Chapter 57
The director announced excitedly over the broadcast:
“This morning’s farming livestream has hit a new record again. Total livestream tips reached 6,232,221 yuan, all of which will be donated to the Agricultural Disaster Relief Foundation. Your diligence and sweat have deeply moved the audience and drawn more people’s attention to agriculture.”
After the announcement, the director switched to a private intercom channel and said to Meng Xueyuan, “Teacher Meng, your livestream room accounted for 70% of the total tips this time.”
Meng Xueyuan relayed this to Lin Xilan. “Your and Brother Shancha’s farming debut brought in a lot of tips—over four million.”
Lin Xilan knew his place. “The audience mainly came for you and Lu Xiao.”
Meng Xueyuan said, “No, that’s not it. Yesterday Lu Xiao and I worked really hard too, but we only got a little over one million in tips.”
Meng Xueyuan was very experienced with this kind of sudden surge in livestream income. When they had just debuted and streamed together with Lu Xiao, tips would suddenly spike—meaning a wealthy fan had arrived.
“Usually in this situation, it means a new top donor has appeared.”
Meng Xueyuan opened his phone. “Since she’s being so generous in supporting agriculture, let’s thank her.”
He opened his own livestream room and, sure enough, saw two new names at the top of the rankings.
“Judging by the gender suffix, are the top one and two big brothers?”
The top donor’s ID was a string of numbers automatically generated at registration—plain and unadorned—with 1.5 million yuan tipped.
The second donor’s ID was much more normal, four characters: [Baby, Keep Going], with 1 million yuan tipped.
“Thank you, Big Brother. Thank you, Second Brother,” Meng Xueyuan said.
“My big brother and second brother came to my livestream to tip?” Lu Xiao came in carrying two plates of braised fish. One plate was crowded with three fish, arranged neatly. The other held a single fish, already deboned with the head and tail removed, with two extra drops of vinegar added.
Lu Xiao placed the boneless fish in front of his wife. “They’ve finally come to their senses and learned to support their little brother’s career.”
[Supporting you farming counts as supporting your career?]
[Only picking out the fish bones for your wife, huh.]
Meng Shancha followed closely behind, carrying a basin of greens-and-egg soup and setting it in the middle of the table. Lin Xilan helped bring four sets of bowls and chopsticks, ladling a bowl of soup for each person first. Vinegar had been added to the egg soup—perfect for stimulating the appetite in summer.
Meng Xueyuan hurried to explain, “They’re not your biological big brother and second brother.”
“Not?” Lu Xiao thought to himself—no way, then his brothers were really being inconsiderate.
If he were the second brother, he’d immediately tip two million to praise the secretary for being a great farmer.
If he were the eldest brother, he’d immediately tip three million to bribe his little brother not to call Bai He next time they worked.
Lu Xiao suddenly discovered a great way to enjoy the shade by leaning on his wife: let the two brothers bid against each other, and whoever paid more, he’d go whisper sweetly to his wife on their behalf.
Two lines of flashy text suddenly floated across the barrage—an exclusive green “Love for Agriculture” halo belonging to the top three big spenders.
“I am.”
—ID: garbled characters.
“I’m your dad (/??)”
—ID: [Baby, Keep Going].
Meng Xueyuan hurriedly leaned away from the screen, sitting upright like a model child, holding his small rice bowl properly, and whispered to Lu Xiao, “He says he’s my dad.”
Lu Xiao raised an eyebrow—one million and you want to be my father?
Ah—wait. One million might actually really be his dad.
Lin Xilan glanced up at the “I am” message sent by the top donor, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
The four of them didn’t continue the topic from the barrage. Family members were private matters—knowing who it was was enough; there was no need to greet them through the comments.
After lunch, Shen Ning called. “To your brother, a secretary is basically like a wife. He’s work-brained—give him some leeway.”
Lu Xiao laughed. “They went to complain to you? Don’t tell me it was because I picked out fish bones for my wife but not for his secretary?”
Shen Ning said, “No. I just felt that the relationship between the secretary and Xueyuan seemed a bit… off. Could it be queen bee and worker bee?” It was also his first time seeing how Xueyuan interacted with the secretary. Thinking that they were from the same hometown, and that Meng Xueyuan might be from the bee clan, he had this suspicion.
