Chapter 7: Persimmon

Chapter 7: Persimmons

The broken tiles, splintered wood, and weeds had all been cleared away, making the originally cramped room feel much larger.

The hole in the roof remained—this was too difficult for Fu Yun, who was now simple-minded. He had no idea how to fix it. Clothes and bedding were neatly stacked in a high place, with the grain he bought yesterday placed beside them. Nearby were Fu Yun’s medicine chest and the original owner’s bookcase.

Lin Su propped his elbow on the windowsill, his gaze found the little simpleton. He was outside, pulling out weeds.

Those weeds had grown for years, nearly as tall as a person.

Fu Yun, however, pulled them with surprising ease—a grasp and a yank, and they came out by the roots. In just the few seconds Lin Su had been watching, four or five man-high weeds had already been pulled out.

Lin Su looked up at the sun. It was close to noon. He had slept about four hours, and Fu Yun had been busy just as long.

This kid sure had a lot of energy.

“Xiao Fuyun,” Lin Su called out. “Tired? Come take a break!”

Sweat trickled down his jade-white face, and Fu Yun wiped it away with his sleeve. “Big brother, I’m not tired. I’ll be done soon.”

“This is a big patch of land, big brother. After I finish pulling out the weeds, I can plant medicinal herbs—dangshen, angelica, white peony, salvia…”

Fu Yun counted on his fingers one by one, his eyes growing brighter with each name. “I have seeds for all of these. When they grow, we can sell them, and all the money will go to big brother!”

It seemed he remembered Lin Su saying yesterday that they had no money, and had come up with this plan.

Lin Su watched his little money-grubbing expression and was about to tease him that by the time his herbs grew, they’d have starved to death, when a shout came from outside the yard.

“Su Xiaozi, it’s your Aunt Xu!”

Xu Shi was nearly fifty, with a few extra wrinkles on her face, but she was still healthy and nimble. In the blink of an eye, she was in the yard.

“Ah, Su Xiaozi, don’t get up. I’ll just say a few words and head back. You’ve hurt your leg, so your aunt brought you two eggs to help you get your strength back. Can’t have it causing lasting problems that could ruin your exam prospects. And these turnips and cabbages aren’t worth much, but take them to eat.”

Lin Su took one look at what she had brought and knew she was repaying the extra copper coins he had given her yesterday.

But since she meant well, he didn’t directly refuse the money. Instead, she used his leg injury as an excuse to bring gifts and check in on him.

Speaking of which, most families in Xiaowan Village were related by blood or marriage. Aunt Xu was technically his cousin.

Lin Su smiled and thanked her. “Thank you, Cousin Aunt. I was just worrying about not having vegetables to eat, and you’ve brought them. You’ve really solved my urgent problem!”

His address was warm, and even though they hadn’t interacted in a long time, Aunt Xu became a bit happier and began to talk more. “You just lie down and rest well. If anything comes up, come find your cousin aunt.”

Then, her eyes swept over and landed on Fu Yun, who was still pulling weeds. She asked with concern, “Yun Geer, how come you’re sick? Are you feeling better?”

Her youngest son Xu Lei was just like his father and elder brother—couldn’t get a single word out of him even with three hits. When asked, he’d only say Yun Geer was sick, without saying how bad it was or what the doctor said.

Fu Yun looked down, meeting her concerned face, and smartly echoed Lin Su: “I’m better now, Cousin Aunt!”

Seeing how obedient he was, and how diligent and capable, Aunt Xu couldn’t help but start nagging him.

“Yun Geer, your cousin aunt knows you’re very capable, but you can’t let that boy waste all the money you made from selling herbs. Your husband is a big spender. You don’t have any grown-ups in the house, so if you two are going to make a life here, you need to keep a tight hold on the money!”

“It's security for women and lads like us. If you control the money, even a man has to listen to you. When Su Geer passes the exams and becomes a scholar, you'll be set…”

“Think carefully about what your cousin aunt has told you. I’ll head back now.” And with that, she hurried off.

Lin Su leaned out the window and asked him, “Xiao Fuyun, what did Cousin Aunt tell you? Tell your big brother about it.”

