After the New Emperor Ascended, He First Demoted Me to Farming - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

By the time Qiubai had grown waist-high, Qingzhou saw its first early frost.

Ordinary rice seedlings collapsed in great swaths overnight.

Qiubai, however, only had its leaf tips turn white. Its roots remained firmly planted in the soil.

Uncle Zhou was so excited he nearly dropped to his knees right there in the field.

“It worked.”

That was what he said.

“North Ridge is saved.”

I let out a quiet breath of relief too.

But the good news had not been out for two days before bad news arrived first.

The Qingzhou granary had caught fire.

Prefect Liang had died in prison.

The convoy escorting the real ledgers back to the capital had been robbed at Blackwind Gorge.

Pei Yan was gravely wounded and missing.

When the news came, I was in the field checking the grain heads.

Shen Zhao’s face was ashen.

“My lady, you can’t stay in North Ridge anymore.”

I asked, “Where would I go?”

“Back to the capital.”

“The imperial edict says I am not allowed to return to the capital for three years.”

Shen Zhao grew anxious.

“That edict was fake.”

“Even a fake one can be useful.”

I looked toward the ripening Qiubai in the distance.

“What Zheng Chong wants most right now is for me to make a move.”

“As long as I leave North Ridge, he can accuse me of defying the edict and fleeing, colluding with the military farms, and prove that the Jiang Clan still harbors rebellious remnants.”

Shen Zhao clenched his teeth.

“But they will come to kill you.”

“They have already come many times.”

I cut off a string of grain heads and put it into a cloth bag.

“Shen Zhao, help me do something.”

“Just say the word, my lady.”

“Distribute Qiubai to every village.”

He froze.

“Now?”

“The sooner, the better.”

“This is a trial crop for the emperor.”

“Grain seed isn’t meant to be shown to the emperor.”

I looked at him.

“It’s meant to keep people alive.”

That very night, we divided the Qiubai seeds into dozens of portions and handed them to Uncle Zhou and the young men of the village.

Each portion came with planting instructions I had written myself.

How to enrich thin soil, how to protect the seedlings before frost, how to channel mountain spring water.

Uncle Zhou asked me, “Miss, are you not planning to leave?”

I smiled.

“Where else can I go?”

His eyes reddened.

“North Ridge will remember you.”

“Don’t remember me.”

I handed him the last bag of grain seed.

“Remember the planting method.”

On the third day, Zheng Chong’s men arrived.

They were not assassins.

They were a squad of government soldiers.

The eunuch leading them unfurled an imperial edict and read in a shrill voice.

“The criminal woman Jiang Wan, under the pretense of imperial field cultivation, has incited former military farm settlers, concealed the Qingzhou ledgers, and attempted to overturn a verdict in an act of treason. She is to be escorted back to the capital at once to stand trial.”

The villagers erupted in uproar.

Shen Zhao stepped in front of me.

But I laughed.

“So I finally get to return to the capital?”

The eunuch said coldly, “You are being escorted in custody.”

“Same thing. Who’s paying the fare?”

The eunuch’s expression turned ugly.

Shen Zhao said in a low voice, “My lady.”

I patted his shoulder.

“Don’t fight.”

I knew I had to make this trip.

The grain case had gone up in flames, the real ledgers were lost, and Prefect Liang was dead.

If I did not return to the capital, every crime would be pinned on North Ridge and the Jiang Clan.

Before I left, Uncle Zhou suddenly knelt.

Behind him, the villagers of North Ridge knelt across the ground as well.

The eunuch grew impatient.

“What are you doing?”

Uncle Zhou held up a bag of Qiubai seeds.

“Seeing Miss Jiang off.”

A child shouted, “Sister Jiang is the reason we’ll have food next year!”

The soldiers moved to drive them away.

But more and more people came up from the mountain paths.

There were old farmers, women, and refugees with children on their backs.

Every one of them held a small handful of grain seed.

They did not cry injustice, nor did they cause trouble.

They only knelt by the roadside.

At last, the eunuch’s expression changed.

I climbed into the prison cart and looked at them through the wooden bars.

All of a sudden, I felt that Xie Xuan’s move had been truly ruthless.

He had exiled me here to farm.

He had turned me from the daughter of a convicted official into someone the people of North Ridge had seen with their own eyes.

A single chess piece had no voice.

But an entire field did.