Lian Ze, ever the curious one, thrust his trowel into the ground. Moments later, he gasped in surprise.
"Sir! I found food!"
Mr. Nan sighed. How could there possibly be food on this scorched earth?
"Well, dig it out carefully," he instructed, shaking his head. "Be gentle with it." After all, the Queen said it was good for students to develop hands-on skills.
Lian Ze sprawled out on the black soil, wiggling his little backside as he dug. Lian Rui winced at the sight—how embarrassing!
"I got it!" Lian Ze exclaimed, holding up a dark, dirt-covered object with both hands like a prized treasure and presenting it to Mr. Nan Lü.
"Mr. Nan, what kind of food is this?"
Mr. Nan glanced at it and immediately shook his head.
"That's not food. That's just a clump of dirt, almost like a rock. If you don't believe me, try tapping it on the ground—it'll break apart."
Lian Ze scrunched up his face in hesitation.
But this was something the Queen had ordered to be planted—how could he just knock it on the ground?
Meanwhile, seeing Lian Ze so engrossed in digging, the other students couldn't hold back any longer. They grabbed their trowels and started digging around the field themselves.
Lian Ze, in his clumsy way, made a bold decision—he bit into it.
"Whoa! It's sweet!" His round eyes widened in astonishment.
Mr. Nan had been busy guiding other students, but upon hearing Lian Ze's exclamation, he turned sharply.
Several students had already gathered around Lian Ze, staring eagerly at the object in his hands. Even Lian Rui was beaming with excitement.
Her little brother was the first to dig up the food the Queen had planted!
"Lian Ze, where did you get that fruit?" Mr. Nan Lü asked suspiciously.
In Lian Ze's hands was an oddly dark, rough-skinned object. The part where he had bitten revealed a pale, juicy flesh, with a faint aroma wafting into the air. Juice dripped onto Lian Ze's fingers as he took another large bite, careful not to hurt his teeth.
The other students couldn't help but swallow their saliva.
"This is what you called a rock, sir," Lian Ze declared proudly, lifting the partially eaten sweet yam high in the air. "And it's sweet!"
Mr. Nan Lü was in disbelief.
How could food grow on scorched earth?
He had studied extensively and had never heard of any crops thriving in such barren soil. Throughout history, only the untouched lands of the Winged Tiger Tribe were known to be fertile enough for cultivation—this had never changed for thousands of years.
"Sir, I found a big rock too!"
"I found one as well!"
"Sir, look at this—"
One excited voice after another rang out as the children eagerly dug into the soil, their discoveries multiplying.
Mr. Nan no longer had time to question why scorched earth could now produce food.
He took the fruit from Lian Ze's hands and compared it with the ones the other students had dug up. Aside from some size differences, they all looked nearly identical.
Suppressing his inner shock and excitement, Mr. Nan Lü forced himself to remain composed.
"Keep digging," he instructed. "I'll request permission from the Queen for you all to taste these."
Sure enough, as soon as he spoke, the students enthusiastically buried themselves in their work, trowels scraping through the soil with renewed vigor.
With the soldiers assisting in transportation, the teachers and students managed to harvest nearly 500 catties (about 250 kilograms) of sweet yams in just half a day—and that was only from half of the enclosed field!
Still, with so much left unharvested, Mr. Nan Lü felt uneasy. He asked the soldiers to pass a message to the Queen, seeking approval for the students to taste the fruit.
Half an hour later, the soldier returned with a reply.
"The Queen said that Lord Teng She will oversee the field at night, so there is no need to worry. Also, every student who participated in the labor may receive two sweet yams per day."
So it's called sweet yam?
Mr. Nan Lü wasn't familiar with the name, but since the Queen even knew what it was called, it confirmed that she had indeed been the one to plant them.
His emotions were complicated.
The Queen was a human princess, and at first, everyone had assumed that she—being from the royal family—would be delicate and unable to endure the hardships of demon life.
But she had defied all expectations.
From the moment she arrived, she had embraced the demons as her people. She had long been planning for their future, even thinking ahead to cultivating food.
But where had she obtained the seeds?
And how did she manage to make crops grow on scorched earth?
If the other Demon Kings found out, the consequences would be unimaginable.