“An auspicious apparition for sure,” I said to my husband with a fond chuckle.
“That’s what he looks like?” He was staring raptly at the illusory dragon flying above us.
“Yep, he’s really adorable!”
We stood there with our arms around each other’s waists until the dragon disappeared into the clouds. I placed floodlights all over the planting area while I waited to see if my dragon would return.
“Shall we return to the house or fly around to check the farm?” Prince Baiyu asked after an hour.
“Hmm, I think I’d like to check the area.” I looked up again to confirm that my little dragon was no longer visible. “Things are looking good, but I’d like a closer look.
We flew low, around ten feet off the ground, circling fields, criss-crossing over the ponds, and landing on Skyfang Hill.
By this time, the tallest trees were now well over twenty feet tall, with varying degrees of canopy thickness. Some had broad, bushy crowns, and others were slender and almost skeletal. Thankfully, there were no signs of disease or pests.
Prince Baiyu helped me add water to some of the cultivation boxes for the saplings that seemed to need it, but otherwise, the trees didn’t seem to need any help.
In some places, the grass had grown shoulder high, and I used a [Scythe] to trim them, leaving the cuttings on the ground to cover it like a mulch, which should help the soil retain moisture.
“It’s almost noon,” I said. “Let’s go back to the house.”
My Cash Shop item theoretically always kept me at a comfortable temperature, but somehow I still felt better when the environmental temperature wasn’t too high. Perhaps it was psychological, because it was weird to feel cool when the sun was high and heat waves were dancing above the grass.
We returned to find that the midwife had determined that Yinuo was hours from giving birth. She was to stay inside her courtyard while Fengying took over her duties. Deming came with her, of course.
After lunch, Prince Baiyu and I sent Yinuo, via her family, a ton of simple gifts like cloth for diapers, and other baby things like a soft blanket, baby pillows, etc. The most useful one was a special [Diaper Washer] I installed in the outer courtyard’s utility side room, where the maids did the laundry.
[Diaper Washer:
Put in the dirty diapers. Press the Start button. After five minutes, clean diapers can be taken out.]
Fengying smiled. In the old days, this would’ve made the lines around her eyes deeper, but these days her face had no more wrinkles. “Everyone is overjoyed at not having to wash diapers. This is a godsend.”
She showed me the wooden pail with a lid that they would use to transport the soiled cloth from Yinuo’s courtyard, and we picked which laundry detergent to use. I wanted the “fresh breeze” one, but Fengying and the maid suggested that we use the stronger-smelling “herbal fragrance” powder, while Prince Baiyu objected and wanted to try the “sandalwood burst,” which he considered the most elegant one. In the end, we tried all three, plus an unscented detergent, and sent them to Yinuo for approval. She chose the unscented one.
Thus, the afternoon was spent in the minutiae of household matters.
***
The [Zebu], [Merino], [Goats], [Quail], and [Guinea Fowl] hatched without any problems two days later. I made sure the automatic water trough was filling up with water correctly and loaded up the feeder with [Animal Feed]. The animals should be able to graze outside after three to five weeks, depending on their individual growth rates.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
This reminded me of the [Perfectly Ordinary Prairie Chickens] we had raised here. They would have been a huge success because of their hardiness, but, alas, the common people were not ready to embrace the idea of raising invisible chickens.
“I wonder how the [Perfectly Ordinary Prairie Chickens] are now,” I said.
“They’re thriving, but the people who live nearby keep complaining about invisible menaces.” He cleared his throat and looked very worried. “My dear, you’re not thinking of raising them here, are you? I’d never be able to sleep not knowing if there’s an invisible chicken lurking around somewhere.”
“You’re a peak-level cultivation expert! There’s no way a chicken could harm you.”
“I still wouldn’t enjoy being attacked by an unseen lurker…”
“Okay.” I patted his shoulder.
We then flew to the other side of Skyfang Hill, where I dug a few more ponds using the System’s topographical map interface that showed lower-lying places where water should pool when it rained.
