Chapter 50: Six-Zero Farm System (16)

Xie Yang explored the mountains until dusk before returning to the Youth Hostel.

During lunch, Li Chengguo rearranged the duty roster for the new and old Educated Youth, and Xie Yang was assigned to the firewood gathering group.

In truth, she could handle either carrying water or gathering firewood, but Li Chengguo felt that since she was a female Educated Youth, he shouldn't assign her such heavy labor as carrying water.

Thus, when she went into the mountains in the afternoon, she took the opportunity to carry back a large bundle of firewood.

Besides the dry firewood, there was a basket full of spoils—on the surface were various wild vegetables and mushrooms, while at the bottom of the basket lay a Wild Ginseng and two stalks of Gastrodia.

The Wild Ginseng was not very large; the assessment given by the Collection Illustrated Handbook was twenty years old. The Gastrodia was Grade 1.

However, since there were only one or two of them, she didn't plan to sell them; soaking them into medicinal wine to keep for her own use or to give as gifts would be quite nice.

Besides that, she also gathered Wild Tea; the tea leaves were at their most tender right now, and they would be old after a few more rains.

But the tea leaves were too tender and too small to be placed together with the wild vegetables and mushrooms, so she had to take off her shirt to use as a wrapping cloth to bundle the tea leaves.

The system's Backpack Space could only store items produced by the System Mall; items from the outside world could not be put in.

The Mall's Prop column did have Space Buttons for sale, but a one-cubic-meter Space Button cost 50,000 points, and a ten-cubic-meter one cost 1,000,000 points. Moreover, they could only be purchased with reward points after completing a Task, and top-up points were not accepted.

Too expensive!

No wonder the Main System didn't mention the word "credit" at all; it was clearly afraid she wouldn't be able to pay it back.

That was why she sacrificed her own shirt.

However, as a wrapping cloth, a jacket would also work, but it was made of work-cloth and was a bit rough, so she was worried it would damage the tea leaves.

Additionally, she discovered a cluster of Sichuan peppercorns and two wild grapevines; she would come back to harvest them when they were ripe.

Regardless, for the second day of arriving at the Yuewan Brigade, the harvest was quite good!

She first piled the firewood in the woodshed.

She didn't take out the Wild Ginseng or Gastrodia; these things were too valuable, and she feared people coveting them even if she didn't fear them being stolen.

The wild vegetables and mushrooms were still the same as at noon; after washing them clean, she spread them out to air-dry. The weather had been good these past few days, so she aimed to dry them all at once.

As for the tea leaves, she would wait until after dinner when the other Educated Youth were done using the stove to borrow the kitchen to stir-fry the tea, and she would make up for the consumed firewood tomorrow.

The new and old Educated Youth were stunned watching this whole process by Xie Yang.

Xie Yang had only been here for two days, right? How did she recognize so many wild vegetables and mushrooms? And she even found tea leaves!

Tea leaves in this day and age were almost as much of a hard currency as Tobacco and Alcohol; it was easy to trade them for rice and flour in the city.

Yet, even among the native members of the Yuewan Brigade, not everyone was proficient in picking and stir-frying tea; only those few families knew how. It was evident that this skill was generally not passed on to outsiders.

The old Educated Youth who had been here for half a year didn't even know where the tea trees were, let alone picking them to stir-fry themselves.

Xie Yang had actually picked a large bag of tea leaves on her first day in the mountains; after stir-frying, she would get at least one or two taels!

The way everyone looked at her was incredibly complex; some were envious, some were jealous, and some even felt admiration.

"Xie Yang, you are too amazing!" Lai Zhaodi was completely convinced, "Compared to you, we old Educated Youth who have been here for half a year are nothing!"

Other old Educated Youth: "..."

You can speak for yourself, why drag us into it!

Li Chengguo: "Xiao Xie, what are your plans for these tea leaves? Are you looking to trade them for grain?"

Xie Yang shook her head: "What could I trade with just this little bit? It's not even enough for myself to drink."

"..."

Drink it herself? And she thinks it's not enough?

This is too wasteful!!!

Xie Yang understood the Brigade Leader's look now and gave a dry laugh: "Just to taste it for freshness, I'll keep the bulk to give away."

That's more like it!

Li Chengguo nodded and didn't ask further, instead waving his hand at everyone: "It's getting late, hurry up and go to sleep; there's a strenuous Task waiting for us tomorrow!"

