The court was seeking to purchase drought-resistant improved seeds.

This was something all the breeding families knew.

The current breeding families, led by the Xi family, were mostly born from earth spirits.

People like Huang Shu actually couldn’t even get on the stage.

Outside the dream in the early years of the Chengyuan era, the reason Si Tianjian had found the Huang family was because Huang Rang had always been carefully managing the family business. The Huang family also successively had famous varieties enter the market.

But the current Huang family was already vastly different from before.

Not to mention that Huang Shu had been attacked by bandits and suffered that unspeakable injury.

Even without the injury, he was originally someone who coveted pleasure and enjoyment.

His children were firmly suppressed by him and couldn’t get ahead at all. Even if they bred any improved varieties, it was he who took the credit and gained the profit. Therefore, everyone wasn’t very enthusiastic.

—Rather than rack their brains cultivating improved seeds, they might as well wait for him to pass away and divide up more of the family property!

Therefore, the current Huang family wasn’t within the court’s consideration at all.

Naturally Si Tianjian hadn’t gone to Immortal Tea Town to visit Huang Shu either.

But recently, Si Tianjian, which had originally been seeking seeds everywhere, suddenly went quiet.

So all the breeding families inevitably grew an extra eye, firmly fixing their gaze on Di Yiqiu.

Though these drought-resistant improved seeds were difficult to produce, it was still a big deal after all.

Once the transaction was completed, the court would definitely reward them handsomely with gold and silver, and the common people would spread the word far and wide.

Many breeding masters actually coveted such a reputation and profit-making affair.

However, Old Master Xi had clearly made up his mind to have the court eliminate Di Sanmeng. Other breeding masters naturally wouldn’t rashly take on this business.

—As a breeding master, if you offended the Xi family, where would you have any way to survive?

Moreover, eliminating Di Sanmeng benefited all breeding masters. Such a thing that didn’t follow the rules was indeed a black sheep. So everyone agreed with Old Master Xi’s decision.

This time, everyone united together, sparing no expense to strictly control farmland rentals.

This way, even if Di Sanmeng could use a small plot of land to cultivate parent seeds, without enough trial fields, the parent seeds couldn’t be bred into improved seeds in sufficient quantity.

Originally this plan was indeed quite good, and everyone was waiting to see the results.

However, recently, the court’s side suddenly went quiet.

Di Yiqiu no longer visited the breeding families everywhere, as if he already had leads regarding the purchase of improved seeds.

When he held back his forces, the others inevitably felt somewhat panicked.

So some people secretly stirred up rumors, claiming that next year would bring great drought, and without new improved seeds, the grain harvest would be completely lost. Others spread rumors that the government was doing nothing at all, and half the common people would surely starve to death.

When popular sentiment was unsettled, everyone’s eyes turned toward the court.

This was a silent game, with the breeding families using the common people to pressure the court.

They intended to force Si Tianjian to compromise.

But even under heavy pressure, Di Yiqiu still held back his forces.

Huang Rang greatly admired this person. Shi Wenyu had already summoned him several times, and court officials had also repeatedly submitted memorials. The pressure on him was enormous, yet he had never urged her.

Early one morning, Huang Rang carefully cooked meatballs and sent them over.

Di Yiqiu was sitting in his study, having just finished instructing the two Jianfu and four Shaojian about today’s official business.

—Huang Rang had come at a precisely calculated time.

She set out the food on the small table to the side. Di Yiqiu no longer resisted.

The food Huang Rang made quite suited his taste.

—In comparison, the cooks in Si Tianjian’s dining hall really deserved death.

He picked up his chopsticks, and Huang Rang had just set out the condiments. Her eyes sparkled brightly as she said, “I just wrapped these. Try them quickly.”

Di Yiqiu picked up a meatball and dipped it in the condiments.

Huang Rang looked at him expectantly as he put it in his mouth.

“Pretty good!” Di Yiqiu responded reluctantly with one sentence, yet immediately reached out with his chopsticks to pick up another. These meatballs were filled with mutton, mixed with minced lotus root. One bite was crisp, tender, fresh and fragrant, very refreshing.

He ate two, then finally looked up and asked, “Have you eaten already?”

Huang Rang was delighted. “Oh my, you’re finally showing concern for me! Ten years, and this is the first time I’ve heard you ask this. Hmph.”

Hearing this, Di Yiqiu inevitably felt a bit guilty. Actually, during these ten years, Huang Rang had always been good to him. He said, “If you haven’t eaten, sit down and eat. So talkative.”

So Huang Rang moved a chair over and indeed sat facing him, the two of them using their chopsticks together.

