With practiced ease, he carried a large bucket out of the cowshed, poured in the cattle feed he had exchanged points for in the proper proportions, and mixed it evenly.
Then he cleaned the cowshed before the three cows finished eating and poured in the feed.
Over two hours later, Xie Ji finally managed to finish his daily tasks and received two thousand in starting funds from the production team.
The spacious farm couldn't have only three cows. Xie Ji began planning out the farm's other areas and browsed the points shop app provided by the production team.
"There seem to be lambs for sale in the points shop. Cattle and sheep should be able to live together, right?" Xie Ji sat outside the cowshed. Little Black thought he was too dirty and was currently coiled on top of his head.
"In theory, they should," Little Black said. "The points shop also has things you need. For example, this book, Scientific Livestock Farming: From Beginner to Buried, can help you become the king of livestock farming! There are other items too: [Fast-Growth Feed for Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs], [The Secret to Making Hens Lay Eggs Like Crazy], [Postpartum Care for Sows], [Why Do Sows Scream Hysterically at Midnight?], and [Diagnosing Illnesses from Duck Calls], among other items and skill points. May you achieve your path to kingship!"
Xie Ji browsed the prices beneath these items and found that they were all question marks.
Little Black explained, "Here's the thing. Since the target's favorability is currently negative, the system shop can't be unlocked yet. But you can still obtain these items on the lottery page! Isn't that user-friendly?!"
Xie Ji chuckled coldly. "Sooner or later, I'm going to give you a burial at sea with scallions, ginger, and garlic."
Little Black: "QAQ!"
Other people's hosts weren't like this! Why was his host always so vicious?!
Xie Ji glanced at the price of a lamb. It was actually more expensive than a cow, costing five thousand points each!
Xie Ji could only spend his points on a few chickens and ducks with a pang of pain, then start building their living area.
Wearing tall rubber boots, he bustled about until night had fallen without his noticing.
The chicken and duck enclosure had barely taken shape. Xie Ji brushed the wood shavings off himself and picked up his tools to head home.
Lu Xunji's work today had been to build a fence around the roses outside the courtyard residence and clear the weeds that had overgrown the entrance and spirit screen. It really did look much prettier from the entrance.
Lu Xunji sat in the courtyard with his head lowered, doing something Xie Ji couldn't make out.
Only when Xie Ji ran over for a look did he see that Lu Xunji's hands were covered in tiny cuts. He seemed to be disinfecting them, casually wiping away the blood with alcohol pads.
"What happened?" Xie Ji asked, looking down. "All these cuts-was your task today to climb a mountain of blades?"
Lu Xunji looked up without speaking.
Xie Ji reached for his hand. "Disinfecting them like that really hurts."
"...They're just scratches from bamboo strips." Lu Xunji moved his little finger and turned his head away. "They don't hurt much."
Xie Ji said seriously, "Even if you aren't afraid of pain, it's still best not to let yourself get hurt. I have an ointment. It works well, with no severe pain. I'll get it for you."
Lu Xunji: "...Mm."
Without even taking the time to change, Xie Ji went into his room and took out the painless ointment he had drawn from the system shop a few days earlier.
[System notification: Target {Lu Xunji}'s favorability toward you has increased by 10. Current favorability: -139.]
Entirely unsurprised, Xie Ji raised an eyebrow and applied the ointment to Lu Xunji.
His warm, soft fingers, dabbed with milky-white ointment, carefully spread it over the tiny cuts, bringing a tingling itch, as though something were burrowing into Lu Xunji's body through the wounds before finally gathering in his heart.
Xie Ji looked very serious as he applied the ointment. Golden strands fell beside his face, lending him an inexplicable hint of gentleness.
His coloring was so light. Even his eyelashes were a very pale shade of brown, close to gold.
Lu Xunji stared at him, strange associations involuntarily rising in his mind.
He was like a few casually sketched wisps of cloud in an ink painting, mist curling over water, dreamlike and elusive, yet so beautiful he could steal one's soul; like something rare veiled in dust, which, once the dust cleared and its radiance emerged, could shine through myriad green mountains.
Lu Xunji's Adam's apple bobbed, and his body involuntarily began to heat up.
He frowned and bit the tip of his tongue. The taste of blood jolted his nerves, barely dragging him out of that clinging state of desire. He turned his head away and stopped looking at Xie Ji.
But that blockhead Xie Ji wouldn't let him off. He even brazenly cradled Lu Xunji's palm, pursed his lips, and gently blew on it a few times.
Too... close...
Warm, moist breath brushed over his fingers. Those rosy lips were within reach.
Lu Xunji abruptly closed his hand around Xie Ji's, trembling uncontrollably.
"What's wrong?" Xie Ji was momentarily bewildered. "Why are you shaking like this? Does it hurt? That's not right. The instructions clearly said it was painless..."
Before he could finish, Lu Xunji lowered his head and pressed his thin lips to Xie Ji's fingertip.
Scalding breath struck his fingertip. Lu Xunji opened his mouth, took it between his lips, and gently sucked on it.
Xie Ji: "?"
Lu Xunji: "Mm..."
"Wait, bro." Xie Ji didn't move. His finger even stirred around inside Lu Xunji's mouth a few times before he belatedly said, "I've got ointment on my hand. You really must be hungry."
Lu Xunji stiffened, quickly pulled Xie Ji's hand out, and bent over, coughing his lungs out.
His white-jade ears flushed red from their roots to their tips.
Xie Ji stood to one side, gloating. "Look at you. I told you not to eat random things..."
Lu Xunji shot him a glare, got up, and strode into the bathroom in his room to rinse his mouth.
