Chapter 56: Four Massive Sacks
The tenth day since inheriting the [Estate Management System].
Jian Xingxia and Liang Chengcheng were having the time of their lives “playing” around the old house.
Liang Chengcheng was absolutely obsessed with the peaches from the old tree. The two of them spent their time climbing branches and shaking down fruit, eventually gathering a basket of twelve or thirteen peaches. Every single one weighed over half a catty. Liang Chengcheng didn’t look down on the peaches from the other trees either; they picked a whole crate of them, planning to make peach jam. Conveniently, they already had rock sugar ready at home.
Not far from the old house ran a little creek. It was over six meters wide at its broadest point and barely over a meter at its narrowest. The creek water was crystal clear and transparent, looking almost weightless. The two girls brought their peaches, steamed meat buns, and sodas down to the water, splashing around and playing for well over an hour. Afterward, they spread out a straw mat under the shade of the trees by the creek, browsed their phones, took photos, and snuck in a brief afternoon nap.
Once the sun began to lose its intensity, Jian Xingxia dragged Liang Chengcheng to help her farm.
Although Liang Chengcheng wasn’t particularly fond of the hands-on aspect of farming, her major was agriculture after all. Her technique for transplanting young seedlings was both professional and efficient. From past three until past five, in just two hours, the two of them managed to sow seeds and transplant seedlings across another two hundred square meters.
At this point, the progress for Condition Two of the estate upgrade had shifted to 411/1,000.
Liang Chengcheng even offered suggestions to Jian Xingxia. “If you don’t want to plant grains, and you feel like planting too many vegetables will just lead to waste because you can’t finish them all, why not grow some ornamental vegetables?”
After a quick consultation, they selected varieties like giant pumpkins, toy pumpkins, and ornamental eggplants, along with flower-like vegetables like variegated ornamental kale, as well as an assortment of colorful peppers and tomatoes.
Jian Xingxia significantly increased both the variety and quantity of the tomatoes.
Upgrading the estate required ten thousand yuan in management revenue, and the requirement for level two would undoubtedly be even higher. Relying solely on selling peaches and chestnuts made it incredibly difficult to earn that much money. If Lin Sanniang’s “disguise” proved successful tomorrow, she genuinely intended to try setting up a farmhouse tourism experience, camping, excursions, or fruit-picking activities in the mountains. Leveraging agriculture to develop the economy was a vital course in agricultural science.
If she could make a success of it, the villagers would earn more income, and village kids like Little Hu the Sixth wouldn’t have to drop out of school so early. Once the estate upgraded, she could also hire more ancient temporary workers. Only then would it be a win-win situation for everyone.
Thinking up to this point, Jian Xingxia simply put Liang Chengcheng to work as free labor. “Back then, your agricultural landscape design score was the highest. Help me look around and see which other plots of land can be utilized.”
Liang Chengcheng gasped in horror. “I came here to seek development opportunities for my family’s business!” How had she suddenly ended up contributing bricks and mortar to Jian Xingxia’s career?
Jian Xingxia giggled. “After all, I’m a grand landlord who commands several mountain peaks. Who knows, I might become the exclusive supply channel for your family’s specialty ingredients in the future!”
Without a word, Liang Chengcheng pulled out a little notebook to record her grievances… no, to sketch out the blueprints.
In the evening, Jian Xingxia cooked a few proper dishes.
First was a pumpkin glutinous rice chicken. The chicken had actually been slaughtered by a villager for their own household consumption, but Liang Chengcheng had swooped in and purchased it. There were also six live chickens; once they brought them back, they handed them over to Dahua’s management, and they were currently scratching the ground and eating bugs diligently in the courtyard. Jian Xingxia couldn’t bring herself to slaughter a live chicken, so the pre-slaughtered one was perfect.
The chicken meat was marinated with scallions, ginger, salt, and light soy sauce, then coated in glutinous rice and placed inside a hollowed-out small pumpkin to steam. The two small pumpkin bowls only used half the chicken.
