Chapter 13

......

"Fourth Brother, do you not trust me?" Wang Luojing's little face drooped.

"Fourth Brother, I suggest you listen to the girl," the older Wang Luotong chimed in. "Although Luojing is young, she has always been very fond of playing with insects, knows a lot about them, and is especially attractive to them."

"Interesting~" Wang Shouzhe suddenly became excited, his eyes gleaming. "Tell Fourth Brother first how you plan to deal with the honey bugs. Don't rush, take your time. We have plenty of time."

"In recent years, Grandfather has always complained about the honey bugs and the reduced grain harvest compared to previous years," Wang Luojing said softly. "So I thought, if I could help Grandfather solve the honey bug problem, he would certainly be very happy. Then I could plead with him not to marry off my sister. I don't want my sister to leave~"

Wang Luotong's face turned pale, and she lowered her head, not daring to speak. This was not something she could decide.

"If you can really solve the honey bug disaster, Fourth Brother promises to protect you both," Wang Shouzhe said firmly. "If you don't want to marry, we won't."

"Thank you, Fourth Brother." Wang Luojing's face lit up. "Actually, I read in the 'Insect Classic' that the ancients used lacewings to control honey bugs. However, in recent years, lacewings have become scarce. Last year, I raised some honey bugs and lacewings, and it was indeed effective. So this year, I asked my brother to catch two lacewing queens from the mountains. I spent some time taming them..."

"Wait..." Wang Shouzhe's face changed. "What is the 'Insect Classic,' and how can you tame lacewing queens?"

"The 'Insect Classic' is just that, an ancient book I found in the family library," Wang Luojing said innocently. "It explains how to tame insects, and it's not that difficult. Fourth Brother, if you want to learn, I can teach you."

Not that difficult!?

Wang Shouzhe's face darkened. He had integrated the memories of his predecessor and was quite familiar with the Xuanwu world. In this world, there were a few people who liked to control spirit insects for production or combat, known as spirit insect masters.

However, spirit insect masters were a niche profession with a high talent threshold, even higher than that of alchemists. The reason was simple: ordinary people, if they were smart enough, could勉强 learn alchemy, but their achievements would be limited and the cost would be enormous.

But for the profession of spirit insect master, if you didn't have the rare talent to communicate with spirit insects, you couldn't even get started.

Therefore, spirit insect masters were extremely niche, and ordinary noble family children had never even heard of them. According to Wang Shouzhe's knowledge, only the Changning Xu family and the Shanyin Liu family secretly cultivated two spirit insect masters.

If Wang Luojing had the talent of a spirit insect master...

For a moment, Wang Shouzhe's heart pounded.

"Fourth Brother, what's wrong with you?" Wang Luojing waved her hand in front of his face, pouting. "Don't you believe me either?"

"Believe, believe." Wang Shouzhe nodded vigorously. "My Luojing is the smartest. Fourth Brother is very interested. Let's go somewhere more secluded, and you can demonstrate for me."

"Okay, the two lacewing queens are on Fourth Brother's carriage," Wang Luojing said happily. "I'll go get them with my sister."

Wang Shouzhe immediately recalled that this morning, when he met the sisters, he noticed they each carried a strange large box. At the time, he thought they were personal items and didn't ask, just telling them to put them on the carriage.

Now, he realized they must have planned to try something at the farm.

"Let the family guards go." Wang Shouzhe waved his hand.

The family guards, who were serving at a distance, quickly ran over and respectfully said, "Clan Leader, what are your orders?"

"Wang Wu, Wang Yong, go to the carriage and bring Miss Luojing's two boxes."

"Yes, Clan Leader."

The two family guards ran off at a rapid pace. In less than half an hour, they returned, each carrying a box.

"Wang Gui, Wang Wu, you all go to the Fourth Elder's place and see if you can help," Wang Shouzhe instructed, sending them away. He noticed that Wang Xiaozhi was also trying to control the aphids with methods like wood ash, and he was short on manpower.

