Chapter 221 - Beautiful Moons

After asking some laborers to send the iron ores to an earthen kiln outside of the city and making an appointment for the next day, Ren Baqian went to the Department of Agriculture and Livestock to find Ge Yihong. Then, he taught Ge Yihong how the sweet potatoes germinate, how to cultivate them, where they should be planted, and so on and so forth.

Everyone already knew the potential output and the taste of sweet potatoes; therefore, they had no doubt about this new crop. Ren Baqian merely gave them some information to note. He did not need to worry about the rest as everyone already knew what should be done.

Even if every sweet potato could germinate, they could only cultivate them on one hundred mu of land. After more sweet potatoes were cultivated, they could slowly release them onto the market. This would allow the citizens of Dayao to gradually accept sweet potatoes into their diets. After the production of sweet potatoes stabilized, he could teach them the methods of making sweet potato wine, sweet potato fries, etc.

There were also some areas that the Department of Agriculture and Livestock had to take note of. For example, a plot of land that had sweet potatoes planted on it had to be planted with other crops after the sweet potatoes were harvested to avoid exhausting the soil. Also, eating too many sweet potatoes would cause heartburn.

Ren Baqian also brought another two crops to the Department of Agriculture and Livestock. One was potatoes and the other one was pumpkins. The potential output of potatoes was lower than sweet potatoes, having an output of roughly three thousand catties per mu of land. As for pumpkins, their potential output was about the same as potatoes’.

Sweet potatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins had something in common, that was, they had high starch content. They could be eaten as non-staple or staple food. Furthermore, they had high potential output, which made them perfect as staple food.

With these three crops, Ren Baqian could proudly claim that Dayao would no longer face the issue of food scarcity in the future. Ten years later, the food output of the other nations would increase greatly as well. After all, all these nations were situated so near to each other. These crops spread to other nations easily.

Ren Baqian did not consider a potential output of three thousand catties of potatoes to be something amazing. However, when Ge Yihong heard this number, his mouth gaped open without making any sound for a long while. Following which, he faced upwards and burst out laughing, causing the dust collected on the beam of the roof to fall down.

If someone told him there were crops that had a potential output of three thousand catties a few days ago, he would laugh out loud and chase the person away. He would have felt what the person said was complete bullsh*t. However, after he witnessed six thousand catties of sweet potatoes being dug from the ground, he valued anything that Ren Baqian took out.

“Pah!” Ren Baqian swiped off the dust on his head. His entire head and face were covered with dust. The main culprit, Ge Yihong, dodged the dust and appeared beside the door, leaving Ren Baqian alone under the rain of dust.

Even after swiping a huge amount of dust off his body, Ren Baqian did not seem any better. He was so angry that he glared at Ge Yihong. Even though Ge Yihong’s rank was Secondary class, Rank 3 and his rank was Secondary class, Rank 5, he did not fear him at all.

After all, there was a powerful woman behind him.

Ren Baqian agreed fully with the phrase “Behind every successful man there is a woman”. Even though he wasn’t successful, he had an extremely powerful woman behind him.

Ge Yihong did not mind Ren Baqian glaring at him, and his facial expression did not change. Ren Baqian was glaring at him with utmost effort, but he acted as though he never saw it. Instead, he continued to ask Ren Baqian for the cultivation methods of the potatoes and the pumpkins.

Even though Ren Baqian was enraged, he still provided Ge Yihong with all the information he needed. Otherwise, he would need to return here again.

Ren Baqian reminded Ge Yihong of a few important points regarding the potatoes and pumpkins. One important point was that pumpkins couldn’t be consumed together with mutton. And Dayao people often ate mutton.

After giving all the essential information to Ge Yihong, Re Baqian quickly bade him farewell.

“Deputy Prefect Ren, why don’t you come over to the Department of Agriculture and Livestock to work? It just so happens that we are in need of a junior official. Deputy Prefect Ren, you’re perfect for this position.” Ge Yihong still wanted to persuade Ren Baqian to stay. At the doorway, there was a Secondary class, Rank 4 official staring at Ge Yihong with hidden bitterness, resembling a shrew that had been abandoned.

