The Cooperative Demonstration Partnership with Bao was a living experiment, a tendril of their method reaching into different soil under a different sky. Lin Yan's visits to Red Clay Valley became regular, fortnightly journeys. He traveled not as a master, but as a consultant, a partner bearing not just advice but a share of the risk—in the form of grant-funded Bluestem grass seed and clover inoculant.
Bao's land was different: a wind-scoured, clay-heavy slope where water pooled in sticky, anaerobic bogs in the spring and baked to cracked concrete in summer. The principles were the same—observe, mimic, assist—but the application differed. Here, the check dams needed to be lower, wider, designed to spread water rather than just slow it, turning destructive rivulets into shallow sheets that soaked in. The stonecrop, which thrived on their rocky slopes, struggled in the dense clay. Instead, they planted a hardy, deep-rooted sedge Bao knew of that could break up the compaction.
The work was hard, the progress agonizingly slow to the impatient eye. But Lin Yan, with his 'Passive Observation' now enhanced by the 'Micro-Watershed Analysis' blueprint he'd finally purchased from Tier 4 (80 points), could see the subtle shifts. He could map the flow of water in his mind, predict where silt would deposit, see where the new sedge roots were beginning their slow work.
[Points Total: 353. Micro-Watershed Analysis acquired.]
Back home, the Lin-Yue enterprise was a hive of coordinated specialization. Qiao Yuelan and Mei Xiang had forged a formidable alliance. Mei Xiang, defying her family's pressure with a quiet, steely resolve, began spending her days at the farm. Her deep, generational knowledge of local wild herbs complemented Yuelan's formal training and trade networks. Together, they expanded the medicinal plots, introducing valerian for sleep, yarrow for wounds, and a small, carefully tended patch of poppies for pain relief—strictly controlled and recorded.
Their collaboration birthed a new product line: "Lin-Yue Apothecary" tinctures and salves, neatly labeled in Yuelan's fine script and Mei Xiang's meticulous hand. These were not just village remedies; they were packaged for the prefectural market, their provenance and quality assured. The first shipment to Merchant Wei, who had bought the honey, brought a return of silver that made even the imperial grant seem modest in comparison. Mei Xiang, for the first time in her life, earned her own income, a tangible validation of her choice.
This success, however, was a social earthquake. Mei Xiang's family was outraged. Her prospective in-laws were insulted. Rumors swirled—that she was Lin Yan's concubine, that Yuelan was a witch corrupting village girls. The gossip was a toxic fog, and it threatened to poison the well of community goodwill they had been carefully cultivating.
Lin Yan found himself using his 'Basic Conflict Mediation' skill not on fence lines, but on human hearts. He invited Mei Xiang's father, a proud, worried man, to the farm. He did not plead or justify. He showed him the ledger. He showed him the entry for the apothecary sales, and the line noting Mei Xiang's share. He showed him the clean, professional workroom, the drying racks, the order book.
"She is not a servant here," Lin Yan said calmly. "She is a partner. Her skill brings silver to your family's name, not through marriage, but through her own mind and hands. Is that not a form of dowry more lasting than a promise?"
The old man was torn between traditional shame and the undeniable gleam of silver. He left without giving his blessing, but the outright public condemnation ceased. It was a fragile truce, bought with economic reality.
The social strain was a constant drain. Village Head Li watched these developments from a distance, his silence more menacing than any protest. He saw the Lin-Yue farm creating its own economic gravity, drawing in people like Mei Xiang and even some young men who came asking about work. The common pasture dispute remained the unspoken battleground.
The livestock thrived, a peaceful counterpoint to the human drama. Splotch farrowed a final, healthy litter of eight. Using the 'Controlled Breeding & Lineage Tracking' knowledge (100 points), Lin Yan began a proper registry. He recorded each piglet's parentage, birth weight, and notable traits. Savory, the long-backed sow from the previous litter, was bred to Anchor, aiming to cement the desirable bacon-yield trait. This was no longer just raising pigs; it was curating a gene pool.
[Points Total: 253.]
The two steers, Onyx and Shadow, were approaching their first full year, magnificent beasts with the distinctive Brahman hump and sleek Angus-black coats. Plans were made for their final fattening on a dedicated plot of the finest Bluestem hay. Their slaughter, come autumn, would be a landmark—the first home-bred, grass-finished beef from the Lin-Yue ranch, destined for Butcher Gao's highest-paying clients.
