The rice seedlings from before had become nutrients, though it was unknown how they had rotted away so quickly, and by the time the rice seedlings were ripe, the ones previously spread on the ground had vanished.
This cycle repeated continuously, making it very convenient for her to manage her affairs. As she aged, the soil in her secret space had increased somewhat, aside from secretly moving some of the stored rice into the underground storehouse beneath the room.
She wouldn’t be so foolish as to move all the rice outside. Perhaps she was affected by seeing this poor household when she was born, having experienced hunger in her childhood.
She always felt that food was the most important thing in this era, even more so than money.
She also processed many harvested rice grains into rice, and every time she went to the estate, she would secretly transform the rice bran onto the ox carts.
Her family would also cover for her, feeding it to the livestock and poultry.
Not only did she place the spiritual water of the space in the estate’s ponds or wells, but the poultry and livestock that consumed the bran produced in her space bred very quickly.
Especially the poultry, as the hens laid many eggs, and the chicks hatched were not only robust and grew quickly but also in large numbers.
Even the dogs, sheep, and such, including pigs, grew faster than those raised by ordinary people, and the sows bore more offspring.
Ye’s Mansion was extraordinary, but others only thought that they had experience, and that the estate was a treasured land.
Perhaps their ancestors’ graves were located on a feng shui treasure land, blessing their descendants with prosperity and health.
Ye Shiqi felt helpless about wasting such an excellent space solely for growing rice.
Both her parents lived in this small place, with no relatives or friends elsewhere.
Not to mention valuable herbal seeds, she didn’t even have ordinary medicinal plants like earth ginseng.
She was not so greedy; she could raise honeybees and sell honey. The rice cultivated in her space kept her family healthy; at her young age, she really couldn’t do much else.
Ye Shiqi already knew she had exposed too much, but she had no choice, as her family was so poor. If she did not help out, only her mother and elder sisters would suffer.
Ever since discovering another transmigrator, she became even more cautious, unaware of how many transmigrators there were in the world of this book.
One must guard against others as long as one harbors no harm.
Hiding in this mountain village could still lead others to discover her secret, continuously targeting her.
Ye Shiqi knew she had been too careless in exposing her space.
There weren’t stronger villains here, and she felt fortunate; if a villain knew about this space and used her for malicious deeds,
to do harm to others, it wasn’t something she could control.
Her parents were just ordinary peasants, slightly wealthy but without a strong backing.
Although Ye Shiqi harbored no greater ambition, she still needed to become stronger to live better here. If the chance arose, she must become stronger.
Previously, she had asked the teacher’s brother to help keep an eye out for seeds in Capital City.
The teacher’s brother indeed had some medicinal seeds sent to her, but they were just ordinary medicinal seeds named Bull Power.
They could be grown in dry land, and she was currently cultivating them on the estate, with plans to buy some land next year specifically for cultivating medicinal plants.
Ye Shiqi also heard that this Bull Power would not yield results if planted for just a year or two.
If one lacked patience and didn’t cultivate them well, it could even lead to financial loss.
Ye Shiqi, possibly still in Bushen Village for the next three to five years, thought it feasible for her family to buy some more land and hills to cultivate medicinal herbs.
When she came up with the idea, she also eyed a small mountain and some poor-quality land not far from her estate. These lands produced low-yield rice but were indeed suitable for growing medicinal herbs. If well-managed, cultivating Bull Power for five years wouldn’t incur losses.
Ye Shiqi wasn’t sure if this place could cultivate ginseng or Wild Ginseng, Lingzhi, and the like.
However, Bull Power could definitely be cultivated there, thriving vigorously without needing much water.
The weather in the Southern region was very suitable for its cultivation, as it was a heat-resistant medicinal plant.
Ever since she began cultivating chrysanthemums and honeysuckle in her space, which could support beekeeping, Ye Shiqi thought of also planting these in the herbal garden—not only could they support beekeeping, but she could also sell these medicinal flowers.
After having these medicinal plant seedlings delivered to her home, she heard that such plants needed five years to produce a good yield.
Hongji hesitated at first, as they had just built an estate on the mountain but had not yet invested in planting fruit trees.
His daughter had started thinking about planting medicinal herbs again, involving buying more land and mountains. This step seemed too big, and he worried that a five-year crop might not only fail to recoup the initial investment but also lose the money spent on labor and land purchases.
His hesitation was not without reason; Hongji’s mother was the first to object.
"Got too much money and nowhere to put it, have you? Always listening to this little one propose this and that, who knows if you can even make your money back. If the investment fails, wouldn’t it all have been for nothing? It’s better to store the money in the Silver Bank, earning interest each year isn’t so bad."
Mrs. Lai said this, but in reality, she had already saved quite a sum, yet she dared not keep it there for fear that the bank might collapse and the owner would abscond with the money.
Indeed, many banks were privately run, without any security in that regard.
Hongji’s father also opposed, persuading his son that it was better to buy land for growing rice. Medicinal herbs and such were too difficult to manage.