Jiang Zhuozhuo instantly turned into a dejected little bird, flattening herself out like a bird pancake.
Jiang Zhuozhuo, you see, when nobody cares about her, she can wrestle a bull to the ground all by herself, but the moment someone dotes on her, she starts getting all cheeky, shamelessly throwing tantrums and rolling around whenever and wherever she pleases.
Take now for example—relying on Mei Yin, the gentle and considerate head maid, Jiang Zhuozhuo began to act up: “I’m still young, I’m just a child, I haven’t even grown my Phoenix Feather yet. Sleeping more is good for my growth!” She made an outrageous demand, “I need to sleep at least twelve hours a day! If I don’t get twelve hours, I’ll never grow Phoenix Feathers!”
Compared to the Phoenix Tribe’s long lifespan, Jiang Zhuozhuo really was still very young, so Mei Yin didn’t insist on forcing her to get up early for class.
Thinking of how Jiang Zhuozhuo was still just a pitiful, dull gray little round bird, Mei Yin crouched down and patiently negotiated, “Your Highness, don’t say such unlucky things. How about we move Common Studies to two in the afternoon?”
Only then did Jiang Zhuozhuo get up from the ground and shake her feathers, reluctantly accepting this class time. “Alright, I suppose that’s fine.”
Since class was in the afternoon, she planned to find a spot to sprawl out and bask in the sun. At her age, when had she ever slept enough? She was always short on sleep!
Mei Yin saw through Jiang Zhuozhuo’s intentions and gently coaxed her, “Jude and the others have already brought back the Guazui Gu you wanted, Your Highness. What do you plan to do with it?”
Jiang Zhuozhuo insisted, “From now on, don’t call it Guazui Gu—call it Tree Wheat. ‘Guazui Gu’ just sounds unappetizing.”
Mei Yin didn’t think changing the name would make Guazui Gu taste any better.
But remembering how yesterday Jiang Zhuozhuo had made a strange-tasting herb and a sour fruit into a seasoning for grilled fish—and it turned out unexpectedly delicious—Mei Yin hesitated.
Could this Guazui Gu also be turned into some special seasoning?
Mei Yin said, “Alright, I’ve made a note of it. I’ll go issue Your Highness’s order in a moment. From now on, the entire Woye Province is forbidden from calling it Guazui Gu.”
Jiang Zhuozhuo: ?!
Wait, this is that official?
Mei Yin glanced at Jiang Zhuozhuo’s wide, round black eyes and secretly smiled, then continued to gently coax her, “What does Your Highness plan to do with the Tree Wheat?”
Since Mei Yin was ready to make such a big deal out of renaming it, Jiang Zhuozhuo felt she had to quickly figure out how to make Tree Wheat palatable.
She hopped up and said, “I’ll go take a look!”
Mei Yin followed Jiang Zhuozhuo to the warehouse where the Tree Wheat was stored.
Jiang Zhuozhuo was stunned when she saw the warehouse full of Tree Wheat—she hadn’t expected a single silver coin to buy so much. That kid was really honest!
The little round bird stared at the mountain of Tree Wheat, deep in thought.
In theory, now that she was a bird, she could just eat the grains directly.
She wondered what raw grains tasted like!
Did this stuff really scratch your mouth?
She wanted to try!
Jiang Zhuozhuo, overwhelmed by curiosity, hesitated only a few seconds before pecking up a Guazui Gu for a daring, unforgettable taste test in her bird life.
Immediately, she felt the Guazui Gu get stuck in her bird throat, neither going up nor down.
The little round bird couldn’t swallow it, nor could she spit it out, and collapsed to the ground.
She prepared to close her eyes in peace.
If the enemy doesn’t move, I won’t move!
As long as I don’t try to swallow, this Guazui Gu can’t hurt me!
Mei Yin: “………”
Mei Yin used her perfect first-aid skills to help Jiang Zhuozhuo spit out the Guazui Gu stuck in her throat.
Jiang Zhuozhuo solemnly concluded, “It really does scratch your mouth!”
Mei Yin seriously warned, “Your Highness must not eat this directly again.”
Jiang Zhuozhuo shuddered at the memory, “Of course not.”
That feeling, like seeing your great-grandma, was something no one would want to experience again!
Not even a bird!
Seeing Jiang Zhuozhuo lie down again, claiming she needed to recover, Mei Yin had no choice but to call two other maids to look after her while she went to handle official business.
