Chapter 24 (continued)

Director Niu sighed softly. "There's nothing we can do. Si Kui has stubbornly refused to see reason for over twenty years. She's used up enormous resources without producing even the slightest research result... But that's not really the issue. Major research projects have always been hard to get results from. The problem is that she hasn't even trained a single outstanding student. That's... Never mind. She wasn't suited to being a teacher in the first place."

After Si Kui chased He Song away, much of her anger subsided.

Niu Laoqian had made things very clear to her.

Even though she had spent twenty years researching in the agronomy department without producing any results, the department could still keep going as long as she trained a student who made the top hundred.

But the problem was...

Si Kui pushed open the courtyard gate and looked at the three slackers in the wheat field...

The eldest swindled and cheated, the second lazed around waiting to die, and the third shirked work at every turn.

With those three, even if she, Si Kui, became a saint, she still couldn't plaster mud onto a wall!

Bang! Si Kui shut the courtyard gate. Out of sight, out of mind.

To hell with training students.

If she still couldn't assimilate the Ninth-Grade Lianxin this year, she, Si Kui, would return to the Astral Realm and slaughter until heaven and earth were overturned!

In the wheat field, Feng Yiqiao, the eldest of the agronomy department's three students, glanced toward the courtyard. "Who made our teacher angry again?"

Lü Shunshun, the second, basked lazily in the sun. "Who cares? It wasn't me, anyway."

Xia Putao, the third, was tapping away on his phone. "Senior Brother, can't we put up more merit points? One point is way too little. It won't reel anyone in."

Feng Yiqiao glared at him. "You think I don't want to? We have to put up actual merit points for this. Why don't you put up some of yours?"

At the mention of paying out of his own pocket, Xia Putao immediately said, "I don't have any! Not a single cent left!"

Feng Yiqiao rolled his eyes. "Then cut the crap. We'll take whoever we can fool. We're counting on this wheat to get by!"

Lü Shunshun was already snoring. Feng Yiqiao gave her an irritated kick. "Day in, day out, you don't do a thing. All you know how to do is sleep, sleep, sleep!"

Lü Shunshun wasn't bothered. She rolled over and went back to sleep. "What's the rush? It won't be too late to harvest it in a couple of days..."

"Holy crap..." Xia Putao cried. "Someone accepted the task!"

Feng Yiqiao snatched the phone from him. "That fast? Did you mess something up and fail to post it... Oh, there really is a foolish kid... Ahem, a good kid who accepted the task."

Xia Putao stood at attention. "Senior Brother, let me welcome them this time. I want to..." Show off a little too.

"Get lost." Feng Yiqiao straightened his collar. "Don't go scaring them away. New students are getting harder and harder to fool. If nobody takes the task next time, we'll have to go into the fields and harvest the wheat ourselves!"

Xia Putao certainly didn't want to do any hard labor, while Lü Shunshun continued sleeping like a log. Feng Yiqiao straightened his clothes and put on his signature smile, ready to welcome this foolish... Ahem, good kid.

Li Yang ran like the wind. She rushed out of the task hall, turned on her navigation, and charged toward the agronomy department.

What was ten kilometers?

When she really ran, she was no slower than a car!

After only about ten minutes, Li Yang saw the golden sea she'd dreamed of.

Heavens!

So much wheat!

So much golden wheat, fully ripe and waiting to be harvested!

Li Yang forced down the urge to start harvesting right away. She figured she should report to Dean Si first.

Feng Yiqiao spotted the new student from afar and was somewhat disappointed. She didn't look strong or sturdy. He wondered what her endurance was like...

He hoped she wouldn't be like the last one, who had cried to heaven and earth after just one day of work and ended up damaging the agronomy department's reputation.

Hmm... At that thought, Feng Yiqiao decided to be more careful. He couldn't squeeze her too hard; he had to coax her into working a few more days.

"Are you here for the task?" Feng Yiqiao asked gently.

Only when Li Yang came closer did she get a good look at the middle-aged man standing in the wheat. He looked at least in his forties and was quite tall, though a little plump. His face had a kindly look, and he wore plain clothes, giving the impression of a dependable man who knew his way around farmwork.

Could this be the dean of the agronomy department?

Li Yang was filled with respect. "Yes, Teacher!"

Feng Yiqiao: "???"

Oh well. At his age, he did look like a teaching assistant.

Feng Yiqiao was rather pleased. He nodded and said, "The task is simple. Just pick up a sickle and harvest the wheat."

Li Yang asked seriously, "Is there anything I should watch out for while harvesting it?"

Feng Yiqiao said, "Nothing much. Just cut off the heads of wheat."

Li Yang committed that to memory and asked, "Teacher, do I start working now?"

"Tomorrow!" Feng Yiqiao said immediately. "Tomorrow, you..." He had intended to tell her to come at six in the morning, but remembering that he needed to coax the new student so she wouldn't run away, he changed his words. "Seven... Ahem, eight o'clock. Start at eight and finish at eighteen hundred."

