Giving Her an Estate

Some people had a guileless simplicity in their bones that made it hard to let them down.

Fine, then. I'll do it to fool the simpleton.

Xu Weibei casually twirled his sword through a few flourishes, leaving Gao Lan, who stood behind him, gaping.

What happened to hating people who pretended to commune with spirits?

What happened to martial skills being for killing enemies on the battlefield, not for showing off?

Marquis, you had me completely fooled.

Xu Weibei put away his sword. "See..."

Before he could say the words "it didn't work," Zisu's delighted voice rang out from inside. "She's awake, she's awake! First Concubine is awake!"

All the women then swarmed inside, leaving a bewildered Xu Weibei facing the wrinkled spirit medium, who wore an air of profound wisdom.

That accursed old hag!

Xu Weibei's voice turned icy. "Gao Lan, see her out!"

Today had truly been a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse.

Xu Weibei didn't believe in any talk of a general's star, but the look in Gu Wanning's eyes as she placed all her hopes in him had pleased him nonetheless.

After a while, however, Gu Wanning came out and said to him, "Marquis, what a coincidence! She got better as soon as you arrived, and you got the credit for nothing."

She hadn't actually believed it either, but in desperation she had tried anything she could. At the time, it was all she could do.

Now that she thought about it, perhaps First Concubine's nightmare had simply lasted a long time, and there were no lingering effects.

Xu Weibei was ready to flip a table. What did she mean, he'd gotten the credit for nothing?

Hadn't he performed a sword dance?

And who was it that had begged him to do it? Who was it?!

Xu Weibei was in a foul mood, but Gu Wanning didn't notice in the slightest. She continued to mutter, "First Concubine looked at me but didn't say a word. Perhaps she's still not in a very good state of mind. I'll come back to see her tomorrow..."

Xu Weibei was weary at heart and didn't want to speak.

After all that bustle, Gu Wanning returned, washed up, and soon drifted off to sleep.

Xu Weibei listened to her steady breathing in the dark, and a sense of peace rose in his heart.

When he had returned today, the room had felt empty, and he hadn't been used to it. That was why he had gone to find Gu Wanning.

He couldn't help reflecting: when had he gotten used to her?

This was not a good habit.

He didn't want to indulge himself.

But on second thought, a divorce by mutual consent was so difficult that he might as well leave things as they were for now.

Xu Weibei had even learned to comfort himself.

Gu Wanning wasn't close to the Gu family either. There was even a rift between her and its members.

Rounding things off, the enemy of his enemy was one of his own.

First Concubine did make a full recovery, but for some time afterward, she remained very subdued.

Gu Wanning understood.

After a devastating blow, one couldn't climb all the way out of the mire of emotion simply by saying, "I've come to terms with it." Recovery would surely take time.

In the blink of an eye, Xu Weibei's month of confinement was over, and he began attending court again.

As for Gu Wanning, watching the corn stalks shoot up filled her with anticipation every day.

She liked farming because, although the weather was beyond her control, most of the time she could see tangible results.

Though July's blazing heat bore down, she paid it no mind and personally fertilized the corn with chicken manure.

Her chickens had all been disposed of, so she had paid for all this manure.

The concubines all helped. It was a little dirty and tiring, but farming had become an indispensable part of their lives.

Gu Wanning was devoted to her corn, while the others grew whatever they wanted beside it.

Third Concubine had even cultivated a medicinal field specifically for growing various medicinal herbs.

Fortunately, Xu Weibei didn't care and hadn't demanded that they turn the fields back into a garden. Gu Wanning counted that as a favor from him.

"Don't any of you touch it. I'll do it myself." Gu Wanning used a small scale she had prepared to weigh the chicken manure.

The others all laughed at her for being so meticulous.

"This is a crucial stage. If we use too much fertilizer, it'll burn the seedlings. There's a precise amount we need to use."

In her previous life, apart from the experimental plots at university, Gu Wanning's farming experience had been no more than strategy on paper.

But she had a fairly good memory and could recall quite a few important details.

For example, the proper range for applying farmyard manure.

In any case, it was only a small patch of corn, and she could manage it herself.

Gu Wanning fertilized the corn, and although it was fine that evening, by the next day it had all wilted.

"How could this happen?" Gu Wanning could hardly believe it.

She had followed the book exactly!

Chapter 34: Giving Her an Estate

But there was no time to grieve. Gu Wanning hurried to remedy the situation.

She found people to help dig out the chicken manure, then diverted water to irrigate the plot.

When Xu Weibei returned, he didn't see Gu Wanning. He went looking for her in the garden and found her crouched in front of the corn seedlings, looking utterly distraught.

"What happened?"

"I fed them too much chicken manure and burned the seedlings."

She still didn't know whether they could be saved.

Gu Wanning thought about it all afternoon and finally understood where the problem lay.

The chicken manure mentioned in the books in her previous life had been composted, but hers was still fresh...

They could be saved, couldn't they? They had to be.

Xu Weibei was accustomed to seeing her lively and spirited, and he couldn't bear to see her looking like a frost-stricken eggplant. A little stiffly, he said, "This sort of thing couldn't be grown in the Central Plains to begin with. You've had your fun with it; there's no need to take it so seriously."

"That's because you don't understand. This can definitely be grown, and it produces a high yield. These were the only seeds at the shop selling goods from north and south, and I bought them... If it doesn't work this time, I don't know when I'll get another chance."

"This stuff isn't that rare."

"You don't understand."

Stupid man!

Xu Weibei said, "Go back inside!"

"I won't. I'll stay here and watch them a little longer. Don't they seem a bit better? Have they recovered a little?"

Seeing her looking so obsessed that she seemed to have suffered qi deviation, Xu Weibei simply went back by himself.

"Gao Lan, go bring me all the remaining corn!"

"Yes!"

So when Gu Wanning returned in the middle of the night, half-dead from being eaten alive by mosquitoes, she saw two burlap sacks sitting on the ground.