Spring is sold by the acre; rainwater is borrowed by the night.
To scrape together the winter rent, Chen Wang sold several days of spring from his own fields. By the time spring arrived, everyone else had planted their crops, while his two acres were still frozen.
All he could do was carry his old field-testing kit and earn wages by checking other people's land. His very first job, worth eight coins, brought him face-to-face with a patch of spring whose soil was warm but whose roots had shrunk.
While inspecting that transaction, he also set his sights on the scraps of seasonal time that couldn't fetch a good price.
Half an acre had been completely cleared of seedlings, but still had two days of spring left. A season unsuitable for growing bean roots could instead be used to force tree buds. It wasn't worth transporting the surplus on its own, but a few households along the same route could pool their resources and make a business of it.
Chen Wang wanted to use this skill to earn back the spring he'd sold, then open a seasonal depot specializing in trading surplus time.
Starting with an eight-coin field inspection, he'd keep at it until even the seasonal trade houses had to negotiate prices with him.
