The Wealthy Eldest Sister Rules Supreme

Chapter 597: Chapter 584: Found a Treasure

“Hmm.” Zhuang Qingning nodded, “Though it’s not certain that there’d be a drought, it’s always better to prepare early and avoid rushing when the time comes.”

But there’s no such tool as a waterwheel here. If there was, it would be exceedingly helpful for drought-resistance and regular irrigation.

If there was indeed a severe drought, this waterwheel might help everyone around survive.

Zhuang Qingning thought about this, recalling the appearance of ancient foot-powered waterwheels she had seen. She planned to try to sketch that image once she returned home and then have people try to make it.

But even if she could draw it, it would still be just a conceptual diagram. If she wanted to actually construct it, she would probably have to have carpenters study it for a while to see how to make it work.

[Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining a 3D waterwheel puzzle model. Once the host completes the puzzle, they can receive a detailed disassembly diagram of the waterwheel.]

The sudden voice in her head caught Zhuang Qingning by surprise and then brought her immense joy.

But soon, the joy turned into a sigh.

Did this really count as a task?

Frankly, this seemed no different from receiving a waterwheel disassembly diagram for free…

[I had no choice.] (The voice grumbled.)

[It’s because your marriage stone has been growing so fast recently that your luck has been extremely high. This has caused the difficulty of your tasks to decrease and the ease of your item acquisitions to increase.]

In other words, she currently had an advantage and everything was going smoothly.

Zhuang Qingning squinted and smirked.

In that case, you should quickly assign some daily tasks for gaining diligence value!

She should take advantage of this time to do more daily tasks and get rid of her debtor status sooner.

[Haven’t you noticed yet?]

[Look…]

As the voice finished speaking, a light flashed through Zhuang Qingning’s mind, and she saw her current accumulated diligence value on the scoreboard.

She was no longer in the red, her balance was now in the positive, albeit a small amount.

Remaining diligence value: 13 points.

Did this mean that she had already paid off the diligence value she owed?

If she hadn’t been at Zhuang Jingye’s house at that moment, Zhuang Quingning would have definitely jumped with excitement. But even as she had to maintain her composure around Zhuang Jingye and Mrs. Ye, the smile on her face couldn’t be stopped.

Having been in debt for so long, suddenly having no debts at all made Zhuang Qingning feel liberated. She just wanted to celebrate.

But even while feeling happy, Zhuang Qingning still kept a cool head and asked her question.

But why is this?

During this time, she hadn’t done any tasks that would have brought a large amount of diligence points. Also, the diligence value from her daily tasks had been quite ordinary. This sudden clearing of her diligence value really took her by surprise.

It was so sudden that it almost felt unreal.

[It’s because of the marriage stone…]

[The extraordinary growth of the marriage stone recently has allowed the host to gain a large amount of diligence value, hence making it possible for the host to pay back the owed diligence value quickly.]

Ah…

Zhuang Qingning suddenly felt that the existence of Chu Jinnian was really too good for her.

He was handsome, a feast for the eyes, could do work for her and relieve her of many chores. Now, he had even helped her pay off all her diligence value in one go.

She must admit, she really was lucky to have found such a gem.

She was more and more convinced that her infatuation with beauty wasn’t a bad thing…

Zhuang Qingning felt pleased with herself. After eating some sweet melons and tasting the roasted lamb leg at Zhuang Jingye’s place, she happily went home.

At home, Xiangqiao had already eaten and cleaned up the dishes.

“Miss, while you were gone earlier, seeing that people from various families had sent over so many things, I sorted them out.”

Xiangqiao continued, “I put away what could be saved and kept a few of the perishable items. I sent some to Aunt Wen and Aunt He’s houses. There are still some remaining items, would you like to take a look?”

“I’m not sure if I handled everything appropriately…”

During this time, Xiangqiao was very diligent at home, and she did her work professionally without Zhuang Qingning having to worry about anything. She handled everything very properly.

It was clear that she was used to being the pillar of the household and being attentive to everything.

“You handle things as you see fit,” Zhuang Qingning smiled, “You’ve always been very reliable, I trust you completely.”

Being praised by Zhuang Qingning, Xiangqiao felt a bit shy, looking somewhat uneasy. “You flatter me too much, Miss. I’m not very clever, sometimes I can be quite slow. You being willing to keep me on is already a great blessing.”

Ever since she came to Zhuang Qingning’s house, her only tasks were to sweep the courtyard, tidy up the house, wash clothes, cook, etc. She barely had to do anything else.

The most she had to do was to help Zhuang Qingning mend clothes, make shoes, run errands, or deliver something and relay messages.

Compared to the work she had to do at home before, this was much lighter.

Not to mention, Zhuang Qingning was very easy to talk to, was very humble with people, never showed her a disgruntled face, and also didn’t let her suffer. Even the food she ate was the same as Zhuang Qingning’s, and the clothes she wore were of decent quality.

Zhuang Qingning even gave her fifty coins every month as pocket money. If she didn’t spend it, she could save it for emergencies.

With food to eat, clothes to wear, and wages to earn, Xiangqiao felt extremely lucky, as if she had met a living Bodhisattva.

“Miss, you’ve just finished eating. It’s still early and I guess you’re not planning on going to sleep yet. I’ll make you some mung bean soup to drink instead of tea. They say it’s hard to fall asleep after drinking tea at night.”

Zhuang Qingning nodded, “Also, help me light a few more lamps, I’d like to read for a while.”

She planned to look at the puzzle diagram and see if the waterwheel puzzle was difficult to solve.

Xiangqiao agreed and quickly went to prepare mung bean soup and oil lamps.

And Zhuang Qingning took out the diagram and examined it carefully for a long time. After looking at the scattered pieces on the table, and even after several attempts to assemble something similar to what was on the diagram, Zhuang Qingning rubbed her temples in frustration.

This voice was simply deceiving her!

What increased luck, decreased task difficulty? It wasn’t that at all!

Giving a liberal arts student a puzzle task related to machinery, especially when she utterly loathed machinery, was not taking advantage of the situation, it was deliberately making things difficult!