Chapter 205: Vision and Pattern
The couple finished their cakes, paid the bill, and rode their horses to the restaurant.
After the carriage was settled in the restaurant, Liu Ji saw that there was no one around, so he told Qin Yao about his findings in the examination room.
"So, you will definitely be on the list this time?" Qin Yao was a little surprised. Who was so generous?
But this was not something that a commoner like her could know. The key now was whether Liu Ji could make the list after taking the exam again.
In fact, Liu Ji didn't dare to guarantee the results before the list was released. We would only know after the list was released.
"When will the results be released?" Qin Yao asked.
This is fast. Liu Ji said: "After the exam today, the results will be announced the day after tomorrow."
Qin Yao glanced at the bustling restaurant lobby and said, "Then wait another two days."
This was also what Liu Ji meant, so that he wouldn't have to run back and forth.
"Then will you live here for the next few days?" Liu Ji pointed at the carriage, wanting to persuade her to get a room upstairs so that he could enjoy himself.
Unfortunately, Qin Yao did not plan to do so. "The carriage is quite good."
Liu Ji had to put aside his thoughts and asked about the magical bookcases she was selling, "Madam, have you come up with a new way to make money?"
Qin Yao glanced at him unhappily and said, "I told you that you don't need to worry about the family affairs. Anyway, you won't lack food and clothes."
Liu Ji smiled flatteringly, "I am just concerned about you, my lady. You are so busy, you must be tired, right? How about we go out of the city for a walk and relax for a few days?"
Qin Yao frowned, "You asked me out?"
Liu Ji was stunned. What date? But he subconsciously agreed with her and said, "Yes, I want to invite you to go outing."
Qin Yao snorted in disdain, "Get lost!"
"Then where are you going?" Liu Ji not only did not leave, but instead stuck to her when he saw her unloading the carriage.
He has no money now, and if he wants to live a good life, he can only cling to the thigh in front of him.
Qin Yao asked the kitchen apprentice to help her look after the carriage, and walked out of the back door of the restaurant with the horse, "Let's go to the outskirts of the city."
Liu Ji was delighted. "This is just an outing. It's a good time for everything to come back to life."
Qin Yao turned around and said coldly: "You don't know anything about the insect infestation this year."
Liu Ji asked blankly: "What kind of pests?"
As soon as Qin Yao raised her chin, Liu Ji climbed onto the horse's back consciously, sat in the front, and clenched the reins with both hands, feeling a little excited and a little nervous.
The person behind him turned over swiftly and sat steadily behind him.
A hand tapped his back, "Get down!", blocking her view.
"Oh." Liu Ji was already used to it, so he bent down obediently and hugged the horse's neck.
Qin Yao kicked the horse's belly, and Lao Huang carried the two of them out of the city gate and came to the farm outside the city.
Outside Kaiyang County, all along the official road, there are fertile fields.
The wheat harvest is now coming to an end. At a glance, the ground is all black and gray, which are the traces left by the tenant farmers burning the wheat straw.
The horse slowed down, and Liu Ji dared to raise his head.
I was sitting in the carriage when I came here, and my mind was full of things like reexamination, so I really didn't pay attention to the wheat harvest situation this year.
At this moment, even though he rarely worked in the fields, he could tell something was wrong. "Why are so many straws being burned?"
Wouldn't it be good to keep it for making fire at home?
He remembered that in previous years, the remaining piles were burned to fertilize the fields and make it easier to plow the fields during the spring ploughing.
Qin Yao turned over and got off the horse. Liu Ji also quickly slid off the horse's back and followed her to the nearest acre of wheat field.
Qin Yao squatted down and grabbed a handful of wheat straw that had not been completely burned. The wheat ears were clearly visible.
In primitive farming methods, without insect repellent pesticides, the only solution farmers could think of was to burn the insect-infested land to kill the insects.
Even the ears of wheat were burned, which shows that there was almost no harvest of wheat in this acre of land, and it was also seriously damaged by insect pests.
Liu Ji was shocked, and then he looked at the large black and gray wheat fields in front of him. They were all burned. Could it be that no grain was harvested from these wheat fields?
Because there was a bumper harvest last autumn, the tenant farmers also wanted to take care of the land, so they did not plant wheat on all the land. The gray and black color was scattered all over the farm, and it did not look as frightening from a distance as it did up close.
But if there is no wheat yield this season, the tenant farmers will probably have a hard time surviving until the next autumn harvest.
Liu Ji suddenly remembered the old man Liu's worries and weakly poked Qin Yao's arm. "Madam, do you think there will be no locust plague this year?"
Qin Yao said firmly: "We don't do that here."
The tenant farmers in Kaiyang County dealt with the pests in a timely and thorough manner, and were willing to burn everything, so the situation was under control.
Although there will be a small wave of famine in May and June, Kaiyang County should still have enough stored grain for disaster relief.
The food crisis will be resolved after the autumn harvest in mid-to-late July.
But this kind of thing has never been fully predictable. Just because it is not serious locally does not mean it is not serious in Lin County.
Qin Yao brushed off the ashes on her hands, stood up, and said to Liu Ji: "Thank Princess Huiyang. If it weren't for the princess' marriage, the war would have continued and the grain reserves in Zijing Mansion would have been completely lost."
Liu Ji habitually responded, "Yes, yes, yes."
But after he finished answering, he couldn't help but mutter, "My classmates all said that only a weak country would agree to such a humiliating thing as a marriage alliance."
Qin Yao's brows, which had just relaxed slightly, instantly frowned. She turned back and glanced at Liu Ji, "Do your classmates all say that?"
Liu Ji was not sure what her position was, so he quickly distanced himself from her, "They said so, I never said that."
After she finished speaking, he saw a sneer on her face that he didn't know whether it was contempt or something else. "It seems that you scholars have read so much that you have become dog stomachs!"
Liu Ji said weakly: "Can you please not use 'you'? I didn't say that, okay?"
"If you didn't agree, you wouldn't have let me hear what you said just now." Qin Yao sneered, "You scholars, your vision is so narrow that it shocks me."
Liu Ji was not convinced by this. He bowed to Qin Yao and said in a very aggressive tone: "Please teach me, my lady!"
He wanted to hear how broad her vision and perspective were.
Qin Yao didn't want to say more to a loser like him, but then she thought that it would be necessary to cultivate his political sensitivity in the future when he would take the imperial examination and pursue a career in government. She took a deep breath, suppressed her dissatisfaction, motioned for him to lead the horse, and walked towards the county town while saying:
"If you were the one in Kyoto, and you had just ended decades of war and established a unified country, what do you think would be the next step?"
Liu Ji did not answer, because his answer was to recruit beauties from all over the world into the palace, live a carefree life, and enjoy the ultimate happiness on earth.
However, if he said this, he would definitely die today, so it would be better for him to pretend to be all ears.
As soon as his eyes rolled, Qin Yao knew that he was up to no good. She glanced at him and continued,
"If you want to know what to do next, you have to think back to why the previous chaos occurred."
This idea sounded a bit new. Liu Ji used his brain for a rare moment and tried to recall what had happened in the past.
Unfortunately, this happened in recent years, the historians haven't written about it yet, and my teacher hasn't taught me either, so I don't know where to start.