My farm had a river running through it to the south, and the animal pen was southwest of it. Previously, we had found out through trial and error that it was the best place to raise the animals. It was far enough from the house that we weren’t too bothered by the smells, and it was downwind.

The moon bridge I had built across it was not a problem since there was very little traffic on this quiet branch of the river on Ancient Forest Hill. The few boats that would have used it were now diverted further upstream to the main river.

The bulk of the work today was finished, and we chatted merrily as we walked to the southwest. Shuye regaled us with funny tales of the “Rise of the Feathered Fiends,” which was a story that was going around the clans about the chickens I had sold at auction, which were then sold to an eccentric animal scientist.

“No way, they’re not that violent!” I protested.

There were red junglefowl in Singapore back on Earth, and I knew better than to mess with them, but no one ever said they were a menace to society the way Shuye was talking about them.

“But they were interbred with your invisible chickens,” said Shuye. “Now everyone is scared to death they’ll be murdered in their beds by vicious trained assassin birds.”

I burst into laughter. “Oh my gosh, that would be a fowl end!”

Sadly, this was only a pun in English, and no one understood what I was saying.

“Trained assassin birds?” Mo’s eyes were wide with surprise. “Can our chickens be trained to kill people?”

“Girl, don’t give Kharli and Lari ideas!” I said.

“Bird assassins…” murmured Kharli.

“Deadly invisible stealth chickens…” murmured Lari.

Prince Baiyu’s lips twitched. Our eyes met, and we shared a silent look of shared amusement.

Despite all the hype, the animal pen looked perfectly normal when we got there. The farm currently had a limit of six animals. Last year, to get around this limit, I sold off the newly hatched farm animals to various breeders, but this experiment was a disappointment since most of the animals died. Now, to ensure that they survived, I was no longer selling chicks.

Unfortunately, this meant that only the rich breeders would be able to afford what I was selling. I had hoped to help smaller ranchers by selling to them, but, alas, this turned out to be a waste of money.

Still, I was glad I tried.

The animal pen was made of wood, with an automatic feeder and waterer inside for the animals to use. One side had a covered shed for them to shelter under and a heater for the colder nights.

In the mornings, we took turns to open the pen for them to roam freely. In the afternoon, we rang a bell which called them home, and we shut the gate.

“See? They’re very normal.” I gestured at the chickens inside the pen.

Shuye’s eyes narrowed. “You said there were six, but only five are visible.”

I giggled. “Okay, so one of them is a [Perfectly Normal Chicken.]”

He covered his face with his hands in mock despair. “More invisible chickens!”

Lari, who was the best at dealing with animals, volunteered to put them in cages for transport.

Shuye’s men then took the cages and my Farm Guide gave us a receipt for them.

“Be careful of the ‘empty’ cage,” Lari said to the clan members who were transporting the animals in a flying ox cart. “I’ve tied a blue ribbon to the invisible chicken’s leg, so you can see where it is, but that one might peck it off.”

“We’ll be careful, young master,” said the work gang’s leader.

“That was very thoughtful of you,” said Scholar Wu to my apprentice.

Lari beamed.

“Time for eggs.” I handed my apprentices two baskets of eggs and let them choose which ones to place inside the animal pen. “Duck and quail for summer.”

“I love duck,” said Lari.

“Me, too, and quail eggs are nice,” said Mo.

“I would prefer pork,” said Kharli.

“We all would,” I said.

Though pigs were hardy animals, they took longer to grow, so I was saving them for later.

The kids picked their eggs and put them in the pen while I perused our account book.

“Hmm.” I read the finance report for the animals and frowned. I said to Prince Baiyu, “You know, if I factor in the cost of the feed and the labor, it’s kinda not worth much, is it?”

“May I see the report?”

I handed it to him.

“The cost of the feed is a lot. Do they really eat that much?” he asked.

“I think so. Maybe the price for it is just too high. Looks like I would make more money selling the [Animal Feed] than selling the animals.”

Prince Baiyu nodded thoughtfully and gave me the book back. “Yes, your feed is in high demand since ranchers can use the feed even on non-spirit animals.”

“I’ll have to think about raising animals on my own and focus on selling feed then.” I yawned. “After I have some more coffee.”

“You’re addicted,” he said with a smile.

“Just because I need coffee to function doesn’t mean I’m addicted!” I pinched his arm. “Seriously though, if these animals die, too, I don’t want to sell more of them.”

“If they survive and breed outside of your farm, the price will go through the roof.”

“I hope so.” I looked around and saw that the workers were leaving. “Ah, that’s it for today. I’m going to my house to shower. You?”

As expected, Prince Baiyu had to leave. He didn’t have a set schedule for every day, but he cultivated constantly and trained his martial arts regularly. “Cultivation” mainly involved meditating and circulating the qi in his body and using some esoteric techniques I couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“See you later,” I said to him.

He kissed my cheek and left.

Then I turned to the others and invited them to the house for refreshments, which Shuye declined since he had to supervise the deliveries.