As his voice fell, a chorus of wails erupted in the Youth Hostel.

Especially the new arrivals; after a day, they were so tired they couldn't lift their arms, couldn't straighten their backs, and their steps were unsteady. The thought of having to continue working tomorrow made them feel desperate.

After Lu Jieqiong finished wailing, she said to Xie Yang with a bit of schadenfreude: "You're in for it tomorrow! I heard from the villagers that clearing wasteland in the mountains isn't like the plains; not only is it tiring, but you'll also get pricked and cut by thorns and sharp grass leaves, tsk! But who told you to be so strong? The Brigade Leader is looking highly upon you!"

"What's going on?" The other Educated Youth didn't know about this yet.

Lu Jieqiong then rattled off the events of the afternoon.

The new Educated Youth who hadn't experienced mountain wasteland clearing didn't react as strongly, but the old Educated Youth all looked at Xie Yang with admiration.

Li Chengguo: "Xiao Xie, you need to prepare yourself mentally; clearing wasteland isn't as easy as you imagine!"

A portion of the Educated Youth kindly reminded Xie Yang to dress thicker tomorrow to avoid being pricked by the wild grass, while another portion sat waiting with schadenfreude to see her cry.

Especially Yang Qingqing and Lu Jieqiong; even after lying in bed, they were still mocking Xie Yang:

"I want to see what happens to her tomorrow! Thinking she could finish early just because she's strong, now she's hit a snag!"

"That's exactly how she should be dealt with!"

The next day, Xie Yang took the sickle and iron rake she was assigned and went to today's Task site—Banyue Mountain, located at the west end of the Yuewan Brigade.

This mountain had once suffered a fire during the late Qing and early Republican period that burned all the way from the temple at the summit to the mountainside; if it hadn't been for a torrential downpour, the village at the foot of the mountain would have been affected.

The villagers felt the mountain was inauspicious, and since then, few people had climbed it, at most cutting some firewood or picking wild vegetables and mushrooms at the foot of the mountain. To this day, no one had heard of anyone climbing to the summit to see the temple ruins.

But having experienced the famine years of hunger, no brigade would complain about having too much land, and the Yuewan Brigade was no exception.

For the past few years, they had been continuously reclaiming terraced fields, opening up all the southern slopes suitable for terraced fields, except for the allegedly inauspicious Banyue Mountain.

The Brigade Cadres had a dispute over this.

The Brigade Leader stated that the southern slope of Banyue Mountain had flat terrain suitable for terraced fields, so why not open it if it could be opened?

The current fields were still too few; if the southern slope of Banyue Mountain could be opened to plant Corn, they might not be able to have a full meal every time, but at least they wouldn't go hungry.

However, some Cadres felt the mountain was inauspicious; would opening it trigger bad things?

The Brigade Cadres couldn't reach a consensus internally, let alone the members below; many people opposed going to Banyue Mountain to clear wasteland.

This dragged on for two years.

This year, the Brigade Leader was determined to go to Banyue Mountain for reclamation: "First, whether it's auspicious or not is all feudal thinking! Right now, the crackdown on feudal thinking outside is very severe; the best way not to be reported is to reclaim land! Second, think about how much more grain we could grow if that whole southern slope were turned into terraced fields! Our goal is nothing else but to have enough to eat!"

Perhaps for fear of being reported, or perhaps tempted by the big promise of "having enough to eat," in short, no one opposed it this time, and the Brigade Leader pushed through the "Banyue Mountain South Slope Reclamation Plan" very smoothly.

Xie Yang and a few other Educated Youth were assigned to the southwest slope, where there were relatively fewer weeds.

The Scorekeeper had already pre-marked their rough Task areas.

The reclamation group needed to cut down weeds and shrubs that were half a person tall, some even taller than their heads, gather them up, and carry them to the designated location at the foot of the mountain, to be burned into wood ash later and transported to fertilize the fields. Then, they had to use iron rakes to turn the soil, the deeper the better.

After their reclamation group finished turning the soil and let it dry for a few days, the female laborers would come over to turn the soil a second time, pick out the stones, loosen the soil a third time, and clear away the remaining fine weeds.

Only at this step was the reclamation considered complete, and after that, it could be watered, fertilized, and sown just like other fields.

After Xie Yang familiarized herself with the Task requirements, she fastened her cuffs, turned up her collar, tied her trouser legs tight, put on her straw hat and gloves, and holding a sickle, she began to work quickly...