Chapter 52 - I'm not lion, this rice is the mane event of this season

🙞❤︎🙜

Just before midnight, my disciples and the staff returned with their loot. Fengying and Deming had bought a lot of new knives and porcelain, while the assistant cooks and maids had purchased clothes, accessories, and shoes. Lari, Kharli, and Mo brought back an eccentric mix of practical items like clothes, cosmetics, jewelry, books, and so forth, along with silly bric-a-brac like feathers and wax flowers in a box, painted eggshells, and talismans that didn’t really do anything. I instructed them to go to bed and spend the next day resting, because the day after tomorrow was the first day of the planting season, and I wanted them to refill their energy bars completely.

Two days later, a newly cleared field lay before us, a blank canvas waiting to be transformed by the magic of seeds and the System.

“This is your second planting season, so you already know what to do. This time we will be planting rice. I’m sure you’ve noticed that our way of farming is different from other people’s. Rice cultivation normally involves planting seedlings, but we will be planting seeds instead,” I said. “Do you remember the first thing that we have to do?”

Kharli said, “We have to plow the field.”

“Correct. Since we all know what to do, let’s start.”

We took out our hoes from the System toolbelt and used it to strike the ground. I could now plow eight squares at a time, while my apprentices could manage three. Out of all the farming activities, plowing the fields was the most energy-intensive. It didn’t take long before the three of them were all exhausted. Mo misjudged her energy level and collapsed.

“Well, that’s it for her today, tomorrow, and probably the day after, too.” I shook my head and sighed. “Lari, run to the house and tell them to bring a plank of wood or something you guys can use to carry her back to her room.”

“Oh no, will it really take her three days to recover?” asked Kharli. She smoothed Mo’s hair back from her forehead.

“We’ll see.”

I had more energy than them, so I continued using my hoe. By the time I finished, one-fifth of the field was ready for planting. I got an open sack of organic fertilizer from my inventory and waved it over the area of tilled soil. The contents flew out of the sack and automatically covered the nearest eight squares. Then I got some rice seeds and put them in a seed dispenser. I simply held the seeder above the fertilized soil and twenty-four seeds flew out from the tip, three per square, and embedded themselves in the soil. I was almost out of energy when I got out my watering can and watered the squares.

“That’s it, I’m almost completely out of energy. How about you?” I asked Kharli.

“I have this much left.” She held her thumb and forefinger a millimeter apart.

“Then let’s rest.”

She sat down on the ground in a lotus position, while I laid down on my back, using my conical farmer’s hat to cover my face to protect it from the sun. A few minutes later, Lari appeared with Haoran, one of the Demon Chef’s assistants. They hadn’t been able to find a spare plank of wood long enough to carry Mo on, so they had brought a bedsheet instead. They folded it in half lengthwise and placed the girl on it, then carried her back to the house, while Kharli followed behind them.

“Kharli, put her in her room and stay with her until she regains consciousness. You know the drill. When she wakes up, you guys should eat a good meal, then spend some time in the hot spring to recover your energy. Go to sleep early tonight, and let’s continue with the planting tomorrow,” I said.

“Yes, teacher,” said Lari and Kharli.

“And don’t collapse like Mo did!”

“She’s going to be really upset when she wakes up and realizes she missed all the fun,” said Lari.

“Not to mention all that exp,” added Kharli.

“Right, so you should all be more careful.” I took a handkerchief from my pocket and wiped my face and neck. “I’m so sweaty. I think I’ll go shower.”

We spent the rest of the day recovering our energy, and continued to till the soil, fertilize it, and plant seeds for the next few days until we had finished planting the first field.

Four days later, I surveyed the fruits of our labor with satisfaction. The seeds had sprouted, and the System now instructed me to flood the field.

“All right, everyone, we’ll go to the second place near the river to plant more rice, but when we're done there, we’ll have to go back here to start flooding this field,” I said.

“Teacher, can’t we just flood it now?” asked Lari.

“No, because we need to control the flow of the water so that it doesn’t wash the rice seedlings away. It will take at least a couple of hours, probably the rest of the day, to finish flooding this area.” I wouldn't have known this information myself if the System hadn’t given me detailed instructions on how to grow rice. “Let’s go to the second field.”

The other location was closer to the river than this one. The soil there was darker and moister, and I thought it would be good to try different locations to check if a particular one was better for growing rice.

