New Plow Test

In the Lu family's little courtyard, Lu Mingyuan dragged the hand-pulled plow he had just assembled and began testing it. The result? He plowed the vegetable patch, which was less than a third of an acre, over and over again.

Thankfully, he wasn't planning to plant vegetables until the end of March. Otherwise, all his previous work would have gone to waste.

Testing it didn't simply mean dragging the plow back and forth to turn the soil. Every so often, he tapped and tinkered with the joint between the plowshare and the elm shaft.

After each adjustment, Lu Mingyuan carefully gauged how much effort it took to pull the plow and how deep it cut into the soil, checking for any difference.

That alone showed this wasn't an ordinary hand-pulled plow.

As it turned out, Lu Mingyuan's design included a cleverly crafted mechanism at the joint between the plowshare and the elm shaft. With it, he could adjust the angle between the two, controlling how deeply the plow dug and, in turn, affecting both the quality of the plowing and the effort required.

In other words, the mechanism let the plowshare move up and down. Of course, that depended on the elm shaft staying fixed in place.

The elm shaft's length was fixed, and the height of either end was more or less fixed too, so it could be treated as stationary. That meant he could adjust the depth of the furrow simply by raising or lowering the plowshare.

The mechanism was made using a series of intricate mortise-and-tenon joints. It was fairly complex and prone to problems. If too much force was applied, it would surely break.

There was no helping it. Under the circumstances, solid steel was difficult to work with and rather expensive, so Lu Mingyuan had no choice but to make it out of wood.

Actually, if conditions had allowed, he'd wanted to design the mechanism in the shape of a screw.

But there was no helping it. Screws had never been invented, wooden screws weren't sturdy enough, and steel screws were difficult to make. Besides, Lu Mingyuan didn't want to attract attention, so he could only use wooden mortise-and-tenon joints.

Although that made the craftsmanship more complicated, none of the techniques or ideas involved were ahead of their time. So even if he managed to make it, he wouldn't be in much danger. At most, people would call it a clever invention.

At worst, someone would say, "How come I never thought of that?" Not, "Is this guy cheating?"

Who would have thought he'd come up with an ancient hand-pulled plow?

Apart from being able to adjust the depth, the hand-pulled plow Lu Mingyuan had designed could also adjust the plowshare's angle relative to the elm shaft horizontally—in other words, it could move from side to side.

With that, the plowshare could be adjusted in any direction, up, down, left, or right.

That gave the hand-pulled plow far greater flexibility.

With that added flexibility, Lu Mingyuan could test it repeatedly to find the easiest, most convenient design—and then make use of it when he built his divine ability.

If not for that, Lu Mingyuan would never have gone to so much trouble over a little hand-pulled plow, adding so many mechanisms.

Generally speaking, the more parts a tool had, and the more precise they were, the more likely it was to break.

That was all the more true of the wooden mechanism in Lu Mingyuan's hands. It probably had only three or four days left in it.

Once its time was up, it would have fulfilled its purpose and could retire.

In the vegetable patch, Lu Mingyuan patiently tested one feature after another, step by step.

Jing Zhi, meanwhile, had stood quietly to the side the entire time. She glanced from Lu Mingyuan to the soil turned up by the plow, her eyes sparkling with eagerness, looking as if she wanted to give it a try. Still, she didn't want to interrupt him.

Only when Lu Mingyuan had finished testing for the time being did Jing Zhi speak:

"Mingyuan, I have a question. You just said that hand-pulled plows existed in ancient times, but they were eventually replaced by animal-powered plows. Yet I watched you use yours, and it turned the soil just fine. It wasn't any worse than the plows I've seen. So why was it phased out?

"That doesn't make sense."

At her question, Lu Mingyuan didn't rush to explain. Instead, he handed her the plow and let her try it herself.

"Well, how about you give it a pull, A-Zhi? See how it feels."

Jing Zhi first froze, then accepted the plow, fired up with enthusiasm.

To be honest, she'd wanted to try it for ages. But Lu Mingyuan had been busy with something important, so she hadn't wanted to bother him. Now that he'd offered, she wasn't about to hold back.

Besides, how could she miss out on something this fun?

A little while later, Lu Mingyuan stared wide-eyed at Jing Zhi, who was still full of energy. He couldn't make sense of it.

Other people's girlfriends would rather lie around than do farmwork. How come his was getting more and more into it? She was covered in sweat already. Wasn't she tired?

Why didn't she ever put this much effort into her usual chores?