Xie Ji put away the ointment, washed his hands at a nearby tap, then went back to the communal bathroom for a shower and changed into clean clothes.
The others also returned to the courtyard residence one after another, lining up in an orderly manner to shower and change in the communal bathroom and putting their filthy, smelly work clothes into a large basin to soak and disinfect.
After his shower, Zhou Heyu sat in the courtyard drying his hair. Suddenly, a strand of golden hair brushed his face from behind and fell against his neck.
Soft and cool, it carried droplets that rolled from his collarbone into his clothes... slowly evaporating in his body heat, like an invisible hand stroking from there down to his waist and abdomen.
Zhou Heyu sprang to his feet in an instant, putting distance between himself and Xie Ji as he eyed him warily. "What are you doing?"
Xie Ji blinked. "Getting a towel."
Zhou Heyu looked at the towel Xie Ji had just pulled off the drying rack above his head and silently moved aside.
"Oh, right." Xie Ji simply sat beside him to dry his hair. "You're back, so why isn't Ji Shi back yet?"
Zhou Heyu actually rarely spoke to Xie Ji. More accurately, he rarely spoke to anyone.
At Xie Ji's question, he only moved his lips and said quietly, "I don't know."
Xie Ji nodded. "Okay."
Two more divisions passed on the clock. It was almost nine in the evening, and the points shop was about to open, yet Ji Shi was still nowhere to be seen.
Gritting his teeth, Xie Ji exchanged points for a flashlight in the shop and got an extra dinner while he was at it, then turned toward the entrance.
Lu Xunji stepped past him and took the flashlight from his hand, saying coldly, "Together."
Xie Ji said nothing more and went out with Lu Xunji.
Normally, once Ji Shi finished his daily tasks, he couldn't wait to hurry back and curl up with Xie Ji.
If he hadn't come home this late, either he hadn't finished his daily tasks or something had happened.
Xie Ji did value Ji Shi as a friend.
Following the path from the courtyard residence along the rice paddies Ji Shi was responsible for, Xie Ji stood on a ridge and struggled to make out Ji Shi's bent figure in the dim light.
"Ji Shi, what are you doing?" Xie Ji rolled up his trouser legs and stepped into the mud, carefully making his way toward him. "Stuck in the mud?"
Ji Shi wore a headlamp, his face covered in sweat and mud. When he looked up, the light shone so brightly into Xie Ji's eyes that he could barely open them. "Head down, head down. Don't shine that bulb at me."
Ji Shi hurriedly reached up to remove the lamp, not even caring that the mud on his hands smeared his noble young master's hair. "Why are you here?"
Lu Xunji also stepped into the paddy and came up behind Xie Ji, reaching out to support his waist as he instructed quietly, "Keep your footing."
Xie Ji really did have trouble finding his footing in the mud. He reached out to hold Lu Xunji's arm and was immediately enveloped in a steady sense of security.
"You hadn't come back even though it was so late, so I came to check on you." Xie Ji turned back to Ji Shi. "Did you have that many tasks today?"
Ji Shi pursed his lips. "Not that many. I'll be finished soon. You go back first. There are leeches in this mud. You..."
He glanced at Lu Xunji behind him and paused. "You two be careful."
Xie Ji looked up at the unfinished rice planting behind Ji Shi. If Ji Shi did it alone, he probably wouldn't get back until three or four in the morning.
Originally, Ji Shi and Zhou Heyu had been jointly responsible for this field. The half belonging to Zhou Heyu was now planted with neat, orderly rows of seedlings.
There were visible traces of machinery.
Lu Xunji said, "You don't have the points to exchange for use of the machine, do you?"
Ji Shi huffed. "Who needs machines? This young master's fields have to be planted entirely by hand! What the hell do you know!"
Lu Xunji looked at the crooked rice seedlings he had planted and said nothing.
[Waaah, someone's finally here. The young master's been bent over in this field all afternoon. It breaks my heart!]
[I've gone from neutral to a hater of Zhou Heyu. He clearly managed to borrow a machine. What's wrong with helping Ji Shi with it after finishing his own planting?]
[Wasn't it Ji Shi spending all his points on daily necessities to furnish his room that left him without points to borrow a machine? He didn't include our Little Zhou when he was sleeping on a Simmons mattress, enjoying the AC, and playing on his game console. Why should Little Zhou let him use a machine he spent his own points to borrow? If you impulse-buy, you have to face the consequences, okay?]
[Zhou Heyu is just petty. He's an illegitimate son, after all. He doesn't act like a rich family's young master at all. Our Ji Shi never fusses over things like that!]
[What matters is someone coming to help our Young Master Ji. Otherwise, he'll really be stuck here hungry until tomorrow morning.]
[Don't tell me you expect Xie Ji to help him? It's no secret that Xie Ji won't lift a finger without something to gain. He'll definitely ask Ji Shi for points, okay? The young master doesn't even have enough points to borrow a machine. Where would he get points to give him?]
[I don't think Xie Ji will help him either.]
[What about Lu Xunji? He came along too. He'll probably help, right?]
[Beautiful Lu, please help our Young Master Ji. I'm begging you.]
Just as the barrage filled with calls for Lu Xunji to help Ji Shi, Xie Ji rolled up his sleeves without another word. "How do you do this?"
Lu Xunji narrowed his eyes and glanced at Xie Ji's profile. "It's filthy. Leave first."
Xie Ji took the rice seedlings from Ji Shi's hand. "You just stick them into the soil, right? Lu Xunji, hold me steady. I can't keep my footing."
Lu Xunji: "..."
A little young master who couldn't even stand steadily in the mud wanted to help someone plant rice seedlings?
Who had given him that confidence?