Farming to Defy My Fate 24

Chapter 24: A Bayberry-Flavored Kiss

“Alright, the temperature has completely dropped,” Liu Huan said excitedly, touching the wall of the long kiln with one hand.

Then, the seventy-plus villagers who had participated in building the long kiln and making the greenware all came up to touch it, then nodded in unison. “We can open the kiln.”

Seeing their bustling activity, Zhao An also felt very excited. Although the construction of their long kiln was very crude—they had only found two men in the village who knew how to build stoves to act as masters, and then, following the blueprint he provided, they found a suitable small hillside behind the mountain, dug a trench, and built a simple kiln mouth with yellow mud—it was still an achievement.

If they were firing porcelain, they should have used firebricks to build the kiln, but Zhaojia Village didn’t have such good conditions. They only had their strength. Fortunately, they just wanted to fire some bricks, and a dozen or so flower pots they had tried to make.

So, each family that wanted to get free bricks and tiles sent one person. Following Zhao An’s instructions, they were divided into four groups: one group was responsible for building the kiln, the second for digging yellow mud, the third for making bricks, and the fourth for chopping firewood. It only took one day to complete all the preparatory work. They spent another three days using a bonfire to dry the kiln and the large pieces of firewood. When the greenware bricks and the kiln were dry, they started the firing.

Then they spent a whole day firing the kiln. Zhao An had dealt with fire-elemental ability users before and knew that the closer the color of the flame was to blue-violet, the higher the temperature, followed by white, with orange-red being the lowest. Although he had spent a long time drying the firewood, there was no better coal to use, so the kiln fire only reached a slightly whitish color.

But they were only firing some bricks. As long as the temperature could reach eight hundred degrees, it would be hot enough for firing pottery, so he wasn’t very worried.

Therefore, before opening the kiln, although he was a little agitated inside, he could still maintain a calm expression on his face. He said to the excited villagers, “Everyone, step back a little. Let the first group be responsible for opening the kiln.”

Fearing they might damage the newly built kiln with their clumsy hands, everyone quickly retreated to the side as Zhao An had instructed. Then, a dozen or so able-bodied men and women walked out from the crowd to the front of the kiln to open the kiln, which was sealed with stones.

After the first bluestone slab was removed, a wave of hot air still drifted out with the dust, dispersing the cool morning breeze and making everyone cough.

But the members of the first group, holding torches, wiped the black ash from their faces and quickly moved closer to the kiln to look. Everyone else followed suit and saw that the dozen or so flower pots placed at the very edge seemed to be intact. Someone immediately cheered, “It worked! It worked!”

Hearing this, Zhao An’s mood couldn’t help but become cheerful. The calm expression on his face could no longer be maintained, and a big smile appeared. But after a moment of joy, he stopped himself from trying to go forward to join the excitement and said loudly, “Alright, hurry up and get to work. The rest of you, line up. We’ll go in and move the bricks out in a moment.”

The villagers, who were about to rush forward upon hearing the cheers, quickly stopped and lined up as Zhao An had trained them in the past few days. Having followed Zhao An’s instructions for the past few days, they had become accustomed to obeying his commands.

As for those who didn’t obey, those who deliberately caused trouble were sent home, and those who occasionally made mistakes couldn’t expect to eat meat for lunch.

That’s right, when Zhao An was building the kiln, he indeed hadn’t spent much money or labor. But he had still spent a large sum of money to buy two pigs, and every day at noon and in the evening, he had Hai Bo and Qin Tong, who had returned from the prefectural city, cook for the working villagers.

So now, his words were more effective than those of the old scholar village head of the Zhao family and the clan head of the Liu family. The people from Zhao Tongming’s family didn’t even dare to appear in front of him anymore.

So, after the people responsible for opening the kiln door had moved all the stones away, someone came to Zhao An to ask for his command. “Young Master Zhao, can we start moving them now?”

Zhao An said, “Go ahead. Bring those flower pots to me first. Stack the bricks in the empty space where the firewood was before.”

Liu Huan brought the flower pots. His third son, Liu Guijin, was also in the brick-moving team. He usually just helped Zhao An manage things, so he figured no one would dare to say behind his back that he was using bricks and tiles without contributing labor and taking advantage of the villagers.

Those few flower pots were made by Zhao An himself. Because he didn’t have the professional potter’s wheel, he had made the pots by rolling yellow mud into long strips and coiling them up. Although his hands were skilled enough, the final products were still a bit uneven in thickness. But they were good enough for holding strawberry seedlings.

