Chapter 113: Strange Calm
Although it was already He Month, the rain in Chang’an was still falling lingeringly.
Summer rain should be more torrential, this kind of weeping and plaintive manner was very annoying. The crops had just been sown and needed a thorough soaking; this kind of rain that fell for half a day and only just wet the ground was useless no matter how pretty it looked.
A pair—no, several pairs—of adulterous lovers wearing nice clothes, holding umbrellas, were flirting sweetly along the pebble path by Dragon Lake.
Misty rain shrouded the lake, the ground was slippery, yet it didn’t trip those people into the lake to feed the fish.
Yun Ce draped in rainproof cloth, holding a shovel, had just dug open a water inlet. Watching the water flow into the fields, his mood was excellent. After releasing this batch of water, once the ground dried a bit more, he planned to sow baby beans. He’d heard that baby bean seedlings grew two meters tall, and then they would be covered with lots of baby beans.
Yun Ce didn’t look at the wheat fields or millet fields; those things were either brought by Yellow Emperor or by Huo Qubing, so they should already be adapted to the land and climate here.
E Ji also draped in rainproof cloth stood together with Yun Ce. Although she wasn’t much help, she just liked standing by Yun Ce’s side.
Yun Ce didn’t like farming either, but there was no choice now. If he didn’t farm the land himself, no one else would.
Digging ditches, raising ridges, sowing— they sounded simple, but once you tried it yourself, you’d find it actually very difficult. At least, Zhang Min couldn’t dig ditches well or raise ridges well.
Now wasn’t the time to make it look nice; as long as the seeds were sown roughly right, the rest depended on heaven’s will.
1 Yun Ce and E Ji had gone back, but Zhang Min was still looking at the ridges Yun Ce had made. Seeing the ridges that were wide at the bottom, narrow at the top, flat, even, and straight, Zhang Min knew Yun Ce was definitely someone who knew how to farm.
1 Yun Ce was of course someone who knew how to farm. He had once led many people to plant onions, and the onions grew, but the promised buyers vanished without a trace. All the onion planters in the township piled the onions in his courtyard… it was spectacular; the onions were taller than the mountain behind his house…
1 If someone hadn’t caught the buyers and brought them back, he’d still be gnawing on onions to this day.
1 Once the seeds were in the ground, it was just waiting—waiting was also part of agriculture.
1 When Lin Weizhou arrived, Yun Ce was directing people to install over a dozen large water dippers on the frame. Seeing Yun Ce standing on the high ground directing the installation, Lin Weizhou didn’t disturb him.
1 Once all sixteen large water dippers were installed, two sturdy oxen at each end began pulling a disk to turn. As the disk turned, the frame under Yun Ce’s feet also began to turn. When the frame reached the bottom, Yun Ce stood under the waterwheel, watching the water dippers fill with water and rise again. When the dipper reached the pouring angle, the water inside poured into a wooden trough.
1 The waterwheel kept turning, the water dippers kept scooping water. The sixteen water dippers continuously and reciprocally poured water into the wooden trough, ultimately flowing along the water channel all the way to the reservoir at the highest elevation.
1 Lin Weizhou stood by the reservoir, pondered for a moment, and said: “In ten days, this reservoir should be full.”
1 Yun Ce said: “This reservoir of water can only irrigate five hundred mu of fields. It’s stored up to save lives when Dragon Lake’s water level drops. Normally, papermaking also requires a lot of water, so this waterwheel still needs to keep running.”
1 “Why did you suddenly think of farming?”
2 Yun Ce sighed and said: “My family background isn’t enough, so I can only farm. By the way, County Magistrate, if I grow grain here, will the county office buy it at market price?”
2 Lin Weizhou said indifferently: “Sure, grain is always in short supply anyway. If you grow it, I’ll buy it. But leaving aside grain for now, His Majesty’s rewards for you have come down, and this time they’re quite generous. Besides the Grand Master Rank, he also granted you a full set of large bianzhong. That’s something only families above Marquis of the Passes are entitled to. It shows how high His Majesty’s expectations for you are.”
2 Yun Ce cupped his hands toward Chang’an and said: “This humble subject will definitely farm well and not fail His Majesty’s trust.”
2 “Why farming?”
2 Yun Ce spread his hands and said: “If not farming, what else can I do? I’m just afraid that once others realize farming makes money, I might not even have land to farm.”
2 “Great Han pacifies the world with ranks. High rank means great contribution; those with merit eat first—isn’t that only right?
2 Many high-ranking nobles in our Great Han were once mere horse slaves, soldiers, hunters, or herders, but once they achieved merit, their names spread across the seas.”
2 Yun Ce nodded. Chang’an’s decline was already so obvious, yet this county magistrate Lin Weizhou still couldn’t see the significance of farming for Chang’an. Talking more to him was a waste of breath; better to go inside together and talk about something everyone liked.
2 The neighbor’s wife next door always gazed at Yun Family’s manor when she had nothing to do. E Ji really hated her behavior. The previous quarrels hadn’t gained the upper hand due to rank differences, but now her own young master had finally become Grand Master Rank, so naturally she had to curse her back fiercely.
