CHAPTER 193: CHAPTER 188 GROWTH

Zhao Hanzhang sneezed heavily and shivered, scaring Fu Tinghan to sit up immediately, "You’re not getting sick, are you?"

In this era, a cold is no joke.

Zhao Hanzhang rubbed her nose and felt it, then shook her head, "Probably not. Maybe someone is thinking of me? I’m in good health."

Fu Tinghan thought it was possible and lay back down, "But still, be careful. We can’t afford to get sick now."

After thinking for a moment, Fu Tinghan lay down beside Zhao Hanzhang, leaning against her through a layer of straw to keep both of them warmer.

Zhao Hanzhang: ...

She turned to look at the team leader, Qiu Wu, Fu An and the others.

They immediately turned their heads aside, pretending not to have seen anything.

Zhao Hanzhang was satisfied, lying on her cloak, whispering to Fu Tinghan, "Actually, I don’t feel very cold right now either."

Fu Tinghan whispered, "Sleep, don’t you want to personally check the seed sowing in the fields tomorrow?"

Zhao Hanzhang had great expectations for next year’s grain yield, so she took the winter wheat sowing very seriously.

She not only spent a large sum of money to personally return to Wu Castle to ask various families to sell her their stored good wheat seeds, but also sent people to other counties to purchase a large quantity of wheat seeds.

This was to ensure grain yield from the start.

The next day before dawn, Zhao Hanzhang’s biological clock told her it was time to wake up.

She opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Fu Tinghan’s face. She paused, as memories slowly returned, realizing at some point, Fu Tinghan’s arm had draped over her as they lay against each other with a layer of straw in between, keeping them both warm.

Professor Fu, asleep, lacked the coldness he had when awake, appearing quite gentle.

Zhao Hanzhang looked at him, thinking that his sleeping appearance was akin to his true nature.

She couldn’t help but smile slightly, just as she was about to carefully move his hand away, she met Fu Tinghan’s open eyes.

Fu Tinghan, not appearing drowsy, met Zhao Hanzhang’s frozen gaze and did not move, softly asking, "What’s funny?"

For some reason, Zhao Hanzhang dared not move, her whole body stiffened, and she uneasily shifted her gaze, saying, "Good morning, the sky seems to be getting light."

Only then did Fu Tinghan’s gaze leave her face, sweeping the still dark surroundings, then turned back to her in the dimming firelight, and replied softly.

Zhao Hanzhang moved her arm, speaking softly, "We can get up now."

Only then did Fu Tinghan calmly retract his arm and sat up.

Zhao Hanzhang was shocked inside; since when did Professor Fu become so bold?

Just as she was about to sit up, her gaze caught his ear, his inky hair draped aside, unintentionally revealing the right ear, with the sunlight reflecting a red tip as if it was about to bleed.

Zhao Hanzhang immediately calmed down, clicking her tongue twice in her heart, thinking, ’Who would have thought, who would have thought.’

She regained her composure, sat up, patted his shoulder, and said openly, "Leaning against you is quite warm, let’s sleep like this next time we sleep outside."

Fu Tinghan froze.

Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t help but laugh silently, just as her mouth opened, Fu Tinghan turned around to look at her.

Zhao Hanzhang was about to shut her mouth to pretend to be serious, but it was too late; Fu Tinghan nodded and said, "Okay."

Fu An was startled awake, sitting up with a start, looking around and seeing only the young master and Third Lady awake, and nothing unusual around, he relaxed.

He rubbed his eyes, sleepy-faced, and looked at Fu Tinghan and Zhao Hanzhang, "Young master, Third Lady, why are your faces so red? Could you have a fever?"

Qiu Wu and the team leader "woke up" just in time, and after getting up, tapped him on the head, "Since you’re awake, go fetch water for the young master. Why so much talk?"

Fu An felt wronged inside, worry was on his mind for the young master and Third Lady, wasn’t it?

Fu Tinghan had already risen to tidy his clothes, "No, go fetch water."

When selecting the settlement points, Fu Tinghan and Zhao Hanzhang not only considered the geographical location and the fields they wanted to farm but also considered their water usage issue.

Most settlement points have a water source nearby. If not, wells have to be dug.

This place is fairly good, with a small river meandering from the mountain, still carrying water at this time, and it’s not too far from their camp.

Fu An and the soldiers borrowed a wooden bucket to fetch water, and by the time he returned, the sky was already gray, with soldiers waking up, preparing to set up the pot for cooking.

Zhao Hanzhang was practicing martial arts, her punches were vigorous, and the soldiers were stunned watching her.

Although they had become Zhao Hanzhang’s soldiers, they were farmers before following her. Despite some training, besides forming ranks and poking forward with sharpened sticks like spears, most of their time was spent reclaiming and farming land.

So in their hearts, they still saw themselves as farmers, only farming in a different place.

Here, they didn’t have to worry about taxes and had food to eat.

Seeing Zhao Hanzhang practicing, they realized they were soldiers, not just farmers.

The crowd was dumbfounded.

The team leader snapped them back to reality, urging, "What are you looking at? Haven’t you quickly gone to wash up? Those who need to cook breakfast go do it, those needing to work in the fields go now."

The crowd snapped back and turned to leave promptly.

Indeed, everyone had to head to the fields, cooking breakfast takes time, and only requires five people, the rest naturally couldn’t be idle, they carry hoes and seeds to the fields first.

Zhao Hanzhang finished her martial practice, warm from exertion, and also headed to the fields to check the seed sowing.

"Has this seed been sun-dried?"

The team leader followed beside her, "Yes, according to your instructions, all the seeds allocated were sun-dried on mats for two days before sowing, these are all well-dried."

Although he felt the seeds were quite dry and didn’t understand why they needed further drying, he followed orders.

Zhao Hanzhang nodded in satisfaction, and after observing the sowing density for a while, she rolled up her sleeves and said, "Give me the grain sack, I’ll sow them."

The seed bag was a small cloth sack, and the sowers held these small bags to sow one row after another.

Fu Tinghan also took a sack, and the two bent down to work for an hour along with the soldiers until the sound of a gong from the camp announced it was meal time. Only then did everyone stop working and return for breakfast.

Just in this one hour, Zhao Hanzhang felt her waist aching a little; doing farm work is not easy, even more tiring than practicing martial arts.

Fu Tinghan also found it more exhausting than solving math problems.

He instinctively calculated this pace, and upon returning to camp said, "In three days, the fields allocated to them should be fully sown."

The team leader immediately responded, "Yes, Young Master has a good eye, we figured it’ll take about three to four days to finish sowing."

Zhao Hanzhang said, "Then once done, focus on preparing for winter: building houses, chopping firewood for charcoal, and preparing as much thatch as possible. I wonder if there are any reeds around here; if there are, gather more reed fluff, the county town over there is already making quilts and clothes."