The next day, we fished out the [Rice Carp] from the water and drained the rice paddies. The carp were put in barrels of fresh water for transportation since merchants and farmers wanted live fish they could breed. Now that the portal network was active, the fish were in great demand from people from all over the world.
“What’s the final count?” I asked Kharli.
She showed me the sheet of paper with today’s tally of the number of fish, their weights, and estimated prices. “It’s better than last autumn’s fish total.”
“Nice. I think I’m rich!” I watched as Shuye’s men loaded the heavy barrels full of water and carp onto the flying ox carts. A single clan member could effortlessly lift a load that would typically take four or five humans to manage. “Looks like we’re almost done here.”
Lari was chatting with the oxcart drivers. Kharli and I walked over to them and made some small talk about the weather while we waited for Mo, who was collecting honey jars with Haoran. Both the carp and honey would be auctioned off, half to the highest bidder, and half for a set amount via a lottery. Shuye was taking care of all that for me, but now that my farm was selling a lot more products, Prince Baiyu advised that I needed a dedicated farm manager. That made a lot of sense, but Shuye refused when I suggested that he resign from the White Tiger clan and become my farm manager instead.
Mo and Haoran arrived with the honey, they finished loading up the carts, and Shuye came to check everything before they set off.
“Nice day for flying,” I said to my Farm Guide as I handed him my usual gift of a [Crocus] flower. “How’s your family?”
“Thriving. I’ve hung the lucky charm you gave me on the ceiling above the cradle,” said Shuye. He was in plain brown cotton work clothes today. The robes had shorter, narrower sleeves compared with his usual attire, but it was otherwise the same. “I saw the tea field today. Looks like you’ll have a higher quality product this year.”
I folded my hands together and looked up at the sky in an attitude of prayer. “If all goes well, I can make double the money from last year.”
“I’m sure you will,” he said.
Seeing that we were done with our greetings, my apprentices then stepped forward to offer theirs. After that, Lari asked me for permission to fly with them to Anwei, the nearest city, where Prince Baiyu was waiting for the merchandise to be unloaded at the White Tiger clan’s warehouse. I agreed and suggested Kharli and Mo go with them, too. Shuye promised to bring them back well before sunset.
“Bye, take care! Don’t forget to bring me back some snacks!” I waved to them as they flew off. Of course, the Demon Chef’s skills were unparalleled, but it was still nice to eat street food sometimes.
Once they left, I went to the main house to ask for a packed lunch and left to do some Foraging on my own. Whereas one could Fish in the same spot with many people without any problems since, apparently, Fish spawned in the waters endlessly, Foraging was a different matter. If a certain spot had wild herbs in it, for example, each herb could only be plucked by one person, and it would take days or weeks for it to respawn. Thus, Foraging was best done solo.
I went to Cutie’s [Slime House] first.
“Cutie, my love! It’s time for walkies. This time it’s just you, me, and Mr. Bear.”
“Chu.” Cutie merrily bounced along after me.
Since it was a nice spring day, I bought the green [Lucky Clover Costume] from the Cash Shop for my puppet. He looked quite dashing in it.
[Lucky Clover Costume:
This dapper ensemble, featuring a green waistcoat and a white shirt, is topped off with a top hat adorned with a lucky four-leaf clover that’s said to bring an extra sprinkle of fortune to any bear who wears it.]
I put on a hat, and with Mr. Bear beside me and Cutie bouncing everywhere and poking every little flower with her tentacles, we walked north of the farm, away from the river and deeper into the forest surrounding Emberstone Farm.
The leaves on the ground were slightly damp, but I was used to it and was wearing good walking boots. The dirt path that I traveled was shaded by a thick canopy of leaves above me. A light breeze moved through the branches, making them sway gently. I could hear birds singing from different directions, though I couldn't see most of them. Pretty wildflowers grew along the trail, which excited Cutie to no end. The air felt warm on my skin, but it wasn’t hot yet since summer was still more than two weeks away.
Ferns grew thick around the base of the bigger trees, and I Foraged a nice bounty of them, filling two baskets.
“Chu,” Cutie called out to me, directing my attention to a patch of [Chamomile] flowers.
[Chamomile:
Touched by the soft glow of moonlight, chamomile possesses a natural tranquility. When infused into food or made into tea, it can quiet the most turbulent thoughts and soothe a troubled heart.]
I walked past a bunch of blackberry bushes growing along the edge of a sunny spot. The thorny canes were covered with small white flowers, and I could see tiny green berries just starting to form where some of the flowers had already fallen off. I made a mental note of their location. The berries should be ready by summer.
I kept my eyes on the fallen logs we passed by. Near a rotting stump, I found a cluster of oyster mushrooms. They were pale gray with white undersides, and I used the System to harvest the best of the younger ones, leaving the older, tougher ones behind.
At the edge of a clearing, I saw a patch of wild strawberries, their small, white flowers already present, alongside tiny green berries just beginning to form. I bent down and picked a few of the ripe red ones.
“Chu…” Cutie seemed disappointed by the tiny flowers on the wild strawberry plants.
“Cheer up, I’m sure you found a lot of flowers today!”
