As day turned to night and the sun and moon exchanged places, the rapeseed flowers in Lin Manor began to bloom in earnest.
When the morning mist turned into the first drop of dew, Qiao Yue was already up early, carrying a beehive on his back, leading the swarm of bees to the vicinity of Lin Manor. This place was a feng shui treasure for beekeeping, with mountains and water in harmony, accompanied by forests, and fields full of golden rapeseed flowers.
As soon as Qiao Yue opened the beehive, the bees wobbled out, not yet realizing they had been moved, and flapped their transparent wings, flying towards the rapeseed fields.
The bees would take about ten days to gather enough nectar to make honey. During this time, the beehive remained open, and the bees would return to the hive after collecting nectar from the rapeseed flowers. However, at the beginning, it was necessary to observe the bees’ nectar-gathering situation to adjust the position of the beehive. Qiao Yue, feeling quite bored, stretched lazily and decided to run to the mountain stream.
He casually pulled some vines to weave a fish basket, broke some bread crumbs into it, and tossed it into the river. The fish basket was crudely made, likely unable to catch big fish, but it might snag some palm-sized small fish.
After setting the fish basket, Qiao Yue found himself with nothing to do again, so he started fiddling with the Lingbao System.
It had been a while since he last drew a card. Recently, he had been busy bonding with Fang Chuyue, and during that time, he only drew cards twice, obtaining two blue cards. Now that he finally found some time alone, with no one around, Qiao Yue immediately got to it.
The Mantou Card was used up as soon as it was drawn, long since eaten clean.
Apart from the beehive, Qiao Yue hadn’t tried using the other cards yet. He had a card for “Happy Fat House Water,” “Sailor’s Special Spinach,” and the ones he drew later, “Little White Rabbit’s Milk Candy” and “Fragrant Kiln Chicken.”
Qiao Yue swallowed his saliva while looking at the Kiln Chicken card.
He realized that nothing produced by the Lingbao System was bad. If he took it out at home, it would probably be discovered by the main house immediately.
But he couldn’t bring himself to sneakily eat it alone, hiding from his little dad and the others.
Qiao Yue put away the Kiln Chicken and Spinach cards.
Happy Fat House Water… what a strange name, Qiao Yue complained a bit, but despite his words, he used it—inside the transparent bottle was a black liquid, which appeared reddish-brown in the sunlight, not as scary as it seemed, and it was indeed bubbling inside.
Hiss, can this be drunk? Could it be poison?
Moreover, the material of this bottle was strange, something he had never seen before—transparent, elastic, and resilient.
Qiao Yue thought about the previous card introductions, examined it for a while, and twisted open the cap with a “zz” sound.
It smelled sweet, and Qiao Yue’s eyes lit up as he poured a mouthful into his mouth.
The bubbles burst and fizzed on his tongue, making it slightly numb, sweet and stimulating, so much so that his scalp tingled and his whole body trembled. Qiao Yue really liked this sweet water and drank several more mouthfuls, turning into a lively monkey jumping back and forth in the mountain stream.
After drinking a fifth of it, Qiao Yue burped and finally couldn’t drink anymore.
He looked at the bottle, still with so much left, and felt troubled.
What to do with this? The bottle couldn’t be seen by others, and he couldn’t just throw it away. If only he could put it back.
As soon as the thought occurred, the card that had disappeared after taking the item reappeared. Qiao Yue held the card in his hand and noticed that the function description had changed.
[Blank Card]
Function Description: Can use the card to store one item. Note: 1. Cannot store living things; 2. One card can only store one type of item, for example, a grain of rice and a soybean need to be stored separately.
Qiao Yue’s hand trembled slightly as he pressed the card against the black sweet water, and the blank card immediately turned into [Partially Drunk Happy Fat House Water].
Qiao Yue was thrilled, thinking about the four blank cards he hadn’t used yet, feeling overjoyed.
Simple words couldn’t express his excitement. At this moment, he envied the monkeys in the mountain stream, who could swing back and forth when happy, using all their strength to express their excitement.
Qiao Yue turned to the next card.
The milk candy was rich and sweet, and he ate several in one go, leaving about ten outside, and stored the rest back with the card.
With a heart full of excitement and joy, Qiao Yue ran back to check on the bees in the hive. Everything was fine, so he covered the hive, pulled out the fish basket, and prepared to head home with three palm-sized fish.
On the way, Qiao Yue hummed a tuneless melody.
The little tune either shattered in mid-air or drifted far away, intermittently, like a ghost wailing.
…
After the engagement was settled, Fang Chuyue didn’t stay cooped up at home all day. Early in the morning, while the sun wasn’t too hot, he put on a straw hat and went out with his father.
The two weren’t going to the fields but to buy paddy fields.
The Fang family only had four acres of land, three acres of paddy fields, and one acre of dry land. The output from the paddy fields was clearly not enough for the family to live on.
Back when the Li family gave them fifty taels to dismiss them, Fang Chuyue hid most of it, telling others it was ten taels. Then he directly found someone to repair the house, went to the county to buy a donkey and a cart, and bought an iron pot, quilts, cotton clothes, and various things they needed but couldn’t afford before, spending the ten taels clean.
Even so, there were people constantly thinking about borrowing money from them, and his parents were honest. If he hadn’t hidden the money, it might have been lent out.
