Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Xie Licheng had moved all the meat to the fresh-keeping warehouse. There was some meat he didn't particularly want to eat, such as wolf meat and tiger meat, so he didn't take all of it out.

In truth, the meat in the portable world was different from that in the real world outside; even if they ate it, it wouldn't do them any harm.

But Xie Licheng was a transmigrator, and some meats still felt a bit off-putting.

Anyway, they weren't short on meat, so he figured he might as well take the meat he didn't want outside.

Whether he sold it to outsiders or gave it to refugees, the food wouldn't go to waste.

With that in mind, Xie Licheng headed out.

He hadn't been outside in a long time and had no idea what the situation was like out there now.

Once he stepped out of the portable world, Xie Licheng quickly learned that Lingzhou City had fallen again.

When they fled Lingzhou, the city had been under Song Qiyue's control.

Now it had fallen into the hands of the Marquis of Shubei. Everything was pretty much in line with the novel's plot, except the timeline was much earlier than in the book.

Xie Licheng continued south and ran into a group of refugees on the road. Among them was a fairly wealthy family that not only carried food supplies but also had plenty of guards.

Xie Licheng wanted to sell them some meat, but before he could even make his pitch, a few refugees with hunger-crazed eyes had already set their sights on him.

Xie Licheng killed one of them, and once they realized he was no pushover, the people who'd been eyeing him warily backed right off.

Xie Licheng felt a bit helpless. The fact that he dared to pull out so much meat to sell right then already proved he wasn't an ordinary person.

Why did these people have to provoke him, forcing him to kill one or two before they'd back off?

Now his mood was ruined, and they hadn't gained anything either.

After that, Xie Licheng spent three days outside and came back just in time for the sweet potato harvest.

In those three days, he sold off some of the meat he didn't want, exchanging it for silver and some items for gē'er (male spouses).

He also brought three people back with him.

Among the three were two gē'er and one woman. They were mistress and servants—the woman was a young lady, and the other two were her household attendants.

They said they'd gotten separated from their family, which was why those refugees had targeted them.

Starving people were very likely to resort to cannibalism.

What they went for were mostly young women, gē'er, or young children.

It was said such people tasted better. Whether that was true or not was anyone's guess, but bullying the weak and fearing the strong was certainly a factor.

After all, among the masses, these were the easiest to bully.

Add to that their youth and good looks—besides being captured for food, they could also be used to vent lust and anger.

And what anger was that?

Naturally, it was their dissatisfaction with the imperial court.

Since they had no ability to oppose the court, they took out their resentment on those even weaker than themselves.

Xie Licheng despised such people the most, so whenever he ran into them, he'd simply kill them.

Xie Licheng was tall and handsome, and had such extraordinary abilities.

At first, that young lady had developed some feelings for him, but after they entered the portable world, she learned that Xie Licheng already had a husband.

The young lady was proud and arrogant, so naturally she wouldn't go after a man who was already taken.

After learning about Xie Licheng's situation, she decisively gave up on him and set her sights on someone else instead.

Of course, Xie Licheng had no idea about any of this.

He brought the people in and then washed his hands of them, going straight to harvest sweet potatoes with the others.

Ordinary sweet potatoes yield 3,000 to 5,000 jin per mu. The sweet potatoes Xie Licheng grew weren't ordinary ones, and with the help of accelerated fertilizer, his yield was around 9,000 jin per mu.

At 9,000 jin per mu, ten mu of land meant 90,000 jin.

Of the 90,000 jin of sweet potatoes, Xie Licheng kept 40,000 jin of fresh ones in the fresh-keeping warehouse.

To be honest, if the fresh-keeping warehouse weren't already packed with too many things, and if he didn't need to store even more in the future, he really would have stored all 90,000 jin.

Sweet potatoes taste better fresh.

Of the remaining 50,000 jin, he gave 1,000 to the villagers who helped him farm, 5,000 to the military camp, 2,000 to the town orphanage, and 10,000 to his in-laws' family.

As for the rest, Xie Licheng planned to make some into dried sweet potato slices, some into sweet potato vermicelli, and sell the rest to others.

