Chapter 128: The Unprecedented Genius

Fang Jifan had many things to keep him busy now, so naturally, he was not in the mood to watch Wang Shouren squatting there any longer. So, Fang Jifan started to walk away.

Fang Jifan had just taken a step when Wang Shouren suddenly said, “Young Lord Fang…”

Fang Jifan looked back, frowned his delicate brows, and said, “What is it?”

Wang Shouren thought for a moment and then said, “Why did Young Lord Fang think the imperial court would face setbacks in suppressing Mi Lu’s rebel army?”

A flicker of surprise passed through Fang Jifan’s eyes. He paused briefly before understanding. “Your father told you, right?”

Wang Shouren nodded. “Exactly, my father did. That is why I am puzzled. How did Young Lord Fang dare to make such a conclusion?”

Fang Jifan laughed it off. “I guessed.”

“…” Wang Shouren nearly spat blood.

Was it a guess? Wang Shouren was full of doubt. He felt that Fang Jifan was definitely not as simple as he appeared on the surface. Someone who could grow melons in winter was truly unprecedented in history. Could it be… this person was really an unprecedented genius?

Wang Shouren could not help but give Fang Jifan a deep look.

He thought to himself that people with great talents were often eccentric in character. This person probably disdained explaining himself to me.

Thinking this, the usually proud Wang Shouren felt upset. This Young Lord Fang must look down on me!

At that moment, Wang Shouren actually felt a bit inferior.

But… a guess…

Wang Shouren felt strongly that, with his military strategies, he definitely would not have misjudged. This Fang Jifan… perhaps this time, he might have misstepped.

Fang Jifan did not bother to care about his feelings. Without staying any longer, he left directly.

Two days later, the sweet potato finally sprouted new buds amidst anticipation. Fang Jifan immediately cheered and jumped for joy, rubbing his hands excitedly. He quickly ordered Deng Jian and Wang Jinyuan to fetch a small water basin, fill it with water, and place the sprouted sweet potato in it.

Sweet potatoes could be grown in water or soil, but since it was just in the budding stage, water cultivation was better for now. When it grew a bit bigger, it could be transplanted into soil. The water should not completely submerge the roots; half of them should be left out.

After busily working on it for a while, Fang Jifan wiped the sweat off his brow and thought happily to himself, “Grow quickly, grow a bit bigger, produce a pile of sweet potatoes, then one becomes two, two becomes three, three becomes endless.”

Fang Jifan also had times when he did good deeds… feeling pleased…

Deng Jian, standing nearby, also watched happily. He couldn’t help but raise his thumb and habitually flatter, “Young Lord is truly amazing. Others who get a ten-thousand-year-old ginseng would just eat it, but Young Lord is different. Young Lord actually thought of making this ginseng take root and sprout. This way, one ten-thousand-year-old ginseng could produce ten ginseng plants, and after cultivating them for ten thousand years…”

At this point… uh… Deng Jian’s expression became extremely strange.

Cultivating for ten thousand years… Isn’t that idiotic?

On the side, Wang Jinyuan’s old face twitched. He exchanged a glance with Deng Jian, and both of them made expressions that said, “I’m not laughing at Young Lord being an idiot.”

Fang Jifan turned and glared at Deng Jian and Wang Jinyuan, also looking at them with an expression that said, “You two are idiots.”

Six eyes met each other, creating a strange and eerie atmosphere.

It felt gloomy and a bit scary.

“Hmm… Take good care of it. If there is the slightest mishap, I will have you castrated!” Fang Jifan shouted sternly.

Wang Jinyuan was fine with it since he was old anyway; having it or not didn’t seem to make much difference.

But Deng Jian broke out in a cold sweat. He knew that Young Lord was capable of doing anything. Pitifully, he said, “Can we keep half?”

“…” Fang Jifan almost rolled his eyes. Suddenly, he felt that having such an idiot around could easily lower his own intelligence.

Meanwhile, the military farming was proceeding very smoothly. A glass workshop was built. Actually, making glass was relatively simple; the only requirement was high temperature!

But this place was the production area of smokeless coal, so there were no problems at all. The heat from smokeless coal was naturally higher than that of ordinary coal.

The nearby land had all been plowed. Yes, it was done by hand because labor was cheap now. The Tuntian Captains, led by Zhang Xin, were free labor. Most importantly, their salaries were paid by the imperial court, which was quite rare.

So every time Fang Jifan saw them sweating profusely in the fields, he felt like he was making a huge profit.

Busy times seemed to pass quickly. Several more days went by, and the weather gradually became hotter.

Fang Jifan changed into summer clothes. Now, the sales of smokeless coal from the Western Hills had plummeted. However… mining was still ongoing. On one hand, it was for stockpiling in preparation for the next winter. On the other hand, the brick kilns and glass workshops in the Western Hills needed large amounts of smokeless coal. In fact… Fang Jifan really hoped the Emperor would issue an edict allowing the Western Hills to smelt iron. If that happened, the demand for smokeless coal would only increase further.

It was also during this winter that one hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver were sent into the Imperial Palace and deposited into the Imperial Privy Purse. This was the first net profit dividend received from the Zhenguo Coal Industry in the palace. After deducting a large amount of expenses and many necessary investments, the profits for the Imperial Palace and the Fang Family remained considerable.