2 Lin Weizhou loved discussing 《poetry classics》, 《Zuo Commentary》, Spring and Autumn Annals, 《Book of Documents》 with Yun Ce—these ancient studies.
3 It wasn’t that Yun Ce’s literary level was that high, but this man often had unexpected interpretations of these classics, and he could make them make sense.
3 Yun Ce thought that the books he had read and the ones Lin Weizhou and others had read were the same in content but had long diverged vastly in meaning.
3 Yun Clan’s boiled horse meat was praised by Lin Weizhou as Chang’an’s number one. The guy ate a full stomach and even took a rack of cooked ribs when he left.
3 After seeing off Lin Weizhou, Yun Ce called An Ji over to play music. However, after seeing the full set of bianzhong, An Ji became solemn. Not only did she sternly reprimand Yun Ce, she also demanded that he atone to Yun Clan’s ancestors that night, asking the ancestors to forgive Yun Ce for this rebellious act of using the bianzhong without a priestly ritual.
3 Even though E Ji kept pinching her soft flesh while she reprimanded Yun Ce, An Ji remained unmoved. Only after finishing the scolding did she cry out in pain.
3 Watching E Ji pin An Ji down and pinch wildly again, Yun Ce looked impatiently at Zhang Min and said: “Why haven’t you gone back to your Panxing Tower yet?”
3 Zhang Min said: “You have no respect for the emperor.”
3 “Nonsense, I even contributed papermaking to the emperor. If I don’t respect the emperor, wouldn’t that be lacking in conscience?”
3 “If that’s the case, why not hand over your farming methods to the emperor as well?”
3 Yun Ce sighed and said: “Did I hide anything I did today from that Lin Weizhou?”
4 Zhang Min shook her head: “No.”
4 “Farming tools, oxen, waterwheel, fields—I didn’t hide any of them?”
4 “No!”
4 “That’s it then. So the fault is with Lin Weizhou, not me. He took papermaking away and was extremely satisfied because it could get him promotions and ranks. What can farming bring him?
4 Therefore, Zhang Min, you need to learn to shut up in the future. Yun Clan’s family learning is profound and profound, full of mysteries—it’s the good stuff summarized by our Yun Clan ancestors after countless failures.
4 When your respected Dong Zhongshu handed Confucian theory to Emperor Wu, he said his scholarship was like a peerless beauty; without sufficient reward from Emperor Wu, he wouldn’t offer Confucian arts to him.
4 It’s the same here. The things are right there, the fields are right there. If they see it and learn, I won’t stop them. If they don’t see it or don’t want to learn, I won’t beg them to.
4 Zhang Min, shut your mouth; just leave your two eyes to watch, that’s enough.”
4 Zhang Min lowered her head and silently left.
4 E Ji climbed off An Ji and leaned to Yun Ce’s side, saying: ‘Should I drive her away?’
5 Yun Ce held E Ji’s hand and said: “No need. She’s a person who truly cares for Great Han. Such people cannot be humiliated; on the contrary, she must be respected.”
5 “Why? I just want to curse her.”
5 “Because such people will really help block enemies for us and cover our escape when we face danger.”
5 “What about people like Lin Weizhou?”
5 “When facing danger, push him out to block the blades while we run—that’s his duty.”
5 “Oh, I get it.”
5 Seeing the house under construction, the crops growing, and the several dozen pounds of chicks E Ji bought also eating food, Yun Ce felt it necessary to carefully study Shehuo.
5 As soon as his hand reached into Dragon Pearl, Yun Ce quickly pulled it back, because Shehuo wanted to devour his hand again, and the pain wasn’t from his body—it was pain shooting straight to his brain marrow.
5 Doggy’s voice echoed eerily in his mind.
5 “This world is relatively young, not as ancient as Earth. The vitality here is stronger; that’s why things like spirits arise.
6 Shehuo is less a fire and more a bridge for communication between humans and nature. Shehuo doesn’t communicate directly with people, but she influences people every moment.
6 I even suspect Shehuo not only influences humans but also animals. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but your Dragon Pearl is more powerful than before.”
6 “Since there’s a breakthrough point, let’s research it quickly. I always feel Shehuo is related to dragons, and also to the seeds Ao Bing mentioned.
6 When we left Earth, they must have known the direction the dragon flew. Also, I think this planet isn’t far from Earth; after all, we didn’t fly for too long.”
6 Doggy laughed in a very anthropomorphic way: “You’re wrong. My timing function is very powerful. From the moment I failed to the moment I recovered, my error was less than a microsecond.
6 In other words, time has nothing to do with the flight distance you imagine.
6 You’d better stay here obediently. With your short lifespan, you won’t live to see Earthlings arrive in Great Han.”
6 Yun Ce thought for a moment, stroked the wristband on his wrist, and said softly: “That’s fine too. Living for oneself once isn’t bad; after all, it’s already off to a good start.”
6 Doggy laughed: “Just stay alive. I think this side is way more interesting than Earth.”
6 Yun Ce smiled back and said: “Yeah, at least no Yun Linchuan.”
