Fields of gold

Chapter 276- 280

Chapter 276 – Lie Out of Necessity

Yu Xiaocao looked at the not yet ready corn growing in the fields. Her eyebrows came together in a deep frown. If the plague of locusts came, then everything here would be hard-pressed to escape. The corn still needed about a month's worth of growth before it was ready to harvest. If the plants were harmed by the locusts, then their losses would be inestimable.

The family's economic damage wasn't even their first concern. The imperial courts and the young royal prince were ardently hoping for this crop of corn to go well as they only had a small subset of fields growing corn in the capital. In the future, the plan was to slowly push out this crop to the whole nation, especially the northern and northwestern parts of the country. Those areas truly needed a high-yielding crop that wasn't picky about the soil.

Now back to her family's concerns. Ten mu had all been planted with corn. If all of that was destroyed, then all the work they had done for a season would be gone! Yu Xiaocao reckoned that the emperor, whose policies had always helped the commoners, would not have their family plant these crops for the court in vain. He would very likely buy this corn back from them at a high price to be used as seeds later.

Yu Xiaocao wasn't able to guarantee anything else, but she was pretty sure that there was no one in this era who was better at raising crops than her. Although the officials in the capital had her growing methods, this was still the first year they were growing corn. How could they compete with her years of experience with raising corn in her past life? That being said, the mystic-stone water in her hands was more effective than any other fertilizer. Corn watered by it produced large ears of corn that were incredibly delicious. Other people couldn't even dream of growing corn like hers!

The young royal prince had also said that once the bumper harvest of corn was done, he wanted to help them get a reward. The things that the emperor would give them not only would have a lot of glory attached to them, but they would also be incredibly valuable.

In short, if they encountered the locust swarm, her family's losses would be disastrous! That wouldn't work, she needed to think up an idea to contain their losses to a minimum. "Little Divine Stone, do you know when the locust swarm will arrive here?" Yu Xiaocao inhaled a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

The little divine stone's consciousness was linked with hers so it could detect that she was feeling quite uneasy. It became serious to fit the mood, [From what the birds were telling me, they should be about two days away by flight.]

That wasn't too bad. At least they had about two days of time to think of something to do against these locusts before they arrived. Didn't the little divine stone have the ability to ripen plants faster? Starting from today, they needed to harvest however much corn they could get their hands on!

When Yu Hai came by with a bucket of water for irrigation, Yu Xiaocao quickly stepped forward to bring him over to the side. She carefully looked around and mysteriously pulled Yu Hai to a secluded area.

Yu Hai noticed that his daughter had a very serious demeanor and there were some hints of anxiety leaking out of her. He repeatedly asked, "Cao'er, what's wrong? What's going on??"

"Father, do you believe that our world has gods that warn us through our dreams?" Yu Xiaocao pretended to be extremely nervous as she quietly asked him.

Yu Hai remembered that two years ago Xiaocao had hit her head open, she had said that she had toured the underworld. Furthermore, she had even talked to beings that resembled King of Hell and the God of Wealth. Perhaps, his youngest daughter had met another god?

"I believe ah! What's going on? You dreamt of the gods?" Yu Hai nervously stared at his youngest daughter. His youngest daughter was clever beyond her age. Some of the village elders even said that she was the reincarnation of an immortal child from the heavens and thought that she wouldn't reach adulthood before the heavens would descend down and take her back. Perhaps...