Lu Xiao said, “I don’t have the right to decide whether to tell them or not. And judging by their attitude, they don’t seem interested in digging deeper either.”
Shen Ning suddenly understood. “So I gave birth to three kids who don’t know how to talk.”
…
After this meal, the program’s shuttle bus sent the helper guests away.
After eating Lu Xiao’s braised fish, Meng Shancha felt it had been worth the morning’s hard labor and said to Lu Xiao, “You can call me again for activities like this next time.”
Lu Xiao said, deeply moved, “Brother Shancha, you’re my real brother. I’ll just give you one piece of advice—whether you’re straight or bent is up to destiny.”
Meng Shancha said, “Don’t worry. I have willpower like steel, just like you—unlike Bai He and Xilan.” The stabilizing effect of the queen bee worked very well on him. With the queen bee around, there was no bending. Meng Xueyuan really was the clan’s stabilizing pillar.
Though the stabilizing pillar himself wasn’t straight either.
“Take good care of Xueyuan. Everyone’s watching you.”
Lu Xiao said, “I will.”
After seeing them off, Lu Xiao and Meng Xueyuan took a nap, as usual setting the alarm for 2:30 p.m. They sat up groggily on the bed, waiting for the director to stir things up again.
“What are we doing this afternoon?”
“Continuing to weed?”
“Now broadcasting the weather forecast. Red radar echoes are passing over the farm area. A short-term heavy rainfall of 50 millimeters is expected around 3:30 p.m., accompanied by strong gusts of wind. All guests, please prepare accordingly. Details have been sent to the group chat.”
Lu Xiao immediately understood. “It’s going to pour. That means get into bed, close the doors and windows, and don’t go out.”
Heavy rain, holding his wife, with some thunder—perfect atmosphere.
Meng Xueyuan looked serious. “No. This is a rapid switch from drought to flooding. The director means we need to prepare field drainage.”
Lu Xiao really wanted to stay home, but his wife was a meteorology major, so what he said made more sense.
“That just means going to the fields to deepen the drainage ditches. I can do it alone. You stay home and wait for me.”
Meng Xueyuan didn’t listen. He went outside to feel it out, then took out his phone and carefully checked the weather parameters. “The forecast also says hail.”
The forecast couldn’t accurately estimate the size of the hail. Meng Xueyuan scientifically inferred the heavens’ intent and judged that the hail could be about the size of eggs—if you went out without protecting your head, it could smash a hole in it.
“Wear a helmet.”
“A straw hat will do.” Lu Xiao put on a straw hat.
Meng Xueyuan then placed another fresh straw hat on top of it. “Wear one more.”
Two hats. That number felt oddly familiar. Lu Xiao happily put them on, indicating he had completely forgotten a certain matter.
Meng Xueyuan instructed him, “Whether you finish or not, come home within half an hour. Don’t wait until it starts raining.”
After Lu Xiao left, Meng Xueyuan went to the chicken and duck pens, herding them inside early and reinforcing the pen roofs. Then he went to move the cattle and sheep, bringing the pregnant cow to a higher, safer building and giving it fresh dry hay and water.
Dark clouds pressed down heavily, the world dimming several shades at once. Meng Xueyuan stood at the crossroads, looking out, and opened his phone. Sure enough, the predicted rain time had moved up again.
Worried that Lu Xiao would keep working endlessly, he waited a bit, then grabbed an umbrella to look for him.
Sure enough, Lu Xiao was digging ditches with gusto, not even caring when his straw hats were blown to the ground by the wind.
Meng Xueyuan’s eyes grew hot at the sight. Why was he acting like such a big fool? There were no cameras, no supervision—why work so hard?
“Lu Xiao.”
Lu Xiao smoothly bent down, scooped up the two hats—one in each hand—and put them back on, then turned around. “Ah, they got blown off.”
“Why aren’t you coming home yet?”
Lu Xiao said, “I’m watching the weather. And we worked so hard to grow this—our labor of love. We can’t let one rainstorm wash it all away.”
Labor of love…
Meng Xueyuan said, “That’s enough. Let’s go home.”
Lu Xiao said, “You go back first and close the doors and windows.”
Meng Xueyuan said, “Oh, it’s about to hail. The plastic film in the fields will probably get smashed. I’ll go collect it.”
Lu Xiao immediately dropped the hoe. “Let’s hurry home. This is urgent.”