Dried sweet potato slices were easy to make—just slice the sweet potatoes and sun-dry them.

Once dried of moisture, these slices could be stored for a long time. Even in winter, when food was scarce, they wouldn't have to worry about going hungry.

Sweet potato vermicelli was a bit more troublesome, but it wasn't really that hard to make once you got the hang of it.

Xie Licheng planned to set up a processing shed next to the farm. In the future, whenever he needed to process ingredients or other things, he could hire villagers to work there.

That way, Xie Licheng could save a lot of time on whatever he wanted to do, while also helping some villagers with their food and clothing needs.

When villagers came to work, Xie Licheng would pay them in silver or grain. Just like when he previously hired villagers to farm, this was a good thing for those who didn't have land.

Xiao Zhuang was well-off and a glutton.

As soon as he heard that Xie Licheng had grown something good again, he ran over from school to buy some.

The sweet potatoes Xie Licheng sold weren't expensive, and since he didn't plan to get rich off them, there was no need to charge exorbitant prices.

At 3 wén a jin, Xiao Zhuang generously bought twenty jin.

Ten jin went to his grandfather and Xiao Ruan, and ten went to Chen Yaosan and Cui Niang.

After buying the sweet potatoes, Xiao Zhuang remembered to ask Xie Licheng how to eat them.

Xie Licheng reached out and patted his little belly, saying, "You can boil them, roast them, make porridge with them, or cook them with rice... There are many ways to eat them. You can figure it out on your own. But... just like corn, eating too much of these can cause bloating, so the elderly and children shouldn't eat too many."

While Xie Licheng was talking to Xiao Zhuang, the other villagers were listening in.

Those who had a bit of silver followed suit and bought two or three jin to give it a try.

Some who didn't have any silver on them didn't have the nerve to ask Xie Licheng for any. Instead, they figured they'd just work harder and save up so they could buy some later and try it themselves.

...

The next morning, Xie Licheng spent the whole morning building a workshop out by the farm. He hauled the leftover sweet potatoes over there, planning to hire villagers to make sweet potato chips and stuff.

But to his surprise, since the sweet potatoes were so tasty, people kept showing up to buy them all afternoon, and Xie Licheng never got a chance to hire anyone.

Most of the folks buying sweet potatoes came from town or the county seat.

These families had a bit of money, and after tasting how soft and chewy the sweet potatoes were, they wanted to stock up, or save some as seeds to plant.

One family was especially bold—they bought 2,000 jin of sweet potatoes in one go. Xie Licheng spent a good chunk of time helping them load up.

After all the buyers had left, Gu Zhangyuan sent someone to call Xie Licheng back to the farm.

Xie Licheng had been running around nonstop lately, and Gu Zhangyuan, being his husband, hadn't even gotten a chance to be with him.

When Xie Licheng returned to the farm, dinner that night was sweet potato porridge again. They'd already had it three or four times since yesterday's harvest, and Xie Licheng was getting sick of it.

For Xie Licheng, sweet potatoes weren't some exotic ingredient, so he didn't really care for them.

Gu Zhangyuan scooped up the sweet potatoes with a little spoon, one bite at a time. He thought they were delicious—soft, chewy, and sweet.

When he saw Xie Licheng eating so slowly, he figured Xie Licheng didn't want to eat it, so he had Xuan Cui bring over the snake soup and venison.

The snake soup and venison were leftovers from before. Xie Licheng had been away for a few days, so he was only getting to eat them now.

Seeing how happily he was eating the sweet potatoes, Xie Licheng smiled and asked him, "Which tastes better, this or corn?"

Gu Zhangyuan thought it over seriously for a moment and said, "They're both good."

That was the truth—he really did think both were delicious.

Xie Licheng said, "It's tasty, but you can't eat too much of it."

It causes bloating, and if you eat too much, it'll give you acid reflux.

Gu Zhangyuan nodded, but in the end, he couldn't help himself and ate too much anyway.

Xie Licheng finished his meal, and after the two of them quickly washed up, he dragged Gu Zhangyuan out for a walk around the farm.

