Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Harvest and Insurance Fraud

With the Gale Falcon’s harassment gone, the twelve mu of Spirit Fields were quickly harvested thanks to the efforts of a group of able-bodied villagers.

Of the twelve mu of Spirit Fields,

The ten mu planted using the old farming methods yielded a total of 1,131 jin.

This included a loss of about 12 jin from the battle with the Gale Falcon. Otherwise, the harvest would have been even greater.

As for the experimental plots with improved planting methods, managed by teams eleven and twelve,

One mu yielded 136 jin, and the other yielded 148 jin.

The yield per mu had undoubtedly seen a massive increase.

This seemed a bit exaggerated.

However, after reviewing the increased yield from the ten mu that hadn’t changed their farming methods, Shen Changchuan began to understand why.

It wasn’t surprising.

There was only one reason.

It all came down to dedication.

In the past, everyone—men and women, young and old—was herded out to work the Spirit Fields.

And the harvest they toiled for

had absolutely nothing to do with them.

Under such circumstances, the villagers’ mentality was likely just to get by. They had no initiative to make any positive changes.

After all, doing a good job brought no reward, while doing a poor one would earn them a scolding. Any normal person would know which path to choose.

But after he, Shen Changchuan, arrived,

he began to try new reforms.

The output of the Spirit Fields was now almost directly tied to every single villager.

As a result,

the villagers were more dedicated to cultivating the Spirit Grain and took more meticulous care of the Spirit Rice.

This alone

led to a ten percent increase in the Spirit Fields’ yield.

In comparison,

the thirty to forty percent increase in yield from the fields of teams eleven and twelve was understandable.

Shen Changchuan was very satisfied with these concrete numbers.

When the spring planting came next year, he would promote the planting experience of teams eleven and twelve. The potential increase in production would be even greater then!

Moreover,

Shen Changchuan could clearly feel

that there was still potential for further improvement.

’The Spirit Grain planting manual should have more room for improvement.’

’And now that I’ve killed the Crocodile Demon in the Dawan River, next year I can dig up the sediment from the riverbed—a combination of Water Vein Essence Qi and Earth Vein Essence Qi—to use as fertilizer. My harvest will be even bigger then!’

Taking stock of the harvest after the Spirit Grain was reaped,

Shen Changchuan was in high spirits.

Even the fatigue accumulated from the great battle with the Gale Falcon dissipated considerably.

One had to remember,

though Dawan Village was his main base of operations, he also had side gigs.

For example, the two mu of Spirit Fields in Zhao Family Village belonged entirely to him.

Plus, the pledges of allegiance from the six other surrounding villages also represented a huge source of income.

Shen Changchuan did a quick calculation.

After deducting the one thousand jin to be handed over to the Shen Family, and adding the output from the two mu of Spirit Fields in Zhao Family Village, as well as sixty to seventy percent of the yield from the total of four mu of Spirit Fields in the other six villages,

his total harvest for this season was already over eight or nine hundred jin!

Converted to Spirit Stones, that was almost eighty or ninety pieces!

Of course, he still had to cover some expenses from this.

For example, there were bonuses for his subordinates, death benefits, and the salaries for his grandfather and uncle, who were now Cultivators.

But those were just minor expenses.

Even after deducting all expenses, Shen Changchuan’s final income would be no less than seventy or eighty Spirit Stones!

The number made him gasp for a moment.

One might think that seventy or eighty Spirit Stones was a paltry sum, especially after he had obtained over a hundred from killing the He Mountain Four Fierce.

But the former

was a one-time deal,

and it required him to risk his life, fighting enemies above his level, where the slightest mistake could mean instant death.

Farming Spirit Fields, however, was a stable source of income every year!

And there were two seasons a year.

This continuous stream of income, in terms of both safety and actual value, far surpassed the former!

Such a huge windfall

was something he never would have dared to dream of back at the Shen Family Mansion!

’I wonder how far the internal struggles within the Shen Clan have gone.’

’But no matter how they’re fighting, my decision to leave the Shen Family Mansion and come to this remote place was the right one.’

’If I had stayed in the Shen Family Mansion, how could I possibly have an income of seventy to eighty Spirit Stones every half-year?!’

Shen Changchuan was overjoyed

and couldn’t help but feel extremely satisfied with his initial decision.

With such a large income of Spirit Stones,

the next step was definitely to use it to advance his Cultivation.

’But how should I use it?’

Shen Changchuan began to ponder.

’I wonder what the caravans at the Wu Family Collection have.’

’But my first goal should be Elixirs that can speed up my Cultivation.’

Having used a Qi Introduction Pill to advance from the Qi Introduction Fourth Layer Middle Stage to the Qi Introduction Fifth Layer in just two short months, Shen Changchuan had personally experienced the benefits of Elixirs for boosting Cultivation speed.

As for the Elixir Poison that novelists spoke of,

that was just like the fallacy of discussing a medicine’s properties without considering the dosage.

As long as one didn’t eat Elixirs like meals every day, but instead took one every few days, a Cultivator’s body could naturally digest and expel the imperceptible Elixir Poison during their Cultivation. There was no need to worry too much.

And besides Elixirs,

he also needed to look into methods for self-enhancement like Magic, Magical Artifacts, and Arrays. He especially had to pay close attention to anything that could deal with the Gale Falcon.

After all, the Gale Falcon was a huge problem for Dawan Village.

If he was lucky enough to find a legacy of some sort, like for Alchemy, Artifact Refining, or an Array Master, he could consider that as well.

Of course,

this last point was just wishful thinking.

A single Skill like that was enough to be the foundation of an entire Immortal Cultivation Clan.

