An old farmer of around sixty walked along the ridge between the fields. He wore a short shirt, held a dry tobacco pipe in his left hand and an oil lamp in his right. His back had already bent with age, yet his steps remained vigorous!
"Oh, so it's a young man!" Seeing that Xiao Hua was only about twenty and remarkably handsome, with an indescribable bearing blooming between his brows, the old farmer instinctively felt close to him. Smiling, he asked, "It's so late already. Why aren't you hurrying to find a place to stay? What use is there in looking at rice in the fields?"
"Hehe, these are your fields, sir?" Xiao Hua smiled. "Congratulations! It's another bountiful year!"
At this, pride involuntarily appeared at the old farmer's lips, though beneath it lay a trace of bitterness. He replied casually, "Alas, it's nothing much. Just three to five dou more grain harvested!"
"Three to five dou?" Xiao Hua smiled and pointed at the paddy fields nearby. "The rice in all the surrounding fields is growing so well. How could the harvest be only three to five dou greater?"
"You know farm work too, young man?" The old farmer had already approached and stopped, asking curiously, "With such fine skin and tender flesh, you ought to be a scholar, shouldn't you?"
Xiao Hua smiled and nodded. "You are correct, sir. I am a scholar, but I was born into an Agriculturalist family. When I was young, I tilled fields and planted crops too. I understand all sorts of farming matters!"
As he spoke, Xiao Hua unconsciously raised his head and gazed toward the hazy starry sky in the distance. Memories he had recovered before entering Star Moon Palace slowly surged forth.
"Alas..." Upon hearing this, the old farmer sighed.