The wind howled across the Westland, kicking up dust devils that danced between the jagged rocks. It was a desolate place, where the sun beat down with merciless intensity during the day and the cold seeped into the bones at night.
Li An stared at the heavy wooden crate that had seemingly materialized out of thin air. He rubbed his eyes, convinced the dust was playing tricks on him.
"Brother," Li An whispered, kneeling beside the crate. "This... this has the imperial postal seal on it. But it's not stamped. How did it get here? We just arrived."
Li Wei knelt down, hiding his own smirk. The System was efficient, disguising its gifts as mundane deliveries. "I arranged for a special courier to drop it off while we were dealing with the horses. Don't ask questions, Li An. Just open it. We have a schedule to keep."
Li An hesitated, then pried the lid open with the tip of a rusted knife.
Inside, nestled in straw, lay items that looked deceptively ordinary but felt wrong to the touch. There were tools made of a dark, gleaming metal that didn't rust—shovels with edges sharper than swords, and a coil of rope that felt slick and dense, unlike the rough hemp used in the dynasty.
"Look at this," Li An breathed, pulling out a bag of seeds. The bag was made of a woven material he had never felt before—burlap. He opened it and peered inside. "These seeds... they look like tiny arrows. They don't look like rice or wheat."
"Those are Napier Grass seeds," Li Wei said, grabbing a shovel. He weighed it in his hand. It was perfectly balanced. "And they are going to save our lives. Old Zhang! Are the horses secured?"
Old Zhang was struggling with the two rented horses they had brought. The beasts were skittish, sensing the predators that often hid in the rocky ravines. He limped over, leading them to a sparse thorny bush.
"Secured? Barely," the old soldier grunted. "There's no stable, no shelter. If a wolf pack comes tonight, we're sitting ducks. And there's no water source nearby, Boss. The map shows a dried creek bed half a mile east. We'll have to haul water if we want to drink."
Li Wei looked at the barren ground beneath his feet. He tapped his boot on the hard-packed clay.
"Dig here," Li Wei ordered, pointing to a spot near the center of the proposed bunkhouse site.
Old Zhang squinted at the ground, then at Li Wei. "Here? This is hardpan. You'll break your back digging here. We should be digging a latrine or a fire pit."
"We need water first," Li Wei insisted. "Dig."
Old Zhang looked at the younger man, seeing the madness in his eyes, but also the iron will. He spat on the ground. "Your money. Your back."
For the next hour, the silence of the Westland was broken by the rhythmic *thunk-shhh* of shovels hitting earth. Li Wei didn't stand by and watch. He stripped off his outer robe, leaving his undershirt, and drove the shovel into the hard ground with the vigor of a man possessed.
He didn't work like a scholar. He worked like a laborer.
**[System Alert: Stamina Low. Physical Body Weak.]**
**[Suggestion: Consume water and rest.]**
Li Wei ignored the flashing red text. His muscles burned—muscles he hadn't used in this life. Sweat poured down his face, blurring his vision. Beside him, Li An was panting heavily, his hands blistering.
"Brother... it's too hard," Li An gasped, leaning on his shovel. "It's been an hour. It's just rocks."
Old Zhang leaned on his crutch nearby, watching them with a critical eye. He had seen young lords try to play at soldiering before. They usually quit after ten minutes. But this one... Li Wei hadn't stopped.
"The boy is right," Zhang said. "We haven't hit moisture. The soil is dry as bone. Even if we dig a well, the water table might be too deep for hand tools."
Li Wei stopped. He wiped his forehead with a rag. He looked at the pit they had dug—about five feet deep. Dry dust stared back at him.
He concentrated on the system map in his head. The blinking blue dot was right here. *Right here.*
"Keep digging," Li Wei said, his voice hoarse but firm. "Two more feet."
"We don't have the strength!" Li An cried out, throwing his shovel down in frustration.
Li Wei jumped into the pit. He picked up Li An's shovel. "Then rest. I'll do it."
He slammed the shovel down. The impact jarred his spine. *Thwack.*
Again. *Thwack.*
Old Zhang watched, his expression unreadable. He took a sip from his water skin, his eyes never leaving the scholar in the pit. The sun was beginning to dip, casting long, bloody shadows across the rocks.
*Thwack.*
Li Wei hit something different. The sound wasn't the ring of rock on rock. It was a hollow *thud*, followed by a cracking noise.
Suddenly, the ground shuddered.
Steam hissed from the crack in the earth.
"Get out of the hole!" Old Zhang barked, his instincts flaring.
Li Wei scrambled up the side of the pit just as water gushed forth. It wasn't a trickle; it was a surge, bubbling up from an underground artesian aquifer, clear and cold. Within moments, the pit had transformed into a small pond, the water overflowing and turning the dry dust into mud.
Li An's jaw dropped. "Water... sweet water!"
Old Zhang limped over, dipping a finger into the water and tasting it. "Clean. No sulfur taste. An underground spring... right here? The geomancers said this land was cursed with drought."
"I don't listen to geomancers," Li Wei said, splashing water on his face. The cool liquid was like heaven. "I listen to the land. Now, Li An, get the seeds. Old Zhang, help me clear the rocks. We plant before the sun sets."
***
**POV: Old Zhang**
As the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in hues of purple and bruised orange, Old Zhang sat by the newly lit fire. He was roasting a skewer of dried meat he had brought, but his eyes were fixed on Li Wei.
The scholar was on his knees in the mud, spreading the strange, arrow-like seeds in rows. He was muttering to himself, measuring distances with his feet, obsessing over the spacing.
