Chapter 456: Chapter 15: Summer Villa
Mei Nian drove back to "Plum Rice Ball" in a trembling second-hand car that looked like it could fall apart at any moment. Today, he really hit his limit.
Upon entering the pharmacy, he saw Yu Gang holding a white radish he had brought back from out of town, discussing its medicinal properties with Pharmacist Huang.
"Don’t turn our pharmacy into a vegetable wholesale market," Mei Nian said discontentedly.
"Don’t underestimate the white radish. For someone like you who tends to get hot tempered and easily has a dry throat during the transition from summer to autumn, simply peel the radish, grind it into a paste, add some honey, and you can cure it without medicine," Yu Gang had become acquainted with Mei Nian after meeting Pharmacist Huang. Though there was quite an age difference, both were keen on cultivation and herbalism and always found plenty to talk about.
"Hubei radish?" Mei Nian took the radish and gave it a casual glance, "Aren’t you supposed to go and check for disease and pest resistance in cotton with that expert from Meng Mountain in Xinjiang? How come you’re back so soon?"
Mei Nian knew Yu Gang well; he was not the type to give up halfway. Since he went out with Zhou Ziang, he would definitely see it through.
"I underestimated that young man. A trip to Hubei was enough to see his caliber. My being there was just a waste of public funds," Yu Gang lamented, recalling how the local farmers were initially as skeptical of such a young expert as Yu Gang was.
But when they saw Zhou Ziang explaining bean weevil damage one moment and then helping elderly farmers move manure in the fields the next, all the doubts evaporated. There was a youthful fervor in him, whether or not it was interspersed with foreign elements.
"I don’t believe it, with your overly caring personality, you would let him go to Xinjiang alone?" Mei Nian knew Yu Gang well. When she was first assigned to a village under the Agricultural Science Academy to assist with infrastructure projects, Yu Gang was there with her almost 16 hours a day every day, except for when he had to sleep or use the bathroom.
"You said it yourself, he is the same kind of person as you. With or without me, it would have been the same," Mei Nian had informed Yu Gang of Zhou Ziang’s identity and general situation at the earliest opportunity, as Yu Gang was an absolute authority in domestic agricultural biology.
"Moreover, I have more important matters to attend to. Do you remember I mentioned someone named Lu Zuo before?" During his promotion to Deputy Director of the Agricultural Science Academy, Yu Gang had also organized several "technology to the countryside" events. These training sessions were held in the rural areas around Beijing covering everything from greenhouse planting to aquaculture. Lu Zuo was a student he met during these sessions.
What made Lu Zuo so memorable to Yu Gang was that, compared to other young trainees, he was older and less educated. It was said that before joining the training, he had been a breeder who later went bankrupt and joined the training hoping to recoup some of his capital. Yu Gang was deeply moved by Lu Zuo’s simple speech and past experiences and had given him extra tutoring sessions. He even helped him choose hairy crab breeding as a breakthrough for making a living.
"I only have a vague memory of him, but why is he looking for you? And it made you rush back from Hubei, leaving a very likely American spy who is a senior researcher to roam freely." Mei Nian chuckled, Yu Gang’s temperament made it so he could only remain in the same director position without advancing.
"He sent over some hairy crabs. Remembering that you like hairy crabs, I brought them over for you," said Yu Gang, picking up a basket of hairy crabs from the corner of the pharmacy counter.
"Do you really not know or are you pretending? It’s not the season for hairy crabs, and these ones are too skinny. I like them fat and oily. To bring out such crabs would only embarrass your own farm," Mei Nian teased as she took a crab from the basket. She was an expert at both eating and assessing crabs. Every year on August 15th, without family, she would make her way alone to Yangcheng Lake to feast on delicious crabs and then head back.
After checking again, her expression slightly changed, "These crabs are farmed? They don’t look like it. They’re flexing their claws aggressively, very fierce. They seem wild, just a bit small in size, not really sellable as hairy crabs. Wait a second, you said Lu Zuo is from where? These are genuine Yangcheng Lake crabs." Crabs raised on farms are fed artificial feed, not eating small fish or shrimp often, and are usually dumb when caught. Mei Nian hadn’t noticed earlier, but when she grabbed the crab, it almost clamped her hand, making her realize this batch of hairy crabs was extraordinary.