I'm a Druid at a farmhouse.

Chapter 39 Expectations

Song You stared at the line of text and the string of numbers that followed, feeling a little bewildered.

Pretend?

He recalled the private message he had sent; the wording was precise and the attitude was humble. How could he have been pretentious?

He didn't think much of it, obediently copied the string of numbers, switched to WeChat, searched, and added.

The other person's profile picture is a rabbit with drooping ears, and their WeChat name is "Milu".

Friend request approved instantly.

After considering it for a moment, Song You sent a message.

"I am Song You."

After sending the message, he tossed his phone aside and prepared to go wash up. He figured the other person was busy and wouldn't reply immediately.

......

Shonan University, girls' dormitory.

Jiang Milu lay on her side on her small bed, hugging a carrot pillow in her arms, the light from her phone screen illuminating her delicate face.

She looked at the simple message "I am Song You" on the screen and ground her back teeth.

This guy is still the same as before, speaking in a dry, unfriendly way, without any human touch.

She clicked on Song You's profile picture, which was a distant view of a rural resort, with blue skies, white clouds, green mountains, and clear waters—it looked quite impressive.

She scrolled through his empty WeChat Moments again; the latest post was a promotional video for a farm stay, which he had posted three days ago.

Jiang Milu snorted, feeling somewhat resentful.

Grandma said on the phone that Song You had returned to the village, taken over his father's mess, and was now burdened with a mountain of debt. When she heard this, she felt a tightness in her chest.

This guy is such a good student, and so smart, why did he have such a bad idea and go back to that small mountain village to cause trouble?

She grew angrier the more she thought about it, hovering her finger over the screen for a long time before finally steeling herself and pressing the video call button.

......

Just as Song Yougang took off his T-shirt and was about to go into the bathroom, his phone on the bed started vibrating wildly.

He picked it up and saw the words "Milu" jumping around on the screen, along with a camera icon.

Video call?

Song You's mind went blank for a second.

He subconsciously scratched his hair, then looked down at his bare upper body, quickly put the T-shirt he had just taken off back on, and then hurriedly pressed the answer button.

The screen flickered, and a familiar face instantly filled the entire screen.

Jiang Milu was wearing a polka-dot pajama set, her hair was casually draped over her shoulders, and she had no makeup on. She had probably just taken a shower, as her cheeks still had a slight blush.

She seemed surprised that Song You answered so quickly, and her hand holding the phone swayed slightly, revealing the floral ceiling of the bed curtains in the camera's view.

"Ahem." Song You cleared his throat, breaking the brief silence. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, long time no see." Jiang Milu pointed the camera back at her face, pursed her lips, and said, "Boss Song, you've made something of yourself. I heard you were even on TV."

There was an inexplicable sourness in her tone.

"Just messing around." Song You leaned against the headboard, trying to relax. "But you, you've become a graduate student. Impressive."

"My grandma told me everything." Jiang Milu ignored his compliment and cut straight to the point, "She said you went back to the village to open a farmhouse inn. Song You, have you lost your mind? You used to be so much better at studying than me, why didn't you take the postgraduate entrance exam or pursue a doctorate? What are you doing back there?"

This barrage of questions left Song You feeling somewhat helpless.

"This was left by my father, and someone has to carry on the legacy," he explained simply.

"That's not how you respond!" Jiang Milu's voice rose. "Do you even know...?"

She stopped halfway through her sentence, as if she felt it was inappropriate to say these things over the phone.

She changed the subject: "How much money did your dad take out a loan?"

"Not much," Song You answered vaguely, not wanting to tell her about the pressure of over three million. "I can handle it."

"Can you handle it?" Jiang Milu clearly didn't believe it. Looking at Song You's slightly tired face in the video, she became even angrier.

But she also knew Song You's temper; once he made up his mind, nothing could change it.

She took a deep breath and steered the conversation back on track: "Alright, let's not talk about that. What's wrong with your tree? Send me a picture."

Song You finally breathed a sigh of relief. He switched cameras and sent over the photos of the peach tree's diseased condition that he had taken during the day.

"Take a look, expert, give me a diagnosis."

"What kind of expert is this?" Jiang Milu looked at the photo, her delicate eyebrows furrowing slightly. "It looks like peach leaf curl disease, mixed with some brown spot disease. Using lime sulfur alone probably won't work. This stuff is mainly for prevention; once the disease has actually started, its effectiveness is much lower."

She paused, then continued, "But I didn't see it with my own eyes, so I can't draw any conclusions. Don't listen to the nonsense people say online; you need to address the root cause."

"You're a graduate student, how can you not handle this?" Song You couldn't help but tease her.

"So what if we're graduate students? Graduate students are just like cattle, working for our advisors!" Jiang Milu immediately retorted, her face full of indignation. "Do you think we just read books and do experiments all day? We have to do everything – planting rice, fertilizing, spraying pesticides!"

Song You was amused by her appearance.

"Alright, alright, Comrade Niu Ma, you've worked hard."

"Hmph." Jiang Milu rolled her eyes at him, then, as if suddenly remembering something, casually said, "By the way, I'll bring my roommate to your place another day to support you and boost your revenue."

The smile on Song You's face faded slightly.

roommate?

Jiang Yuexian's face instantly appeared in his mind.

He didn't want to put on an awkward show of reuniting with his ex on his own turf.

"No need for that," Song You replied quickly. "You can come by yourself."

On the other end of the video, Jiang Milu's fingers, gripping the carrot pillow, tightened suddenly.

She understood the meaning behind Song You's words.

He didn't want anyone else to come; he only wanted her to go alone.

An indescribable joy, like a pebble thrown into a lake, rippled across her heart.

She tried to suppress the rising joy and deliberately made her tone sound calm.

"That won't do. You're running a business; there's no reason to turn away customers."

"You are not a guest," Song You said.

These four words instantly struck Jiang Milu.

She felt her cheeks getting hot and quickly buried her face in the carrot pillow, her voice muffled.

"Well... I'll go over this weekend and take a look at those trees for you. You'd better prepare something delicious to treat me, otherwise I'll still charge you for the consultation."

"No problem," Song You laughed. "It'll be plenty."

After hanging up the video call, Song You tossed his phone onto the bed, feeling much better.

He walked to the window and looked at the pitch-black night outside. In the distance, towards the back mountain, he could vaguely see a few scattered lights, which belonged to other houses in the village.

Jiang Milu is coming this weekend.

A sense of anticipation arose in Song You's heart.

He turned and went into the bathroom, took a quick shower, and then went back to bed, but couldn't fall asleep.

He opened his phone, clicked on Bilibili, and saw that his "immersive peach tree rescue" video had gained several thousand more views and dozens more new comments.

He scrolled through the comments one by one, and when he saw a comment that said, "UP, please update, I want to see the sequel to Peach Tree," he was intrigued.

Since Jiang Milu is coming over the weekend, that's perfect. We can have her, a professional, appear on camera and give us some guidance.

A female graduate student in agronomy personally teaches everyone how to treat fruit tree diseases.

This gimmick is much more appealing than anything a half-baked fruit farmer like him could come up with on his own.

However, my videos are clips, not the kind of educational videos, so doing it this way makes the video pace feel too slow.

It would be better to let Jiang Milu teach her some work skills, and at most, she could appear on screen briefly to keep the audience interested.

Just then, his phone vibrated again.

It's a WeChat message.

From Wang Guoming.

"Brother Song, are you asleep? I need your help urgently!"