Chapter 125: Is There a Reward?

From then on, Lin Manzhi's life began to become routine.

Each day she first tended the lettuce greenhouse in the morning and evening, practiced extracting medicinal fluid from the lettuce in the afternoon, and at night dined with Mo Lie before washing up and sleeping.

The days passed quickly, and before she knew it, the day arrived to deliver lettuce to Su Li.

The lettuce was thriving—emerald, juicy—and Lin Manzhi had started picking lettuce from the greenhouse to eat a few days earlier; after Mo Lie tasted it, he said the lettuce's flavor and effect were the same as the lettuce she had taken out.

Lin Manzhi finally felt reassured, and looking at the nearly sixty thousand lettuce heads in the greenhouse, she began to consider whether to send them all at once.

She refined the medicinal fluid herself and could roughly estimate how long a Shamaness would need to produce one batch of raw medicine, then added the ten Shamanesses of the Wushen Temple in Kuangsha City and the ten Shamanesses of the two subsidiary halls.

She estimated that each Shamaness could craft 100 batches of raw medicine per day, consuming 1,000 lettuce heads, so twenty Shamanesses could use up 20,000 lettuce heads in a day.

Given that lettuce stays fresh for a few days, Su Li would surely take all sixty thousand lettuce heads, right?

Lin Manzhi thought of the recent craze for raw medicine in Kuangsha City and among the incoming Merchant Caravans, and realized that those sixty thousand lettuce heads would yield about six thousand vials of raw medicine.

Huh? By that calculation, it's actually not that many.

Lin Manzhi squinted, deciding to go big this time and send all sixty thousand lettuce heads.

The lettuce she had previously eaten was retrieved from the Space Warehouse to make up the sixty thousand, and when she harvested the lettuce she also brought Mu Qiao and Mu Qian along.

Since the two had seen through Lin Manzhi's disguise, she had intended to train them, even shedding the façade on her face, because the lettuce greenhouse would eventually need trustworthy people to manage.

Hua Zheng was already busy training his subordinates, so asking him to also oversee the lettuce greenhouse would be overly taxing on them.

Mu Qiao and Mu Qian were just right—tight‑lipped and diligent; they wouldn't question orders and would follow them outright.

The first time they saw Lin Manzhi's lavish water‑fueled cultivation of medicinal plants, they were only startled for a moment and said nothing.

After a period of testing, she now felt quite confident in the two.

Of course, Lin Manzhi wouldn't shortchange them; she provided food and lodging and paid each of them one gold coin every ten days.

Mu Qiao and Mu Qian earned Beast Coins through their labor—more than any ordinary male Beastfolk in Kuangsha City—so they were thrilled, became even more loyal, and devoted themselves wholly to managing the wondrous medicinal plants for their master.

Thus Lin Manzhi gained two assistants who worked more efficiently than she did, and they harvested all the lettuce in a single day.

Since she had already told Su Li that Hua Zheng would deliver the goods, Lin Manzhi only needed to prepare the lettuce and wouldn't have to run around; she could simply wait at home for Hua Zheng's return.

When Hua Zheng went to deliver, Lin Manzhi and Mo Lie, together with Mu Qiao and Mu Qian, finished cleaning the water troughs, and the lettuce roots, hidden from view, were all tossed by Lin Manzhi into the Space Spirit field as fertilizer.

After everything was dealt with, she led the two to replant the lettuce.

This time there were outsiders; Lin Manzhi prepared lettuce seedlings above, and Mo Lie carried the seedlings from outside into the lettuce greenhouse.

Mu Qiao and Mu Qian, as a matter of course, assumed this medicinal plant had been brought by the leader, and dared not look further or ask questions.

Lin Manzhi taught Mu Qiao and Mu Qian how to cultivate lettuce, and once she saw they had learned, she kept them there to work.

She turned and went to Mo Lie's side at the other end of the wooden shed, seeing him busy planting lettuce, and joined in the work.

The light inside the lettuce greenhouse was dimmer than outside; three water channels on the wooden racks held water, and a gentle breeze drifted through the raised sides of the greenhouse, feeling especially cool.

The four split into two small teams, one ahead and one behind, spaced far apart as they planted the lettuce seedlings into the water channels.

Lin Manzhi followed Mo Lie, her fingertips brushing the water line of the trough, silently pouring Space water into it, and suddenly furrowed her brow.

Mo Lie tilted his head toward Lin Manzhi, his gaze passing over her slightly furrowed brow, and whispered, "What are you thinking?"

Lin Manzhi lowered her eyes.

When she had just untangled the river in Space, her daily routine with Mo Lie had already been quietly switched to drinking boiled Space water.

Unfortunately, this Space spirit water was only useful for plants.

Aside from being a bit sweeter and more pleasant to drink, it had no other effect on humans or Beastfolk, as written in the Space description of the river.

If she leaves this to others and can't come every day, how can she ensure that each trough receives daily a dose of Space river water comparable to plant nutrient solution?

Preparing water specially would work on the unsuspecting Hua Zheng, but against the now‑captured Mu Qiao and Mu Qian—who already know part of her secret—emphasizing that the biggest secret of lettuce cultivation lies with her would be too obvious.

Even though Mo Lie had already claimed a corner of Kuangsha City, his strength still lagged far behind that of the Wushen Temple and other lords.

In other words, some things still need to be concealed; even trusted people don't need to know every foundation of yours.

"Thinking about planting lettuce… the water issue," Lin Manzhi looked up, following each wooden pipe, then turned to Mo Lie, "Where does your water come from?"

Mo Lie stopped his work and turned his head toward her.

After their gazes met, a soft light flickered in his eyes, and in a warm voice he said, "You don't need to worry about a water shortage; there's a well beneath this building."

A smile curled on his lips: "I had someone, in the washroom we live in, build an extra water tower; each morning someone fills the tower."

Lin Manzhi was surprised, "So that's how it is."

That makes it simple; if she doesn't come to the lettuce greenhouse every day, she can just fill the water tower with Space river water, and there'd be no problem.

The matter was easily resolved; her furrowed brow relaxed, and she gave Mo Lie a gentle smile, "You're wonderful, you handled everything for me."

Mo Lie gave her a meaning‑laden look, then, with a teasing tone, said, "Zhi Zhi, any reward?"

Lin Manzhi: "There actually is."

Mo Lie's ice‑blue eyes widened for a moment.

Lin Manzhi first planted the lettuce she was holding into the trough, patted the water droplets from her hand, and bent down to untie her Beast Skin Bag to take something out.

She faced Mo Lie, spreading her palm before him; in the pink palm lay tiny vials, and she said, "These are the raw medicinal essences I've refined these past days, all for you."

Mo Lie: "..."

He lowered his gaze; the brief flash of disappointment in his ice‑blue pupils was hidden beneath his long, dark lashes, and then, deep in his eyes, a slowly melting southern glacier glimmered with a hint of delight.