Chapter 2 — The Farming Diary of Thien Kim Trillion

I looked closely and almost fainted. It was… a gold-plated toilet brush! Merdolino Gold! Limited production of only 999 pieces worldwide!

“Mom! What are you doing?!” My voice suddenly broke because I was so shocked.

Vuong Que Phan raised his head: "Mom is scrubbing the sink for you!" I pointed at the toilet brush: “That… that…”

“Ah ah… don't misunderstand, this is a new toothbrush, I bought it specifically for you, isn't it beautiful?”

I looked at that golden sparkling brush, speechless. Downstairs, my father - comrade Bao Quoc - was standing in the middle of the yard calling with great enthusiasm.

"That's right! The batch of organic cucumbers delivered on time tomorrow! What? The price? Still the same! These vegetables from Lam Bao Quoc are worth the money!"

“……”

02

Early the next morning, my biological mother pulled me out of bed.

"Nguyet Nguyet, wake up quickly! There's a big market today! Mommy will take you to buy new clothes!"

I closed my eyes sleepily, trying to struggle: "Mom, no need, I already brought things..."

"How can that be! The clothes in our village's market are very trendy!"

Mrs. Vuong Que Phan was surprisingly strong, yanked me up, and thrust a cloth bag into my hand with the words "Rice rich in selenium" printed on it.

“Come on, follow your dad to the market!”

The market is located right at the beginning of the eastern village, with many people like a festival, extremely bustling. And then my eyes were opened to the so-called "Khao Son Truan's fashion". The shops selling them were not the red and blue cotton shirts I imagined. For example, take that stall selling fur coats. That mink coat, shiny and smooth.

“Uncle, how much is this mink coat?”

"Uncle Lam bought it for his daughter? It's a purple mink, genuine product! Thirty-eight thousand!"

"Good! Buy now!"

I quickly pulled him back: "Dad, I'm not cold. It's too expensive, don't buy..." Thirty-eight thousand, for a vegetable grower, you have to sell so many vegetables. I still know a lot.

“What a cheap price!” Lam Bao Quoc rolled his eyes, scanned the payment code, "Pack it up!"

I held a mink coat worth thirty-eight thousand, standing in front of the stall selling grilled pork legs, feeling like my life was like a dream.

“What are you doing standing there? Let's eat!” Mrs. Vuong Que Phan stuffed a pig's leg into my hand, then pointed to the next stall, "Dude, buy your daughter that gold necklace!"

I shivered, praying that it wouldn't be a gold necklace the size of a thumb... The result was a delicately woven corn necklace hanging around my neck.

“This is that yellow corn, dried and woven, both beautiful and lucky!”

Me: "Very beautiful, very beautiful..." After that, I continued to be stuffed with grilled corn, sticky bean cakes, rice flour rolls... until my stomach was as round as a drum. Mrs. Vuong Que Phan looked at me, wiping her tears filled with sadness.

“Look at you, craving so much... in the city, you probably only eat bad things, right?”

I gnawed on the pig's leg and was helpless to refute.

03

After eating and drinking enough, my father waved his hand: "Let's go, daughter, I'll take you to inspect our country!" Looking at the row of greenhouses stretching to the horizon, I took a deep breath. Suddenly I remembered what he said yesterday: take me to... water the vegetables. Then came this time. I was mentally prepared, mentally prepared to plunge headlong to the ground, hunched over carrying water to water vegetables until I was tired to death. I even imagined myself as black as a lump of coal. But I made up my mind! Because I want to escape the title of "waste", no matter how hard it is, I can endure it! Go!! Just water the vegetables!! Entering the greenhouse, lush green vegetables grow densely. My dad went to a control panel, took out his phone, and opened an app.

“Daughter, look closely, this is how we water vegetables at our house!”

He pressed one. The next second, the metal pipe system above the greenhouse slowly lowered countless tiny mist nozzles.

“Phew ——” white mist steadily sprayed out like dust.

Fully automatic! Vaporizing mist spray for irrigation! I gasped and raised my head to look at the artificial rain. Like a bewildered deer returning from the city to the countryside, is even watering vegetables this high-tech?!

“Dad… is this called… watering vegetables?”

“But what if?”

Lam Bao Quoc put away his phone, his face full of matter-of-factness.

"This is much more convenient! Use your phone to control the humidity and temperature automatically. What's wrong, daughter? Do you want to try the traditional style? I still have those two buckets of water..."

“……”

04

At night, I lay in bed digesting the food in my stomach and trying to digest the magical day I had just experienced. The phone vibrated on the pink lace bedside table. The name “Lin Dieu” appeared on the screen. I picked up the phone, and a familiar country voice rang out: "Sister, how are you? Are you okay? Are you used to it yet?" The question was so dear that it made me choke up and took me a long time to say:

“It's... it's fine... just, Dieu Dieu, my house... no, our house, what is it all about?”

In my mind, the image of Khao Son Truan is: dirt road, dilapidated house, oil lamp, three meals a day of dry corn cakes. As for reality: a thousand-acre greenhouse, a five-story villa, a smart toilet, and a gold-plated toilet brush that shines like divine light. This information gap is no longer a ditch, but the entire Dai Dai canyon!

"Didn't my father say? Our family is a farmer."

I scratched my head: "I know... I just feel like it's... so different from my imagination."