Chapter 7
“Plant who?”
“Rice seedling…?”
“Who is the seedling?”
“Rice planting, is it the rice planting I’m thinking of?!”
“That’s it, I’ve got it!” Lü Bu shouted, clapping his hands in realization.
The other students immediately looked at him expectantly.
Lü Bu declared confidently, “It must be—Shang Yang!! That Shang Yang from Class Eight! The Disciplinary Committee Member! I’ve never liked him, and it seems Teacher Xue doesn’t either. Don’t worry, we’ll get him!”
The other students: …
Yang Guang rolled his eyes. “Has the brilliant and resourceful God of War General ever considered why the teacher would bring us to the era of the Chu-Han Contention to plant rice?! Shang Yang has been dead for eight hundred years.”
Lü Bu paused, taking a full five seconds to process this. During those five seconds, only the wind and the crackling fire could be heard. He mumbled, “Yeah, why?”
The other students: …
Xue Changyi kindly explained, “Rice planting is just… rice planting. This field trip is designed to cultivate your perseverance and endurance, and to experience the hardships of the mortal world. I hope that after returning to the academy, you can study with peace of mind, dedication, and focus.”
Liu Bang frowned. “Teacher Xue, was it necessary to choose this particular place for the field trip?”
Xiang Yu grumbled, “Yeah.”
Xue Changyi retorted, “What? Isn’t this the very stage where you two students once made your mark? Are you afraid to revisit it now…?”
“Afraid?!” Xiang Yu laughed disdainfully. “Haha!! I, Xiang Yu, have never known fear. Only cowards are afraid!”
He emphasized the word “coward” while looking pointedly at Liu Bang, the meaning clear.
“Very well,” Xue Changyi’s cold expression was like frost, as if he were telling a chilling joke. “Everyone should learn from Xiang Yu. This is the kind of proactive and striving attitude we need.”
The other students: …
“Teacher Xue, I’m not…” Xiang Yu started to object.
Xue Changyi raised an eyebrow. “Afraid?”
Xiang Yu glared. “Impossible!”
Xue Changyi: “If you don’t plant rice, then you’re afraid.”
Xiang Yu: “Who’s afraid?! Fine, it’s just rice planting, right? I’ll do it!”
Xue Changyi smiled. “Good boy, Xiang Yu.”
Xiang Yu: “…???” Huh? How did I agree to plant rice? That’s weird…
Liu Bang: “…”
Yang Guang rolled his eyes dramatically. “Teacher Xue, do you know how many emperors there are in Class Nine? Making us emperors plant rice, you’re either crazy or still asleep!”
Xue Changyi turned to Yang Jian. “Yang Jian, do you feel the same way?”
Yang Guang immediately put on a sweet smile. “Father, I’m just worried about you! You are the founding emperor, a man of great achievements. How can you do such menial work?”
Yang Jian said, “Guang’er, you are mistaken. Although I am a founding emperor, I have also known hardship. I understand the suffering of farmers, especially… the farmers struggling to survive during wartime. They are the ones who cultivate the land and provide food for the world. How can you call it menial work?”
“Yes, yes!” Yang Guang nodded obediently. “Father is right.”
In front of Yang Jian, Yang Guang was as docile as a kitten. This was a conditioned reflex developed over years of being a crown prince.
Yang Jian continued, “In my opinion, Teacher Xue’s field trip is quite reasonable. It allows us to step out of the classroom, beyond textbook knowledge, and cultivate Guang’er’s character. I fully approve.”
Xue Changyi chuckled softly, whispering to Yang Guang, “Yang Guang, don’t forget, my three fires haven’t all been lit yet. Be careful not to get burned.”
Yang Guang: “…”
Yang Guang gritted his teeth, forcing out the words, “Since Father has said so, I suddenly find this rice-planting field trip very… very meaningful.”
“Other students,” Xue Changyi clapped his hands gently, drawing their attention. “Any other objections?”
Xiang Yu had been tricked, and Yang Guang, the master manipulator, had been forced to agree. The other students were smart. If they disagreed with the field trip, they would just be tricked again by Teacher Xue. Were they addicted to being tricked or something?
“Good,” Xue Changyi said. “Since no one has any objections, I’ll announce the rules and precautions for this field trip.”
