My Days as a God in Ancient Times
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Lan An noticed that Chu Qingze seemed to have something weighing on his mind, interrupting his yearning for knowledge.
"If you have something to attend to, you may go first."
"Busy? Not exactly, just a minor issue" Chu Qingze muttered to himself, "I wonder if the grain over there has been fully moved."
Just as he finished speaking, an excited voice accompanied by hurried footsteps came from outside, "Your Highness, my lord!" Chen Cuozhi's cheerful tone announced, "The grain has been completely moved."
"How unbecoming to yell like that!" Lan An rebuked sharply.
Chen Cuozhi entered the room, performed a proper bow, and refrained from any casual behavior. He then earnestly reported the situation: the rice mixed with coarse grains had been cooked into over a hundred pots, ensuring that everyone could eat their fill today. As for the flour, it hadn’t been processed due to a severe water shortage, and it was decided after some discussion that villagers would take it home themselves to prepare as needed.
The drought and water scarcity truly posed significant challenges.
"How are you currently solving the water issue?" Chu Qingze asked.
"Reporting to my lord" Chen Cuozhi responded with utmost seriousness in Lan An's presence, "The city still has a dozen wells. Those that are dug deeper still yield some water. Each household can draw a bucket of water daily, and our porridge distribution points are set up near those wells."
Chu Qingze mused thoughtfully, "What about the other wells? Can’t they be dug deeper?"
Chen Cuozhi shook his head. "We’ve tried before. Those wells are completely dry; no amount of digging can bring up water."
This was clearly a geographical issue. Chu Qingze, unfamiliar with well-digging, had no constructive suggestions.
"There is another matter..." Chen Cuozhi hesitated slightly, seeming embarrassed.
"Speak! How can a man act so coyly?" Lan An coldly scolded.
Exhaling deeply, Chen Cuozhi finally said, "My lord, yesterday, you instructed me to distribute ten thousand catties of rice and ten thousand catties of flour, correct?"
Chu Qingze nodded.
Chen Cuozhi hesitated further, asking cautiously, "Could there have been a mistake in the calculation or a miscount?"
Perplexed, Chu Qingze thought back. He had seen the delivery himself the previous day—each sack clearly marked as one hundred catties. It seemed unlikely there was a counting error. Could the grain supplier have shortchanged them?
"How much is missing?"
"It’s quite a lot, but we haven’t done a precise count yet."
Chu Qingze was even more puzzled. A discrepancy of tens or even a hundred catties would make sense, just some typical shortchanging by the supplier. But for the shortfall to be significant? That seemed improbable, especially since there were precisely one hundred sacks each of rice and flour.
"Bring one bag of rice here" Lan An commanded loudly.
Shortly after, a constable carried in a sack of rice.
"My lord, these one hundred sacks of rice and flour each weigh approximately sixty catties..." Chen Cuozhi began.
"Stop!" Chu Qingze interrupted, his eyes widening in shock. "How much did you say a sack weighs? Sixty catties? That’s impossible!"
He had roughly estimated the weight before and couldn’t believe that each sack could be this short. Something was definitely off.
Lan An, having carried numerous sacks himself, was well aware of their approximate weight. However, he didn’t refute Chu Qingze’s claim. Instead, he asked, "Could it be a difference in measurement systems?"
Chu Qingze suddenly realized, "Wait, do you measure in 'jin' with sixteen 'liang' per 'jin'?"
Chen Cuozhi nodded.
"Then there’s no mistake" Chu Qingze said, somewhat embarrassed. "In the celestial realm, one 'jin' is only ten 'liang'."
Turning to Lan An, he offered a sheepish compliment, "Your Highness, you’re brilliant! I hadn’t even thought about the difference in measurement systems. You’re amazing!"
Lan An’s expression remained stoic.
Chen Cuozhi: "..." What exactly had happened while he wasn’t around?
"Alright, I’ll send another twenty thousand catties of rice tomorrow" Chu Qingze said apologetically, "according to our celestial measurement."
No one could refuse this offer. Food and water were in dire need, and while the water problem couldn’t yet be solved, at least people could be fed for now.
"Coarse grains will suffice" Lan An suggested after a moment’s thought. "It doesn’t necessarily have to be polished rice."
Chu Qingze looked at him quizzically. "Your Highness, are you trying to make things difficult for me?"
"The prince means polished rice is too expensive, and coarse grains are more affordable" Chen Cuozhi explained.
Oh, another cultural difference.
Chu Qingze sighed, "In the celestial realm, coarse grains are more expensive than polished rice, and they’re rare to find. Eating coarse grains is considered a novelty; hardly anyone eats it regularly."
Everyone could afford polished rice, and coarse grains had become a luxury. What kind of utopia was this?
Both ancient men felt deeply moved upon hearing this.
Lan An, in particular, was struck by a melancholy thought: how many of Da Han’s citizens were still starving, unable to afford even coarse grains? If only such a paradise truly existed...
Sensing the mood, Chen Cuozhi quickly interjected, "My lord, it’s already past noon. Shall we have a meal? Perhaps you’d like to try the coarse grains and see how they compare to those of the celestial realm?"
The difference? Oh, it was substantial.
After just one bite, Chu Qingze lost his appetite. It wasn’t the pairing of coarse grains with pickled vegetables; it was the fact that the coarse grains scratched his throat and hurt his teeth.
He couldn’t swallow it at all.
Watching Lan An and Chen Cuozhi devouring their meals, Chu Qingze suddenly felt uneasy. After all, one was a prince, and the other was a court advisor. They didn’t need to endure the same hardships as the common folk.
