Chapter 31 Another month has passed in the blink of an eye…
Another month passed in the blink of an eye. The temperature dropped a lot. Cang Li felt a bit cold in the morning wearing only a single piece of clothing. The rabbit skins he had collected could only cover his legs after being sewn together. After moving around for a while, Cang Li went out of the cave. The rice was ready to be harvested.
Cang Li tied his cuffs, took the sickle and went out. The five children were sitting quietly listening to Tai Qing's lesson. When they saw Cang Li come out, they all looked over.
After Taiqing finished speaking the last word, he said:
That's all for today.
Everyone immediately scrambled to their feet, ran to Cang Li, and hugged her legs, saying:
"Sister!"
Cang Li patted the crowd's heads and said to the four children behind him:
"Alright, don't just sit around after class. Today we need to harvest the rice and dry it while the weather is good."
"good!"
The five children responded in unison, and Cang Li then said to Tai Qing:
"Master, please make yourself at home. We'll get back to our business."
Although it was said before that Taiqing was to be commanded, there was actually nothing to command. Cangli was used to doing things himself and hadn't asked Taiqing to do anything in the past month.
Taiqing was taken aback: "Don't you need my help?"
Cang Li shook her head: "No need..." Mainly because she was afraid that Tai Qing would not be able to control it and ruin her rice.
After cutting for a while, Cang Li put down his sickle and said, "Daoist, why don't you come and help?"
Harvesting rice is indeed tiring, even for someone with cultivation now.
Taiqing had just observed Cangli's actions. He harvested the golden rice from the roots and neatly stacked it aside. Taiqing nodded slightly, told Cangli and the children to go to the side, and then made a gesture in the air. The rice fell neatly in one direction and was then stacked in a row.
After finishing, Taiqing looked at Cangli as if to ask: Is this okay?
Cang Li nodded happily, "That's great! It saved me a lot of effort, Daoist Master, thank you!"
Taiqing smiled and asked, "Is there anything else I can help with?"
Cang Li shook his head, then nodded hesitantly halfway through, and finally said, "Not yet, Daoist Master. You should rest for now. I'll call you later."
Taiqing didn't mind. Following Cangli's usual manner, he moved a stool over and sat down to observe the human race's collective activities.
Cang Li took out the threshing machine, stood on the pedal and stepped on it a few times. He saw the toothed wheel inside start spinning rapidly. Cang Li got off, picked up a small bundle of rice, stood on it again, put the rice ears on the wheel and continued to step on the pedal. The rice quickly separated from the rice stalks under the action of the wheel and fell into the bucket in front.
After trying it, Cang Li started having Ji Hejie bring the harvested rice to her for threshing.
Ji, Jie, and Er worked together very well, passing the rice grains to Cang Li for threshing.
Soon the bushel was full of millet. Cang Li stopped, took several newly woven baskets from this month, filled them with millet, and then threshed the millet.
Taiqing observed for a while and, seeing that it was getting late and there were still half of the unthreshed rice grains in the field, went up to Cangli and said:
"I can help, it will be faster."
Cang Li wiped the sweat from his brow, looked back, and saw that three large baskets of millet had been filled, with half of it still unthreshed behind him. Cang Li immediately deflated, stepped down, and said:
"Then you can come."
Taiqing does not use a threshing machine; he only needs to separate the rice grains from the straw, which Taiqing can do using magic.
The five little ones, who had been holding rice all day, were itchy all over. While scratching, they watched as Taiqing threshed the rice with a few flicks of his fingers and neatly put it into the empty basket that Cangli had placed there. In no time, all the rice had been threshed, and the rice stalks were neatly stacked into a haystack and moved to the other side.
Cang Li patted the kids who were constantly scratching themselves: "Stop scratching, go take a shower, and the itch will go away after you shower."
Upon hearing this, Ji Hejie immediately led Erzhongyu to queue up for a shower.
Cang Li sincerely thanked Tai Qing: "Thank you so much. I couldn't even wake my mother up, and you still helped me like this."
Taiqing smiled and shook his head: "No need to thank me, it was just a small favor, and it's part of the education."
Cang Li was pleased, thinking that Tai Qing was a good person.
After a day of farm work, Cang Li cooked braised pork ribs for dinner. She originally wanted to make sweet and sour pork ribs, but she didn't have sugar or vinegar. Cang Li then set her sights on soybeans. Soybeans are only available in the spring, and she missed the season. Once winter was over, she would definitely plant soybeans and then make soy sauce. As for vinegar, she would give up on that.
She also planted corn and chili peppers, as she had been craving chili peppers for a long time.
Cang Li wiped his mouth, tasted the ribs, served them on the table, made a cabbage and minced meat soup, stir-fried some wood ear mushrooms, and then called the five kids to eat. Before they started eating, he politely asked, as usual:
"Taoist priest, are you coming to eat too?"
Before Taiqing could answer, Cangli started eating. Anyway, Taiqing always said he wouldn't eat after she asked him.
But this time... Cang Li looked up at the shadow that had fallen in front of her and saw Tai Qing sitting opposite her. Ji Hejie brought her a bamboo bowl and chopsticks, then picked up some food and pulled Yu to squat down and eat.
Cang Li paused for a moment, then quickly smiled and said:
"I knew it! How could anyone not eat my delicious cooking? Daoist Master, try the ribs. They're stewed until tender and flavorful, absolutely delicious."
After Cang Li finished speaking, he casually picked up a piece and put it into Taiqing's bowl.