She had wrapped many meatballs, enough for two people to eat.

Di Yiqiu discovered that eating at the same table with her actually wasn’t unpleasant. He asked, “Has Senior Di Sanmeng delivered the parent seeds to you?”

Huang Rang said, “Oh oh, yes yes, they were delivered. I’ve already planted them. Didn’t I say I’d give them to you in April? What, are they pressing you again?”

She asked casually. Di Yiqiu said, “Being pressed doesn’t matter, it’s just that this matter is extremely important after all and can’t be treated as a joke. I inevitably have to ask a couple more times.”

Huang Rang nodded repeatedly. Di Yiqiu looked up at her.

Today she wasn’t dressed as exquisitely as on the day they went out together. She only wore a narrow-sleeved dress, her long hair tied up high in a bun with a hairpin casually inserted.

Though the hairpin was gold, it was very plain without any other decorative patterns.

Dressed this way, among all the daughters of aristocratic families, she was actually quite simple. Di Yiqiu thought carefully and discovered that Huang Rang indeed didn’t seem to have any jewelry.

He asked, “You’re Sect Master He’s niece. Doesn’t he provide you with jewelry?”

Huang Rang was startled and took quite a while to come to her senses before laughing. “My uncle pays my tuition at the breeding institute every year. You don’t know how expensive it is each year! My aunt gives me some spending money, but I spend it on other things.”

Di Yiqiu kept staring at her head. Huang Rang noticed his gaze, reached up and touched it, feeling that gold hairpin.

She didn’t hide it and told the truth. “This one? This one I only had made to keep up appearances. If I didn’t have even a single gold hairpin, people would say my uncle and aunt were being harsh to me.”

“You… where did you spend the spending money?” Di Yiqiu asked.

“This…” Huang Rang steeled herself and said casually, “I’m helping Di Sanmeng for free, actually. Alas, though the improved seeds are sold at fair prices, the parent seeds are free. Plus land rent and labor are expensive, so the money earned from improved seeds subsidizes the parent seeds. With both hands exchanging like this, there’s really no profit at all. I often lose money on it, so naturally I’m poor and rubbing my hands together!”

Di Yiqiu nodded and said, “You as a person are different from what I thought. Previously I misunderstood you.”

He spoke frankly. Huang Rang was quite surprised. “You…” She leaned over with an investigating expression. “Are you apologizing to me?”

“Hmph!” The Jianzheng continued eating and paid her no more attention.

Huang Rang didn’t argue with him either. When he finished eating, she collected the bowls and chopsticks and left on her own.

That day, at Zhuque Si.

Shaojian Zhu Xiang saw her own Jianzheng sneakily drawing a design draft, then using his own gold to mysteriously cast something.

When she wanted to step forward to help, the Jianzheng immediately refused sternly.

Shaojian Zhu really couldn’t contain her curiosity and secretly glanced at the design draft.

She saw that it was actually a gold hairpin ornament.

A hairpin ornament?!

Shaojian Zhu was very puzzled.

That evening, Huang Rang brought dinner over again.

But there was no one in the study.

Huang Rang set down the food box and was about to leave when she suddenly noticed a strip of snow-white silk spread on the desk with a gold hairpin ornament resting on it!

The hairpin ornament was finely crafted with gorgeous tassels. Under the candlelight, it shimmered with flowing colors, indescribably beautiful.

This this this!

Huang Rang walked over, reaching out her hand several times then pulling back. After a long while, she finally murmured, “This is simply testing this young lady’s endurance!”

She thought for a long time and finally picked up that hairpin ornament to compare against her temple.

A thought suddenly raced wildly in her heart like a startled deer—”Is this for me?” Huang Rang looked left and right. Whatever, it must be for me!

But if it wasn’t, wouldn’t it be too embarrassing?

She hesitated back and forth when suddenly footsteps sounded outside the door.

Di Yiqiu came in from outside.

Huang Rang quickly placed the hairpin ornament back in its original position. Di Yiqiu glanced at her, then swept a glance at the hairpin ornament and asked, “You don’t like it?”

“I like it.” Huang Rang answered honestly.

The Jianzheng flicked his sleeve and asked, “If you like it, why not take it?”

“Take it!” Huang Rang thickened her face and said, “I was just about to take it when you came back!”

Saying this, she grabbed that hairpin ornament in one swoop and ran away like flying.

The Jianzheng sat by the small table, opened the food box, and took out the dinner inside. He ate a few bites, then turned to look at the empty snow silk on the desk. For some unknown reason, the corners of his mouth curved up, revealing a smile.

