Chapter 17 – Seven gods inhabit each grain of rice

🙞❤︎🙜

Deming and Fengying moved in the next day. They brought a lot of their own furniture and personal belongings in five ox carts, along with five servants. I’d wondered how carts had managed to traverse the forest, but now that I saw them arrive, I realized they were using flying carts.

Wow, this really was a fantasy world!

They settled in quite nicely, and I placed some items I had foraged into the kitchen fridge and the sacks of newly milled rice into the storage shelves. Deming was quite pleased with the quality of the ingredients.

No one turned a hair when I took out some items from my inventory.

“Lord Shuye told us about your bloodline inheritance,” was all Fengying said. The others just nodded and went about their own work.

I had waited for them for such a long time that I was very excited about my first meal cooked by my own personal chef. When I peered into the kitchen where Deming was working with his two assistants, I was shocked speechless to see that he was chopping away at the vegetables at an incredible speed. A burning red aura was visible around his body, and his eyes glowed as he worked. He seemed as though a different person when he was working.

He was truly a Demon Chef.

Shivers ran down my spine when Deming looked up from his work and met my eyes.

Fengying ran up behind me and gently turned my body away from the kitchen, saying, “It’s best to leave him alone. He doesn’t like people watching when he’s cooking.”

“Yes, I think you’re right.” I went back to my rooms to wait for the food like a good little girl, resolving to leave my chef alone when he was at his work.

I sat down at the dining room table, eagerly anticipating my breakfast. It was three hours after I normally ate my first meal, but I knew that the wait would be worth it. In a few minutes, a maid arrived with a bowl of fish congee, and my stomach grumbled in anticipation. The smell was incredibly mouthwatering. The first spoonful that I ate blew me away with how fresh and succulent the fish was and the texture of the perfectly soft and fluffy rice. It was like a savory taste explosion on in my mouth. I finished every last drop of the congee, then sat back in my chair with a satisfied smile on my face.

I couldn’t wait for lunch!

After I finished eating, Yinuo, the maid that Fengying had assigned to my quarters, offered to help me dress and do my hair, but I refused her since I had the Cash Shop. I had gotten used to living alone and using the System for everything, even simple tasks like doing my hair up in elaborate braids or simpler styles like a ponytail or chignon.

This was exactly what I was afraid of. When my parents were alive, we had moved around a lot, and I knew that these traditional family-style accommodations were the type that didn’t provide for much privacy.

I missed my [Ranch House], even though I’d only had it for a brief time.

The moment that I had milled enough rice, I was going to demolish the building and rebuild my house.

Once I had finished dressing in my regular work clothes, I tied my hair into low ponytails, and went outside to tend to the potato plants. I was quite surprised to see that they had flowered. I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as potato flowers. Examining the blooms gave me insight into them.

[Potato Flowers:

Small and white with purple spots, the flowers grow in clusters. Once pollinated, they develop into potato fruits, which are inedible but an excellent source of seeds.]

Oho! I focused on the part that said they were “an excellent source of seeds.” All the seeds that I had from the inventory were bound to me, but if I got seeds from the plants, no doubt I could sell them or give them to other people to use.

Of course, I didn’t need the System to tell me that the flowers needed to be pollinated. I quickly took a beehive from my inventory and set it near the plants. Now I could get honey, too.

Farming was the best!

Every single day was a day when I progressed in my skills. Most of the things I did were quite simple, and the progress was incremental, but all the little things really added up. I could hardly wait for the harvest, when I would get tons of farming experience and make my levels skyrocket.

When I was done tending to the plants, I went to the mill to process the three sacks of rice I was limited to milling every day. Deming and Fengying had been quite impressed that I had my own mill, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was going to remove that facility in favor of having my own place to live in.

Taking three empty cotton sacks from my inventory, I used the system to put the milled white rice in them and left it there for Deming or one of his assistants to collect later. They seemed really fascinated by the gleaming steel machine and the rumbling sounds it produced throughout the day. They had spent quite a lot of time earlier just watching the rice falling into the container after it had been polished by the machine.

Back on Earth, I knew that there were thousands of different varieties of rice, but my inventory only had one type of rice seeds. I suppose it’s possible that there was only one kind of spirit rice in this world, or maybe Adventure Incarnate simply used the best kind. The rice I got from the mill was a pure white color, with a slight luster and delicate, starchy fragrance.

[White Pearl Rice:

The Fox goddess taught humans the art of cultivating rice. Seven gods are said to inhabit each grain of rice, so wasting this precious food is a sin.]

If the fish congee that the Demon Chef had cooked earlier was any indication, there was no chance of me, or anyone else, wasting any rice since it was insanely delicious. I could easily get addicted to the taste of it.

It was still quite early in the day by the time I finished, so I had plenty of time to do either fishing, foraging, woodcutting, herblaw, or practice archery.

What should I do? As I was pondering my next move, a distinctive smell assaulted my nostrils.

Meat! It was the smell of meat cooking!

Chapter 17.5

An excerpt from the journal of Shuye Skullcrusher, Guardian of the Ancient Hill Forest:

The investigators I sent to Mai-i island have returned and reported that Miss Violet’s background checks out. Not only are all of her immigration papers in order, they also questioned dozens of people who remember her as a perfectly ordinary young orphan girl.

So that particular line of inquiry was not very useful. I had to explain to Prince Baiyu’s staff why I had spent such a large amount of money on the investigation, but they stopped questioning me after the prince met her himself. I have no idea what exactly happened, but she obviously left quite an impression on him.

Furthermore, I’ve changed my mind about the possibility of her being a spy or assassin. A few days ago, I would’ve said that it was impossible because common sense was as alien to her as flying was to a fish…

Except that her favorite wood carving is that of a fish learning to fly.

As her potato plants have grown taller, the atmospheric qi on the farm has become exceedingly intense, so much so that it has been spilling out into the forest. The effect on the plant and animal life has been dramatic, with many ordinary species evolving into spiritual varieties. People will definitely notice it soon, but I’m not worried since the prince has taken her under his protection.

My subordinates are all convinced that she is either the child of immortals, or an immortal herself. I have no idea what she is, apart from the fact that she’s definitely not normal.

LinMeili

• If you have ever played Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, you've probably noticed that most of the NPCs start off with a neutral or even hostile attitude towards the player. They only become friendly after the player has spent a lot of time talking to them and giving them gifts. That's my concept for Shuye. He starts off suspicious of her, but becomes friendly after a while.
• Thank you very much for reading my story!
• If you find an error, please let me know.