Official title: Refused to stay at the university, started his career in a rural town.

In Ma Liangchen's office, he placed Yang Fan's road construction plan on the table and looked at it over and over again.

He finally lit a cigarette and sighed.

"The road is not easy to repair."

Yang Fan did not respond.

Ma Liangchen looked up at the dilapidated roof and said in a deep voice.

"I heard that the secretary of Secretary Zhao Lichun in our neighboring Yantai Jinshan County is also working on this matter, but the higher-ups won't approve any funding."

Yang Fan looked at him.

Ma Liangchen stood up and walked to the window.

"Everyone knows this road needs fixing, but where will the money come from?"

Yang Fan picked up the three pages of paper, folded them, and put them back in his pocket.

"Understood."

"What do you understand?"

"We still have to rely on ourselves to build roads."

"Then let's first fill the farmers' pockets. Once their pockets are full, we'll fix it ourselves!"

Ma Liangchen turned around and stared at him for a few seconds.

"What are your plans for the next step?"

"Nangezhuang".

"Nangezhuang?"

"Apples can't be grown in those mountains. I passed by last week and saw a lot of tea trees."

The old variety has been neglected and abandoned for several years.

Ma Liangchen thought about it.

"The tea from Nangezhuang used to be quite famous. In the 1970s, it was even supplied to the county."

"Now it sells for less than two cents a pound, so growing it would actually result in a loss."

"You know about tea?"

Yang Fan shook his head.

"I don't understand, but there are always people who do."

Ma Liangchen didn't ask any more questions, but silently waited for Yang Fan to use his supernatural powers again.

"Go."

Nangezhuang is located at the southernmost part of Qingping Township. Further south, across a mountain ridge, lies the territory of a neighboring county.

Geng Yan, the village party secretary of Nangezhuang, was squatting at the village entrance smoking when he saw him and stood up.

"Mayor Yang."

"Secretary Geng, take me to see that old tea garden."

Geng Yan stomped out the cigarette butt.

"That tea plantation? It's been abandoned for almost ten years. What are you looking at there for, Mayor Yang?"

"Let's take a look first."

Geng Yan didn't ask any more questions and led Yang Fan up the mountain.

The mountain road was even narrower, with bushes on both sides squeezing the road into a narrow gap.

After walking for more than twenty minutes, the bushes suddenly parted, revealing a tea garden.

It's called a tea garden, but it's almost completely overrun by weeds.

The tea bushes were sparse, their leaves were yellowing, and their branches were covered with moss.

Several tea trees were twisted and fell to the ground, their roots still embedded in the soil, but their trunks were withered.

Yang Fan squatted down and picked up a leaf. The leaf was thin, with curled edges and insect spots on the back.

How big was this tea plantation before?

"One hundred and twenty mu."

"And now?"

Geng Yan did the math.

"The harvestable area is less than forty mu. Each household picks a little bit here and there, either for their own consumption or to sell a few kilograms at the market."

"Why is it deserted?"

Geng Yan took out a cigarette and lit it.

"They can't sell them for a good price! The best fresh leaves only fetch 28 cents a pound."

Picking tea for a day is not as profitable as going out to work for a day.

The young people have all left, and the remaining elderly people can't do the picking anymore.

Yang Fan stood up and walked deeper into the tea garden.

Geng Yan followed behind.

"Mayor Yang, this tea plantation is truly beyond saving."

Two years ago, someone from the county's tea station came to inspect the tea plantations and said the varieties were outdated and management was inadequate, suggesting that they be dug up and replaced with other varieties.

"And then?"

"And that was the end of it. Changing crops would cost money, but the village had no money, and the farmers had even less money, so the land was just left to lie fallow."

Yang Fan stopped in front of an old tea tree.

This tree is taller than the surrounding trees, with a trunk as thick as a bowl and branches that spread out widely. Although it is also covered with moss, its leaves are noticeably thicker than those of the other trees.

How old is this tree?

Geng Yan took a look.

"It's probably older than me! This tea plantation was here when I was a child, and this tree was the biggest back then."

Yang Fan picked a leaf and looked at it in the sunlight.

The veins are clearly visible, the leaf flesh is thick, and the underside is covered with fine hairs.

"Secretary Geng, harvest this tree separately."

"Sampling alone?"

"Yes, I'll harvest and process them separately, because I want to show them to others."

Old Geng stared at that old tea tree for a long time.

"Okay, when do we pick them?"

"The first batch of buds will sprout next spring."

Old Geng stubbed out his cigarette and stuck it in the ground.

"Mayor Yang, do you think this tea plantation can still survive?"

Yang Fan patted the dirt off his hands.

"Look at this tree first. If it survives, the tea garden will survive."

On his way back from Nangezhuang, Yang Fan turned into Yangjiagou. Wang Dashan was pruning branches in the orchard. When he saw him, he put down his pruning shears.

"Mayor Yang."

"Uncle Wang, are you pruning the branches?"

"Yes, you taught me. Winter pruning of the skeleton, spring pruning of the flowers."

Yang Fan squatted at the edge of the field, watching Wang Dashan work.

"Uncle Wang, I have a question for you."

"you say."

"Besides apples, what else in Qingping can fetch a good price?"

Wang Dashan stopped cutting and thought for a moment.

"There are plenty of things in the mountains: mushrooms, wood ear fungus, walnuts, chestnuts, but nobody wants to buy them."

Why is no one collecting them?

"The quantity is small, only ten or eight kilograms per household, so it's not worth the buyer's trip."

"If the whole township were to contribute, there would be no one to organize it."

Yang Fan nodded.

Old Wang added, "And tea, from the old tea gardens in Nangezhuang. They used to produce really good tea. I drank it when I was a kid, it was so fragrant..."

"And now?"

"That won't work now."

Old Wang shook his head, saying regretfully.

"The tea gardens have been abandoned, and the craft has been lost."

The last group of people in Nangezhuang who knew how to process tea have either died or left. Old Geng knows a little, but he can only make coarse tea.

Yang Fan stood up and asked, "Secretary Geng can also stir-fry tea?"

"Yes! His grandfather's generation owned a tea factory, but by the time it was passed down to him, only a small part of it remained."

Yang Fan kept those words in mind.

Back at the township government, it was already dark. The light in Yang Fan's dormitory stayed on until dawn, and a notebook lay open on the table with a few words written on it:

"Nanggezhuang Tea Garden, Gengyan, tea frying, Handong University."

He drew a line under "Handong University".

When I called Li Shusheng last time, he mentioned that a new professor researching tea science had joined the College of Agriculture. His surname was Song, and he had been recruited from Hanjiang Agricultural University.

Yang Fan wrote "Professor Song" in his notebook and added a question mark next to it.

Footsteps came from the courtyard, and Chen Ming knocked on the door.

"Mayor Yang, Secretary Ma asked me to ask you, is there any hope for Nangezhuang?"

Yang Fan closed the notebook.

"have."

"Tea."

Chen Ming was taken aback. "Tea?"

"Yes! Old tea trees, traditional techniques. If done well, it's no worse than apples."

Chen Ming scratched his head. "But the tea in our village..."

"I know, I'll give it a try."

Chen Ming went back, and Yang Fan reopened the notebook and wrote another line next to Geng Yan's name: "First batch of buds next spring."

Outside the window, the wind blew in from the south, carrying the scent of withered grass from the tea gardens on the mountain.