At first, Huo Duan didn't believe it, until the system's medicine cured the original owner's husband...
But looking at the drafty house, and remembering the indescribable taste of wild vegetable and wheat porridge, and my father who was barely hanging on to survive...
Oh, right, and there's also that husband who secretly tormented the original owner and wouldn't even let him into the bedroom.
It would be more realistic to just let him die. Huo Duan thought speechlessly.
It was the first time Gu Fengyan had ever slept on a hard bed, and he really couldn't get used to it, so he slipped on his shoes and pushed open the door.
They happened to make eye contact.
Both of them were stunned.
Huo Duan immediately switched from his CEO persona to that of a silly goose, and said in a flustered manner, "I... I didn't mean to. Father asked me to call you for dinner."
It's bound to cause controversy if a fool suddenly becomes intelligent; one must never let anyone notice anything amiss.
"I understand." Gu Fengyan maintained the original owner's consistently indifferent attitude.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly.
Without Erdan's help, he went to the main room, where Huo's father brought in the food and said with a kind smile, "There's still some white rice at home. I'll let you take it to the county to get better. Erdan will take two bags of wheat to the county to exchange for some more another day."
There were some green wild vegetables in the porridge, and the plate that was served contained a cold salad of wild scallions with a little oil, and a poached egg.
Only the original owner of the family ate white rice; Erdan and Huo Adie ate wheat porridge made by grinding wheat and cooking it without removing the bran, which was plentiful and kept them full.
The eggs were laid by the family's old hen, and Uncle Huo was always reluctant to eat them.
These were things he would never have even glanced at before, but in this house they were considered delicacies.
Gu Fengyan couldn't help but ask, "Has Father eaten yet?"
Father Huo was stunned... In the past, Brother Yan had never asked him about this.
"He's already eaten! He's an old man, no matter how good the food is, it won't help." Father Huo was genuinely happy, and instructed Huo Duan, "Yan'er, remember to put the bowl away after you finish eating... The weather is nice today, so don't run around too much. Go up the mountain to dig up some wild vegetables, and go to the river to catch some fish and shrimp to nourish Yan'er..."
Father Huo wanted the two of them to stay a little longer, so he went out to get busy.
Erdan really liked the original owner of the body. He used to always try to get close to her, but the original owner didn't like him. After a while, he stopped daring to approach her and just sat quietly.
Gu Fengyan broke the silence, "I can't finish it, go get me a bowl."
"Huh?" Huo Duan blinked.
Gu Fengyan said it again: although he was a little hungry, he couldn't finish eating so much, and he couldn't eat it with a clear conscience.
Huo Duan brought over a bowl, and Gu Fengyan scooped out most of the porridge for him, along with a poached egg. "Eat up, you still have to go up the mountain this afternoon. You need to eat to have the energy."
The two ate their meal in silence.
Huo Duan would glance at the original owner's two-faced husband from time to time... and always felt that something was off.
When Huo Duan went up the mountain in the afternoon, Gu Fengyan went with him.
Father Huo initially didn't want him to go, but Gu Fengyan insisted, and seeing that it was a cloudy day with no sun, he had no choice but to agree, instructing Erdan to protect him.
The Huo family lived far from the village, separated by a small river. They were the only household on this side of the river, with a few plots of dry land at the bottom of the embankment. Before spring planting, Father Huo had asked his nephew to plow the land. The few acres by the river also belonged to the Huo family, but they hadn't planted anything there.
Huo Duan carried a wicker basket containing a hoe.
The two walked along the stream. Mr. Huo didn't recognize any wild vegetables. He had hardly ever stepped into mud in his life. But with the original owner's memories, he easily found a few clumps, such as the tender water celery in front of him and the wild onions not far away.
Gu Fengyan followed behind him, carefully avoiding stepping in the water, her eyes scanning the surroundings.
He asked to go up the mountain with Huo Duan, firstly to study the place, and secondly to relax. After going from a successful person who could command the wind and rain and lived a life of luxury to a farmer, one can imagine the depression in his heart.
“There’s some grass here.” Gu Fengyan quickly spotted a familiar clump of plants.
Huo Duan leaned closer and said, "Father said we can't pick any we haven't seen before. There are many medicinal herbs in our village, some of which are poisonous."
He didn't believe that this guy, who had barely left the house, could recognize any wild vegetables.
Gu Fengyan picked a handful of tender shoots. "This is also called alfalfa. It's very nutritious. In some places, it's grown specifically to feed livestock... Don't you also use alfalfa to feed your chickens? Most of what livestock can eat, people can eat too."
Before his journey, his grandfather bought an entire mountain after retiring to grow flowers, vegetables, and raise fish. Through this exposure, he also recognized most wild vegetables.
Huo Duan sized up Gu Fengyan.
"W-What's wrong?" Gu Fengyan's heart raced.
Could it be that he... discovered something?!
A note from the author:
This is a newbie writer's work, thank you for collecting and reading!
