“I heard something from the villagers,” Xu Mu’an said uneasily to Xiao Jingting.
“What?” Xiao Jingting asked.
“Our fields are close to the mountain forests. It’s fine to grow ordinary spirit plants, but if we grow high-grade spirit plants, it’s very easy to attract demon beasts from the mountains. Supposedly, demon beasts used to come down the mountain frequently, and the original owner of the farmland was so troubled by the demon beasts that he was forced to sell the fields out of desperation.”
Xiao Jingting: “…” When the Xiao family gave the original owner these fields, were they aware of this situation, unaware, or was it intentional? With the original owner’s temperament, even if he luckily turned over a new leaf and started farming, if what he planted was destroyed by demon beasts, he would probably harbor resentment and abandon himself to despair.
“When we harvested before, there was no situation of demon beast rampage,” Xiao Jingting said.
Xu Mu’an nodded and said, “Yes, but those five acres before were only inferior fields, so the temptation to demon beasts wasn’t great, so…”
“Looks like we need to prepare early…” Farmland was very difficult to buy, and those few acres were rare middle-grade fields. Xiao Jingting really couldn’t bear to give them up.
Xu Mu’an nodded and said, “Mm, but high-grade spirit plants are very difficult to grow. This batch of spirit plants will take at least over a month to grow. Before the spirit plants mature, we don’t need to worry too much.”
“We need to make some traps before those spirit plants mature, so that if demon beasts really come, we won’t be caught off guard,” Xiao Jingting said after pondering.
Xu Mu’an nodded in agreement.
In the following days, Xu Mu’an helped Xiao Jingting with planting. The two spent three to four days finishing all the field planting.
“Little Xu, you’re busy!”
Xu Mu’an looked toward the person approaching. “Aunt Li!”
Li Cuiniang smiled at Xu Mu’an and said, “Little Xu, I heard your household head has been making quite a lot of progress recently, busy farming every day.”
Xu Mu’an nodded and said, “Yes!”
After planting the seeds, Xiao Jingting was so busy his feet barely touched the ground. The spirit plants he grew before were lower grade – accelerating their growth every few days was sufficient. But the spirit plants in the middle-grade fields were different from the previous first and second-grade spirit plants. They needed tending every day. Plus there were the grapes in the courtyard. Since grapes sold well, Xiao Jingting had planted another acre, and also planted more around the front and back of the house than before.
Accelerating third-grade spirit plants required much more spiritual energy than second-grade spirit plants. Every day Xiao Jingting would exhaust nearly all the spiritual energy in his body before returning home.
Seeing Xiao Jingting so busy he was dizzy and seeing stars, while she couldn’t help much, Xu Mu’an felt somewhat guilty.
Xiao Xiaodong could help with some work now, but his cultivation level was too low, so his help was limited.
Aunt Li said, “Little Xu! I heard that all those fields were sold off by your household head! Now he’s planting crops on that land – if the deadline comes and people come to collect the fields, you’ll all have worked for nothing!”
Xiao Jingting had attracted a lot of attention since arriving. A lean camel is still bigger than a horse – although Xiao Jingting was sent here in exile, whatever leaked through the Xiao family’s fingers was enough to make the villagers envious.
After Xiao Jingting arrived, he engaged in eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, and within days had squandered the family fortune clean, selling off all the farmland. Those gossips in the village immediately spread word of Xiao Jingting’s spendthrift behavior throughout the entire village.
Some people in the village even used Xiao Jingting as a cautionary tale, warning their children not to learn from Xiao Jingting.
“The farmland has already been bought back,” Xu Mu’an said indifferently.
“Eh? Bought back?” Aunt Li asked in astonishment.
Xu Mu’an nodded and said, “Yes!”
“Looks like your household head has truly become motivated,” Aunt Li said.
“Yes!” Xu Mu’an smiled.
In the fields, Xiao Jingting drank a mouthful of spirit spring water, rested briefly, and prepared to go home.
Middle-grade fields were different from inferior fields. Previously, when he used acceleration techniques on five acres of inferior fields, his body’s spiritual energy was sufficient. But accelerating just two acres of middle-grade fields nearly exhausted his body’s spiritual energy. Fortunately, he had spirit spring water, which replenished his body’s spiritual energy very quickly.
Xiao Jingting felt that after completely exhausting his spiritual energy and then consuming spirit spring water, his body’s spiritual energy would increase by a considerable margin. During this period, Xiao Jingting had been using this method to improve his strength.
“Time to eat,” Xu Mu’an called when he saw Xiao Jingting return.
The cooking duties had now been completely handed over to Xu Mu’an. Xu Mu’an’s cooking skills weren’t very good, but preparing simple home-style dishes was no problem.
“You’re injured?” Xiao Jingting saw the already bandaged wound on Xu Mu’an’s arm and frowned.
Xu Mu’an smiled and said, “Just a minor injury, nothing serious.” When hunting in the mountains, how could one not get injured? Previously there had been several times when he was hurt much more seriously.
“You went to the back mountain again? Didn’t I tell you not to go?” Xiao Jingting said with some dissatisfaction.
Xu Mu’an smiled faintly and said, “Don’t worry, it’s fine. I only wandered around the outskirts and didn’t go deep.”
Xiao Jingting shook his head and said, “Still be more careful. You’re already injured.”
“I understand. By the way, when I went to the city today to sell game, I arranged long-term grape supply contracts with several major families. Here are the locations of those families and the quantities they need,” Xu Mu’an said.
Xiao Jingting nodded and said, “Mm, very good.”
“How much longer until this batch of grapes matures?” Xu Mu’an asked with excitement.
“Should be another ten days or so,” Xiao Jingting said.
Xu Mu’an lowered his head, his heart full of anticipation. Once this batch of grapes sold, life wouldn’t have to be lived so tightly anymore.
