Red Sleeves Add Fragrance, Beauty at My Side

This morning.

In Osmanthus Lane, a sudden "dong dong dong" knocking sound came from a small farmhouse courtyard.

Walking into the small courtyard, one could see a young man dressed in coarse cloth, holding a wooden hammer in his right hand, with a strangely shaped piece of wood clamped between his knees, and a large iron sheet resembling a triangular cone.

The angle of the piece of wood was quite peculiar, fitting perfectly with the large iron sheet. Furthermore, the surfaces where they fit together had corresponding grooves and protrusions. After a bit of hammering and fitting by the young man, the strangely shaped piece of wood and the large iron sheet were tightly connected.

After finishing, the young man held the connected object up to his eyes and examined it carefully.

"Good, good. Finally, I've assembled this plowshare. Fortunately, they processed all the parts according to the specifications on the blueprint, otherwise, I would have had to spend more effort modifying it."

That's right, after the large iron sheet and the wood were joined, it truly resembled the plowshare of a plow.

The sun had just risen, and the sunlight was just right.

The slightly soft spring sunlight shone on the young man, making him appear exceptionally extraordinary.

They say a man is most handsome when he's focused.

Jing Zhi had never understood this saying, but at this moment, she strongly agreed with it.

She was sitting by the stone table in the small courtyard, propping up her chin, her gaze fixed on the busy young man in the yard. In that moment, she suddenly felt that her Lu Mingyuan was like a god descended to the mortal world, not belonging to this realm.

Regardless of what others thought, at least she, Jing Zhi, was mesmerized just now.

Indeed, the two people in the small courtyard were Jing Zhi and Lu Mingyuan.

Just yesterday, Jing Zhi and Lu Mingyuan had held their engagement ceremony and received the blessings of both families and relatives and friends.

From now on, they were truly one family.

In the future, they would support each other, give to each other, and accompany each other, forever.

Of course, since they weren't officially married yet, living together or spending the night was definitely out of the question.

Lu Mingyuan's mother-in-law had specifically warned them about this yesterday, saying they absolutely couldn't do anything bad before marriage.

Hearing this, Lu Mingyuan was utterly bewildered.

Was he that kind of person? He was clearly a noble person, a pure person. A person who had detached himself from low-level interests, how could he do bad things?

Moreover, why would his mother-in-law think of him so poorly?

So, with Jing Zhi, who was also present, suppressing her laughter, Lu Mingyuan patted his chest forcefully and righteously agreed to his mother-in-law's "reasonable" request.

He had no choice. This was the first request his mother-in-law had made after their engagement, and he couldn't possibly refuse.

He was actually quite willing in his heart.

Of course, if one were to ignore his tear-filled eyes.

Alas, he had no choice! He could only bear his suffering in silence.

What made Lu Mingyuan even sadder was that this time, his Ah Zhi didn't help him, only stealing laughter by herself.

Alas, times have changed. Even Ah Zhi, who had always supported him, had changed.

Thinking of this, Lu Mingyuan became even sadder.

According to the plan, their marriage was still years away, probably several more years. During this period, he could only look but not touch. What kind of experience was this?

Regarding this process, Lu Mingyuan would experience it all in the coming years.

Returning to the main topic.

It was already the second day after their engagement.

Early in the morning, Lu Mingyuan went to the blacksmith shop and carpenter shop to pick up the parts he had ordered a few days ago. Next, he had to get busy with his new divine ability.

As for Jing Zhi, for some reason, she wasn't working at the restaurant anymore and insisted on coming along.

Lu Mingyuan had no choice but to agree.

Besides, a male and female pairing makes work less tiring!

Moreover, with red sleeves adding fragrance and a beauty by his side, this was many people's dream.

In fact, this was also Lu Mingyuan's dream for both of his lives. He hadn't achieved it in his previous life, and now that he finally had the chance, he wouldn't pretend to refuse or put on airs.

Lu Mingyuan was an honest person. He only did things that pleased him. He couldn't be forced to do things he didn't like.

Back in the small courtyard.

After a period of busy work, it took a while before Lu Mingyuan finally stopped his hands. At this moment, he had successfully assembled the large pile of parts he had retrieved into a finished product.

And it was a qualified finished product.

Seeing Lu Mingyuan finish his work, Jing Zhi, who was nearby, ran over in a few steps. However, upon seeing the finished product in Lu Mingyuan's hands, her eyes were filled with confusion.

"Mingyuan, is this a plow? How do you use it? I've never seen one like this."

The plow in Lu Mingyuan's hands looked like a wooden handle connected to a long, slender elm wood pole, with the other end of the elm wood pole connected to a plowshare.

Jing Zhi recognized the plowshare. But, was this really a plow?

To be honest, if Lu Mingyuan hadn't told her beforehand, and if the other end of the elm wood pole wasn't indeed connected to a plowshare, she, Jing Zhi, would never have believed that this simple tool was a plow.

Moreover, how was this plow used?

It doesn't seem to have a place for a draft animal to pull it.

Could it be that handle?

That's not right either. Putting aside whether it could be tied on, that thin wooden pole would probably break in two pulls from a draft animal.