And sure, the young lady of the Jing family wasn't exactly spoiled, but she wasn't usually this down-to-earth either.

Was she putting on a show for him?

Lu Mingyuan entertained the thought with a little too much confidence. Then he shook his head. His A-Zhi wouldn't do that. There had to be another reason.

After watching her for a while longer, Lu Mingyuan reached a conclusion: this little minx had mistaken the hand-pulled plow for a toy. There was no other way to explain her behavior.

By then, Jing Zhi had made several trips back and forth across the five-meter-long vegetable patch.

Seeing that she was ready to keep going, Lu Mingyuan quickly stopped her. He didn't want his wife to wear herself out. Besides, he was here to do the work.

"Hold on a moment. How does it feel?"

Jing Zhi wiped the sweat from her forehead, rubbed her hands together, and replied excitedly, "I'm fine. It's not bad. This is really fun."

"Fun?"

Lu Mingyuan sighed inwardly. So she really had come to play a game.

To be honest, he'd lived two lifetimes, and this was the first time he'd heard of anyone treating plowing like a game.

His wife really was something else.

Suddenly, Lu Mingyuan seemed to realize something. He took Jing Zhi's hand in his and turned her palm upward. Seeing the red marks already spreading across it, he gently blew on her palm a few times before asking softly, "How is it? Does it hurt?"

Huh? What did he mean, did it hurt?

Jing Zhi furrowed her brows slightly, not quite understanding. But then her pretty face turned faintly red, and she murmured, "No."

"Are you sure it doesn't hurt?"

"I'm sure."

Seeing how unconvinced Lu Mingyuan looked, Jing Zhi raised her voice a little to assure him that she was telling the truth. It really didn't hurt.

At that, Lu Mingyuan began to wonder.

It didn't hurt?

That couldn't be right.

After a moment's thought, Lu Mingyuan gently rubbed Jing Zhi's palm with his index finger.

Then he heard her suck in a breath through her teeth.

"Hss! Hss! Hss!"

"It hurts... It stings."

Along with her cry, Jing Zhi instinctively tried to pull her hand back. Thankfully, Lu Mingyuan tightened his grip too, keeping her from escaping.

Only then did Lu Mingyuan say, "Now you know it hurts, don't you? Here, let me blow on it. One little puff and it won't hurt anymore."

"Phew! Phew! Phew!"

Afterward, Lu Mingyuan held Jing Zhi's little hand up and examined it carefully. Mm, there were just a few red marks.

"It's fine. It'll go away in a while. Good thing it didn't blister, or it would've taken days."

He paused briefly before continuing, "Now you know why hand-pulled plows were phased out.

"Mine's been improved, so it takes less effort and is less likely to give you blisters.

"Without the improvements, your hands would be covered in blisters before you'd been at it long. The kind that hurt like hell at the slightest touch. Tying a rope around your waist wouldn't help much either.

"So the problem isn't just how much effort it takes. It's hard on your hands and your waist too."

As he spoke, Lu Mingyuan remembered his previous life, wearing gloves and pulling a hand plow through a cornfield to spread fertilizer.

The longer he worked, the worse it felt; the longer he worked, the weaker he got. By the end, he was gritting his teeth and forcing himself to keep going.

But there was work to be done in the field, and he couldn't just leave it. Sigh!

"I see! That really is a problem."

After hearing Lu Mingyuan's explanation, Jing Zhi nodded slightly. Then, after thinking for a moment, she said, "But that doesn't add up. It felt pretty easy just now. And the blisters on your hands could be prevented by padding them with something. You could use cotton cloth, or just wear gloves. There are plenty of ways around it. So why was it phased out?"

Those problems really were easy to solve, but there were other factors too, Lu Mingyuan thought. "You found it easy just now?"

Jing Zhi nodded. It really had been easy. She'd barely used any strength, which was why she'd enjoyed herself so much.

If it had been exhausting, she would've quit long ago. Mingyuan had only asked her to try it, after all. It wasn't as if he'd actually made her do the work.

Lu Mingyuan rolled his eyes, but still explained, "Come on, young lady of the Jing family. Your husband has plowed that patch eight hundred times already. Of course it felt easy to you.

"If this had been the first time, it would've taken four or five times as much effort as it does now. Then the question wouldn't be whether I could pull it, but whether this wooden plow could take the strain. For this experiment, I got up early and dug over the entire patch, which is why I can use this plow on it now."

"Is that so?"

