The daily life of a space tycoon raising children, doting on his husband, and farming.

Chapter 86 Waiting for Praise [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Suddenly, several small black creatures darted out of the bushes and stopped two steps away from Yuanyuan, lining up in a row like a military parade.

Xiao Huan's eyes widened, and she almost screamed.

It turned out to be a bunch of rats!

No, to be precise, they were a group of field mice.

Thick, short fur covers its sturdy, robust body. Its limbs are short and powerful, and its head is relatively large, with two small, bright black eyes that almost blend into its black fur.

Field mice feed on the roots, stems, leaves, and seeds of plants. A single field mouse can wreak havoc on a field of crops and is difficult to catch, making it a major headache for farmers.

Lu Chengjing finally understood how his daughter planned to help her Uncle Stone.

As is well known, field mice, though short in claws, are extremely adept at digging burrows to hide themselves.

Digging a hole is just digging in the soil, isn't it?

What do you do when clearing land? Dig!

Little Yuanyuan specially found a group of little helpers who are good at digging soil for her Uncle Stone.

Lu Chengjing asked his daughter, "Why a field mouse?"

Yuan Yuan blinked her big eyes and pointed her little finger at Lu Chengjing, "Four... Daddy."

Lu Chengjing: ?

He pondered for a moment, then tentatively asked, "You mean the story I told you?"

Round little head nods, "Four!"

Xiao Huan and Shi Tou both looked over. "Brother-in-law, what kind of story did you tell Yuan Yuan that involved field mice?"

Lu Chengjing uttered four words: "The rodent family."

Ever since Yuanyuan controlled the monkey to help his family that day, Lu Chengjing realized that his daughter was not simple. Seeing that Xiao Hui was very obedient to her, he began to suspect that his daughter had extraordinary abilities.

So he consciously added a lot of animal-related content to the short stories he told every day. It was no problem for Xiucai Gong to come up with a few funny little stories to amuse his daughter, and Yuanyuan listened very attentively every time.

To Lu Chengjing's surprise, Yuanyuan, at such a young age, actually knew how to apply what she learned to other situations and use the story in her daily life, and she did it correctly.

Faced with the surprised looks of her father, aunt, and uncle, Yuanyuan grinned, revealing two tiny baby teeth, and said, "I...am good!"

Lu Chengjing taught his daughter, "She's amazing, Yuanyuan is very amazing."

"Li... Hai..." Yuanyuan repeated to herself a few times, then pointed to herself with her little finger, "Li Hai!"

She made all three of them laugh.

"Yuanyuan, let Uncle tell you something." Shi Tou squatted down and whispered to Yuanyuan, trying to instill the essentials of land reclamation into Yuanyuan's little head.

Yuan Yuan's eyes widened in surprise. She pushed away Uncle Stone's big face, waved at the waiting field mice, and a strange light flashed in her eyes.

As if given a command, the field mice ran to the ground and skillfully dug holes and burrowed down.

Nearly twenty field mice used their best skills to dig burrows in the ground, loosening the soil as they went.

Shi Tou wasn't idle either; he and Xiao Huan cleared away the weeds, bushes, and stones on the ground.

Because the field mice had gnawed through the roots in the ground, the two of them pulled it up quite easily.

Every now and then, field mice would throw stones out of their burrows.

Stone stood by, watching, and once two or three stones had piled up, he picked them up and threw them outside, piling them together.

With the help of the field mice, the efficiency of land reclamation skyrocketed.

All Shi Tou had to do was use a hoe to turn over the soil loosened by the field mice and pick out any remaining grass roots and tree stumps. Compared to yesterday, the work was much easier. So much so that his eyes practically glowed with envy as he looked at Yuan Yuan—this was his precious helper in farming!

Yuanyuan was chugging her milk from the bottle. After she finished, she handed the bottle to Lu Chengjing, inviting her father to chug along with her.

Lu Chengjing politely declined his daughter's offer. Seeing that his daughter did not show any abnormality as she had when he summoned the monkey, he turned his wheelchair back to continue practicing his left-hand calligraphy.