My next novel in this column, "Whose Child Did I Actually Have?", is available for collection.
Chapter Two
Huo Duan smiled, "You've finally decided to talk to me!"
“Uh…” Gu Fengyan’s lips twitched, but he felt relieved. “Let’s take these back.”
He forgot that Erdan was born mentally challenged and couldn't think of so many things, but the way he looked at him just now had a shrewd and sharp quality to it, and the aura around him was different.
It's like he wasn't a fool, but rather one of those businessmen from before he transmigrated who could sit on equal footing with him and do business.
"It must be an illusion," Gu Fengyan thought to himself, shaking his head inwardly.
...
It took half an hour to enter the mountain. No one lived there, and several plots of land belonging to unknown owners had been abandoned because they were far away.
The ground was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, and in March, tender wild vegetables were everywhere, so fresh they could be squeezed for juice.
"Father said we can't go too far. You wait for me here and don't wander off." Gu Fengyan was panting heavily as he sat down to rest on a clean, large blue stone. Huo Duan carefully instructed him.
"Um."
This place was full of rotting leaves, mud, and insects. Having grown up in a clean and bright place, he didn't really want to explore it.
Skilled at finding wild vegetables, Huo Duan quickly disappeared into the shade of the trees...
The surroundings were quiet, and Gu Fengyan felt a little uneasy being alone, so he wandered around.
He discovered that in addition to abundant wild vegetables, the place also grew many wild medicinal herbs. Clumps of Centella asiatica grew tender green, and marigolds under the wild rose vines were just beginning to bloom... The Gu Group mainly deals in pharmaceuticals and also owns several cosmetic brands. Gu Fengyan majored in a related field in college and has a natural sensitivity to medicinal herbs.
The villagers probably didn't recognize them and let them grow freely.
What a waste! Gu Fengyan leaned against the tree trunk, pondering how to make use of these things.
Suddenly a rustling sound came from the surrounding bushes, and the sound was getting closer.
Snap—
A chicken bumped into a tree trunk next to Gu Fengyan, startling him.
Still in shock, he poked at it with a stick—it was dead.
But it's quite plump, edible. Gu Fengyan tore off a vine, tied the chicken to it, and hung it on the tree.
After walking around, we found several more nests of wild gastrodia elata and dug them out with a small stick. We made gastrodia elata chicken soup, a nourishing medicinal dish, which was perfect for Uncle Huo, who wasn't feeling well.
"Hmm, he's pretty lucky. No wonder he's like this," Gu Fengyan thought to himself.
...
Huo Duan frowned, carefully avoiding the damp soil on the ground.
CEOs are often a bit of a germaphobe, and he certainly is too.
He wouldn't have come to such a place filled with the smell of earth if it weren't to avoid Gu Fengyan noticing anything amiss.
The system scanned the surrounding plants and found only a few thin wild onions after a long time... very strange.
He felt like he was having a really bad day.
"It's just an illusion." Huo Duan shook his head and walked back. The boy was still waiting, so he didn't dare leave for too long.
"What a burden," Huo Duan thought to himself indifferently.
However, when he saw the burdened boy, his jaw almost dropped to the ground in shock—Gu Fengyan was emerging from the bushes, carrying a plump pheasant in his right hand and a pile of taro-shaped things on a large leaf in his left.
"I didn't go far, I just wandered around the neighborhood." Gu Fengyan was caught red-handed, but he didn't intend to hide it.
However, Huo Duan didn't care about that. "Where did you get these things?"
"Oh..." Gu Fengyan looked at his hand. "This chicken died by itself somehow, and I just dug up the gastrodia elata randomly."
He was killed in the crash.
I dug it up randomly.
Is this a koi fish? Right?
Huo Duan glanced at the sparse wild vegetables in his wicker basket and fell into a deep silence.
"You recognize medicinal herbs?" He quickly realized something was wrong. This pampered boy had never even set foot in the ground, so how could he identify medicinal herbs?
That sharp feeling surged into Gu Fengyan's heart again. He touched his nose and said, "My maternal grandparents' family runs a pharmacy. I learned some things from my father."
That was true, but how would he know if the original owner recognized the medicinal herbs? The flood had caused the original owner to lose all his relatives, and Father Huo had instructed Huo Duan not to mention his painful memories, so he absolutely dared not ask again.
Huo Duan stopped asking, but he still felt that something was wrong.
"It's time for lunch, let's go back."
Gu Fengyan breathed a sigh of relief;
...
We went back the same way we came.
As Gu Fengyan descended from the slightly open hilltop, he could see a dark-skinned boy with patched clothes hurrying up the river ditch.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead every now and then.
This person looks familiar, but I just can't remember who he is.
"Brother Erdan, Brother Yan... I've finally found you!" The boy rushed up like a bull and grabbed Huo Duan's sleeve. "Father told me to come find you. Something terrible has happened at home!"
Gu Fengyan remembered that the boy's name was Ye Bao, the youngest son of Huo Duan's aunt, and Huo Duan's cousin.