Chapter 64: Chapter 59: The Steward’s Dispute i


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    Almost all animals and even nts possess this gic ability.


    It is also an essential skill for them to ensure the normal continuation of their offspring.


    “Can you make a worker bee fly within the range of the banyan tree?”


    Qin Niu wanted to test with a honeybee.


    But in the whole swarm, only the Queen Bee obeyed his orders; he couldn’tmand the other bees.


    He even suspected they might have considered Qin Mu a member of their swarm.


    “I can’t!”


    The Queen Bee answered very definitively.


    Just like the Ant Queen, the Queen Bee was only a breeding machine for rhe hive. She could control the order of the hive through queen bee pheromones and make sure everyone had their role to avoid chaos, but she couldn’t order them to venture to a specific ce.


    It could be understood that both bee and ant colonies acted as one, with the Queen Bee and Ant Queen being just members of the whole.


    Completely different from the life and death authority of a human empire’s monarch.


    In human society, if a monarchmands a subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die.


    In the world of bees, it’s all about fulfilling roles, and if the worker bees feel the Queen Bee is too old, they might even dispose of her.


    Qin Niu had to abandon the idea of sending honeybees in to scout.


    It seemed he would have to rely on the termites after all.


    At that time, he would have the whole termite colony mobilize, which was a major move that definitely required careful nning to minimize, or even eliminate, termite losses.


    For this task, he thought it best to wait until the day after tomorrow, when rhe special termites bred from the Banyan Tree Blood would be more numerous, to better secure sess.


    Several termites have sessfully made their way in and out.


    But the real leader was only Fourth.


    When he himself would go in, he definitely needed to take Fourth along.


    Because Fourth had the most experience.


    After observing for a while, and once the Treasured Sword finished absorbing all the Banyan Tree Blood, he began to collect humus.


    It was everywhere in the hills; just mixing the rightbination would yield a basket of top-quality fertilizer.


    The price was as high as fifty wen per basket.


    Close to noon, he carried a basket of soil down rhe mountain.


    The Yan Family had at least two tea gardens.


    He was too focused on collecting money earlier to ask which tea garden to deliver to.


    Fortunately, the two tea gardens were very close to each other, at the foot of a tea mountain in the neighboring vige.


    The neighboring vige was also known as Tea Flower Vige.


    The hills near the vige had acidic loess suitable for tea tree growth, which the Yan Family had cultivated entirely for tea nting.


    Every spring, aroundte October, the hills would be covered in blooming white tea flowers.


    This vige was thus named for this reason.


    The tea trees nted on the mountain belonged to rhe tea oil tree variety, specifically for bearing seeds to press for tea oil.


    Generally, the fruit would not be mature until the following autumn.


    Each year, the Yan Family would press tea oil and take arge part to sell in the city, fetching about twelve to fifteen wen per jin.


    It was one of the Yan Family’s economic sidelines, bringing in quite a profit each year.


    Perhaps thinking the yield of tea oil was low and the profit not substantial, the Yan Family in recent years began to develop tea leaves.


    They had cleared several slopes below the tea mountain and nted tea trees suitable for leaf-harvesting.


    They might still be in the experimental phase, currently operating on a small scale.


    Of course, that’s rtive to the size of the Yan Family’s holdings.


    A single tea garden covered at least seven or eight acres, which was not a small scale by any measure.


    Qin Niu first arrived at thergest tea garden.


    Looking around, there were tea trees all half the height of a person.


    Lush and green, they seemed to be thriving, clearly a lot of care had been taken in their management.


    While he was looking around, he saw a tea farmer in his forties loosening soil and weeding around the tea trees.


    “Uncle, may I ask if Steward Yan Qi is around?”


    “What do you need from Steward Yan Qi for?”


    The uncle stopped his work and looked up.


    “He asked me to deliver a basket of fertilizer to the tea ntation!’¹


    “Oh, then you’ve gone to the wrong ce! It’s the hillside over there, this tea ntation is managed by the Second Steward.”


