Baby Dumpling had unilaterally decided that she must cut ties with such a ruinous senior brother Lu Yi. She determined that the estrangement must last two hours.
Thus, no matter how Lu Yi teased her or apologized to her before dinner, Baby Dumpling did not say a single word to him.
Left with no choice, Lu Yi could only seek help from Doctor Qiu, hoping he could put in a good word. Yet Doctor Qiu not only ignored him, but even poured salt on his wounds by gleefully mocking that he deserved this.
Lu Yi said, this is really going too far, there's not even a shred of master-disciple love anymore. Fortunately, when they returned home for dinner, his junior sister finally took the initiative to reconcile with him—thank goodness for that.
He had also learned a lesson from this incident: he must never call his junior sister “fat” in the future. The little thing seemed to be very sensitive about this matter!
That night, Jiang Wenyuan and his wife hosted a sumptuous home banquet to entertain Doctor Qiu and his disciples who had travelled a long way here. They also arranged a separate courtyard in the rear hall of the government building for Doctor Qiu and his disciples to live in.
The former owner of the Su Prefectural Government building was an indigenous chief of the previous dynasty. After Da Xia was established, they had simply made some simple modifications to the building for it to serve as the government office, in line with their principle of frugality wherever possible.
As for the original Su Prefectural government building, it had already been razed to the ground without a trace during the peasant uprisings in the late years of the previous dynasty.
Thus, in terms of area, the Su Prefectural Government was the largest government building across the whole of Da Xia, with seven courtyards, and this was not even counting those that had collapsed over the past hundred years due to various reasons.
There were no precious flowers or plants grown in the government building. Especially after this spring, when Lu Yi had overseen the reorganization of the vacant land within the government building, everywhere that could be dug up was turned into vegetable and fruit gardens by her and her team.
With Jiang Yuqing’s wood-elemental powers reinforcing the plants, the vegetables grew extraordinarily quickly and healthily. With more than they could finish themselves, Lu Yi shared the excess produce with others.
None of the government clerks got fewer of these homegrown vegetables gifted by the Prefect's family. Even the garrison camp had received deliveries ferried over in boots twice.
While these vegetables may be worthless in inland regions, they were a rare delicacy in a desolate frontier region like Su Prefecture, and even more valuable than the best lamb.
The news of Doctor Qiu’s arrival to Su Prefecture soon spread. The number of patients coming to Su Prefecture to seek medical treatment increased, leading to the An Hospital being even more crowded than before.
In order to get a queue number, people had to start queuing up to take numbers a few days in advance. This indirectly stimulated business around the vicinity.
The restaurants, taverns, and inns near the hospital were filled to bursting every day. The small food vendors setting up roadside stalls near the hospital entrance also increased day after day.
To maintain order, the Supervisory Bureau even sent people to patrol this street daily.
As the news spread further and wider, it somehow even reached the other garrison camps, seemingly by supernatural means.
The generals of the other camps were immediately disgruntled. Why should only the Yumen Pass Garrison Camp get to send their military doctors to An Hospital for training every month? Were they born of different parents? Weren’t they all stationed on the borders too? If the Yumen Pass camp gets this privilege, they should get it too!
And so while carrier pigeons were dispatched back to the capital with letters reporting this, the generals also directly sent people to An Hospital in Su Prefecture, demanding that they send military doctors for training.
What could Jiang Yuqing do except acquiesce?
And so, within a short month, dozens more medical students joined the ranks of An Medical Academy in Su Prefecture, this batch fully comprising military doctors.
Aside from those in the south who were too far away to come, the northwest and northern regions, including the Yumen Pass Garrison Camp, sent a total of forty-five people over from five camps—more than even the medical school in the capital!
Other than the Yumen Pass Garrison Camp which still sent groups of five for month-long rotations, the other four camps, owing to their greater distances, sent groups of ten for three-month long rotations.
To house these forty-five students, Jiang Yuqing had no choice but to pay out of her own pocket to purchase a residence nearby which she then renovated into a dormitory for the military doctors.
With greater numbers, meals became another issue. Jiang Yuqing directly put out a public tender to set up a small canteen to perfectly resolve meal issues. Occasionally, surplus vegetables from home that couldn’t be finished were also delivered over.