*He's mad,* Zhang thought. *But he's a useful kind of mad.*
Zhang had spent years in the army. He knew the difference between officers who led from the back and men who bled in the trenches. Li Wei was a strange mix. He had the hands of a scholar, but the grit of a common soldier.
"Boss," Zhang called out. "The seeds won't sprout overnight. It's getting cold. Come eat."
Li Wei stood up, wiping his muddy hands on his pants. He walked over to the fire, his face illuminated by the flickering light. He looked tired, but his eyes were bright.
"I know," Li Wei said, taking a piece of hardtack. "But I want the roots to take hold before the dew settles."
"About the water," Zhang said, tearing a piece of meat with his teeth. "You knew it was there."
"I guessed," Li Wei lied smoothly.
"A guess like that gets you killed in the army," Zhang grunted. "But a guess like that builds empires in the merchant world. I'll give you this: you work hard. I didn't think a scholar had it in him."
"I'm not a scholar, Old Zhang," Li Wei said, staring into the fire. "I told you. I'm a rancher. And a rancher needs three things: land, water, and grass. We have the land. We have the water. Tonight, we plant the grass."
"And tomorrow?" Li An asked, shivering slightly in the cooling air.
Li Wei smiled, a look that was slightly predatory. "Tomorrow, we buy the bull. And then we start building fences. We're going to need a lot of wood."
He reached into the crate and pulled out the coil of strange, slick rope. He tied a loop at the end, fashioning a lasso.
"What is that for?" Li An asked.
"Cattle don't just walk into pens," Li Wei said. "You have to catch them. This... is a lasso. In the West, it's a tool of the trade."
He stood up and walked away from the fire. He swung the rope over his head, the loop spinning silently. With a flick of his wrist, he threw it.
The rope sailed through the darkness and settled perfectly around the neck of a wooden post they had driven into the ground earlier. He pulled it tight.
*Snap.*
Li An jumped. "You caught it!"
"Practice," Li Wei said, coiling the rope. "I expect you two to learn it as well. We aren't chasing chickens here. We're handling beasts that weigh a thousand pounds."
Old Zhang watched the display. He didn't know what a 'thousand pounds' was exactly, but he understood the weight of it. He took a swig of his liquor.
"Teach me," Zhang said, standing up. "If I'm going to be guarding these cows, I might as well know how to catch them."
Li Wei tossed the rope to the veteran. "It's all in the wrist, Old Zhang. Let the loop spin. When you throw, you commit. No hesitation."
As the old soldier struggled to untangle the rope and the young brother laughed, Li Wei looked at the dark expanse of the Westland. He felt the exhaustion in his bones, but for the first time in two lives, he didn't dread the morning.
He looked at the system interface.
**[Napier Grass Planted: 5 Acres.]**
**[Growth Acceleration: Active (Due to System Soil Enrichment).]**
**[Estimated Germination: 12 Hours.]**
"Sleep light, boys," Li Wei said, lying back on his bedroll. "Tomorrow, this place is going to look very different."
***
**POV: Su Qing**
Back in the Su residence, the silence was oppressive.
Su Qing sat in her study, the account book open in front of her. She had re-checked the same column three times, but the numbers kept swimming.
She looked at the empty teacup on the opposite side of the desk. It was the spot where Li Wei usually sat, moping or reading. It was empty now.
*He actually did it,* she thought. *He took the money and left.*
She told herself it was for the best. If he was gone, the Clan Elders would stop nagging. The household budget could be restructured. It was a logical outcome.
But the house felt... emptier.
"My Lady," a maid whispered, entering the room. "A message from the city gate guards."
Su Qing looked up. "What is it?"
"They saw Young Master Li and his brother heading out with the cripple, Old Zhang. They bought supplies... shovels, axes. And they took the road to the Westland."
Su Qing's hand tightened on her brush.
"The Westland," she repeated. "He really went there."
"He looked... energetic, My Lady," the maid added hesitantly. "The guard said he saw the Young Master laughing. He was carrying a heavy pack and didn't seem to struggle."
*Laughing?* Su Qing found that hard to imagine. The Li Wei she knew was a ghost of a man, silent and fading.
"Dismissed," Su Qing said.
She stood up and walked to the window, looking west. The sun had set long ago, leaving only the stars. Somewhere out there, in the bandit-infested, barren wasteland, her husband was digging in the dirt.
She touched the jade pendant at her waist—the one she had given him on their wedding day, which he had respectfully returned to her this morning as collateral.
"Don't die out there, Li Wei," she whispered into the night. "You still owe me one hundred taels."
***
**POV: Li Wei**
*Midnight.*
Li Wei woke up to a strange sensation. The air didn't feel as dry.
He sat up. The fire had died down to embers. Li An and Old Zhang were snoring.
He crept toward the fields they had planted that afternoon. The moon was full, bathing the rocky terrain in silver light.
He gasped.
Tiny green shoots were piercing the surface of the soil. They were moving, wriggling upward like slow-motion snakes. The System was working.
**[Napier Grass Growth Detected.]**
**[Stage 1: Germination Complete.]**
**[Stage 2: Sprouting in progress.]**
Li Wei dropped to his knees. He ran his fingers over the tiny, velvety blades of grass. They were real. It wasn't a dream.
He plucked a single blade and held it up to the moonlight. It was vibrant, full of life.
"Hello, world," he whispered to the grass. He looked up at the vast, star-filled sky. "We're going to be just fine."