“I’m not interested, goodbye.” Without saying anything else, Ren Baqian immediately left. Until now, he could still feel there was dust in his mouth.

“Sir!” After Ren Baqian had left, the junior official was still looking at Ge Yihong with bitterness.

“Sigh. If he can come and work here, I can retire and leave this place to you,” Ge Yihong told the junior official sincerely without any sign of shame on his face.

The junior official rolled his eyes.

You speak as if you can make all the decisions.

You alone can’t decide who takes up this position…

…..

Ren Baqian came out of the palace clean and tidy in the morning and returned to the place dusty and filthy in the afternoon. After taking a quick bath, he headed to Qingxin Palace to learn words.

At night, Ren Baqian felt bored and took a stroll around the courtyard. Raising his head, he saw two moons in the sky, one big and one small. The big one was slightly larger than Earth’s moon. The big moon was slightly red in color. Using his naked eyes, not only could he see craters on the moon, he could also see a small dot in its center.

“What is that?” Doubt arose in Ren Baqian’s mind.

In the past, he would occasionally raise his head and gaze at the two moons. Today, upon taking a closer look, he discovered that there was a small dot on the center of the big moon. He quickly went to get his binoculars to look at it again. With the binoculars, he could see the small dot slightly clearer.

Through the binoculars, the moon also became bigger. Soon after, he managed to find the small dot with his binoculars and realized that it was oval-shaped silhouette. Previously, he had never taken notice of it. Now that he took a closer look at it with the binoculars, he discovered that it looked like an eye. He felt weird, feeling as though someone was looking at him.

However, Ren Baqian knew this was impossible. The small dot must be some oddly shaped terrain.

One day, he had to bring a telescope here to look closer at the two moons in this world.

Of course, he thought of this idea in the heat of the moment. He would completely forget about it the next morning.

Sitting on a stone bench in the garden, Ren Baqian took out the walkie-talkie and called the empress. After a while, he heard some noise from his walkie-talkie. The empress had picked up the call, but she did not say anything. She was waiting for Ren Baqian to say something.

“Your Majesty… The moons tonight are really beautiful… I just wanted to tell you about it,” Ren Baqian said after racking his brain for a long while. Right now, he resembled a young boy who was tugging the ponytail of a girl he liked sitting in front of him. Instead of tugging the empress’s hair, he was harassing her with the walkie-talkie. He was simply too bored at this moment.

After all, back on Earth, he could watch a movie or surf the Internet. There was nothing to do in this world. Right now, he was also not in the mood to cultivate, therefore he played with the walkie-talkie.

After finished speaking, he waited for the empress to reply him. After a while, he realized the empress had already switched off the walkie-talkie.

With a listless look on his face, Ren Baqian raised his head and yelled, “Such is life!”

After standing in the courtyard for a while more, he returned to the house to begin his cultivation.

Meanwhile, the empress was lying on the rooftop of Yangxin Palace Hall. Every now and then, she would pour some wine from the wine flask in her hand into her mouth. She was looking at the big and small moons in the sky. Her face was flushed, appearing as though the wine had really gone to her head. Her gaze seemed to be in a light trance.

“What is Her Majesty looking at?” Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were looking up at the rooftop.

“I don’t know, recently she has become weirder and weirder.”

“But Her Majesty seldom gets angry these days.” Upon hearing Qing Yuan’s words, Hong Luan nodded her head. Also, recently Her Majesty wasn’t as cold as usual. Sometimes, she would smile at them as well. Both of them were very happy with these changes.

“Clang!” A roof tile landed on the ground not far away from them, giving them a fright. Both of them immediately covered their mouths and stopped talking. Looking at each other, their eyes curled down, smirking.

After looking at the moons for a long time, the empress still couldn’t tell in what ways they were beautiful. However, she wasn’t in a bad mood. She felt a warm feeling bubbling in her heart.

She liked this feeling very much.

As this feeling gushed out from her heart, she suddenly felt that the moons were indeed beautiful.