Horrid realization

Uncle Fa looked at her like he was re-evaluating her. He looked impressed in the morning, but now he looked like he did not know she was a shrew. In the first place, she never pretended to be a saintes. She disliked the women who turned to the waterworks. Yes, it's a pet peeve, for she has suffered at the hands of girls capable of such theatrics from the time she is one to twenty. Only, at twenty, she died and was born here.

She looked around in boredom as she and Uncle Fa waited to receive any more visitors. There was one more woman who wanted to buy rice rather than exchange wheat for it, so Jiushu exchanged at the price of one catty of rice per four iron coins. The currency in this country is surprisingly Arabic math, despite using Chinese numerals.

Iron coin is the least denominator. Ten iron coins made a bronze coin, ten bronze coins made a copper coin, ten copper coins made a silver nugget, ten silver nuggets made a silver tael, ten silver taels made a gold tael. Jiushu did not know the denominations of money till she met MoQiu's family. She did know about iron coins, and ten of them making a bronze coin, but that's about it. The others, she had to imagine by herself.

The woman paid four copper coins, four bronze coins and the rest in iron coins. For the first time, Jiushu received true money.

Currency system initiated.

Iron coin activated.

Bronze coin activated.

Copper coin activated.

You can now convert metal into relevant coins. Once converted into coins, metal is irrecoverable.

Jiushu waved away the explanation after reading it. There's plenty of molten metal she has collected from Taoist temple. She should probably convert that into money. Jiushu was dying to go into her space and test out all these changes, but Uncle Fa is here. The farce she has created is still going on. She is sure by now MoQiu's parents can guess, but she did not want to tell them about the true capacity of her power as of yet. However, this time around, waiting proved to be the correct decision. The man she just talked to has returned, with a clothes sack in one hand and a jar in another.

"Little sister.." he called happily.

What a happy go lucky guy, Jiushu marveled. His first impression of her was plenty bad, with the bullied girl cosplay and all, but he recovered from it so fast.

The man placed the jar on the ground, and opened the clothes sack he brought. There's plenty of peas, long beans and even a bokchoy in it. There are few more plants in it, but Jiushu did not recognize any of them. All the same, she knows they are vegetables, and she is far too happy to have even the unidentified ones with her.

The villager explained one of the unidentified plants is winter melon, eggplant and Chinese broccoli. The rest are pink garlic, shallots and giant garlic, in the man's own words. The man explained winter melon best has an arms width from one plant to another, water when there's no rain, need not water if there's rain. The other vegetables can be planted within a foot of each other, only, they must be starved for water in the initial phases. One must water regularly once the plants reach mid stage, or start fruiting. Jiushu carefully noted all he was saying on a paper.

Uncle Fa watched her from the sidelines. She is obviously not being too careful. She dearly hopes MoQiu's parents are trustworthy. She is taking a great risk by letting them know her ability. She carefully transferred all the plants to the tent, then to her storage. They wrapped up their tent, and moved to where aunt Fa is. Xiao Xing seemed to have woken up once in the morning, he ate porridge and slept again.

Aunt Fa seems to be making a map. Jiushu wanted to take a look at it, but Aunt Fa closed it before Jiushu could sneak a peek at it. Why so secretive? Jiushu wondered. All the same, they started prep for dinner. This time around, Jiushu took Xiao Xing to the river to bathe along with her. She found another willow hollow near the river, far bigger than the one she found in the morning. She moved in and entered the space.

She had only been cultivating rice till now. She needs to cultivate another crop to reach that at least ten, so she planted rapeseed first. She took a bath, then gave Xiao Xing a bath and changed their clothes. She let Xiao Xing take his nap on the straw bed, while she surveyed the space. There are a lot of changes here.

First of all, her hut stayed the same. It's still the same ridiculously poor earthen walls with a straw roof. However, the outside is wildly different. Green grass grew all over, the pond she has dug seems to have become very deep. The tripod that she has set horizontally in the pond is almost leaning towards inside. A little more inwards, it will be submerged. Jiushu stored the tripod, throwing the water in the pond. The water is quite clear, and the pond very deep.

The little mud mounds she has made while digging for clay have vanished altogether, along with pebbles clay and all. There is a river enclosing her entire space like a moat, ther field and yard both within its circumference. It seems the integration of fishing in her space is not for laughs. At east and west, she could see the river flowing out into a vast blue body of water. Jiushu is sure that is salt water and any salt water entities she wishes to farm should go there.

Perhaps she will have a never ending supply of the fish and shrimp in future. That is, if she knows how to catch them. For now though, she should probably put something in there that works as fish food. What do fish eat anyhow? These things are extremely easy to solve in the modern world with even the lowest of encyclopedias giving out all such information. Now she is stranded here, she would have to figure out half of these things on her own, which is more than hard.