Huang Rang gripped this hairpin ornament and ran all the way back to her dormitory.

She fell onto the bed and rolled over, then pressed the hairpin ornament against her face. The gold was slightly cool, but her cheeks flushed red.

By late March, Huang Rang successfully used the parent seeds of beam rice to cultivate improved seeds that common people could plant.

For Huang Rang, this was merely a simple task. She already knew beam rice seeds by heart.

And this news also seemed to grow wings and spread far without being told.

—Master Di Sanmeng had successfully cultivated drought-resistant improved seeds for the court.

The entire breeding family world gasped and fell into silence.

Everyone knew that if the beam rice seeds succeeded and truly helped the common people survive the great drought, it would mean Di Sanmeng’s reputation would probably rival Old Master Xi’s.

Beam rice could not succeed!

This was almost the consensus of all breeding masters.

So some people secretly spread rumors, claiming Di Sanmeng had no sect or school, and the court seeking him out was just the silver for purchasing improved seeds being embezzled.

Seeds were not just a sum of silver for farming households, but an entire year’s livelihood.

No farming households dared gamble on this matter.

So this claim made some people half-believing, half-doubting, not daring to plant.

But those who had received Di Sanmeng’s kindness worked hard to clarify.

—These poor scattered households suddenly banded together like twisted rope. They claimed again and again that Master Di Sanmeng truly had great talent and his improved seeds were worth trusting.

So under layers of pressure, the court finally still distributed the beam rice seeds.

For the first year’s trial planting, because there was no drought, the court required each farming household to leave half their farmland empty to plant beam rice.

Some people made trouble, but this matter shocked the court and countryside, and even the immortal sects were watching from all sides. These troublemaking rumors didn’t make much noise.

During this period, Di Yiqiu was exceptionally busy.

He often traveled between farmlands, persuading those households who were still observing and unwilling to plant.

But because the breeding families were watching like tigers eyeing their prey, these people didn’t dare compromise.

—After all, this person Di Sanmeng had never shown his face. He had no sect or school. If it failed, the wave of people who planted would completely offend the breeding families.

Once collectively boycotted by the breeding families, even the court would probably be helpless.

So though the court talked until their lips were worn out, only half the beam rice was planted in the end.

Another three months later, the first season of beam rice matured.

The yield was high, but it triggered another wave of criticism.

—This thing was deadly awful to eat.

Unless you were a household that regularly ate pickled vegetables, ordinary people would choke just trying to swallow it.

After laboring so hard, finally harvesting such a thing, the common people were naturally angry. And this matter gave those who harbored private grievances against Di Sanmeng even more opportunity to stir up trouble and add fuel to the fire.

For a time, Di Sanmeng seemed like a fraud that everyone wanted to beat.

Di Yiqiu had no solution. No one could cover the mouths of the common people.

Seeing popular resentment boiling over, he had to go to Huang Rang’s dormitory.

After so many years, this was the first time Di Yiqiu actively sought out Huang Rang.

Passing the stairs, Di Yiqiu saw a large stretch of trial fields.

Each student at the breeding institute had their own trial field, with each student’s name plaque stuck in the ground. The Jianzheng looked at them one by one but didn’t find Huang Rang.

At this time, an official guarding the school fields came over. Seeing him there, he quickly bowed. “Lord Jianzheng.”

Di Yiqiu made a sound of acknowledgment and asked, “Are all the students’ trial fields in this location?”

“Reporting to Your Lordship, yes.” That official didn’t dare raise his head for a long time.

Di Yiqiu put his hands behind his back. After a long while, he said, “It seems one person is missing.”

“Missing, missing one person?” The official was confused. “Your Lordship means…”

Di Yiqiu frowned and said, “Doesn’t Sect Master He have a niece who’s been studying here all along? How come I don’t see her trial field?”

When he asked this, sweat immediately broke out on the petty official’s forehead. “Reporting to Your, Your Lordship… her school field also exists… but at the time, the Institute Supervisor assigned it to another location.”

“Oh?” Hearing this, the Jianzheng became interested. He asked, “Where? Take me to see it.”

The petty official didn’t know why after more than ten years, the Jianzheng would suddenly inquire about this matter. He led Di Yiqiu there nervously.

Di Yiqiu looked at the sandy ground beside the stairs. There was indeed a name plaque stuck nearby with Huang Rang’s name written on it.

But even though he didn’t breed seeds, he could tell that this plot was clearly just wasteland, right next to the stairs where people came and went constantly. What could be bred here?

The petty official beside him hurriedly explained, “Your Lordship, that niece of Sect Master He never comes to the trial field. On this plot of land, she planted a few blades of grass and has just let them grow for more than ten years. Look at this wild grass—with no one tending it, what has it grown into?”

