Chapter 195: Surging Growth
“Get out!”
The sound of smashing things came from the side room. Yu Da stormed out, slamming the door behind him with a face full of anger, holding half a broken small bowl in his hand.
He spat viciously toward the doorway. Meeting the gazes of the others looking over, his face flushed with embarrassment and anger, and he ran out the door muttering curses.
Xiao Huan frowned. “Why are they arguing again?”
“I’ll go see how many things were smashed.” Shi Tou felt sorry for their own things and quickly ran toward the side room.
Shang Wan and Lu Chengjing exchanged a glance. One continued eating, the other kept feeding the child.
Chu Xu wanted to go take a look too, but Xiao Huan stopped him. “There must be broken porcelain fragments in the room. Be careful not to step on them and hurt your foot.”
“I’ll just look from the doorway without going in.” Chu Xu set down the small bowl and trotted to the side room doorway, tiptoeing to peer inside.
The room was a mess, with meal mixed with porcelain bowl fragments scattered everywhere.
Yu Er sat on the edge of the kang, his expression gloomy, lost in thought.
Shi Tou checked the things in the room and found that the furniture was fine, only two bowls and one plate were broken. He felt relieved and said to Yu Er, who had a sullen face, “Who smashed the things?”
Yu Er: “All of them.”
Shi Tou furrowed his brow. “According to our family’s rules, if you smash things, you either accept punishment or make compensation. You choose one.”
Yu Er looked up at him, his eyes dark and ominous, sending chills down one’s back.
He said, “I have no money.”
Shi Tou crossed his arms. “Then accept punishment. From today on, cleaning the pigsty and toilet is your job. You don’t eat if you don’t clean them properly.”
Hearing this, Yu Er’s face twisted. He glanced toward the door and asked, “Where’s my brother?”
“He was so angry he ran out.” Shi Tou said, “He’ll be punished when he comes back too. Cleaning the cowshed and chicken coop is his job.”
Yu Er was unconvinced, clearly feeling Yu Da’s punishment was lighter.
“You can switch if you want. You brothers discuss it yourselves. Hurry and clean up the room. Don’t waste the meal. The parts without dirt on top can still be eaten; the rest can be fed to the chickens later.”
Shi Tou said this and left with Chu Xu, who had been watching the excitement at the doorway, closing the door behind them.
As soon as the door closed, the light in the room dimmed. Yu Er’s face was hidden in the shadows, only the arc at the corner of his mouth visible.
After the nap, the sky was rolling with dark clouds, as if rain was coming.
Shang Wan brought the drying medicinal herbs back into the room and went to the kitchen to grab a steamed bun to eat.
Just as she was about to go out, she ran into Yu Da coming in. He was carrying two medicine packets in his hand.
“Madam.” Yu Da bowed respectfully.
Shang Wan nodded to him and glanced at the medicine packets. “To decoct medicine for Yu Er?”
“Yes.”
Shang Wan said with a half-smile, “You really are a good brother.”
Yu Da tugged at the corner of his mouth, forcing a smile.
Shang Wan said nothing more and left eating the steamed bun.
The dark clouds pressed down layer by layer, and the blowing wind already carried a hint of moisture.
Shang Wan stared at the sky for a moment, then went straight to the study room.
·
“Another spiritual field has appeared.”
Lu Chengjing looked up at the woman standing by the window, his brows slightly furrowed. “Doesn’t match our guess?”
“Not a single one matches.” Shang Wan’s fingertip lightly tapped the windowsill. She always felt like she was overlooking something.
The first spiritual field appeared after the earthquake, and the second, third, fourth, and the fifth that appeared today—all emerged without any notable events.
If she had to say, before the third spiritual field appeared, she had rescued Chu Xu.
But what connection could appearing spiritual fields have with saving people… Wait, she had also saved people during the earthquake, and the next day a spiritual field appeared in the space.
Could increasing spiritual fields really be related to saving people?
But she hadn’t saved anyone when the other few spiritual fields increased.
Shang Wan walked back to the desk and leaned over to stare at Lu Chengjing. “I think increasing spiritual fields might be related to saving people.”
She explained her guess, including the connection between saving people during the earthquake and rescuing Chu Xu from the cliff.
Lu Chengjing lowered his eyes in thought. “Spiritual fields might really be linked to saving people. Niangzi, think about what you’ve planted in the spiritual fields.”
Shang Wan said, “Besides grain and vegetables, it’s herbs. Herbs have the most varieties.”
“Herbs can cure diseases and save lives. After you plant herbs in the spiritual fields and sell them, if the people saved by those herbs count as people you’ve saved, it would make sense.”
Lu Chengjing said, “Most of the herbs you sold to the apothecary were sent to the border pass, and the border pass is at war right now, so there must be many wounded soldiers. Whether internal or external injuries, herbs can undoubtedly save lives.”
This could also explain why Shang Wan’s spiritual fields suddenly increased by another one.
Shang Wan rubbed her chin. “By that logic, it does make some sense. But during the earthquake, I saved quite a few people, and the space only increased by one spiritual field, while saving A Nian alone equals one. How does that work?”
Lu Chengjing thought for a moment and guessed, “Perhaps it’s related to status and identity.”
Chu Xu is the young master of Duke Dingguo’s Mansion. His status alone surpasses the villagers by a wide margin.
Shang Wan felt something was off, but without enough reference samples, she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.
She subconsciously opened the space and glanced over, unable to help but freeze.
Wait, how did another one appear?
She blinked a few times, quickly exited the space, focused for a moment, then reopened it to look.
It really had increased by another spiritual field!
Now there were six spiritual fields in the space.
“Husband, another spiritual field has appeared.” Shang Wan hurriedly told Lu Chengjing, really needing more brains to help her think.
Lu Chengjing, her external brain, hadn’t even started thinking yet when Shang Wan began counting them off to him.
One, one more, another one—the number of spiritual fields in the space was visibly heading toward twenty.
Shang Wan was stunned.
What was going on? Had she poked a spiritual field nest? Or was there a delay in loading before?
Finally, the number of spiritual fields stopped at thirty-two.
Shang Wan glanced at those bare spiritual fields. Why had they suddenly increased so much?
Lu Chengjing poured her a cup of tea to help her calm down.
“Anyway, more spiritual fields aren’t a bad thing. Once they’ve increased more times, we’ll figure out the reason.”
Shang Wan took a sip of tea to steady her shock.
The sudden surge in spiritual fields was like suddenly becoming rich. She needed three seconds to process it.
“Boom—”
A deafening thunderclap exploded in the sky, with bright lightning tearing through the horizon.
Torrential rain poured down, rain threads blown by the wind drifting into the room.
Lu Chengjing went over to close the window.
This thunderbolt jolted Shang Wan, immersed in her thoughts, back to reality.
She looked at Lu Chengjing, her eyes unbelievably bright. “Husband, I think we can take our time planning the land reclamation.”
Two quarters of an hour later, the family gathered in the study room.
Chu Xu wanted to join the excitement but was dragged off by Yuan Yuan, who had been tasked by their mother, to play with building blocks.
Candlelight flickered, illuminating the dim room.
Shang Wan smiled with crinkled eyes and opened with, “We’re not doing land reclamation for now.”
Shi Tou, the primary laborer for land reclamation, raised his hand and asked, “Why?”
Shang Wan: “Because the reclaimed land won’t be worth it.”
Shi Tou: ?
Xiao Huan glanced at Lu Chengjing, vaguely understanding what she meant.
