When Jing Yan arrived, Jiang Yuqing was handing out things to everyone with Yang Changyu, the former centurion who now managed the farm.
Seeing him appear, she said in surprise, "Why are you here? Today's the Dragon Boat Festival, don't you need to go watch the dragon boats?"
"With Father here, it's fine!" He looked at the booklet in her hand and asked, "Do you need help?" Jiang Yuqing looked at the things that were only halfway distributed and didn't refuse: "Sure."
She stuffed the small book into his hands, "This is the personnel list. There are also things that need to be distributed. Put a check next to the name after giving it to someone."
"Today's a holiday. I'll take everyone to the kitchen to make a good meal."
"Sounds good!"
Jiang Yuqing wasn't good at cooking, but helping out with washing, cutting and other tasks was fine.
Lunch was very sumptuous, with big pieces of braised pork, ribs with potatoes, stir fried rabbit, a big pot of egg drop soup, and two vegetable dishes. There was plenty of white rice.
The rabbit and eggs were things she had secretly taken from the Spirit Realm when no one was paying attention. Since there were many things to hand out today, no one noticed anything amiss.
The veterans ate ravenously, wolfing down their food. As they ate, they began crying, with tears falling into their bowls. They couldn't remember the last time they had eaten such a meal.
In the military camps, they could barely get enough to eat every day. After getting injured and retiring to their hometowns, even getting enough to eat was difficult, let alone meat.
Jiang Yuqing felt distressed seeing this. The food was stuck in her throat and she couldn't swallow it down. Jing Yan also felt awful.
After the meal, Jing Yan sat alone by the creek, lost in thought about something. Jiang Yuqing walked over and said, "Give the farm a name! It doesn't have one yet!"
Jing Yan thought for a moment and said, "Let's call it Tai'an Farm!"
"Tai'an? May the country be peaceful and the people safe. What a good name! Without war, there would be no more tragedies like this!"
He said, "When I get back, I'll have a signboard made with the name and send it over!"
"Thanks! You can sit here for now. I need to go back and check on everyone." She patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave.
The May breeze blew up her hair ribbon and clothes, a blue as vast as the sky. The gentle sunlight shone on her head, creating a halo around her, as if she were a celestial maiden descended to earth.
In the afternoon, Jiang Yuqing examined the veterans. Perhaps due to old injuries or long-term malnutrition, they all had some health issues, more or less.
For minor issues, Jiang Yuqing used the opportunity while checking their pulses and acupuncture points to secretly cure them with her Rejuvenation Technique. For issues needing long-term recuperation, she wrote them prescriptions and would have the medicine delivered later.
When she was almost done, Yang Changyu ran over to say that the farm had everything except farming tools. Without tools, they couldn't work.
Jiang Yuqing was taken aback, having forgotten about such an important matter. She said that when she returned, she would have the tools delivered.
She told them not to worry for now. Let everyone rest and recuperate for a period first before working. The goal for this year was to clear and plan out this barren mountain, and plant grass, fruit trees and the like.
Livestock wouldn't be raised in large quantities until next year. Otherwise, what would they feed them?
As iron wares were controlled by the imperial court, buying them in bulk required registration papers, but with Jing Yan's presence, that wasn't an issue.
The next day, Jing Yan sent people over with a signboard for "Tai'an Farm", along with a batch of iron farming tools - hoes, rakes, pickaxes, ploughs, and more. Jiang Yuqing didn't stand on ceremony and accepted everything listed.
In addition to tools, opening up wasteland required large livestock. Jiang Yuqing went to the livestock market and bought several adult oxen and mules to send over, along with two large carts.
Not only could these pull ploughs to till the land, they could also pull carts. Having a mule cart for the veterans to travel with in the future would be convenient. Wheelbarrows, winnowing baskets, and other items were also prepared. How could they open up wasteland without these things?
Before leaving, Jiang Yuqing left them some silver for living expenses. After a rough calculation when she got home, her purse had shrunk considerably again. But this money couldn't be saved - what had to be spent still had to be spent.
Over the years, she would donate large quantities of supplies to the northern border camps every year. Hence most of the money earned from her properties had been used to subsidize them.
This included most of the gold she had obtained from the mine. As her business grew bigger, she would need to find ways to make more money.
Jiang Yuqing knocked her head to think of fast ways to make big money. She remembered that there seemed to be something called Beauty Pill in the pill recipes that could maintain one's looks for ten years after eating one.
With Teacher's small box of Frost Jade cream selling for thousands of taels of silver, if she could produce Beauty Pills, they would surely sell for at least ten thousand taels each!
There was no denying this was an excellent idea.
Driven by profit, the lazy Spirit Realm Master finally thought of dabbling in pills.
Jiang Yuqing excitedly ran to the Legacy Hall and flipped through the pill recipes. She discovered this thing was actually a second grade pill!
This was like a bolt from the blue for the Spirit Realm Master who hadn't even refined the entry-level fasting pills before.
But the tallest tower is built from ground up. No matter how unwilling, Jiang Yuqing could only start properly from the fasting pills.
The fasting pills didn't require many types of spiritual medicines, which the Spirit Realm had in abundance. Jiang Yuqing harvested a hundred portions in one go and headed to the pill refining room to start learning.
After carefully reading through the recipe, Jiang Yuqing rinsed the pill furnace with water and began attempting to refine it.
The Dragon tripod came with an abnormal Dragon Flame. As soon as Jiang Yuqing opened it, an exceptionally scorching heat burst out, nearly scalding her. She hurriedly cast a protective shield over herself.
Previously, following the steps in the recipe, she added the spiritual medicines one by one into the tripod. Upon adding the seventh ingredient, she heard a "puff" sound from inside, and a burnt smell emanated.