When we finished our work on the second field, we went back to the first one, and I used the System’s irrigation tool to dig a shallow channel from the nearest branch of the river to the rice paddy, complete with an irrigation gate that allowed me to control the flow of water.

“I guess we’ll have to stay here and monitor the process. Someone go to the house and tell them that we’ll be eating here.”

Mo volunteered. Ever since she had collapsed on the first day of planting season and missed two days of work, she had been quite eager to prove that she was useful. She went off to tell Fengying the news while the rest of us sat down under a nearby tree. I had set the water to very slowly trickle out into the field, and we anxiously watched to make sure that the newly-planted rice seedlings weren’t disturbed.

“Wait a minute! Teacher, doesn’t this mean that we won’t need to water the plants? We won’t get any exp?” asked Kharli.

“I was wondering when you guys would figure that out. This is exactly why I didn’t plant rice before.”

“Eh, it’s fine, isn’t it? Rice is much more valuable than corn or wheat,” said Lari.

“I suppose so…” Kharli didn’t sound convinced.

“Remember that the Lady of the West requested it,” I said. “By the way, I forgot to tell you that for the second field, I’m thinking of planting red and black rice.”

“Black rice?! Who would eat that?” Lari screwed up his face in disgust.

“It’s not common here?”

“I’ve never seen it.” Lari’s tone of voice indicated that he was glad that he had never encountered black rice before.

“Oh.” I should ask the Demon Chef about it. If anyone was familiar with exotic rice varieties, it would be Deming. “What about red rice?”

Lari and Kharli looked at each other, then they shrugged.

“People prefer fluffy white rice, the whiter, the better,” said Kharli.

“Okay, I’ll think about it,” I said, but I secretly decided then and there that I would definitely plant different rice varieties.

[Black Rice:

A type of heirloom rice that is considered to be a nutrient-rich superfood. Also known as forbidden rice or purple rice, it is high in antioxidants, fiber, and minerals, and is considered to be a healthier alternative to white rice.]

I had eaten black rice before on Earth and loved it. Red rice, in my opinion, was also far superior to white rice.

[Red Rice:

A type of rice that is similar to brown rice but has a reddish-purple color due to the presence of antioxidants called anthocyanins. It is a whole grain and is considered to be a nutrient-rich superfood.]

… Though I do understand the allure of fluffy white rice.

I noticed that the System's item descriptions for crops were written as though the plants were the same as those on Earth. They never said anything about qi or energy. If I hadn't remembered it from the game, I wouldn't have known that black rice restored more energy than white rice. I spread a picnic blanket on the ground and lay down to rest while I pondered the pros and cons of trying to make my disciples eat what they considered weird and disgusting rice.

When Mo returned, I told them about [Greening the Desert].

“Since two out of three of our fields won’t need watering, we’ll have more time to spend on other things,” I said. “I have a brand-new project in mind.”

They listened attentively as I explained.

“What’s the reward?” Predictably, Lari was the first to react and make his chief concern known.

“A huge space where we can build what we want, with some limitations, of course,” I said. “This project will take a lifetime or maybe many lifetimes to complete, but if we start now, we should have plenty of room for three more farms, one for each of you.”

“Then I'm in.” Lari’s eyes sparkled at the thought of having his very own farm.

“Are we all agreed?” I looked around, and the two girls nodded their heads.

Kharli and Mo didn’t look too excited about it, and soon they changed the subject to a topic that was dear to their hearts: the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. As someone who was half Chinese, I knew all about it. On Earth it was also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, a wonderful time when towns and cities were decorated with colorful lanterns and everyone ate delicious pastries.

It seemed that the festival was similar here, except that they had one special night when the city or town square hosted harvest and food-related contests that were also a feature in Adventure Incarnate. I had, with Deming’s help, already set aside the best of the summer harvest to show off during the festival, and possibly win a unique prize.

I was daydreaming about all the food I would be able to eat that night when my thoughts were interrupted by Mo.

“Teacher, I think the water is rising too fast now.”

“You’re right!” I jumped up and quickly walked to the irrigation canal’s gate and lowered it to decrease the flow of water. When I had adjusted it to my liking, I walked all around the paddy field to check the seedlings. Everything was fine, and the rest of the day passed without incident.