The family guards were Xuanwu practitioners, and when used properly, they were much more efficient than ordinary tenant farmers.

Most importantly, the matter was not yet certain, and he didn't want it to become widely known.

After Wang Gui and the other four family guards left, Wang Shouzhe personally carried the two large boxes, leading Wang Luotong and Wang Luojing to a secluded wheat field.

The thousands of acres of land stretched like an ocean. This area was open and unoccupied, perfect for a demonstration.

Wang Shouzhe flipped through the wheat stalks and, as expected, found some green aphids in the wheat field. The tiny insects made him feel uneasy.

"Luojing, show Fourth Brother your skills."

"Okay~ This outbreak of honey bugs is earlier than I expected," Wang Luojing said, her expression serious and anxious. She carefully opened one of the boxes.

Wang Shouzhe curiously glanced inside the box and immediately felt a wave of密集恐惧症, his hair standing on end. The box was filled with leaves, and on those leaves, there were numerous thread-like structures, each covered with dense, round dots.

"Fourth Brother, sister, help me out," Wang Luojing said, taking out the "leaves." "Place one leaf in every square丈."

Wang Shouzhe's lips twitched. This little girl was quite bold, even daring to command the clan leader. But his hands obediently followed Wang Luojing's instructions. With his advanced cultivation, he picked up a "leaf" and tossed it, and it landed steadily in place.

Following Wang Luojing's instructions, they needed to place dozens of leaves per acre of wheat field. The two large boxes contained only a few hundred "leaves," enough to cover about ten acres, which was just a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of acres of wheat fields.

After about fifteen minutes of placing the leaves, Wang Shouzhe and Wang Luotong stood near Wang Luojing, waiting patiently for her instructions.

"Fourth Brother, these lacewing eggs will hatch in three days," Wang Luojing explained. "They hatch slower in the dark box, but once they see sunlight, they will hatch quickly."

Alright~ You're the expert in this field, so whatever you say goes.

Wang Shouzhe was always honest about his knowledge gaps and never overstepped. As time passed, less than an hour later, the first few leaves they placed began to change, and strange-looking little insects struggled to break out of their shells.

The leaves were right in front of them, and they could clearly see the tiny insects. They were about two millimeters long, resembling elongated beetles, but with large pincers on their heads, making them look quite ugly.

After they hatched, they remained motionless, hanging quietly on the thread-like structures.

After a while, they finally began to move, sliding down the leaves and slowly spreading out in all directions. They seemed to instinctively sense where food was and leisurely climbed up the wheat stalks.

Suddenly!

One of the insects encountered an aphid and pounced on it, using its pincers to clamp down and its mouthparts to pierce the aphid's body, starting to suck it dry. In just a short half-hour, the poor aphid was reduced to an empty shell, which scattered in the wind.

The lacewing larva then continued to climb, seeking its next prey.

"Amazing!" Wang Shouzhe exclaimed. "This little insect is really fierce."

"Fourth Brother, when I raised lacewing larvae before, I calculated that they would pupate in ten days. During this period, they can eat nearly a thousand honey bugs. When they are just born, they are smaller and can only eat about ten a day for the first two days," Wang Luojing said, having played with these insects for a long time and finding it quite normal.

"If that's true, the ten or so acres of wheat fields that are just starting to fill with grain will have a reduced yield, but they will be saved," Wang Shouzhe said, admiringly but also worriedly. "But our Fenggu Farm has thousands of acres of wheat."

"Don't worry, Fourth Brother, I was just testing it out," Wang Luojing said, opening the other box. Inside were not the dense lacewing larvae but colorful small beetles.

"Isn't this..." Wang Shouzhe recognized the beetles and was surprised. "Ladybugs?"

"Fourth Brother knows them too? But the 'Insect Classic' calls them nine-spotted beetles, not seven-spotted," Wang Luojing said, taking out a fist-sized beetle with nine spots on its back, caressing it lovingly. "I'll call you Nine-star Beetle King from now on."

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