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墨書 Inktalez
Aunt Wang, with a basket of vegetables slung over her arm, widened her eyes in shock as the bag of coarse salt fell from her hands with a thud. Behind her were two farmers wielding hoes, and the three women stared intently at the night jar hanging from the tree.
“Aunt Wang, don’t misunderstand!” Lin Dahe exclaimed, thinking quickly. “This is an... uh... irrigation artifact from the Western Regions!”
The youngest, Sister Li, suddenly covered her mouth. “I heard that eunuchs from the previous dynasty loved to tinker with these peculiar things…”
Aunt Wang froze mid-motion as she bent down to pick up the salt bag. The three women exchanged anxious glances and hurriedly retreated from the courtyard. Lin Dahe felt cold sweat bead on his forehead—this was a serious problem.
Sure enough, by noon, news had spread throughout the village that “the Lin Family Boy has fallen ill due to a night jar.” While Lin Dahe squatted in the courtyard studying potato planting spacing, several groups of villagers had already passed by “accidentally” outside the fence.
As the sun dipped low in the west, real trouble arrived.
“Lin Xiucai, what a refined interest you have.”
A sarcastic voice came from behind him. Lin Dahe turned to see a tall, thin man in a brown robe. The man had a shiny wooden abacus hanging from his waist, and he rhythmically scraped his nails against the beads, producing an irritating sound.
“I’ve heard that the Lin family has come into possession of a treasure from the Western Regions?”
Zhou Liangzhang—the system’s automatic introduction displayed—narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized the night jar device hanging from the tree while occasionally glancing at Lin Dahe. Following his gaze, Lin Dahe’s heart sank—those bags of potato seeds were still sitting on the porch!
“There are seven days left until the autumn tax,” Zhou Liangzhang suddenly leaned in closer, his garlic-scented breath wafting over Lin Dahe’s face. “I heard that bandits recently raided government grain stores…”
In the distance along the ridge, two Yard Officers wearing red hats were peering this way. Instinctively, Lin Dahe stepped in front of the porch to block their view but heard a piercing alarm from the system: [Warning! Seeds are about to be requisitioned!]
“The grain chief is joking,” Lin Dahe chuckled awkwardly as he stepped back. “What grain do I have as a student…”
Zhou Liangzhang suddenly pressed down on his shoulder with surprising force. “Is that so? Then bring some officials tomorrow to take a look.”
Watching Zhou Liangzhang walk away, Lin Dahe felt his back drenched in sweat. The setting sun elongated that thin shadow, resembling a wolf lurking for prey.
After nightfall, Lin Dahe dug out the first planting trench in the courtyard by moonlight. The modified drip irrigation device made from the night jar slowly dripped water, soaking into the freshly buried potato tubers.
“Three days…” He rubbed the last potato reserved for planting and turned to gaze at the dark village. “I need to prove this thing can be eaten first.”
The system flickered momentarily and displayed a small exclamation mark: [Wild potato colony detected, located at the western village graveyard.]
Lin Dahe tightened his grip on his machete and quietly pushed open the creaking fence gate. Under the moonlight, the grave mounds on the distant hillside stood like silent witnesses, watching him slip into darkness.
The night wind rustled through the wild grass of the graveyard, creating a soft whispering sound. Lin Dahe crouched beside a nameless grave that had collapsed on one side. In the circle of torchlight, several plants with thick leaves swayed gently in the breeze. He reached out to clear away weeds and carefully examined them by firelight—the oval leaves had finely serrated edges and several wilted pale purple flowers still clung to their stems.
“It’s truly potatoes!” His fingers trembled with excitement as a prompt appeared on the system screen: [Wild potato colony discovered; can exchange for 5 experience points.]
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