During times of famine: I have a spiritual spring space

Zhuang Lihui's tree-chopping technique was quite methodical. Although his axe swings appeared slow, they were actually quite fast. He felled a tree in less than three minutes, leaving Chen Jian'an stunned.

Both trees were cut down in less than ten minutes.

Even Zhuang Lihui himself was surprised. Although he knew that the spiritual spring space had modified his physique, it still exceeded his expectations.

Currently, after cutting down these two trees, it feels like we've only just warmed up.

So he turned his attention to the other trees. Since he was already here, he might as well cut down more. However, he couldn't cut them down in large swaths; he had to cut them in sections, otherwise the whole mountain would look like a scabies-covered head.

He worked on several trees in a row, making a total of 10, before stopping and rubbing his arms.

Chen Jian'an, who was standing to the side, was already full of admiration.

"Brother Hui, when did you become so strong?" He thought he knew Brother Hui fairly well. They had worked together before, but Brother Hui was never this strong or as efficient as he was today.

This really made him look at him in a new light.

"What if I said I didn't give it my all before?" Zhuang Lihui laughed.

"Besides, there's a method to cutting down trees. The way you cut just now wasted a lot of energy and made your hands shake. You should..." Zhuang Lihui talked to him about the techniques for cutting down trees.

He learned these skills from watching videos in his previous life.

I knew it! You can learn something from watching videos.

After listening, Chen Jian'an seemed thoughtful. He took the axe and went to find an unlucky tree to experiment on. After a few blows, a look of surprise appeared on his face; it really was just as Brother Hui had said.

"Let's go cut some bamboo," Zhuang Lihui shouted.

The two arrived at the adjacent bamboo mountain. The bamboo here was all tall moso bamboo, but due to lack of management, it grew unevenly, and some bamboo even looked rather shabby.

They cut the bamboo separately mainly because Zhuang Lihui wanted to collect some bamboo into his space and deliberately avoided Chen Jian'an.

Cutting bamboo is much simpler; it usually only takes three or four cuts to bring it down. Zhuang Lihui glanced at Chen Jian'an and saw that he was focused on cutting bamboo, so he took the opportunity to easily put the bamboo he had just cut down into his spiritual spring space, without even bothering to trim the bamboo branches.

He collected twenty or thirty bamboo stalks, which he felt was enough for the time being, before dragging two or three bamboo stalks out.

At this time, Chen Jian'an cut down four bamboo stalks, carefully trimmed the branches, removed two or three meters from the top of the bamboo, and pulled out two vines to tie the four bamboo stalks together.

"Let's go back!"

The two of them carried the bamboo and headed back.

Back home, Zhuang Lihui piled the bamboo in the open space next to the house and invited Chen Jian'an inside for a drink of water, telling him to have lunch there. He felt it wouldn't be right for someone who had helped with the work to go unpaid.

"No, my mom probably cooked my meal too," Chen Jian'an said, shaking his head.

As if afraid of being forced to stay for a meal, he turned and left without any hesitation.

Suddenly, Chen Jian'an remembered something, turned around, and said, "Brother Hui, I'll tell the team leader about cutting down the trees when I pass by his house later!"

According to regulations, a notification should be given.

"Okay! Thank you for your help." Zhuang Lihui nodded.

After watching Chen Jian'an leave, Zhuang Lihui immediately entered his spatial dimension. The rice was ripe again, so he harvested it right away, and after the straw was decomposed by the spatial dimension, he continued to sow rice.

This time, there were enough rice seeds to plant an acre, and there would even be some left over.

Zhuang Lihui only plants one acre of land at most for each crop; there's no need to waste so much black soil. The crops mature in just a few hours, and as long as he sows and harvests diligently, he'll never have to worry about food.

So strictly speaking, we can eat rice tonight, but Zhuang Lihui won't take it out for the time being. He'll eat it himself in the spiritual spring space.

It wasn't that he was hoarding the food; he was just too lazy to explain where it came from.

Anyway, we won't go hungry, bro. What's wrong with eating corn a few more times? Other people can't even get any if they want to!

Meanwhile, the peanuts can also be harvested.

Zhuang Lihui pulled up peanuts, picked them, shelled them, and then planted a second crop.

Freshly harvested crops such as peanuts usually need to be dried before they can be used as seeds. However, the Spirit Spring Space ignores these principles. As long as they are planted and watered with the Spirit Spring, they can sprout, grow, and be harvested.

This is the power of the Spirit Spring Space.

At this rate, we should be able to fry peanut oil by tomorrow.

Actually, pressing peanut oil doesn't require much technical skill, and the equipment doesn't need to be very advanced. To put it simply, it's just physical pressing. Zhuang Lihui can make the equipment needed for traditional peanut oil pressing himself, although it's rather rudimentary.

However, he had to do many tasks himself, which made him quite busy. Zhuang Lihui couldn't help but envy those system spaces that could be operated with a single click.

That other person's "lying down and having a golden finger" is a true "lying down and having a golden finger," while his "spiritual spring space" is a "working hard" golden finger, just in a different place.

What can you do when you're stuck with such a lucky charm? Just keep going!

Hopefully, Lingquan Space will become more sensible and upgrade itself in the future, making itself as humane as possible.

Zhuang Lihui felt it was about time and slipped out of the space. Sure enough, Liming had already prepared the food and was about to call him for dinner!

"Brother, I heard from Jian'an that you guys went to cut down trees and bamboo this morning. Why didn't you call me?"

Zhuang Lihui: "Then you and Jian'an will go next time."

"..."

Zhuang Lihui was speechless. If I really call on you, you won't be happy again.

They ate cornbread with shepherd's purse, which was alright, but it was low in oil, or rather, there was no oil at all.

If you pan-fry it until both sides are golden brown, that would be perfect.

Shepherd's purse is a biennial herb that can be harvested multiple times, in autumn and winter, though it doesn't taste as good as in spring. Shepherd's purse is best in March and April, and there's a saying that "on the third day of the third lunar month, shepherd's purse is like a panacea."

"I'll get some peanut oil in a few days." Zhuang Lihui gave a heads-up beforehand, so that he wouldn't have to make up stories later. Making up stories is a real brain drain, you know.

Zhuang Liming exclaimed in surprise, "Brother! You can even get peanut oil?"

"Yes! We'll keep that to ourselves."

Zhuang Liming stopped talking, finished eating, and quickly cleared away the dishes.

"What are bamboo used for?" Zhuang Liming asked as he came over after washing the dishes.

"It has many uses: making chairs, bamboo mats, baskets, winnowing trays, bamboo hampers, steamers, and so on. This little bit of bamboo might not even be enough. Go and split some bamboo for me!"

The tools at home were scarce, and plastic and metal products were very rare these days, so bamboo and wood were the only options.

"I'm going to work in the production team," Zhuang Liming said instinctively.

"What kind of work is left in the production team? Don't go."

Rather than working as a beast of burden for the production team, I'd rather stay home and be his beast of burden. The production team only makes a little money anyway.

Besides, the production team really doesn't have any production tasks right now. With such a severe drought, what's the point of being busy? Without water, no matter how hard you work, it's useless.

"We're out of money," Zhuang Liming reminded them.

In the countryside, there are very few ways to make money. The most common way is to earn work points in the production team. One work point is worth one or two cents.

Zhuang Lihui took out 10 yuan and handed it over: "Take it, put it away, and hurry up and go split the bamboo for me."

Zhuang Liming was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed. He quickly took the money and ran back to his room to hide it, without asking where the money came from.

"Wait for me, I'll be right there."

Why bother going to the production team? Isn't it better to stay home and split bamboo?