Xiao Huan remembered that the clothes she had washed hadn't been hung up to dry yet, so she went back as well.

While little Yuanyuan and Uncle Stone were happily clearing land together, Shang Wan drove an oxcart to the brick kiln.

The manager remembered Shang Wan. After reviewing the contract, he led Shang Wan to collect the bricks.

"Madam Shang, how many bricks can your oxcart carry? I'll have someone load them for you."

Shang Wan wasn't sure either. He heard from the steward that an ordinary oxcart could carry three hundred bricks. Thinking that his own ox had at least drunk spiritual spring water, he asked the steward to load five hundred bricks, so that he could unload them if it couldn't be pulled.

As the foreman had people load bricks onto the oxcart, he said, "This cartload costs five hundred, so four thousand bricks will require eight round trips. Why are you the only one here?"

Shang Wan said, "We're currently clearing land at home and can't spare any manpower. It won't be a problem if I make a couple more trips."

The manager recalled the young man in the wheelchair from that day, and seeing how frail Shang Wan was, he couldn't help but feel some sympathy. He thought of asking the shop assistant to help deliver it twice.

Shang Wan didn't even bring any stones with her, how could she let her servants come along?
After politely declining, the manager assumed Shang Wan was just being stubborn and didn't insist, only instructing the staff to be more careful.

Shang Wan underestimated her own ox. It easily pulled up 500 bricks. Seeing that there was still room in the oxcart, she asked her assistant to help fill it up. In the end, the cart was loaded with 600 bricks.

After thanking the shop assistant, Shang Wan drove the oxcart away. When he reached a secluded spot, he put all the bricks into his spatial storage and drove the oxcart towards the city.

Upon entering the city, they learned that the imperial court's disaster relief grain had arrived, but when they opened it, half of the bag of grain was filled with pebbles.

Fortunately, Lord An was prepared and used the collected grain to appease the disaster victims in time. At this moment, the government is arranging for people to deliver grain to various villages.

Shang Wan guessed that the yamen runners would go to Willow Tree Village first, since the disaster there was the most severe.

She made a note of this and went to the beverage shop to buy goat milk to store in her spatial storage for her child. Although Xiao Huan wondered where Shang Wan stored the goat milk, she didn't ask since Shang Wan didn't say.

Next, I went to buy lime, which I would need for building the wall. Once I left the city, I stored the lime in my spatial storage.

Calculating the time, Shang returned to the brick kiln late at night and still had the workers load six hundred bricks.

After resting for half an hour, Shang Wan returned again, still with six hundred bricks.

The two men in charge of loading bricks were puzzled as to why Shang Wan had returned so quickly.

Shang Wan only thought to unload the bricks at his relative's house, since the relative lived nearby and could come back quickly.

After making seven round trips, Shang Wan finally finished moving the bricks. She took out the steamed cakes that Xiao Huan had prepared for her to fill her stomach and drove the oxcart back to the village.

About two miles from the village, she took five hundred bricks from her spatial storage, loaded them onto an oxcart, and slowly made her way home.

Smoke was already rising from some houses in the village. The oxcart was still some distance from home. Lu Chengjing, in his wheelchair with Yuanyuan in his lap, came out to greet them.

“Yuanyuan said you’re back,” Lu Chengjing explained, without asking Shang Wan how she managed to bring back a load of bricks after only one day away.

Shang Wan jumped off the oxcart, loosely holding the reins, and walked home with the father and daughter.

Yuanyuan tugged at Lu Chengjing's clothes and urged in her little voice, "Daddy!"

"Okay, I'll tell your mother now." Lu Chengjing patted his daughter reassuringly and told Shang Wan about how Yuanyuan summoned field mice to help Shitou clear the wasteland.

Yuanyuan tilted her little head up, waiting for her mother to praise her.

Shang Wan, however, didn't have time to praise her and asked, "Good girl, did you pay the field mouse for helping with the work?"

(End of this chapter)