Cultivating Farmland in a Fluffy S-Rank Game – CH30

Chapter 30: Cotton Blanket

Pioneer’s Cabin.

After finishing that day’s log, Chu Jiu immediately earned 900 Development Points.

Such a generous reward must be because today’s log was especially detailed!

Chu Jiu thought, quite pleased with himself.

Just as he put away the small mirror, another prompt popped up:

[Video recording device undergoing upgrade maintenance. Temporarily unavailable.]

Broke again?

Chu Jiu didn’t mind.

After all, one log now earned him as much as a month’s worth before—definitely not a loss.

He stretched lazily, about to head to bed, when he noticed Little Can, who had already curled up on the pillow, suddenly leap up onto the windowsill. The little cat scratched the glass a few times before hopping onto Chu Jiu’s shoulder and whispering:

“There’s something outside! Something’s off!”

Something outside? And something’s off?

This courtyard had a built-in “Repel Monsters” effect, so it couldn’t be a monster breaking in.

Could the dodo have an upset stomach and started thrashing around?

With that thought, Chu Jiu dashed downstairs and out of the house.

The dodo was peacefully curled up by the fence, sleeping soundly.

Little Can: “Not the Bodo! It’s under the window!”

Following the direction indicated by Little Can, Chu Jiu squinted in the moonlight and took a closer look—

Huh?

Wasn’t this the flying mini-hamster that would automatically pop up during “Camper’s Target” use?

Why was it here, lying flat on the ground, belly up?

And for some reason, the hamster’s originally pale-golden fur had turned dull gray. It was completely inconspicuous lying there. If not for Little Can’s excellent night vision, Chu Jiu probably wouldn’t have noticed it.

Chu Jiu hurriedly scooped up the tiny creature—smaller even than Little Can, barely walnut-sized—and wondered if it was injured. How should he treat it?

One step at a time—he’d better bring it inside first.

Chu Jiu laid a handkerchief on the table, gently placed the little hamster on it, spread its limbs, and started checking for injuries.

Surprisingly, there were no external wounds.

The flattened little hamster’s belly rose and fell rhythmically—it was breathing normally.

So it wasn’t hurt? Could it have fainted from hunger? But he’d never seen it eat anything…

Just as he was puzzling over it, Little Can hopped down from his shoulder and meowed at the unconscious hamster.

Strangely, Chu Jiu—who could normally understand all of Little Can’s “cat-speak”—couldn’t quite figure out what this meow meant.

But he could tell there was no malice or teasing in Little Can’s intent.

Perhaps in response to that meow, the hamster’s whiskers twitched. Slowly, it opened its beady eyes and gave a weak squeak.

Little Can lowered his head, reached out a paw—

Not to scratch or grab, though. His claws were fully retracted, and he even flipped his paw over to expose his soft little pads.

The hamster hesitated, then slowly sat up and gently placed its tiny paw on Little Can’s outstretched paw.

“Meow?”

“Squeak.”

The two little creatures continued conversing in a language Chu Jiu couldn’t understand.

But he could see the hamster’s dull fur gradually regaining its golden sheen.

A few minutes later, the gray hamster turned back into a shining golden puff. Its wings fluttered a few times.

It pulled back its paw, floated into the air, squeaked at Little Can twice, and vanished like a puff of smoke.

Chu Jiu: “…?”

Completely baffled, he looked at Little Can. “What just happened? Was it hurt? Did you heal it or something?”

Little Can yawned and, as if exhausted, closed his eyes:

“Not really hurt… just too tired…”

“So sleepy… huuh… want to nap…”

Seeing the little guy nearly falling asleep on his paws, Chu Jiu didn’t ask further. He gently carried Little Can back to the pillow.

As for why a system-generated hamster would fall here of all places—well, maybe the system bugged out again.

After all, even the video mirror breaks from time to time. A few minor glitches elsewhere? Totally normal.

*

The next day.

Chu Jiu assigned Rawr Rawr Rabbit the task of planting cotton, while he himself fetched wood, rope, and other materials to begin woodworking using the “Virtual Assembly Line.”