As for the meager military stipends that accompanied each military doctor from their respective camps, Jiang Yuqing did not take a single penny, instead depositing the full amounts into meal cards for the military doctors here to learn.
Having lived in the camps herself before, she knew how difficult things were for them already. If she could help a bit, why not? Without the soldiers blazing trails ahead, how could she enjoy peaceful days?
Jiang Yuqing was terribly busy.
In the mornings, she was busy teaching students and performing surgeries on patients; at night, she still had to enter the Spirit Realm to cultivate.
In order to nourish the three thousand acres of black goji berries she had tagged, she still frequently brought Little Bai out on midnight flights, just to channel some life spirit force into them, spurring them to grow even better.
Along the way, she would also radiate some energy to the crops below in passing. It was considered benefiting the common folk of Su Prefecture too. After all, whether shedding one sheep or a herd, it was still herding.
The boldest thing she did was to spend a full three consecutive nights channelling energy along the Gobi Desert and desert borders of Yumen County, stimulating a protective forest belt stretching one hundred and forty kilometers long and one kilometer wide.
To prevent these trees from dying of thirst, she then spent seven entire nights using explosion talismans paired with sound insulation talisman arrays, forcibly excavating a hundred-kilometer long aqueduct to channel Lian River water for irrigation.
After completing these feats, owing to overconsumption of spiritual power and mental strength, she lay bedridden for a good few days following that. Even when eating her meals she could fall asleep.
This had scared her family witless. Yet upon Doctor Qiu's diagnosis, he determined that aside from fatigue from overexertion, she had no other issues at all. Thinking that she had worn herself out from being too busy these days, she was ordered by unanimous consensus to rest at home.
As for the seemingly overnight appearance of this protective forest belt and aqueduct, it gave everyone a huge shock too. Even General Qin Yijian of the Yumen Garrison Camp personally travelled to inspect the locations, but similarly obtained no results.
In the end, everything could only be attributed to "divine miracles".
If not miracles, then who else could grow so many huge trees overnight, and excavate a channel almost two hundred kilometers long?
When the news reached the Su Prefectural Government, Jiang Wenyuan fell silent for a long while upon hearing it, before finally proclaiming: “Perhaps they really were divine miracles.”
Returning to the inner hall and seeing his daughter still unconscious in bed, Jiang Wenyuan's hand trembled as he reached out to gently stroke her pale cheeks, his tears suddenly falling.
His daughter was too outstanding.
He murmured: “Dear one, promise your father to never do something like this again! Your father would prefer to plant trees here in Su Prefecture for ten years than see you hurt from the backlash again.”
Bedridden for many days, Jiang Yuqing then went into closed-door cultivation in the Spirit Realm for two days more before finally recovering.
Every cloud had a silver lining, as she directly broke through from the eighth layer of Qi Cultivation to the ninth! Her abilities to stimulate plant growth had also improved tremendously.
What pleasantly surprised her even more was that this protective forest belt she created would greatly curb wind erosion and sandstorms, thus drastically reducing the chances of people of Su Prefecture and neighboring prefectures from suffering sandstorm attacks in future.
Thus, the meter on her Merits Stele rose by a small notch again, and four more drops of spirit dew condensed within the jade bowl atop it.
A single drop of it could increase one's lifespan by a decade, but one could only consume it once in their life, rendering subsequent consumption ineffective, with best effects for the elderly.
And so Jiang Yuqing only took a single drop, dissolving it in tea for Doctor Qiu to consume, leaving the remaining three drops within the jade bowl for future needs.
Unlike most people. Doctor Qiu had tasted hundreds of herbs since young, leaving his tongue extremely sensitive. Upon the first sip, he could immediately sense something different.
Seeing no one else around, he quickly asked: “Dear one, what other nice things have you fed your teacher again?”
Jiang Yuqing then softly whispered something to him.
Upon hearing that, Doctor Qiu froze in shock, losing all color in his face as he exclaimed: “Dear one, something so precious—how could you have wasted it on me? I’m halfway into my grave already at my age, such a waste.”
