The family thought Shen Song would go dig wild greens to sell the next day, and planned to have Shen Yi'an go along with him—there was no way they'd let Shen Song, a ge’er who had never left the village, go out alone.
To their surprise, Shen Song said he wanted to help the family finish plowing all the fields first before going to dig wild greens to sell.
Shen Song was thinking of using these two days to bless all sixty mu of the family's land with the Blessed Land Technique—he was waiting for a big harvest this year.
The Shen family didn't know this. They thought Shen Song was afraid of them working too hard and wanted to help as much as he could, and they all silently noted how obedient and sensible he was.
Over these two days, the family grew ever more attentive to Shen Song.
Even Li Maizi, Fifth Brother-in-law, who was usually the most timid and afraid to speak to anyone, would actively come over to talk to Shen Song.
"Xiao Ba, you said your head hurts. I—I know some massage techniques. Would you like me to rub it for you?"
Shen Song's headache was caused by excessive depletion of his mental energy. He was lying at the edge of the field resting, his small face deathly pale at the moment.
Li Maizi spoke very softly. Shen Song didn't ask him to speak up, but instead listened more carefully, trying to make out what Li Maizi was saying.
Once he understood, he said gratefully, "Fifth Brother-in-law, please rub it for me. It hurts so much…"
Li Maizi lowered his head and agreed, reaching out to gently massage Shen Song's head. Before long, Shen Song had fallen asleep.
After a nap to recover his energy, Shen Song was lively as ever again, chasing after Li Maizi and grinning widely. "Fifth Brother-in-law, your massage skills are amazing. I don't hurt at all now."
After having his fun, he began secretly using the Blessed Land Technique to infuse the family's fields with spiritual energy.
Fifth Brother Shen Chong watched his youngest brother's busy figure, then turned his head to look at his husband, who was bowing his head and smiling quietly.
A faint smile tugged at his own lips as well, and he bent down to continue working.
Shen Song worked for two days, using the Blessed Land Technique on all sixty mu of the family's land, and now just waited to plant the seeds and see the harvest.
On the third day, Shen Yi'an and Shen Song stayed home together—they were planning to go dig wild greens over by the mountain.
Shen Sanqiu went along to help too. Even if they dug more than they could sell, the family could keep the extra to eat.
Leaving Siping and Wuxi to watch the house was more than enough, so Shen Song took his two nephews, Yi'an and Sanqiu, to the foot of the mountain.
This was the busiest time, and the villagers digging wild greens, seeing the three Shens, still wore expressions of rejection, afraid they might come over.
Shen Song now knew that the villagers disliked their family. Along with their rejection and dislike, there was also fear.
They were afraid that if they really got tainted by contact, they really would be struck with bad luck, really would be poor.
Shen Song needed to use his supernatural ability, and crowds would only hinder its use.
This time he didn't say he was going to dig where the people were, but instead directly led his two nephews to a secluded, shady spot.
"Little Uncle, this place is all bare. The wild greens don't look too good. Are you sure we should dig here?" Shen Yi'an eyed the vegetable patch before them doubtfully.
Shen Song said, "You two dig here first. I'll go look around somewhere else."
Shen Yi'an and Shen Sanqiu both felt uneasy at this. Shen Song assured them, "I definitely won't get lost, and I won't go far. Don't worry."
Hearing Shen Song say this, Shen Yi'an hesitated, then said, "All right then. Little Uncle, be careful, and don't go too deep into the mountain. It's dangerous in there."
Shen Song nodded and walked off with his basket on his arm.
He walked a little way toward the mountain, but not too deep.
There were many kinds of wild greens growing on the ground, but Shen Song only recognized the few varieties they usually ate.
He crouched down and used the Blessed Land Technique. In an instant, all the plants within range seemed to transform completely.
On the sparse ground, the vegetation became lush and abundant, and the fresh, grassy fragrance grew noticeably stronger.
Shen Song looked at his handiwork and smiled slightly. Today would be a big harvest, hehe.
"Yi'an! Sanqiu! There are so many wild greens here—come quick!"
Shen Song called the two nephews over. The two of them looked at the ground covered in tender, fresh wild greens and couldn't help rubbing their eyes.
