I'm a Druid at a farmhouse.

Chapter 77 One Step Further

Angie's face instantly turned pale.

Her carefully painted eyes stared at Pei Ziyou in disbelief, as if trying to confirm whether she had misheard.

"What did you say?"

"I said," Pei Ziyou waved his phone, the screen clearly showing a payment record of 194 yuan. He smiled frankly and innocently, "Your share, you pay for it yourself."

The air in the courtyard seemed to freeze at that moment.

Su Yunxi, who was clearing the dishes from the next table, was a beat slower than usual.

Angie's body trembled slightly from extreme embarrassment.

She followed Pei Ziyou to various high-end places, and she would buy not only meals costing a few hundred yuan, but also bags worth hundreds of thousands of yuan without batting an eye.

I never asked him for anything, nor did I care about such things.

Today, in this remote mountain valley, why would someone refuse to give face and insist on splitting the bill for 194 yuan?

"Pei Ziyou, what do you mean?" Anqi's voice trembled.

"It's nothing special." Pei Ziyou's expression remained nonchalant. He even picked up a toothpick from the table and picked his teeth. "Even close brothers should keep clear accounts. I was very satisfied with this meal, so it's only right that I pay for my own portion. You ate, so you should pay for your own portion too. It's fair."

"Fair?" Angie laughed angrily, her voice sharpening. "I flew all the way from Hong Kong to see you, and you bring me to this dump, and now you want to charge me over a hundred dollars? Pei Ziyou, are you out of your mind?"

"I'm not poor, but this is my money." Pei Ziyou tossed the toothpick aside, his expression becoming more serious. He looked at An Qi, his eyes no longer showing the cynicism he had shown earlier. "My dad made me lose money starting a business, not make me be a sucker and treat everyone to a meal."

"you!"

Angie was so angry she couldn't speak, her chest heaving violently.

Su Yunxi stood aside, watching this scene, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

She initially found the woman quite annoying, but now she felt a little sorry for her.

Song You simply found it amusing. He realized that Pei Ziyou's thought process was indeed quite different from that of a normal person.

Angie took a deep breath and took out her phone from her designer bag, her movements filled with humiliation and resentment.

She opened the payment code and handed it to Su Yunxi, but her eyes were fixed on Pei Ziyou.

"drop."

The payment success notification sound was like a resounding slap across Angie's face.

She put her phone away and suddenly stood up.

"Pei Ziyou, I was truly blind!"

After saying that, she turned and left.

However, her nearly 10-centimeter high heels made it impossible for her to walk fast on the uneven cobblestone path.

She staggered and almost fell.

Anqi gritted her teeth, bent down, took off both of her high heels, held them in her hands, and ran barefoot out of the yard without looking back.

Her fair feet stepped onto the cold stone slabs, looking resolutely disheveled.

Pei Ziyou stared at her barefoot figure as she ran away, then paused for a moment, his brows furrowing.

He seemed to have never seen her like this before.

In his memory, this woman was always exquisite, elegant, like a perfect porcelain doll. When had she ever been so reckless?

He watched her run out of the courtyard gate and disappear beside the flashy yellow sports car parked at the entrance, and a strange sense of irritation suddenly welled up inside him.

"Tsk."

He clicked his tongue, stood up, and prepared to follow them out.

Just as he took a step, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a pair of expensive, abandoned high heels next to the stool where Angie had just been sitting.

A long-forgotten image flashed through his mind.

Many years ago, on a summer day like this, in a courtyard, a little girl angrily took off her new sandals and ran barefoot on the ground, crying and shouting as she ran.

"I'm never talking to you again."

That little girl, it looks like her.

Pei Ziyou's steps suddenly stopped. He turned his head and looked in the direction of the courtyard gate. For the first time, his eyes, which always carried a hint of laziness, were wide open.

He remembered.

His dad called him the other day, all mysterious, and said that a girl wanted to get to know him and that he should make the most of it.

Angie?

He didn't pay attention at the time, thinking it was just another woman trying to get close to him. Although he didn't care, he didn't want to be led by the nose.

Looking back now, I think the girl next door who used to follow him around when he was little, with two little braids, who would cry all the time, and whom he called Xiaohua, also seemed to have the surname An.

No way?

An absurd idea exploded in his mind.

He rushed to the gate of the courtyard, took three steps at a time, and tentatively called out in the direction of the sports car.

"An Xiaohua?"

Angie, who had just opened the car door, suddenly stiffened.

This name struck her like a thunderbolt, leaving her utterly stunned.

This was her childhood nickname, which was old-fashioned and embarrassing. Apart from a few elders in her family, no one had called her that for more than ten years.

She hates it when people call her by that name!

