No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 5: Spiritual Boy
The rest of the journey was smooth. When Su Ze passed by a fish shop, he bought a handful of dried fish and quickly covered his nose to leave the stinky fish shop.

When he got home and opened the door, Su Ze put the dried fish on the ground and shouted to the orange shadow on the beam:
"Come down."

I saw an orange cat jumping down from the roof.

Su Ze had also raised cats in his previous life, but he had never seen an orange cat.

No wonder he was hired by the princess.

Su Ze remembered that when he was studying, he had heard that people in the Song Dynasty did not call buying a cat "buying" but "engaging", and even held a grand ceremony to engage a cat.

"Marrying a cat is like marrying a concubine"—this was the rule for hiring cats in the Song Dynasty.

If you want to buy a cat, you must first choose an auspicious day for buying a cat, write a cat-buying contract, and then choose a betrothal gift for the cat. Only then are you done with the preliminary work of buying a cat.

In the Song Dynasty, people had to sign a contract when buying and selling livestock. Only the contract for buying a cat was a letter of engagement, also known as a cat-buying contract. The purpose of the contract was to conclude the contract and invite the gods in heaven to be witnesses.

A cat adoption contract is similar to a marriage certificate, and its main contents include the date of adoption, the cat's appearance, and the cat adopter's requirements for it, such as whether it should be suitable for home and not run around.

If the cat you hire is a kitten born by a domestic cat, you must give salt to the owner; if the cat you hire is a wild cat, you must give the mother cat a string of small fish.

The population density in Bianjing City was high, and in the Song Dynasty, shops and residential houses coexisted, resulting in a serious rat infestation in the city, so the business of hiring cats was very prosperous.

My predecessor had thought about hiring a cat, but he felt that he couldn't even support it, so he didn't want to waste it. In the end, he could only put up with the mice running around in the house and gave up.

Are there really orange cats in this world?
While the kitten was eating dried fish, Su Ze couldn't help but touch the cat's head with his hand.

Some orange-red powder fell on his fingertips, and Su Ze couldn't help but laugh.

It turns out that the princesses of the Song Dynasty could also be deceived?
It turns out that the fur of this raccoon named Yanzhixue is not naturally orange-red, but was dyed with orange-red pigment by an unscrupulous merchant.

It is estimated that an unscrupulous merchant accepted the gift money from the princess to hire a cat, and then deliberately let the cat run away during the ceremony, cheating the princess of her money and hiding the secret.

Are all the scams in the Song Dynasty so sophisticated?

Su Ze smiled slightly, found a wooden comb from the house, and quickly combed off the orange-red paint on the cat's body. It turned out to be a snow-white cat.

"Rouge Snow, a snow-white raccoon slave with rouge on her body. This liar is not completely deceiving people. The answer is in the name, hahahaha."

Su Ze applauded the liar's audacity and humor.

But he had more important things to do at this time. Returning to the desk, Su Ze took out the "Peach Blossom Spring" hidden in his arms, and then placed his palm on the cover.

When he closed his eyes, he felt dizzy again, but it was much milder than last time.

After opening his eyes, Su Ze found himself standing on the dock of Peach Blossom Land, and the little carrot man was jumping in front of him.

[As expected of the new owner of Taoyuan, you've gathered the spiritual energy so quickly!]

"Is the spirit of literary context the words on Wang Anshi's paper?"

Yes, calligraphy works also possess the spirit of cultural context.

So that's how it is. Considering the sky-high prices that calligraphy works by famous calligraphers in later generations were sold for, Wang Anshi's original works should be very valuable.

"How much spiritual energy can you absorb?"

[That piece of paper can provide 10 points of cultural energy! ]

Ten o'clock?

Su Ze had no idea about this number. He could only say that cultural energy was a kind of currency and it had to be linked to commodities to have value.

Su Ze asked again:
"Will absorbing the spiritual energy of the text have an impact on the original object?"

[Of course not, the contextual energy will not affect the original object, but a work can only absorb it once. ]

That's good. If the original object is destroyed after being absorbed, it would be a waste if I collect some antiques from the past in the future.

The next thing was what Su Ze was most concerned about. He asked:
"You said last time that this cultural energy can be used to buy things. How do you use it?" The little carrot man suddenly burrowed into the soil, then grabbed something with each of his hands (let's call them hands) and handed them to Su Ze together.

In his left hand was a picture album, and in his right hand was a wooden sign.

Su Ze unfolded the album, which had text and pictures on it. It turned out that this was the instruction manual for Peach Blossom Spring.

The little carrot man said:

[The owner of Taoyuan can use the spiritual energy to purchase construction blueprints, and the spiritual boy will help you build the corresponding facilities and buildings.]

[The scroll also lists the prices for recruiting various spiritual boys. You can write the type of spiritual boy you need on a wooden sign and hang it on the Taohuawu notice board. A spiritual boy will then respond to your call and help you with the work.]

After hearing this, Su Ze suddenly understood that this Peach Blossom Spring was really a farming game.

He couldn't wait to open the scroll and saw several buildings:

[Inferior dry land]

Price: 5 Wenmai Qi per acre;

Function: You can grow drought-resistant crops such as beans, millet, and wheat. In the real world, the harvest is once a month and requires a farming boy to take care of it.

“Can we harvest once a month?”

The little carrot man said:

[Taohuayuan is a blessed land where crops grow extremely fast. It only takes one month from sowing to harvesting!]

"Can I take the harvest out?"

[Of course you can. Whether it's food or items made and processed in Taohuayuan, you can take them out.]

I didn’t expect this golden finger to be so powerful!

You should know that in the Song Dynasty, a family that occupied 50 mu of land was called a fourth-class household, also known as a lower household.

With today's agricultural technology, well-managed land can yield at most two harvests a year.

One acre of land in your own paradise can be harvested twelve times, which is equivalent to only six acres of real land!

Moreover, the Song Dynasty did not force people to live separately. It was normal for three generations to live under one roof in one household, with seven or eight people crowded together. They still had to work day and night to make a living.

And according to this description, you can recruit [Nong Yun Tongzi] to farm, and you can get food without doing anything.

Su Ze was very happy. He knew from his memory that his previous life's family was very poor and he had spent almost all his family's wealth in order to obtain the qualification of Jiesheng.

This is also why his predecessor always had to attend banquets where he was treated like a clown. He was really too hungry.

Now that I have the golden finger and food, I can be self-sufficient, and it is also my own paradise.

Now the problem of eating is solved.

Su Ze continued to open the album and looked at a few more buildings:

[Half-mountain bamboo forest] has 5 cultural energy per acre and needs to be taken care of by Lin Yun Tongzi. It can produce [bamboo] and [bamboo shoots].

[Low-grade pond], with 10 Wenmai Qi per acre, needs to be taken care of by a fishing boy, and can produce [fish], [shrimp], [lotus root], and [water chestnut].

[Inferior Paddy Field], with 10 Wenmai Qi per acre, can be managed by the Agricultural Boy and produce water-loving crops such as [Rice].

　It’s still the same old rules. During the new book period, there will be two updates a day, at 9:00 am and 6:00 pm.

　　I bought a lot of materials for this book, but now I am forced to write it while reading.

　　Again, Fei Niao thanks everyone for their support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)