Tilling the Fields

"Rumble—!!!"

A dull, unsettling boom rolled in from the distant sky, making Meow Meow, who was lying on Ling Yi's lap, arch her back on instinct.

Ling Yi turned toward the sound. Just then, another streak of brilliant light danced along the horizon.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, he waited nearly ten breaths. When another rumble reached his ears, Ling Yi called out to the twenty-odd people in the nearby fields who were swinging hoes and turning the soil:

"Grandpa! Maternal Grandpa! Dad! Uncle! Lei Ge! ...It's going to rain! Let's go home first—!!"

Hearing his shout, no one stopped right away. Instead, they each swung the Farm Tools in their hands—the hoes, their martial souls, "Hoe"—several more times at the soil before them.

Waving goodbye to the smiling uncles and elders from the village one by one, Ling Yi followed Ling Changqing and the others as they quickened their steps toward Ling Xiaoshan's house.

Today, it was the Ling Family's turn to host the meal.

"Rumble—!"

"Crashhhhh—!!"

Their luck was good. The three generations of men from the Ling and Zhang Families, six in all, had only just entered the house when the thunder that had still been on the horizon exploded overhead.

Along with it came the Spring Rain, pouring down in torrents.

As soon as he stepped through the door, Ling Yi ignored Zhang Xin and Ling Shan playing in the corner of the Main Room, and he did not go with his father, Ling Xiaoshan, and the others to the kitchen doorway to wash the dirt from their hands and faces. Instead, he ran straight back to his own little room.

Watching Ling Yi's back, Ling Xiaoshan, Zhang Lei, and the others did not call him back to wash up first. After all, Ling Yi had not gone down into the fields to work. He had only sat on the ridge among clumps of "Blue Silver Grass," taking it easy. He was not like them, each covered in sweat and grime.

Zhang Xin and Ling Shan in the corner, however, put down the few clay and wooden toys, got up, and followed him into Ling Yi's room.

When Zhang Lei had washed up and pushed open the door to Ling Yi's room, he saw his younger brother Zhang Xin leading Ling Shan as they sat obediently on a long bench, quietly watching Ling Yi work in an orderly fashion at the small square table.

When Zhang Lei arrived, the work in Ling Yi's hands happened to be nearly finished.

Taking the last rice-white, flattened round "Small Stone" from the water in the clay bowl, Ling Yi stuffed it into a nearby ball of dark-brown mud and wrapped it up. Then he used the remaining clean water in the clay bowl to briefly rub the dirt from his fingers before he began tidying the small square table in front of him.

"A Yi~"

Zhang Lei came closer and looked over the row of more than a dozen fist-sized mud balls. He knew each one had a "Small Stone" inside.

And a scene like this had been repeating and continuing for more than ten days now. There were at least a dozen each day, and as many as thirty or forty.

"Who knows when the rain outside will stop~" Zhang Lei turned his head and glanced at the window that had already been shut. Listening to the rain outside and on the roof, he said, "I'm afraid these things of yours will have to wait a little before you can go plant them in the Old Forest—"

"It's fine~"

With help from Zhang Lei, Zhang Xin, and Ling Shan, Ling Yi moved the mud balls one by one to the space beneath the room's window and placed them in several flowerpots planted with "Blue Silver Grass."

Picking up the clay bowl of water that had already turned murky, he walked toward the door and said as he went, "You saw it around this time last year too. These seeds will be fine even if they sit for another two days. It's not like this rain will keep falling for two whole days—"

"But with the rain this heavy, the work in the fields won't be easy from here on—"

As he spoke, the four of them arrived in the Main Room. Zhang Lei took the two little ones to the corner to play with their small toys, while Ling Yi continued outside to the kitchen to wash his hands and clean the clay bowl.

Before long, two large square tables and one small one had been set up in the spacious Main Room. One table seated the two old men along with Ling Xiaoshan and Zhang Dahe. Another seated Grandmother, Maternal Grandmother, Mother, and Aunt, the four women. As for Ling Yi and Zhang Lei, they naturally took Zhang Xin and Ling Shan to sit at the children's table.

Aside from the portions being heavier for the men who worked in the fields, the dishes on the three tables were almost the same. There were stir-fried vegetables in shades of green, white, and pale green, as well as eggs and fish soup, which had now become indispensable at every meal for both families.

