Capítulo 10: Imprisoned in my own head

Jiushu only turned to the field after she had finished her breakfast, unnecessary self adulation and a little more wool gathering. For a moment, she stood there silently. Gaping at the field with overgrown plants.

'What the.. *****' are the only thoughts in her mind.

She ran to the field to double check.

Her gold thread is growing normally, only the plant is far bigger than the one she plucked out.

Each one of the horizontally cut tubers sprouted, while vertically cut tubers did not. Only, spearmint is one of the plants she planted. This plant grew like a weed and covered ground like a weed too. Amaranth grew wildly on one side, while spearmint grew wildly on otherside. The rest of the mountain vegetables barely moved from the place they were at.

Jiushu sighed.

She should have known. Some plants, just because they are valuable at groceries doesn't mean they are rare or tough to grow. It's probably transportation and human capital that actually makes them pricey. Perhaps, it's plain profiteering in play, for the demand is small, and if they provide in excess they won't make money.

All the same, she started from the gold thread and pulled it out.

'Congratulations! You have planted and harvested a crop all on your own. Custom crop attributes are activated.'

Jiushu stared at the words blankly, before shrugging them off and continuing to work.

She has activated a few more things enroute, tagging a plant when she pulled amaranthus, harvesting a plant remotely when she pulled out spearmint. Rest of the vegetables did not activate anything, including the wild garlic. For the next turn, she planted only garlic cloves. Nothing else. If they survive, great, if they don't, well, at least she tried. This particular one, she knew beyond doubt, for her mother raised one in a pot.

Unfortunately, she was unable to secure an onion before getting locked in here. After all, she never expected herself to get locked in like this, and now, all she has are wild vegetables and rice without even salt. A greater torture couldn't exist. She bet she would not be able to so much as bear a kernel of salt after going outside, if it ever happens.

For now though, she should at least be thankful she has enough to eat, and nothing to do. In the normal world, if she had time like this, she would binge watch asian dramas, american dramas if and when all are over, film history starting from seventies to current year. Unfortunately, she is stuck here, in this world with rice and wild vegetables for a meal, all steamed without a drop of oil.

She liked fried chicken above all, fried pork cutlet after that.. She had, once upon a time, rightfully vowed to herself she would rather die than live on tasteless food. Yet, here she is, stuck in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but buddhist monk meals. The only reason that kept from taking her own life is that it's cowards way out.

Jiushu is many things, but a coward, she is not. She may not be a daredevil, but she has never rightly felt fear, even when watching the most horrific of horror movies. Yet another way that fails her from being a heroine. She has been a little outsider in her class, half by choice, half by getting shunned. She is by no means a victim of bullying, for all those bullies learned soon while she may be silent, she is by not weak. Above that, teachers watch students with good grades diligently, in one manner or another…

Jiushu stared blankly at the field. Field has a recuperation time of thirty minutes between crop to crop. Just now, she has reminisced her entire life, her philosophy on living … the field is still not active. Jiushu wondered what else she could think about to pass time. Hmm….

She once read an article about an american journalist who kept his sanity by counting ants crawling through the window while he is kept prisoner by terrorists. It did not sound particularly sane to her, and she dearly hated counting. That is why she did not become an accountant, but an engineer.

Now that counting ants is passed, what else remains?

She wondered.

…

Make a food wish list!

She made a food wishlist during her brief stint with diet, which, needless to say, ended in great fiasco for she started eating like crazy after she stopped. It is said one who lives infinitely will run the risk of getting imprisoned infinitely. Right now, her best case is rescued tomorrow, worst case is.. Getting imprisoned infinitely.. Thus, a food wishlist it will be.

Noodles, pork chops, stir fried veggies

Fried chicken, coca cola, sauce beef..

Pizza, meat balls, royal jelly, and moon cakes..

…

Buddha jumps over the wall,

Hot pot! Mild, spicy and in-between.

Peanut bread, cupcake, honey cake ..

….

Yogurt cake, chocolate cake, tiramisu,

Donuts, curry bread, garlic bread,

Wasabi peas, spicy beans, sweet sesame..

On and on it went.. Long before it can go onwards with no rhyme or rhythm, the field is recuperated enough and started up. Jiushu smiled at that. She planted rice this time. Then, continued on her food wish list. After about an hour, she had barely finished, after listing all specialties from Xinjiang to Hong Kong. She added the dishes from Korea, Thailand and Japan as a bonus. After all, many of those dishes could be cooked with local vegetables or seafood.

Then she thought some more, and added steak, salad and Italian wedding cake. She has no idea what that is, but she vaguely remembered hearing about it in a k-drama, so that made the list too. She has created almost a corridor with all the food items. She walked the width of the field thrice over, even if her letters are only as big as her hand.

Rice is only barely grown. Now that she has her first goal, she should go about what to do once she gets out of the imprisonment. First, she needs to buy the pots. What she has done yesterday is alright, but she has this vague feeling it's not correct. She tried remembering what she knows about the pottery.

There is a round wheel, where people make their pots. She needs to step on clay.. But why? She did not know. The pot she made yesterday is alright, but it by no means looked like what a pot should be. Also, water seems to be leaking from it, provided two or three hours has passed…

If I do not remember, let's see if it works if I follow what the steps said. Since she has nothing else to do, she dug a small pit, put some earth on it, and stepped on it with bare feet. Jiushu understood immediately what's happening with this step. The damned pebbles have to be removed..

She got annoyed when she realized how much work she actually has to do to get the potting soil. Worst of all, she is doing this work without any accompanying devices too. 'This is why man built machines' she grumbled to herself, as she sorted out all the pebbles from the dirt. Even then, within fifteen minutes of stepping on mud, she could feel the discomfort. The smaller sand is cutting into her feet.

Jiushu got out immediately. She did not know about those potters, but she could not do this continuously. She hasn't got the thickskin for it…she came out and stared at the sandy mud she has. If only she has a sieve… though if she truly has a sieve, she will never waste it on straining mud, of all things…

She thought for some time and decided to make a knitted basket out of rice straw. It may not be as good as a jute sieve, but it can indeed take the little pebbles away. There are far too many here otherwise… is that rice getting harvested? … what? Why? Didn't rice take almost half a day to complete? How does it feel like it's completed in two hours? All the same, Jiushu planted only Chinese gold thread this time. Each tuber counted as a seed, and half an acre is sown. It's going to be low yield, but nothing to be done about it.

She continued on her pottery project. She made a rag tag sieve out of weaving with straw. It's by no means half as good as the ones made by village aunties, but it will serve. then … since she has eaten, she will use the same pot as the one to make rice for scooping up mud. Yes, it's unhygienic, but she is not in a position to quibble about hygiene.

The mud is strained. It only has fine sand in it now. Jiushu sat there tiredly, watching the muddy water. For a moment, she closed her eyes, falling asleep sitting. By the time she woke, the water's almost precipitated, creating a soft mud. Looking at it, it dawned on Jiushu.. The documentary she has seen about pottery. They had a pile of bamboo baskets lying around in the corner, along with big and long paddles.

She had wondered then what in the world those baskets are for, as they did not seem to have any use. Now she understood. Those baskets are for straining mud and removing pebbles. Fine clay doesn't let water percolate, and sand, no matter how fine, will let water percolate. She looked at the mud substrate in the trough she dug. Suddenly, it's like light dawned upon her. This substrate still has to be strained. Not a little, but a lot more. This work, it's not going to end today. Thus, she gave up making pottery, ate her rice, and stared into the sky for the rest of the day. When she woke, it's night.

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