Yan Yue found time to meet Xiao Feng the next day. The two of them met at Qiu Tian Gardening’s plant nursery.
Qiu Tian Gardening’s plant nursery was similar in size to Luxuan Gardening’s, with a continuous landscape with boundaries that couldn’t be seen. Xiao Feng arrived a step early and leaned against the green pickup truck while waiting for Yan Yue, habitually lighting a cigarette. Xiao Feng had heard of the name of Qiu Tian before. Qiu Tian had been the number one horticulturalist in Fengcheng, and one on the top of the list of wealthy people in Fengcheng, who ended up badly after the sky turned upside down overnight.
Xiao Feng felt a bit emotional. He had never been afraid of retribution before; if he earned money from a black-hearted business, he deserved to die a bad death. But after a few days of leisure and a few meals with Wang Shuxiu, he started to get scared when he saw that a good life was waiting for him. He thought of his elder brother in the northwest, who had been even more ruthless in his fierce days than he was. But when his brother met his wife, Xiao Feng’s sister-in-law, he was able to become a good man, a virtuous man and a law-abiding man, and almost became a bodhisattva. Xiao Feng didn’t understand it before, but now he probably understood his elder brother’s mentality.
Xiao Feng saw Yan Yue’s car before he finished thinking these thoughts. He narrowed his eyes slightly, put out his cigarette and stood up straight, waiting for Yan Yue to come over. This was not the first time the two had worked together. Last time, they had cooperated to trap Lu Yishui, and this time they worked together to take down Qiu Tian Gardening. While Xiao Feng was happy to work with Yan Yue, he was also vaguely wary of this man. The other party was much more ruthless than Xiao Feng had been at his age.
Unlike Wang Shuxiu, as a man, Xiao Feng could see Yan Yue’s intentions towards Lu Lingxi at a glance. He tacitly agreed to pretend he knew nothing, but when he thought of Wang Shuxiu’s temper, he couldn’t help but gloat in his heart.
Yan Yue quickly got out of the car, looked at Xiao Feng and said politely, “Brother Feng.”
Xiao Feng smiled and was equally very polite, “Mr. Yan.”
Their intersection was Lu Lingxi and Wang Shuxiu, and technically they didn’t have much of a friendship in private. Although they might become family in the future, Xiao Feng would not really be foolish enough to put up a show of being an elder in front of Yan Yue, and seeing how decisive Yan Yue had been with Lu Yishui, he was afraid Yan Yue didn’t care much about the so-called elders. After the initial pleasantries, the two men got down to business: the division of Qiu Tian Gardening. As previously agreed, Yan Yue took three quarters of Qiu Tian Gardening and Xiao Feng took the remaining quarter. Specifically, the seedbeds went to Yan Yue and of the plant nursery, half went to either of them.
“What about the mature plants in the plant nursery?” Xiao Feng looked at Yan Yue; this was exactly his dilemma.
After Qiu Jun had transferred Qiu Tian Gardening to Xiao Feng, Xiao Feng sent someone to take a careful inventory of all the plants in the plant nursery and in the seedbeds, and found that there was a large proportion of plants that were about to mature and needed to be sold. In fact, this was the most valuable part of Qiu Tian Gardening. Due to the poisonous flower incident, Qiu Tian Gardening’s reputation in the Fengcheng horticultural market had fallen, and the florists and municipal units it used to work with had cancelled their cooperation, leaving no channel to sell the plants. Apart from Qiu Tian Gardening, Xiao Feng could only think of Tiny Garden. However, the influence of Tiny Garden was too small and he had little confidence in it. If he couldn’t find a suitable channel in the near future, the plants would be left on their hands.
Xiao Feng knew nothing about the gardening market in Fengcheng, so he naturally passed the problem to Yan Yue. Yan Yue was fine with this, he had a plan. With the collapse of Qiu Tian Gardening, a large part of the Fengcheng horticultural market was left empty. Several of Qiu Tian’s competitors began to take over the market. However, unlike other products, flowers and plants take time to grow and cannot be cultivated in a short period of time. At the critical moment, whoever had sufficient supplies would be able to take over the original market share of Qiu Tian Gardening. Yan Yue had already contacted Xue Yongtong and agreed to sell the no-problem plants in Qiu Tian’s plant nursery to Luxuan as a favour to Xue Yongtong.
With these issues resolved, the two looked around and left the plant nursery together. Xiao Feng didn’t ask Yan Yue what he intended to do with the plant nursery, and Yan Yue didn’t ask Xiao Feng about his subsequent arrangements. The two ended this collaboration with a tacit understanding and no one said anything more.
s
Tiny Garden
Lu Lingxi was receiving Su Lang. He hadn’t seen Su Lang for some time, and heard from Grandpa Su that Su Lang had been running around outside all the time. Now it seemed Su Lang’s whole body had really tanned a lot.
Su Lang was looking for Lu Lingxi for something this time. He carefully placed a flower pot in front of Lu Lingxi. In it, there was a half-wilted seedling, looking in a poor state. “Xiao Xi, please take a look at it for me.”
“This is…” Lu Lingxi didn’t know the seedling in the flower pot. His mental scan dispersed and a white panel floated in front of him.
Plant name: Mutated donglingcao
Plant needs: root damage
Plant viability: low
Plant status: primary
“This is a wild donglingcao. Does it look different from ordinary donglingcao?” Su Lang explained next to him.
Lu Lingxi nodded. He had never seen donglingcao but had heard of it. Just by looking at the word “mutated” in the panel prompt, he could probably deduce that this donglingcao was different from the ordinary donglingcao. He remembered that the origin of wild donglingcao was far south of the Taihang Mountains, where the climate was harsher, arid and with little rain, and the soil was very barren. So, Su Lang had made a trip to the Taihang Mountains?
