Land reclamation area located west of the camp.
Derek raised the hoe high and swung it hard at the grass in front of him. The hoe was deeply embedded in the grass. He exerted force again and the soil was turned over.
Derek was no stranger to this method of farming. When he was in the Royal City of Skare, and there were no deathmatches, he would go back to his adoptive father's home to help farm the fields.
But he thought that farming was a very boring job, because he could only eat a small part of the food grown in the fields, and most of it had to be handed over to the local nobles.
Derek had never experienced the joy of harvest because he had only worked in the past but never gained anything.
It seems to be the same today. The land he reclaimed does not belong to him, but to everyone.
But Derek was full of energy because he had eaten six meat buns and a big bowl of black rice porridge in the morning before going to work in the fields.
These foods are much tastier than the vegetables he grew before! As long as he can eat those meat buns, he doesn't care who eats the vegetables in the end.
"That's all for the morning's work. Thank you for your hard work. Put down your tools and come line up for lunch."
Some unstandard common language rang in Derek's ears. It was a middle-aged man wearing a green coat and holding a hoe in his hand.
If Derek remembered correctly, he should be the person in charge of this reclamation project, his name was Niu Shan.
When Derek heard the other party's introduction, he thought it was a very impressive name. It should mean a cow as big as a mountain
But this man, who seemed to Derek to be like an overseer, did not stand by the fields to supervise their work. Instead, he went into the fields himself with a hoe to supervise their work.
Not only did he supervise them, he also kept pointing out the things they needed to pay attention to when plowing the fields. Occasionally, he would pull out a bunch of strange things from the turned soil, sometimes they were soil-boring insects, and sometimes they were seeds of some plants.
These things were not valuable in Derek's eyes, but in his eyes, they were like gold.
Derek didn't care too much because he had lunch.
He put down his hoe at the designated location, received a large bowl of porridge and two steamed buns, and then found a piece of land to sit down.
Derek had just stuffed half a steamed bun into his mouth when the person in charge named Niu Shan suddenly sat down next to him.
This scared Derek so much that he quickly swallowed the bun in his mouth and then stood up immediately.
This was a habit Derek developed when he was working for those nobles. Those nobles would never go into the fields. If he worked in the fields for a whole day and got the dirt on them, the most serious consequence would definitely be a flogging!
"What's wrong, young man?" The researcher named Niu Shan didn't realize why Derek stood up.
"I didn't mean to offend you, sir." Derek immediately took a step back and said.
"What? What's offensive... I'm just sitting next to you and eating, there's nothing offensive about it." Niu Shan said.
Derek hesitated for a moment after hearing the other party's answer, but he found that the other party's hands were also covered with dirt, and there were many deep wrinkles on his face, a weathered look, which looked very different from the nobles he knew.
"I understand. Do you think I'm a stingy landlord in your place? In your words, a nobleman?" Niu Shan instantly figured out why Derek was so scared.
"Aren't you?" Derek didn't understand what the stingy and landlord meant, but Niu Shan's voice was full of disdain when he mentioned the nobles.
"No, I am not. We got rid of this thing 80 years ago. I am just doing land research," said Niu Shan.
"Get rid of...? Then you are..." Derek still remained vigilant.
"Like you, I also worked in the mountains when I was a child."
Niu Shan raised his hands, his palms were covered with calluses from long-term use of labor tools. Derek certainly recognized these hands, as his adoptive father's palms were like this too.
"Were you a serf in the past?" Derek was sure that the other party's past experience might be similar to his, but now he was the person in charge of this reclamation plan.
"What serfs? Oh! I see. The translation of this word seems to be similar to the system of the Russians. I used to be a farmer! Do you understand what farmers are? They grow their own fields and harvest their own land. No one can take it away from them."
Niu Shan had just learned the world's common language not long ago, so he mixed in some Chinese when communicating with Derek.
"I am here because I studied hard. In our world, everyone is equal. If you can study as well as I do," Niu Shan said, patting his thigh. "You can also sit here!"
Derek glanced at where Niu Shan was sitting. It was a pile of mud covered with dirt, but Derek still understood what the other party meant.
"Everyone is equal. How... is this possible?" Derek was unwilling to believe what the other party said. "And our nobles don't allow us to read."
"Why can't we be equal? Don't you and those nobles all have one brain, two eyes, a pair of arms and two legs? There's not much difference in intelligence, right? If they don't let you study, you won't study?" Niu Shan said with his eyes wide open.
"I... don't know either. If the nobles knew that we could read, we would be punished."
Derek didn't understand why he couldn't study, but he still wanted to learn something, including reading and writing, so he let his sister Tata go to school.
He himself participated in the reclamation plan in order to get food coupons.
"Oh, it's hard to explain to you, but wait! I'll get a book."
Niu Shan was not doing research in this area, but this reclamation plan also included experts in this field. He stood up with the iron bowl in his hand and walked quickly towards the tent that was temporarily set up next to the reclaimed field.
Derek stood there for a while before he saw Niu Shan coming out with a book. At this time, Derek had just finished eating the two steamed buns in his hand.
Niu Shan stuffed the book directly into his hands.
"I can't read." Derek took a look at the book, which was not very thick. The book was of course written in Chinese. He couldn't even read the common language, let alone Chinese.
"If you don't understand, I can teach you. The reclamation plan will last for one or two months, provided that you are interested, young man." Niu Shan said.
Derek nodded. He was of course very interested in that equal world. Derek did not expect to become a noble, but at least he hoped that he would be able to reap as much as he sowed.