“Rules?”
“What rules are there for planting rice?”
“Just plant it!”
Xue Changyi said softly, “You will be paired according to your student numbers. Adjacent numbers will form mutual help and support learning groups.”
“Mutual help and support?”
“Learning groups?”
Xue Changyi continued, “This field trip will be graded by group. It will last for two days, and outstanding groups will receive a little red flower each day.”
Xiang Yu counted on his fingers for a long time. “Why do we have to team up based on student numbers? I don’t want to be in the same group as Liu Bang, that hypocrite! Teacher, I protest!”
Xue Changyi: “Protest denied.”
Xiang Yu: “…”
Li Bai asked, “What are the little red flowers for? What if we don’t get one?”
“If you don’t get a little red flower…” Xue Changyi smiled. “You don’t get to eat.”
The students were stunned for a moment. No food? Then they all breathed a sigh of relief.
The students of Class Nine were not ordinary people. They had been in the Underworld for hundreds, even thousands, of years. With their experience and cultivation, even with the electronic shackles limiting their spiritual energy, they could easily withstand skipping a meal or two. They weren’t as “delicate” as ordinary humans.
Xue Changyi seemed to see through their thoughts, and his black sleeves billowed.
Whoosh—!
A gust of wind blew, carrying burning ashes towards them.
Xue Changyi nodded. “You now have the hunger pangs of ordinary humans, perhaps even more sensitive than ordinary humans.”
“Hunger pangs?”
“Why am I suddenly… so hungry?!”
“I was so focused on revising my essay, I haven’t eaten since yesterday!”
Clap, clap!
Xue Changyi clapped his hands. “Alright, class, let’s begin the field trip. Remember… group activity, mutual help and support!”
“Teacher! Teacher Xue! Let’s discuss this again, I don’t want to be in the same group as Liu Bang!”
“Rice planting? How do you even do that? Are there any instructions?”
“I remember Liu Bang’s father was a farmer. Liu Bang! Liu Bang, be in my group!”
In the hazy landscape, the students of Class Nine were in chaos, running around like headless chickens, clueless and disorganized.
Xiang Yu stood with his hands on his hips at the edge of the dilapidated ditch, pointing at Liu Bang indignantly. “Making me team up with you, a hypocrite? Over my dead body!”
Liu Bang smiled good-naturedly. “Ah Yu, you don’t know how to farm anyway. Just stand there. I’ll plant the rice, and I guarantee you’ll get a little red flower today so you can eat.”
Xiang Yu rolled his eyes. “Hmph, as if I care!”
“Brother, brother! What is rice planting? Jiao’er doesn’t know how to plant rice…”
“Li Bai, move! Why are you just standing there like a statue?”
“This Poet Immortal is suddenly inspired to write a poem… Pity the Farmer!”
“Shut up, who has time for poetry recitation while farming?”
“Has anyone seen my hoe? Who took our group’s hoe—!!”
“You call that a hoe? It’s not even as good as my Fangtian Huaji!”
“Stop! Are you hoeing the field or digging a grave???”
A day wasn’t long, and for most of Class Nine, this was their first experience with farming. They fumbled around, and time quickly passed. Soon, the sky darkened, and the ditch was a mess, hoes scattered about, looking more desolate than a battlefield.
Only a few crooked seedlings stood in the water, planted by Liu Bang, who managed to plant two based on his vague memories, just for show.
Xue Changyi, holding his black oil-paper umbrella to shield himself from the setting sun, strolled over, looked around, and raised an eyebrow. “Group Three, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, you may receive a little red flower. Exchange it for food. The rest, no food.”
“Ah—”
“Teacher! We’re starving!”
“Mmm! Brother, Jiao’er’s tummy is hungry! I want candied gourd!”
“Great,” Liu Bang smiled. “Ah Yu, let’s go eat. Are you hungry?”
Xiang Yu, who had been squatting on the ridge of the ditch, jumped up. “I, Xiang Yu, will not accept handouts! I’d rather starve than accept your hypocritical charity!”
“Teacher!” Xiang Yu said. “You said earlier that it’s group-based. If someone in the group slacks off, will the group’s little red flower be revoked?”
