Chapter 7: Sending a Photo to an Ancient Netizen
The next day, the morning class was martial instruction.
As soon as the instructor said they would practice in pairs, pairs of vicious eyes shot toward Chen Bai, the blades in their hands flashing coldly.
However, someone suddenly flicked a saber over until it landed in front of Chen Bai.
Chen Bai glanced at Qi Zheng.
At least he was keeping his promise. This way, he would not have to face anyone else.
“Looks like Chen Zixiu really offended Prince Zheng. Yesterday, he got dragged out and scolded.”
“Exactly. And now he’s been pulled into sparring.”
Chen Bai could not be bothered with any of that. He picked up the saber and began going through the motions of sparring with Qi Zheng.
Only, the saber in his hand was sent flying with a swish.
“That’s it? And you fight people every day?” Qi Zheng raised an eyebrow and said.
Chen Bai: “…”
Damn it. So what if this was all he had? Hadn’t he still never lost despite fighting every day? His desk might have been chopped apart several times, but he had smashed plenty of other people’s benches too.
The surrounding students watched with great excitement.
“As expected, he’s being taught a lesson. Good.”
“He runs away every day after class. He might escape the first day, but can he escape the fifteenth?”
Chen Bai’s face darkened. He picked up the saber again and glanced at Qi Zheng. “I still have to go to the fields on behalf of Mountain Lord to help you check the potatoes. When I go back, whether I tell the truth or not depends entirely on my mouth.”
“It’s just normal sparring. Can you blame anyone else if your opponent is too weak?”
Until the morning lesson ended, Chen Bai was still cursing inwardly. He might as well have picked a weaker one among his classmates to spar with from the start. Then he would not have been abused for the entire morning.
At this moment, Qi Zheng’s voice came over. “We’re going to the fields this afternoon. I requested leave for you.”
Chen Bai thought going to the fields was fine too. The afternoon class was mounted archery, and there would probably be no shortage of people looking for trouble.
At noon, even while eating, Qi Zheng stood nearby and waited.
Chen Xiaobu raised his little head and looked left and right. Then, after a great internal struggle, he picked out two pieces of chicken and placed them into Qi Zheng’s food box.
Prince Zheng must want to eat his chicken. Otherwise, why had no one else come close, yet only he kept standing beside them?
Qi Zheng paused, then gave Chen Xiaobu a few pieces of pastry from the imperial kitchen that he had brought.
Chen Bai was utterly bewildered. What was going on?
Qi Zheng ate the chicken and could not help but pause.
Chen Bai also tried the so-called pastries from the imperial kitchen. In truth, the flavor was decent. It was just too rich to eat as a meal.
After lunch, Chen Bai gave Chen Xiaobu some instructions, telling him to take the Tingwei Office’s carriage back by himself after school.
Beside them, Prince Yao and Prince Dao moved closer to Qi Zheng. “Imperial Brother, was the chicken good? With the weather this hot, hasn’t it already gone bad?”
Everyone around them pricked up their ears.
At noon, they could only eat dry and greasy pastries, yet Young Master Bai brought Chen Xiaobu every day to gnaw on chicken meat.
The key was Chen Xiaobu. While chewing chicken, his little mouth would babble on and on, saying things like it had been marinated with thirty-two spices, and that just looking at it would make people drool. Even if they did not want to know, they could not help hearing it.
Qi Zheng was expressionless. “One bite, and the flavor of thirty-two spices…”
Gulp. The sound of people secretly swallowing their saliva filled the air.
Unfortunately, they fought with Chen Bai every day, so they could not bring themselves to ask for any.
Before, they had still held on to the hope that it must not be tasty and that he had merely been bragging.
How were they supposed to endure from now on?
Looking at the pastries in their own food boxes, they could not swallow them no matter what.
That afternoon, Chen Bai got into Qi Zheng’s carriage and headed outside the city.
Inside the carriage, the atmosphere was rather awkward. Speaking of which, the two of them had never interacted much before. Their personalities did not match either. Now, it was even more impossible for them to have any common topic.
In the past, both Chen Bai and Qi Zheng had felt that the other was not someone on the same road as them.
Chen Bai simply looked out the window and began admiring the scenery.
As the carriage moved outward, Chen Bai saw more and more refugees dressed in rags.
He could not help asking, “Where are we going?”
Qi Zheng answered, “My fief.”
Once a prince established his own residence, he would be granted a fief. This was the imperial custom.
From the looks of it, the fief should not be far from Shangjing. In that case, it should be a good place.
But when they arrived, Chen Bai fell silent.
If he remembered correctly, this place was specially used to settle refugees who had fled famine.
It was all hills overgrown with weeds. The land area was not small, but there was very little farmland.
On top of that, they were all refugees. Once the disaster back in their hometowns eased, they might return. There were not even any fixed subjects.
It seemed the rumors were true. Prince Zheng was not favored by the king.
However, Chen Bai still said, “Actually, it’s not bad.”
It was close to Shangjing. On this point alone, it was already incomparable to other places.
And there were so many hills covered in wild grass. If this were modern times, how much would it cost to rent so many hills?
As for the refugees, as long as he allowed them to live better here than in their hometowns, they would naturally be willing to stay.
Qi Zheng gave a cold snort, probably thinking Chen Bai was mocking him.
Chen Bai was brought to some farmland between two hills.
The fields were full of potatoes that had already rotted.
Chen Bai took one look and knew where the problem lay.
Potatoes were indeed very easy to grow. For this situation to occur, the issue was that Qi Zheng had ordered people to plant them with too much care.
They had probably treated them like millet and watered them too much. On top of that, these fields were between two hills, so the water could not evaporate properly.
Potatoes were, after all, cut open for sprouting. In other words, they had wounds. Without anti-rot treatment, once there was too much water, of course they would rot.
