The next day, the entire household got up before dawn and waited in front of the main house for the sun to rise. Once the first rays of light showed above the horizon, Haoran and the other chef’s assistants started the blessing ritual. The whole thing was mercifully brief. They simply circled the farm while chanting prayers and burning sweet-smelling herbs and incense. Then we all gathered in front of the [Vineheart Fairy House] and everyone, except for me, took turns burning spirit offerings which took the form of paper money or small fabric items painted, sewn, glued, etc. to resemble luxury goods like miniature robes, silver taels, gold ingots, potion bottles, furniture, horses, and immortal pills.

When it was over, we trooped back to the house for a simple, light breakfast of oatmeal with honey and hot tea or coffee. The main morning meal would be eaten after we finished planting.

The kids and I went back to the field we had plowed yesterday and planted the [Rice Seeds]. After watering them, we still had a lot of energy left, so we continued to till, fertilize, plant, and water the rest of the field until our energy bars were almost empty.

The next two weeks followed the same pattern. We met at dawn and planted rice and tea seeds. On the last day of the spring planting season, we drank [Kola Kola Soda] to replenish a fraction of our energy bars and went to the fairies’ house to plant a few sunflowers, lavender, marigolds, and petunias.

“I think the fairies love flowers,” said Mo as she watered the seeds.

I chuckled a little at that. “What, even the gangster fairy?”

Mo shook her head. “Teacher, how could there be a gangster fairy?”

I pinched her cheek. “You’re only saying that because you forgot what happened. There was a brawler fairy. She even got into a fight with the Demon Chef.”

For some reason that I couldn’t figure out, everyone except me forgot all about the fairies’ appearance. The marks of the Fairy Blessings faded after a few days, and now they treated my story about what happened as a tall tale. They still remembered they had blessings, and my kids still kept their bonus exp, but their minds seemed to have created a different memory.

“No, the fairies were in the form of beautiful and gentle princess-like winged beings made of light,” said Mo. “There was no fighting.”

“There was just one fairy and she was a grandmother goddess with golden wings and a bright golden halo,” said Lari.

Kharli was having none of it. “Tsk, you’re both wrong. They were cute children with white, feathered wings wearing white robes. They smelled like honey and milk!”

“It’s weird that we all saw different things…” I put away my watering can and wiped my hands with a handkerchief. When the others finished watering, I said, “That’s not important though. It’s the last day. How are your stats?”

I had leveled up once.

[Player Name: Violet

Farming Skills:

Farming Level 24→25, Fishing Level 12, Woodcutting Level 22, Cooking Level 6, Herblaw Level 22, Foraging Level 7, Hunting Level 7, Mining Level 4]

My apprentices also leveled up Farming.

[Apprentice Name: Kharli

Farming Skills:

Farming Level 18→19, Fishing Level 6, Woodcutting Level 16, Cooking Level 2, Herblaw Level 1, Foraging Level 7, Hunting Level 5]

[Apprentice Name: Lari

Farming Skills:

Farming Level 18→19, Fishing Level 10, Woodcutting Level 16, Cooking Level 1, Herblaw Level 1, Foraging Level 4, Hunting Level 9]

[Apprentice Name: Mo

Farming Skills:

Farming Level 18→19, Fishing Level 4, Woodcutting Level 17, Cooking Level 2, Herblaw Level 1, Foraging Level 11, Hunting Level 4]

I took out a clipboard and ballpoint pen from my inventory and noted their levels down. “Things are shaping up nicely! Do you remember our agreement when I took you on as my apprentices?”

Lari and Kharli went to either side of me and tried to read what I was writing, but it was all in my “secret code” aka English.

“The profit sharing agreement?” Lari rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That’s not until we reach level 25 Farming, right, Teacher?”

I nodded. “Right. At level 25 you’re considered a farmer in your own right, and we can split the harvest 70-30 in my favor. At level 50 you’ll be a master farmer, and we’ll raise your share to 50 percent.”