Jiang Zhuozhuo took a nap in the sun and felt revived. Realizing that her three daily meals weren’t yet guaranteed, she began to seriously recall how to turn wheat into flour.
Before flour could be produced mechanically, it was hard work for ordinary people to eat white flour, just de-hulling it was tough, let alone making it into fine flour.
Jiang Zhuozhuo muttered to herself, “I’ve heard Alchemists are good at inventing things. I need to find an Alchemist to help make some tools.”
If you can do alchemy, making a de-hulling machine or a flour mill shouldn’t be hard!
If all else fails, even a water-powered or wind-powered mill would do!
But now, the question was, did their remote province even have an Alchemist?
Jiang Zhuozhuo tucked away her plan to recruit an Alchemist for later.
For now, they’d have to rely on manual labor to grind the wheat.
Jiang Zhuozhuo knew her own hands-on skills weren’t up to much, so she sent Anna, the maid, to find a few reliable, hardworking young men to help.
Start with de-hulling!
Just thinking about how the Guazui Gu had scratched her throat, the little round bird, trying to sound fierce and cute, barked orders at the knights who’d been pulled in to help: “Take it off, take it off, take it all off!”
The knights: ?
They were all Royal Knights Academy graduates—well, not as outstanding as Mei Yin the Vice-Captain, just ordinary graduates.
If it weren’t for the special circumstances of Her Highness, they would never have had the chance to join the Royal Knights.
Now, doing all sorts of chores for Her Highness was only right!
With people to do the work, Jiang Zhuozhuo cheered up completely.
It was winter, so they could find places with thick ice. Jiang Zhuozhuo led the knights in making Milling Tools on the spot and took them to dig… Ice Hollow on the ice.
This was a wonderful childhood memory for her. Ever since her grandmother passed away and her parents brought her back to the city, Jiang Zhuozhuo had never again experienced the joy of pounding wheat in an Ice Hollow.
She seriously explained the tricks of making an Ice Hollow to the knights, and even personally demonstrated how to pound off that tough, inedible wheat hull by repeated hammering.
Definitely not just an excuse to play ovo
Anna and the others were eager to try as well.
It wasn’t that they lacked the self-discipline of maids—this just looked genuinely fun!
The knights soon dug several neat rows of Ice Hollow in the thick ice, and under the sunlight, they all began pounding wheat in unison.
After playing to her heart’s content, Jiang Zhuozhuo turned back into a little round bird and perched on a branch, admiring this… “Knights Pounding Wheat in Winter” scene.
Such a beautiful sight—what a pity not to paint it! She was a bona fide art student, after all!
But then she remembered that all the pigments here had to be hand-ground, and Jiang Zhuozhuo immediately gave up. She just had no perseverance!
Meanwhile, a few hawks were soaring high overhead.
With their keen eyesight, one of them noticed the busy group of knights on the icy plain below and curiously discussed with his companions, “Boss, what are they doing down there? Some kind of special training?”
The lead hawk didn’t answer—he had no interest in such topics, only in the task he needed to complete.
“If I recall correctly, this should be Woye Province—the Ninth Princess’s territory,” one of his subordinates chattered on. “How could Her Majesty the Empress, so wise and mighty, give birth to such a fool?”
The lead hawk finally spoke, “Don’t make reckless judgments about others, and never belittle others lightly. Luke, it seems you need to reread ‘Knightly Virtues.'”
The hawk named Luke quickly shut his beak.
The group silently flew over Woye Province.
Perched in a tree, Jiang Zhuozhuo (in little round bird form) suddenly sneezed, making Anna rush over in concern to see if she was catching a cold.
The little round bird looked serious, “No, I’m not sick—someone’s talking bad about me!”
One sneeze—definitely not sick!
The little round bird looked up at the sky with a sense of foreboding and could just barely make out a few distant black dots.
She told Anna with certainty, “It’s them—it must have been those guys who just flew past, badmouthing me.”
Anna followed her gaze but saw nothing. Clearly, even though Jiang Zhuozhuo hadn’t grown her Phoenix Feather yet, her senses were already much sharper than theirs.
Their Highness truly carried Phoenix blood—even if she awakened later than the other princesses, she was still beyond compare to the ordinary Bird Tribe.
Jiang Zhuozhuo had no idea that by casually blaming a few passing birds, she’d make her maids think so much.