Xue Changyi nodded. “The purpose of mutual help and support groups is to foster teamwork. If someone slacks off, the entire group will be punished, and yes, the little red flower will be revoked.”
Xiang Yu said proudly and gleefully, “I! I’m reporting! Group Three! I’ve been slacking off the whole time. It was all Liu Bang! I did nothing! I’ve been squatting here the whole time!”
“Ah Yu!” Liu Bang tugged at his sleeve.
Xiang Yu ignored him. “Teacher, shouldn’t the little red flower be taken back? Group Three shouldn’t get any food either!”
Xue Changyi extended his pale hand and took back the little red flower he had offered. “Xiang Yu’s report is valid. No group receives a little red flower today. No food for anyone today.”
Xiang Yu: “Yay!”
Liu Bang: “…”
Lü Bu was surprised. “Lao Xiang, are you stupid? You won’t get to eat either!”
Lü Bu shook his head. “Harming the enemy eight hundred, while harming yourself a thousand.”
Xue Changyi announced, “Rest for today. Work resumes tomorrow at the Tiger Hour. I hope everyone can earn a little red flower tomorrow.”
“Tiger Hour?”
“Waking up so early again?”
“I’m so hungry, I don’t have any strength left. I haven’t been this hungry in eight hundred years…”
Liu Bang sighed. “Ah Yu, why did you do that? Now you won’t get to eat either.”
“Mind your own business!” Xiang Yu sneered. “You can have all the fake kindness to yourself!”
With that, he stalked off towards a small mound nearby.
The mound was barren, with nothing but rubble and a black oil-paper umbrella. Xue Changyi stood on the mound, gazing at the flickering lights in the extreme distance.
“Those aren’t the lights of a thousand homes,” Xue Changyi murmured. “That’s the karmic fire of burning fields.”
“Chu land today—Han land tomorrow—Year after year, buried bones—Dreams of millet—”
A childish voice rang out. The children they had seen earlier, barefoot, humming the song, climbed up the mound.
“Huh? Someone’s here!” A child pointed at Xue Changyi and Xiang Yu.
Xiang Yu was surprised. “It’s so late, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you home? Where are your parents?”
The child blinked his big eyes. “Home? Our home and fields were burned.”
Xiang Yu fell silent.
The child continued, “My parents are taking me and my sisters away from here, to find a safer place to live. This is where my sisters and I often play, so we sneaked out to take one last look! Shh—Big brother, don’t tell my parents!”
Xiang Yu remained silent.
Rumble—Rumble!!
His stomach growled loudly.
Preoccupied with revising his essay, and having little sense of hunger in the Underworld, eating was mostly for pleasure. Xiang Yu hadn’t eaten since yesterday, and now, having gone without food for two whole days, the hunger was gnawing at him.
“Big brother?” The child tilted his head, pulling out a broken, crumbly piece of hardtack from his pocket. It was so hard it could be used as a murder weapon in a TV drama!
“Here!” The child extended his skinny hand. “Big brother, you must be hungry! This is the food I saved, for you! But… there’s only this much left. Don’t dislike it, big brother!”
Xiang Yu’s throat bobbed, and he said hoarsely, “I’m not hungry… and I don’t deserve it.”
The child didn’t understand. He jumped up. “Oh no, big brother, we have to go back now. This is for you!”
The child stuffed the hardtack into Xiang Yu’s hand and, pulling his sisters along, hurried away.
“Teacher Xue…” Xiang Yu’s voice, carried by the dark, chaotic wind, sounded surreal and dejected. “How… how do you plant rice? Can you teach me?”
Xue Changyi turned to Xiang Yu, his gaze peaceful, and softly said, “Have you ever heard this poem?”
Swish!
As dark clouds obscured the moonlight, the black oil-paper umbrella suddenly transformed into a black guqin.
Fifty strings.
Xue Changyi placed the guqin on the ground, sat down, and his pale fingertips gently plucked the strings…
Zheng—
A mournful melody, accompanied by a soft song, drifted across the barren mound:
“Planting rice seedlings in the paddy field,
With head bowed, I see the sky reflected in the water.
Six senses purified, the path to enlightenment,
A step back is actually a step forward…”