Of course, he hadn’t entirely counted on the flower pots made by the villagers themselves to be ready for this urgent need, so he had still asked Feng Shaoping to urge the professional potters in the city to work day and night.

Fortunately, that Eunuch Xu was just as Feng Shaoping had said, completely immersed in the land of pleasure. One day he would watch a play, the next listen to music, and the day after take beautiful scholars on a boat trip on the mountain stream to enjoy the scenery. In short, he seemed to have forgotten the purpose of his trip to Changxi County and never once urged Zhao An and the others to prepare the strawberry seedlings for him.

“This is my father’s skill. Otherwise, as a mere tribute student who started out as an eighth-rank instructor, he relied on his ability to flatter his superiors to climb step by step to the position of county magistrate,” Feng Shaoping said, sitting in the watchtower of Daqing Stronghold, drinking wine and badmouthing his own father to Hu Sheng.

Hu Sheng’s sharp gaze pierced through the small window of the wooden house, looking at the boat on the distant stream. The sound of string and bamboo instruments drifted through the mountains, reaching his ears as only a faint echo.

“Someone close to Shang Xiqing said that he has been secretly painting portraits of Zhao Qingcheng. This sister of Ah An’s is truly something strange. It seems that all men who have seen her are attracted to her,” Hu Sheng, who had been listening silently to Feng Shaoping’s complaints, suddenly spoke, but it was about a completely unrelated matter.

Feng Shaoping’s attention was indeed drawn away by Hu Sheng’s words. But from this short sentence, he had a lot to say. First was the intimate “Ah An,” then the strangeness of Zhao Qingcheng. Then he thought very practically, “His Majesty the Emperor has never been lenient with those who covet the noble consort. Should we find a way to bring this matter to his attention?”

Hu Sheng shook his head. “Shang Xiqing is returning to the capital with the merit of having greatly defeated the Xiongnu. With Li Xiuye’s narrow-mindedness, he is already on a dead-end path. I just want to ask you to help contact the people from the capital, take Zhao Tongming’s entire family to the capital with them, and hand them over to Shang Meijing.”

Feng Shaoping immediately gave Hu Sheng a thumbs-up. “You’re the ruthless one. You want the entire Shang family to be executed, and at the same time, you can help your little lover vent his anger.”

Hu Sheng smiled and said nothing.

Shang Meijing had been very competitive since she was young, her methods even more formidable than her brother Shang Xiqing’s. But even such a woman had not been able to defeat Zhao Qingcheng in the palace. In the past, this matter had surprised him. It was only after he met Zhao An that he suddenly felt it wasn’t so surprising after all.

No matter what thousand methods and ten thousand schemes Shang Meijing used, she might not be able to win Li Xiuye’s love. This was what the Buddhists called “the suffering of not getting what one desires.”

And he had already fallen in love with Zhao An and was willing to do anything for him, no matter how insignificant.

Feng Shaoping might think that he was just helping Zhao An solve his troubles as a matter of convenience, but he knew his own feelings. The fundamental reason he had arranged all this was to stir up conflict in the capital, to lance the long-existing boil, so that Zhao Qingcheng and Li Xiuye would no longer have time to pay attention to Zhao An.

Otherwise, they already knew that Zhao An had grown strawberries. No matter what decision they made, it would be detrimental to Zhao An.

To others, Zhao Qingcheng was a peerless beauty, but from the information Hu Sheng had gathered, she was a living disaster for Zhao An.

Zhao An also knew deeply that he and Zhao Qingcheng were probably incompatible. So, after all the strawberry seedlings were potted and he went to see Eunuch Xu off, when the eunuch asked if he had any message or letter for the noble consort, he only said, “Please ask the Eunuch to send my regards to Her Ladyship, the Noble Consort.”

When the emperor learned that the people from the Imperial Household Department had returned from Changxi County, he specially sent someone to inquire. When he learned that Zhao An had only sent his regards to Zhao Qingcheng and not a single other word, he finally gave up his plan to arrange for secret guards to see Zhao An off.

Because this person was too restless. He had already exiled him a thousand miles away, yet he could still come up with strawberries to try to attract Qingcheng’s attention.

After dismissing the people from the Imperial Household Department, Li Xiuye went to the rear palace with a smile. “Qingcheng, look. These are the strawberries that are being praised to the heavens outside. How do they taste?”

Zhao Qingcheng ate a freshly picked strawberry. It was a bit sour, but the aroma was overwhelming, and the color was very pink and lovely, perfect for her current pregnancy. But the expression on her face remained faint, like a jade carving of a beauty. “Not bad.”

