noffsinger Chapter 1209 Rewarding Locusts with Food
Chapter 1209 Rewarding Locusts with Food
Each official was given a task by Shen Zheng, and Jiang Zhiming felt like he was just an extra in front of Shen Zheng.
"Lord Jiang?" Shen Zheng's voice pulled Jiang Zhiming back to reality. As soon as Jiang Zhiming turned his head, he heard Shen Zheng say again, "For high-yield rice, we also need a plain-colored hemp cloth."
"Oh, oh, oh! Lord Shen, please wait a moment! I'll be right back!" Jiang Zhiming lifted his robe and ran off.
Yu Nanshu and Cui Jinyin also ran out, one saying to boil water and the other saying to find some hot food in the kitchen. The hall immediately quieted down. Shen Zheng sat down, leaning on the table, feeling a piercing pain in her groin.
If she wasn't mistaken, the skin on her inner thighs must have been chafed raw.
Xin Ji idly fiddled with the furnishings in the hall, passing by Shen Zheng several times before finally unable to hold back: "Lord Shen, how are those things used? Can they really keep locusts out of Liuyang Prefecture?"
Shen Zheng quietly changed her sitting posture and nodded: "As long as the terrain of Wangyue Mountain is correct, it will be possible."
Xin Ji wanted to ask further, but Hua Duo blocked his view: "Young Master Xin, I have some private matters to report to you, sir."
Xin Ji choked, thinking to himself, "You're giving me orders now," but his feet obediently moved toward the hall door.
"I'm standing right here, I can't hear you, alright?"
Hua Duo estimated the distance, turned to look at Shen Zheng, and whispered, "Master, I'm going out to buy you some medicine."
Shen Zheng paused, but before she could speak, Hua Duo continued, "Since you've never practiced riding, your body will inevitably be unaccustomed to it. Injuries can't be left untreated; if they're not properly healed and stick to the fabric, it will take at least ten days to heal..."
Shen Zheng's mouth moved, and she was about to speak when Hua Duo interrupted her again: "I'll buy some ointment nearby, it won't take much time. I'll also buy you a pair of thick leg warmers, so you won't have to worry about chafing when you wear them."
Hua Duo's eyes were filled with deep worry and a hint of stubbornness, as if she would rather leave her post than not buy medicine if Shen Zheng didn't agree.
Perhaps because she received this concern, Shen Zheng felt the pain in her groin area intensify.
After gasping in pain, Shen Zheng nodded: "Then be careful and come back quickly."
After a pause, Shen Zheng said again, "Hua Duo, thank you."
If Hua Duo weren't also a woman, Shen Zheng wouldn't have known how to bring up the injury to her thigh. The advantages of being a female bodyguard were on full display at this moment.
Hua Duo laughed, glancing at Xin Ji as he left the hall, his eyes carrying a warning.
"Hey, I..." Xin Ji looked at Hua Duo's back, jumped up and punched the air.
Half a moment later, Jiang Zhiming returned in a flurry of activity, wearing a hemp cloth and carrying a small burlap sack in each hand.
Shen Zheng leaned on the table to get up, took the sack, opened it and glanced at it, then told Xin Ji to close the doors and windows.
A hemp cloth was laid on the floor in the center of the hall. Shen Zheng first picked up the burlap sack containing ordinary rice and poured it onto the left side of the cloth, then poured the high-yield rice onto the right side of the cloth, with the two three feet apart.
Xin Ji curiously leaned closer: "What are you doing?"
Shen Zheng put down the burlap sack, took out the purse she had treasured all the way, and gently pulled the drawstring. Several locusts fell onto the burlap with a "thud".
"Locusts?!" Xin Ji recalled what happened last night, but was still incredibly surprised: "You didn't kill them, but brought them back alive?!"
what is this?
Feeding locusts?!
Shen Zheng endured the stinging pain and squatted down, looking down at the seven locusts on the burlap.
One died, leaving six, and they don't look to be in good condition.
Locusts don't go hungry easily. Just like humans, they digest the food in their stomachs every few hours and then start actively looking for food.
Just then, the six surviving locusts slowly began to move.
Shen Zheng subconsciously held her breath and watched their movements.
Four locusts crawled toward the ordinary rice on the left, while the remaining two locusts slowly crawled toward the high-yield rice.
Shen Zheng's expression hardened upon seeing this.
Two to one...
Was her previous guess wrong?
“These two aren’t eating either.” Shen Zheng was going through her biology in her mind when Xin Ji’s voice came into her ears: “Are they starving? They won’t touch the rice right in front of them.”
Shen Zheng looked at the two locusts in front of the high-yield rice again. Just as Xin Ji had said, the two locusts were hovering in front of the high-yield rice, but did not make any move to eat.
In contrast, the four locusts in front of the ordinary rice stalks have already begun to feast.
Shen Zheng felt relieved and gestured for Xin Ji to be quiet: "Don't speak, let's observe some more."
The three of them craned their necks to look at the two locusts. They saw the locusts extend their antennae, touch the high-yield rice, touch the high-yield rice, and touch the high-yield rice again, but they wouldn't eat it.
"What does this mean?" Xin Ji asked in a breathy voice. He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he seemed to see hesitation in the locust.
As soon as he finished speaking, the two locusts seemed to have finally realized something. They moved their antennae away and turned to crawl towards the ordinary rice on the other side.
"They really won't eat it?!" Jiang Zhiming was also greatly shocked. Trembling, he pointed at the six locusts that had merged together and asked in a low voice, "Lord Shen, why would they abandon high-yield rice and eat ordinary rice?"
This is wrong!
He had clearly heard before that high-yield rice produces plump, glossy grains that are sticky but not mushy, and have a sweet aftertaste...
Why do locusts leave after touching such good rice?
Jiang Zhiming was extremely puzzled. In order to verify her conjecture again, Shen Zheng picked up three locusts that were eating with her bare hands and threw them onto the high-yield rice.
"Buzzing—"
Having replenished their energy, the three locusts landed on the high-yield rice and immediately took flight again, heading towards the ordinary rice on the left.
Jiang Zhiming was dumbfounded.
Do you dislike it that much?
That's high-yield rice that he's never even tasted before!
Wild boars have never eaten fine bran!
“Is that really the case…” As she looked, Shen Zheng laughed: “They have never been exposed to high-yield rice before. Given that they have other rice varieties to eat, they will not risk eating high-yield rice.”
"Taking risks?" These four words were hard for Jiang Zhiming to understand. "They're all rice, yet they're so picky?"
Shen Zheng convinced Jiang Zhiming and the other man with just one sentence: "Anything you haven't eaten before is dangerous."
Nevertheless, the two still thought the locusts were incredibly stupid.
In this way, Shen Zheng dared to boldly use high-yield rice as a plant to divert locusts.
Given a food that seems familiar yet has never been tried before, compared to the staple food that is ingrained in their genes and eaten for thousands of years, it's obvious which one they will choose to eat.
Shen Zheng stood up and handed the purse to Jiang Zhiming: "Lord Jiang, please put these in. We'll try again after we get to Wangyue Mountain. Also, send another thousand catties of high-yield rice to Wangyue Mountain."
Jiang Zhiming took the purse and vaguely guessed what Shen Zheng was planning to do.
"Knock knock knock—" There was a knock on the hall door.