Meng Xueyuan curled his lips slightly. See? The true test of urgency was whether you could drag him along to do it together.
They returned home, and not long after entering, the torrential rain came crashing down, mixed with egg-sized hailstones. They clattered onto the ground, onto the metal roof, while fierce winds swept leaves against the windows, forming a fully surround-sound symphony.
Meng Xueyuan and Lu Xiao hid inside the house, turning on the lights to make it a bit brighter.
Before long, the power went out, and the lights went dark.
Meng Xueyuan stared outside worriedly. “I wonder if the cow will get scared.”
Lu Xiao said, “You took it to a safe place. It’s not the first time it’s experienced thunderstorms—it’ll be fine.”
The cameraman had also gone to take shelter from the rain. Lu Xiao encircled Meng Xueyuan’s slender wrist with his palm and kissed the corner of his lips. “Stop worrying. Let me check whether you’ve lost weight recently.”
Meng Xueyuan obediently let him check.
Lu Xiao spouted nonsense casually. “You’ve lost weight—and gotten tanned.”
Meng Xueyuan retorted, “Have you ever heard of bees getting tanned?”
Lu Xiao said, “Mm, my mistake. Not tanned—yellow.”
The downpour lasted a full two hours before the sky gradually brightened again.
Hail and heavy rain together brought the temperature down, making it pleasantly cool.
But Meng Xueyuan’s mood was heavy. He first went to check on the unharmed livestock, then went to the fields. The large and small ditches were all full; some crops were submerged halfway. Fortunately, they had taken precautions in advance, and the water level was slowly receding.
The seedling plastic film was riddled with holes from the hail. Under the combined assault of wind and hail, half the corn stalks had snapped. The entire field was in complete disarray.
“What a pity about the corn,” Meng Xueyuan said, squatting on the ridge and trying to prop one stalk up, but the rescue was futile—it would wither once exposed to the sun. After some thought, he snapped off the corn ear, peeled back the layers of husk, and took a look. The kernels inside weren’t yet filled out and couldn’t be eaten.
Their hard work, and the land’s hard nurturing, had been more than half lost in a single storm.
Lu Xiao comforted him. “It wasn’t continuous rain. The water will recede—don’t worry too much.”
In Meng Xueyuan’s eyes was a tenderness toward plants and trees, his voice inevitably low. “I know. It’s not the first time I’ve run into this. Today actually counts as a good outcome.”
Lu Xiao paused, and an image surfaced in his mind: a tiny Meng Xueyuan squatting at the kindergarten gate, waiting in the early morning for the principal to open the door.
Did Papa Meng and Mama Meng want to drop their son off at the school gate so early? No—it was life forcing them to.
Do diligent people always get a good life? Not necessarily. It depends on the heavens’ mood—especially for farmers.
After being tossed around again and again, so-called “lucky ones” and “unlucky ones” gradually pull apart through round after round of trials.
But the bee clan was different. They didn’t distinguish between luck and misfortune. Every natural disaster was a huge blow to this big family that loved farming. The entire clan’s economy would decline, so even the most honored queen bee had to squat at the kindergarten gate eating boiled eggs.
Lu Xiao was lucky. He grew up in comfort, with drivers and bodyguards wherever he went.
At five years old, he didn’t understand what heartbreak was. But when he saw little Meng Xueyuan all alone, he wanted to keep him company, wanted to protect him. He would get up early every day and have the bodyguard take him to kindergarten, striving to arrive earlier than Meng Xueyuan.
That way, when little Meng Xueyuan arrived, there would already be two kids there. If he arrived later than Meng Xueyuan, Lu Xiao would sulk all day.
Little Meng Xueyuan could tell, asking in a baby-soft voice, “Big brother, why are you unhappy again?”
Lu Xiao realized that some things showed their signs very early… like how he bottled things up when he was unhappy, while Meng Xueyuan was the one who asked directly.
Being the queen bee was not just an honor, but also a responsibility. The fact that Meng Xueyuan could mobilize worker bees meant he had to lead the entire group forward. He took astronomical paychecks, forced others into contract marriages—but still couldn’t afford a house in Nan Cheng.
He must be very tired.
When Lu Xiao smugly thought about how he could easily manipulate his two brothers through his wife, it was his wife’s shoulders that bore heavy responsibility in exchange.
This farming show was meaningful to Lu Xiao.
He loved his wife even more.
