Chapter 86: Waiting For Praise【seeking Monthly Tickets】
Only to see several black little things suddenly dart out from the bushes, stopping two steps away from Yuan Yuan, lining up in a straight line like they were reviewing troops.
Xiao Huan’s eyes widened, almost screaming out loud.
What came was actually a group of mice!
No, to be precise, a group of field mice.
Dense short fur covered their sturdy and compact bodies, with short but powerful limbs, larger heads, and two shiny black little eyes on top, almost blending into the black fur.
Field mice feed on plant roots, stems, leaves, and seeds. One field mouse can ruin a field of crops, and they’re hard to catch, causing farmers great headaches.
Lu Chengjing figured out how his daughter planned to help her Uncle Shi Tou.
It was well known that although field mice had short claws, they were extremely skilled at digging burrows to hide themselves.
Digging burrows wasn’t just digging soil?
What was needed for land reclamation? Digging soil!
Little Friend Yuan Yuan had specially found a group of small helpers skilled at digging soil for her Uncle Shi Tou.
Lu Chengjing asked his daughter, “Why field mice?”
Yuan Yuan blinked her big eyes, her little finger pointing at Lu Chengjing, “Four… Daddy.”
Lu Chengjing: ?
He thought for a moment, then tentatively asked: “Are you referring to the story I told you?”
Yuan Yuan nodded her little head, “Four!”
Xiao Huan and Shi Tou both looked over, “Brother-in-law, what story did you tell Yuan Yuan that involved field mice?”
Lu Chengjing uttered four words, “Rodent family.”
Ever since the day Yuan Yuan controlled the monkey to come help the family, Lu Chengjing had realized his daughter was no ordinary child. Seeing how obedient Xiao Hui was to her, he began to guess at her extraordinary abilities.
So he consciously added a lot of content about animals to the little stories he told her each day. It was a piece of cake for the Xiucai Scholar to make up a few fun little tales to coax his daughter, and Yuan Yuan listened super seriously every time.
To Lu Chengjing’s surprise, Yuan Yuan was so young yet already knew how to draw inferences and apply the story to real life, and she used it correctly.
Facing the surprised gazes of Daddy, Auntie, and Uncle, Yuan Yuan grinned, revealing two millet teeth, “I… good!”
Lu Chengjing taught his daughter, “It’s awesome, Yuan Yuan is awesome.”
“Li… hai…” Yuan Yuan followed along, mumbling it a few times to herself, then her little finger pointed at herself, “Awesome!”
All three were amused by her and laughed.
“Yuan Yuan, listen to Uncle tell you.” Shi Tou half-squatted and whispered to Yuan Yuan, trying to instill the essentials of land reclamation into her little head.
Yuan Yuan listened until her two eyes were swirling with circles, then her small hand pushed away Uncle Shi Tou’s approaching big face. She waved toward the field mice on standby, and a flash of unusual light passed through her eyes.
The field mice acted as if they had received some command, running into the field and skillfully digging holes to burrow down.
Nearly twenty field mice put their specialty skills to use, tunneling back and forth underground. While drilling around, they also loosened the soil.
Shi Tou wasn’t idle either, and together with Xiao Huan, they cleared the weeds, bushes, and stones from the ground.
Because the field mice had bitten through the root systems in the field, the two pulled them up quite easily.
From time to time, field mice would throw stones from the ground out of the holes.
Shi Tou watched from the side, picking them up and throwing them outside once two or three had piled up, stacking them together.
With the field mice helping, the land reclamation efficiency shot up rapidly.
All Shi Tou had to do was use the hoe to turn over the soil loosened by the field mice, picking out any remaining grass roots and tree roots inside. Compared to yesterday, the work was much easier.
To the point that the way he looked at Yuan Yuan turned green—this was his big treasure for helping him farm!
Yuan Yuan was hugging her milk bottle and gulping it down, and after she finished hers, she handed the milk bottle to Lu Chengjing, inviting Daddy to gulp some too.
