Little Ger, Slow Life in Another World

When Yang Dalang arrived home, Miao He’s nervousness rose to the highest. Living under one roof for a long time in the future, this person was the one who was most likely to see through him, so he wouldn’t be able to deal with this situation properly. As Miao He heard the sound of the door opening, his entire body tensed up.

The sounds of footsteps drew closer as if it was in harmony with the pounding of his heart.  The hinges creaked as the door was pushed open.

Mio He had already stopped nibbling on the hard pancake and placed it down. He stared unconsciously at the figure, ready to respond. Unexpectedly, the tall man whose body couldn’t be clearly seen due to awkward backlighting, only glanced at the room and turned back towards the front yard without even entering the room. 

Miao He sighed, but the result wasn’t what he anticipated, and it was as if he was fired up to punch only to hit the cotton. But, the tension in his heart didn’t fade, instead, it piled up more and more, comparable to the feeling of getting keyed up in an interview as the time of your queue dragged longer and longer. Miao He wanted to tip back his head, and stab it with a knife. ‘Lasting and dull pain is worse than short pain.’ 

Remembering the original Miao He’s attitude towards Yang Dalang in his mind, he walked to the door, with only half of his body shown, and said stiffly, “I will pay back the money!” 

Yang Dalang, sitting on his haunches with his back facing Miao He, paused and finally turned around as he heard Miao He’s words. Only then did Miao He saw Yang Dalang clearly which was vague in the original owner’s memory. Yang Dalang was akin to a model in a magazine with his high and thick eyebrows, deep eyes, and facial features correctly placed- it was an astonishing sight. He would definitely look like a modern good looking, rugged man if it weren’t for the hideous scars on his face.　　

However, the praises that he immediately thought of, left him somewhat difficult to speak. “That ah, the money used for my body, I will pay it back!” 

Yang Dalang’s eyebrows wrinkled. He stood up and walked in front of Miao He, condescendingly asking, “What’s the catch?”

Miao He was forced to look up but was tongue-tied by the man’s intimidating height. The height difference of the two was at least one and a half heads apart. If Yang Dalang decided to punch him, he probably wouldn’t be able to stand it, would he? “I…can grow vegetables, and I can pay you back.”

Yang Dalang didn’t utter a single word and just stared at Miao He for a while. Miao He only felt as if he had been scanned over by a laser, goosebumps crawling over his body. Fortunately, in the end, Yang Dalang merely turned around and continued to deal with his prey.

At Yang Dalang’s noncommittal reaction, Miao He breathed a sigh of relief. He just stated that he wanted to pay back the money to reveal his attitude of drawing a clear line between him and Yang Dalang. He basically wanted to seek favor, but Maio He didn’t dare make it as obvious as possible, so he chose this kind of topic with hints of position. This initial step was favorable to his next plan.

Miao He quickly added another sentence, “I won’t run until the payment is over.”

Yang Dalang didn’t even turn his head back this time, “I’ll search for you if you run away again.”　　

Miao He could only laugh hollowly. Dalang’s sentence would have soothed people only if his face was not expressionless. Moreover, the response he got was beyond expectation.

‘Could it be that this person is seriously treating me as his wife? Was he trying to get along with me  and part without hard feelings later?’ 

‘If this is the case, then wouldn’t it be better to reject me now??’

‘Moreover, the original body hates him, but why doesn’t Yang Dalang feel a bit of anger at all?’

As Miao He pondered about it, he saw Yang Dalang got up again, turning his head and frowning at him, “Get inside. Close the door.”

Miao He had some doubts, and when he took a closer look, Yang Dalang was holding a knife, dripping with blood, in his right hand and a bloody roe in the other hand. 

A violent and dense smell of blood quickly assaulted his nostrils!

As a modern young man, he had never seen such a horrid scene before. 

Miao He unconsciously swallowed his saliva and immediately thought of a new plan. 

‘I’m afraid that I should be more practical and get to know him more, before suspecting Yang Dalang out.’

After that, Miao He let out an, “Oh,” and he obediently closed the door to keep the bloody smell in the front yard. After pacing around the room a few times, he took some hard cakes and gnawed on them. He couldn’t calm down, thinking that Yang Dalang’s disposition was only temporary, Miao He decided to swiftly launch his original plan. Grow vegetables! 

That’s right, grow vegetables.

Just now, he said that we would pay back the money once he grew vegetables, and not just for fun.

Miao He trudged to the back room and opened the back door, which was behind this room.

Both the front and rear court of the house was quite large, so large that even if a master’s bedroom was added, there would still be space left. The courtyard was encircled by a quiet high mud wall. Miao He didn’t know if he could ever build such a high wall. This wall was established because the house was considered to be on the village periphery. If there happened to be a wild boar attack, it was likely to become the first one to be attacked.