He first carved four vertical posts, then shaped rollers, gravity axles, alignment shafts, a hand crank, and a foot pedal. Finally, he assembled all the parts into a wooden machine about the size of a school desk.

Little Can tilted his head. “What’s this?”

Chu Jiu: “It’s a foot-powered cotton gin.”

Little Can: “Cotton gin? What’s it for?”

Chu Jiu: “You see, the cotton we picked still has seeds in it, right? That’s called seed cotton. The first step in processing cotton is to separate the seeds from the fibers.”

He demonstrated by turning the crank. As the handle spun, the machine spat out cotton seeds from the clumps.

Chu Jiu squeezed the remaining fluff. “This is called lint cotton.”

But lint cotton still wasn’t ready for making quilts.

Chu Jiu began gathering bamboo, rope, and tanned leather…

Little Can, recognizing the materials, meowed curiously: “Are we making another bamboo bow?”

Chu Jiu: “Yep, a big one—for fluffing cotton.”

Little Can blinked. “Fluffing… cotton?”

“What’s that?”

Chu Jiu explained: “The principle of fluffing cotton is to realign the cotton fibers to make them soft and ready for use. After this step, the lint becomes ‘fluffed cotton,’ which we can use for quilts.”

He enthusiastically described the tool and method:

You make a bow from bamboo about 1.3 meters long, stretch a leather string tightly between the ends, and use the string to fluff the cotton.

The bow isn’t held upright like a normal one, but suspended horizontally like a fishing rod. One end of a string is tied to the tip of a vertical bamboo pole, the other to the middle of the bow. A “fluffing mallet” is used to tap the bowstring rapidly, causing it to vibrate and rearrange the cotton fibers.

Chu Jiu explained it all in vivid detail, and Little Can listened intently, utterly fascinated.

At the end, Little Can scratched his head with his paw and asked, “How do you know all this stuff?”

Chu Jiu smiled. “When I was a kid, our school took us to a traditional crafts museum. I thought all of it was super interesting, so I remembered it.”

Back then, in a crowd of rowdy, noisy kids, Chu Jiu had been the quietest.

He carried only a water bottle and a piece of bread in his backpack, and had pressed his face against the glass display, eyes wide as he stared at the exhibits.

What his classmates found boring and outdated, he thought was amazing.

He never imagined that those childhood memories would come in handy one day.

That day, Chu Jiu worked at the “Virtual Assembly Line” for hours: first the cotton gin, then the bow for fluffing, then the fluffing itself, and finally—a quilt. Rough, but practical.

Since he couldn’t make cotton fabric yet, he used linen as the outer layer.

Though the surface wasn’t the softest, the cotton inside was fluffy and warm—perfect for keeping out the cold.

By the end of the day, Chu Jiu had used up all his spiritual energy again. Drenched in sweat, he nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

At dusk, he wanted to cook a feast to reward his little companions for their hard work, but all three of them shook their heads and refused:

“No need!”

“Rawr Rawr Rawr! Jerky is enough for me!”

“I-I still have orange juice…”

Chu Jiu paused—then understood. They were worried he’d tire himself out.

He accepted their kindness and skipped making an elaborate meal. Instead, he pulled some dry rations from the warehouse and inventory—just enough for a simple dinner.

While eating, he told them, “Once I recover tomorrow, I’ll make you a real feast!”

“Rawr Rawr Rawr, yay!” Rawr Rawr Rabbit’s ears bounced.

“Yay-yay!” Glup Glup shook its little leaves.

Little Can said nothing.

The little cat silently tore off a big piece of dried grilled fish and placed it in Chu Jiu’s bowl.

*

Morning.

Northwest corner of Bean Village.

Granny Hao slowly shuffled into the kitchen with her cane, getting ready to boil a pot of hot water.

She wasn’t sure whether it was the first autumn rain or the sudden cold that had woken her up.

Rain pattered down on the thatched roof, soft and constant.

Such an annoying sound.

Granny Hao muttered in her heart.

Autumn rain meant that late autumn was near, and that “each autumn rain brings another chill.”