We walked further along the path, with me Foraging as many wild plants as I could. Eventually, just as I predicted, we came across a true prize. A thick patch of wild rose bushes, covered in pink blossoms, were growing along the edge of where the forest met a small meadow. I looked for a smaller bush that was growing a little apart from the main cluster and used the System to dig it up, roots and all, and transplanted it into a plant pot.
By this time, the sun was high in the sky, and it was time for lunch.
Untying the cloth that wrapped it, I opened the fancy lacquered box that contained my meal. The rich aroma of ginger and soy immediately wafted up, making my stomach rumble in anticipation.
Ignoring the porcelain chopsticks that were included, I used a fork from my inventory to pick up the steamed pork dumplings first. The moment I bit into one, the savory juices burst forth, mingling with the subtle sweetness of the pork and the sharp fresh taste of the scallions.
Next, I savored the stir-fried noodles, glistening with a light sauce. They were perfectly al dente, still possessing a pleasant chew, and intertwined with slivers of tender chicken and crisp snap peas.
Lastly, there was a small portion of red-cooked pork with plain white rice that was leftovers from last night. The rice paired perfectly with the tender strips of pork that had been braised in soy sauce and wine until they fell apart at the gentlest touch.
There was no dessert included since I had told Fengying I had some of my own. I bit into an apple that was wonderfully juicy and sweet yet with a pleasant tartness that cleansed my palate after the rich meal.
Then I returned to the house for an afternoon nap.
***
Two days later, it was time to harvest the crops. At sunrise, Deming led his assistants in a ritual in which they circled the tea field chanting prayers and burned incense to ensure a good harvest.
Now that they were done, it was time for me and my apprentices to start our work.
The planting season lasted for two weeks, which meant that the crops that were planted the earliest had two weeks of extra growth time compared to the rest. Therefore, it was logical for players to prioritize either crops that gave the most exp or those that sold for the most money. I did the same, except that it was a tradition for us to always plant and harvest potatoes first. It was our favorite vegetable. In fact, right now my apprentices were singing a song about the tuber while my household staff watched and laughed.
Prince Baiyu stood beside me, silently observing everything with a smile on his face. Scholar Wu was finding it hard to control her laughter.
“Potato. Potato. Potato. Mashed potatoes. Fried potatoes. Roast potatoes. Potato Soup! My potato is a potato!”
They were really into it, and they even had dance steps that mimed peeling, slicing, and cooking the tuber to go along with the potato song. All it lacked was potato costumes.
“Bravo! Bravo!” This was a nonsense word to them, but they were used to me speaking gibberish.
I clapped and they bowed. Then we spread out and started harvesting the potato field. In the past, we could manually harvest, but these days we simply had too many crops, and it would take all day to do that, leaving us exhausted and with no time to rest. Thus, we always used the System for automatic harvesting except for the very first one.
Putting on my gardening gloves to protect my hands, I loosened the soil around a plant with a spading fork before using a spade to dig under it until I was able to lift the potatoes out from the ground. Yinuo helped me cut the potato itself from the rest of the plant, and I brushed the soil off it. It was the size of my palm and a lovely golden brown color.
I showed it to Prince Baiyu and Scholar Wu. “I don’t know if it’s worth singing about, but I think it tastes nice.”
My apprentices and I then handed our haul to Fengying. We will be eating those potatoes later this evening in a special dish that I had requested, pommes boulangère, aka baker’s potatoes.
The rest of the plant, sometimes called the crop residue, went into my inventory since it could be used either for compost or to make feed for the animals later. Scholar Wu told me that many plants, including the potato, were not safe for animals to eat, but presumably the System processes the toxic stuff out of the residue to make into feed or compost.
“Congratulations on your harvest,” said Prince Baiyu.
“Congratulations,” said Scholar Wu.
Fengying and the maids, along with Deming and his assistants likewise congratulated us, and most of them left. A few, mostly the younger, more curious ones, stayed on to watch us. I guess since there was no internet or television here, people were bored and liked to observe our use of the System.
“Okay kids, now let’s all get that exp!” I said.
This time, we used the System to harvest the field. All we had to do was gently use a spade from our toolbelt, and the System did the rest. The potatoes appeared in one space in our inventories while another space was filled by the crop residue. This took only a few seconds per plant, which meant we were done in a few minutes since the potato field wasn’t that large.
“Now for the tea!” We were leaving the rice for last to give the rice grains time to dry out. The tea, on the other hand, was better harvested as fresh as possible.
We all trooped to the area where the tea was planted. Shuye arrived right when we were about to get started. He’d sent word yesterday that he would arrive a little late since he had a lot of preparations to make. The vegetables would be for the farm’s larder, but the tea needed to be sent to the tea workshops that Deming recommended. The freshly plucked tea leaves could theoretically be used as is, but normally they had to be processed, and I wanted to outsource all the tedious work of drying, steaming, cutting, rolling, fermenting, etc, involved. Shuye was currently in charge of making sure that happened.
“The contracts for the tea have been signed,” said Shuye after we exchanged greetings. “But the real reason I was late is because I received word that Willow Bend village’s Jade Cauldron has finally awakened and will be ready to use in six weeks. I flew there right away and secured invitations for you.”
I was about to ask him what the cauldron was when a System pop-up appeared.
[Event notice: You’re invited to the Booyah! Join the local Booyah cooking community event for a special reward.]