A shed was built on the left side of the backyard. Under the shed, there was a basin filled with wooden knives and also a few skins laid out in the open to dry in the sun. It must be the place where Yang Dalang makes leather. There was also a little log cabin to store firewood. Arranged on the right side were several large water tanks filled with well-drilled water. Those days, Miao He had taken water from the tank. He stored a few partitions for laundry on weekdays and used the rest of the water for every day’s facial hygiene inside a simple and crude log cabin. In the center of the whole rear yard, there were about seven or eight pings of vacant land, which was enough to be a vegetable plot 

Miao He quietly walked a few steps to the front yard; after confirming that Yang Dalang was still occupied handling the prey, he returned to the corner of the backyard then took out a flower pot made from a broken large bowl and filled it with soil. This was what he had prepared beforehand. The flowerpot was then placed on the ground. Miao He concentrated as he closed his eyes, and reopened them as he finished thinking for a while. Looking down at his palm, he saw a small dumpling-like ball of mud lying at the center that was materialized from nothing.

Miao He named it as living soil. This was also the mystical thing that Miao He had back in the modern world.

This mass of soil originally appeared in Miao He’s dream several years back in his world, and as he was pondering over this matter when he transmigrated, whether it was a miracle or not, the mass of soil magically appeared in his palm again!

At that time, Miao He remembered that he had read some web fiction novels where characters had magic and had the golden finger cheat for cultivation. Naturally, Miao He was very excited and secretly began studying the function of this soil dumpling.

It’s a pity that there was only one ball of soil dumpling. One time Miao He tried to bury the soil dumpling in a flowerpot, unexpectedly the said lump seemed to be dissolved into nothingness in the soil. All Miao He could feel was a mass of energy in the pot. Afterward, he attempted to grow something with this flower pot and soil duo.

Contrary to his expectations, the procedure was actually correct. 

Miao He discovered that if the soil in this flowerpot was planted with vegetables or small fruit seedlings, regardless of the climate, environment, season, and other conditions, it would mature in one day. After the fruits and vegetables bloomed, the time for the re-harvest was mysteriously short. The interval period varied depending on the type of plants. There were times that it only took a few minutes, and some took several hours to bloom again. It was like a vegetable growing simulator in mobile games, quite magical actually.

However, only one plant can enjoy this effect at a time. If more plants were planted in the pot, the later plants would not be as magical as having one plant alone. Therefore, if Miao He wanted to utilize the soil to make a fortune, he must stop for a short while.  After all, the quantity was still too small, and it would be troublesome to conceal this secret if the business grew instantly. At most, Miao He could occasionally grow some high-priced crops such as ginseng. Selling it at the store will earn him a large sum of pocket money, and thus improving his life.

But it wasn’t just that the vegetable plants grown in the soil grew quickly; it also had another advantage.

The quality of the soil-dumpling cultivated seeds resembled like good variety seeds that were also meticulously cared for. The fruits were big and sweet, and the vegetables were insect-resistant and fresh, these kinds of crops were exceptional. The seeds obtained from these crops could produce much better variety crops than the normal seeds even if planted in ordinary soil.

When Miao He came over, he didn’t know whether it was because he got a new body, but the moment he touched the new soil he finally got it. And to his surprise, he also gained a lot of confidence in the matter. This time, he finally succeeded, exactly as aforementioned above.

Based on Miao He’s plan, in the first phase, he would use the magical soil to cultivate varieties of good vegetables. And the seeds of these plants would be planted in an ordinary field as part of the second phase. The quality of the vegetables grown in this way can still be guaranteed to be first-class, and there would be no worries that it would catch unnecessary attention, so it could be exchanged into silvers without a hitch. If the time came when he was able to finally leave the Yang family and live alone, he would be able to move even more without fear of being discovered. As long as he planted some expensive medicinal material or fruit trees in moderate quantity, he wouldn’t arouse any suspicion, thus, life would still pass along comfortably…

“What does that pestle do?”

Suddenly, a word broke the silence in the backyard.

As Miao He was holding a “secret”, he was unable to bear the sudden greeting. He instinctively shooked and swiftly turned around in an attempt to cover it up, but he forgot that an injury still had yet to heal on his foot. He unknowingly leaned on it, and lost his balance! The soil on his palm rolled out because of this, hitting the muddy ground beside his feet!

Miao He was so frightened that he screamed, “Oh my God!”

He immediately grabbed the falling soil, but his world crumbled as he numbly watched the unfortunate soil dissolved into the mud under his very own feet!

Miao, He was dumbfounded, ‘What to do?!’

Once the magical soil had completely dissolved, there was nothing he could do to remove the soil!