Baby Dumpling reassured him with a smile: “It’s not wasted. I want Teacher to live long and healthy, accompanying me as I grow up.”
Doctor Qiu was nearly moved to tears by that.
With summer approaching, it was time for the wool of the cashmere goats to be shed. The wool processing workshop Jiang Wenyuan established along the Lian River banks outside the city was also nearing completion.
Jiang Yuqing followed Jiang Wenyuan to take a look once, the place was big enough. Since it was decided to develop wool spinning into one of the characteristic industries of Su Prefecture, the design and construction of the workshop could not be sloppy.
Divided into several production workshops of different sizes according to the production process of wool yarn, there was also sufficient capacity for raw material warehouses, semi-finished product warehouses and finished product warehouses.
Supporting living facilities such as employee dormitories, canteens, bathhouses, etc. are also readily available. There is even a Cuju field and a calligraphy hall built. Employees are encouraged to exercise and learn when they are not working.
In the midst of busyness, Su Prefecture welcomed the hot summer. The July sun ruthlessly scorched the earth, and the half-mu of watermelons planted by Jiang Yuqing in the back garden of the government office had also ripened.
She took the opportunity to take out the watermelons from her spiritual space, and her family openly ate them, without leaving out even the servants.
Jiang Wenyuan even asked someone to bring a few to his uncle Zeng Ping.
As for those picked from the fields, they were given away to maintain relationships. A carriage was sent to the generals of the Yumen Pass Garrison Camp, two baskets were sent to the teachers and classmates of Jiang Yuchuan's government school, and Jiang Yuqing also brought two baskets to the medical staff and military doctors of the Anda Hospital.
The rest were distributed among the staff and clerks of the government office, making them very happy.
That afternoon, when Jiang Yuqing returned home early from the hospital, she saw someone pulling a handcart full of watermelons selling by the roadside.
These watermelons were not big, they were round, and the color of the rind was darker, seeming to be different from the watermelons at her home.
Out of curiosity, she went down to ask the price. It turned out to be only one copper coin per catty. It was almost unbelievably cheap.
The man selling watermelons scratched the back of his head awkwardly and said, "I have to admit, my watermelons are not quite the same as real watermelons. The flesh inside is all white, not sweet at all, and full of seeds. If you want it, I can make it even cheaper for you!"
Jiang Yuqing cut one open with the man's knife and saw that it was indeed full of white flesh and black seeds. Her eyes immediately lit up as she asked, "How many more such melons do you have at home?"
The melon seller said with a sad face, "There are still eleven mu left. At the beginning of the year, when the land was irrigated, I was thinking that I should plant more valuable stuff.
When I went to the city market, I saw some foreign merchants selling watermelon seeds, so I bought some, thinking that as long as they grew, I could make a lot of money.
Who would have thought that although the melons grew, not only were they small, but they also turned out like this. No one wanted them at all. That damn foreign merchant really cheated me badly."
Jiang Yuqing shook her head and said, "Not necessarily. Your melon is a good melon, it's just that they don't appreciate it. Let me tell you the truth, your melon is called Ximi melon, also known as Daying melon. Anyway, that's what it's called, and it's the seeds that are eaten.
Listen to me, when you get back, pick all the ripe melons, wash out the black melon seeds, dry them, and send them all to the government office. I will pay you fifteen copper coins per catty for them. How about it?"
The melon seller's mouth was wide open, as if he was stunned by the pie that fell from the sky. He stammered, "Are you...really telling the truth!"
Jiang Yuqing said, "Of course, although I'm petite, I never lie. My surname is Jiang, and my dad is the Prefect of Su Prefecture. I won't cheat you."
The man was extremely excited and said repeatedly, "I believe you, I believe you. So you are the young lady of Prefect Jiang.
Your father is a good official. We all believe in him. Since he came, he has built official roads and canals for us people of Su Prefecture. He is a good person, a really good person. I will go back now and tell my family to pick the melons."
As the man spoke, he packed up his things, pulled his cart, and was about to leave. Jiang Yuqing quickly called him to stop and stuffed a small gold ingot worth five taels into his hand, "This is the deposit, you must take it well."
With tears in his eyes, the man thanked her profusely and left pulling his cart.
