Chapter 276 (1/2)

Yu Xiaocao looked at the not yet ready corn growing in the fields. Her eyebrows came together in a deep frown. If the plague of locusts came, then everything here would be hard-pressed to escape. The corn still needed about a month's worth of growth before it was ready to harvest. If the plants were harmed by the locusts, then their losses would be inestimable.

The family's economic damage wasn't even their first concern. The imperial courts and the young royal prince were ardently hoping for this crop of corn to go well as they only had a small subset of fields growing corn in the capital. In the future, the plan was to slowly push out this crop to the whole nation, especially the northern and northwestern parts of the country. Those areas truly needed a high-yielding crop that wasn't picky about the soil.

Now back to her family's concerns. Ten mu had all been planted with corn. If all of that was destroyed, then all the work they had done for a season would be gone! Yu Xiaocao reckoned that the emperor, whose policies had always helped the commoners, would not have their family plant these crops for the court in vain. He would very likely buy this corn back from them at a high price to be used as seeds later.

Yu Xiaocao wasn't able to guarantee anything else, but she was pretty sure that there was no one in this era who was better at raising crops than her. Although the officials in the capital had her growing methods, this was still the first year they were growing corn. How could they compete with her years of experience with raising corn in her past life? That being said, the mystic-stone water in her hands was more effective than any other fertilizer. Corn watered by it produced large ears of corn that were incredibly delicious. Other people couldn't even dream of growing corn like hers!

The young royal prince had also said that once the b.u.mper harvest of corn was done, he wanted to help them get a reward. The things that the emperor would give them not only would have a lot of glory attached to them, but they would also be incredibly valuable.

In short, if they encountered the locust swarm, her family's losses would be disastrous! That wouldn't work, she needed to think up an idea to contain their losses to a minimum.  ”Little Divine Stone, do you know when the locust swarm will arrive here?” Yu Xiaocao inhaled a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

The little divine stone's consciousness was linked with hers so it could detect that she was feeling quite uneasy. It became serious to fit the mood, [From what the birds were telling me, they should be about two days away by flight.]

That wasn't too bad. At least they had about two days of time to think of something to do against these locusts before they arrived. Didn't the little divine stone have the ability to ripen plants faster? Starting from today, they needed to harvest however much corn they could get their hands on!

When Yu Hai came by with a bucket of water for irrigation, Yu Xiaocao quickly stepped forward to bring him over to the side. She carefully looked around and mysteriously pulled Yu Hai to a secluded area.

Yu Hai noticed that his daughter had a very serious demeanor and there were some hints of anxiety leaking out of her. He repeatedly asked, ”Cao'er, what's wrong? What's going on??”

”Father, do you believe that our world has G.o.ds that warn us through our dreams?” Yu Xiaocao pretended to be extremely nervous as she quietly asked him.

Yu Hai remembered that two years ago Xiaocao had hit her head open, she had said that she had toured the underworld. Furthermore, she had even talked to beings that resembled King of h.e.l.l and the G.o.d of Wealth. Perhaps, his youngest daughter had met another G.o.d?

”I believe ah! What's going on? You dreamt of the G.o.ds?” Yu Hai nervously stared at his youngest daughter. His youngest daughter was clever beyond her age. Some of the village elders even said that she was the reincarnation of an immortal child from the heavens and thought that she wouldn't reach adulthood before the heavens would descend down and take her back. Perhaps...

”Father, when I was watering the plants earlier, I suddenly fainted and lost consciousness. The G.o.d who taught me how to plant crops and cook food suddenly appeared in front of me. The G.o.d told me some very important news!” Yu Xiaocao crafted a very believable lie. She had a sincere expression on her face that was slightly colored with some worry.

Yu Hai became more uneasy, ”What news? Does the G.o.d want to take you away? Cao'er, you're Father's good daughter, please don't agree with the G.o.d taking you away ah! If you ascend to the heavens, Father and Mother will never be able to see you again in this lifetime!”

Drops of cold sweat fell off Yu Xiaocao's forehead. Her father's imagination was even more bizarre than hers. How could there be G.o.ds around? Why would she be brought up to the heavens?

[Although this s.p.a.ce is quite deficient in spiritual energy and is lacking in resources needed for cultivation, there are still G.o.ds around. Do you really think it was a coincidence that lightning struck the owner of that carpentry store? This divine stone had negotiated with the G.o.d of Thunder and G.o.ddess of Lightning to help us ah!] The little divine stone silently corrected her mistake within their bond.

Yu Xiaocao rolled her eyes in her thoughts at it, 'What do the G.o.ds existing have to do with me? In any case, I haven't seen any and I don't want to!'

After she finished her statement, she continued to ignore the little divine stone, who was repeatedly saying that there were G.o.ds around. She started to placate her father, whose eyes were turning red, ”Father, I don't know why you think the G.o.ds are going to take me away, but the G.o.d didn't want to do that. He told me that in two days, there will be a plague of locusts that hasn't been seen in a hundred years descending on Dongshan Village. He wanted us to get ready.”

”What?!” Although Yu Hai had never experienced a swarm of locusts, he had heard about the destruction the insects could cause. When he was a child, he had heard Grandpa Gao, who was ninety years old at the time and an elder of the village, talking about the horrible aftermath of a locust plague. That was truly a devastating scene to imagine as there was no food at all to be had ah!

Similar to Yu Xiaocao, Yu Hai's first thoughts were about the test fields of corn and potatoes that his family had. Neither of these crops were ready for harvesting. If they delayed the court's missions, then his family would naturally be punished! The imperial court might forgive them in light of the natural disaster. However, the young royal prince had traveled thousands of miles across the seas to get these seeds from the western hemisphere. He had spent so much time on these crops and almost came over to Dongshan Village every day to inspect the crops (Author's note: He actually came over to b.u.m a meal, okay). The prince obviously cared a lot about these crops, so he would naturally be very disappointed and angry if they get spoiled What could they do? What could they do?!