Then what is this?

Facing Jing Zhi's question, Lu Mingyuan had no intention of hiding anything. He directly replied, "This is indeed a plow, a hand-pulled plow. It's pulled by hand."

That's right, this plow is actually a common hand-pulled plow from rural areas in his previous life. The one Lu Mingyuan has now is a reduced version. Not only does it lack wheels, but even the plow beam is made of wood, so it's definitely not sturdy.

However, it shouldn't affect the effect in a short period of time. Besides, Lu Mingyuan just made it to try it out. He's not actually going to use it to plow the fields.

After explaining to Jing Zhi, under her astonished gaze, Lu Mingyuan dragged the hand-pulled plow to the vegetable patch in his own yard and tried pulling it.

After the iron plow entered the soil, it indeed managed to turn over the dirt in the vegetable patch.

Seeing this, Jing Zhi's eyes immediately flashed with a bright light.

"It can actually plow! Mingyuan, you're amazing."

Jing Zhi had thought that this plow, mostly made of wood, wouldn't work. She didn't expect it to actually plow the land, and judging by the depth, it wasn't shallow either, about ten centimeters deep. That should be enough.

Seeing the little girl's adoring eyes, Lu Mingyuan felt a surge of joy. He then raised his head, winked at Jing Zhi, and basked in the sunlight like a proud peacock.

"Of course! There's nothing in this world that I, Lu Mingyuan, can't do. Ah Zhi, I'm telling you, you've struck gold with me. You better treat me well from now on, or I'll run away."

Jing Zhi glanced at Lu Mingyuan's smug look. Without dampening his spirits, she still smiled, tacitly approving what he said.

Suddenly, she thought of a question. "Mingyuan, this hand-pulled plow must have been invented by you, right? I've never seen one before."

"Uh~"

Faced with this question, Lu Mingyuan put away his proud expression. He first pondered for a moment, then spoke:

"Actually, this hand-pulled plow wasn't invented by me. It has existed since ancient times. I've just modified it to be more labor-saving and convenient."

"It existed in ancient times? Then why have I never seen one?"

Regarding Lu Mingyuan's claim that hand-pulled plows existed in ancient times, Jing Zhi stated that she had indeed never heard of it, nor had she ever seen one. That's why she had assumed Lu Mingyuan invented it.

She hadn't expected such a big misunderstanding.

"Hand-pulled plows did exist in ancient times. Before the use of animal power, plowing was done by human labor. The plows at that time were either pulled by hand or tied to a person's waist. So, the existence of hand-pulled plows was inevitable."

"Oh!"

Jing Zhi nodded, seemingly understanding. She thought to herself, that's true, one has to plow the land, how else could it be done without pulling it?

A moment later, she felt something was wrong. "Hey, wait a minute. Then why have I never heard of hand-pulled plows? Let alone seen one? And they're not in any books either."

"Actually, I haven't seen one either."

Unexpectedly, Lu Mingyuan's next answer surprised Jing Zhi. She looked at him in astonishment. "You haven't seen one, so how are you sure they existed in ancient times? And how did you make this one? It couldn't have just appeared out of thin air, could it?"

"Uh, I deduced all of this based on records in books.

Hand-pulled plows definitely existed, but I don't know what they looked like.

The books only mention that before plowing with animal power, human labor was used. However, there were no blueprints or detailed descriptions of the structure of hand-pulled plows in the books, so I had no idea what ancient hand-pulled plows actually looked like.

This current one is something I deduced and even modified based on existing plows and the records in the books."

After speaking, Lu Mingyuan added silently in his heart, actually, this hand-pulled plow was inspired by hand-pulled plows from my previous life.

Of course, he couldn't say that out loud. Lu Mingyuan could only think it in his heart; he didn't want to cause trouble for himself.

"You deduced and even modified it yourself? Without blueprints, images, or even structural descriptions. That means this hand-pulled plow was actually invented by you. Mingyuan, you're truly amazing."

Hearing Lu Mingyuan say that the existence and structure of the hand-pulled plow were merely his deductions, Jing Zhi became happy again and looked at him with adoration.

Just then, Lu Mingyuan suddenly felt a sense of "Don't listen, don't listen, my Mingyuan is the best."

Honestly, that feeling was quite nice.

No wonder so many people enjoyed being looked at with admiration. It turns out this feeling is really great, really great.

Suddenly, Lu Mingyuan shook his head, shaking off this feeling completely.

Fortunately, this admirer was the person closest to him, his fiancée. Otherwise, he would have floated up to the heavens.

If no one pulled him back, wouldn't he fall miserably?

Thinking of this, Lu Mingyuan became somewhat vigilant. He needed to be careful in the future and not be used by others.

Zou Ji's Advice to the King of Qi states: "My wife's praise of me is out of private affection; my concubine's praise of me is out of fear; a guest's praise of me is because they want something from me."

In this regard, the ancients had already warned us, and he couldn't make such a mistake.

Except for those closest to him, any other person who curries favor with him, or even flatters him, can be seen as "offering kindness without reason, either for illicit purposes or theft."

After all, there's also the saying, "praise to kill."