Chapter 126: No Takers? I’ll Take the Lot.

Chapter 126: Chapter 126: No Takers? I’ll Take the Lot.

After a moment’s delay, Feng Si finally processed what had happened. She snapped her head up and shot daggers at Ying Kong with her dark, almond-shaped eyes.

’Are you kidding me!? That’s what I need to level up my space!’

"Give it back." Feng Si’s expression instantly sharpened as she held out an open palm toward him.

The female was shrouded in a thick, ochre-colored cloak. The hand she extended was beautifully shaped, its palm a delicate pink. It was clearly a soft and supple hand.

Her exposed, exquisite features could easily leave one dazed; she simply looked like a delicate, beautiful, and fragile female.

—And yet, he could feel a sense of pressure from the Feng Si standing before him.

’It must be an illusion. An illusion born from knowing the King is backing her.’

Ying Kong tossed the Bone Knife in his hand to ease the stiff atmosphere. He chuckled sheepishly, "Seeing as you’re an acquaintance, we’ll put in some extra effort. We’ll harvest this field of wild grain for you."

’What! It’s one thing for the bodyguards I hired to be uncooperative, but now they want to steal my wheat?!’

Feng Si’s eyes went wide. "Don’t you dare! I found this first. You are not to touch a single grain of its wheat. Don’t even think about it!"

Ying Kong was taken aback. "It’s just some wild grain you can find anywhere. Why would I steal it from you? I meant we’d help you harvest it, pack it up, and hand it to you. You could just sit aside and watch."

’Heh, then what would be the point of me coming here?’

Feng Si couldn’t explain about her space to him, so she had no choice but to take a harder stance.

She took a step back, widening the distance between herself and Ying Kong. Now she didn’t have to look up at him; their gazes were level, and her presence seemed to intensify.

"The additional requirements at the very bottom of the contract state: I am the employer. If you do not follow my instructions, I have the right to terminate our partnership at any time, and you will have to compensate me with ten times the price I offered."

Having never signed a modern contract before, Ying Kong and his vice-captain stared at their light screens, completely dumbfounded.

’Damn it, it’s really there.’

The problem was, it was placed in the most inconspicuous left-hand margin, the text as tiny as ant eggs. Everyone had focused on the main clauses in the middle and had overlooked it.

Besides, he’d never heard of such a thing. Who works for no pay and might even have to pay back coins?

’That’s the logic of a robber!’

’T-ten times! Doesn’t that mean if we do a bad job, we’ll have to pay ten million coins?’

Ying Kong glanced at Feng Si with a flicker of fear.

’What a vicious tactic.’

He’d thought this was a prize fallen from the sky, but it turned out to be a huge trap instead.

If they did a poor job or failed to meet her satisfaction, she could make them lose ten million coins in the blink of an eye with just a single word.

’What? Just refuse to pay?’

’She’s a Special-level Female, and he had even pressed his fingerprint on the contract. Unless he had a death wish, no Beastman could get out of paying such a huge sum.’

While neither of them was short on money—their net worth was in the hundreds of millions from their time on the battlefield—his money was meant for his future mate. It was pointless to waste it on a mission.

The modern contract trap gave Ying Kong a massive shock.

He took a deep breath. Knowing when to yield, he obediently returned the Bone Knife to Feng Si with both hands and made a gesture for her to proceed.

Feng Si relaxed her fierce expression. ’I knew it,’ she thought. ’If I didn’t have a trick up my sleeve, I wouldn’t be able to handle these male beasts, and they’d interfere with my work.’

After that, Feng Si put on a pair of white gloves and bent over to harvest the wheat. This time, to save effort, she didn’t pull them up by the roots but only cut the mature ears.

Two robots, each holding a burlap sack, followed beside Feng Si. Every time she harvested a handful, she tossed it directly into a sack before reaching for the next.

The pleasant sound of increasing Dust Breath that kept appearing in her mind was as addictive as playing a leveling-up game.

Feng Si worked nonstop that morning. She would only pause to rest when her wrists ached, drink some water, and then stand up to continue harvesting.

At noon, she sat in the wheat field and ate lunch with Yun Duo. She didn’t have to worry about her two bodyguards’ lunch; they took care of it themselves.

In the afternoon, Feng Si’s wrists were very sore, and her work pace slowed. Still, she gritted her teeth and persisted until evening before stopping. The two bodyguards for the day then carried twenty-five large burlap sacks back to the island.

Ying Kong watched the hovercar enter the island, truly seeing Feng Si in a new light. He had never seen a female so resolute and able to endure such hardship.

...

Feng Si was very satisfied with today’s harvest. About six hundred pounds of wheat grains had raised her space to Level 72, expanding its area to 288 square meters.

’Before, the area increased by one square meter per level. After Level 30, did the area become twice the level number? And after Level 60, four times?’

’I wonder what the max level is?’

After bathing Yun Duo, Feng Si’s hands were trembling as she held the cub. She was utterly exhausted, especially her arms, which felt as heavy as lead and were difficult to lift.

She only started to feel better after drinking the fatigue-relief potion S2 brought her. Only then did she have the strength to carry Yun Duo out into the courtyard.

The wheat was spread out in the courtyard, where Hu Fei was organizing the sub-females to thresh the grains. Seeing her, Hu Fei immediately went over, holding a sun-blocking umbrella high to shield the female from the floating chaff in the air.

Feng Si looked at the wheat grains, which only took up a small patch of ground, and remembered what Ying Kong had said. "I heard there’s a lot of this wild grain," she asked.

Hu Fei nodded. "The wild grain doesn’t taste very good. The Wild Valley Bird Clan eats some of it, but hardly anyone bothers to gather it. It’s everywhere outside Pantian City."

Harvesting the wild grain was a hassle. The grains, as small as a fingernail after being husked, could be eaten raw to satisfy a craving, but their texture was just so-so when cooked with meat. As for roasting them, forget about it—they would pop and scatter everywhere like tiny projectiles. Since other grains were available, besides a few specific clans, even the sub-females didn’t particularly like the wild grain. The "yellow grains" were much more fragrant and would infuse meat with their aroma when cooked together.

Feng Si knew about the yellow grains; it was the staple food in the Beastman World that she’d been eating since she arrived. It tasted like a cross between corn and chestnuts.

’But how could that compare to the fragrance of real wheat?’

Using wheat as a common grain to make things like flatbread or steamed buns probably wouldn’t sell for much, especially since beastmen preferred meat. But she thought of another way to use wheat, a way that could sell for an incredibly high price and have everyone clamoring to buy it!

Seeing her chance to get rich off wheat, Feng Si narrowed her eyes and nodded. "That’s great. So you’re saying no one will compete with me for the wild grain outside the city. I’m going to harvest it all."

Hu Fei: "...?"

’All of it? Pantian City has 150 gathering zones! Lady Feng Si’s idea is just too absurd, isn’t it?’

After a moment of feeling utterly breathless, Hu Fei wished he could just faint. "Please, cherish your own body! Overexertion will make you susceptible to illness. The wild grain you want—please, leave it to us!"

"Okay," Feng Si readily and meekly agreed.

’Of course she wasn’t foolish enough to harvest all that wheat by herself. The size of her space was important, but was it more important than her own body?’