The next second, Angie ran barefoot along the dirt road like a madwoman.

"Holy crap, it really is you!"

Pei Ziyou was now completely certain.

Without a second thought, he turned and rushed into the yard, shouting as he ran, "Song You, the shoes! Help me collect the shoes!"

He rushed to his seat, grabbed his car keys, and dashed out like a whirlwind.

"boom--"

Outside the yard, the yellow sports car roared angrily, its tires screeching on the dirt road, kicking up a cloud of dust, and chased after it at an exaggerated speed.

Soon, the roar of the sports car disappeared around the bend in the mountain road.

In the courtyard, only Song You and Su Yunxi, looking bewildered, remained, along with a pair of high heels lying forlornly beside the stool.

Song You walked over, picked up the shoes, weighed them in his hand, and found that the workmanship was indeed quite good.

No wonder Anqi reacted so strongly to the name Xiaohua. Anyone with the face of a sophisticated urban woman would be on edge if called Xiaohua.

"They must have known each other for a long time." Su Yunxi looked in the direction the sports car disappeared and sighed thoughtfully, "Could they be childhood sweethearts?"

Upon hearing this, Song You instinctively thought of Jiang Milu, who was far away in the provincial capital.

That could be considered his childhood sweetheart.

He glanced at Su Yunxi beside him. The girl was looking down at the ground, her profile appearing soft in the sunlight.

Forget it, let's not talk about it.

Song You suppressed the thought and placed the pair of high heels on the cabinet in the room.

After the farce ended, the farmhouse returned to its tranquility.

Song You didn't take this little incident to heart. He went back into the house, took out a few bright red bayberries from a hidden corner, and popped them into his mouth. The sweet and sour juice burst out instantly.

A pure, vibrant warmth slid down my throat, quickly spreading throughout my body, repairing the slight fatigue from today's work.

Comfortable.

Song You could feel his body being nourished and strengthened little by little by this power.

However, he also noticed that as his physical abilities improved, the beneficial effects of these fruits were gradually diminishing.

He used to be able to stay energized all day after taking one pill.

Now, even after taking three pills, I only feel a little lighter.

It seems that there is an upper limit to physical enhancement, or rather, a higher level of energy is needed to break through the bottleneck.

After eating the bayberries, Song You felt much more energetic.

He walked out of the house and came to the vegetable garden in the yard.

Su Yunxi was building a trellis for the cucumber vines. Although her movements were still a little clumsy, she was much more skilled than when she first arrived.

Song You didn't disturb her. He squatted down and began to check the rows of tomatoes that had just sprouted new buds.

He reached out and gently stroked a tender green leaf.

His knowledge of pathological examination allowed him to easily determine the health status of plants.

But at this moment, as he came into contact with the plants, a deeper perception, stemming from his druidic instincts, quietly emerged.

He could hear the emotions of this tomato seedling.

It is healthy and full of vitality, stretching its body and trying to absorb sunlight and water.

He then moved his hand to a chili seedling next to him.

This chili seedling seemed somewhat agitated.

Song You closed his eyes and immersed his consciousness into it.

He sensed that it wasn't a disease or pest infestation, nor was it a lack of water.

It is soil.

The soil here is very fertile, but it lacks some trace elements that can stimulate the chili peppers to thrive in a spicy environment.

It craves stronger stimulation.

Song You stood up, walked to the corner of the yard, and rummaged through a pile of miscellaneous items to find some ashes from previously burned plants.

He scooped up a handful of wood ash and sprinkled it evenly around the base of the chili seedlings.

After doing all this, he placed his hand on the chili seedlings again.

The anxiety had subsided considerably, replaced by a sense of satisfaction and joy.

Song You nodded in satisfaction.

This feeling is wonderful.

He no longer simply followed the knowledge in the book to plant, but rather acted like a real doctor, listening to the patient's voice and prescribing the right medicine.

He was so engrossed in the pleasure of communicating with the plants that he surveyed the entire vegetable garden.

Water the lettuce that is thirsty, straighten the vines of the crooked beans, and clean the wounds of the cabbages that have been bitten by insects.

Every movement he makes is in harmony with nature.

Su Yunxi watched from a distance and noticed that her senior seemed a little different today.

He couldn't quite put his finger on what was different.

I just felt that when he stood in that lush green vegetable field, he exuded a calming and reassuring aura.

It was as if he wasn't a person, but rather, like the flowers, plants, and trees, an integral part of the courtyard.

As Song You cleared away the weeds around the last tomato seedling, a page silently turned in his mind's eye in the thick Druid's Diary.

Your understanding of nature has deepened. You have learned to listen to the whispers of plants and fulfill their needs.

[Jungle Druid beginner progress +15%, current total progress 53%.]