Chapter 98: Planting Radishes and Raising Pigs

Do you think you can manage that much land? Besides, I’m not sure our village has that much available land to allocate right now.”

Hu Zhaodi smiled. “Uncle Ji, do I look like someone who’s going to personally farm the land? I’ll pay people to farm it for me. Hehe, I just want to be a landlord.”

Uncle Ji twitched his lips and said in a grumpy tone, “Girl, hiring people to farm land these days means losing money. That vast of land doesn’t yield much, so it’s not worth paying someone to farm it. And fifty acres? Do you have any idea how much fertilizer that would require? Where are you going to get that fertilizer?”

Hu Zhaodi froze. She had to admit that Uncle Ji was right. Even with farmyard manure, getting a good harvest was incredibly difficult.

Sigh! If only she had known she’d be transmigrated to the ancient world to farm, she would’ve prepared some chemical fertilizers in advance.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, money can’t buy foreknowledge.

Old Scholar Ji chuckled. “Girl, don’t rush into buying land. If you really want to plant something, you can farm my land.”

“I’m always at the private school teaching, and I don’t have time for farming. Besides, I eat with you all every day, so you can farm my land. I don’t need your money or your grain.”

Hu Zhaodi smiled. “Well, I’ll go plant on your land next year! But with just your two mu of land, it’s a bit too little.”

“I’m a lonely old man with a little land. If I had more, I’d gladly give it to you.”

“Uncle Ji, then I won’t be polite. I’ll start planting in the spring next year.”

Old Scholar Ji nodded.

Hu Zhaodi then turned to Uncle Ji. “ Aunt, do you have any seeds for radishes or cabbages? Any kind of vegetable will do.”

Aunt Ji answered, “I still have some cabbage and radish seeds, but I don’t have any other vegetable seeds left.”

Old Scholar Ji added, “I have some green vegetable and radish seeds at home. Girl, wait a moment, and I’ll take you to get them.”

Hu Zhaodi nodded. “Okay, thank you, Uncle Ji.”

Ji’s eldest daughter-in-law smiled and spoke up, “Zhaodi, I have some chili and eggplant seeds. They’re the one lefts from this year. If you want them, I can bring them over later.”

“Thanks! By the way, I also need some sweet potato.”

Third sister in law replied, “I have sweet potatoes at home. I’ll bring you a basket later, and once you finish, I’ll give you some more.”

Hu Zhaodi was full of excitement. “That’s perfect! I’m not taking them to eat; I’m taking them to plant.”

Third sister in law was a little incredulous. “Zhaodi, can you really plant sweet potatoes in this season?”

“Not yet. I’ll store them for now and plant them after the new year.”

“Well, that’s fine. I’ll bring them over after dinner.”

After eating, Hu Zhaodi followed Old Scholar Ji to his house.

Old Scholar Ji rummaged through his things for a while before finally finding the green vegetable and radish seeds, which he handed over to Hu Zhaodi.

Hu Zhaodi returned to the Ji household, where Aunt Ji and the two daughters-in-law gave her all the vegetable seeds they had.

Looking at the seeds in her hands, Hu Zhaodi felt very pleased.

That evening, she quickly washed up and headed to her room, shutting the door behind her. She then entered the space.

Within just a day, the wild boars and chickens had noticeably shinier fur and feathers, thanks to the Spirit Spring water Hu Zhaodi had been feeding them.

After glancing at the boars and chickens, Hu Zhaodi began chopping the vegetables.

This time, she threw an entire head of cabbage into the air and swiftly sliced it into small pieces with her knife.

She thought to herself: If only I had a sword, I could practice my swordsmanship while doing this.

In the next moment, the Chengying Sword—one of the ten legendary swords—appeared in her hand.

The Chengying Sword had been a gift from her father when she turned eighteen, a sword her grandfather had acquired at an auction by chance.

Holding the Chengying Sword, Hu Zhaodi frowned. She couldn’t bear to use one of the ten famous swords to chop cabbage.

With a flick of her mind, she sent the Chengying Sword back to her suite and continued chopping with the kitchen knife.

After chopping the vegetables, Hu Zhaodi added some cornmeal, mixed it with Spirit Spring water, and combined it with the chopped vegetables to feed the chickens and wild boars.

She also fed the wild chickens and rabbits she’d caught earlier.

