CHAPTER 179 - GROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
🙞❤︎🙜
I gave him an innocent smile. “Uh-huh.”
Prince Baiyu planted a kiss on my forehead and sighed in an overly dramatic manner. “You know… I was told that a lot of women would jump at the chance to marry me next week.”
I drew away from him. “Are you saying you got a lot of offers? You’re not planning to form a harem next week, are you?”
“Of course not!”
Our eyes met and we both burst into laughter.
“My poor, poor prince.” I put a hand on his shoulder and pressed down to let him know I wanted him to bend towards me, and then I patted his head when he obliged. “Is everyone telling you to get married right away?”
I led him inside the house where we sat side by side on the couch in the living room. Since the taboo had been lifted, I offered him some tea and a plate of dumplings.
In between sips and bites, he regaled me with tales of his most recent trips with his parents. Since the last time I had seen them, they had gone to all the major clans to calm them down and discuss their plans.
“My mother’s been pushing herself too hard. Father and I were only able to force her to take a break after she felt dizzy when we were flying to the Wolf clan’s headquarters.” He made a sound of pure exasperation. “We’re taking three days off.”
“Just three days? Is that even enough time to recover?”
Prince Baiyu shrugged. “Clan members have greater stamina than humans… but you’re right. A pregnant lady shouldn’t overwork herself.”
“Will I see you tomorrow?”
“Yes, and the day after.”
I took out three more plates of food from my inventory. “Eat more and recover your strength. Try this apple pie, I baked it myself.”
This time, we stopped talking about serious matters and just enjoyed each other’s company by feeding each other sweet morsels of apple pie and pastries.
***
The next day, Prince Baiyu met me at my door with a smile and a kiss on the cheek, which put me in a great mood for the rest of the day.
At sunrise on the farm, the morning dew on the grass sparkled like diamonds, and I noticed that the breeze was cooler today than yesterday. Perhaps Yinuo was correct when she said that we were due for a break from the summer sun’s oppressive heat. From my house I could see the fields of crops. The rice fields were a sea of golden-brown stalks, heavy with grain and rustling gently in the morning breeze, which made a nice contrast with the vibrant green color of the tea fields.
Prince Baiyu was impressed by the beauty of the farm and complimented me on the thriving crops. We were chatting merrily when we reached the tea field, where my apprentices were already waiting for us.
“Good morning!” I greeted the kids.
I was met with a chorus of “Good mornings!”
Lari, Kharli, and Mo were dressed in simple cotton trousers and the usual cross-collar top. The girls, possibly because their maids knew that Prince Baiyu would be with us today, were wearing modest, long-sleeved tops, but Lari had cut off his sleeves and was bare-armed.
We quickly got to work plucking tea leaves, and it wasn’t long before Lari threw his arms up and yelled, “Level up!” and did a victory run around the tea field.
The rest of us clapped and congratulated him.
There weren’t that many tea plants, so we finished the harvest before running out of energy.
“Shall we continue by harvesting the rice? Do you guys have enough energy?” I asked.
“Yes, Teacher,” said Mo.
The others nodded.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I’m very close to a level,” said Kharli.
The tea had to be picked by hand to get the best price, but there was no such requirement for the rice. Thus, we used the System instead of harvesting it manually.
Taking out a sickle from my System tool belt, I mentally clicked on the empty sacks in my inventory, and when I swung the sickle at a rice plant, the System did the work for me. Half a dozen plants disappeared from the field while a sack of rice and a pile of crop residues simultaneously appeared in my inventory. The crop residue could be used in making [Animal Feed] later, while the sacks of rice would be sold as seed rice for the farmers who wanted to try growing their own spirit crop.
Once I started harvesting, the others followed suit.
It took no time at all for both Kharli and Mo to level up one after the other.
“Congratulations, you two!” I hugged them both.
“This is all thanks to you, Teacher.” Mo beamed and hugged me and Kharli back.
“Thank you for always taking care of us.” Kharli’s voice was giddy with delight.
“Aw, get it in here, too!” I pulled Lari into the group embrace.
We were all smiling from ear to ear.
“Harvest time is the best time!” I said. “Let’s continue.”
We harvested a few more sacks of rice until we ran out of energy.
“Teacher, we’re going to put flowers in front of the [Vineheart Fairy House] as offerings,” said Kharli. “We want to thank them for the bonus exp.”
“Good idea,” I said. “Gather the flowers from inside the farm though. They say the qi outside the farm is still in disarray.”