Full and content, and it being late at night, Gu Zhangyuan started to get lazy as they walked.

He started acting all clingy with Xie Licheng, "Husband, I'm tired. My legs are weak."

As he said this, he went all limp like he had no bones and burrowed into Xie Licheng's arms.

Xie Licheng hugged him, looking helpless, and said, "You didn't lift a finger these past two days, and your legs are already weak after just a few steps?"

With such a frail little body and unable to handle even this much, could he really handle having a kid later?

Thinking about that, Xie Licheng couldn't help but feel a little worried.

It was funny—before he had a wife, he'd been truly carefree and easygoing.

A man like him—arrogant, cocky, proud—had never really worried about the future for anything.

Now that he had a beautiful, delicate husband, he suddenly found himself getting a little anxious for some reason.

Gu Zhangyuan kept acting clingy—he loved doing that with Xie Licheng, then watching Xie Licheng look all pained and helpless.

Gu Zhangyuan reached out for him to pick him up, "I don't want to walk anymore. Carry me."

Xie Licheng let out a soft sigh and scooped him up into his arms. He wondered if carrying Gu Zhangyuan around counted as Gu Zhangyuan getting exercise.

He carried Gu Zhangyuan toward the pavilion by the pond. The weather wasn't as hot now, but there were still quite a few mosquitoes outside.

Xie Licheng held him with one arm and fanned away mosquitoes with the other.

Gu Zhangyuan asked curiously, "Why don't mosquitoes bite you?"

Xie Licheng said, "My skin is thick, they can't bite through."

That wasn't entirely a lie—his defense was so high, and mosquitoes' attack power was so weak, that they really couldn't harm him.

Gu Zhangyuan touched the mosquito bite on his neck and, for some reason, suddenly felt a bit aggrieved.

Xie Licheng couldn't stand to see him look upset, so he suggested, "How about we head back?"

There were no mosquitoes in the house, as Xuan Cui and Yuan Qiao had smoked it out with mugwort.

Gu Zhangyuan shook his head at that and pointed to the pavilion not far away. The moonlight was nice tonight, and he wanted to admire the moon with Xie Licheng there.

Xie Licheng had no choice but to carry him onward. They had just entered the pavilion and hadn't even sat down when Gu Zhangyuan hugged Xie Licheng and quietly demanded, "You promised you'd wait until I got pregnant before going out."

But recently, both he and Xie Licheng had been busy, so the matter of making a child had been put aside, and Xie Licheng had even gone out while he was busy.

Xie Licheng found it a bit amusing and said, "But getting pregnant isn't something that happens just like that. Still, I was in the wrong this time. How about this—next time, I'll take you out with me."

He sat down in the pavilion with Gu Zhangyuan in his arms and gently supported his waist with one hand.

Gu Zhangyuan rested his chin on Xie Licheng's shoulder and poked Xie Licheng's Adam's apple with one finger.

He said, "That's not what I mean. I don't want to go out with you."

Xie Licheng's Adam's apple bobbed, and he wanted to grab his mischievous little hand. But before he could catch it, he heard Gu Zhangyuan continue in a low voice, "What I mean is... I miss you. Don't always be so busy. You need to spend more time with me, take care of me, cherish me..."

Xie Licheng finally understood. He turned his head and asked in a lowered voice, "You... do you want to share a bed with me?"

He had come back yesterday and had slept in the same room as Gu Zhangyuan last night. Gu Zhangyuan had said he missed him, and Xie Licheng figured it was only in that way.

Gu Zhangyuan didn't say anything, and Xie Licheng knew he had guessed right.

He thought his husband was sometimes adorable beyond words—loving him so directly, and even when shy, never hiding it from him.

Xie Licheng asked, "Didn't you say you didn't like sharing a bed with me?"

Gu Zhangyuan's face grew hot, and he rolled his big eyes and said, "It's not that I don't like it. It's just that compared to sharing a bed, I... I prefer kissing you more."

Xie Licheng chuckled softly, then lowered his voice and asked, "Then... how about a kiss now?"

Gu Zhangyuan's face grew even hotter at that. He clutched Xie Licheng's clothes and gave a very small nod.