“The words aren’t false.” The Jianzheng stared at that sandy soil and said a sentence.

The petty official said, “So the Institute Supervisor didn’t change her location either. You must think, this school field is precious. If it’s wasted like this, who wouldn’t feel heartache, right?”

This old salted fish!

And to think he’d felt indignant on her behalf.

The Jianzheng snorted coldly in his heart and said, “Shovel the grass and remove the plaque. Since she’s unwilling to come, there’s no need to keep it for her.”

“Yes!” The petty official bowed to the ground.

That day, the grass in that sandy soil was shoveled completely clean.

The Jianzheng hadn’t found this salted fish and was too lazy to look anymore.

He Xijin had painstakingly supported her for more than ten years, yet she didn’t even come to the school field! Hmph, truly a salted fish, too lazy to even turn over.

But that very evening, everyone discovered something was wrong.

—Si Tianjian, which had been mosquito-free for more than ten years, suddenly produced a strange buzzing sound!

The lord on night duty slapped his hand with a smack and was shocked to discover he’d killed a half-full spotted mosquito in his palm!

What was going on?!

In the study, the Jianzheng who was reviewing official documents also encountered the same problem!

Because there had been no mosquitoes for more than ten years, everyone had long been accustomed to sleeping with windows open even in midsummer. There were no mosquito repellent items prepared in the rooms either.

But tonight, it seemed all the mosquitoes had made an appointment and all came here.

These heaven-sent red envelopes made everyone suffer!

Sleeping until midnight, finally everyone couldn’t bear it and fled outside with fans.

Because Si Tianjian had the breeding institute, there were many flowers, trees and crops.

Before, they were often bothered by mosquitoes. But at that time, everyone was prepared—various mosquito-repelling incense or pills were at least useful.

But like this, after more than ten years without mosquitoes, with them suddenly swarming in, who could sleep?

The various lords and students didn’t care about rank and sat together, both angry and anxious, but unable to figure out the reason.

After being peaceful for more than ten years, why had mosquitoes suddenly become rampant again?

In the study, the Jianzheng looked at the mosquito he’d slapped dead on the back of his hand and also fell into contemplation.

The next day, when Huang Rang brought breakfast over, her face was still full of anger.

The Jianzheng more or less had some suspicions in his heart. He asked as if nothing had happened, “What occurred?”

Huang Rang slammed the food box down on the table with a bang and said angrily, “Which bastard was so full they had nothing better to do than shovel my school field?!”

The Jianzheng lowered his head and silently helped her open the food box, forcing himself to stay calm. “Your school field… haven’t you not gone there for a long time?”

“Just because I don’t go means they can mess with it?!” Huang Rang’s face was ferocious. “That dog official guarding the farmland won’t say even if beaten to death! If I find out who was so meddlesome, I’ll chop off their hands!”

“Cough!” The Jianzheng coughed lightly, his face serious. “Indeed detestable. But in your school field… weren’t there only weeds?”

“Weeds?” Huang Rang gritted her teeth. “Without this young lady’s weeds, could they have slept peacefully for so many years?! Kicking the cook after eating your fill! Every single one is rotten-hearted scum! Don’t they know that for a breeding master, touching someone’s farmland is equivalent to killing their parents?!”

…This, this official truly didn’t know…

The Jianzheng gently wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and said, “Indeed, indeed excessive!”

“Wait…” Huang Rang suddenly realized. She stared at Di Yiqiu and asked in a drawn-out voice like a vengeful ghost, “How do you know my school field was growing weeds—”

The Jianzheng said as if nothing had happened, “This official only heard about it, heard…”

As the words fell, taking advantage of Huang Rang’s unpreparedness, he scrambled up and ran!

For the first time in Huang Rang’s life, she had the impulse to bite him!

“Di, Yi, Qiu!” She grabbed the bamboo pole used for opening windows and chased after him! “This old lady is going to skin you alive today!”

At Si Tianjian, everyone saw their own Jianzheng being chased and beaten by a woman, truly with no way to heaven and no door to earth, panicked like a homeless dog!

The Jianzheng couldn’t very well use his protective magical treasures against her. In the end, unsurprisingly, he was struck down by Huang Rang’s flying pole throw.

Huang Rang’s eyes were bloodshot, like an enraged lion. She straddled Di Yiqiu, grabbed his collar, her face deformed with rage. “Bastard, daring to shovel my school field!!” She furiously threw punches, two thumps awarding the Jianzheng a pair of panda eyes.

…