If he married into the county and couldn’t take care of the family regularly, no matter how much money he left, they wouldn’t be able to keep it. Therefore, Fang Chuyue planned to buy a few acres of paddy fields, whether to rent them out or farm them himself. If there was an urgent need, he could sell them to Landlord Lin at a lower price.
Now that he was marrying into the village, buying paddy fields wasn’t urgent, but a few days ago, he heard someone was suddenly selling paddy fields, so he discussed with his father to go take a look.
If the price was normal, they would buy it; if it was too high, they wouldn’t.
This matter couldn’t be announced in advance, so when people asked where they were going, Fang Chuyue just laughed it off.
“Father, why is that person selling the land?”
It was strange because they hadn’t heard of anyone wanting to sell land in the village before. Land was their root, and unless something happened at home, people wouldn’t sell land. Only the Qiao family had sold several acres in recent years to support Qiao Xingsheng’s imperial exams.
They sold quite a bit of land, but the family still had ten acres of paddy fields, not all of which were good fields, but not bad either. Unlike their family, which had less than five acres in total.
Father Fang said, “The Zhou family’s three brothers went into the mountains to catch wild boars, but they ended up provoking two wolf cubs. Although the three of them managed to kill the wolf cubs, Zhou Daqing’s leg was bitten to shreds.”
“I heard that when they were sent to the clinic, he was still talking and laughing. But now he’s running a high fever and not doing well.”
Fang Chuyue winced at the thought.
Indeed, hunting wasn’t something you could just do casually. One wrong move, and the money earned from hunting might not only be gone, but they might also have to sell their land.
When they arrived at the Zhou family, Zhou Tiezhu saw them and quickly said, “Brother Fang, you’re finally here? I won’t waste your time. Twelve taels for an acre of top-grade paddy field, twenty-two taels for two acres together. If you want them, we can go to the county office today to transfer the ownership.”
The Zhou family had been hunters for generations, but Zhou Tiezhu, being sociable, got to know people in the government through hunting, spent money to change their household registration, and bought a few acres of land, finally living a stable life farming.
His three sons, however, were impatient with farming and always wanted to sneak into the mountains to hunt.
Going into the mountains often, they eventually encountered danger, and this time they ran into wolf cubs.
The doctor at the clinic said he was in bad shape.
Zhou’s wife cried and knelt on the ground when she heard it. Her eldest son was just over twenty, and her grandson was only three. How could they face such a disaster!
“If we amputate the leg, there might be a chance of survival, but it would cost at least fifty taels. If we don’t, we can only bring him home. You need to decide quickly; the longer you wait, the less hope he has.”
Fifty taels was just the cost to keep him alive. After that, he would need a long period of recovery and medication, which would cost seventy to eighty taels in total.
Zhou Tiezhu’s eyes were red, but he didn’t dare to collapse like his wife. He looked at Zhou Daqing lying on the bed and finally made a decision.
Twenty-two taels, plus the family’s savings, made sixty taels, which should be enough for now.
Twelve taels per acre for top-grade paddy fields was an honest price.
If it weren’t the Fang family visiting today, Zhou Tiezhu wouldn’t have offered this price.
Father Fang thought the price was fair and turned to look at Fang Chuyue.
If it weren’t for the current dire situation and his son’s uncertain fate, Zhou Tiezhu would have rolled his eyes. A man of the house buying paddy fields, yet it was the family’s brother making the decision.
Zhou Tiezhu looked at Fang Chuyue, who didn’t put on airs and quickly took out the money to go with Zhou Tiezhu to the county office to transfer the ownership.
In the afternoon, Fang Chuyue was delighted with the newly acquired land deed.
“What are you looking at so intently? Is it a love letter from your lover? Oh, cousin, look at my memory, I forgot you’ve already gotten engaged to the lazy man at the village head, hahaha!”
Fang Chuyue quickly put away the deed and looked coldly at the girl in the neighboring yard.
“Maybe you have a lover? I remember you haven’t gotten engaged yet, talking about lovers all the time… tsk tsk tsk…”
“I don’t have a lover!” Fang Xiaoxiao was so embarrassed, she immediately looked around, afraid someone might see.
After a while, “Cousin, my dad brought me a hairpin today. Isn’t it pretty? How about I wear it for a few days and then give it to you? Otherwise, when you marry the lazy man, you might not even get to wear a hairpin.”
Fang Xiaoxiao showed off the hairpin on her head, “kindly” offering.
Just then, Qiao Yue, who was planning to give Fang Chuyue a couple of milk candies, overheard, “The hairpin on your head is indeed pretty, but only the hairpin is.”
“Oh, isn’t this my cousin’s fiancé?” Fang Xiaoxiao heard this and wanted to run over from next door, shouting, “Cousin, did you hear that? Your fiancé said it’s pretty.”
Fang Chuyue: “…”
Qiao Yue lowered his voice and asked, “Your cousin… seems a bit…”
Fang Chuyue was silent for a moment, “Ignore her, she’ll figure it out later.” By then, she’d be jumping up and down, shouting.
Qiao Yue nodded, feeling no guilt for teasing the foolish, since she started it with her sharp tongue.
He peeled a milk candy and held it to Fang Chuyue’s mouth, “Try it, is it good?”
Fang Chuyue gently took the milk candy into his mouth, the rich milk flavor spreading in his mouth, his already bright black eyes sparkling even more, “It’s delicious.”
Seeing he liked it, Qiao Yue gave him two more.
He had twelve candies in total, three for each person, just right.