The thirty-one copper buffer in the Debt Bowl was a psychological lifeline. It didn't erase the remaining one hundred and twenty copper debt due next New Spring, but it created a space to breathe, to plan beyond the next meal or the next predator. The family's energy, no longer consumed by sheer panic, turned towards consolidation and the next logical, daunting step: breeding.
The 'Animal Breeding Basics' knowledge settled into Lin Yan's mind—ideal mating times, signs of fertility, gestation periods for pigs (three months, three weeks, three days, a rhyme he memorized), and the importance of a healthy, unrelated sire. Splotch, their remaining sow, was coming into her first proper heat cycle. They needed a boar, and they needed one soon.
But borrowing a village boar came with a price, usually a portion of the litter or a significant fee. Their thirty-one coppers were a war chest, not to be spent lightly. They needed to leverage what they had.
The Bluestem grass was their first bargaining chip. The newly sown patch on the cleared slope had taken root, the distinctive bluish-green blades rising strong and healthy among the turned earth. It was proof of concept. Lin Yan harvested a single, perfect seed head, placing it in a small cloth pouch.
Their second asset was reputation. The confrontation with Zhao, though violent, had been framed as defense of property. Combined with their obvious industry, it painted them as a family not to be cheated, and one potentially on the rise.
Lin Yan's first stop was Old Teng, who had brokered the goat deal. "A boar?" Teng grunted, chewing on a stalk of grass. "My brother's boar is old, temperamental. But he's proven. He'd do the job. His fee is one-third of the live litter, or… fifteen coppers upfront."
Fifteen coppers was half their buffer. A third of the litter could be two or three piglets—a huge future loss. Both options were painful.
"Is there no other?" Lin Yan asked.
Teng spat. "Zhang estate has a young Duroc boar. Prime stock, imported. But Old Zhang's steward wouldn't lend him to the likes of you for less than a silver tael, or a favor so big it would indent you for years."
The class divide was a wall. The Zhangs had resources they would never share freely with a peasant family on the edge of the village. Unless…
An idea, audacious and risky, formed. "What if the favor was information? And a future trade?"
Teng looked skeptical. "What information do you have that Old Zhang needs?"
"Not Old Zhang. His steward. About grass."
Lin Yan left Teng and went to see Mei Xiang. He needed intelligence. "The Zhang estate," he asked, "do they have any problems? With their fields, their animals?"
Mei Xiang, who heard everything through her herbalist father's network of patients, thought. "Their southern wheat field had a blight last year. Yield was down. The steward, Master Feng, got an earful from Old Zhang. He's been nervous about this year's crop. And… their prize dairy cow is off her feed. My father prescribed a tonic, but she's still sluggish."
A blighted field and a sick cow. Two problems. Lin Yan had no cure for blight. But for a sluggish cow on rich feed… the 'Basic Animal Husbandry (Bovine)' knowledge suggested simple things: lack of exercise, too much grain, maybe a mineral deficiency. And grass… their bluestem grass was thriving where other things failed.
He went home and consulted with Lin Qiang, the family's best strategist. "We need to get the steward's attention. We offer a solution to one small problem, to earn the chance to solve a bigger one."
They devised a plan. The next day, Lin Yan and Lin Qiang went to the Zhang estate's service gate, not as beggars, but as petitioners with an offering. They brought a small, tightly woven reed basket. Inside was not an egg, but a thick layer of fresh, crisp Bluestem grass, topped with a handful of the vibrant red clover from their cover crop, and a few sprigs of the digestives herbs—dandelion, wild garlic, mint.
They asked to speak to Steward Feng.
The steward, a busy, harried man in a neat cotton robe, received them in a side yard, his impatience clear. "What is it? I have no time for trinkets."
"Not trinkets, Honored Steward," Lin Yan said, bowing and presenting the basket. "We heard of your prized cow's ailment. We offer no cure, only a humble suggestion from our own experience with animals. Sometimes, rich food needs a simpler companion. This grass," he pointed to the bluestem, "grows hearty on poor soil. These herbs aid digestion. Perhaps as a temporary change, a little fresh forage and greens might stimulate her appetite. A farmer's remedy."
Steward Feng's first reaction was dismissal, but he paused. The basket looked healthy. The grass was undeniably lush. The herbs were known. He'd tried the herbalist's tonic. Maybe this peasant superstition… He couldn't look worse for trying. "Leave it," he said curtly. "I'll consider it."
It was a tiny foothold. They left, not expecting immediate results.
Two days later, a Zhang estate servant appeared at their gate. "The cow ate the greens. She seems… brighter. Steward Feng wishes to know where you got that particular grass."
Lin Yan felt a surge of triumph. He showed the servant the small, thriving patch on the slope. "We discovered it. We are cultivating it. We believe it's a hardy strain, good for poor or tired soil."
The servant left with a sample. The next day, Steward Feng himself came, accompanied by the imperial courier, Huang, who was still in the area finalizing his reports.
Feng pointed at the bluestem. "This is the grass."
Huang knelt, examined it, plucked a blade and chewed it thoughtfully. "Good texture. Sweet. High yield?"
"It's new," Lin Yan admitted. "This is our first cultivation. But it thrives where our other cover crop does, with less water."
