Xiao Jingting brought Xu Mu’an into a spirit seed shop. Seeing the two enter, the shopkeeper from within the store came out to greet them. “Honored customers, here to pick seeds?”
Xiao Jingting nodded and said, “Yes, do you have any good recommendations?”
The shop owner looked Xu Mu’an up and down a couple times, smiled, and said, “Your honorable wife is fire-attribute! Our store just received some Fire Cloud Rice and Green Fire Vegetables – both suitable for fire-element cultivators to consume. Sir, you could buy some.”
Xiao Jingting raised his eyebrows with interest, but Xu Mu’an pulled on Xiao Jingting and shook his head, saying, “Don’t buy them.”
Xiao Jingting looked at Xu Mu’an with confusion and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Fire Cloud Rice is a third-grade spirit plant, but if sold, the price is twenty percent lower than wood-attribute third-grade spirit rice. However, the planting difficulty isn’t any less than wood-attribute spirit rice,” Xu Mu’an explained.
“It’s fine. We can plant it to eat ourselves, not to sell,” Xiao Jingting said dismissively.
“Boss, I want a bag of Fire Cloud Rice seeds and a bag of Green Fire Vegetable seeds,” Xiao Jingting said.
Xu Mu’an said somewhat uneasily, “There’s no need to plant so many.” Fire-element cultivators could accept wood-attribute spirit rice, but wood-element cultivators had difficulty accepting fire-attribute spirit rice. This was one of the reasons fire-attribute spirit rice had poor sales.
Xiao Jingting shook his head indifferently and said, “It’s fine. What’s the difference what we plant?”
Xiao Jingting also picked out a bag of sweet potato seeds and a bag of ordinary spirit rice seeds, then prepared to head home. One bag of seeds was just enough for one acre of land. For the remaining acre of middle-grade field, Xiao Jingting planned to plant grapes.
Four bags of seeds cost another six taels of silver. Having spent this money, Xiao Jingting could be said to have empty sleeves and a clean breeze.
“Sir, you really dote on your honorable wife!” the shopkeeper had originally just spoken casually, but unexpectedly Xiao Jingting really bought them, so he immediately teased.
Xiao Jingting smiled without speaking. Xu Mu’an’s face was bright red.
Xiao Jingting brought Xu Mu’an away from the seed shop and walked toward the city outskirts.
“If you don’t have any silver left, I still have some,” Xu Mu’an said after weighing it for a long time.
Xiao Jingting glanced at Xu Mu’an and said, “No need. The spirit plants in those five acres of farmland at home can be harvested. Aside from keeping what we need to eat ourselves, selling the rest should bring in over twenty taels of income. We need to hurry back and harvest them.”
Xu Mu’an nodded and responded, “Mm, I’ll help you.”
“I think our family also needs to buy a soil-turning earthworm.” Previously when there was little land, they could borrow from the village chief’s family. But when he redeemed all those fields, they’d need to use that soil-turning earthworm much more often. Always borrowing from the village chief wouldn’t be proper! Actually, Xiao Jingting also wanted a demon beast for transportation, but with silver being tight right now, a transportation demon beast was just something to think about.
Xiao Jingting thought privately: When the second batch of grapes is grown, things should be more comfortable. That restaurant owner said when the second batch of grapes comes out, he can still sell to him – however much there is, he’ll take it all at the same price as before.
Xu Mu’an nodded and responded, “Mm.” A second-grade soil-turning earthworm with good appearance would cost three to four taels of silver. Xu Mu’an couldn’t help feeling a pang of pain.
Xu Mu’an and Xiao Jingting got on the ox cart. After a while, Qiu Li also came. Unlike his arrogant manner when coming, Qiu Li looked at the two of them with a very strange expression.
Xiao Jingting didn’t want to pay attention to this person and closed his eyes to rest on his own. Xu Mu’an followed suit.
Xu Mu’an walked back into the house and looked at the dozens of bunches of grapes remaining in the courtyard, as if seeing glistening white silver.
“If these grapes were sold…”
“These grapes won’t be sold,” Xiao Jingting interrupted Xu Mu’an’s words. “Good things should naturally be kept for ourselves. These grapes can enhance strength. If you and I eat several bunches each day, we’ll finish them in just a few days. However, we can’t let the children eat them anymore. Fortunately, the spiritual energy in the grapes is relatively gentle. Otherwise, with these two little ones eating so many, problems would have developed long ago.”
Hearing this, Xu Mu’an nodded solemnly and said, “I’ll be careful.” The two children were still too young. Absorbing too much energy would damage their meridians – this couldn’t be taken lightly.
In the evening, Xu Mu’an stayed in his room, gnawing on grapes one by one, his eyes full of excitement.
Xiao Xiaofan clung to Xu Mu’an’s pants, drooling audibly. “Daddy, give me one to eat, just one.”
Xu Mu’an ignored Xiao Xiaofan’s pleading. He had examined Xiao Xiaofan’s meridians – they were all blocked with primordial energy. These days, not only couldn’t Xiao Xiaofan eat grapes, his food portions also had to be halved.
“Go to sleep quickly,” Xu Mu’an urged.
Xiao Xiaofan dejectedly climbed onto the bed, thinking: Daddy became generous, but mother-father became stingy.
Xiao Xiaodong looked at Xu Mu’an’s excited appearance and felt somewhat happy in his heart. In his memory, it had been a long time since Xu Mu’an had been this happy. Xiao Xiaodong remembered grandfather saying that when mother-father was small, he was greedy and always secretly ate things from home.
Thinking about Xiao Jingting next door, Xiao Xiaodong couldn’t help thinking that if daddy could always be like this, that would be wonderful.
After finishing the grapes, Xu Mu’an licked his lips with lingering satisfaction. Thinking that tomorrow he still had to help Xiao Jingting harvest spirit plants, Xu Mu’an climbed into bed early.