Her knees, which already ached from time to time, hurt even more on rainy days. Worse still, she had recently fallen and strained her back. Now, not only did her knees ache, but her waist felt sore and numb—her whole body was weak with pain.

But there were still things that comforted her.

For example, little Aman and his friends had gathered a bunch of dry straw and helped rethatch the roof. Or Cheng Yue, the kind girl who brought her a large linen shawl and said wrapping it around the waist might feel better. And Lin Wen and the others—when she couldn’t get out to the fields a few days ago, they helped her turn soybeans into tofu and traded it for enough flour and salt at the traveling merchant’s stall.

Such good kids…

Precisely because they were good kids, she couldn’t bring herself to trouble them.
Even if straw wasn’t warm enough…
Even if her joints creaked with cold and pain…
Even if her hands and feet froze so much at night she couldn’t sleep…

Granny Hao had made up her mind not to complain to anyone.

After all, during the autumn and winter, everyone was having a hard time.

The people of Bean Village lived in poverty. This month, thanks to making and selling tofu, they managed to trade for enough rice, flour, oil, and even stored a bit for the winter. But things like down or wool blankets—those were too much of a luxury. No one could afford them, and even if they could, no one was willing to.

Granny Hao struggled a bit to squat down and add more firewood to the stove.

Just then, she heard knocking and an excited shout, “Granny Hao! Granny Hao! It’s me, Aman! I brought Brother Chu Jiu!”

Chu Jiu? That well-mannered, clean boy who taught them how to make tofu? What could he want with me?

Granny Hao stood up using her cane and called out, “The door’s not locked—”

Aman pushed open the door and burst in like the wind, beaming. “Granny! Brother Chu Jiu made warm quilts for everyone! They’re soooo warm! I’ve never had a quilt this warm!”

Granny Hao hesitated as she looked at Aman, then turned to Chu Jiu in confusion, not understanding what was going on.

Chu Jiu smiled and pulled a brand new quilt from his backpack, laying it on her bed, “I recently found a crop called cotton,” he said. “Its fruit, once processed, can be used to fill quilts—it works really well.”

“I heard from the old village chief that the elders here might need it, so I brought this one over for you. You can try it out and see if it suits you.”

Granny Hao had never heard of “cotton” before. But the moment her hand pressed into the thick, fluffy quilt, she knew: This will definitely keep me warm! And it’s so much more comfortable than straw!

But… a quilt like this—how much must it cost?!

Chu Jiu was just a young pioneer, and he didn’t seem wealthy himself. How could he just give her something this expensive?

No, she was already being taken care of so much by these young ones. She couldn’t take this for free.

Granny Hao pulled her hand back, just about to politely decline, when Chu Jiu said:

“This quilt is much cheaper than a down one—only 90 copper coins.”

“I already discussed it with the village chief.”

“If you like it and want to keep it, the village chief will act as guarantor. The next time you sell soybeans, Marco will deduct ten percent from the payment and pass that part to me—until the quilt is paid off.”

“How does that sound to you?”

At that, Granny Hao understood everything:

This was a plan that Chu Jiu and the village chief had carefully come up with—so she could accept the quilt with dignity.

If she still insisted on refusing, she’d really be turning down their good will.

Her eyes reddened, and the wrinkles on her face trembled slightly as her hands pressed into the soft, cozy quilt again. With a slight choke in her voice, she replied, “Yes… yes, that’s very fair.”

She was right. The idea of “take now, pay later” was something Chu Jiu and the village chief had discussed for a long time.

And it wasn’t just Granny Hao—the other elders in the village could also “buy” winter quilts from Chu Jiu this way.

When he left Granny Hao’s house, the rain had stopped.

Led by Aman, Chu Jiu headed to Grandpa Du’s home.

Grandpa Du was another elder living alone. According to Aman, he was more sprightly than Granny Hao and could even catch wild rabbits in the backwoods.

Speaking of rabbits, Aman grinned, “Grandpa Du’s roast rabbit is so delicious! When I eat at his house, I can finish half a rabbit by myself!”

Chu Jiu chuckled and asked, “You eat at his house a lot?”

“Yep!” Aman nodded. “I used to live with Grandpa Du! I’d help him collect firewood and roast rabbits too!”