The task specified one day.

It was already afternoon, so of course she couldn't start today.

He was already being very lenient. The last little lamb to take the task had worked from six in the morning until midnight.

Yet even though he was being so lenient, the new student still looked dissatisfied.

Feng Yiqiao quickly added, "You've already accepted the task. If you back out, you'll have half a merit point deducted!"

Li Yang hurriedly said, "That's not it, Teacher. I won't back out, I just..."

Feng Yiqiao actually felt rather guilty. He was only fooling a new student; there was no such deduction rule. At most, she wouldn't be able to take another task for a day.

Seeing that the new student was still hesitating, Feng Yiqiao was genuinely afraid she'd run away. "Well, if you want to sleep in, you can come at nine."

Li Yang froze.

Feng Yiqiao gritted his teeth. "You can finish at five in the afternoon, and you can take an hour's break at noon."

Seeing that the new student was still hesitating, Feng Yiqiao couldn't hold back anymore. "I can't reduce it any further! You have to understand, this is a whole merit point, ten thousand yuan..."

"No, Teacher..." Li Yang finally managed to say what she wanted. In a quiet voice, she asked, "What I wanted to ask was, can I start harvesting the wheat now?"

Feng Yiqiao: "???"

Li Yang said, "I'll do some today and continue tomorrow."

Feng Yiqiao was dumbfounded. He stood there in a daze for quite a while before saying, "But you can't work any less tomorrow. You'll still have to work from nine in the morning... Ahem, from eight in the morning until six in the afternoon."

Li Yang nodded solemnly. "No problem!"

Feng Yiqiao reminded her, "You won't get paid for this afternoon. You'll be working for free, you know."

Li Yang nodded seriously again. "I know!"

It all felt surreal to Feng Yiqiao. He said uncertainly, "Then... Go harvest the wheat."

Li Yang beamed. "Okay!"

She went to fetch a sickle. Feng Yiqiao stood watching her for a long while before silently walking over to the fast-asleep Lü Shunshun and the utterly lazy Xia Putao.

Xia Putao asked curiously, "Boss, how's the new student? Easy to fool?"

Feng Yiqiao murmured, "I think we've hooked a real fool."

Li Yang could barely wait. She had only two years of life left, and a whole pile of options crying out for her to spend it on them.

Even if she were given decades right now, she could spend them all in minutes.

How many years of life would one stalk of wheat give her?

If it was like the Four-Leaf Clover, with ten years per plant... Oh boy, the corners of Li Yang's mouth were practically rising to meet the sun!

Li Yang picked up a sickle. As soon as she held it, she realized it was no ordinary tool. It looked like a regular sickle, but it had quite a heft to it.

The system beeped:

[Low-quality Star Weapon detected. Spend lifespan to purify it?]

Oh!

It was even a Star Weapon!

As expected of an agronomy department at a military academy-even its sickles were special!

Li Yang didn't spend her lifespan to improve the sickle's quality. For one thing, she had too little lifespan left. For another, the sickle didn't belong to her, and it would be hard to explain if its quality suddenly improved for no apparent reason.

She'd make do with it for now.

Li Yang carried the sickle toward the wheat field. Only when she got close did she discover how dense the Starlight there was. Every drooping head of wheat was brimming with Starlight, and together they looked like a blazing golden fire, dazzling to behold.

This mutated wheat was visibly different from ordinary wheat.

For one thing, it was enormous. Ordinary wheat averaged only about eighty or ninety centimeters tall, while the wheat before her was at least two meters tall—a veritable "wheat tree"!

For another, the stalks of this mutated wheat were thick and hard, visibly sturdy.

Li Yang studied the wheat, thinking, I still feel like an axe would be easier to use...

But the only tools over there were sickles, and Li Yang didn't ask whether there was an axe.

She'd try it first!

Li Yang figured that since the teacher had recommended a sickle, it should work better than an axe!

As for how to harvest the wheat...

There happened to be a ready-made example nearby, seemingly left by the last new student who had taken the task.

"No wonder they use sickles..." Li Yang more or less understood. "So you only have to cut off the heads."

She swallowed dryly, suppressed the excitement surging in her heart, and swung the sickle at a huge, drooping head of wheat.

Bang!

It was like striking a steel bar.

Li Yang had cut Four-Leaf Clovers before and was mentally prepared for this. Without panicking, she channeled the power of the Starlight in her body into the sickle and swung again with a clang.

Her physique stat was now astonishing, and with the boost from her spirit stat, she aimed for a weak point in the wheat stalk and struck with at least 400 points of force.

Crack.

The head of wheat trembled.

Li Yang hurriedly followed up with several more strikes and successfully cut it off.

A chime rang out.

A line appeared on the system panel:

[Lifespan +1 year.]