Chapter 35 After the snow has completely melted...
After the snow completely melted, Cang Li started working. The rapeseed planted before the snowfall had grown very tall and would probably bloom in about ten days.
Cang Li chose a hillside that was some distance from the cave but not too far away and built a cowshed. Then he exchanged the cows for cattle from the collector shop.
She does know magic now, but she can't just turn over such a large area of land with her hands. Also, Cang Li doesn't want Ji Hejie and Er Zhongyu to get used to getting something for nothing. She doesn't know what the future holds, but at least she has to teach these children basic survival skills.
So Cang Li needs to exchange the oxen for rice. Once she finishes the irrigation canal, she will start plowing the fields and planting rice. She will plant a lot of rice because Cang Li plans to deal with Nuwa as soon as possible and bring the human race out. With so many people coming out at once, they will need food and water. At least the new humans need to survive the novice period and acquire some survival skills.
So all the seeds in her backpack had to be planted. If this piece of land wasn't enough, they would spread outwards from the mountains. Before, Cang Li was afraid of encountering cultivators and monsters who liked to kill and rob, but now Taiqing was still here. In any case, Taiqing's purpose in coming here was to enlighten the human race to become saints, so Taiqing would definitely not turn a blind eye to danger.
This eliminated the potential danger, and Cang Li could now focus on farming.
The five children looked at the two cows that Cang Li had brought out with curiosity and asked Cang Li, who was reinforcing the cowshed nearby:
"Sister, what is this?"
Cang Li casually said, "Oxen, we need to plant a lot of land this year, so we need oxen to plow the land, otherwise the few of us won't be able to do it."
Er scratched his head and said, "Isn't the Taoist priest here? He can turn the ground upside down with a wave of his hand."
Cang Li paused, looked seriously at the children, and said:
"The Taoist priest can help us for a while, but can he help us forever? What will we do if he leaves one day? So don't rely on the Taoist priest."
Er said, "We will follow the Taoist priest to cultivate. The Taoist priest said that we have a high comprehension of the Tao and can start cultivating."
Cang Li tapped Er's head: "You can cultivate, but what will happen to them when Mom creates even more people?"
Jie looked at Cang Li and said, "Is it because you want the Mother Goddess to create more of her kind that you are in a hurry to plant more food?"
Cang Li praised, "Not bad, Jie is very clever. Do you see this huge area of land? I'm going to plant it all."
Jie held Cang Li's hand and said, "Yes, sister, I will work hard!"
The person also raised their hand to show that they were very capable.
Er didn't quite understand, but seeing what Jihe Jie said, he immediately said, "I can do it too!"
Cang Li laughed and said to the children, "Alright, you go and get some fresh grass to feed the cattle these next few days. I'll go find the Taoist priest to help dig an irrigation ditch."
Er: "Huh? But didn't my sister say we shouldn't rely on the Taoist priest?"
Cang Li chuckled: "We can't rely on it, but sometimes we should save effort if we can. Once the irrigation canal is dug, it can last for hundreds of years."
Er seemed to understand but not quite, and followed Ji and Jie, leading the others to pull weeds to feed the cattle.
Cang Li went to find Tai Qing. Besides digging irrigation ditches, she also wanted to discuss with Tai Qing how to wake up Nuwa and persuade her to create the human race.
Moreover, Cang Li had already made up her mind that if her mother repeatedly refused to listen to her advice, she would take drastic measures to have Taiqing forcibly wake up Nuwa. As her cultivation level increased, Cang Li realized that creating humans was indeed an urgent matter.
Taiqing was still meditating. Apart from preaching, Taiqing would meditate whenever Cangli called him, and he would do something for Cangli if he needed anything.
Cang Li stood below and called out, "Daoist Master—"
Are you free right now?
I need your help!
Taiqing reluctantly opened her eyes, landed lightly in front of Cangli, and asked, "What is it?"
Cang Li always asked this question, which was practically a notification.
“I want to build an irrigation canal to bring water from the river into the fields, otherwise we have to carry water every time, which is very time-consuming for such a large area.”
Taiqing looked in the direction Cangli pointed and saw that it was indeed a large area for the human race.
"What do you want to do?"
Over the past six months, Taiqing has gotten used to asking how to do things before helping anyone. If he doesn't ask and makes a mistake, Cangli will get very angry. When Cangli gets angry, he doesn't care whether the person is a quasi-saint or how powerful their cultivation is. He will scold them without hesitation and will even scold all five children at the same time.
Therefore, Taiqing had become accustomed to asking questions about everything.
If his two younger brothers, Yuanshi and Tongtian, knew this, they would probably be shocked. Although Taiqing seems to have a good temper, he is not actually a very kind person. If anyone else had spoken to Taiqing like that, they would have been sent to the underworld long ago.
Cang Li squatted down and swept a patch of ground smooth, then used a twig to draw a square, and inside that square, he drew a tic-tac-toe grid. He then explained to Tai Qing:
“Two canals were dug from the riverbank to connect the two sides of the cave, and then two more were dug horizontally, about three feet deep and six feet wide.”
Taiqing nodded: "Okay."
As soon as he finished speaking, Taiqing flew into the air and took in the entire terrain. He put his index and middle fingers together and drew four lines on the ground. The soil turned up where he drew the lines, creating four crisscrossing ditches. Thinking of Cangli's insistence on neatness in everything he did, Taiqing hesitated for a moment, then moved his fingers again and smoothed out the edges of the ditches.
The river is located in a low-lying area and cannot flow smoothly into the irrigation canal. Cang Li has a solution though. She has a dragon bone waterwheel, which is currently usable, though it is laborious. Once she gets the large waterwheel out and sets it up on the riverbank, the force of the water flow will drive the waterwheel to turn, and naturally, the water problem will no longer be a concern.