She sighed. One crisis at a time. For now, she will plant rapeseed and increase the number of crops in her space. For now, that's the best. She planted rapeseed and left it alone. Even she, who's almost a farming idiot, knew rapeseed is a kind of weed, and grows well almost anywhere. It's a point she missed again and again in junior high, eventually, she beat it down into her brain.

She should probably pick a fish species to grow in the pond as well as the river. She could pick those later though. For now, she will add lotus seeds to the pond, if they grow, she will get fish, if not, then forget it. Fish are annoying, no matter how tasty they are, she still has to catch and handle them with her own hands. Jiushu is reluctant to do such. However, she did want to add shrimp and prawn varieties. Only, she had no idea how to choose, worse yet, what to feed them, how long to raise them and how to tell when they are grown. Damn.. she needs either a master or a master level advising system.

'Angel daren.. Are you hearing? I need a master level advising system.. ' she grumbled out into the air, as she splashed water.

She did not think much of those words. Rapeseed will take it's time, she thought she has given Xiao Xing enough time to sleep. She still wants to explore outside. So, she picked Xiao Xing up, exited the space. She came back to the hollow. Jiushu initiated her search skill. The surroundings lighted up as before. However, this time, she has all the time in the world to deal with the plants.

The first thing she noticed is the mushrooms. The mushrooms have grown on most trees.

Wood ear mushroom - edible.

That's all it said.

Then there were really beautiful red mushrooms on the ground.

Deathcap mushroom - fatally poisonous.

No more words at all.

Jiushu collected only edible mushrooms for now. She will most definitely collect poisonous mushrooms, but now that she doesn't have an idea on precisely how dangerous it is to collect said mushrooms, she will keep them on hold. As she was contemplating, she found a few more mushrooms.

Pine mushroom - edible.

This one has a very very familiar look. It's the mushroom that shows up in almost all restaurant dishes, even her mother stores some of them at home. The mushrooms have a short and stubby stem, with a dark cap. She picked them up.

Mustard green - edible.

Another plant said. Jiushu recognized this one too. It's visible often in the supermarket. However, she is not sure if the plant is mature or not. She pulled out the plant as a whole along with roots and added it to the storage. Just as she finished adding the plant to storage, a new feature showed up.

Add record ? [ Yes ] [ No ]

Jiushu searched all over for the information button before she gave in and touched the question hoping it would expand. It did.

'Adding a record means noting the soil type, weather pattern including sunlight hours and rainfall and any extraneous events that happened to the plant in this particular location. Later, these attributes can be applied to the field, to contain similar soil and weather, and bring plants to maturity using those specific conditions. Adding a record reduces failure of raising a crop, as well as increases chances of a crop's taste and quality are higher.'

Wow.. there is such a good feature in her system? Why did she not know till now? ..

Never mind, now that she knew, it's all the better. This way, she can probably farm mushrooms as well if needed. Jiushu collected the greens and more mushrooms. There's Chinese broccoli around too. Xiao Xing woke up at some point. Children's recovery speed is amazing. He stood in his carrier basket, putting his arms around Jiushu's neck. Jiushu patted his hands reassuringly.

"That" he Xiao Xing told her, indicating an orange mushroom.

Jiushu looked at it.

Coral mushroom - fatally poisonous.

The words flashed in front of her.

"That mushroom is very bad, A'Xing. You must never ever touch it." Jiushu told him.

If she is going to trot around the wilds, it's extremely important to keep Xiao Xing to herself. The chances of children eating something poisonous is extremely high.

"Bad like Taoist big brother?" the child asked her.

"Yes. Bad exactly like Taoist big brother." Jiushu answered, cursing the invisible prince once again.

"I think this much is enough. Let's go to auntie Fa." Jiushu told him, and started trekking back to the camp.

Aunt Fa is waiting for her patiently. As she stoked the fire. She has prepared two fireplaces, and she looked expectantly at Jiushu. Jiushu retrieved the wok, and pot both, setting them on fire places, and on the other side, she retrieved the wild vegetables and mushrooms she picked.

"That's quite the haul. You seem to have a rare talent for foraging, little Jiushu." Aunt Fa praised.

Jiushu smiled. First she retrieved the plants that she pulled out with roots, and asked aunt Fa if they have matured. Aunt Fa chose a Chinese broccoli, which is ripe. The rest, she discarded, for they have not matured yet. She told Jiushu to just plant them anywhere in the forest. Jiushu agreed to her words, then moved away to store the plants in space.

Once she's done that, she retrieves the condiments, settling besides Aunt Fa to learn how to cook. After all, if ever she goes off alone, she needs to know what to do with each vegetable at the very least. MoQiu returned right on the dot with a rabbit. He brought the skinned version, only needing to put on a little seasoning before setting it on spit fire.