Taiqing was slightly taken aback, then picked up the piece of rib and tasted it, chewing slowly and elegantly.
Cang Li pursed her lips and ate the meat in big bites. Anyway, she couldn't be so elegant when eating, so she had to eat meat in big bites.
After tasting it, Taiqing said, "It's delicious."
Cang Li's eyes lit up and she ladled another spoonful of soup for Tai Qing: "Try the soup and see if it tastes good."
Taiqing lowered his head and took a sip. The soup had the sweetness of bok choy and the savory flavor of meat. The wild bok choy had been raised by Cangli for a period of time, which had removed its bitterness. It was indeed delicious. Taiqing suddenly thought that since he wanted to understand and educate the human race, it would be good to eat some human food.
The next day, the sun was very strong. Cang Li swept the platform at the entrance of the cave clean with a broom, and replaced the densely packed bamboo with a sparse bamboo fence. Cang Li then spread out the rice to dry on this platform.
Jihe Jie asked curiously:
"Sister, should we dry this in the sun?"
Cang Li nodded and said, "Of course we need to dry them. Only after they are dried can they be preserved. We can save some seeds to plant next year, and after the rest are hulled, we can have fragrant rice to eat."
Er slurped his saliva: "Is the rice delicious?"
Cang Li also wanted to eat it; she hadn't eaten rice for almost five months.
"Of course it's delicious! It's absolutely amazing with braised pork or pickled fish!"
The children were clearly swallowing hard, staring at the millet on the ground, wishing they could dry it and eat it as rice immediately.
Taiqing noted down Cangli's words about saving seeds to plant next year, as these were all based on the life experience of the human race.
While the grain was drying, Cang Li didn't rest either. He took the children to pick cotton, mainly to experience life. When they got tired of picking, Cang Li would ask Tai Qing for help.
Now, Cang Li is becoming more and more adept at ordering Tai Qing around, and he's also becoming increasingly impolite.
Taiqing always agreed to all of Cangli's requests, doing whatever he was asked to do. It was impossible to tell that this person was one of the Three Pure Ones, and that he had fought his way out from among the primordial beings in his early years.
After the cotton was picked, there was a large empty space in front of her. Cang Li asked Ji Hejie to help Er pick out the cotton seeds to keep for next year. After picking out the clean cotton, she put it aside and went back to try whether the mutated shuttle could weave the cotton into cloth.
There's also oil; just eating lard won't do. Cang Li started wishing for sesame or rapeseed seeds to appear on the seventh page of the shop. He only needed a dozen or so gathering points to unlock it. After harvesting the rice and cotton, he would have collected 600 points, and the seventh page of the shop would be unlocked.
Cang Li clapped his hands, sat on the steps, and began to look at what had been updated in the seventh page of the shop.
[A pair of oxen, 16 points.]
[1000 grams of rapeseed seeds, 6 o'clock.]
[1000g sesame seeds, 6 points]
[1000g peanut seeds, 6 points]
[Thousand-Mile Speed Boots, limited to one purchase per user, 20 Gathering Points]
[Dragon Binding Lock, limited to one purchase, only 20 points]
Cangli was not surprised by the seeds and the cow, but he was puzzled by the last two. The names were easy to understand, but Cangli didn't think he would need them. What did she need the boots and the dragon-binding lock for? Could it be that there was a dragon in the river?
Cang Li was puzzled, but quickly put the question out of her mind. She simply changed the rapeseed seeds, but didn't change the ox. She hadn't figured out how to raise the ox yet, and winter was coming soon. She was afraid that if she took the ox out, it would freeze to death. She couldn't trouble Tai Qing with such a small matter.
We'll replace the oxen in the spring and get the seeds ready first; rapeseed should be planted around this time.
After finishing the seventh page, Cang Li was about to close the shop when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that only two pages of the shop remained to be unlocked. That meant the shop only had nine pages in total. Cang Li sighed, "Time really flies!"
The newly acquired rapeseed seeds weigh two jin (approximately 1 kg). Given the fertility of her land, 200 grams of seeds are enough to plant one mu (approximately 0.16 acres), and two jin can plant five mu (approximately 0.26 acres), resulting in a bumper harvest!
Cang Li got up and asked Tai Qing for help to break up the large clumps of mud in the turned soil so that the rapeseed would sprout more easily after being sown.
Taiqing was already adept at handling Cangli's requests and quickly prepared the land as Cangli instructed.
When Cang Li saw that Tai Qing had finished, he asked Ji He Jie to spread the stockpiled wood ash on the tilled soil to fertilize it.
Taiqing observed and recorded from the side: The human race is a race that loves farming. They like to collect plant seeds and seedlings from the mountains and replant them to harvest edible crops.
Cang Li had been busy for a long time, and when he turned around, he saw Tai Qing standing there in a white robe, looking like an immortal. He was very relaxed. Cang Li patted the dust off his hands and slowly walked back, looking like he was going to get a drink of water. In fact, he was just passing by Tai Qing and quickly wiped his black hands on Tai Qing's body.
Taiqing: ?
Cang Li had already walked to the table and was gulping down water as if nothing had happened, as if she wasn't the one who had caused the trouble.
Taiqing glanced down at the dark handprint on his sleeve, then looked at Cangli who was pretending nothing had happened, and sighed:
"Do you want my help?"
Cang Li denied it: "No, you can just stand there. If you want to help us spread the ash, fine, but won't your white clothes turn gray? Ji, Jie, and I can do it ourselves. We can't let you get our clothes dirty."
Taiqing understood; this meant he should take action without using magic.
A note from the author:
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