1890: I'm in Hextech Brawl in America

Chapter 5 The Child...

"Crack!"

Another sugarcane fell to Fang Jianqiu's sickle.

At the same time, his rune unlocking experience increased slightly again.

This visible and tangible progress made Fang Jianqiu's eyes light up.

He stared intently at the lush green sugarcane field before him, and instantly felt much of his gloom dissipate.

The feeling of unintentionally solving a huge problem is truly exhilarating.

As long as you can see the progress bar moving, even the greatest difficulties become hopeful.

"What's there to say? Let's just do it!"

Fueled by this excitement, Fang Jianqiu continued his arduous work of hacking away.

Mosquitoes swarmed in the fields, while the sun blazed overhead.

But this did not dampen Fang Jianqiu's enthusiasm in the slightest.

Before long, including the two sugarcanes he had cut earlier, he had already cut ten.

He stopped what he was doing, wiped his sweat, and brought up the rune interface again.

At this point, the top of the experience bar was no longer bare, but had a small sprout.

Fang Jianqiu made a rough estimate:

"Ten sugarcane stalks only grew this much; to unlock the first Hextech rune with full experience, it'll probably take... thousands..."

This seems like a demanding condition at first glance.

But in the plantation in 1890.

An adult male laborer has to cut at least three to five tons of sugarcane every day.

Replace it with a specific quantity.

That's 2000 to 4000 sugarcane stalks...

This doesn't even include miscellaneous tasks like peeling leaves, bundling, and moving.

Fail to meet the quota? Then you'll face whipping, or your lifeline of wages will be cut, or you might even go without food.

Fang Jianqiu moved his slightly sore wrists a little and gripped the sickle tightly again.

Despite the sheer amount of experience required to unlock Hextech by simply cutting sugarcane, he showed no signs of discouragement.

After all, he had identified the most crucial point.

That means if he just follows the steps systematically, the power of the runes will eventually be at his disposal...

......

"Brother Fang, Brother Fang..."

Fang Jianqiu wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked to the side.

It was Ye Lang calling his name in a low voice.

The young man called out twice, then cautiously looked around to make sure no foreman was watching before moving closer.

"Brother Ye, what's wrong?"

Fang Jianqiu responded while hacking away.

"It's nothing serious, it's just that the way you're cutting sugarcane, Brother Fang... is really tiring. I wanted to remind you that doing it this way is not only tiring but also slow, and it's easy to hurt your back."

Ye Lang spoke in a low voice, but Fang Jianqiu still heard him clearly.

He looked back at the results of his chopping and realized that he had chopped about the same as this young man Ye.

Although Fang Jianqiu often went to the countryside to help his master with farm work before he transmigrated.

But those were all jobs like feeding pigs and chickens, or drying grain.

It has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm doing now.

It's fair to say that from the moment he started working until now, Fang Jianqiu has been achieving miracles through sheer force; he's simply mastered the numerical aspects...

He's already a bit out of breath, but thankfully he has the physique he's built up over half his life, so he can still hold on.

If it were one of his fragile college roommates, they probably wouldn't even be human by the time they chopped the tenth sugarcane stalk...

"Oh? So, Brother Ye, are you here to teach me a few moves?"

Fang Jianqiu naturally wanted to learn humbly, since the faster he could cut, the faster he could unlock the runes.

"Hehe, I won't say I'm teaching anything. These are just some rough jobs. Brother Fang, you can just follow me and do them."

"Here, the blade should be angled slightly, and your left hand should also apply pressure to hold down the stem..."

Ye Lang smiled again and began to explain while demonstrating personally.

Fang Jianqiu already had a foundation in martial arts, excellent physical coordination, and high comprehension.

Therefore, he learned very quickly, and after only cutting two or three sugarcanes with Ye Lang, he could do it almost exactly the same as him.

"Whoosh—"

A clean and decisive cut.

Now all the numerical techniques are covered.

"Brother Fang, you've learned so quickly! I'm truly ashamed of myself..."

Ye Lang was somewhat surprised, yet also a little disappointed, as if he hadn't yet had enough fun teaching people.

"Hehe, it's all thanks to your excellent teaching, Brother Ye. But I really didn't expect you to be so familiar with farm work."

Upon hearing this, Ye Lang's eyes dimmed slightly. Just as he was about to open his mouth to explain, he saw another supervisor walking over from not far away. He quickly moved aside and went back to his work.

Fang Jianqiu once again focused on farming minions and gaining experience... oh no, I mean, chopping sugarcane.

The dark-skinned overseer approached and shouted loudly:

"You pigs, stop now and come eat your swill, hehe."

He shouted as he rang the copper bell in his hand.

He spoke in English, and naturally none of the Chinese people in the fields knew what he was saying, except for Fang Jianqiu.

But they all understood the meaning of the copper bell; it represented the only two times for rest and eating during the arduous work of more than ten hours a day.

No one would want to waste even a second of that breathing room.

In the lush green fields, backs that had been bent all day finally got to stretch.

The laborers left the sugarcane fields and came to the dirt road.

But hardly anyone talked about it, partly out of fear of the overseer's whip, but mainly because they didn't have the physical strength.

Everyone was breathing heavily in silence.

Fang Jianqiu casually found a place to sit cross-legged, occasionally standing up to look into the distance, silently taking in the layout of the plantation.

Ye Lang also walked over and sat down next to him.

The white-haired old man who had been leading the charge lay down not far from them.

At that moment, several Chinese children who appeared to be underage and a few women walked over from a distance.

They were carrying wooden buckets, which Fang Jianqiu guessed were their meals.

"They don't even spare the children?"

Looking at the youngest and thinnest boy, who was only about ten years old, he was carrying a wooden bucket that was almost half the size of his body. He walked with a wobbly gait, as if he was fighting against gravity with every step.

This barbaric, cannibalistic era unveiled another layer of mystery for Fang Jianqiu.

Amidst dozens of silent gazes, an unsettling scene unfolded.

"Bang!"

Without any cushioning, the child fell heavily to the ground with a thud.

The wooden bucket in his hand also tipped over and rolled twice on the ground.

The "food" inside spilled out and scattered all over the ground.

They were pieces of cornbread, brown and hard as rocks, with unhulled brown rice and small pebbles mixed in.

It was covered in dust at this moment, and it was hard to tell whether it had been given an extra meal.

For a child around ten years old, this is the time to cry out loud and call for comfort from their parents.

But he didn't.

Although tears were welling up in his eyes and sliding down his dirty cheeks, he bit his lip tightly and didn't utter a sound.

Ignoring the pain, he scrambled to his feet, his hands trembling, and desperately tried to pick up the cornbread from the ground and put it back into the bucket.

"Ah~ Ah~"

A woman traveling with them witnessed this and anxiously let out a few indistinct cries.

She went to the boy, wanting to help him pick up the cakes.

The dark-skinned overseer, who was picking his teeth under the awning, saw this and immediately flew into a rage, striding over while cursing:

"A pig is a pig! It can't even walk properly!"