04
There was nothing more painful than battling oneself. Looking into their sharp, focused eyes, I
took a deep breath. I wasn’t going to change my mind.
I arrived right in the middle of the season for weeding. Without saying a word, I grabbed my
tools and went straight to the test fields.
“Mr. Carlson! This is Eleanor, our new recruit!”
I looked at the elderly man in the field, who seemed like just another seasoned farmer. This
must be Jayden Carlson!
When he saw me, Jayden only nodded. “We have a new colleague. Welcome. Come on, guys! Not many can last here.”
I knew they all thought I wouldn’t make it. I’d been through enough hardships in marriage to know nothing could be worse than that. So, I didn’t bother explaining myself. I just got to work in
the field.
When they saw how quickly I moved, they all jumped in to help.
After a long day’s work, I had gotten closer to them.
As for why I came to Echo Ridge, I just said casually, “I believe everyone should do something in life they won’t regret. As long as we keep going, it’s enough.”
“Exactly,” Mason said, holding out his hand. “Welcome, Eleanor!”
I shook his hand. His palms were calloused, his grip firm.
In my heart, I made a promise. I would be just like them.
During the fall and winter, we focused on weeding. When there was downtime, we worked on seed breeding.
Food was vital. The way we ate varies from north to south, and wheat seed breeding affected
all of us.
Jayden had been in the industry for twenty years looked over their ovporir
08:20 Sat, 8 Feb M
Jayden had been in the industry for twenty years. I looked over their experimental data,
over ten thousand sets of data, and more than nine thousand had been discarded. Less than a
thousand were left.
It took great care to nurture seedlings. After planting them, we had to guard them carefully.
But even when harvest time came, the yields weren’t high, and the quality wasn’t great.
Year after year, day after day, we kept going, and no one complained.
Sometimes, when a single plant grew well, it felt like a small victory.
Slowly, I adapted to the climate and life here. I spent my days running between the fields and the lab. Food and clothing became secondary. Before long, I looked just like them, tanned, thinner, but more energized.
As Mason put it, “Eleanor, now you’re truly one of us here at Echo Ridge!”
I smiled. He was right. Once I fully embraced this life, I realized there was another way to live.
For the past six months, I’d been working hard in the fields and lab.
Somehow, Isla found my address and sent me dried fruit from home. She also told me Grayson and Gianna weren’t hiding their relationship anymore.
- me.
She said Gianna had pressured Grayson into divorcing me and that he was coming to find
I was a bit surprised when I read Isla’s letter.
Hearing Grayson’s name again didn’t hurt as much as I expected.
At the time, I was seeing some progress. A few new seedlings had just been planted, and I was putting all my hopes into them.
I
I shared the dried fruit with my coworkers, and I put the whole thing about Grayson coming
to find me out of my mind.
Then, three months later, a heavy rainstorm hit. I was in the fields protecting the seedlings
when Mason ran over to tell me someone from my family had arrived!
I froze. When I got back to the lab and saw Grayson, I was stunned.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked at me in disbelief. When I finally wiped my face dry, he seemed sure I was really
Eleanor.
I was getting impatient. “Say what you have to say. I’m busy!”
“Eleanor, I can’t believe you actually came here. This place is so harsh.”
Grayson seemed hesitant. I reached my hand out. “You brought the papers, right? Sign
them!”
