Life in a Simulation - Chapter 15

Autumn had arrived.

The leaves in the forest turned yellow, and the forage in the fields withered.

In the farmland, golden waves of wheat rolled like ocean waves under the breeze.

The heavy wheat ears pressed the stalks down so much that they could barely lift their heads.

Passing by this farmland, none of the farmers from Rose Town could resist being drawn to the sight of the plump, round grains, with each stalk bearing thirty to forty wheat grains. Gradually, as the time for harvest approached, more and more farmers gathered to watch and discuss this field, and the lively discussions even reached the ears of Baron Connor, the lord. The lord, accompanied by his family and several knights, came to the edge of the field and looked at the scene in disbelief.

“Oh God, the yield of these plots must be at least 10 talents (1 talent ≈ 20 kg), right? There must have been some miracle on this land. Only divine power could make this land produce so many wheat ears!”

A noblewoman dressed in a cloak, with a long skirt supported by a large hoop that revealed her snowy chest, covered her lips and exclaimed in surprise.

“Mom, Steward Brunold said that this land might also have been cursed by a witch. Only a witch’s dark magic could possibly make a piece of land that has never produced so much grain suddenly yield so much. So this grain is the fruit of the devil and must be burned!” A five or six-year-old boy with many freckles on his face, standing beside the noblewoman, said loudly.

“Is that so, Brunold?” The noblewoman asked the steward with a puzzled look.

The short and fat steward Brunold bowed and said with a fawning expression, “Respected Lady Madeline, I believe that must be the case.

This land hasn’t produced so much grain in twenty years. Moreover, I heard that the little Layne who planted this land is just a six-year-old child.

How could he do something that even adults can’t achieve? Also, not long ago, Little Layne did many strange and absurd things in the town.

He actually collected all those dirty and smelly manure and took them home. The townspeople suspect that it must be a witch who secretly used dark magic to bewitch Little Layne!”

Brunold concluded with certainty.

“Is that so? Oh God, I didn’t expect those evil witches to not even spare a six-year-old child.” Lady Madeline covered her chest with a look of fear.

“Kel, bring Little Layne over here. I have some questions for him.” Baron Connor realized the seriousness of the issue and said to a blonde knight beside him.

“Yes, my lord.”

…

In a short while, Zhou Ming, with a puzzled look and “fear” in his eyes, was brought to Baron Connor by the knight.

“Little Layne, speak! Did you use dark magic from a witch on these wheat fields? Have you been secretly controlled by a witch?” Baron Connor asked sternly.

Zhou Ming trembled and kowtowed on the ground, saying, “No, my lord, no! No witch has cast dark magic on me. I grew these wheat grains by myself.”

“Do you dare to lie to me? Tell me, who is the witch that controls you!” A flash of fierceness crossed Baron Connor’s face, and his right hand was already on the hilt of his sword.

“Dear, Little Layne is just a child. Don’t scare him like that.”

Lady Madeline, a mother of three children and exuding maternal warmth, advised her husband. She squatted down slightly, pulled Zhou Ming up, wiped the tears from his eyes with a handkerchief, and said kindly, “Little Layne, tell me, how did you grow this wheat field?”

Zhou Ming stopped crying and recounted in detail how he had grown this wheat field.

“Cow manure?”

“You mean that after using cow manure on this land, the wheat grew like this?”

“Impossible, Little Layne is lying! No matter how effective cow manure is, it can’t produce the yield of four acres of land on just one acre.” Steward Brunold denied it outright.

“It’s true! I saw that in many places with cow manure, the grass nearby grew very tall and dense.

So I thought: if I put this cow manure into the wheat field, would the wheat grow as tall and dense as that grass?

So I collected cow manure, sheep manure, and other animal droppings, crushed them a bit, and applied a little under each wheat seedling. As a result, didn’t the wheat also grow tall and dense?”

Zhou Ming’s explanation made sense to the people around him.

Several knights also searched the nearby grassland and indeed found the presence of cow manure or other animal droppings in many places with overgrown weeds.

“What a clever Little Layne!”

Lady Madeline picked up Zhou Ming and kissed him on the cheek several times, making the five or six-year-old freckled boy pout and huff loudly.

“Although what you said makes some sense, whether cow manure is effective or not can only be known after it has been used in the field.

If it turns out to be useless, Little Layne, do you know the consequences?”

Baron Connor had already started to believe what the six-year-old boy was saying, but looking at this seemingly overly clever boy, he had an odd feeling.

He couldn’t tell whether this boy was different from the others in the territory in a good or bad way.

“Thank you, my lord! Thank you, my lord!”

Knowing that he had been let off the hook, Zhou Ming immediately kowtowed in gratitude… and breathed a sigh of relief. He had made it through this ordeal.

Soon, with the “helpful” assistance of many townsfolk, Zhou Ming’s six acres of wheat fields were harvested, threshed, and bagged in just half a day.

When weighed on a scale, the crowd gasped in astonishment. The six acres of wheat yielded a staggering 70 talents of grain, four times the yield of an ordinary wheat field!

Zhou Ming was quite satisfied internally: “The land in this world is not as barren as I imagined. With just a slight improvement in planting methods and a bit more fertilizer, the yield per mu can reach over 460 jin.

The potential for increasing production is still very high. Farming in this world definitely has a bright future!”

However, Zhou Ming also knew that in this world, where the lords were not kind-hearted, it was fine to grow good crops without infringing on their fundamental interests.

But if he ever threatened their core interests and made them want to eliminate him, changing tactics and figuring out how to survive would become the most urgent task at that time.

For now, he grew a few good acres of land mainly to solve the problem of food and clothing, and also to explore the way forward.

After handing over 42 talents of barley to the tax collector Dirac, the remaining 28 talents of barley belonged to Zhou Ming. He asked several kind neighbors to help transport it to his home. Seeing the granary filled with enough grain for him and his sister to eat for a year, he felt much more at ease.

A few days later, Lady Madeline from the lord’s castle, upon hearing that Zhou Ming’s family now only consisted of him and his three-year-old sister, shed a few tears of sympathy and sent over a large bag of flour and a piece of smoked meat… This was partly out of sympathy, but it was also likely a small reward tacitly approved by Baron Connor after Zhou Ming discovered the secret of increasing production with cow manure.

Soon after, more people in the town began to collect cow manure, and some even started digging manure pits in front of their homes, following Zhou Ming’s example.

As for the nickname “Shit Layne” that the little boy had given him, it had now changed to “Clever Little Layne”…

Life in a Simulation - Chapter 15

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Hate that cliffhanger, don’t you?

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