The roads were hard to walk at night, and there were no lanterns or torches, so the five of them moved carefully.
At the foot of the mountain, they found a patch of wild greens by the moonlight.
The wild greens had been mostly dug up already, so Liu Chunxia and the others could only pick through what the others had left behind.
Liu Chunxia reminded Shen Song, "Song-ge’er, don't stray too far. Stay close to your mother."
Shen Song nodded and said okay. He looked around—the light was dim. He walked a bit outward, keeping a moderate distance from Liu Chunxia, then squatted down and used the Blessed Land Technique.
Energy passed through his palm into the soil.
Shen Song transformed five square meters of soil, making it more fertile and full of energy.
If energy were put another way, it would be spiritual energy.
The Blessed Land Technique consumed a lot of energy, and Shen Song felt dizzy, so he quickly stopped. He wiped his sweat and watched the wild greens within the area beneath his feet multiply more and more.
They had all just sprouted from the ground, looking tender and fresh.
Shen Song turned his head and called out, "Mom, sisters-in-law, there are so many wild greens here! Come dig them up quickly!"
Hearing Shen Song's voice, all four came over to take a look.
The four of them thought that when Shen Song said "many," he just meant a bit more than the spot they'd been at before. But when they looked—good heavens, the place was densely packed with them!
"Aiyo, how did those people digging for wild greens miss this patch?" Xu Hongmei crouched down with a face full of smiles. If they dug all of these, they could head straight home without having to search all over the foot of the mountain for wild greens. She was overjoyed.
Zhou Gu, the husband of the second Shen son, didn't dig. He pinched off two stalks with his fingers and said in some surprise, "They're all so tender and crisp—they snap right off. These wild greens are great!"
Li Maizi, who had kept his head down and rarely spoke, looked at the vegetables in his hand with some delight too. "These vegetables really are good."
Zhou Gu dug away while teasing, "We should thank these fine vegetables, otherwise the fifth son's husband wouldn't have said a single word all day today. Everyone says my man is a tight-lipped gourd, a silent lump, but I say the real quiet ones in this family are Maizi and Song-ge’er."
Then he went "oh" and added, "No wait, now it's just you who's quiet. Song-ge’er isn't like you anymore—he's clever and talkative these days."
Li Maizi kept his head down, silently digging vegetables, and went quiet again.
Zhou Gu tilted his head to look at him. "Maizi-ge’er, you're not mad at me, are you? You know I can't hold my tongue—I say whatever pops into my head. I wasn't badmouthing you."
Li Maizi shook his head and said in a tiny voice, "I'm not mad, Second Brother-in-law."
Zhou Gu had to lean his ear practically against Li Maizi before he could hear what he said, and it made him sigh a long while.
"Fine, fine, fine, I'll stop talking. Your voice is so tiny like a mosquito's, it takes forever just to hear you."
Liu Chunxia gave a light cough. "That's enough, hurry up and dig. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home."
"Yes, Mom!" Zhou Gu answered cheerfully and dug away briskly.
Shen Song watched them from the side, listening to their chatter, finding it quite delightful.
The Shen family here was also a big household, but compared to his previous family, there were far, far too few people.
In the Shen family of the Interstellar Era, he alone had over thirty blood siblings, and there were even more on his parents' generation.
But even though his former family had so many members, they had never gathered together like this, talking like this.
He hadn't even recognized all of his own blood siblings.
For one, they met too rarely; for another, the age gaps were too large.
In the Interstellar Era, he and his eldest brother were a full hundred years apart.
He wasn't even sure what his eldest brother looked like—he had only ever seen photographs.
The wild greens were quickly dug up, and the five of them stuffed their big baskets full.
On the way back, Shen Song carried his basket brimming with wild greens, looking up at the bright moon.
A gentle evening breeze blew, and the moon hung on the branches.
The night scenery was just as beautiful.
Shen Song was delighted to confirm that his supernatural ability worked.
Using the Blessed Land Technique directly on land where crops were growing could accelerate their growth, but in that case, the spiritual energy of the Blessed Land Technique would be entirely absorbed by the crops—it was a one-time effect.
If used on land without crops, the spiritual energy of the Blessed Land Technique would nourish the soil, making the crops that grew from it better and more abundant.
In this case, the amount of spiritual energy was certainly less than what would be absorbed directly by crops, but with long-term use, the energy would accumulate, and gradually the same effect could be achieved.
Shen Song decided that tomorrow, when he went to work in the fields, he would secretly use the Blessed Land Technique on his family's land.
It was almost planting season, after all.
Before sowing, he could bless all sixty mu of the family's land.
Early the next morning, Shen Sanqiu got up early to light the stove and cook.
There wasn't much food at home, and the two meals each day were always the same.
On days when they worked in the fields, they ate two meals: in the morning, wild-vegetable balls, eaten heartily, or else they'd feel weak with hunger by noon.
In the evening, boiled wild greens, a bit thinner.
Normally, Shen Sanqiu would prepare the morning's wild-vegetable balls the day before, so they only needed reheating in the morning.
But the wild greens had run out yesterday. The previous two days, the family had been too exhausted from spring plowing, and there hadn't been enough then, so he hadn't brought it up for the time being.
Since his little uncle had gone along to work in the fields, he didn't have to keep watch at home all the time. He had Wuxi and Siping stay home to watch their younger brother, while he himself avoided the crowd and went to dig wild greens at the foot of the mountain at midday.
Each time, he only dug enough for two meals. He hadn't dug much yesterday, so there weren't enough wild greens to make wild-vegetable balls the next day.
It just so happened that the family wasn't as tired as before, and they needed to stock up on more wild greens anyway, so he told the adults he was going to dig wild greens.
Shen Sanqiu got up early to prepare the wild greens, marveling as he worked.