The first attempt had failed.
She emptied out the charred remnants and tried a second time, again failing upon adding the seventh ingredient. Jiang Yuqing checked the steps in the recipe and confirmed there were no issues, so she guessed the flame temperature was the problem.
On the third attempt, when she added the seventh ingredient, she turned down the flame and successfully refined the pills this time.
Although the success rate for the first furnace was low and the quality was only barely acceptable, she wasn't discouraged at all. On the contrary, she arrogantly felt she had good natural talent in refining pills.
Since there were plenty more spiritual plants, she could simply practice with more furnaces.
Next, Jiang Yuqing started a storm of pill refining, doing furnace after furnace until she had refined the last portion of spiritual plants before stopping.
The quantity of fasting pills stacked into a small mountain added up to at least two to three thousand pills. Her record was ten consecutive successful furnaces, all premium quality output.
By now, several days had already passed in the Spirit Realm. She also hadn't washed for several days and nearly smelled awful. She hurriedly cast a cleaning spell on herself before finally feeling comfortable again.
She then started sorting out the fasting pills she had refined. There weren't many low quality ones, just around a hundred from her initial attempts. These could last a day after eating one pill.
There were around six to seven hundred mid quality ones. One pill was equal to three days of food. The top quality ones numbered close to one thousand eight hundred pills. One pill could replace eight days of meals. There were also over fifty supreme quality ones where one pill lasted half a month.
These were even better than compressed biscuits. Cultivators could casually eat them with no issues. Ordinary people could occasionally eat one or two pills and be fine, but eating too many wouldn't do.
It wasn't an issue of potential pill toxicity, but rather that ordinary people needed nourishment for their stomachs. Going without food for prolonged periods would cause atrophy of the stomach even if there was no sensation of hunger, which was undesirable.
Putting so many pills into jade bottles would be too troublesome. Aside from the supreme quality pills, everything else was put into jade boxes for convenience. Such was the might(laziness) of the Spirit Realm Master.
Succeeding in refining the fasting pills also marked her official transformation into a clueless fledgling pill master. There was still some ways from second grade pill master.
Baixiao was extremely gratified by this rare achievement and praised her, "Keep it up. Pill refining isn't easy yet, so you still have much effort ahead of you!"
However, becoming skilled in pill refining wouldn't happen overnight, just like making money required step-by-step effort. After all, there wouldn't be another gold mine in the world for her to loot.
After consecutively refining pills for several days, she was rather tired. Jiang Yuqing planned to properly rest for a while before going to tinker with the fruit tree saplings.
Branches cut from old fruit trees and planted in the ground would quickly sprout into small saplings with some vitality infused. It was no hassle at all.
On the other side of the barren mountain was a very large area. Jiang Yuqing planned to first clear out a few hundred acres and plant a peach orchard, then plant some pear and grape trees, and build an ecological farm that integrated picking, sightseeing and leisure for the people of the entire Beijing to visit.
This way, people could appreciate peach blossoms in spring and pick fruit in summer.
She would also build some flat, paved trails through the woods and get some sturdy little lambs to pull cute little carts...
By then she could invite some celebrities to help promote it - though that wouldn't even be necessary. She was a living advertisement herself. If that didn't work, she could always drag her brother over to attract people. The more she thought about it, the more excited she became. It was a great idea!
She didn't bother with the seedlings anymore and immediately ran back into the house, grabbed some paper and a brush and started scribbling away.
A few days passed in the Spirit Realm, while only one night had gone by outside.
The next evening after leaving court, Jiang Wenyuan was presented by Jiang Yuqing with her plans for Tai'an Farm to her father, mother, mentor and brother - her whole family, in other words.
After looking it over, they all thought it was a good plan and even offered some very good opinions and suggestions, all of which Jiang Yuqing adopted.
That night, Jiang Yuqing entered the Spirit Realm again. After almost finishing planting the trees, she went to the Legacy Hall to concoct pills.
This time she was making Clear Heart Pills. This was also a first-grade pill that cultivators could take when their mind and spirit were unsettled, to avoid going berserk while cultivating.
For ordinary people, it had an excellent effect of calming the mind. Secular medicine also had prescriptions for calming shock and settling fright, so a pill like this wouldn't sell for much.
But she could use it for practice. Once she mastered concocting it, she could move on to trying second-grade Beauty Preserving Pills.
Little coins waved to her from not too far away, cheering her on. Add oil!
When Jiang Yuqing went to deliver things to Tai'an Farm again and check up on everyone, she found that the area near the house had already been cleared and planted with green vegetable seedlings.
Jiang Yuqing said in surprise, "Aren't you guys working too hard? I told you to recuperate first before doing any labor!"
Yang Changyu scratched the back of his head and smiled bashfully. "We brothers all cherish this opportunity, and we're used to working hard. Just eating and resting well everyday made us restless.
So we cleared this plot to plant some vegetables, to reduce what we need to buy. You work hard to earn money to support us all. Anything we can save helps."
Jiang Yuqing was deeply moved by them once again. Look how lovely they all were!
But she still had to admonish them, "Tell everyone to work within their limits and rest properly. Don't overwork yourselves til you collapse.
You must have meat with every meal, don't skimp on buying it to save money. Your health is the capital for your work. Once your health improves, everything else will too!"
She gave Yang Changyu a copy of the plans she had duplicated, telling him they could start by clearing the area marked for the peach orchard and dig pits there. Once that was done, they could send someone to tell her and she'd find a way to get fruit tree saplings.
"Same as before - don't overexert yourselves when working, no need to rush!" she reminded them.
