"Senior Brother Wang, is something the matter?" Jiang Chan stood up and patted the dirt off her hands.
Wang Laoqi licked his chapped lips, pointed to the tallest and strongest plant in Jiang Chantian's field, and said with a hint of envy and embarrassment, "Junior Sister Bai... I... I see the grass you're tending... how come it's growing so well, much stronger than the ones in my field... my field is full of half-dead yellow seedlings... is there... is there any trick to it?"
He stared at Jiang Chan with longing and a hint of trepidation in his eyes.
Jiang Chan's heart skipped a beat; her chance had arrived!
But she didn't show it on her face. Instead, she looked around warily and lowered her voice: "Senior Brother Wang, to be honest, there are some... traditional methods passed down from our ancestors. They're very laborious, and I can't guarantee they'll work..."
Upon hearing that there was hope, Wang Laoqi's eyes lit up immediately. He said eagerly, "I'm not afraid of hard work! As long as I can successfully grow these grass seeds, I'll work myself to death! Junior Sister Bai, please, have some mercy and give me some pointers? I... I know I can't take your method for nothing..."
He frantically rummaged in his robes for a while, pulling out a few small, dull fragments of low-grade spirit stones, each the size of a fingernail, and a small tuft of wilted grass leaves. He shoved them all into Jiang Chan's hand, his face slightly flushed. "This...this little bit, consider it my treat for you, Junior Sister, to some tea to soothe your throat...it's too little, I know..."
He looked at the pitiful fragments of spirit stones and grass leaves, feeling ashamed to even show them to anyone, and his voice grew softer and softer.
Jiang Chan weighed the small amount of stuff in her hand. The spirit stone fragments were pitifully few, but even a mosquito bite is still meat. She recognized the wilted grass leaves; they were "serrated vines," a type of vine with hard thorns along the edges of its leaves. The system's knowledge base mentioned them; the sap of serrated vines was viscous and had a weak paralyzing effect, which might be useful for dealing with certain soft-bodied pests in the future.
She quickly considered it. She had observed Wang Laoqi before; he was honest, not a bad person, and his mouth should be relatively tight-lipped. He was a good candidate to develop her first "downline."
Jiang Chan hesitated for a moment, thinking "out of our shared brotherhood and sisterhood," and lowered her voice again: "Senior Brother Wang, seeing how sincere you are... how about this?"
She pointed to the compost pit by her field, which was almost unrecognizable, and said, "See that pile of dark stuff? That's 'fertilizer' I made by piling up the thick, rotten leaves and grass roots from the shady side of the hill behind my house, along with some weeds! When you bury it in the soil, the land becomes more fertile!"
She then pointed to the wormwood drying on the ridge of the field, "And that wormwood, boil it in water, spray it on the leaves, many insects don't like that smell, it can keep out some bad insects that eat the leaves!"
She paused, watching Wang Laoqi diligently taking notes, then changed the subject, "However, the method is good, but it's time-consuming! The decaying leaves have to be thick and thoroughly rotten, preferably from the damp, sheltered side of the back mountain! The wormwood also has to be fresh; older leaves are less effective. Senior brother, if you really want to try..."
She deliberately paused, looking at Wang Laoqi.
Wang Laoqi immediately understood and nodded hurriedly, "I understand! I understand! This is a reward for your hard work! I can't let my junior sister teach me for nothing! In the future, when I go to the back mountain to collect firewood, if I see any good decaying leaves, or wormwood and sawtooth vine, I'll bring them all to my junior sister!"
He thumped his chest loudly, "Don't worry, junior sister, I, Wang Laoqi, am tight-lipped! I will never say anything!"
Jiang Chan nodded in satisfaction, tucking the few spirit stone fragments and sawtooth vine leaves into her bosom. "Alright! Try composting and boiling that wormwood water as I told you. If you have any questions, ask me privately. Remember, quietly!"
"Hey! Hey! Thank you so much, Junior Sister Bai! Thank you!" Old Wang was extremely grateful, bowing repeatedly to Jiang Chan. Then, as if he had received some treasure, he ran back to his field with light steps and began looking around for fallen leaves and wormwood.
Watching Wang Laoqi's retreating figure, Jiang Chan felt a weight lifted from her heart.
...
Although the first "tuition fee" was meager, more importantly, she planted the first seed. Someone began to put her methods into practice, which was the first step in "paid knowledge" and intelligence networks!
One day, she was tending to her precious Dewdrop Grass. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat, and she felt a gaze on her back.
Jiang Chan turned around abruptly and looked at a stone path leading to the inner disciples' training area on a distant hillside.
A figure dressed in a pale yellow inner disciple's robe stood on the stone steps. She was slender and beautiful, her chin slightly raised, exuding the inherent reserve and superiority of an inner disciple. This was Lin Wanqing, the inner disciple responsible for managing several mid-grade medicinal herb fields nearby.
Lin Wanqing's gaze did not fall on Jiang Chan, but instead on the dew-covered grass in Jiang Chan's field, which was noticeably more lush and green than the other fields used for miscellaneous tasks.
Her brows furrowed slightly, her eyes filled with confusion and a hint of... displeasure at being offended, as if such "unrestrained" vitality shouldn't exist on this supposedly barren land.
She watched for a few seconds, then gave a cold glance to Wang Laoqi, who was huddled in the field, bending over and pulling weeds. Her lips moved silently, as if she were saying something to an outer disciple who looked like a follower.
The outer disciple immediately bowed and scraped, following Lin Wanqing's gaze to look towards Jiang Chan's medicinal field, his eyes filled with curiosity.
Jiang Chan's heart skipped a beat.
A chill ran down Jiang Chan's spine.
She abruptly stopped what she was doing, pretending to bend down to pull weeds from the edge of the field, but her peripheral vision quickly swept towards the grove of trees on the hillside.
The shadows of the trees swayed a few times, and two figures dressed in light blue robes of inner disciples hurriedly left, one of them glancing back in this direction one last time.
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