Chu Jiu grew curious—why had Aman lived with the old man?

Aman explained, “Because Grandpa Du picked me up.”

“My parents died really early. My old village was already empty, and he brought me back to Bean Village.”

Chu Jiu was stunned: “You were… picked up?”

“Yeah. I was an orphan,” Aman replied casually.

“Actually, lots of people in the village are like me—orphans from the monster outbreaks.”

“For example, Sister Cheng Yue and her brother Cheng Lin were taken in by Granny Wu. I heard Cheng Lin couldn’t even talk back then.”

“If not for these grannies and grandpas, we’d probably have starved or been eaten by monsters.”

Aman said this without any sadness or resentment.

But Chu Jiu’s heart ached a little.

He paused, then asked softly, “This Granny Wu…?”

Aman shook his head: “She passed away. Two years ago.”

“She was so good at weaving. She’s the one who taught Sister Cheng Yue.”

“Oh! And she even made me a little vest!”

Chu Jiu’s heart grew even heavier.

But at the same time, he finally understood something that had puzzled him for a while:

Why were there almost no adults in this village—only elderly people and children?

Turns out, this village was built by a group of elderly people who took in orphaned children from the disasters.

*

Chu Jiu wandered through Bean Village most of the day, and “sold” 19 quilts in total.

Because of that, all the elders had warm quilts by the time the first autumn rain fell.

Chu Jiu didn’t earn a single copper coin…But he did earn 1,900 Expansion Points.

To be honest, to Chu Jiu, those 1,900 points were worth more than 19,000 copper coins.

After delivering the quilts, he was getting ready to return to the Pioneer Cabin.

He had just checked on his spirit beast’s activity—and to his surprise, the usually cheery “Roar Rabbit,” which often had a heart icon over its head, was now displaying a giant sweat drop.

What happened?! It seemed perfectly fine when he left this morning to water the cotton fields!

Chu Jiu decided to hurry back and find out.

Just as he was about to leave, Aman tugged at his sleeve: “Brother Chu Jiu?”

He stopped and looked down patiently: “What’s up?”

Aman blinked, face turning red, then motioned for Chu Jiu to crouch—he had a secret to tell.

Chu Jiu obliged.

Aman leaned close and whispered: “Brother Chu Jiu, I think… you’re the most amazing person in the whole village.”

“C-Can I hug you?”

Chu Jiu laughed. “Of course you can.”

Then he reached out and gave the boy in his rough linen clothes a hug.

*

After saying goodbye, Chu Jiu had barely gone far when a very different system notification appeared:

[Congratulations!

You’ve fulfilled the hidden condition for the title “Honorary Villager”!

You may now spend 5,000 Expansion Points to designate “Bean Village” as your Honorary Region.

Would you like to proceed?]

…5,000 Expansion Points?! What a sky-high cost!

That would mean spending all his rewards from Sunny Plateau, the 1,900 points he just got—and even dipping into more!

Just thinking about it made Chu Jiu wince.

But he didn’t reject it immediately. Instead, he kept reading the explanation patiently to see what this “Honorary Region” actually meant:

[Honorary Region: A region where the host can exert significant influence and receive long-term reputation benefits.

If development in this region stalls, it won’t affect your Expansion Progress.

If the region thrives under your guidance—via new facilities or growing population—your Expansion Progress will increase accordingly.

How to build facilities in an Honorary Region:

1. Design blueprints manually and hand them to local residents to build with your assistance.
2. Construct facilities at your Pioneer Cabin—some will generate “Honorary Region Blueprints,” which can be shared with locals for assisted construction.

Note: Spirit beasts cannot work in Honorary Regions.

Note: Some residents have “specialized skills.” With your guidance, they may unlock crafting formulas. Once unlocked, both the resident and you may use them.]

Chu Jiu read the prompt three times before finally understanding:

This “Honorary Zone” was basically like a bonus question on a test— You’d get extra points if you did it right, but no penalty if you skipped it.

Chu Jiu, who would never pass up extra credit, couldn’t help cracking his knuckles in anticipation, quickly calculating in his mind whether spending 5,000 development points would be worth the potential development score boost.