Why were these wild greens so good!
When the family had gone digging before, because they went too late, all that was left were rather old vegetables.
When he dug at midday himself, there were hardly any good ones, many of them wilted from the sun.
The wild greens in his hands now not only had a fresh, clean fragrance, but after sitting overnight, they were still especially fresh, crisp, and tender.
Just looking at them made them seem delicious.
Shen Sanqiu thought that when Grandma and the others got up, he would ask where they had been dug, and he would go dig some more there today.
The wild-vegetable balls were made fresh and steamed right away, so it didn't take much time.
Soon, the big iron pot began to steam. Shen Sanqiu tended the firewood, smelling the fresh fragrance slowly filling the thatched shed, and kept lifting his head to sniff.
It smelled so good.
It was like the scent of grass after rain, though not as strong—just faint and delicate.
He lifted the round bamboo-woven lid from the iron pot. Steam billowed out, and the fragrance of the wild-vegetable balls grew even richer.
Shen Sanqiu had been making wild-vegetable balls for a long time, but this was the first time he had ever smelled such a fragrant aroma. He couldn't help swallowing.
He dipped his hands in cold water, then quickly picked the wild-vegetable balls off the bamboo steaming tray into an earthenware basin.
He soon picked out all thirty-two wild-vegetable balls. His stomach rumbled and growled, and the whole time he kept swallowing frantically.
The wild greens dug last night were simply too good. Just from the smell, they seemed fragrant and delicious.
Those of the Shen family who had to work in the fields got up quickly, chewed on a willow twig to brush their teeth a couple of times, rinsed their mouths, and washed their faces.
When they were done, they sat down at the table and, as usual, picked up the wild-vegetable balls from the clay basin.
Zhou Gu held a wild-vegetable ball that had cooled for a while. It wasn't hot, so he bit right into it.
After just two bites, Zhou Gu stared in surprise at the ball in his hand, his mouth chewing nonstop.
How could these wild-vegetable balls be so delicious!
The wild greens had no bitter or astringent taste, and there was even a faint sweetness at the end of each bite. It was just that the wheat bran inside was really dry and made it hard to swallow.
The others in the Shen family also noticed how tasty today's wild-vegetable balls were. Liu Chunxia even called out to Shen Sanqiu, asking what he had added to the wild-vegetable balls today.
Shen Sanqiu said it was the same as before, just a tiny bit of salt. "It must be the wild greens. When I was preparing them today, I noticed they were still really fresh."
As he spoke, Shen Sanqiu brought the wild greens over. The Shen family members were all stunned when they saw them—they hadn't expected vegetables left out overnight to still be so plump and tender, without the slightest sign of wilting.
Shen Song also hadn't expected the Blessed Land Technique to be this powerful. When he used the Blessed Land Technique in the Interstellar Era, it couldn't make crops taste better.
He thought it over and concluded that crops here could naturally grow on their own. In the Interstellar Era, crops needed massive amounts of energy to be forced into growth—everything required energy.
Here, crops only needed a limited amount of energy, so the surplus energy went into improvement instead.
By a happy accident, the flavor had become better.
Shen Song couldn't stop eating. So delicious—this was what true delicacy meant!
Zhou Gu looked at the wild greens his ge’er was holding. When they dug them up yesterday, there wasn't much light, but he could tell from the feel that they were good, and they looked good too.
Now, in broad daylight, he actually felt that these, dug up and left out overnight, looked even better than the fresh, tender wild greens still growing in the fields.
"I have to say, the wild greens we dug up last night are really something. My elder brother from my maternal family once said that when he went to the county town, those famous fine restaurants would specifically buy wild greens."
"It's all the wealthy families in the county town eating them for the novelty and freshness. Apparently they sell for a very high price."
Zhou Gu's elder brother was a cook at a restaurant in the town, so he often went to the county town to see what dishes were popular there. His employer would give him plenty of silver to go taste them, but once he tasted them, he had to figure out how to recreate them.
The flavor didn't need to be identical—those were secret recipes that others wouldn't share—but it at least had to be somewhat similar.
Because his employer was willing to spend the money, although the restaurant had no signature dishes of its own, any popular dish from the county town could be made there as long as a customer ordered it.
The taste wasn't as good as in the county town, but the county town's prices were high too.
People in the town wanted to try famous dishes but didn't have that much silver, so they came to eat at their restaurant instead.
Even people in the county town did the same thing—after all, not everyone there was rich.
The Shen family all knew about the skills and experience of Zhou Gu's elder brother, so if he said so, it must be true.
Zhou Gu ate his wild-vegetable ball while looking at the wild greens, and spoke bluntly: "Though I've never seen what the wild greens supplied to the big restaurants in the county town look like, I think the ones we dug this time are really fresh and lovely. If we took them to sell, they'd surely fetch a good price."
He had never seen such fine wild greens!
They looked good, and they tasted good too.
Zhou Gu spoke directly and quickly.
Most of the time, he just said whatever was on his mind, which could easily lead to misunderstandings.
Zhou Gu had only meant to compliment how well the wild greens had been gathered, and the rest of the Shen family didn't take it seriously.
They knew that people in the city, who had no land of their own, delivered vegetables grown in their own fields to restaurants and taverns. But wild greens could be found everywhere in the countryside—no matter how expensive the dishes made from them might be, the wild greens themselves wouldn't sell for much.
Zhou Gu's words, however, stuck in Shen Song's mind.
An idea struck him—of course! He could supply ingredients!
The crops produced by the Blessed Land Technique all contained energy. By the standards of this world, that meant they were infused with spiritual energy!
Not only were they delicious, but eating them over time would even benefit one's health.
Shen Song's eyes gleamed. It seemed he had found a way to get rich and improve his life!