    “Alright, thank you, uncle!”


    Qin Niu carried the fertilizer on his back and headed towards another hillside.


    The Yan Family’s territory was truly vast, all made up of their own mountains andnd.


    A middle-aged man in a green robe, about forty-seven or forty-eight years old, of medium height, slightly overweight, with a pair of mustache whiskers, and somewhat prominent eyes, was walking towards him. He swaggered with a strut like a ‘king fisher’ with his authoritative aura showing


    A tall and thin farmer, about thirty years old, followed behind him.


    “Young man, did I just hear you say you were looking for Steward Yan Qi?”


    “Yes!”‘


    Qin Niu knew that this middle-aged man must be one of the Yan Family’s mid- to high-level members.


    Who else would wear a green robe?


    Only the management level, who didn’t do the physical work and directed the farmers instead, could wear such robes.


    Farmers usually wore loose-fitting coarse cloth clothes, long trousers paired with a jacket.


    Is this the fertilizer Steward Yan Qi bought from you?”


    “Yes!¹”


    Qin Niu was slightly displeased with rhe man’s tone.


    “How much did it cost per basket?”


    The man continued to inquire.


    “For that, you’d better ask Steward Yan Qi.”


    Qin Niu cautiously responded.


    “Answer me honestly when you’re asked, this man is the Yan Family’s Second Steward. You should consider it a privilege passed down from your ancestors’ good karma to even speak with him.”


    The tall and thin farmer red and sternly rebuked him.


    Qin Niu gave the farmer a nonchnt nce, such people, with his current strength, he could take on eight single-handedly without even breaking a sweat.


    “Please forgive me, Second Steward Yan!”


    Qin Niu looked at Second Steward Yan.


    Second Steward Yan picked up a handful of the manure, examined it, and sniffed it beneath his nose.


    “This is fertilizer from the deep mountains, you may go!”


    He didn’t make things difficult for Qin Niu.


    The Yan Family had a family motto that prohibited misconduct: if someone from the Yan Family transgressed, they would be punished ording to family rules. If a ve, servant, or long-termborer did the same, they would be dealt with severely and strictly.


    It was precisely because of this family motto that the Yan Family had a good image among the local people.


    Qin Niu didn’t go far when he heard Second Steward Yan and rhe farmer discussing.


    “Steward Yan Qi buying mountain manure from a young man, I think, is just a waste of money.”


    “Heh, rhe lord promoted him to the seventh steward out of turn, and many are discontent. ording to seniority, he isn’t even qualified to manage. Now that the third batch of tea leaves is about to be harvested, his ntation produced poor quality in the first two batches, and it seems now he’s desperately resorting to rash solutions,” the farmer said with a sneer.


    The Second Steward let out a scornfulugh.


    Thepetition between stewards was just as fierce.


    The Yan Family’s tea ntation management had only Steward Yan Qi and Steward Yan Qi.


    Seeing Yan Qi buying mountain fertilizer from a youth, Second Steward Yan was secretly delighted.


    “Of course, Steward Yan Qi can’tpare with you. He was outperformed by you thest two times; obviously, he’s harboring ambitions to advance. But growing tea isn’t as simple as he thinks: fertilizer, water, harvesting, varieties, pest control—all must be in ce. Otherwise, it’s all in vain.”


    The tall and thin farmer followed up with ttery for Second Steward Yan.


    He didn’t dare speak too ill of Steward Yan Qi, though.


    Fearing it would reach Yan Qi s ears and he would be dealt withter.


    “Ha, by what right does hepare with me? I have you, an expert who has studied tea ntation for years. It’s easy to find top-notch farmers for growing corn or wheat, but not those skilled in tea cultivation!”


    “No, no, no, any little ability I have now, it’s all thanks to you. Without your nurturing, would 1 have had the chance to fulfill my ambitions?”


    The tall and thin farmer was vigorously trying to win Second Steward Van’s favor..