Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Thank you for the gift of nature?
When the strong rose placed her at the staircase leading to the second floor, Gong Zhili finally reacted. She reached out and touched the rose branch again. Not surprisingly, the skin of the plant felt as cold as steel.
She must have been a very strong person before, as the overflowing power could cause such a big change in the surrounding environment.
Gong Zhili went up to the second floor. The second floor was not big. Above the kitchen was a large terrace, and above the living room was an empty room with two small rooms separated by arched lacquer cabinets as high as the ceiling and shoji doors. The space on the second floor was not big. Looking down from above, it only occupied the right side of the word "concave".
There was nothing to explore on the second floor, so Gong Zhili quickly returned to the first floor. After boiling water and washing up, he hesitated and decided to wash his clothes. He would always have laundry detergent and other things later.
She looked at the tatami mat and did not go to sleep. She took the branch she had broken earlier and walked to the room in the northeast corner of the house. She held the branch tightly, stuck it into the floor, and then quickly backed away.
The short branches seemed to be injected with something, and began to grow wildly, tangle, and stretch, and finally turned into a wooden bed.
She brought some straw from the barn and spread it on the bed. She shook the curse master's bedding and felt that it was passable and clean enough.
After making the bedding, she sat on the edge of the bed wearing pajamas that were several sizes too big and continued to browse her phone.
There were not many contacts in the phone, so Gong Zhili wrote down the numbers and deleted them all.
The chat records are also abnormally clean. It seems that as a curser, this person's style of action tends to be cautious and leave no traces anywhere.
——She thought so at first, but after checking the basic common sense of the curse world, she felt that the overly cautious curse master was too calm and rational in his emotions, and might not have any great abilities and could not earn so much money to buy land. Then, this curse master who had no contacts at all was simply unpopular?
He made money and lived in seclusion in the mountains, wanting to sacrifice the entire village, living alone in the village without contact with the outside world.
This guy is actually quite introverted?
Gong Zhili put down the phone and stopped asking about the previous owner of the phone. It was meaningless now.
After all, starting tomorrow, she will be the one who actually starts farming in the countryside.
Gong Zhili turned off the lights and lay back on the bed. Before falling asleep, she said, "I'll leave the security work to you."
She was indeed a little tired today.
She fell into a deep sleep. Plant roots entwined in the soil and fluttering insects around the house surged in the shadows. The edges of the grass leaves on the ground glowed coldly, the flowers emitted an imperceptible scent, and the branches expanded outward into more twigs, forming a tight canopy like an umbrella.
Power, invisible to the naked eye, surged from the earth, absorbed by Gong Zhili's body. As she slept and breathed, the power began to circulate around her. Everything in this village was protecting the land's owner for a peaceful night.
--
After a good night's rest, Gong Zhili woke up when the sun just started to shine.
In the dim morning light, the dark green mountains gathered like a giant hand, encircling the village. A milky white mist floated over the water, and from it, clumps of reeds peeked out, their pale golden tips. Occasionally, a water bird fluttered by, leaving slender silver streaks on the silky surface. As the ripples spread, they shattered a corner of the terraced fields reflected in the waves. The few remaining lotus flowers in the center of the lake swayed in the silvery mist.
The terraced fields, cascading along the terrain, were still shrouded in a grayish-white curtain, the stone ridges barely visible. Mist condensed into droplets on the grass, rolling down its veins.
The smell of moist earth mixed with the fragrance of plants spread over the reeds. Suddenly, the sound of scooping water with a bamboo tube was heard in the distance. At the moment when smoke rose from the gray tiles somewhere, the first ray of sunlight happened to penetrate the clouds, dyeing the mountain top amber.
Gong Zhili was stunned.
After one night, her perception of the world was no longer just separated by a layer of fog, and her senses were refreshed.
Gong Zhili took a deep breath of the misty morning air and exhaled slowly.
While a stronger connection to the land was good news, there was also bad news: she was feeling hungry.
Gong Zhili discovered a well outside the west door near the edge of the southern terrace yesterday. She was too lazy to take a detour, so she carried the bucket and climbed over the low railing of the balcony on the south side of the bathroom. She drew water from the well and used the power of the tangled grass leaves to carry the bucket to the balcony.
After washing up, Gong Zhili faced the dried shrine maiden costume, used grass leaves as stems, lifted the sleeves and hem a little, and then walked out from the west door.
She first walked towards the fields to the south. There were several crooked fruit trees growing in the terraced field below the well. The fruits on the apple tree among them looked a wrong red.
It doesn't matter, the absorbed power will eventually go into my stomach, Gong Zhili comforted himself like this, picked two apples, washed them at the well, took a bite, and they were crisp and juicy, with the unique sweet taste of apple filling my mouth. After Gong Zhili finished eating the two apples, he threw the cores into the orchard as fertilizer, which barely filled his stomach.
She walked along the path by the lake towards the terraced fields in the southeast corner. Reeds grew by the lake and the morning breeze brought coolness. She stood by the lake and admired the beautiful scenery for a moment, and then she found ripe taro by the lake.
A small number of taro have broad, smooth, dark green leaves stacked in layers. Most of the taro have leaf stems that turn yellow and dry when mature, and are ready to be harvested. Mature taro is more than one meter tall. Gong Zhili marked this location and decided to dig out the taro today. If he delays it any longer, the taste of the taro will not be as good.
After arriving at the terraced fields in the southeast corner, her idea from yesterday was half proven: there were still crops on these fields, but they looked completely untended, with overgrown weeds and poor sparse soybean plants. It looked like the soybeans left over from last year had luckily struggled to grow out of the soil this year.