And so, we each went our separate ways. Me to my [Ranch House] to shower and change before lunch, and the others to the main house. Lari, Kharli, and Mo would also soak in the hot spring facility I had installed in the courtyard house. Apart from being a good place to relax, it also restored some of our energy.

Since I liked my privacy, I changed my house’s privacy settings to the highest ones so that no one could see inside and set up an outdoor spring for myself.

As I luxuriously soaked in the water, I drank a glass of cold [Kola-Kola Soda] and ate from the box of chocolates included in the Cash Shop’s [Romantic Valentine] set.

I toasted Mr. Bear who was sitting beside the spring wearing a cute sailor costume. “This is the life!”

***

The next day, we harvested the vegetables. Destined to be made into mouthwatering meals by the Demon Chef, the vegetables were of all kinds: leafy, fruity, cruciferous, root, bulb, pod, etc. The plants were planted together in bunches in a glorious display of abundance.

The [Tomato] plants hung heavy with ripe red fruit. Beside them, the [Cucumber] plants sprawled across their trellises, long green fruits dangling. The [Bell Pepper] plants had red, green, and yellow fruits hung in clusters. I thought bell peppers were uniformly shaped like a bell, hence the name, but here there were plenty of round and elongated ones. I guess they were different varieties.

The [Spinach], [Kale], and [Lettuce] plants were the first ones we harvested since they were at the height of their freshness. Then we moved on to the [Cauliflower], and then to the other vegetables, one by one, until our energy bars were almost all in the red. We only managed to finish working on about one-third of the vegetable field.

We put everything in baskets and returned to the main house where we displayed our bounty on the tables that had been set up in the outer courtyard.

“These look amazing!” Kharli took a [Strawberry] from a basket and showed it to us. “This must be mid-grade.”

“Wow.” I had to admit they looked almost too good to be true, perfectly shaped, a glossy red, and with a strong sweet scent. “Yes, I think we have a winner this time.”

Deming was going through every basket, checking each vegetable individually, and making a separate pile of the best ones. Some of those would be stored for later, some would be used for our harvest banquet, and some were set aside for the [Booyah Cooking Festival].

“Mid-grade.” Deming pointed at a pile of [Tomatoes], [Onions], and [Cucumbers].

“Low grade but almost mid.” He pointed at a bunch of [Cauliflowers].

“Mid-grade, almost high-grade.” He pointed at the [Strawberries].

My apprentices and I hugged each other in delight.

“Yes!” I could hardly believe it. Our harvest was a huge success!

I put most of the vegetables in my inventory and left some of them in the main house’s pantry and refrigerator for the Demon Chef and his assistants.

***

The next two days followed the same schedule. We harvested the vegetables in the mornings and spent the rest of the day resting to recover our energy.

On the fourth day, it was time for us to take care of the crop that dominated the fields on Emberstone Farm.

“[Rice] is the queen of crops,” said Kharli.

“Only because we haven’t harvested the Immortal Herbs,” said Mo.

“[Rice] is the queen of the food crops,” Kharli corrected herself.

“[Ginseng] and [Potatoes] are still my favorites,” said Lari.

[Ginseng] was from the [Herb Garden], and sold for its weight in gold because of its medicinal properties.

“Teacher, which one is your favorite?” asked Kharli.

“My favorite is Mr. Bear!” I took my plushie from my pocket and held him up for them to see. He was still in his cute sailor outfit.

Mo sighed and gave my cute little puppet a longing look. “I want a Mr. Bear, too.”

“Mine. All mine.” I put Mr. Bear back in my pocket. “You can buy your own teddy bear in Anwei. Or make one.”

“I’ll make a pink horse plushie,” Mo said, but she still looked longingly at my pocket.

“Good for you.” I took out a scythe from the System tool belt. “Ready?”

They all nodded, and we got started harvesting the rice. It wasn’t too difficult since we used [Automatic Mode]. When we showed the sacks of [Rice] to Deming, he identified them as mid-grade, which was great since these were seed rice, meaning they weren’t meant to be eaten. This batch was going to be sold for other farmers to plant.

“You know, I got the reports today that farmers are expecting a reasonably good spirit rice harvest this season,” I said to Scholar Wu and Prince Baiyu at lunch. “Lady Hoshi sent me a letter boasting about the [Purple Orchid Rice]. She says she’ll be able to offer the fox goddess the rice she grew herself.”

Shuye was not eating with us since he was still busy taking care of the deliveries to dozens of farmers.

“It’s just like you said to me before, rice multiplies,” said Scholar Wu.

Prince Baiyu didn’t say anything. I knew it was because he had a somewhat contentious relationship with Lady Hoshi.

“One grain of rice can grow a thousand grains,” I said.

It’s not like I was an expert or anything, but we learned that in school. One rice grain could grow into several shoots, called tillers. And each of those tillers could produce hundreds of grains of rice.

“At least there won’t be fighting over the warehouses this year,” said Prince Baiyu dryly.

But he was wrong.