After careful thought, he realized the development score was more valuable. There were plenty of opportunities to earn more development points through quests with increasingly generous rewards, but progress on his overall development score had been slow. If he couldn’t hit 90%, no amount of leftover points would matter.

But Chu Jiu also knew that this development boost wouldn’t come easily.

“Spirit beasts can’t work in an honorary zone”—that was a big limitation. After all, Bean Village had no able-bodied laborers. The current population was already doing their best just to maintain the status quo, growing beans and corn. They had no extra hands to build new facilities.

How could he solve this labor shortage? Maybe he could talk with Marco and Reg. If this village was short-staffed, maybe others weren’t.

Chu Jiu was confident a solution could be found.

After weighing everything, he decided to spend the 5,000 development points to activate the Honorary Zone.

[Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the “Honorary Zone”! You can now view related information through the backend panel.]

Opening the backend, he saw a new section under “Zone Status”—

[Honorary Zone: Bean Village]
[Village Rating: A remote village barely scraping by above the poverty line]
[Local Specialty: Tofu]
[Resident Status: Generally cheerful and orderly, engaged in tofu production. Some residents have unexpectedly received winter bedding and are in high spirits.]

Besides these general descriptions, there was another section: [Resident Skills].

Chu Jiu clicked into it and skimmed for a few minutes, a vague plan beginning to take shape in his mind. He planned to verify it later.

For now, the top priority was figuring out what had happened to Rawr Rawr Rabbit.

*

Just after watering the crops, Rawr Rawr Rabbit stood in the field scratching its head.

“What’s going on here? Why is the soil like this? So weird! I definitely fertilized and loosened the soil…” The little guy muttered nonstop, its long ears twitching anxiously.

Today had been like any other—routine field care—but something felt off. No matter what it did, the soil felt dull and lifeless.

Though the current batch of cotton seemed unaffected, Rawr Rawr Rabbit could sense that once these were harvested, the land would be depleted—maybe too depleted for the next round of planting.

Just as it was spiraling into panic, someone ruffled its little head.

“Why are you so worried your ears are practically tying themselves in knots?”

Rawr Rawr Rabbit looked up quickly, red-eyed, and blurted out all its concerns to Chu Jiu in one long breath.

Chu Jiu crouched down, poked the seemingly normal soil, and thought for a while before saying:

“My guess… the soil’s fertility is running out.”

Even though the system hadn’t given any warnings and the crop timers looked fine, he figured Rawr Rawr Rabbit’s instincts were probably more accurate.

They’d been harvesting crop after crop for a while now.

He had used bean dregs, potato skins, and dead leaves to make organic fertilizer. Rawr Rawr Rabbit not only fertilized regularly and grew nitrogen-fixing soybeans, it even let the fields rest for a few days. But even with all that, this small plot of land couldn’t sustain such high output forever.

As for why the system hadn’t flagged the soil or why this round of cotton was still thriving—Chu Jiu suspected that was thanks to Rawr Rawr Rabbit’s skills.

After hearing the explanation, Rawr Rawr Rabbit panicked even more—its ears literally tied into a knot.

“Rawr Rawr Rawr what do we do?! We can’t open up any new fields right now and this is the cotton you worked so hard to bring back ahhhh…!”

Chu Jiu gently started untying the knot in Rawr Rawr Rabbit’s ears while saying, “Rawr Rawr Rabbit, don’t panic. The elders in the village already have their cotton quilts.”

“And once this harvest is in, I think there’ll be enough cotton left for the kids to have quilts too.”

“Our storage is full—we’ve got more than enough food now. Even if we don’t plant anything new for a while, we’ll still eat well through winter.”

“As for restoring the soil’s fertility… I have an idea. It might help the land ‘come back to life.’”

At that moment, Little Can poked its paw out from Chu Jiu’s shoulder and gave Rawr Rawr Rabbit a reassuring pat on the head.

“There will be a way.”

Rawr Rawr Rabbit’s ears twitched, and it looked up at Chu Jiu with wide, hopeful eyes. “Rawr!”