There really were so many.
More than even the most abundant areas outside, and yet this spot didn't get much sunlight. How had they grown so well?
Shen Yi'an and Shen Sanqiu thought about it briefly, then lost interest in pondering further.
The two crouched on the ground and started digging up wild greens with great effort.
Shen Song didn't stay idle either, and the three of them quickly filled their baskets to the brim.
Not everything growing on this land was edible—there were inedible plants too.
Shen Song's supernatural ability couldn't select which plants to grow individually—that was the power of a wood-element ability. His earth-element ability could only make all the plants within an area of land grow or die.
After digging three full baskets, they had harvested nearly all the edible wild greens in this area, and Shen Song prepared to head home.
Shen Yi'an pulled at Shen Song and Shen Sanqiu. "Let's wait until most of the people outside have left before going back. It's best not to let anyone see the wild greens we've dug up."
Shen Song didn't quite understand. "Why can't we let people see them?"
Shen Yi'an explained, "Our wild greens look too good. If people see them and we manage to sell them for money, they'll definitely keep pestering us afterward, asking where we dug them up."
"Can't we just not tell them?" In Shen Song's previous world, he had never encountered such a situation, so he listened to Shen Yi'an attentively.
Shen Yi'an shook his head and said it was useless. "Even if we don't tell them, they'll find a way to follow us."
Shen Song wasn't familiar with life here, so he chose to listen to Shen Yi'an.
While they waited, the three of them didn't just stand around doing nothing.
Shen Sanqiu stayed behind to watch over their baskets full of wild greens, while Shen Yi'an climbed a tree to raid bird nests—if there were eggs, they could add a dish to the family's meal.
Other families raised chickens and ducks to some extent, but their family raised nothing at all.
Although most other families also saved up their eggs to sell, at the very least, if they wanted to eat some, they could have one or two.
His family had absolutely none to eat, and there was no way his family would spend copper coins on eggs.
Even when trading for other things, as long as they could barter with goods, they would never use copper coins.
Before he started working in the fields, Shen Yi'an often went into the mountains with his younger brother Shen Erkang to raid bird nests.
Out of ten attempts, he would get lucky at least once and bring eggs home.
But ever since they started working the fields, they couldn't go into the mountains even during the farming off-season—they had to look for work in town or at the county instead.
Shen Yi'an climbed the tree skillfully, focusing on hunting for bird eggs.
Meanwhile, Shen Song walked deeper into the woods.
As he walked, he used the Blessed Land Technique along the way. He couldn't be the one to discover good wild greens every time, or it would arouse suspicion.
Even though he didn't know much about the rules of survival here, he knew that being too different from others would never be a good thing—it would only bring disaster.
Next time they came, Yi'an would be the one to "discover" wild greens growing in other spots, and lead them there to dig.
That way, he wouldn't be suspected of being different from ordinary people.
After setting up several areas with the Blessed Land Technique, Shen Song felt that was enough. Once these were fully dug up, he could switch to other spots later.
When he was done, Shen Song turned his full attention to enjoying the mountain forest scenery.
The trees, flowers, and plants in this forest held an attraction for Shen Song stronger than gold.
In the Interstellar Era, he had never been able to come into contact with trees and plants from this ancient era. Any planet that had them was designated a key protected planet, off-limits to anyone who wasn't a government official.
Shen Song touched a tree one moment, then crouched down to examine the grass the next, keeping himself quite busy.
Without realizing it, he had wandered rather far. Shen Song crouched down to look at a cluster of small white flowers in full bloom when he vaguely sensed a trace of energy somewhere in the forest.
Shen Song closed his eyes and carefully perceived it with his mental energy.
That energy wasn't any kind of supernatural ability energy and carried no harm, but Shen Song couldn't tell exactly what kind of energy it was.
He was rather curious and wanted to follow the faint energy to see what it was. This was the first time he had sensed any energy since his ability had recovered.
Just as the thought formed, he heard Shen Yi'an's voice approaching from a distance.
"Little Uncle, why did you come so deep into the forest? Good thing you didn't go any further. It's spring now—there are lots of beasts in the woods, and plenty of dangers too. Most people have left, so we can head home."