In truth, if Qi Zheng had merely ordered people to bury the potatoes in the ground and leave them alone, the result would not have been this.
Qi Zheng watched Chen Bai in the field, standing on tiptoe for fear of stepping into the mud.
Had this Young Master Bai even looked carefully? Would he be able to explain the situation clearly to that demon when he returned?
There were not many fields. It did not take long to finish looking. Chen Bai turned to Qi Zheng, meaning that they could go back now.
Qi Zheng said in a low voice, “Look more carefully.”
Chen Bai: “…”
What was there to look at? It was just several fields full of rotten potatoes.
Chen Bai got into the carriage, and Qi Zheng followed with an icy expression. Inwardly, he thought, as expected, young people were unreliable. Could he really see anything after only a few glances?
By the time Chen Bai returned to the Tingwei Office, it was already evening, because Qi Zheng had insisted on having the coachman drive around those fields again and again.
After Chen Bai returned to the residence, he called over a servant and asked, “Has the young master returned?”
The servant answered, “He has returned on time.”
Only then did Chen Bai relax. In the past, he had always brought Chen Xiaobu back home with him.
After returning to his room, Chen Bai took out his phone. Sure enough, Qi Zheng had sent quite a few garbled messages again.
He did not immediately pay attention to him. Although he had spent most of the afternoon in the carriage, the weather had gradually turned hot, and he had sweated quite a bit. He needed to take a bath.
He had someone send bathwater into the room.
Chen Bai, wearing only shorts, soaked in the bathtub. Only then did he pick up his phone and start a video call.
Qi Zheng had long been waiting. To be honest, he had been waiting so long that he was growing impatient, his mind filled with thoughts about whether Young Master Bai had explained everything clearly to the demon.
As soon as the video connected, Qi Zheng’s brows furrowed.
This shameless demon was becoming more and more outrageous. At least before, he had still worn clothes. Now he was actually directly in a bath barrel.
Had he finished undergoing his tribulation and was preparing to start seducing sturdy men again?
Incorrigible. Absolutely indecent.
Chen Bai was soaking in the bath very comfortably, and even his voice was lazy. “Young Master Bai has already told me the situation. Your planting method was wrong.”
Qi Zheng’s face was dark. “Didn’t you say it could survive no matter how it was planted and that it didn’t care about the land?”
Chen Bai replied, “Yes, it can survive no matter how it is planted. But was what you did ‘no matter how’? You cared for it too diligently and watered it too much. You drowned the potatoes.”
Qi Zheng: “…The sowing season is almost over. What should be done now?”
Chen Bai laughed. “I asked you to ensure Young Master Bai had no worries. Good for you. Others stopped bullying him, and you personally took over. Now you’re asking me? I don’t have any solution either.”
Qi Zheng: “…”
Young Master Bai had actually complained?
Wasn’t it only that during martial class he had knocked the saber out of his hand a few times and said a couple of lines about him having no skill yet still fighting all day?
He could not even hold a saber properly. Was that Qi Zheng’s fault?
How petty. He had no manly bearing at all.
“Give me some more potatoes. As for Young Master Bai, I will make sure he is satisfied.”
Chen Bai thought about it. Having a prince act as his bodyguard could not be compared to just a little bit of potatoes. Right now, he truly needed a shield like this to face all the arrows and injuries coming from outside.
Chen Bai said, “Besides at the academy, if he runs into trouble outside the academy, you also have to ensure he has no worries.”
Qi Zheng: “…”
Was he planning to use him as a house guard?
Young Master Bai was now a trouble magnet. Even if he did not cause trouble, others would go and provoke him.
But in the end, Qi Zheng still nodded.
Chen Bai said, “Then I’ll give you another hundred jin of potatoes.”
Qi Zheng immediately said, “Not enough.”
Chen Bai replied, “It’s only trial planting. Aren’t you about to establish your residence? Just open up a plot of land in your residence and plant them there. One hundred jin is enough.”
Chen Bai was also thinking for himself. If they were planted outside the city and something went wrong, Qi Zheng would come to him again for after-sales service. Where would he get the time to run back and forth all day?
If they opened up a plot in the residence and planted them there, even if something went wrong, it would be easier to inspect.
Chen Bai continued, “How about this? This time, I’ll also include a complete secret manual for planting potatoes.”
Previously, he had only told Qi Zheng how to plant them based on experience. This time, he would search online and organize the information more completely. Then there would not be a situation like this again.
Qi Zheng also thought it over. The trial planting of potatoes was actually being done in secret. Before he presented them to the king, he could not let anyone know. But planting them in such a distant place, with so many people and so much gossip, involved too many uncontrollable factors.
If he could plant them inside his own residence and observe them at all times, of course that would be good.
In the end, they decided on this.
After finishing his bath, Chen Bai began searching online.
A complete manual for planting potatoes.
Then he took paper and brush and began copying it down.
There was no other way. Qi Zheng could not read simplified characters, so he had to convert it once.
Once he finished copying, Chen Bai directly took a photo with his phone and sent it to Qi Zheng.
He opened the video and casually said, “I sent you the file. Open it and read it yourself.”
Qi Zheng: “…”
He was confused. What file?
Could he have heard wrong? Did the demon mean a document?
Seeing Qi Zheng’s expression, Chen Bai also paused. “Anyway, just tap the icon I sent you.”
Then he hung up the call. He was in a decent mood. With a bodyguard like this, he probably would not have to fight people every day anymore, right?
Qi Zheng looked at the stone slab, then tapped one of the strange icons on it.
A picture appeared on the stone slab. It was densely packed with text.
He poked at the picture on the stone slab with his finger again and again, enjoying himself immensely, completely wasting that ice-cold face of his.
“This stone slab is actually this miraculous.”
