Underneath A Thousand Skies ✔️

108 Foster Son, Don't Be So Crazy (45)

While Song Jia and Xiang Feng were busy being surrounded by pink bubbles and blooming flowers, Princess Bai Xue, on the other hand, was blanketed from head to toe with a gloomy aura.

She had investigated the foreign woman that Xiang Feng was so enamored with, and the results had greatly alarmed her.

The foreign-looking woman's name was Jin Jia, a high-ranked noble lady that came from the south.

Jin Jia was found out to be the only heir of a dukedom, having been born from two parents who had weak constitutions. Upon her birth, the Duchess had died, leaving her no choice but to trust Jin Jia with the reins of their fief from an early age. Because the Duchess had always been sickly, she had no other concubines, and Jin Jia's father, from whom she inherited her looks from, had mysteriously disappeared shortly after her birth.

Of course, all of these were fabrications made by Song Jia and Nian Shou, with all the details coming from their overactive imagination.

The south was prone to lightning strikes and typhoons. This was a well-known fact, that was why the south was not as progressive as the rest of the kingdom. But ever since Jin Jia took the reins, she proved herself to be both capable and clever, quickly creating solutions to these two major problems in just a single year.

For the lightning strikes, she invented a contraption she called the 'lightning rod'. It was installed at the highest point of the house, which would redirect lightning to the ground.

As for the typhoons, it was usually not the typhoons itself, but the destruction it wrought on farming and the residential buildings that made them so terrifying. Princess Bai Xue looked at the high stack of documents in front of her and no longer bothered with them. Instead, she looked at her royal advisor.

"Explain...explain to me how that woman could possibly make the south flourish in agriculture when they are being constantly bombarded by drought, heavy rains and floods."

In her heart, she didn't really believe that foreign-looking woman could have found a solution that plagued the kingdom for several millennia. No one was as familiar to the problem in the south as much as her. Being the rightful heir to the throne, it was not as if Princess Bai Xue hadn't tried all possible means to make the south prosper. The south spanned almost half of her kingdom, after all. How could she not have the heart and the ambition to solve this millennial-old headache?

But Jin Jia managed to solve it in a single year!

"For drought, your Highness..." the royal advisor couldn't help but audibly swallow, seeing the crown princess' black face.

"Lady Jia made the farmers dig ponds where rainwater is collected during heavy rainfall. They use these ponds to water the crops suffering from drought at critical growth stages, saving the crops from withering. The farmers can also raise fishes and other animals in the pond as a side-business...also, she instructed them to use dry crop residues to cover the space between crops to conserve soil moisture...and she invented a water system called 'drip irrigation...'"

With every word that came out of the advisor's mouth, Princess Bai Xue's face interchanged from white to red, red to black, making the advisor worry that if this continues, the princess might become a chameleon...

However, Princess Bai Xue shot him a sharp glare. "Continue! What about floods? Don't tell me she can also do something about flash floods and seasonal flooding!"

Hearing her question, the advisor was left floundering, hurriedly searching his mind for the best possible way to answer. In the end, he could only cough several times.

Princess Bai Xue, "..."

After a moment of massaging her temples, she tiredly waved a hand, permitting him to continue.