“The animals really have been acting strangely. Last night, I was taking a walk when I saw a deer with glowing yellow eyes,” said Lari.
“No way!” I said. “Did it attack or anything?”
“It was just eating some grass,” said Lari.
“That’s just normal. Some animals have eyes that seem to glow in the dark,” said Prince Baiyu. “Deer are one of them.”
“In any case, yes, you guys can go offer flowers to the fairies as long as you stay inside the farm,” I said.
My apprentices scampered off on their errand, and I felt grateful because I knew that was just an excuse they made to give Prince Baiyu and me some much-needed privacy.
“Do you want to stay indoors or outdoors?” I asked Prince Baiyu.
“I’d like a day outdoors where I just sit and do nothing. I’ve spent all the time since I was on your ship either madly dashing here and there to put out fires or indoors all day listening to elders drone on and on.” Prince Baiyu imitated an elder by loudly humming in a sonorous tone.
“Oh, you poor thing!”
“People don’t know how tiring it is to just sit in one place for hours at a time while doing nothing until it’s happened to them. I’m not even allowed to talk because I’m too young, you know.”
“Well, at least the monotonous elder talk must be better than excited yapping.” I tried to imitate a chatterbox by flapping my hands and making rapid, high-pitched, nonsensical sounds.
He laughed, and we hooked our arms together as I guided him to the [Herb Garden] where we spent a pleasant day talking about this and that. We went to the main house for dinner, and he only left after midnight.
I was yawning when I retired to my [Ranch House] to work on my gift to the prince. Since his parents had sent me such a magnificent present, I needed to return the favor as best as I could. The only valuable things that I had were crops, which I had a contract to sell to the White Tiger clan, and gold coins, which would be crass to give. Most of the other really good items in my inventory were untradeable, except for the [War Fans] which were meant for a different purpose.
Of course, if my crafting skills were higher, I could theoretically smith some good armor and weapons, but all I could make at the moment were simple steel items, which would be pretty lame. I wanted to give the Lady of the West something that would wow her and show everyone that I was a proper match for a prince.
The only thing I could think of that was good enough were [Diamonds]. Not the plain ones, of course. Those wouldn’t do at all. What I needed were enchanted gems.
Clearing my living room of its furniture, I placed the [Nine Dragon Jade Cauldron] in the middle of the now empty space and put [Spell Stones] in the cauldron’s inventory to power the [Automatic Alchemy] function before loading it up with as many [Diamonds] as it could hold.
I went to bed with the cauldron quietly humming away in my living room, and when I woke up, I put three perfect [Diamonds +9 Air] in a fancy jewelry box. The [Nine Dragon Jade Cauldron] had produced more than three, but I thought it would be ridiculously over-the-top to gift all of them.
The day was a repeat of yesterday, except for the fact that Prince Baiyu and I had to say our goodbyes at midnight. I walked him over to the gate, and Prince Baiyu put his arm around my waist and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll miss you so much.”
“I’ll miss you more,” I said.
“No, I’ll miss you more.”
We continued in the same vein for a while, until the prince’s royal guard coughed, and I knew he had to leave. Reluctantly, we broke apart, and I handed him the jewelry box.
“Here, a gift for your parents,” I said.
“May I open it?” he asked.
“Sure, go ahead.”
The [Diamonds +9 Air] in their red velvet-lined box sparkled brilliantly under the soft light of the moon. Prince Baiyu gave me a quizzical look. “Gems?”
“Diamonds. Sorry, I can’t sew or embroider very well.” Fengying had told me that the traditional gift for the groom’s family was embroidered shoes and a bronze mirror, symbolizing togetherness and harmony. I could have had the staff buy them from Anwei, but I thought that something I crafted was more meaningful.
“No, no, I wasn’t complaining. I meant… where are these from?” Prince Baiyu picked up a jewel and held it up to the light of the nearest wall light.
When the royal guard moved closer to get a look at it, too, Prince Baiyu gave him a forbidding look and put the gem back in the box, which then disappeared into the prince’s interspatial storage.
“I used my Alchemy skills from my bloodline inheritance to enhance those gems,” I said.
This would’ve been an amazing thing back on Earth, but here Alchemy wasn’t too uncommon at all.
“Thank you, I’m sure my parents will love them.”
He took my hands in his one last time and kissed me before flying away, leaving me forlorn.
Maybe I should’ve taken him up on his offer of a wedding next week.