Encountering the Stars [Farming]

[A slow-paced story about farming, infrastructure, and building a career, with a sweet romance on the side]

Gentle, steady, jealous gong x tsundere, adorable shou who's great with accounts

Liang Yu dies after accidentally colliding with a sprinkler truck and wakes up in ancient times, reborn as a county magistrate who has been in office for just six months.

He thinks it wouldn't be bad to live again as a laid-back minor official, but when he steps outside, he sees the truth:

This place is remote and out of the way. It's been in drought for three years, with no harvest at all! The people are suffering, merchants won't come, the county granary is so empty even the mice would cry, and the treasury is cleaner than his face...

And when he gets home, he discovers that this still isn't all. He also has a "new bride" who just married into the family to support...

As he stands in the fields, cracked and dry, gazing up at the sky and humming the sprinkler truck's hypnotic jingle:

Beep beep la, beep beep la...

[Hello. The sprinkler truck System has activated. Your fully automatic, multifunctional sprinkler truck is at your service.]

Liang Yu: ...What? Did he die alongside that sprinkler truck...?

From then on:

It can pump water, drain water, divert water from the south to the north, and provide precision drip irrigation... Could it even put out fires while it's at it?

Fertilizer and pesticides, dust suppression and pollution control, disinfection and dust removal... Can the sprinkler truck double as a loudspeaker when parked at the village entrance? (System: What the hell are you doing...)

And later:

Planting trees and restoring forests, digging ditches and building canals...

Several years later, an inspector arrives to check on the county. He expects to find the same remote, barren, drought-stricken place, with impoverished residents who can't even pay their taxes.

Instead, the granaries are full, the people are prosperous and healthy, and even the air is wonderfully moist. The sky is a brilliant blue, trees line the stone-paved roads, and the streets are so clean there's not a speck of dust.

The streets are lined with bustling shops, trade is thriving, merchants and travelers arrive in an endless stream, and every inn is more luxurious than the last.

The people who live here, nourished by the mountains and rivers, are simple and lively, carefree as they stroll with friends, hand in hand across a bridge, smiling as they admire the lanterns.

Only then does the inspector learn that the most popular tea in the capital, the finest cotton, and the sweetest, best-selling fruit... all come from this little county.

Zhu Lianxing, working his abacus with a clatter: "...Do you know what they call you behind your back?"

Liang Yu: ...What?

Zhu Lianxing suppresses a laugh. "The Dragon King."

Liang Yu: "Then shall the Dragon King make it rain for you?"

Zhu Lianxing senses something's not right and tries to run.

Liang Yu hoists him over his shoulder, scattering the beads all over the abacus...

Liang Yu (pronounced like "Yu") x Zhu Lianxing

A gentle, steady, responsible, jealous gong who wants to provide for his wife x a reserved, tsundere sweetheart on the outside, but a sweet cupcake on the inside, clever and adorable and great with accounts

Notes:

1. Fictional, imaginary dynasty.

2. The protagonist has a golden finger, but still has to think and work hard for himself.

3. The romance is sweet, but develops gradually, with a stage of ambiguous feelings and complications.

Theme: Escape poverty, build prosperity, and move toward a better life.