That day, early in the morning, Xiaoxiangxiang helped Fang Jifan get dressed. Today, he was supposed to go to the House of the Crown Prince to accompany the Crown Prince in his studies. After that, he needed to go out of the city to check on his sweet potato.

Just then, a gatekeeper stumbled in and said, “It’s bad, it’s bad, Young Lord, someone has come to fight their way in.”

Fang Jifan had just fastened his Golden Belt with Xiaoxiangxiang’s help. Hearing this, he immediately became angry.

Someone dared to fight their way into the residence of Nanhe Bo, the Deputy Commander of the Center Army? Who was so bold!

“Call everyone, gather all the people, have Tang Yin, Ouyang Zhi, Xu Jing, and all the others come, bring weapons…”

Before he could finish speaking, the gatekeeper said with a sad face, “We already called everyone we should, more than ten people, but none were a match for this person. I fought my way out to tell Young Lord to quickly hide… hide…”

“…” Fang Jifan was speechless!

The Nanhe Bo Mansion was really too low-level. Despite his father serving in the military, he did not pick tall, strong, and powerful men from the army for him. How come everyone in this mansion was either shabby-looking or useless?

Just then, someone had already barged in, scaring Xiaoxiangxiang so much that she screamed and threw herself in front of Fang Jifan.

Fang Jifan instinctively held her in his arms and said, “Don’t be afraid, Young Lord will protect you.”

Xiaoxiangxiang had an excellent figure. Her soft body leaned against Fang Jifan’s chest. Feeling the warmth from Fang Jifan’s chest, Xiaoxiangxiang finally calmed down.

At that moment, they heard the intruder say, “I am truly very rude to disturb.”

The intruder… was Wang Shouren…

Wang Shouren had come in a hurry to visit. He was a person with a peculiar character. After arriving, he insisted on seeing Fang Jifan. The gatekeeper naturally refused. He seemed very impatient, so an argument broke out!

Perhaps because they were influenced by Fang Jifan’s personality, the people of the Nanhe Bo Mansion were all very aggressive. At the slightest disagreement, they tried to drive people away by force. Who knew that when they fought, Wang Shouren, having practiced Equestrian Archery since childhood and being highly skilled in martial arts, easily took down seven or eight strong servants with just a few moves.

Fang Jifan looked at Wang Shouren and could not help but frown.

What did I do to deserve this?

Outside, Ouyang Zhi and several other disciples had heard the news and rushed over. They were all fierce-looking, though they were scholars without the strength to truss a chicken. Seeing that their Mentor had provoked an enemy who came fighting to the door, how could they, as disciples, stand by and do nothing?

So they all bared their teeth, rolled up their sleeves, exposed their fair and tender arms, and made threatening gestures, as if they wanted to scare off the intruder with their ‘heroic aura’.

Seeing that the person was Wang Shouren, Fang Jifan was not nervous anymore. He gestured for them to calm down and said, “Alright, all of you step back. I am a person who reasons. I don’t like many people bullying a few.”

Ouyang Zhi and the other four hesitated and looked at Fang Jifan, still reluctant to leave.

Fang Jifan did not drive them away. Instead, he looked coldly at Wang Shouren. “Wang Shouren, why have you barged into my private residence?”

“Hearing the Dao in the Morning, Dying in the Evening is Acceptable!” he said his first sentence.

Then, taking a deep breath, Wang Shouren looked at Fang Jifan with an indescribable, fervent gaze. “Young Lord Fang, the latest military report arrived this morning. It said that the Ming Army troops suppressing the rebels in Guizhou were ambushed. They lost over a thousand men. The soldiers were trapped in the mountains, lacking medicine and medical care… Besides, because of continuous heavy rain, the main forces had to withdraw to Guiyang for rest… The Guizhou Provincial Governor Wang Shi has already submitted a memorial asking for punishment…”

Wang Shouren learned the news from the Hanlin Academy. After hearing it, he was utterly shocked. He never expected that Fang Jifan’s prediction could be this accurate.

So he hurried over, wanting to unravel a mystery in his heart. How did Fang Jifan know that Wang Shi’s tactics would fail? He himself had studied military manuals extensively but still misjudged. Could Fang Jifan be an immortal?

Fang Jifan’s face fell. He just said lightly, “Oh, they failed.”

In his heart, he actually felt some regret. He did not want to be a jinx either. After all, behind every jinx prediction, it meant heavy losses for many Ming Army soldiers. These were all living lives. Fang Jifan would rather the history change and have someone prove him wrong.

Wang Shouren looked at Fang Jifan excitedly. “I would like to ask, how did Young Lord Fang come to the conclusion that the battle would be lost.”

“You want to know?” Fang Jifan looked at this guy who had fought his way in.

Wang Shouren nodded heavily. He had been studying Fang Jifan for some time now, but the more he studied him, the more he felt that Fang Jifan was unfathomable.

Fang Jifan then laughed and directly uttered two words: “Compensate.”

“…”

Fang Jifan looked mockingly at Wang Shouren and said, “You injured the people in my mansion. Should it just be forgotten? And all the flowers and plants in the mansion, they have lives too. Life is priceless.”

“I’ll compensate!” Wang Shouren gritted his teeth and said. “I will compensate! But… Young Lord Fang, how did you know…”