Chen Xing turned out to be rather open, when it came to sharing information about the medicine gardens, and how they were organised. And it didn"t take long for Qin Feng to find out what he had meant when he mentioned the basic payments that they had to make, for the use of the plots of land that they would be given:"It doesn"t make sense for the School to let you have the use of the fields for free, since they would be feeding you and clothing you while you are here. So there is a set fee for the use of each of the plots of land, or each medicine garden, as we prefer to call them.
"Of course, the more lucrative the permanent output therein, the higher the fee that you will be responsible for."
Qin Feng"s confusion must have shown on his face when he heard that, for the old man stopped walking to point at one of the cultivated plots of land a short distance below the mountainous trail that they were on.
"There! Do you see that one there, with the five trees separating it from the one next to it? Those are Silver Fire Lychee trees, and their fruits are highly prized for their medicinal value. Hence, that plot of land is about three times more expensive to hang onto that the others around it. Of course, if there are Silver Fire Lychees left over, after he has made the rent, the one who holds that plot can sell off the rest at the School"s Open Market.
"Which should be able to gain him a huge number of points that he can use for his training resources, and other things. Including the handful of luxuries that we are allowed here," sighed Chen Xing somewhat grumpily then.
Which gave Qin Feng the impression that the old man had not had a taste of those so-called luxuries for a good while.
Well, he was certainly not about to pry. If the old man wanted to tell him about it, it would have to be entirely on his own. After all, Qin Feng was more concerned about getting into the School, and learning what he came here to learn!
Fortunately for him, Chen Xing did not dwell on the issue very long, and quickly turned back to talking about the smaller, and more easily managed fields. Ones that he thought suited Qin Feng eminently:
"There six of them, close to where I have my own. So you can visit me if you have any queries. Growing medicinal herbs is a little more complicated than normal crops. Looking at your dress, your stamina, and the way that your hands look ... You have never handled any farm or orchard before, have you?"
Qin Feng shook his head with a smile at once. "No. My father used to run a small trading business and my mother used to help him. They insisted that I study though, rather than help them out when they went about trading their goods. No doubt, they were hoping that I would make it through the Civil Examinations, and become a government servant," he sighed.
That was the story that he had prepared, and he certainly had enough knowledge of the examination texts, if anyone insisted on checking on him. Hopefully, everyone would believe that he wasn"t that good a student, and not press him too hard.
"Ah. That will make it a little harder on you then. But you should not have a problem, if you are willing to put in the work, and if you persevere. Besides, the field that I was about to recommend to you isn"t so large. And even if you covered it with moderately profitable crops, you should have enough by the end of the growing season to pay off your rent.
"And if you are the sort of risk-taker that I think you are, you might wish to try your luck in the Forest as well. Anything that you can manage to harvest there would be extra silver in your purse, as they say."
"The Forest?"
"The Southern Forest. At least, that is what we call it. There is a proper name for that stretch of woods, no doubt. But I have never bothered to learn it, all the twenty years that I have been here. That is not important.
"What is important is the fact that there are a good number of herbs that can only be found in the wilderness. They won"t grow under farm conditions, so we have no choice but to go out there to look for them. If you can get your hands on even one of them ..."
Chen Xing"s broad smile told him exactly what he could expect, even without the older man putting it into words. Still, Qin Feng was not too enthusiastic about it. After all, wasn"t the Southern Forest supposed to be dangerous? Besides ...
"I don"t think I know enough about the sort of herbs that you mean, so I can hardly expect to be able to find any, don"t you think?"
The old man waved that aside. "That is not a problem. I"ll be bringing you to your field for today, but we should head over to the Hidden Scripture Library, to get you your martial arts manuals. In three days time? That should be enough time for you to get used to your new place. I shall tell you more about the rarer herbs then."
Chen Xing then gestured to the number of small patches of cultivated fields that Qin Feng had somehow missed, as he was walking. And smiled at the obvious surprise on the young man"s face.
He explained, before Qin Feng could even understand what he wanted to ask:
"There is a formation around the School. And since this is considered a precious resource, it is a little more obvious here. Unless you get within a certain range of our medicine gardens, you won"t realise that they are there."
He pointed at some of the fields, that were already clearly overgrown with weeds, and nothing like the rest. "As you can see, you will have a lot of sites to choose from. We have had a good number of our people leave us, over the last six, seven years. So there are many empty fields."
"In that case, perhaps you can find me one that would not be ... to exhausting for me? And I would prefer it if it is further away from others. I don"t like it when others crowd me. I think you have seen that already."
Chen Xing nodded. "In that case, the fields to the rear may be more to your taste. They are a bit smaller than ones here, so that might lower the School"s expectations of you. But it might mean a longer walk, to get back to the Halls," he reminded Qin Fang.
"As you said, I am new. So their expectations of me should be low enough as it is. I will trust your judgement."
"Well, in that case, there is no point in bringing you to look everything over. Let me lead you back to the our Medicine Hall. That is where you will be eating from now on. And where you will need to hand over what gains you have, at the end of the Harvest season.
"So you might wish to get your gear, and started working on your fields tonight!"
* * *