As Lu Lingxi’s thought flashed by, Su Lang was already anxious to ask, “How is it? Will it die?”
Lu Lingxi shook his head. Although the viability of this donglingcao showed to be relatively low, it should be fine. However, he was a little curious as to why Su Lang was so nervous about this plant. As far as Lu Lingxi knew, donglingcao was not a precious plant, and in the eyes of the general public, it was similar to weeds. The only thing that made it special was that in winter, when it was below zero, the plant would condense thin, glittering white cicada-wing-shaped flakes of ice in various forms. They are said to be very beautiful and when the wind blows, they will sway in the wind and glisten in the sun. For this reason, the plant is also known as ice grass. Even if the donglingcao in front of him had mutated, it was still essentially a donglingcao, so Lu Lingxi didn’t understand.
Although he was wondering in his heart, he didn’t talk much, but carefully dug out the roots of the plant, shaking off the soil at the roots of the seedling, and clearly saw that there was a big crack at the roots. Lu Lingxi explained, “This was not handled properly when it was transplanted and the roots were hurt. It will be fine once the roots are nurtured.” He moved skillfully to arrange it, and Su Lang let out an obvious sigh of relief.
“Xiao Xi, thank you so much.” Su Lang said sincerely, “This donglingcao is important to one of our researches, in relation to the clinical treatment of leukaemia. It is not like other donglingcao, and it took a lot of effort to find it. It would be a shame if it died.”
Lu Lingxi pondered that this donglingcao was the first mutated plant he had ever seen and it should indeed be rare. But what he was more concerned about was, “Leukaemia?”
The plant was fine and Su Lang’s mood improved. He said patiently, “Donglingcao may look inconspicuous, but it is actually a very important medicinal plant, and the whole plant can be used as medicine. Rubescensin A can be isolated from donglingcao. Previously, it was thought that this substance only had an inhibition effect on some common cancer cells, but not long ago a study found that it could also selectively kill leukaemia cells and inhibit the activity of leukaemia initiating cells, thus prolonging the survival period of mice carrying leukaemia. We are currently looking for a different donglingcao to study further and want to try to apply the results of this research to clinical treatment.”
Speaking of his line of work, Su Lang couldn’t help but get excited. Lu Lingxi listened attentively and smiled along with Su Lang. His smile was noticed by Yan Yue who had just entered the door and felt quite jealous.
s
“Su Lang.”
Lu Lingxi reacted fastest when he heard the sound, “Big Brother Yan, you’re back?”
Yan Yue met his bright eyes and subconsciously smiled. “What are you talking about?”
Lu Lingxi repeated what Su Lang had said word-by-word. Yan Yue’s gaze fell on the donglingcao as he pondered, “Is the effect so good?”
Su Lang nodded, “The details are still being researched, but from the current experiments with mice the results look very good.”
That was all Yan Yue asked. The two hadn’t seen each other for a while, and the conversation quickly turned to something else. Lu Lingxi couldn’t interject and his attention returned to the donglingcao. If Su Lang didn’t mention it this time, Lu Lingxi was on the verge of forgetting about his past life. Leukaemia, bone marrow transplantation; it would be great if Su Lang and the others could really develop a special drug that could alleviate leukaemia in the early stage. Lu Lingxi thought of plant evolution and his heart suddenly stirred. Su Lang said that the donglingcao could isolate Rubescensin A, so would this substance isolated from the evolved donglingcao be a little more effective? Especially since this plant was a mutated donglingcao. If it evolved, wouldn’t the effect be even more different?
Lu Lingxi’s gaze was burning as he stared at the donglingcao. He didn’t know how long it would take to raise this donglingcao until it was ready to evolve, and looking at Su Lang’s anxious look he probably wouldn’t leave this donglingcao in Tiny Garden for a long time. Lu LIngxi thought about secretly leaving a portion of the plant behind and subconsciously began to study which would be the best place to start.
“What are you looking at?” Yan Yue sent Su Lang away and came over to ask.
Lu Lingxi was startled violently and asked sheepishly, “Where’s Dr. Su?”
Yan Yue’s eyes darkened as he said, “He just left, what are you looking for him for?”
Lu Lingxi sighed with relief and told Yan Yue somewhat embarrassingly what he intended to do. He whispered, “This kind of mutated donglingcao should be very rare, Big Brother Yan, do you think the effect after evolution will be better?”
Yan Yue didn’t expect Lu Lingxi to be holding this thought, and decisively supported him, “We can raise it to try.”
When Yan Yue said it in such a confident manner, Lu Lingxi was surprised and couldn’t help but smile with his eyes curved. He carefully took a small portion of the root buds from the root of the donglingcao and found a pot to plant it in. “But,” Lu Lingxi thought of something and fretted a little, “what should I tell Dr. Su if it evolves?” After all, this donglingcao was secretly left behind.
Yan Yue didn’t care much, “By then Su Lang would only be happy, how could he care about this issue?”
Lu Lingxi thought about it and agreed.
After tending to the donglingcao, Yan Yue talked to Lu Lingxi about the arrangements for Qiu Tian Gardening. Yan Yue didn’t hide the matter of Qiu Tian Gardening from Lu Lingxi this time, but omitted some of the details that he didn’t think the boy needed to know. With the plant nursery of Qiu Tian Gardening, Yan Yue had new plans for the cooperation with Xue Yongtong.
Lu Lingxi didn’t have any thoughts about it, as long as Yan Yue made the decisions. His interests were not there and he preferred to stay in the plant nursery and take care of the plants.
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