“Yes! I’ll be incredibly rich!” said Lari.

I gestured in the direction of the house, and we started walking. “Do note that when you graduate from your apprenticeship, you’ll be responsible for your expenses.”

Kharli and Mo exchanged alarmed glances while Lari continued beaming and counting off things on his fingers. We could barely hear him muttering stuff like, “my own carriage, gold robes, silver plates, a jeweled belt…”

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“Teacher? What does that mean?” asked Kharli.

“It means you’ll have to keep your own account books, and you won’t get an allowance anymore. Your money will be your share of the farm’s profit.” I patted the girls on their backs and smiled at them benevolently. “Don’t worry, you’ll have more than enough!”

“A white horse, no, two white horses, or maybe a sedan chair…” With a dreamy look on his face, Lari continued enumerating the things he wanted to buy.

Once we got to the house, we went to the kitchen to get some food then I led them to the inner courtyard where I wanted to discuss our plans for the summer. The room I chose had a whiteboard on one side and a large glass table in the middle with four wooden chairs. My apprentices put down plain white cotton table mats and coasters while I arranged the food in Dresden porcelain plates that were edged in gold and painted with a lovely landscape scene of rolling hills, tranquil lakes, and red-billed cranes. The kids also placed the glasses and silverware in the proper location as dictated by this world’s table etiquette. I was gratified to note that they had fully mastered the art of “Central style” dining.

We ate a hearty meal of rice, sauteed mushrooms, red-braised pork, fish filets in black bean sauce, and abalone bean curd soup.

Lari ate with a good appetite like the rest of us, but midway through the meal, he seemed to be struck by a worrying thought. He frowned and asked me, “Teacher, when we graduate, will we have to pay for our meals?”

I smiled. “What do you think?”

Mo jostled his arm playfully. “You’ll be charged more than us because you eat twice as much as we do.”

Kharli laughed at Lari’s horrified expression. “I’m sure Teacher won’t charge us for the food.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” Laughing at their expressions, I waved my fork at the table and said, “Remember your etiquette. Let's finish eating before we talk about business.”

“She’s just joking,” said Mo.

“Hush, you. Pass me the mushroom dish,” I said.

By the time we finished eating, I was in a great mood. The kids cleared the table and I took out my clipboard.

“Time for a serious discussion.” I put the clipboard down on the table. “Household and farm expenses, such as the staff’s salaries, food and other supplies, transportation, and so forth are taken out of the money we get from selling the crops and other farm products. Profit means the money that is left over after expenses and taxes are deducted from our income. Do you follow so far?”

My three apprentices nodded. There were no jokes this time and they were listening attentively to every word.

“The household expenses aren't as much as you might think since a lot of things we use are items taken from my bloodline inheritance. You probably won’t graduate until next year, so we’ll discuss the details then. We’ll have to go over the account books together, but right now what you need to do is to prepare for it. You’ll need to learn the basics of keeping records and how to calculate expenses, taxes, salaries, and so forth.” They looked quite overwhelmed, but I continued speaking. “This summer, I’ve hired a special tutor that Prince Baiyu recommended. She'll teach you reading, writing, arithmetic, and, eventually, accounting. Questions?”

I waited, but no one said anything. “Okay, I currently pay for all your living expenses. When you graduate you can set up your household, in which case you wouldn’t have to pay for this household’s expenses.”

Lari looked alarmed. “Wouldn’t that mean that we wouldn’t be eating here? Would the chef cook for all our households?”

“I doubt it very much.” I laughed out loud at my apprentices’ looks of consternation. “Deming is training apprentices though. Let’s hope they’re ready by the time you guys need your own chef.”

I allowed them a moment of silence as they all thought about it. Finally, Mo spoke up. “Can I please just stay here even after I become a master farmer?”