Huang stood. "The Horse Pastures need resilient forage. If this proves out… there could be a market for seed." He looked at Feng. "Your southern field."
Feng's face was a mask of calculation. Here was a potential solution to two problems: a new crop to rehabilitate the blighted field, and a chance to ingratiate himself with the imperial agent. But he needed seed, which this peasant boy had.
"Your family seems… resourceful," Feng said to Lin Yan, his tone shifting to a calculated benevolence. "The estate values initiative. We might discuss a contract. You provide us with a quantity of this grass seed next season, for use on our field. In return, the estate could extend… certain privileges."
This was the moment. Lin Yan took a breath. "Your honor is generous. For such a contract, we would be grateful. There is one immediate privilege that would greatly aid our ability to produce such seed." He met Feng's eyes. "Our sow is in season. We humbly request the service of the estate's Duroc boar. A single mating. We would pay a fee of… five coppers, and the future grass seed contract would be exclusive to the Zhang estate for three years."
It was a bold play. He was trading a future monopoly on an unproven crop for immediate access to elite livestock genetics.
Feng's eyebrows shot up. He looked at Huang, who gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. The imperial agent was interested in seeing if this hardy grass could be scaled, and a peasant family with better livestock might produce more seed faster.
"Five coppers is an insult for the Duroc line," Feng said, but there was negotiation in his voice. "Ten coppers. And the exclusive contract for five years. And we get first pick of one weaner from the resulting litter, at a fair price."
Ten coppers. A third of their buffer. A five-year exclusive. And a future piglet. It was steep. But the Duroc boar would mean larger, faster-growing piglets with better meat quality. It was an investment in their entire swine line.
"We accept," Lin Yan said, his heart pounding. "With gratitude."
The deal was struck. The steward, with Huang as an unofficial witness, dictated a simple contract to his scribe. Lin Yan paid the ten coppers from the Debt Bowl (leaving twenty-one). In return, they were given a clay token that granted them one service at the Zhang estate's breeding pen.
The family was ecstatic and terrified. They had just bet their most promising future asset on a single mating and the hope that the bluestem grass was truly special.
The next morning, Lin Yan and Lin Gang led a nervously squealing Splotch to the Zhang estate's livestock compound. The Duroc boar was a magnificent, muscled beast with a reddish coat, far larger and more imposing than any village pig. The mating was quick, efficient, supervised by a bored-looking estate herdsman.
They returned home with Splotch, the deed done. Now, they waited.
The system acknowledged the event.
[Quest Updated: 'The Cycle Deepens.' Sow 'Splotch' successfully bred with quality sire. Gestation period: ~114 days.]
[Sub-Objective: Ensure sow's health and nutrition throughout pregnancy. Reward on successful farrowing.]
Their focus shifted again. Splotch needed premium care. They increased her grain supplement slightly and ensured she had constant access to the best of the cover crop greens. The family treated her like a queen.
The Bluestem grass patch, now carrying the weight of a five-year contract, was tended with reverence. They collected every mature seed head with fanatical care, slowly building up their stock.
A week after the breeding, a minor but significant event occurred. Lin Xiaoshan, while checking the rabbit snares in a newly cleared area, found not a rabbit, but a small, leather-wrapped bundle, half-buried under a rotted stump. He brought it to Lin Yan.
Inside the rotted leather were three objects: a badly corroded bronze coin from a dynasty centuries past, a small, broken clay figurine of a horse, and a single, rough, pea-sized nugget of gold.
Gold.
It was not pure, likely alluvial gold with quartz and other minerals, but it was undeniably, dully yellow and heavy for its size. A treasure trove from some forgotten traveler or settler.
The family gathered around it, stunned. In the Debt Bowl, it could be worth… perhaps thirty, even forty coppers if sold in the prefectural town. It could nearly wipe out their remaining debt.
The temptation was immense. But Lin Dashan spoke first, his voice gravelly. "This is found wealth. It did not come from our sweat or our soil. If we use it to pay Li, we buy our freedom with luck, not labor. What does that teach the land? What does that teach us?"
It was a profound point. Their entire identity was now built on cultivation, on earning their way. Taking this shortcut felt… wrong. It would sever the connection between their effort and their outcome.
"We keep it," Lin Yan decided, surprising himself. "Not in the Debt Bowl. As a separate reserve. For true emergency. For a doctor, if needed. Or… as capital for when we are truly ready to expand." He looked at the nugget. "It is a seed, too. A seed of metal. We plant it in our future."
They reburied the nugget and the other artifacts in a new, secret spot near the hearth, a hidden reserve. Its existence was a comfort, but it was not a solution. The debt would be paid with pigs and grass and eggs, as intended.
The circle of their effort remained unbroken, now expanded to include a contract with the largest estate, a pregnancy from a prized boar, and a hidden pocket of gold that represented not an escape, but a deeper commitment to the path they had chosen.
They were no longer just surviving. They were building an economy. One rooted in the soil, paid for in sweat, and now, quietly, backed by a single, dull gleam in the dark.
[System Note: Strategic alliance formed. Genetic stock improved. Hidden resource secured. Host is demonstrating long-term strategic thinking over short-term gain. The foundation develops economic and social linkages.]
[Points Total: 210/300. No new quests. Maintain current trajectories.]