Chapter 20

"It seems that I can't avoid Zhao Manager's scolding," Ding Qi thought to himself with a bitter smile.

Only now did Ding Qi remember that he had been so preoccupied with verifying his conjecture about the innate technique that he had neglected to tend to the herb garden for several days. A certain herb in the garden should have been given special attention yesterday, but he had completely forgotten about it.

He guessed that this matter had already been discovered, and Zhao Manager would scold him. If things went badly, part of his monthly salary might be deducted.

With this in mind, Ding Qi steeled himself and walked towards Zhao Manager. At this moment, Zhao Manager finally noticed Ding Qi and walked over to him.

"I couldn't find you, so you must have gone to eat," Zhao Manager said, glancing at the few steamed buns in Ding Qi's hand, as if he understood.

Then Zhao Manager continued, "Ding, you came just in time. I have something to tell you. I just received news that the schedule for the sect to collect the herb seedlings from our garden has been moved up by five days. Last month, they already came once. The process of collecting the seedlings is something you should already be familiar with, so I won't go into detail. I just wanted to inform you in advance."

After that, Zhao Manager mentioned some other trivial matters and quickly left. However, he never mentioned the thing Ding Qi was most worried about—his neglect of the herb garden.

Only after Zhao Manager left and Ding Qi returned to his room did he realize that Zhao Manager hadn't noticed his neglect.

"Phew, I worried for nothing," Ding Qi thought, feeling relieved and secretly sighing with relief.

Upon further reflection, Ding Qi realized that he had been overly concerned. Since passing Zhao Manager's test, most of the garden's affairs had been handed over to him. Zhao Manager rarely came to the garden, spending most of his time in the Qixia Town inn, listening to music and drinking. How could he easily notice Ding Qi's neglect?

The main thing Zhao Manager wanted to discuss wasn't a big deal. The Qingyun Sect's collection of herb seedlings from the garden was a monthly event. They had already come last month.

The herbs in their garden were all recently transplanted perennial herbs. The older these herbs, the more valuable they became. The herbs in their garden, which had only been recently planted, had no medicinal value. They would only become useful after growing for five to six years, or even over a decade.

This was why only Zhao Manager and Ding Qi were assigned to guard the garden. If there were truly valuable herbs, the Qingyun Sect would have sent many disciples to protect them.

The reason these seedlings were planted here was that they were difficult to cultivate elsewhere. This area had a special environment suitable for their growth.

Once the seedlings grew to a stage where they could be transplanted elsewhere, the Qingyun Sect would send people to move them to specially designated areas, where they would be closely guarded by disciples.

However, according to the usual schedule, the Qingyun Sect would only come on the last day of the month to transplant the seedlings. This time, for some reason, it was moved up by five days.

Although this false alarm made Ding Qi feel relieved, it also reminded him to be more careful in the future when practicing and collecting herbs.

Fortunately, he had already verified his conjecture and no longer needed to go up the mountain for several days in a row. He planned to resume his previous schedule: one day for digging herbs and another day for practicing the innate technique.

The process of transplanting the seedlings was something he had already mastered last month. As long as he followed the steps, there wouldn't be any problems. So, Ding Qi wasn't too worried about it.

There were still about ten days before the transplanting work began. During this time, he would continue to go up the mountain to collect herbs and practice the innate technique. In just a few days, his practice of the innate technique wouldn't show much progress, but he managed to go up the mountain four times and collect over ten phoenix tail herbs, which was a significant harvest.

The day before the Qingyun Sect's arrival, Ding Qi already had nearly thirty phoenix tail herbs. He didn't plan to sell them to the herbal shops in Qixia Town, such as Mr. Wang's, but intended to take them to Liangcheng for sale.

The purchase price for phoenix tail herbs in Liangcheng was slightly higher than what Mr. Wang and others in Qixia Town offered.

However, Ding Qi knew that this wasn't the real reason for his decision.

The real reason was that Ding Qi felt it was too conspicuous for an ordinary person to collect over thirty phoenix tail herbs every month.

Ding Qi had lived in Qixia Town for a considerable time, and Mr. Wang and others knew him well.

For an ordinary herb garden apprentice to collect so many phoenix tail herbs every month was too suspicious.

After the incident with Mr. Wang selling the phoenix tail herbs, Ding Qi had become wary of human nature. He decided to be more cautious to avoid unnecessary trouble. After all, he didn't want others to know about his ability to sense the special qualities of the phoenix tail herbs.

Thinking about this, Ding Qi shook his head with a bitter smile. Sometimes he felt he was being overly cautious. However, after the last incident, he realized the complexity and unpredictability of human nature, which had subtly changed his mindset, leading him to make this decision. Ding Qi shook his head again, put the matter aside, and calmed his mind to continue practicing the innate technique.

The agreed-upon day arrived quickly, and the Qingyun Sect indeed came to the herb garden to transplant the seedlings.

Their garden wasn't very large, and the herbs to be transplanted only occupied a small part of it. So, the total amount to be transplanted wasn't much.

However, this didn't mean that transplanting herbs was an easy task. On the contrary, it was one of the most labor-intensive tasks of the month.

To ensure that the herb seedlings weren't damaged during transplantation, each one had to be handled with great care. To maintain the herbs' vitality, the transplantation had to be completed on the same day. A full day of carefully digging and transplanting seedlings was quite exhausting.

Just like last month, the seedlings were transplanted by the afternoon, almost a full day's work.

Watching the carts carrying the herbs gradually disappear into the distance, the day's work was finally over.

Ding Qi, being young, didn't feel tired despite the long day. Transplanting seedlings, though tiring, was much easier than spending a whole day collecting herbs, so he didn't mind.

However, unlike Ding Qi, Zhao Manager was no longer young and strong. Despite Ding Qi's efforts to help him as much as possible during the transplantation, he still looked quite tired.

"Manager Zhao, in the future, let me handle these heavy tasks. You can just supervise from the side," Ding Qi hesitated for a moment before saying, seeing Zhao Manager's tired appearance.

During the transplantation, he had suggested multiple times that Zhao Manager not do the heavy work and leave it to him. After all, he had already learned the process from last month.

However, Zhao Manager didn't agree and insisted on participating in the transplantation.

"Hehe, I know you have a good heart, but my old bones need to move around. I can't just sit around doing nothing; it might even help me live longer," Zhao Manager shook his head in response to Ding Qi's words.

After saying this, Zhao Manager walked towards his room.

Just as Ding Qi thought Zhao Manager was going to rest and was about to leave, Zhao Manager hesitated for a moment and then turned around.

"Ding, come to my place later. I have something to tell you," Zhao Manager said to Ding Qi.

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