Spring was deepening. The warm winds from the south brought the scent of blooming wildflowers, but for Li Wei, the most beautiful scent in the world was currently wafting from the West River.
It was the smell of green.
He stood at the edge of his one *mu* of land. The wild clover, once just sparse sprouts, had formed a dense, emerald carpet. It rippled in the wind like a miniature ocean.
**[System Notification: Pasture Health - Optimal.]**
**[Current Growth Stage: Late Vegetative.]**
**[Nutritional Value: High.]**
**[Warning: Soil Nitrogen levels dropping. Fertilization required for sustained yield.]**
Li Wei frowned. He knelt, pulling up a stalk of clover. The roots were healthy, but the leaves were slightly lighter than they should be. The system was right. This land had been barren for a reason; it didn't have the deep nutrient reserves of the farmland near the village.
"I need fertilizer," Li Wei muttered.
In his past life, he could have ordered a few bags of ammonium nitrate. Here, he had nothing. There was no chemical plant for a thousand miles.
"Manure," he sighed. "I need manure. Tons of it."
But manure was gold in a farming village. Every dropping from the family ox, the pigs, and even the chickens was scrupulously collected and composted for the rice paddies. His family's manure pit was spoken for.
He had to look elsewhere.
***
**The Scavenger**
Li Wei took a shoulder pole and two woven baskets. He wasn't going to the fields today. He was going to the main road.
"Li Wei! Where are you going?" a neighbor, Auntie Liu, called out as she washed clothes by the stream. "The men are in the fields. Why are you carrying baskets?"
"To the official road," Li Wei replied with a polite smile. "To collect treasure."
Auntie Liu blinked, then looked at his baskets. Realization dawned, and she wrinkled her nose. "You're going to pick up... horse dung? That's work for beggars! You're a young man from the Li family!"
"Money smells sweet, Auntie," Li Wei said, tapping his pole. "No matter where it comes from."
He walked away, leaving the woman shaking her head. He didn't care about dignity. He cared about nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The official road leading to Qingyang Town saw regular traffic from merchants, officials, and passing cavalry patrols. Where horses went, fertilizer followed.
He spent the morning walking the dusty road. It was hot, dirty work. He had to compete with the village children who sometimes did the same, but today, he was lucky. A contingent of soldiers had passed through earlier, leaving a trail of deposits.
By noon, he had filled half a basket. Not great, but a start.
As he bent down to scoop up a fresh pile near a culvert, he heard a low groan.
It wasn't a cow. It wasn't a horse.
It was human.
Li Wei froze. He gripped his scooping shovel tighter—a tool that was essentially a flattened spade. He moved cautiously towards the ditch hidden by tall reeds.
"Who's there?"
Another groan, wet and gurgling.
Li Wei pushed aside the reeds.
In the muddy ditch, lying in a pool of stagnant water, was a man. He was huge, easily a head taller than Li Wei, with shoulders like boulders. He wore tattered, gray military padding, the kind issued to frontier soldiers, now stained dark with blood and mud.
His face was obscured by matted hair, and his left leg was twisted at an unnatural angle.
Li Wei's heart hammered. A soldier? Here?
He looked around. Bandits? Deserters?
"Hey," Li Wei called out, keeping his distance. "Can you hear me?"
The man twitched. One eye opened—a fierce, predatory eye despite the pain. A hand shot out, grabbing Li Wei's ankle with a grip of iron.
"Water..." the man rasped, his voice like grinding stones.
Li Wei didn't pull away. He looked at the man's leg. A deep gash, likely from a blade, was swollen and oozing pus. He was dying.
In this world, helping a stranger—especially a wounded soldier—could bring trouble. If he was a deserter, harboring him was a crime. If he was a criminal, it was dangerous.
But Li Wei looked at the man's hands. Calloused not just on the palms, but on the knuckles and the side of the thumb. The calluses of a man who held a spear or a heavy blade for years. A soldier's hands.
**[System Insight: Analyzing Subject.]**
**[Physique: Peak Human (Depleted).]**
**[Injury: Torn ligaments, infected laceration. Malnutrition.]**
**[Threat Level: High (If hostile).]**
Li Wei made a decision.
He knelt, uncorking his water gourd. He didn't pour it into the man's mouth directly; he let a trickle fall, testing the man's reaction. The man drank greedily, coughing.
"Can you stand?" Li Wei asked.
The man grunted, trying to push himself up, but collapsed back with a strangled cry of pain. His leg was useless.
Li Wei looked at his baskets of horse manure. He sighed. *So much for the fertilizer.*
He dumped the manure out—there was no room for both the man and the dung on his shoulder pole. He rinsed his hands in the stream quickly.