"The flood victims have reached Weinan." he told them as he rotated the spit.

"Is the city holding well?" Uncle Fa asked.

MoQiu shook his head.

"The city has closed gates on them. Many of them are continuing on to Xi'an. If we want to get lost in the crowd, this will be the best time to go to Xi'an." MoQiu answered.

Jiushu did not think so.

"No. As long as there is a person who knows us, they will recognize us. We want people to think we are dead, either in the fire, or in the flood." Jiushu said before they could decide to go back.

"However, our contact is in Xi'an. We need to let them know we are alive, and willing to participate in rebellion." Uncle Fa answered.

"Moreover, none of the villagers are close to us. Very few can recognize us." Aunt Fa added.

Jiushu stared at her in wonder. Is it because she is educated in modern society, or is it because Aunt Fa is brought up a sheltered girl? … Aunt Fa caught the look of pity and patronization before Jiushu could wipe it off.

"What is it?" she asked defensively.

"Auntie, you and uncle are known in three villages up and down the valley. A pretty woman with a handsome husband, it's a wonder if the villagers don't recognize you after a few years." Jiushu informed her.

".... They never talked to me.." Aunt Fa said hal pleading, half argumentative.

"Does not mean they can not recognize you." Jiushu pressed down firmly.

It's a very good thing Aunt Fa is not one of those 'I am right, you are wrong' kind of females. Thankfully, she is not adverse to accepting facts where they are proven.

"If I were the prince, I would have paid off at least one villager to send a message if we ever show up. If the worst case realizes, then we might bring harm to your contact and expose your whole rebellion." Jiushu said convincingly.

After all, if a person has been cruel and meticulous enough to come back and set fire to a peasant residence, it stands to reason they are wise enough to have taken precautions if they ever live. Jiushu did not want to find out if the prince is really that meticulous or not. If Aunt and Uncle Fa insisted on going to Xi'an, she will say her farewells here.

Uncle Fa and MoQiu fell into silent contemplation. Before the awkwardness could settle in, Uncle Fa changed the subject.

"Jiushu, you talked of an offering ceremony for the emperor. What is it?" Uncle Fa asked.

"Every three years, all the descendants of the emperor gather together, and offer the blessing they have to the emperor by their blood. The supreme Taoist presides over the gathering." Jiushu answered.

MoQiu stared at her in shock.

"By the gods, this is the missing piece. The emperor kills all the blessing holders in the kingdom, and every year, he strongarms all his descendants to give their blessings. Only his descendants could ever get blessings. Sooner or later, all the blessings end in his hands." MoQiu answered.

They all became solemn as they digested the information.

Jiushu became even more reluctant to get involved with this rebellion.

Let's count what her opponent has.

One, he is the emperor of the country. He controls police, military and trade. Two, he has all seeing, all knowing and all controlling Taoists by his side. Three, he has more blessings than she could count.

Nope, this is not a fight she could win. At the best, she could drag the fight, that will be all it is.

One single look, and she could tell Uncle Fa and MoQiu are even more fired up to join and see through this rebellion.

For the longest time, Jiushu wondered why she wasn't attracted to MoQiu. He most certainly has the looks that she went head over heels for. However, now she knows. It is because he is the model student and class president type of guy. Jiushu, she is the exception on the back bench. They are both outcasts in the society to an extent, but she by no means possessed the zeal to help others.

In the great order of things, one monarch is no different from another. The more powerful the monarch is, the more put together the country. At least that is how it will be, as long as the monarch exerts even a vague thought as to governing the country. Yes, they raise a rebellion, but who is going to sit on that blasted dragon seat? Jiushu is not willing. She is even more reluctant to let Xiao Xing get involved.

Will MoQiu sit on it? Sure, might make right, but here in this continent, where the blessed reign supreme, he will need his children to be born with blessings. He will need at least one princess of the previous dynasty to be his wife… as she thought about it, Jiushu came to a horrifying realization.

She and Xiao Xing are the perfect tools for MoQiu to sit on the throne if the rebellion succeeds. If she dies, they can just use Xiao Xing as the symbol behind whom they unite.

No…

Of course not…

…

..

.

Definitely not. She is overthinking this. If she has gotten out, it makes sense that someone else could too. It's not all that hard for the escaped prince/princess to gather support. She need not be it… If push comes to shove, and the Fa family really has the intention to use her for the rebellion, then she will just hide in her bracelet and never come out.

In fact, that is what she is preparing for right now.

Long live Hermits.. Long live Salted fish.. I will never ever get into a job that needs to do paperwork. Jiushu decided.