This Operation Miao He had failed before. At that time, he wanted to change the flower pot into a larger one; and after digging out most of the soil, it remained unchanged and felt like it was still in the old flower pot. But after the experiment, the soil in the new flowerpot turned just like ordinary soil. Fearing he might lose the living soil, Miao He didn’t dare to remove the last soil in the old flower pot.  As a result of that course, Miao He concluded that he couldn’t transfer the living soil!

This was practically a blow from heaven to hell, what should he do?!

Miao He, whose tears were about to fall out from the fright of the accident, was too shocked that his legs went entirely soft.

Yang Dalang on the side was also surprised.

He possessed excellent hearing. He could even hear people walking a few steps into the front yard before he came over to ask if there was something wrong. When he went to where the commotion was, he saw his little ger on the ground and saw him seem agitated. He didn’t even pay attention to the dirt balls. He rushed towards him and pulled him up, “What? Did you hurt your feet?”

The little ger who was assisted to get up revealed a pair of red, teary eyes. As if it was painful and was embarrassed about the accident, Miao He ignored Yang Dalang’s questions.

Yang Dalang asked a few more questions but didn’t get a response. Then, he pursed his mouth, flexed his arms, and effortlessly lifted the ger into the house. The little ger didn’t struggle at all, as if he was muddleheaded. Fearing that his ger was seriously injured, he settled him down on a wooden bed. Yang Dalang promptly changed into clean clothes and went out to find a doctor. 

While Miao He was left alone in the room again, his dazed mind finally creaked. 

‘Keep calm, and it’s not that the soil is gone, it’s just that it’s not easy to move.  If I want to get the soil back, there should be many ways to think of it, right?’

‘For example, spend money to buy this earthen house or buy a  better land, and persuade Yang Dalang to trade houses?’

‘More ruthlessly speaking, when Yang Dalang went hunting and got injured, isn’t this earthen house also mine?’

‘Alright. Vegetables would continue to grow, then we’d just change the places, as simple as that…  That location was also quite good, right in the middle of the backyard, isn’t it the original plan’s target area for vegetation?’ 

‘As for the future, alas, who knows what stupid things will happen…’

While Miao He comforted himself in a daze, Yang Dalang had also returned and brought a doctor back to examine Miao He’s foot. The doctor’s surname was Lin, and he was also one of the few foreign surnames in Miaojia Village. Yang Dalang used to sustain a lot of injuries from hunting, so he was more or less familiar with the doctor, so he referred to him as Uncle Lin.

Uncle Lin took Miao He’s ankle and carefully turned it a few times. Miao He’s small feet were not delicate. Still, they were snowy white, hence looked much more feminine than a man’s.

“It seems to be quite a lot better than before, no more serious injuries now.”

Yang Dalang narrated what he had just seen. Uncle Lin felt like he needed to explain more to ease the worried Dalang and said, “It’s fine. I will prescribe a few more medicines.”

“Don’t let him leave the bed for a few days. If it’s still no good, you have to take him to the town for a check-up.”

Yang Dalang agreed and apologized, “For today’s consultation fee, we will send it together with the silver we owed before after I sell the prey I hunted.”

Uncle Lin vigorously waved his hand, and said, “What’s the rush? Take it slow, is this Uncle Lin afraid of you running away? In the whole village, I’m the least afraid of you owing me silver. Not to mention, you helped me dig out medicinal drugs these past weekdays. Uncle Lin wouldn’t have any of those if not for you.”

Yand Dalang had no intention to extend the conversion further, so he went to get the medicine with Uncle Lin. When he came back, he saw Miao He still in bed, and his expression was not as evasive and sketchy as before, so he couldn’t help but say something comforting. “Get some more rest. Still hurts?”

Miao He met this question after returning to his senses, and his eyes reddened. “Pain.”  

It was so painful and angering! 

Although the accident happened partly because he was unintentionally scared by Yang Dalang, the main reason was that he was stupid!　　

“Be obedient if it hurts.”　　

Even after this day, Miao He was still in a trance.

Whether it was when Yang Dalang was applying wound medicine or being held and moved.

Miao He only felt that there was nothing more miserable than to lose the soil. 

At night, he and Yang Dalang were lying on the same bed. Compared to Yang Dalang who was lying peacefully, Miao He was tossing over and over, still thinking about how to retrieve his living soil back. 

‘How about digging the soil to see? Can’t it be that the setting in the soil for planting is different from the setting in the flowerpot?’

‘En, I must dig again to see! But Yang Dalang just came back, and I don’t know when he will go out again…’

‘Wait a minute, maybe I don’t have to wait? He said that he wanted to turn the backyard into a vegetable field, and he would always dig the ground afterward?’

Yes, that’s right, in this way, he can do it tomorrow…

In the dark, Yang Dalang seemed to inadvertently roll over, placed his arm on his head, and happened to face Miao He.

Those long narrow eyes, gloomy and faintly observing, were also seemingly puzzled.