Even more fortunately, she was born here, so these soybeans are all plump.
As for the fact that the weeds were also more vigorous, Gong Zhili selectively ignored it.
Smoke gradually rose from all parts of the village, and Gong Zhili walked towards the village along the wooden plank bridge under the terraced fields in the southeast corner.
There are very few young people in the village, most of them are middle-aged and elderly people and children. Both groups of people get up early, and the village becomes lively in the morning.
September is not an extremely busy farming season, and the money the villagers received was enough for them to live a leisurely life, but she still saw many people going out with farm tools.
"It's the witch!" Soon some villagers spotted her at the dock, and they put down their farm tools and bowed respectfully to her.
Gong Zhili nodded: "Is the village chief at home?"
"Yes, the village chief hasn't left home today."
Their eyes subconsciously looked towards the end of the main road of the village. Gong Zhili nodded and walked in that direction.
The villagers she met on the way kept providing her with clues about the village chief's residence. Most fortunately, the village chief himself came out and respectfully invited her in.
Although the village chief was quite old, Gong Zhili accepted his respect very naturally. She sat on the chair and listened to the village chief's chattering gratitude to her, and said that he would definitely lead the villagers to make sincere offerings.
Gong Zhili showed no impatience. From the village chief's words, he could sense that he was actually quite trusted by the villagers. If he wanted to get news about the village, the fastest way was to find the village chief. However, there were certain risks involved. After all, the former curse master had the most contact with the village chief. If the village chief discovered that someone else had been replaced—
"...Therefore, these are the offerings we prepared for the adults, please accept them." After the village chief said this, he got up and went to the next room. After a while, the village chief's wife and the children in the family appeared, each pushing a suitcase, and then unfolded the suitcases one by one in the room.
Wait, generally speaking, offerings are carried on trays, and the trays are covered with something that looks very expensive, such as silk cloth...
What's with all those five 28-inch suitcases? The village chief's house must be big enough to fit them.
The village chief followed behind and explained, "These are the tributes you set before. We will offer them according to the four seasons and festivals. Please let me know if there are any adjustments that need to be made."
This money was paid by the villagers together. Farmers in Neon were not short of money, and the witch had already paid them generous rewards before. They were all protected now, so it was natural for them to pay tribute regularly.
Gong Zhili stood up. Inside the five boxes were clothes, shoes and socks, daily necessities (even toilet paper), not to mention laundry detergent, toothpaste, shower gel and other toiletries... It can be said that all the small things she had considered for daily life last night were in here.
Wait... Gong Zhili thought, she is about fifteen or sixteen years old now, does she still have menstrual periods?
There are really sanitary products in it!
Gong Zhili looked up at the village chief's wife, who smiled kindly and gently.
Gong Zhili nodded, sat back in his chair, and said to the village chief, "Please send these things to me first. I have some important things that I need you to prepare."
The village chief immediately took out a pen and paper and sat down.
Gong Zhili pondered for a moment and slowly said, "In order to stabilize the barrier, I will not be leaving home for a while. I will communicate with the gods through labor. I need some plant seeds now. Please help me prepare them."
The village chief's eyes lit up. "If we pray to the gods, will the quality of our crops be better in the future?"
Neon Agricultural Cooperative has its own set of evaluation criteria, such as the sweetness of fruits, the completeness of their appearance, the straightness of asparagus, the taste rating of rice, the texture of mushrooms... These things will be graded and evaluated, and the selling prices will also be different.
Gong Zhili's voice remained calm. "It depends on the will of the gods. Don't speculate."
The village chief regained consciousness. Ever since the shrine maiden had communicated with the gods and cast the barrier yesterday, her aura had changed. This made him feel even more awed. "Yes, sir."
Gong Zhili told the village chief what seeds he needed. After listening, he said cautiously, "For plants like potatoes and garlic, just use the potato tubers and garlic cloves saved last year to sprout..."
Gong Zhili nodded: "I know, as long as it can sprout."
The village chief breathed a sigh of relief and confirmed with her again. Then, remembering something, he asked, "You're going to do the work yourself. Is there anything else we can do for you?"
Gong Zhili shook his head and asked him, "I gave you money before, why do you still work so hard on the land?"
She had just noticed that no matter what kind of house they lived in, the villagers seemed to have farm work to do.
The village chief trembled with fear. "If we don't work, how can we atone for our sins to the land god? The abnormal weather this year is a warning from the gods. You brought us the divine contract, which is a great forgiveness for us. How can we continue to be lazy?"
He stood up again and bowed deeply. "Our village used to be very proud of its agriculture. Every one of our sixty-three households had their own crafts to be proud of. But with the exodus of our young people, we've reached a point where we can no longer develop diverse agricultural practices. We're incredibly grateful to have made a pact with the gods, and the entire village is filled with trepidation."
Gong Zhili immediately understood how her predecessor had opened up the joints. She had not paid attention to the local weather changes, nor had she imagined that charlatans had so many ways to deceive people.
Those who deceive innocent farmers deserve to be punished by God.
Gong Zhili stood up and said, "I will be checking the barrier near the village in the near future. I will ask the villagers not to enter the mountain at will in the next few days."
Then she realized something else: "There are children in the village, right?"
The village chief immediately said, "Every family has children. They went to the village primary school today - the teacher is also from the village."
Gong Zhili nodded: "The forest has been very active recently, so we need to keep the children under control."
She just said it casually to prevent children from running into the mountains and being accidentally injured by the active animals and plants. Who knew that the village chief hesitated after hearing it.
She didn't have to wait long. The village chief quickly said, "Actually, there are two strange children in the village..."
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