With a mere hundred or so Spirit Stones, he probably wouldn’t even be qualified to get a whiff.

’So, in other words, I’m still just a poor bastard?’

’Spirit Stones needed here, Spirit Stones needed there.’

Just a brief calculation had already exhausted his budget.

Shen Changchuan couldn’t help but give a bitter smile.

It made him acutely aware of the fact that he was still a poor bastard!

Tragic, with a capital T!

...

Just as Shen Changchuan was taking stock of his assets and sighing to himself,

Han Qinhu walked in, carrying a few pages of paper with something recorded on them.

"Changchuan, there’s something I think you should know."

Han Qinhu looked at Shen Changchuan, hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke.

"What is it, Grandfather?"

"You’re the person I trust most. Just tell me what’s on your mind."

Shen Changchuan found Han Qinhu’s reaction a bit strange.

Han Qinhu didn’t answer.

He handed the papers to Shen Changchuan.

Shen Changchuan took them curiously.

Recorded on them were some names, followed by detailed household registration information like their age and number of family members.

At first, Shen Changchuan was a little confused.

But after reading for a moment, his gaze suddenly sharpened. He quickly flipped through the next two pages,

and his brow furrowed.

"The five people on the first page... the first four are the villagers who charged forward and were killed by the Gale Falcon during yesterday’s battle in the Spirit Fields. The last one worked himself to death this morning while harvesting the remaining Spirit Grain."

Han Qinhu’s voice was grim.

"The people on the second page are the six who died during the ambush against the Crocodile Demon when it came ashore."

"Among these people, they were either over fifty, disabled, or chronically ill invalids... I looked through the old records, and nothing like this has ever happened before."

Han Qinhu explained in a low voice.

He didn’t elaborate further.

The atmosphere in the room

grew quiet.

"So you’re saying... people are committing insurance fraud?"

Shen Changchuan finally said in a low voice after a long moment.

"Insurance fraud?"

"Oh, it means defrauding the death benefit."

"Then it is indeed fraud."

Although Han Qinhu didn’t know how the "insurance" part of Shen Changchuan’s "insurance fraud" related to the death benefit,

it didn’t stop him from going along with his line of conversation.

"Changchuan, I’ve actually wanted to talk to you about this for a while. The compensation you set for the two villagers killed by the Crocodile Demon was too high."

"Ten jin of Spirit Grain... if one is lucky, that’s enough to set a person on the Path of Immortal Cultivation. It’s enough to make someone sell their life!"

"It’s only because you announced the reforms, stating that a portion of the future increase in yield per mu would be given to them as a reward, that you didn’t see a large-scale wave of people throwing their lives away. It gave them hope of obtaining Spirit Grain through other means."

"But even so, those mortals who feel their remaining lives are useless and that they are a burden on their families don’t mind trading their broken bodies for the prosperity of their descendants..."

At this point, thinking of the old, weak, sick, and disabled who threw their lives away to commit this fraud, Han Qinhu’s voice turned murderous.

"These worthless peasants are just taking advantage of your youth and kindness."

"In my opinion, you should make an example of them to warn the others. Rescind your original decision, and don’t give these fraudsters a single grain of Spirit Grain!"

Shen Changchuan didn’t speak,

remaining silent for a while.

He had originally decided to compensate the families of the two villagers who died in the Crocodile Demon’s jaws with ten jin of Spirit Grain each,

because he was the one who had proposed using the riverbed mud as compost to improve the Spirit Fields’ yield.

They had followed his suggestion and ended up dying in an accident.

In a way,

they could be considered to have died because of his, Shen Changchuan’s, mistake.

Having only transmigrated two and a half years ago, he still held onto the humanistic values shaped by the industrial civilization of his past life.

This made him feel guilty,

so he decided to grant them a compensation package that was extremely generous for a mortal.

But the subsequent developments

were something he hadn’t anticipated.

After all, before transmigrating, Shen Changchuan had only been an ordinary person.

He wasn’t an infallible saint who could predict every eventuality.

"No, pay out the death benefits for all of these people according to the standard."

Shen Changchuan closed his eyes and thought for a long time.

A quarter of an hour later, he opened his eyes, his gaze firm.

Hearing this, Han Qinhu’s expression grew anxious, and he looked like he was about to say something.

But Shen Changchuan raised a hand to stop him.

He continued, as if explaining to himself:

"The matter of the death benefit was my oversight, my mistake."

"Although these people are suspected of fraud, they ultimately threw their lives away because of the death benefit I proposed. They lost their lives, and they weren’t entirely useless in the battles."

"Let this payment be the price I pay for my mistake."

"Of course, from this day forward, if anyone dies on village business, the death benefit will be adjusted to a compensation of one jin of Spirit Grain."

A compensation of one jin of Spirit Grain

was very low.

Besides, if the reforms were rolled out next year and the portion of the yield per mu exceeding one hundred jin was split seventy-thirty,

then no one should be willing to throw their life away for such a small death benefit anymore.

’As for this expenditure of a dozen or so Spirit Stones, I’ll just consider it tuition for my mistake...’

’Alright,’

’this lesson was actually quite painful to buy,’

’after all, it was an expense of a dozen or so Spirit Stones.’

But he had always believed

that making mistakes wasn’t scary; what mattered was correcting them.

What was truly scary was not knowing you were wrong,

or even worse, knowing you were wrong and refusing to change.

So, although Shen Changchuan felt some regret,

he simply etched this lesson into his heart and wouldn’t get angry or shift the blame because of it.

He would treat the expense of a dozen or so Spirit Stones as a warning to himself,

a reminder to be more careful and think things through before making decisions in the future.