“Yes, but would you really want to? It’s okay, you have a lot of time to think about it and make your plans.” I picked up my clipboard again and started ticking off the items on my list. “That’s for the future. For now, let’s talk about the summer season.”

I put a checkmark on the first item. “Rice fields. Check. We just need to wait for the seedlings to grow big enough before flooding them and adding the fish.”

“The fish we grew ourselves are especially delicious, I think,” said Kharli. “And the rice grew better.”

I went on to the other items on the list. “Tea field. Check. We will add the shade canopy later on when it’s needed. Bees?”

“They’re healthy and giving lots of honey,” said Lari.

“Okay. Bees and honey. Check. Worms?”

“They’ve been reproducing a lot. I think we need to add another box layer,” said Lari.

“Great. Worms, add another box. Check. What about the [Black Soil] project?”

“I think the soil has improved a little, but it can’t be compared to the soil samples we got,” said Mo.

“Hmmm, so it’s a little slow to develop. Let’s try [Cowpea] and [Alfalfa] after the [Wild Seed Mix].”

They nodded. Unlike me, who grew up on modern-day Earth and needed to write down a lot of things in case I forgot them, the kids were used to memorizing long lists. Paper was readily available from many sources, but it was too expensive for the children in the orphanage to use just to write down lists of things to do.

I wrote down the new plan. “[Black Soil]. Check.”

“Is [Cowpea] good for cows?” asked Kharli. “Are we hatching cow eggs?”

“Ah, that is the next item on the list. Farm animals. The chickens and pigs have been…” I tapped my lips with the pen while I searched for the right words. “Half successful. The ranchers and farmers who are raising the animals seem satisfied, but I’m concerned about the number of animals that died. It seems cruel…”

Lari simply shook his head while Kharli and Mo exchanged baffled looks.

“Teacher, it’s not more cruel than hunting animals, is it?” asked Lari.

He had a point.

“I don’t know, it seems to me like sending off newly hatched animals to die is a bit heartless. I’m thinking of stopping the selling of newborn animals after we’ve fulfilled the agreements we’ve made so far.”

“Teacher, how many animals died?” asked Kharli.

“Around half. It seems like a waste. Let’s raise them here until they’re at least a month old before sending them off.”

Mo frowned slightly and whispered something to Kharli before turning to me and saying, “But there will be a lot of noise and maybe a foul odor. What about when the prince moves in?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Why don’t we clear a new area south of the river for the animals? That should be far enough. Check?” When they nodded their agreement, I ticked that item off my list. “Next, fruit tree planting. We’ll probably expand the house and farm to the east and south, so it should be okay to plant orchards on the north and west sides of the main house.”

“More exp!” Mo put her arm around Kharli and squeezed her excitedly. “Sweet fruits and sweet exp.”

“We’ll start by planting apple trees.” I handed them packets of apple seeds. “Check. We’ll also use the [Greenhouse] to prepare tree seedlings for the desert farm. Check.”

The kids examined the apple seeds, but there was nothing much to see. They were just regular seeds.

“Now, as for our crafting work, the White Tiger clan will buy our explosive arrows. We’ll continue to make them. Everyone okay with that?”

They nodded.

“Explosive arrows, check. Last item…. a new project!” I got up and went to the whiteboard. Using a marker, I drew a large square with a circle in the middle and four diamond shapes.

“Teacher, the lines are crooked. Do you want me to fix it?” Kharli giggled naughtily.

Rolling my eyes, I handed her the marker. I was expecting the cheeky girl to fail, but, alas, her shapes were perfect and symmetrical.

“Okay. This is our new project this summer, an [Herb Garden]. I’ll teach you how to make no-till raised beds, and we’ll plant the special herbs in them.” Without further ado, I handed them packets of [Herb Seeds].

[Herb Seeds:

A mystery assortment of herb seeds ranging from the familiar to the exotic. Each one will grow into a culinary, medicinal, aromatic, or ornamental herb. Can only be planted in an Herb Garden.]