One afternoon, as Lin Yan and Lin Qiang were sketching plans for a root cellar expansion using principles from the 'Ecosystem Engineering' knowledge (using earth berms for natural insulation), a stranger rode up. He was neither peasant nor official, but a military man—a cavalry sergeant, by the look of his worn but serviceable leathers and his straight-backed bearing. He dismounted, his eyes scanning the farm with a professional's appraisal.
"I look for the man who grows the Bluestem grass," the sergeant said, his voice a gravelly baritone. "The hay that was sent north."
"I am he," Lin Yan said, wiping his hands.
"Name's Kuo. From the Western Frontier Garrison, two weeks' hard ride from here. Our horses are eating dust and despair. We got a shipment of that hay you sent to the capital as a sample. The horses… they ate it like it was grain. Their coats improved. The farrier said their hoof strength was better." Sergeant Kuo's gaze was direct. "We need more. As much as you can send. The Imperial Pasture supply is slow and thin. We will pay. In silver, or in… other things."
'Other things' was a phrase heavy with possibility. The army had access to goods, to information, to protection. It was also a potential entanglement with a powerful, often ruthless, institution.
"We can increase production," Lin Yan said cautiously. "But it takes land and time. We are currently limited by village common pasture rules."
Sergeant Kuo's eyes narrowed. "Common pasture? You have an imperial designation and a garrison needs fodder. Paperwork can be… adjusted." He spoke with the blunt confidence of a man used to getting what the army needed. "I will speak to your magistrate. A military procurement contract overrides local squabbles. You will have the land you need to grow. We will provide an advance for seed and labor."
It was an offer that was also a command. And it was a solution to their land problem that came from a direction Li could not possibly counter. But it came with strings—thick, hemp ropes of obligation to the military.
Lin Yan knew this was a pivotal moment. Accepting meant leaping in scale, becoming a supplier to the frontier army. It meant money, protection, and a formidable enemy in Village Head Li. It also meant their fate would be tied to the fortunes of the garrison and the whims of military quartermasters.
He asked for a day to consider. That night, the family council was held not in the hut, but in Yuelan's cottage, the ledger and the new, daunting contract draft on the table. Wang Shi feared the army's harshness. Lin Gang saw the practical benefit of secure demand. Lin Qiang calculated the risks of over-dependence. Xiaoshan just listened, wide-eyed.
Yuelan was the last to speak. "The army is a wolf. You can feed it, and it may guard your door. Or it may decide you are the meal. But… it is a wolf that can clear other predators from your path." She looked at Lin Yan. "We have built a cell, as you said. The partnership with Bao is one division. Supplying the garrison… that is not a division. It is a transformation. It makes us an organ, vital to something much larger."
The metaphor was apt. They would cease to be a self-contained experiment and become a functional part of the imperial machine. There would be inspections, quotas, demands.
Lin Yan thought of the system's quiet guidance, of the unending quest for growth and connection. This was connection of the highest, most dangerous order. He thought of the parched horses on the frontier, and the green, resilient grass on his slopes.
"We will do it," he said, the words final. "But we write the contract. We specify the land lease terms, the price per bale, the quality standards. We are not serfs. We are contractors. We use their need to secure our future, on our terms."
The next day, he counter-proposed to Sergeant Kuo, his new 'Contract Law' knowledge giving him the language of clauses and conditions. To his surprise, the sergeant agreed to most of it. The army needed the hay; they could afford to be reasonable with a capable supplier.
A week later, official documents arrived from the prefectural magistrate, approved by the regional military command. The Lin-Yue Demonstration Farm was granted exclusive management rights to a 20-mu section of the Willow Creek common pasture for the purpose of "fodder production for frontier defense." Village Head Li's signature was required; it was given, according to the county clerk who delivered the papers, with a face "like cold iron."
The cell had divided, explosively. They were now land managers on a scale they'd never dreamed of, with a powerful, demanding client. The dream had a price: they were now players in a much larger, harder game. But as Lin Yan walked the newly leased pasture, imagining it a sea of Bluestem grass, he felt not fear, but a fierce, expanding sense of purpose. Their roots, once clinging to a barren mu, now had to hold fast against the winds of empire and the army's need. It was the ultimate test of their resilience.
[System Alert: Significant scale jump initiated via military contract. Land under direct/indirect management: 35+ mu. New classification: 'Strategic Supplier.']
[Reward: 'Logistics & Supply Chain' basics unlocked. 50 Points.]
[New Quest: 'The Garrison's Hay.' Successfully fulfill first season's hay delivery quota to Western Frontier Garrison. Reward: 'Advanced Metallurgy' blueprint (for tool/weapon repair), permanent military supplier status, 100 Points.]
[Points Total: 303. The frontier of your ambition now matches the Empire's.]