After the New Emperor Ascended, He First Demoted Me to Farming - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Shen Zhao fixed doors quickly.

But he was terrible at farming.

When he pulled weeds, he could slice the roots into three separate pieces. When he hoed the soil, he turned the field into something that looked like a battlefield.

Just watching gave me a headache.

“Were you this fussy when you killed people before?”

Leaning on the hoe, Shen Zhao answered solemnly, “One strike.”

“Then why are you being so polite to the weeds?”

He lowered his head and looked at the grass.

“They grow too close together.”

I couldn’t help laughing.

After I laughed, the emptiness in my chest returned.

It had been a very long time since I had laughed like that.

Back in the capital, I was always tense.

In the Side Palace, one extra word could earn you a basin of cold water dumped over your head.

In the cold palace, one extra step might bring you face-to-face with an assassin or a spy.

During Xie Xuan’s most desperate years, I was even more skittish than he was.

Now that I had come to North Ridge, no one cared whether I ought to kneel or lower my head.

There was only the field.

And a hoe that didn’t quite do as it was told.

Half a month later, I opened the package labeled “Qiubai.”

The grain seeds were very pale, as if touched with frost.

The old man from the village came by again.

His surname was Zhou, and everyone called him Uncle Zhou.

Uncle Zhou crouched at the edge of the field and pinched up a seed, studying it for a long while.

“Doesn’t look like rice, and it doesn’t look like wheat either.”

“Can it be planted?”

“Whether it lives depends on the heavens.”

He lifted his head and looked at North Ridge’s gloomy sky.

“But this sky doesn’t look like it’s in the mood to do anyone any favors.”

I said, “Then we’ll try half a mu.”

Uncle Zhou looked at me.

“You’re really going to plant it?”

“The imperial edict said to reclaim wasteland and farm.”

“The imperial edict also said you weren’t allowed back to the capital for three years.”

My hand stilled.

Uncle Zhou narrowed his eyes.

“Miss, when I was young, I worked for the military farms. When the court exiles someone, since when do they give her seeds, a land deed, and a shadow guard?”

Shen Zhao’s hand shifted on his blade.

Uncle Zhou glanced at him.

“Don’t get nervous. With these old arms and legs, I couldn’t outrun you anyway.”

I smiled faintly.

“Uncle Zhou, what are you trying to say?”

“North Ridge is close to the Qingzhou Grain Transport Administration.”

Uncle Zhou lowered his voice.

“During the famine these past two years, half the official grain was already gone by the time it reached Qingzhou. Whoever investigated it ended up in trouble.”

My heart gave a violent jolt.

Xie Xuan hadn’t sent me here just to avoid disaster.

He wanted me to keep an eye on the grain.

That night, I dug out the land deed and examined it carefully.

The back of the deed had been soaked in water. Faintly, I could make out a line of tiny characters.

[Old North Ridge military farm. The accounts are beneath the fields.]

I took the land deed to Shen Zhao.

After reading it, his expression changed.

“His Majesty didn’t tell me to look at this.”

“Then what did he tell you to look at?”

“You. Alive.”

“And?”

Shen Zhao fell silent.

I stared at him.

At last, he said, “If someone comes to kill you, keep them alive.”

Just then, a burst of barking came from outside the door.

Shen Zhao immediately blew out the lamp.

I gripped the little hoe and hid behind the door.

In the courtyard, someone spoke in a low voice.

“This is the place.”

“The woman from the capital?”

“She has an old possession of His Majesty’s. We can’t let her live.”

A chill crawled up my spine.

The next instant, someone kicked the door open.

Shen Zhao’s blade was as fast as snow.

I raised the hoe and brought it down hard on the knee of the dark figure charging in.

The man screamed and dropped to his knees.

I crouched in front of him.

“Let me ask you something.”

His face was covered in cold sweat from the pain.

“What?”

I pressed the hoe against his shoulder.

“Can the stones in North Ridge really not be sold for money?”