Fu Yun stood there blinking. Manage the money? How?

He tried to recall. The vast memories in his mind flashed by like a shadow play, and he could only hastily grab hold of one segment. It seemed that in the memory, he said he would earn money to provide for… big brother?

The person in that memory looked exactly like big brother, but he didn’t like that big brother. He didn’t like the one in the memory either. He liked the current big brother.

Right, he had said he would sell herbs to earn money for big brother to spend!

Could it be that he'd gone stupid and couldn’t earn money anymore, so that's why big brother didn’t want him?

He could still earn money, though.

“Earn money for big brother to spend,” Fu Yun said, then remembering Aunt Xu’s words, he added, “And I have to manage the money!”

“Cough!” Lin Su couldn’t help but laugh, a teasing look in his eyes. “Trying to be my sugar daddy? Then you’d better hurry up. Your big brother is still quite sought-after.”

Fu Yun pressed his lips together, didn’t understand, but nodded firmly. “Okay!”

Fu Yun was a man of action. These were tasks he had done countless times before. Without even thinking, he knew what to do next.

Lin Su watched helplessly as he finished pulling the weeds, went out to borrow a hoe, and started turning the soil. By lunchtime, he had turned over an entire plot of land.

The price, however, was that Lin Su had to cook him two lunches. After finishing one pot of porridge, Fu Yun acted all cute and begged Lin Su to cook another pot.

Well, now the remaining grain couldn’t even last three days.

With this energetic little piglet to feed, lying around was out of the question.

Besides, he couldn’t exactly lie on the ground, could he?

At the very least, he needed to repair the house until it could keep out the wind and rain. And wouldn't it be more comfortable to buy a bed to lie on?

He thought it over, and his gaze settled on the tall persimmon tree by the slope just outside the door.

It was about thirty years old, thick and tall, nearly seven or eight meters high. In late autumn and early winter, only a few withered leaves remained scattered on the branches. The branches were laden with orange-yellow lantern-like fruits, with a few plump, brownish-green birds hopping among them, pecking away.

Beneath the tree, the handsome young lad was sowing seeds, sweat pouring off him. If you ignored the dilapidated thatched hut, it had the rustic charm of a hidden paradise.

Truly beautiful.

Lin Su let himself indulge in the beauty of the lad and the view. Satisfied, he turned his gaze back to the ripe persimmons at the very top.

Wasn’t this a free source of food?

Combined with his superpower, wasn't this a basically free and endlessly profitable way to make money?

He was finally starting to appreciate the perks of his ability.

He only realized the true potential of his ability when he accidentally discovered that grinding his crystal cores into Spiritual Pills unlocked the real power of his family's martial arts.

On its own, his ability was purely supportive. At first, it could only produce a bit of purified water for him to drink. Later, he noticed that even when eating only a single type of food for a long time, his body didn’t lack any trace elements.

The reason was his ability water. It wasn't just purified water; it was a mixture composed of a multitude of elements, astonishingly rich in content. In theory, it could even transform into any substance, both beneficial and harmful.

However, since the ability was hosted by a human body and limited by its expression form—liquid—the water Lin Su produced naturally leaned toward being beneficial and harmless. To deviate from this principle was possible, but the difficulty would increase exponentially.

Without deliberate adjustment, Lin Su’s ability water was equivalent to the most comprehensive health tonic, though its effects were weak and required long-term use to show results.

Later, when he was bored, he accidentally turned his ability water salty. After that, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy—his ability evolved into a super seasoning library.

Unfortunately, ingredients from the apocalypse were fundamentally tainted by severe genetic contamination, tasting like black mud and swill. Adding any seasoning was like a drop in the bucket—or even made things worse, becoming even more unappetizing.

His ability was basically useless.

But now he was living in a normal ancient world, and what did ordinary folk back then lack the most?

Naturally, it was salt and sugar!

Salt was controlled by the imperial court, with fixed production areas, making any anomaly easy to spot.

But sugar was not; as long as there was a piece of land, one could grow sugar-producing crops, and honey could be scrounged from the mountains, making the source very easy to conceal. Wasn't combining fruit and sugar basically jam?