Then, in other places where it seemed the ground was relatively more fertile, I used my [Hoe] to till a few tiles and spread [Mysterious Goo] over them. I was not surprised when I got a System pop-up when I took out a packet of [Wild Seed Mix] from my inventory. The message I got was similar to the time the System turned my [Wild Seed Mix] into [Ancient Forest Hill Seed Mix].
[Free upgrade available: Would you like to turn the [Wild Seed Mix] into the [Blossom Valley Seed Mix] that is composed of local wild seeds?]
Blossom Valley was the name of the area at the foot of Skyfang Hill.
This was too good to pass up, so I immediately took 999 [Wild Seed Mix] packets and converted them.
[Blossom Valley Seed Mix:
A mixture of wild seeds native to the valley. It includes specialized local varieties of wildflowers to promote soil health, resilient grasses to provide groundcover, legumes to enhance earth quality, and hardy native shrubs to provide permanent soil stability and essential year-round structure.]
I planted a seed and placed a [Dendrological Cultivation Chamber] over it.
Prince Baiyu then used a funnel and pitcher of water from the well at Emberstone Farm to fill the cultivation box with water.
We worked in silence like this for two hours until I was out of energy. By the end of it, my back was hurting a bit, so I was glad to return to the house to soak in the hot spring.
“Do you want a massage?” asked Prince Baiyu after our bath.
“Oh, you spoil me too much.”
“I enjoy it.”
“So do I.” I put my arms around him and luxuriated in the feeling of having found a home for myself in this world. “Yes, please massage my back for me. I’ll massage yours, too.”
***
The next day, Yinuo’s contractions started, and she delivered a lovely baby boy after two hours. Now she and her baby were in seclusion and would remain so for the next thirty to forty days, depending on what the doctor recommended.
The doctor, to my surprise, was male.
“What!?” I turned to my housekeeper, wide-eyed with shock. “No way! Surely a female doctor would be better?”
“He’s not a midwife. He checks the mother and baby’s qi for any fluctuations. Then, if needed, he brews the potions they need,” Fengying explained. “He’s a doctor-alchemist.”
“Oh.”
“He’s the best.”
“Okay. I guess I should meet him.”
The reason I was concerned was that he was the one Prince Baiyu wanted to consult during my own lying-in period. Apparently, he was taking care of Lady Yuying, too. He was a busy man who traveled via portals every day to examine newborns and their mothers.
His fee was astronomical.
Fengying stayed with me, along with a maid, to serve tea to the old doctor who arrived at my courtyard. Prince Baiyu, who had met him at the portal, walked in with him. Doctor Yu was white-haired like many White Tiger clan members, but his hair color was the white of old age. However, despite his many wrinkles and stooped shoulders, his voice was strong and his eyes were bright with intelligence.
After the customary greetings and tea, we got down to business. Fengying spread a white cloth on the table, and I put my arm down on it, palm up. She then placed another small white cloth over my bare wrist, and Doctor Yu took my pulse by placing two fingers on the cloth. It was all very genteel.
He took his time, humming a little under his breath, with a look of intense concentration on his face. When he took his fingers off my wrist, Fengying removed the cloth, and I drew my arm back to my side.
“Wonderful. Princess, you’re in excellent health. I admit I couldn’t sense your baby’s pulse, but that’s to be expected.” He took out a little notebook from his sleeve and jotted down some notes in it.
Naturally, we had told him everything about my little dragon child.
“Because of the weather here, you should drink more water. Avoid excessive heat, and limit your intake of preserved food.”
Prince Baiyu, Fengying, and I kept nodding as he listed a bunch of dos and don'ts, most of them simply common sense, except for one final admonition.
He coughed into his hand. “Nighttime activities should be more gentle and less… strenuous.”
I couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
Prince Baiyu shot me a reproachful look. “Yes, doctor, we’ll keep that in mind.”
I was still laughing when he escorted the doctor out of the house.
*****
Author's Note:
- "Strenuous" he said.??????
- Advanced chapters on my Patreon!
- Thank you very much for reading.
- Please let me know if there are any errors.