Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
As the sound of hooves faded into the distance, Lin Dahe let out a long sigh. "Thank you for saving my life, Miss..."
"Don't be in such a hurry to thank me," Cui Xiaoman replied, turning around to meet his gaze with her bright, dark eyes. "This money is what I saved to buy embroidery thread. You need to pay me back."
"Of course, of course!" Lin Dahe nodded vigorously. "How much interest do you want?"
Cui Xiaoman suddenly pulled out a yellowed notebook from the pile of firewood. "Teach me how to read, and we'll call it even."
Lin Dahe took it and saw that it was a damaged copy of Qian Zi Wen, with corners eaten away by insects. Just as he was about to agree, a notification popped up in his mind: [Gratitude Value +10, unlocked "Basic Soil Pesticide Recipe": Castor Leaf + Lime Water = Aphid Slayer.]
"Do you want to learn now?" Cui Xiaoman asked, frowning when she noticed he was lost in thought.
"Huh? Oh!" Lin Dahe snapped back to reality and pointed at the first line on the page, reading aloud, "Heaven and Earth, Yellow and Dark." After teaching just eight characters, a heart-wrenching wail suddenly echoed from afar.
Aunt Wang was slumped in her vegetable garden, staring at the collapsed ridge washed away by rain. To make matters worse, the once-thriving cabbages were crawling with caterpillars, their leaves chewed up like a fishing net.
"What a calamity—how can we live like this?" Aunt Wang cried out, pounding her chest. The villagers gathered around shook their heads in sympathy; some had already begun to help pick up the seedlings that hadn’t been washed away.
Lin Dahe recalled the recipe he had just unlocked. He pulled Cui Xiaoman aside and whispered, "Is there any castor bean in the village?"
"There’s plenty on the back mountain," Cui Xiaoman replied suspiciously. "What do you need that poison for?"
A quarter of an hour later, Lin Dahe returned with a bundle of Castor Leaves and went to Doctor Li's house to borrow some quicklime. In Aunt Wang's stone mortar, he crushed the Castor Leaves to extract green juice and mixed it with Lime Water to create a light brown medicinal solution.
"Auntie, try spraying this on your vegetables."
Aunt Wang hesitantly took the broken jar and sprayed it on the surviving cabbages. The plump caterpillars suddenly began writhing violently before falling off in droves; within moments, a whole patch lay dead.
"Remarkable!" The crowd erupted in astonished gasps.
Lin Dahe had no time to explain; he directed several young men to replicate the process. By sunset, they had managed to save one-third of Aunt Wang's vegetable garden. The villagers surrounded Lin Dahe, asking questions left and right; some even offered money for his "Divine Medicine."
"No need for money," Lin Dahe wiped his sweat away. "Just remember the recipe: one pound of Castor Leaves mixed with three ounces of lime and diluted with three buckets of water..."
He suddenly noticed Zhou Liangzhang on the outskirts of the crowd. The tall, thin man stood under an old locust tree, rhythmically playing with his abacus beads while keeping his eyes fixed on Cui Xiaoman's copy of Qian Zi Wen. Their gazes collided in the air, and Zhou Liangzhang suddenly broke into a meaningful smile before turning and disappearing into the twilight.
That night, Lin Dahe taught Cui Xiaoman how to read under the oil lamp. Her grip on the pen resembled someone wielding a sickle, yet her strokes on the sand board were particularly strong.
"This character is pronounced 'Nong,'" Lin Dahe explained as he pointed at his neatly written characters. "The top part means 'curve,' and the bottom part means 'morning,' together signifying working at sunrise..."
Cui Xiaoman suddenly looked up. "Are you really a scholar?"
"Of course!" Lin Dahe straightened his back proudly.
"Then how come you can't even grow your own crops properly?" she pointed out at the wilted potato seedlings outside the window. "My five-year-old brother could do better than this."
Lin Dahe opened his mouth, and suddenly the system emitted an alarm: [Soil pathogens detected, immediate action recommended]. He leaned over the windowsill and saw that the roots of the seedlings were indeed showing an abnormal dark brown color under the moonlight.
"Soil-borne diseases..." he murmured to himself, suddenly recalling the composting task he hadn’t finished during the day. If he went to turn over that pile of kitchen waste now...
Comment 0 Comment Count