The materials for building waterwheels are readily available; bamboo is readily available.
Cang Li pondered for a moment, then went to the riverbank to look at the entrance of the canal. Some water had been drawn in, but it stopped at about a third of the way through because the terrain behind it was higher. In that case, a single waterwheel might not be enough, and they would have to dig more. Cang Li looked at Tai Qing.
Taiqing understood and deepened the water channel near the cave, and the water flowed smoothly into the channel.
Cang Li was satisfied. He gestured and said he wanted to build a small pond next to the cave to raise fish and grow lotus roots.
As someone who acts on her thoughts immediately, Cang Li made her request.
Taiqing also liked lotus flowers, and showed an appreciative look, indicating that this human leader's taste had improved.
Cang Li just wants to eat cold spicy lotus root slices. Her chili seeds are already being planted, and she believes she will be able to eat chili peppers in three months.
Just thinking about it made his mouth water. Cang Li dreamed of stir-fried pork with chili peppers, wiped his mouth, and felt that there was hope for the future.
A man ran over and said, "Sister, all that wheat has been ground into flour, what do we do with the husks?"
Cang Li came to his senses, put down his hoe, walked over and said, "Didn't I weave a sieve yesterday? Use it to sift the sifting and dry the food in the earthenware jar."
The millstone that Taiqing made in winter was very useful; Ji and Jie could push it together. Cangli didn't grind wheat flour in winter, but now that spring has arrived, Cangli wants to eat dumplings, so he took out the wheat to grind into flour. He even made a fine-mesh sieve specifically for sifting flour and removing the wheat husks.
Jie brought out the earthenware pot, and Ren went to get a sieve. Together, the two of them sifted the flour into the pot. The sieve was left with only the husks that couldn't be sifted through. These husks could be burned or thrown into the ground for composting.
Er led the others and Yu to play in the rapeseed field. When they saw Taiqing opening a canal to bring water over, they ran over to look at the water flowing in the canal. Cangli glanced at it from afar, but stopped looking when he saw Taiqing there. The water in the canal was still very shallow and would probably take a while to fill up. With Taiqing there, there was no need to worry about the safety of the children.
The ginger in the field has all been dug up. She'll plant some more in a while. Meat and fish don't taste good without ginger to remove the fishy smell. The sweet potatoes and potatoes have also been dug up. These will keep her eating for a long time if she puts them in her backpack.
Cang Li took out the rice and soaked it again. She felt the temperature and knew it was almost ready to be sown. She would harvest one season of early rice and then continue planting. Based on her memories of the day she transmigrated, the rain wouldn't have washed away the rice that had already grown.
Soaking two hundred catties of rice is also a strenuous task, requiring a large container. Fortunately, Cang Li learned some water control magic, so he could directly use magic to manipulate water masses to wrap the rice in water masses for soaking, and he no longer had to work so hard as before.
After preparing it, Cang Li placed the large water clumps containing rice grains into the field. He removed the water at night and then kept the soaked rice grains warm to germinate. Once they sprouted, they could be sown into the field to grow seedlings.
Spring plowing is indeed very busy. Cang Li wiped away non-existent sweat, took out chestnuts from her backpack and started to eat them. She had roasted them, and they smelled delicious.
Upon smelling the aroma of chestnuts, Yu immediately came running over, grinning from ear to ear: "Sister! Eat!"
Cang Li glanced disdainfully at Yu, who had rolled around in the ground and was all dirty, then peeled a chestnut and stuffed it into Yu's hand: "Eat it."
Yu happily sat down at Cang Li's feet and ate chestnuts.
Seeing this, everyone wanted some too. They ran over, hugged Cang Li's leg, looked up and smiled, "Sister, I want some too."
Cang Li simply sat down on the spot, crossed his legs, pulled his clothes forward, dumped a pile of chestnuts, and began peeling them for his two children.
After digging the pond, Taiqing noticed the water was flowing this way, so he ignored it and walked over to Cangli. He had just stopped and hadn't even spoken when a hand holding a chestnut appeared in front of him. Looking down, he saw that Cangli had peeled one and handed it to him. Taiqing hesitated for a moment before taking it.
Cang Li stuffed chestnuts into the mouths of the two children and looked up, saying:
"Master, don't worry, after I harvest this season's rice, I'll get my mother up to have a baby!"
Cang Li had said this more than once, and Tai Qing nodded as usual: "Okay."
Ji Hejie finished sifting the flour and ran over: "Sister, what else do we need to do?"
Cang Li patted the empty space beside him: "Sit down and rest, have some chestnuts."
There's never a time when work is finished. You should rest when it's time to rest.
The next day, Cang Li got the plow out. Luckily, she had lived in the countryside and had seen what a plow looked like, so she was able to make a similar one by copying it. Otherwise, having an ox would have been useless.
The irrigation canals were full of water. Cang Li opened up some of the paddy fields to bring water into the fields where rice would be planted. He also left some dry fields to plant wheat, cotton, corn, soybeans, sesame, and peanuts. There were so many crops! Cang Li took a bite of sugarcane. It really was a huge project.
The oxen plowed the field back and forth. Cang Li used a small spell to control the oxen, so he didn't have to follow them and could free up his hands to sow sesame seeds, plant peanuts and corn.
Ji, Jie, and Er helped dig small holes to plant peanuts, corn, and soybeans, while Cang Li scattered sesame seeds into the soil that Tai Qing had turned over. Zhong led Yu to play with the grass nearby.
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