Jing Zhi tilted her head and thought it over. The vegetable patch had looked as if it had already been dug over when she arrived. So that explained why the hand-pulled plow had been phased out.

Seeing the little minx give him such an adorable head tilt, Lu Mingyuan's heart melted. On impulse, he reached out and patted her on the head, giving her a playful head rub in return.

And Jing Zhi didn't even try to dodge. Instead, she blushed and let Lu Mingyuan do as he pleased.

A little while later, the intimate mood had completely faded.

Just then, Jing Zhi looked puzzled and asked, "Mingyuan, if you say hand-pulled plows have already been phased out, why did you make one? And why do you want to turn it into a divine ability? What if nobody buys it? Then you'd be in trouble."

Of course, it was perfectly normal for a newly released divine ability to find no buyers. These days, a divine ability without some special feature or strength had no chance of standing out.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the recent [Chicken-Rabbit Cage Divine Ability] had sold over a hundred million. In truth, sales in the single digits or tens were the norm.

That was why Jing Zhi was worried. She was afraid Lu Mingyuan's divine ability would fade into obscurity too. His hand-pulled plow might be an original idea, but so what? Who would buy something useless?

Lu Mingyuan decided it would be best to explain her concern clearly. He led his wife to the stone table in the courtyard, poured them both a cup of tea, and then began:

"The plows people use now are all animal-powered, and the most common kind is the curved-beam plow. So I'll use that as an example.

"Because it's pulled by livestock, which are strong, a curved-beam plow can work harder soil and dig deeper furrows. That's its advantage.

"But it has drawbacks too. It needs an ox or a mule, for example, so it's hard to use in an orchard.

"Oxen just can't get into orchards.

"Take my second uncle, for example. He grows kiwifruit, right? His ox can't get into the orchard, so he has to slowly hoe the soil by hand. It's exhausting."

"With a hoe? That really would be exhausting."

Just imagining having to use such a small hoe to work through more than ten mu, one stroke at a time, made Jing Zhi shudder.

Thinking of that, she sighed, "No wonder so few people grow fruit trees. So they're just hard to take care of."

"That's one reason.

"Of course, hand-pulled plows aren't much use in orchards at first either. The soil there tends to be pretty hard.

"But if you're diligent, you could dig it over once with a hoe first, then use a hand-pulled plow every so often to turn the soil. That would do the trick."

"That would work."

Jing Zhi nodded. She thought Lu Mingyuan's idea was pretty good. It would be tiring at first, and they'd have to plow more often, but it was still better than before.

From that perspective, the hand-pulled plow was rather useful.

Lu Mingyuan continued explaining his point of view. "Besides, a hand-pulled plow is lightweight, so it's suitable for loose soil and sandy ground. And when you're using it, you don't have to worry about trampling the crops. You could even use it to help dig a channel through a field."

As he said that, Lu Mingyuan silently added that it was actually perfect for spreading fertilizer in a cornfield. But in this life, there was no chemical fertilizer, and the farmyard manure was applied before planting, so that function was essentially useless.

Still, if you only had a small plot of land, like the vegetable patch in Lu Mingyuan's courtyard, a hand-pulled plow could be useful.

Of course, this wooden one wouldn't do. Lu Mingyuan would have to modify it first.

"All in all, curved-beam plows and hand-pulled plows each have their own uses, their own limitations, and their own situations where they work best.

"I didn't make this hand-pulled plow to replace the curved-beam plow. It's meant to supplement it. That way, people will have another choice when they plow. They can use whichever plow is more convenient. No one's forcing them, and I couldn't force them even if I wanted to, right?"

"That's true!"

At that, Jing Zhi nodded in agreement. The way her Mingyuan explained it, this hand-pulled plow really was useful. His efforts wouldn't go to waste after all.

So Jing Zhi no longer opposed Lu Mingyuan's idea of turning the hand-pulled plow into a divine ability.

All she had to do was support him.

After making up her mind, Jing Zhi suddenly noticed a triangular plowshare on the ground, along with several wooden parts like the ones on the hand-pulled plow. She pointed to the pile and asked Lu Mingyuan, "Mingyuan, did you make another one?"

Only then did Lu Mingyuan notice the parts scattered on the ground. "Oh, that? I made two plowshares facing opposite directions. I wanted to test which one turned the soil more efficiently and took less effort.

"Now that you mention it, I'd completely forgotten."

As he spoke, Lu Mingyuan stood up and picked up his tools, ready to assemble it and start his next test.