Shen Song got up and followed Shen Yi'an back, glancing over his shoulder toward the depths of the forest along the way.
Forget it. If it's that dangerous, I'll deal with it later.
Going there now would definitely worry everyone.
Back at home, Shen Sanqiu brought out the family's large back basket. He tidied up the wild greens in the baskets a bit so they didn't look so dirty and messy, then arranged them neatly inside the back basket.
Three full baskets of wild greens filled one large back basket exactly.
Shen Song and Shen Yi'an were now heading to town to sell the vegetables.
There were two market times—morning and evening—and the morning market was best, with the most people.
The evening market had fewer people, but it wasn't empty; things just wouldn't sell as well as in the morning.
Shen Song figured that if they didn't sell out today, they'd come early for the morning market tomorrow.
If they did sell out, they'd come back in the evening and dig wild greens by lantern light, then still make the morning market tomorrow.
If sales went well, Shen Song even thought about selling at both the morning and evening markets.
The walk from the Shen family's home to town took a full shichen.
Shen Yi'an wouldn't let Shen Song carry the back basket, saying it was too heavy and he would carry it himself.
Shen Song looked at Shen Yi'an—a lean, wiry boy, about as tall as himself. Only twelve years old, yet he already carried himself like a grown man, especially resembling his father, Shen Jing, always instinctively thinking of everyone in the family.
He thought the back basket was too heavy, so he carried it himself, never once considering that he was still just a child of tender years himself.
Shen Song reached out to steady the back basket from below. Shen Yi'an turned to look, and Shen Song gave him a big grin. "Good nephew, watch the road. Don't trip and fall."
Shen Yi'an's ears turned faintly red. He stared straight ahead and said, a little embarrassed, "Little Uncle, I'm already twelve. Don't coax me like a little kid anymore—it's embarrassing."
"But you really are good and thoughtful," Shen Song said honestly.
Now Shen Yi'an's face turned red too.
He chose to shut his mouth and say nothing, afraid his Little Uncle would come out with something else embarrassing.
The road to town passed through the farmland. Liu Chunxia, working in the fields, saw Shen Song and Shen Yi'an walking over and deliberately came forward to exchange a few words with them.
"Remember, if you can't sell them, just bring them home to eat—no point wasting them either way. Don't stay out too long; it's not safe after dark."
Only after the two of them nodded did Liu Chunxia let them leave.
Plenty of other villagers working in the fields saw Shen Song and Shen Yi'an heading toward town, but most just glanced over once and thought nothing of it.
If anyone else's family passed by, someone in the fields would more or less ask where they were going, and if they needed anything, they would ask them to bring some back.
That was how things worked among villagers.
Shen Song and Shen Yi'an walked the whole stretch of farmland without a single person calling out to them.
The Shen family kept their heads down planting, too preoccupied to pay attention to the silence, all of them focused on getting the spring plowing done properly.
Qingyun Town.
The town's name on the worn wooden archway had become hard to make out, though the inscription on the stone tablet beside it was still somewhat legible.
But for Shen Song and Shen Yi'an, whether the writing had faded or not made no difference at all.
Neither of them could read a single character.
The dirt road in town was not much different from the country roads—uneven, with clear wheel ruts.
There were many stalls and shops on either side of the road.
Some stalls hung banners with writing or pictures on them, so people could see from a distance what was being sold.
The shops along the street hung up signboards, along with wooden plaques and cloth banners, making sure that passersby coming from any direction could spot where the store was.
The hawking cries from the stalls and the shop assistants calling out to customers were endless—the place was bustling.
Shen Song watched a peddler shaking a rattle-drum and crying out his wares. Hanging from his carrying pole were quite a few masks and kites. The wooden chests on his shoulder-poles were stuffed full of rattle-drums, spinning tops, and all sorts of little trinkets, and he was quickly surrounded by children and a few young women and ge’er.
Shen Song found it all novel and momentarily forgot to keep walking.
Then he saw an old man selling malt candy, carrying a weathered wooden chest and hawking along the street: "Malt candy! Malt candy! Sweet and fragrant malt candy!"
Shen Song found it amusing and called out in imitation: "Wild greens! Wild greens! Crisp and tender wild greens!"