Chapter 12 – Harvest Day

Amy carefully stored away all the seashells and conchs she had picked up, waiting for the traveling merchant Simon to come by one day and take them all. After finishing that, she took off the sand-stained dress and went to the bathroom for a shower.

Half an hour later, Amy came out wrapped in a bath towel.

She stood barefoot in front of the wardrobe, picking clothes to wear for the next few days.

According to the game’s settings, the farm owner was a simple, plainly dressed girl. So although she was “choosing,” there wasn’t much room for choice at all: the wardrobe contained only three plain-colored dresses, three sets of shirts in different colors with long and short jeans, as well as two yellow hats—a straw hat and a farmer’s hat.

Dresses were inconvenient, so to make farm work easier, Amy chose a blue shirt and a pair of khaki denim shorts as her outfit for the next few days.

After changing, she stood before the mirror admiring herself.

The rustic look gave her a sense of peace.

Pretty clothes and such—those could wait until she got rich.

Amy washed her dirty skirt, hung it on the clothesline outside, and then began her familiar labor: clearing weeds.

The sickle in her hand was heavy and clumsy; it cost her 18 points of stamina just to cut down a small patch of weeds.

After several days of weeding, the area near the fields looked cleaner, but when she looked around, the vast farmland was still covered with weeds, swaying endlessly in the wind.

Amy wasn’t in a hurry, since this was a task that could only be done slowly—rushing would be useless. She spread the freshly cut weeds out on the ground, collected the dried ones, and stored them in a wooden box.

Like the other tools, the wooden box was part of the starter gift pack. Now, however, it was crammed full of hay, nearly overflowing.

“I’ll have to make time to build another wooden box at the forest cabin,” Amy noted in her notebook.

Nibbling on a few leftover lemon madeleines from earlier, she thought carefully, pen in hand, and added: “Before building the box, I’ll need to chop some wood from the forest.”

Truly a grand project.

After writing down her plan, Amy recorded the day’s expenses, then set her pen aside and drifted off to sleep to the sound of grass rustling in the breeze.

The next morning brought exciting news—her lettuce had ripened!

The very first thing Amy did after getting up was rush out to the fields to check.

She was not disappointed. Every head of lettuce glistened with dewdrops, the leaves fresh and vibrant green, noticeably bigger than yesterday. Even the little tomato beside them, just starting to form a tiny fruit, looked adorable in comparison.

Amy was glad she had resisted the temptation to harvest the lettuce yesterday—it was the right decision.

She grabbed her basket and cut the lettuces with her sickle.

【You have unlocked planting entry “Lettuce”】

Opening her game panel, she saw a new icon appear under “Planting”—a tiny lettuce was now displayed in the compendium.

She stared at that little lettuce for a long while.

It was simply too cute.

At the same time, she felt a sweet sort of worry: there were still so many blank spaces left in the compendium. How long would it take to fill them all?

And that was just the “Planting” compendium.

Amy opened the “Gathering” compendium.

Rows of delicate, colorful seashells and conchs filled her view. But again, a vast blank space stretched on behind them.

The “Aquatic” compendium was the same—or worse. Since Amy hadn’t started fishing yet, and hadn’t even saved enough money to buy a fishing rod, not a single entry had been unlocked. It was emptier than her wallet. The “Livestock” compendium was equally barren.

Amy had no choice but to check the “Recipes” compendium to restore her confidence.

This was her favorite one: lettuce salad, hamburgers, egg tarts, lemon cakes… Though simple and common foods, just seeing them all lined up made her feel happy.

Amy felt her spirit cleansed.

Unlocking compendium entries might be tedious and complicated, but it was also sweet.

She closed the panel and looked again at her fields.

Nancy had once told her that lettuce and tomatoes would keep growing after harvest, with shorter growth cycles: lettuce would mature every two days, tomatoes every four—so long as she remembered to water them daily.

If possible, fertilizer could speed up the process too—but fertilizer was far beyond her budget.

Next to the lettuces and tomatoes, Amy dug up a small new plot with her hoe and planted the cauliflower seeds she had bought.

Unlike lettuce and tomatoes, cauliflower wouldn’t regrow after harvesting. Its growth cycle was long, taking half a month to mature. Amy nicknamed it a “one-time crop.”

She started watering all the crops.

Carrying her watering can, she sprinkled every plant—the lettuces, tomatoes, and now cauliflower. With more crops, her little watering can wasn’t enough. She had to fetch water from the well midway, using up even more stamina than usual.

By the time she was done, her stamina was nearly drained.

Wiping sweat from her forehead, Amy thought, “And it’s not even noon yet… this is brutal.”

Thankfully, before she fainted from hunger, she finally finished the morning’s work.

Amy washed the freshly picked lettuce in clean water, dressed it with a simple oil and vinegar, and devoured it—no salad dressing needed.

That was her first harvest day breakfast.

With her energy restored, she slowed down her chewing, then leisurely fried herself two soft sunny-side-up eggs, and continued eating at an easy pace.

The runny yolk was smooth and delicate, blended with black pepper, while the tender egg white melted in her mouth like cotton candy. Soon, both eggs were gone.

Amy wiped her mouth with a napkin in satisfaction.

Full at last, she could think of other things.

That breakfast had been satisfying enough, but she couldn’t just rely on lettuce every time her stamina dropped—that was no long-term plan.

On the farm it was manageable, but according to her future schedule, she would be chopping trees or fishing almost every day. Those were stamina-draining tasks, and she’d need snacks to restore energy on hand. Lettuce just wouldn’t cut it.

With that thought, Amy turned her eyes toward the sugar maple trees in her farm.