Chapter 444 (2/2)

Ji Ju huffed but did not speak. He gestured for Yi Shi to continue with his work while Ji Ju walked over to the well nearby.

Shao Xuan went too. It was not good.

“The water level fell again,” said Ji Ju worriedly. He wondered if it would be drier as the years passed. Even drought-resistant plants needed water!

“It’ll get better,” comforted Shao Xuan.

“No, you don’t understand.” Ji Ju looked worried. “I keep feeling like something bad is happening. The changes in the skies and the lands always come with early omens. And…”

Ji Ju did not continue. He knew a man from the Yi family- the same guy who stayed up all night freezing and got sick. He remembered that old friend sick on his bed. The sick man had said one sentence: everything united must part, everything parted must unite.

It was a pity after that incident when Ji Ju asked again, he refused to speak. Instead, he’d give a smile that made Ji Ju want to punch him.

The Ji family was on high alert after this. Any signs of rebellion were brutally flattened. They had spent so much effort reaching where they were today, how could they let anyone destroy it? They watched the other five major families closely and a few new tribes.

At this moment, a feminine voice came from the entrance of the field.

“Little Shi~”

Shao Xuan looked over to see a young lady clad in exquisitely detailed silk. She was curvy but did not look swollen. She walked swaying her large hips, combing her hair that was billowing in the breeze. She smiled as she quickly walked over. Every step was small although they were quick, her dress flowing like a blooming flower.

The girl lifted a delicate hand to half-cover her lips, approaching Yi Shi with laughter in her eyes. She smiled and was about to say something when she saw Ji Ju nearby and her face froze. She hadn’t expected to see Ji Ju here so she quickly retracted her smile and straightened her posture, nodding politely. Then, she tossed a scroll to Yi Shi and then got a slave to bring a chair over.

The slaves were familiar with this lady so they were not surprised by her behaviour.

Shao Xuan looked at the patterns on her clothing and recalled Black Bear telling him about each aristocratic family’s favourite pattern. Based on these patterns, he guessed the lady was from the Mu family of the great six.

Ji Ju was very displeased by her behaviour but did not say much. To him, as long as his own Ji family wasn’t like this, he could care less. Might as well use this extra time to tend to his Thousand Grain Gold.

The Mu lady’s cloth scroll contained her field’s harvest records. She wanted Yi Shi to help double-check the numbers- she was too impatient to do it herself and it might take days. Since she might not even calculate them right, it was better to get Yi Shi.

Yi Shi did not say much either. He put down his work and opened the roll of cloth she tossed to him.

There were twenty pieces of cloth rolled up, each about half a meter long and two palms wide. They were all filled with tiny handwriting.

Yi Shi flipped the cloth with one hand while the fingers on the other hand moved quickly. His thumb was almost a shadow by now, touching the other four.

Shao Xuan realised Yi Shi seemed to only sweep his eyes across the numbers one time and took barely half a minute to scan through one piece of cloth. He scanned through twenty pieces of cloth filled with numbers, then wrote down his final result on another piece. All this in fifteen minutes.

When he was done, with admiration in his eyes, he passed his calculation results and the cloth back to the lady. “Congratulations, another bountiful harvest.”

The lady chuckled, fine lines appearing around her eyes. She was in a great mood from the harvest. However, after she read his number, her expression changed immediately. As if a piece of silk had turned into a metal knife, her eyes were suddenly deadly.

“Those rotten slaves, I can’t believe they misreported the numbers by such a large margin!”

The margin of error was small per page. They looked like mistakes due to them being bad at math. However, the accumulation of errors across so many pages caused the final value to be far from the actual number. The lady did not tell Yi Shi what the number her slaves reported was but if this was what Yi Shi got, it must be true. She was furious.

In the past, if they reported a number smaller than the true value, she was too lazy to punish them for it. However, these people must be getting greedy! If she did not raise this issue, they would grow bolder.

“Tomorrow, I will send my men over with a gift!” Without another word, the lady took the results and left, her hips swaying hard and she radiated pure anger. Perhaps blood would be spilt in her field soon.

Shao Xuan now understood that the Yi guy helped with calculations here. However, what was his brain made of? He was a human calculator!

alright guys my translation of the lady really doesn't do the original writing justice.

here's a direct translation of some of my fav phrases from the Chinese text that i didn't know how to insert into the text :

- combed her hair that looked so carefree and seemed to sway on its on accord in the wind

- looked up with 30% of a smile in her eyes

- her hand was soft but no bones