's every word. He asked Ouyang Qing to give him different types of flowers again, hoping to sell them for more money next year. Every day, he would go to the village office to find Ouyang Qing, and the two of them would play around the village together, while also learning about the soil quality in the village. Ouyang Qing planned to plant flowers and grass throughout the entire village, changing the traditional farming practices of the countryside.

  The old village chief told the village director about this matter, and the village director made up his mind to try planting some peonies and cockscomb flowers after seeing the 5,000 yuan in the old village chief's hand, despite this decision also being opposed by his family.

  In the winter, the idle village director, under the guidance of the old village chief and Ouyang Qing, planted some flowers and grasses suitable for winter in their own fields. When spring arrived, these winter-planted flowers and grasses grew out, and everyone was delighted to watch them chat, with a smile on every face.

  This move also caused a stir among the villagers, and everyone gathered together again like an international summit, with solemn expressions as if the end of the world was approaching. As soon as they met, they sighed and whispered to each other. However, although they felt that the situation was getting more and more serious, they were no longer impulsive like last time. Everyone agreed that they should wait and see how things developed.

  After a wait, a winter had passed in people's fireplaces, and they welcomed the new spring, welcomed a new year, although the village head and the village director still looked dazed in their flower seedlings.