"I'm going to lift you," Li Wei said. "Don't stab me. I'm trying to help."
The man's one good eye stared at him, searching for deceit. Finding none, he nodded once.
It took all of Li Wei's strength. The man was heavy, dense with muscle even in his starving state. With grunting effort, Li Wei managed to haul the man onto his back. He was heavy, smelling of blood, sweat, and iron.
Step by agonizing step, Li Wei walked back toward Willow Village.
***
**The House Call**
Getting the man past the village entrance was tricky. He didn't want to cause a panic. He took the back paths, sneaking through the wheat fields.
When he finally stumbled into the Li family courtyard, his face was pale, sweat soaking his clothes.
"Wei'er? What is that smell...?" Zhao Lan came out, wiping her hands on her apron. She froze. "Blood?!"
The commotion brought everyone running.
Li Dazhong rushed out, a sickle in his hand. "What happened? Who is that?"
"I found him by the road," Li Wei panted, lowering the man onto a pile of straw in the corner of the courtyard. "He's a soldier. He's dying."
"A soldier?" Li Qiang, the eldest brother, stepped forward, his face hardening. "Wei'er, this is trouble. If he's a deserter, the yamen (government office) will arrest the whole family."
"Look at his leg," Li Wei said, catching his breath. "That's a sword wound. And look at his back."
There were lash marks. Old scars layered over new.
"He's not just a deserter," Li Wei said quietly. "He's a fugitive. Or a survivor of something bad."
"We can't keep him!" Li Jun hissed. "Father, send him away! We have enough trouble with the rent!"
Li Dazhong stared at the unconscious man. He looked at the man's injuries, then at Li Wei.
"You brought him here," Dazhong said slowly. "Why?"
Li Wei met his father's gaze. "Because he's strong. And I need strong men."
Everyone stared at him.
"I'm building a ranch, Father," Li Wei said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "I have land. I have chickens. But I can't guard the land and work the fields and expand the pasture all at once. I need hands. He looks like a man who can work."
"He's half-dead!" Li Hua cried out. "He'll eat our food and die!"
"He won't die," Li Wei said with a calm determination that surprised them. "I'll fix him."
He turned to his mother. "Mother, I need hot water. Clean cloth. And the jar of honey in the cupboard."
"Honey?" Zhao Lan hesitated. "That's for..."
"Please."
Zhao Lan looked at Dazhong. The old man gave a barely perceptible nod.
"Get the water," Dazhong grunted. "But if the officials come, we found a beggar on the road. We didn't ask his name."
***
**The Treatment**
That evening, Li Wei worked by the light of an oil lamp.
The system had no magical healing potions, but it had unlocked **[Basic Field Medicine]** after diagnosing the man.
*Clean the wound. Boil the water. Remove the debris.*
Li Wei used a sharpened bamboo splinter to pick out the dirt and fragments of cloth from the gash on the man's thigh. The man—his name was unknown—groaned in his sleep, his muscles twitching, but he didn't wake.
Li Wei had boiled some of the wild clover and grasses to make a crude antiseptic wash. It wasn't alcohol, but it was better than nothing. Finally, he applied a layer of honey—a precious resource in a farming home—to the wound and bandaged it with strips of clean cloth.
"Honey keeps the rot away," Li Wei murmured, recalling the knowledge.
He sat back, exhausted.
The giant man lay still, his breathing stabilizing.
Li Chen crept over, holding his writing brush. "Is he a monster, Third Brother?"
"No," Li Wei said, dipping a cloth in water to wipe the man's face. "He's a man who fell down. We're going to help him stand back up."
"Why?"
Li Wei looked at the man's scarred hands. "Because in this world, Chen'er, the government doesn't care about us. The rich don't care about us. We have to care for each other. He has no family. Neither do we, really. Just us."
He stood up. "Besides," he whispered to himself, "a ranch needs a foreman. And I have a feeling this guy can wrestle a bear."
**[System Notification: Special Unit Acquired.]**
**[Subject: Qin Hu (Name unknown to Host currently).]**
**[Class: Discharged Veteran / Heavy Laborer.]**
**[Loyalty: 0 (Unconscious).]**
**[Note: High physical potential. Requires nutrition and recovery.]**
Li Wei looked at the empty basket of manure he had left behind to save this man. A day's work lost.
But as he looked at the steady rise and fall of the stranger's chest, Li Wei felt he had made the best trade of his life.
"Welcome to the Li Family Ranch," Li Wei whispered. "Rest well. Tomorrow, we start feeding you."