Bab 2: Whetstone
Editor: Atlas Studios
Just shortly after dawn, Li Siwen woke up to a sour smell. There were no less than dozens of bumps from head to toe. The mosquitoes here were really too arrogant.
Without washing up and after relieving themselves, the ten farmers queued up to receive rations from the two fat cooking aunties. They filled their water gourd with cold water and set off in silence. No one complained or even chatted.
However, Li Siwen noticed a detail. When the Feudal Lord walked into the stone house yawning, his back was wet with dew.
'He is really a dedicated Lord. The safety level at night must be the lowest. As the most powerful person, he has to patrol the area with the militiamen.' With that on his mind, Li Siwen picked up a small, fine-textured stone when he stopped to pee on the way to the wheat field. The Feudal Lord was sleeping now. He felt he could take a small risk.
The hoe was a little rusty and poor in quality. It was like a lousy piece of iron. Although such a hoe could cut weeds, it took a lot of energy. In addition, it couldn't remove the weeds along with its roots. The hoe became duller when it met the soil.
This was why they could not keep up with the growth rate of weeds even though ten farmers weeded ten acres of land every day.
The Feudal Lord might not have noticed this, but Li Siwen, who worked in the agriculture department before transmigrating, had such general knowledge.
There was no whetstone, and the iron hoe was not hard. By sharpening it occasionally with an ordinary stone, it was at least sharper.
But Li Siwen didn't do this to improve work efficiency.
For the past four days, he had been experimenting with the weeding.
He drew several conclusions.
Firstly, cutting off the weeds outside the wheat field would also fill the green orb, but it was temporarily impossible to try on a large scale.
Secondly, cutting off the weeds above the ground would fill up the green orb, but not by a lot.
Thirdly, cutting off weeds from its roots would fill up the green orb two or three times more than the above method.
Fourthly, cutting off the wheat seedlings would not fill up the green orb. But there was no penalty.
Fifthly, without using a hoe, using other tools, including pulling weeds by hand, would also fill up the green orb.
Based on the above, Li Siwen made the following decision: Pursue quantity but quality. The key to quality weeding was the hoe.
If a worker wanted to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools.
Sharpening his hoe with a small stone did not attract the attention of the other nine farmers. After all, they were not on the same field.
Li Siwen squatted on the ground, taking advantage of his mealtime, and spent five minutes sharpening his hoe. This made the hoe a little more decent. He couldn't ask for too much.
Then, he started weeding with a slight increase between motions and strength. He tried to increase the inertia of the hoe-swinging as much as possible. He cut and rooted every weed without being too greedy.
As a result, his weeding speed slowed down a lot. But the green orb filled up twice as quickly as usual.
Of course, there was still a problem in doing this. Would the Feudal Lord be suspicious because he was too slow?
"I'll use more strength, then."
Li Siwen chose the easiest method. But this method was very taxing on his Stamina. It was only 9:30 AM and his Stamina had dropped by 5.
In the past, he would only consume 5 points in the morning. After a rest at noon, his Stamina would recover to 8 points. In the afternoon, another 6 points of his Stamina would be consumed.
With 2 points left, he would usually be exhausted. Here, it was often necessary to replenish with food and an entire night of rest before his Stamina would recover to 10 points. If he was woken up several times a night, or if he did anything else, his Stamina would not recover completely.
Stamina was what Li Siwen valued most in these couple of days. He did not let his guard down just because he was digitized.
According to his calculations, the consumption and recovery of these 10 points of Stamina were no different from ordinary adults.
Which meant digitization did not give people convenience or advantage. People still got tired when they worked and injured when hurt. When they were bitten by a mosquito, it was still as itchy.
Li Siwen looked up at the direction of the territory, took out his rations and water gourd, and sat down to rest. The 5 points of Stamina was a dividing line. Before his Stamina dropped to 5 points, he only felt a little tired. Even though his Stamina recovered between the gaps of rest periods, if he did not eat, drink, or sit down to rest, once his Stamina dropped below 5 points, fatigue would weigh on his entire body like lead. He would feel weak from the inside and it was absolutely impossible to appear well and alert.
After eating the rations at noon, and resting for another half an hour, Li Siwen's Stamina quickly recovered to 8 points. At this time, he only fell slightly behind the other farmers. It was not too obvious. When the Feudal Lord came to inspect between 10 AM to 11 AM, if he didn't have any background data records to look through, he would find nothing amiss.
Li Siwen took a deep breath and began to weed at his usual pace. With his current speed, he would definitely not make it until the evening. When he finished work in the evening, he would be exposed because of having covered too little an area. Even though he had deliberately weeded one-tenth of an acre more, it would not make up for today's deficit.
However, what if he filled up the green orb, got another Vitality Point, and added it to Stamina?
This was his plan. It was not perfect, but the success rate should be quite high.
At 10 AM in the morning, the Feudal Lord appeared as usual. He said nothing and only paused for a few seconds at the wheat field where each farmer was weeding.
In just a few seconds, Li Siwen was so nervous his heart was in his mouth.
Then, nothing happened. The Feudal Lord didn't even look at him or the sparse wheat seedlings in the wheat field. He should have a means to know the progress and quality of weeding at a glance. Of course, the results would only be shown when the wheat was harvested. After all, for newly cultivated land, sudden high-quality weeding was insignificant to the entire process of cultivation, management, and harvesting.
"The answer will be revealed tonight," Li Siwen mumbled in his heart silently when the unsmiling Feudal Lord left.
If his former conjecture was right, there was a high probability that the Feudal Lord would have noticed him. Of course, his identity would not be exposed. He might be appreciated and rewarded. After all, although the total area of weeding was small, the quality doubled.
If his latter conjecture was right, he would not need to worry about anything. Fifty acres of land was divided into twelve areas, and the ten farmers were not at fixed locations.
Even if autumn arrived and the harvest of a certain wheat field was a little better, there was no way to trace the source.
Of course, there was another possibility. That was, the Feudal Lord would not pay attention to these details at all. As a leader who had to manage the territory and many other matters, if he dealt everything to such a detailed level, his overall workload would be so great that just the thought of it made Li Siwen want to collapse.
Resting at noon, Li Siwen, who had already eaten in advance, only recovered his Stamina to 6 points even though he rested for a full hour.
In the blazing afternoon, consumption of his Stamina would increase. Coupled with hunger, even if he did nothing, his Stamina would decrease.
In addition, Li Siwen had to ensure he had 2 points of Stamina left. Although he didn't know the consequences of depleting his Stamina, he knew what physical exhaustion was like in reality.
If it was minor, he would get a heatstroke. If it was serious, he would hurt his body. If it deducted his Health Points as a result, or if he fell ill, it would not be worth the gain.
Hence, he could only use 3 points of Stamina—three points less than other farmers.
Fortunately, this was enough.
Taking advantage of the noon break, Li Siwen, who had sharpened his hoe over and over again with a stone, walked into the wheat field confidently. HE could almost guarantee that he would catch up with the progress of other farmers when the Feudal Lord came to inspect around 5 PM. Even if he fell behind by little, it wouldn't matter.
-- Hadiah diterima