NOVEL NEXT Chapter 49 – Year 1 Summer Harvest
Chapter 49 – Year 1 Summer Harvest
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How could this happen?
Prince Baiyu had always sent word before he visited, and he seldom appeared during mealtimes, so I was shocked to see him sitting with my apprentices at the breakfast table. He got up to greet me when I entered the courtyard, but I quickly turned around and fled. I wanted to go back to my bedroom to change into better clothes.
Alas, he didn’t seem to understand what I was doing and chased after me.
“Miss Violet!” he said as he caught up to me in front of the gate. The prince was, of course, dressed in magnificent green and white robes.
“Excuse me, I have to go back to my room to change.” I couldn’t believe I had been caught dressed so sloppily by my boss and self-described suitor, Prince Baiyu.
“Why? You look great,” he said.
No, you look great. I look like I just got out of bed and put on my oldest clothes.
“I guess it’s fine,” I said. It was too late to change since he had already seen me.
Ugh.
Wait a minute, why did I care so much about something so trivial? In the past, I hadn’t much cared about what I was wearing. Could it be that I was now growing up and becoming more girly?
We walked back to the breakfast table, where my apprentices were impatiently waiting for me to sit down, so we could start eating. Deming had cooked crullers and porridge for us as I had requested yesterday because I wanted to start the day with a light meal. I had only taken a few bites when Shuye appeared.
“I checked out the crops. Looks like the harvest will be quite bountiful,” said Shuye.
“Yes, indeed. Today is the day that all our hard work will pay off!” Now that I had gotten over the awkwardness of being seen in less-than-flattering clothes by Prince Baiyu, I was excited at the thought of what lay ahead.
The four of us ate our food as quickly as we could, and it was the first time that I didn’t even notice what the Demon Chef’s food tasted like. Lari, Kharli, and Mo were reacting differently to their first harvest. Lari was full of energy and looked like he was about to explode. Kharli, on the other hand, was fairly calm except that she was speaking faster than normal. Mo was pale and looked like she was about to faint or vomit.
Everyone was quiet as we walked to the vegetable field. Shuye, Prince Baiyu, Deming, Fengying, the kitchen assistants, and the maids stood by the side of the crops and watched as I walked over to the mound where we had planted the corn, beans, and squash following the Three Sisters technique.
“It’s quite easy. Watch what I do.” Yesterday, I told them to activate the [Automatic Harvest] option on the Farming menu. I had done my first harvest manually, but we had a lot more crops this time, and the kids’ energy did not refill as quickly as mine, so I thought it would be best if we finished as quickly as we could since that would give them more time to rest.
I put my gardening gloves on and grabbed an ear of corn. Giving it a sharp downward twist, I broke it off from the plant. I tried to play it cool, but even I was surprised when the rest of the corn, beans, and squash disappeared from the mound, having been placed directly into my inventory by the System. One-tenth of my energy bar was depleted.
My three apprentices exchanged baffled glances, unsure of how to react. Lari scratched his head, trying to make sense of what he had just seen, while Kharli just shrugged. Mo’s eyes widened, and she looked intrigued but confused.
Taking out three baskets from the System farming supplies, I put the newly harvested corn, beans, and squash in them. Then I went down the line of crops to harvest the rest of the vegetables. Some of them, like the potatoes, needed to be dug up from the ground, but others just needed to be plucked from the plant, like the eggplants, tomatoes, and chili peppers.
“That’s it. Looks easy, right?” I said when my energy was almost completely drained. “Your turn!”
I handed the basket that had the tomatoes in it to Kharli because I figured that she was the most reliable of the three. She coolly walked to the nearest tomato plant and harvested it successfully. Her fellow apprentices clapped.
“Yay!”
“How much exp did you get?” asked Lari.
“Only a little exp, but I’m getting it for each tomato. I think I’m going to level up soon.” Sure enough, a few minutes later, Kharli jumped up and down screaming, “Level five!”
I allowed her and the others a minute of freaking out before I said, “Don’t scream. Save your energy because you’ll level up several times this harvest season. Lari, you try it.”
“I’m gonna harvest all of them!” said Lari as he grabbed the basket of potatoes and went straight to his favorite crop. Despite the manic look on his face, he took his time loosening up the soil around the potato plants with a spading fork from the System before digging under the plants and lifting the potatoes from under the ground. It didn’t take long before he, too, jumped up and screamed, “I’m level five!”
The other two congratulated him, and Mo couldn’t bear waiting any longer. She took the basket of sweet potatoes and followed suit. Unlike the other two, she was already level six, so it took her longer to jump up and scream, “I’m level seven!”
“Congratulations, everyone,” I said. To my surprise, the three of them stopped yelling and threw their arms around me.
This seemed to be the cue that our audience was waiting for. Prince Baiyu, Shuye, Deming, Fengying, and the others approached and congratulated me and my apprentices.
“Um. We’re not done yet. Why don’t we save the congratulations for later?” I suggested.
I extricated myself from the awkward situation, and Larry, Kharli, and Mo calmed down enough to continue working.
The [Automatic Harvesting] mode was a success, and we finished using up all of our energy in an hour. I gave the baskets of vegetables to Deming, with a request for fried potato chips, and instructed my apprentices to soak in the hot springs before going to their rooms for a nap. I wanted their energy to refill completely by tomorrow.
“See you at lunch!” I said to the others after with congratulations and hugs.
Prince Baiyu walked me back to my ranch house.
“When will I be allowed inside?” he asked.
“Who knows?”
He sighed. “You’re not hiding a harem there, are you?”
“Why are you asking? Are you interested in joining?” I had gotten used to this type of conversation ever since we met, and the flirting had only intensified after I sent him that letter. It was kind of nice. Furthermore, I appreciated the fact that he visited me every few days despite his busy schedule.
“If I were, would you accept me?” He looked down at me with a smirk on his face.
“Only if you know how to cook, clean the house, do the laundry, wash the dishes, and take out the trash.”
“That’s what maids do. As a harem member, all I would have to do is attend to nighttime duties.”
“You’re too much!” I raised both my hands in surrender. He always won this type of game because he always went too far. “Enough, please.”
“All right, I suppose that’s it for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He took my hand gently in his and brought it to his lips, pressing a soft kiss against my knuckles.
I felt a warm flush spread across my cheeks as I looked up at him, surprised by the gesture. His expression was tender, and for a moment, I was speechless. The longer I stood there, silent and frozen, the wider his smile grew.
He kissed my hand again and said, “I hope you’ll invite me inside soon.”
Then he turned and walked away while I stood there staring at his back.
Oh, I think I might be in trouble.
Author's Note:
- Crullers are fried dough sticks, aka youtiao. I've added the above picture in case people don't know what that is.
- Harvesting is fun!
- Remember, this story is tagged [No Harem].
- Thank you very much for reading my story.
- Do you want to read 20+ chapters in advance? I have a Patreon.
