657: Bai Die Zi [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

The Literary Scholar strategists, who had been "trading sincerity for sincerity," turned to look at Lin Feng when they heard her. Luan Xin smiled gently. "Let me have a look."

Lin Feng held several clumps of blackened things in her hands.

Luan Xin had only recently taken over the Sibao Prefecture Department of Agriculture, so he was unfamiliar with the office's stores. He examined the things from every angle, but couldn't tell what they were. He pinched one, and the muddy water stained his fingers black. "Where did you find these, Lin Hu Cao?"

Lin Feng pointed toward a far corner.

There was a crack in the wall, and rainwater seeped through whenever it rained.

The clumps had somehow ended up in the corner. The dark, damp conditions had left them blackened and moldy. But when she squeezed one, it held plump grains inside—clearly seeds of some kind. Gu Chi bent closer and guessed, "The Department of Agriculture's stores are all carefully recorded and put away. If these ended up in a place like this, a mouse probably dragged them here. They're likely of no use, are they?"

Lin Feng shook her head. "They don't look that way to me."

Gu Chi asked her, "What makes you say that?"

"Instinct."

Coming from Lin Feng, those two words carried weight.

After all, her Way of the Scholar was the Qi Min Yao Shu, and a Literary Scholar's instincts were an unfathomable thing. In matters of farming and sericulture, her instincts could practically be taken as golden rules! Gu Chi took the matter more seriously and looked to Luan Xin.

Luan Xin called for an office clerk to bring over the records.

Lin Feng picked up a clump and carefully peeled away the outer layer. She took out a brown, oval-shaped seed