She happily played supervisor for half the day and successfully harvested a batch of fragrant wheat kernels.
She took the wheat kernels straight to the kitchen, asking the cook to clear the stove so she could make wheat kernel porridge.
This was the most straightforward way to eat wheat: first, boil a pot of Meat Broth with bone-in meat, then add the wheat kernels and seasonings to simmer slowly.
Cooked over a gentle flame, the wheat kernel porridge turned out with the meat inside soft and tender, each bite full of rich meaty flavor—delicious!
The cook was quite motivated. After witnessing Jiang Zhuozhuo’s grilled fish yesterday, she was thoroughly convinced and today followed Jiang Zhuozhuo’s instructions to make this unheard-of wheat kernel porridge.
Once the Guazui Gu was hulled, it actually… didn’t seem so hard to eat after all?
The cook suddenly looked forward to tasting this new dish.
Although making it was a bit tedious—requiring all sorts of seasonings and constant tending of the fire—if it turned out as tasty as yesterday’s grilled fish… that was almost unimaginable!
If the Tree Wheat that grew wild all over the mountains could actually become delicious, wouldn’t their Woye Province soon be wealthy?!
In that case, Guazui Gu wouldn’t be a punishment from the heavens, but a blessing!
At noon, Jiang Zhuozhuo ate some improved roasted meat made by the cook.
Although it couldn’t change the fact that the meat itself was tough, it was still much better than the primitive flavor of the past few days.
If you don’t eat, you’ll be hungry!
Jiang Zhuozhuo made do with a half-full meal, saving her appetite for the wheat kernel porridge.
She still had class in the afternoon.
Continental Common Studies—she had to learn that.
Since they hadn’t managed to hire a suitable Common Studies teacher for Jiang Zhuozhuo, today Mei Yin filled in as a substitute.
Jiang Zhuozhuo earnestly took out her little notebook, ready to take notes.
Fortunately, paper existed in this era—a research achievement of a certain Grand Alchemist from the capital. Production and recycling were simple: just toss straw into the entrance of the Paper Mill and out would come a steady stream of paper.
Only the cutting process required a bit of manual labor.
So, if you had an Alchemist, many problems could be solved right away.
One day, surely, you’d be able to throw Tree Wheat in and get flour out instantly, with the bran separated for livestock!
Jiang Zhuozhuo shared her wonderful ideas with Mei Yin.
Mei Yin hesitated to speak.
Jiang Zhuozhuo asked, “Is that not possible?”
Mei Yin replied, “With our current tax revenue in Woye Province, I’m afraid we couldn’t even pay an Alchemist half a month’s wages.”
Jiang Zhuozhuo: .
It seemed that real talent was expensive no matter where you went!
Jiang Zhuozhuo asked, “Would it be too late for me to start learning alchemy now? If we ever run out of food, I could go out and work to support you all!”
Mei Yin said, “The Alchemical Secrets are held by only a very few, and they’re extremely exclusive. Unless they invite you in, outsiders will never have a chance to learn. Even if a Grand Alchemist were willing to take Your Highness as a disciple, the tuition and cost of alchemical materials would be astronomical—far beyond what our territory could afford.”
Jiang Zhuozhuo sprawled across her desk.
She’d made things sound too simple.
Those filthy rich people!
Monopolizing knowledge!
Thanks to Mei Yin’s clear and thorough explanation, Jiang Zhuozhuo gained a preliminary understanding of this other world.
So far, there were three independent continents.
The Eastern Continent was mainly ruled by the Bird Tribe, united under the Phoenix Tribe as sovereign, though every succession for the throne led to fierce struggles.
The Western Continent was mainly ruled by the Beast Tribe, organized as a relatively peaceful Federation of various beast clans, though sometimes conflicts still broke out.
Then there was the Northern Continent, developed later, where birds and beasts mostly lived together, along with some special races that had always lived there, like the Goblins.
The Northern Continent was once a scattered mess, until a particularly charismatic leader appeared a century ago and managed to build a prosperous Free City—the spiritual heart of the Northern Continent’s people.
The three continents traded and exchanged people, but generally kept to themselves—no big wars breaking out any time soon.
Jiang Zhuozhuo understood.
So this was the peaceful version of a Three Kingdoms standoff!
A preliminary judgment: a perfect environment for a salted-fish life!