Li Xiuye was used to Zhao Qingcheng’s icy demeanor in his presence. He said in a reproachful tone, “This was discovered by your brother, yet he didn’t think to send some to you, his older sister, out of concern. And you still think about him all day long. What a thankless wretch.”

Zhao Qingcheng had actually heard similar things from the people below, but they didn’t dare to openly criticize Zhao An. Now, hearing Li Xiuye say this, her brows furrowed slightly. “How is Ah An doing?”

“He’s doing very well. One day he bullies this person, the next day that one. Relying on your status as a noble consort, he beat up your cousin and even let a vicious wolf bite off your cousin’s son’s leg,” Li Xiuye said as if he were genuinely criticizing a troublemaking little brother-in-law.

Zhao Qingcheng’s tears indeed fell, crystal clear teardrops rolling down her white cheeks. “Your Majesty, how could he be like this? How could he?”

She seemed to have forgotten that the reason Zhao An was sent back to his hometown was because he was implicated when she secretly ran away from the palace. And the character of her brother versus that of her cousin’s family—who would bully whom?

But all the people serving her were sent by Li Xiuye. They spoke ill of Zhao An in her ear every day. It seemed that the change in her impression of her brother couldn’t be entirely blamed on her.

Li Xiuye held the person in his arms tightly, a smile of accomplishment on his face. He patted Zhao Qingcheng’s back. “Fortunately, your cousin’s family has been brought back to the capital by the people from the Imperial Household Department. You can take good care of them in the future. As for Zhao An, he definitely won’t dare to step out of Changxi County without my decree. He’s in that small place. Even if he causes some trouble, it’s of no consequence. For your sake, I will ensure he lives a life of peace and wealth.”

Zhao An, however, was unaware of what was happening in the capital. Ever since Eunuch Xu left with the strawberry seedlings, he had thrown himself into the matter of the kiln.

The kiln he was firing now was, of course, not the initial, most rudimentary brick and tile kiln, but a brand-new kiln built with firebricks to fire ceramic pipes. He was preparing to take advantage of the fact that the villagers were all repairing their houses to renovate his old house and install a bathroom and a drainage system at the same time.

He had no choice. As time went on and summer arrived, going to the toilet had become an ordeal, with the pungent smell and the flies buzzing everywhere. Bathing was also a hassle, so he was now very nostalgic for some modern facilities, even if it was just a simple squat toilet and a shower.

For this, he had spared no expense, poaching the master craftsmen from the Zhang and Wang families to help him make ceramic pipes. But making a squat toilet and shower was not as simple as he had imagined. The trouble lay in the bends and joints. Fortunately, the grapes and silver ear fungus he had recently force-grown could all be sold at a good price; otherwise, he would have been on the verge of bankruptcy.

He was so busy all day that his time for romance was greatly compressed. Not to mention the boast he had made before about learning martial arts from Hu Sheng, which had been completely thrown to the back of his mind.

Of course, his love life was not completely without progress. As Zhao An watched the people seal the fire mouth of the kiln, he looked at the round moon in the sky and thought with a sweet feeling, The day before yesterday, Hu Sheng brought a basket of bayberries to see me. My lips were stained with the red juice of the bayberries. When Hu Sheng helped me wipe the corner of my mouth, I secretly licked his finger. Our eyes met, and we exchanged a bayberry-flavored kiss.

A little sour, a little sweet. As time went on, the aftertaste became sweeter and sweeter. Unfortunately, the sound of little Qin Tong coming through the door with a bundle of firewood broke the intimacy between them.

And Hu Sheng also had many things to attend to and couldn’t stay by his side every day. After Hu Sheng left that night, he hadn’t appeared again. Zhao An touched his gradually reddening cheeks, feeling a little nostalgic.

Perhaps people just can’t stand being missed. After Zhao An returned home, he was pleasantly surprised to find Hu Sheng already sitting at the table, waiting. Zhao An quickened his pace and walked to his side, wanting to ask him what he had been doing these past few days. But unexpectedly, Hu Sheng suddenly asked, “How much money do you have?”

Zhao An was a little confused. “Do you want to borrow money? I still have twelve liang of silver here.” When he sold the strawberry seedlings, the village had given him a total of three hundred liang of silver, but he had used it all to hire workers and even helped them build a brick and tile dormitory.

Hu Sheng shook his head and, as if he had expected it, took out a hundred liang of silver and placed it on the table. “The price of grain is going to rise. Go and buy some to store.”