After lunch, the heavens were kind. The torrential rain outside had already eased, and it looked as though it might stop in the afternoon.

Sure enough, about an hour after noon, the clouds scattered, the rain stopped, and the blue sky looked freshly washed.

The adults went to the fields to check the standing water, while Ling Yi, accompanied by Zhang Lei and bringing A'Huang and Meow Meow with them, set out on the dirt road leading to the Old Forest north of the village.

By now, the time had already reached April of the year 2595 of the Douluo Calendar. Half a year had passed since Zhang Lei's Martial Soul Awakening last year.

At this time, among the four children of the Ling and Zhang Families, Zhang Lei would turn seven in another three or four months, Ling Yi had just passed his fourth Birthday a little over two months ago, while Zhang Xin and Ling Shan were one and a half and one year old, respectively.

As the two little ones grew older, the two families had recently begun officially preparing to add a new member to each household. With their current conditions, they could afford it!

And in Shan Hai Village, even across Ten Miles and Eight Villages, the more descendants a family had, the more prosperous it was considered.

After all, whether one considered the family's voice within the village or the odds of a child with Soul Master talent appearing during Martial Soul Awakening, the larger the base, the better it naturally was.

Old Forest, somewhere five hundred meters into the outer perimeter.

After knocking around several times with a long wooden stick, Ling Yi squatted beneath a large tree, reached out with a hand wearing double-layered rabbit-skin gloves, pushed aside the fallen leaves and humus on the ground, took a mud ball handed over by Zhang Lei, and gently buried it.

He got up. Beneath another large tree a dozen or so meters to his left, he beat the grass to startle any snakes, dug a hole, and buried a seed.

After repeating this more than a dozen times, all the mud balls were finally planted. Zhang Lei came to Ling Yi's side, took the double-layered rabbit-skin gloves covered in dark-brown mud, put them into the back basket, then took out a yellow-skinned gourd. Tilting the mouth of the gourd slightly, he slowly poured out the clean water inside for Ling Yi to rub and wash the hands that had sweated inside the gloves.

"Haah—"

Ling Yi straightened up and looked all around. Although everything in sight looked no different from before they came, a bit of excitement stirred in Ling Yi's heart.

"A Yi~"

Zhang Lei stoppered the gourd and put it back into the back basket. Imitating Ling Yi, he turned his head and looked around, then asked, "Can these ginseng seeds really grow?"

"The ones planted around this time last year didn't have any of those little red fruits..."

"Don't rush~" Ling Yi shook his head and said, "Whether these ginseng plants survive depends on luck. Most of the ones planted last year sprouted and flowered. As for bearing fruit... that'll take a few more years, I suppose~"

At that, Zhang Lei's face fell. "A few years?"

"Mm~" Ling Yi nodded calmly. "I can't say exactly how long, but there will be a harvest eventually."

"Let's go."

Seeing A'Huang marking out territory beneath a tree in the distance, while Meow Meow crouched on a branch above with a pheasant in her mouth, Ling Yi called Zhang Lei over and headed that way. "In a bit, we'll dig up one of those ginseng roots we found last year. We'll add it to dinner—"

"Huh—?"

Zhang Lei had just seen Meow Meow's catch, and the smile that had begun to spread across his face froze. The corner of his eye twitched.

He quickly caught up with Ling Yi and began negotiating in a low voice. "A Yi, how about we have Beggar's Chicken tonight? Or Roast Chicken. Braised chicken works too—"

"If that still won't do..." Seeing that Ling Yi's profile showed no change at all, Zhang Lei pressed his lips together, hesitated a few times, then went on, "Chicken soup is fine too, but... can we not add ginseng?"

"Chicken soup with ginseng in it tastes way too weird!"

"It's not chicken soup at all!"

"We're not like you. Ever since you were one, you've eaten a stalk of Blue Silver Grass every single day. That stuff might have a tiny bit of sweetness, but most of it is bitter and astringent. You're the only one who can stand it, and you've even kept it up until now without missing a single day..."

In the empty Old Forest, Zhang Lei's suppressed voice echoed softly, carrying both helplessness and admiration.