Chapter 12: Wen Ze × Spirit Field
Chapter 12: Wen Ze × Spirit Field
As they approached their home, Li Xi heard the clear, melodious sound of a flute.
She immediately looked up towards the old tree in front of the neighbor’s house, and sure enough, there he was.
Sitting among the new green branches coaxed out by spring was a young man. He had handsome features and a distant expression, holding a bamboo flute with both hands. The light, graceful flute music seemed to fly up to the treetops and straight into the clouds as he played.
“Brother Wen Ze, you seem to be in a good mood today?” Li Xi called out.
The young man stopped playing and with a leap, jumped down from the tree, walking towards Li Xi.
“Hello, Uncle Shan,” he first greeted Li Shan, then answered Li Xi.
“Yes, it’s not bad. I can finally focus on practicing swordsmanship this year.” This young man was Li Xi’s second brother’s confidant and her neighbor, Li Wen Ze.
Although Li Xi’s second brother considered Li Wen Ze his confidant, and he had invented the pressure well, one shouldn’t assume he was very old. In fact, he was quite young.
He had just turned ten last year and was allocated two mu of spirit field, which he cultivated for a few months before returning it to the clan.
In other words, he was eleven this year, just one year older than Li Xi.
Li Xi said to Li Shan, “Father, you can go home first. I’ll chat with Brother Wen Ze for a while.”
“Alright, I’ll head back first. Don’t stay out too late,” Li Shan turned and went home.
“Brother Wen Ze, do you know whose spirit field I was allocated this year?” Li Xi smiled mischievously.
Seeing Li Xi’s smile, Li Wen Ze immediately had a bad feeling.
“It couldn’t possibly be my two mu of spirit field, could it?” Li Wen Ze said in disbelief.
“You guessed right, it is your two mu of spirit field!” Li Xi confirmed.
Li Wen Ze recalled his experience cultivating the spirit field last year, which was truly embarrassing. He had only cultivated those two mu for three months before giving up and not tending to it anymore. Later, he directly returned it to the clan.
The clan naturally wouldn’t specially tend to those two mu of spirit field, but the land had been fertilized, and with no one managing it, weeds and such would grow quickly. He didn’t dare imagine what state the land was in now.
Of all people to allocate the spirit field to, it had to be his neighbor’s little sister.
Of all people to burden, it had to be someone he knew.
How could he, mentally a man in his twenties from his previous life, feel good about burdening his little neighbor girl like this?
Imagining the scene of Li Xi, a ten-year-old girl with baby fat still on her cheeks, bending over in a weed-infested spirit field, huffing and puffing as she pulled out weeds until she was exhausted, made him feel terrible.
Li Wen Ze’s guilt surged like ocean waves.
Although he knew that ten-year-old children here had already been cultivating for four years and had physical constitutions comparable to ordinary adults, her appearance was still that of a ten-year-old!
In his previous life, modern ten-year-old elementary school students would be running around playing every day. They would never be allowed to do work like farming.
His moral concepts often jumped back and forth between the two worlds. Today, facing Li Xi, his previous life’s concepts suddenly took precedence.
“Little Sister Xi’er, have you heard about the rumors about me from last year?” Li Wen Ze decided to probe first.
“Yes, I have!” Li Xi nodded.
“Such as?” Li Wen Ze asked cautiously.
“Like how you damaged the door panel while practicing swordsmanship, and how you were chased by a spirit beast for ten li,” Li Xi counted on her fingers.
“Stop, stop, stop, no need to mention those. I mainly mean about the spirit field!” Li Wen Ze’s face quickly turned red.
How could this little girl remember his embarrassing history so clearly!
Seeing Li Wen Ze’s flustered and blushing face, Li Xi was secretly amused.
Brother Wen Ze’s blushing face is so fun to see~
“It’s because you didn’t explain clearly, Brother Wen Ze~”
“About the spirit field, you mean how everything you planted died?” Li Xi looked up, her big eyes staring directly at Li Wen Ze, appearing innocent. “Brother Wen Ze, don’t mind it. These must all be rumors. How could someone possibly kill everything they plant? It must be someone jealous of you, spreading bad words!”
At this point, Li Xi’s face showed righteous indignation, but in reality, she was grinning inside.
Li Wen Ze’s face kept getting hotter, turning as red as a tomato.
“You… you don’t need to say more. These are all true.” His voice got smaller and smaller, barely audible at the end.
It was so embarrassing. How could he, someone from the previous life in the land of agriculture, claimed to be a descendant of the Divine Farmer, and now part of the Li family known for their farming skills, have absolutely no talent for farming?
He truly couldn’t understand it!
“So it’s actually true. I’m sorry, Brother Wen Ze, I didn’t mean to~” Li Xi pretended to look very guilty.
“It’s okay. Since you’ve heard about my poor farming skills, you must have also heard that I returned the spirit field to the clan early, right?” Li Wen Ze tried hard to appear normal.
“I think I’ve heard about it, vaguely remember something like that,” Li Xi tried to recall.
“Let me be straightforward. I returned that spirit field to the clan early, and no one has been tending to it. It must be overgrown and in a terrible state now!” Li Wen Ze said directly, seeing that Li Xi wasn’t getting the hint.
Upon hearing Li Wen Ze’s words, Li Xi was suddenly shocked.
“If the field is overgrown, doesn’t that mean I’ll have to clear out all the weeds first?”
Realizing this, Li Xi also became upset.
“Brother Wen Ze, how could you be so troublesome!”
“Ahem, ahem. Since you understand now, I see we still have some time today. I can’t let you go pull weeds alone tomorrow. Why don’t we go take a look at the spirit field now? Maybe it’s not as overgrown as we think!” Li Wen Ze coughed awkwardly after hearing Li Xi’s words.
Hearing that Li Wen Ze offered to help, Li Xi immediately put on a sweet smile and pretended to decline, “Thank you, Brother Wen Ze! Logically speaking, since the spirit field has been allocated to me, I should be responsible for its condition. Your kind thoughts are enough!”
In reality, she was thinking: If you dare not to help me, hmph!
Although Li Wen Ze didn’t realize Li Xi was just being polite, for some inexplicable reason, looking at Li Xi’s gentle and sweet expression, he felt a chill down his spine. He felt that if he dared to agree, he would be done for!
So he quickly said, “I’m your second brother’s good friend. How could I just watch you struggle? I’ll definitely help you!” He spoke very quickly and firmly, afraid that if he spoke slower, something unpredictable might happen.
“Then Xi’er thanks Big Brother Wen Ze,” Li Xi said sweetly.
————
The spirit fields allocated by the clan were located in a unified area, not far from the village near Qingxi River.
When the two arrived, they almost fainted at the sight of the spirit field before them.
There were ten mu of spirit fields in total, with the easternmost two mu being the ones allocated to Li Xi.
The other eight mu of spirit fields had some weeds, but they were clearly just sprouting this spring, sparse and scattered.
However, the easternmost two mu were covered in large patches of weeds. These weeds were tenacious, having survived from last autumn through winter to this spring, and were even more lush now that spring temperatures had risen.
Fortunately, the spirit field boundaries would be covered with a kind of spiritual tool by the village before the southeast monsoon arrived in late autumn. Otherwise, not only would weeds grow in the spirit fields, but seeds carried by the monsoon winds would take root, growing into strange spirit plants.