Even if they kept some of the rice he had sent for themselves, he wouldn’t blame them.
"You two wait here." With that, Chu Qingze returned to his villa.
At home, the cook always prepared three meals a day for him, whether or not he ate them. By now, lunch—a set of three dishes and a soup—had grown a bit cold. Chu Qingze prepared to reheat it in the microwave.
"Host" Xiao En, the system spirit, floated beside him. "Don’t you think you’re going overboard? You’re trying to collect gratitude points, but there’s no need to go this far, especially just to ensure two people eat well."
Chu Qingze shook his head. Besides the fact that he harbored a slight affection for Lan An, there was also the issue of waste. If he didn’t eat the meal, it would just go to waste.
"Oh, right" Chu Qingze finally remembered an important matter. "Lan An’s gratitude points are high, but they’re red. What does that mean?"
Xiao En had long noticed that a large amount of gratitude points had accumulated, but there were constant prompts that the collection failed. He sighed, "This only means that while he's thanking you, he's also doubting you, so it can't be collected."
"So, it means that once he clears his doubts, it will work?" Chu Qingze thought this wasn’t a difficult thing, as the prince seemed to be quite easy to win over.
Xiao En thought for a moment, "In principle, yes. After all, the basic condition for us to collect gratitude points is that the other party truly and sincerely thanks you."
Chu Qingze nodded and asked again, "Then how many gratitude points have we collected today?"
At the mention of this, Xiao En's cat head smiled broadly, and its wings fluttered, leaving afterimages. "Almost 300,000! Rounded off, we each have nearly 150,000!"
Three hundred thousand gratitude points seemed quite high, but Chu Qingze was confused. "Then why is there still no reaction from my legs?"
Could this be a scam?
Xiao En was anxious and immediately flew to Chu Qingze's lap, giving him a hard bump.
"Did you see clearly now? Hmph~!"
Chu Qingze saw it clearly—he saw that his knee had a reflex reaction.
A huge surprise, Chu Qingze's eyes turned red, and he opened his mouth but couldn’t make a sound.
"Don't rush, don't rush!" Xiao En quickly gave him some psychological guidance, afraid he might be too happy too soon. "This is just the first step, and the reaction isn’t very strong. In a few days, you’ll start feeling the pain of your leg cells regenerating."
Chu Qingze naturally understood; Xiao En had said this last night.
He drove his wheelchair into the room and didn’t come out for a while. His eyes were redder than a rabbit's, and Xiao En felt a bit sorry for his host. "Everything will get better. Now that we have so many points, do you want to draw a prize?"
"Go ahead!" He needed something else to distract him.
"How about an A-level ten consecutive draw? One thousand points for each, with a ten percent discount for ten consecutive draws."
"Draw!" Chu Qingze opened the light screen.
Congratulations! You’ve won: [Popeye’s Spinach x2]
Congratulations! You’ve won: [Signal Connector x1]
Congratulations! You’ve won: [Body Strengthening Pills x3]
Congratulations! You’ve won: [Interstellar Sports Car x1]
Congratulations! You’ve won: [Marilyn Monroe’s Peach Bottom x1]
Congratulations! You’ve won: [Drizzling Pond View x1]
Congratulations! You’ve won: [Secret Order Change Card x1]
Chu Qingze was stunned. What kind of thing was 'Marilyn Monroe’s Peach Bottom'? What was 'Popeye’s Spinach'? And what was 'Body Strengthening Pills' which looked like those fraudulent health supplements for elderly people!
After reading the instructions, Chu Qingze felt nothing. Most of it was literal, and then, with lightning speed, he used the Secret Order Change Card.
Finally, he didn’t have to say such a clichéd spell like "I will save the world" anymore.
The other items were still worth looking forward to, like the sports car, signal connector, and Drizzling Pond View.
Chu Qingze tapped on the sports car, and immediately a high-tech flying car appeared in the living room.
The flying car was half the size of a typical modern sedan, with only two seats. The roof was transparent, and it looked like a mini version of a supercar—simply amazing.
With this flying car, he wouldn’t need a wheelchair when he goes to ancient times. After all, he was a god now, and anything he brought to the ancient world would be considered extraordinary.
The signal connector was also practical. In the ancient times, his phone had no signal, and he was always worried that his family might be looking for him. Now, this issue was solved.
As for the Drizzling Pond View, it was directly related to his current "saving the world" task—it was artificial rainfall. However, the condition was that it had to be used near a water source, and the size of the water source would determine the amount of rainfall.
Chu Qingze thought about it. The county of Yuhu was already facing a water shortage, and there was no large water source. Could he really make it rain by a well?
This would completely ruin his image as a god.
In that case, the artificial rainfall seemed like a useless item.
"Why don't you just go ask the locals over there?" Xiao En suggested. "Maybe if you're able to make it rain, the prince will believe you're a real god, and then you can collect his immense gratitude points."
"You're right." Chu Qingze tidied up his mood, ordered the food to be delivered tomorrow, and then went to pack lunch.
Lan An and Chen Cuozhi were having a simple meal of brown rice with pickled vegetables while discussing the topic of treating external injuries.
After reading Lan An's notes, Chen Cuozhi was immediately astonished, these treatments were incredibly practical.
After some discussion, the two decided that once they had handled the disaster here, they would start spreading these methods from the military camp.
When Chu Qingze arrived, the two were just starting to have a disagreement. Chen Cuozhi had clearly become a fanboy of Chu Qingze, while Lan An still felt that he was an enigmatic and dangerous figure.
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