Lu Chengjing politely declined his daughter’s kind offer. Seeing that she didn’t show any abnormalities like when she summoned the monkey, he turned his wheelchair and went back to continue practicing writing with his left hand.
Xiao Huan remembered the washed clothes hadn’t been hung up yet, so she went back too.
Here, Little Friend Yuan Yuan and Uncle Shi Tou happily did land reclamation together, while on the other side, Lady Shang drove the ox cart to the brick kiln.
The steward still remembered Lady Shang, and after checking the contract, he led her to pick up the bricks.
“Lady Shang, how many bricks can your ox cart carry? I’ll have someone load them for you.”
Lady Shang wasn’t sure, but hearing the steward say a typical ox cart could carry three hundred bricks, and thinking her own ox had at least drunk spiritual spring water, she had the steward load five hundred—if it couldn’t pull them, they could unload some.
While having people load the bricks onto the ox cart, the steward said: “Five hundred for this load, four thousand bricks would take eight round trips. How come you’re here alone?”
Lady Shang said: “The family is doing land reclamation right now, no extra hands. It’s no trouble for me to make a couple more trips.”
The steward remembered the youth in the wheelchair from that day, and seeing how delicate Lady Shang looked, he felt some sympathy and thought about having a shop assistant help deliver a couple trips.
Lady Shang hadn’t even brought Shi Tou—how could she let a shop assistant come along?
After politely refusing, the steward thought she was just strong-willed and didn’t insist, only telling the shop assistant to be careful.
Lady Shang had still underestimated her own ox; five hundred bricks pulled easily. Seeing there was still space in the ox cart, she had the shop assistants help fill it up, ending up with about six hundred bricks in the load.
After thanking the shop assistants, Lady Shang drove the ox cart away. When she reached a deserted spot, she waved her hand and put all the bricks into the space, then drove the ox cart toward the city.
Only upon entering the city did she learn that the imperial court’s disaster relief grain had arrived, but when opened, half of each bag of grain was little stones.
Fortunately, Lord An was prepared and used the raised grain to comfort the disaster victims in time. Right now, the government was arranging people to deliver grain to each village.
Lady Shang figured the constables would go to Willow Tree Village first, since it had the most severe disaster situation.
She noted this down, then went to the milk shop to buy goat milk, stocking some in the space for her own child. Although Xiao Huan wondered where Lady Shang stored the goat milk, since Lady Shang didn’t say, she wouldn’t ask.
Next, she went to buy lime, which would be needed for building walls. Once out of the city, she put the lime into the space too.
Calculating the time, Lady Shang returned to the brick kiln and again had the shop assistants load six hundred bricks.
After resting in a spot for half a shichen, Lady Shang returned again, still with six hundred bricks.
The two shop assistants responsible for loading were puzzled at how Lady Shang got back so quickly.
Lady Shang just said she unloaded the bricks at her relatives’ house, and since her relatives lived nearby, she got back fast.
After going back and forth seven times like this, Lady Shang finally finished transporting the bricks. She took out the steamed cake Xiao Huan had prepared for her to fill her stomach, then drove the ox cart back to the village.
About two li from the village, she took five hundred bricks from the space and loaded them onto the ox cart, slowly heading home.
Some households in the village had already started cooking smoke from their chimneys. The ox cart was still some distance from home when Lu Chengjing turned his wheelchair, with Yuan Yuan sitting in his lap, and came out to welcome her.
“Yuan Yuan said you were back.” Lu Chengjing explained, not asking how Lady Shang had only brought back one load of bricks after being out all day.
Lady Shang jumped down from the ox cart, loosely holding the reins, and walked home with the father and daughter.
Yuan Yuan tugged at Lu Chengjing’s clothes, her little milky voice urging: “Daddy!”
“Alright, I’ll tell your mother right now.” Lu Chengjing comfortingly patted his daughter, then told Lady Shang about how Yuan Yuan summoned the field mice to help Shi Tou with land reclamation.
Yuan Yuan tilted her little head up, waiting for Mother to praise her.
But Lady Shang couldn’t be bothered to praise her yet, and asked: “Good child, did you give the field mice any reward for helping with the work?”