With the remaining half, Jian Xingxia stir-fried it until the chicken fat rendered out. Once the skin turned slightly golden, she placed the meat along with chestnuts into a clay pot and sent it into the stove belly to simmer into a pot of clay-pot chicken soup. The rendered chicken fat wasn’t wasted either; she poured it straight in to stir-fry the rehydrated dried mushrooms. Chicken fat was the absolute best thing to bring out the aroma of wild mushrooms; the pairing tasted incomparably savory and delicious.
A cold dish remained indispensable. She smashed a local cucumber and tossed it with bracken root starch noodles, delivering a pure farmhouse flavor. Finally, a luffa egg soup.
Three dishes and a soup—everything was fully prepared.
At night, Jian Xingxia used the water heater to heat water for a bath. No longer needing to leave water out to bake in the sun removed another daily chore from her list.
Emerging from the bath while towel-drying her hair, she was just about to tell Liang Chengcheng to take a shower when she suddenly noticed that Liang Chengcheng’s expression looked rather frightened.
“Chengcheng, what’s wrong?” Sensing that something was amiss, Jian Xingxia quickly walked over to ask.
Liang Chengcheng grabbed Jian Xingxia’s arm tightly, her eyes constantly darting toward the outside of the backyard gate.
She recalled the cryptic questions and slightly worried glances from the villagers when they were buying mountain goods in the village today. At the time, an old grandma had asked if the two of them were scared staying out in the mountains alone. She had assumed the grandma asked because they were young girls who lacked physical strength. There were also the occasional whispers she overheard about “spirits” or “monsters.”
She hadn’t taken any of it seriously. What a joke, don’t they know animals aren’t allowed to become spirits after the founding of the nation?
But just now—
Liang Chengcheng swallowed her saliva, her voice trembling slightly. “Xia… Xiaxia, living out in the mountains like this, have you ever seen… seen any strange things?”
Jian Xingxia’s heart instantly leaped into her throat. “Strange things? What do you mean?”
Liang Chengcheng didn’t know how to explain it either. She pulled Jian Xingxia cautiously toward the edge of the back door and pointed outside the courtyard.
“Before you went to take a shower just now, there was absolutely nothing there.”
But now, four massive woven sacks had appeared right outside the backyard gate.
Jian Xingxia’s pupils contracted sharply. She was all too familiar with these woven sacks—weren’t they the exact chestnuts Dahei had gathered yesterday? Because she couldn’t carry them, she had left them out by the patch of wild grass the whole time. How had they suddenly appeared here? What had Liang Chengcheng seen?
Activating her “stubborn denial” skill, Jian Xingxia put on a casual front. “Oh, the villagers must have delivered them. The village has officials who have to patrol the mountains during the summer to prevent flash floods, falling rocks, and keep an eye out for forest fires.”
Using her most ordinary tone, Jian Xingxia said, “The villagers see that I’m all alone, so they frequently send me things and help me out. You bought so many mountain goods today; the villagers probably felt bad and came to thank us.”
Liang Chengcheng stared at Jian Xingxia. “Really? They’re just chestnuts?”
“Of course.” Saying this, Jian Xingxia feigned the intention to walk over and drag the sacks inside, acting as if there wasn’t a single problem and everything was completely normal.
Liang Chengcheng breathed a sigh of relief. “Scared me to death. Sacks that huge… I thought someone had dumped four corpses outside your courtyard…”
“Oh my god! What are you saying!” Jian Xingxia leaped up in fright. She hadn’t felt an ounce of fear when facing ancient people or semi-translucent figures, but Liang Chengcheng’s single sentence made the hair on her arms stand right up.
Liang Chengcheng defended herself. “It’s true! Look at those four sacks, they’re so big, they look exactly like they’re holding—”
“Stop, stop, don’t say it!” Jian Xingxia was truly terrified of Liang Chengcheng.
Liang Chengcheng wasn’t scared anymore; now it was her turn to be terrified.
Jian Xingxia didn’t bother dragging the sacks inside either. In any case, these chestnuts had already sat on the mountain for over a year, so leaving them outside for another day or two wouldn’t hurt.
Now she felt even more resolute about recruiting Lin Sanniang to cook tomorrow. That fellow Dahei was far too literal-minded; she had simply forgotten to instruct him to leave the chestnuts alone, and he had ended up delivering them himself.
