I'm Done Farming This Farming Sim

[Updated daily with 3,000 words! Extra chapters for National Day! The backlog is finished, and the story ends on October 12!] [This is the author’s first story. The writing is a bit childish, and it’s strayed a little from the outline.] When Xu Zhixian transmigrated into The Peach Blossom Spring, the original owner’s grandfather had been buried just three days earlier. The family had three mu of poor farmland, half a sack of coarse rice, and 327 copper coins. But they owed the county twelve taels and 180 coins in taxes. If they couldn’t pay within seven days, they would lose both their land and their house. According to the game’s progression, it was time to start farming. The village head sent over a sack of millet seeds and told her to plow the field while the weather was clear. Xu Zhixian hefted the sack and asked, “How much are these seeds worth?” Half an hour later, she had sold the seeds and the hoe, too. She researched agricultural commodity derivatives, so she knew when grain would be scarce, when roads would be cut off, and how high a storm could push grain prices. But she had no idea how to steer a plow or sow seeds. Xu Zhixian used the 600 coins she’d scraped together as a deposit to buy grain contracts for fifty shi, then waited for the storm three days later to wash away Dongxiang’s old bridge. The rain came right on time, but the bridge didn’t collapse. Someone had replaced the wooden bridge with a stone one a year earlier. He’d also bought up grain and opened the granaries in advance, wiping out the price difference she’d been counting on. His name was Lu Chengan. He was the magistrate of Linshui County, and in the game he wasn’t supposed to appear until the spring of the second year. At first, Xu Zhixian thought this must be some hidden storyline she hadn’t discovered. That was until Lu Chengan wrote the four characters for The Peach Blossom Spring on a piece of paper. She had seen a business simulation game, but Lu Chengan had seen a book with himself as the protagonist. In the book, the old bridge collapsed, seven people died, and he lost his position as a result. Xu Zhixian didn’t exist in that book. After that, the walkthrough became less and less useful. This world grew more and more different from the one she knew. The accountant who used to say only, “Today’s grain price is twelve coins,” remembered her. The people who should have died beneath the bridge survived. Some people left their old employers. Xu Zhixian still had to make money. She bought grain, signed contracts, repaired stoves, and traded salt licenses. At first, she only wanted to pay the taxes. But before long, her books kept multiplying, and the people around her gradually stopped following the lives the game had laid out for them. Lu Chengan was always interfering with her. She waited for grain prices to rise, and he opened the granaries to release grain. When she wanted to risk a big business deal, he asked who would pay if things went wrong. She hated people making decisions for her, but he insisted on shielding her from every risk. They argued about grain prices, then contracts, then whether they should make decisions for each other. After every argument, they still had to sit down at the same table and finish balancing the books. Xu Zhixian originally thought that once she’d made enough money and figured out why she’d come here, she would go back. Then an old man with white hair told her that there was a way back. She would have to truly fall in love with someone, and that person would have to truly love her in return. Xu Zhixian thought that sounded much harder than paying twelve taels and 180 coins in back taxes. A grain contract could specify the delivery date, deposit, and penalties, but nobody had told her where to begin when it came to liking someone. Worse still, Lu Chengan never followed the walkthrough. Theme: Life has no set rules. I’ll play it however I want.