The next morning, when Li Xiaobao got up, the Sun was already high. He felt that he had slept very deeply, for in his dreams he saw a continuously spinning Five Elements Space within his body.
The Five Elemental Space showed the colors of the five attributes: Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth.
Li Xiaobao immediately understood. It seemed that when he had been treating his father's legs, he had used the Wood Element Spiritual Energy from the Wood Element Space.
"Mom, I'm hungry."
After getting up, Li Xiaobao called out to the yard and then went out to wash up.
By the time he finished washing up, there were already two dishes on the table.
"Huh, there's meat today?"
Li Xiaobao, seeing the bowl of chicken placed on the table by his mother, instantly became excited and started wolfing down the meal with his chopsticks.
"Eat slower."
Watching Li Xiaobao devour his food, his mother sighed softly. Her eldest son was rarely by her side; she now depended on this younger son.
"Mom, where are dad and my sister-in-law?"
Li Xiaobao noticed that his father was nowhere to be seen early in the morning. As for Zhou Cuihua, he knew she must have gone down to the fields early.
"Xiaobao, do you realize that the treatment you gave your father for his legs yesterday, although not completely healed, has seen significant improvement? He went to the market early today."
Luo Guiying looked at him with great satisfaction.
Li Xiaobao nodded thoughtfully.
After gobbling down his food, Li Xiaobao didn't dwell on Li Detian's condition. Although Luo Guiying said that Li Detian's legs were better, Li Xiaobao knew that it was only a slight improvement and he would still need crutches for a while.
"Ah! Xiaobao, where are you going?"
Seeing Li Xiaobao dressed and heading out, Luo Guiying followed him. She had a restless night after Li Xiaobao massaged Li Detian and passed out inexplicably.
"I'm going to check on the fields," said Li Xiaobao, leaving the sentence hanging as he stepped out the front gate.
After leaving the front gate, Li Xiaobao carefully looked around, noticing that Zhang Ling's house door was tightly shut.
As for Little Erhei? Li Xiaobao inquired and learned that after returning last night, he had taken a few people and left the village overnight, whereabouts unknown.
"You got lucky this time, Little Erhei. A gentleman always seeks revenge; wait for it! I refuse to believe you won't come back!"
It was almost noon, with the scorching Sun overhead. The rice in the fields seemed parched, drooping sadly, while Zhou Cuihua was busy working on a distant plot.
Unable to locate Little Erhei, Li Xiaobao thought about Zhou Cuihua's plans for irrigation today. Kao Mountain Village has only one river, and their fields were unfortunately not near it, being squeezed between several other households' lands.
"Wouldn't relying on carrying water by hand to irrigate the fields be exhausting?" Standing by the riverbank, Li Xiaobao looked at Zhou Cuihua working in the fields from afar, feeling somewhat ashamed.
"Xiaobao, what brings you to the fields today?" asked Third Elder Zhao, who was working in the fields, straightening his back and looking towards Li Xiaobao.
"Just taking a casual look," replied Li Xiaobao.
Li Xiaobao responded indifferently and slowly made his way toward his family's land.
Third Elder Zhao was mean and extremely jealous. Just last year, over the matter of drawing water for irrigation, he almost got into a fight with Li. If his own father's legs had been fine, would Third Elder Zhao have dared to act so arrogantly? Wasn't it just because Li's family depended solely on him for labor right now?
"Xiaobao, I think your family's field should be watered by now. If you don't irrigate it, your whole family might have to face the harsh northwest winds next year."
Third Elder Zhao joked as he looked at Li Xiaobao.
"Third Elder Zhao, you might as well not bother about them. They've been to school, they can read and write, drinking northwest winds all day doesn't bother them at all."
"Haha, that's right! Xiaobao has been growing up on northwest winds since he was a kid, he doesn't even know how to grow rice."
"Haha, well said!"
Upon hearing Third Elder Zhao's words, the villagers who were busy in the fields burst into hearty laughter, constantly mocking Li Xiaobao.
"What are you all saying?" Zhou Cuihua, who was working in the field, had her face darken immediately when she heard those words, and cast a cold glance at them as she came over and took Li Xiaobao's hand, "Xiaobao, don't mind them."
Indeed, the reason why those people mocked Li Xiaobao with such sarcasm was because they were jealous of how well the Li family's land was farmed. Even though it was solely managed by Zhou Cuihua, the yield was no less than theirs every year.
"Xiaobao, I think you'd better start carrying water soon, or if the rice in your field really dries up, it will be too late."
Some villagers couldn't stand Third Elder Zhao's behavior and reminded Li Xiaobao, given that they were from the same community and their relationship with him was not bad.
"No need, our rice will grow better than certain people's even without watering."
Li Xiaobao couldn't take Third Elder Zhao's words anymore and chuckled as he followed Zhou Cuihua toward his own field.
"Humph! He really thinks he's still at school?" Upon hearing this, Third Elder Zhao immediately snorted in contempt.
"Enough already, just say less." Seeing Li Xiaobao already walking away, and yet Third Elder Zhao was relentless, his wife couldn't help but speak up.
"Hey, you dare speak to me like this, you wretched wife?" Third Elder Zhao glared at her threateningly, scaring his wife into immediately bending down and resuming her work diligently.
"Xiaobao, just sit here for a while, wait until I'm done, and we'll go home together." Zhou Cuihua didn't want Li Xiaobao to do the fieldwork, so she wiped the sweat from her face and said to him.
Seeing the sweat on Zhou Cuihua's face, Li Xiaobao felt somewhat ashamed in his heart, but before he could say anything, Zhou Cuihua was already back in her original place, continuing to work.
"Ah!" Li Xiaobao sighed as he watched Zhou Cuihua's retreating figure, slowly squatting down, gently stroking the rice plants of his family with one hand, and thought to himself, "If only there was a way to grow rice without having to irrigate, that would be so great."
To Li Xiaobao's surprise, as these thoughts ran through his mind, the Five Elemental Space within his body began to shift toward his palm, covering his entire palm with a light layer of green.
Then, Li Xiaobao watched as the green spiritual energy in his hands slowly gathered toward the field, forming a thin green film over his own land.
The green film covered the ground and then instantly seeped into the soil and disappeared.
At that moment, Zhou Cuihua, who was toiling in the field, suddenly felt a pleasant coolness, and the temperature dropped by several degrees.
"I understand now, so that's how it is!"
Li Xiaobao, watching the swiftly disappearing green spiritual energy, knew it must be the Wood Element Spiritual Energy from the Five Elemental Space within him.
"Let's do it again!"
The vanishing spiritual energy greatly bolstered Li Xiaobao's spirits. Just as he was about to try again, he suddenly felt the world spinning and collapsed once more.