Once all the feeding was done, Hu Zhaodi wandered around the space to find a suitable spot for planting.

The area around the Spirit Spring was already taken up by ginseng, so she had to look elsewhere for planting space.

However, the available planting area in the space was still limited. The only land left was at the edge of the ginseng plot, though it wasn’t much.

Closing her eyes, Hu Zhaodi used her mind to develop the edge of the ginseng plot.

Once the land was cleared, she grabbed a small shovel, dug a small hole, and planted three to four radish seeds, covering them with a thin layer of soil.

After planting radishes along the edge of the ginseng plot, she watered the whole area with Spirit Spring water.

Then, she used her inner strength to grind corn kernels into a large bag of cornmeal, exhausting herself once again.

Feeling weak, she trudged over to the Spirit Spring, drank a cup of water, took a bath in the suite, and exited the space.

She was so exhausted that she quickly sat cross-legged to recover her inner strength.

An hour later, she had regained about sixty percent of her energy. She pulled the blanket over herself and fell asleep immediately.

The next day, when she woke up, it was already broad daylight.

Aunt Ji had kept the breakfast warm in the pot, and the rest of the family had already gone to work in the small pine forest.

After washing up, Hu Zhaodi first added some Spirit Spring water to the water barrel, then took out the breakfast from the pot.

After finishing breakfast, Hu Zhaodi took some radish seeds and a hoe, heading toward the small pine forest.

When she arrived at the small pine forest, she found Uncle Ji, who was getting ready to haul wood.

“Uncle, is there any land left that hasn’t been planted with wheat?” she asked.

Uncle Ji shook his head. “No, after harvesting the corn, the land either has wheat or bitter buckwheat planted on it. What do you want to plant?”

“I want to plant some radishes to feed the pigs,” Hu Zhaodi said quietly. “Uncle, I found a group of wild boars in the mountains. I want to bring two piglets back to raise.”

Uncle Ji’s eyes lit up. “Really? Is it dangerous? Where are they? Let’s gather a few people and bring all the wild boars back!”

Hu Zhaodi shook her head decisively. “No, we don’t have enough food to feed them if we bring them all back. I’ve asked the wolf pack to watch over them. No one else should get close. We’ll just leave the wild boars in the mountains. I only want to bring two piglets back to raise. We can cook food for them, and the pork will taste better.”

“That makes sense. The food at home is too scarce, and the pigsty has been turned into a horse stable. We don’t even have a pigsty now, so I’ll have to figure out how to build one.”

“We don’t need to build one. If we’re going to build it, we can build it on the small pine forest side. I’ll plant the radishes now, and when they grow, the pigsty will be finished. Then, I’ll go and bring back a few wild piglets to raise.”

“By the way, your Grandpa Ji has some land he cleared himself. The areas are too small for plowing with an ox, so they can only be dug with a hoe. The land’s been empty, and nothing’s been planted. Do you want to take a look?”

“No need to look. Just let me plant the radishes there. I’ll go ask sister in laws and the others to help me plant them.”

Uncle Ji smiled and nodded. “Go ahead! Gather more people to help, and you’ll finish planting them by noon.”

“Okay.”

Hu Zhaodi went to the place where everyone was working, stood in a more prominent spot, and loudly called out, “Everyone, stop for a moment and listen to what I have to say.”

Upon hearing this, everyone stopped working and stared at Hu Zhaodi, waiting to hear what she would say.

Hu Zhaodi cleared her throat and spoke loudly, “Neighbors, today I’m going to plant some radishes, and I need a few people to help me. It won’t take much time to plant. Let’s do it this way: the women will come with me, and the men stay here. Let’s try to get all the radishes planted this morning.”

The women were happy to hear this. They grabbed their hoes and, chatting and laughing, all followed Hu Zhaodi to Old Scholar Ji’s land.

Hu Zhaodi knew the land well, having been there when they helped Old Scholar Ji harvest corn.

The field was full of large protruding rocks, and the crops were planted in the areas without stones.

When they arrived at the field, Aunt Ji said, “Zhaodi, give me the radish seeds, and I’ll scatter them across the field. Then, everyone can dig and clear the corn stalks.”

Hu Zhaodi smiled as she handed over the radish seeds to Aunt Ji.

Aunt Ji took the seeds and scattered them sparsely across the land.

The other women started digging, pulling up the corn stalks and shaking off the dirt from their roots with their hoes.