Reborn before the famine, kicking away the scumbag's family and living a carefree life.

"I know the Legend of the White Snake! I read the storybook and watched the Yue Opera when I was a child."

"Then let me ask you, if you were Xu Xian, and one day you suddenly discovered that your wife was actually a snake spirit, what would you do?"

Yuan Wenjie laughed heartily.

Are you a snake spirit?

"Stop messing around and answer my question seriously."

He thought about it seriously.

"If I suddenly discovered that the woman I've always deeply loved is an anomaly, then I..."

"What will you... do?"

"Of course I still love you! No matter what you are like, as long as you always act like a human being in front of me, that's fine."

"Don't mess around. I'm not talking about you and me. I'm saying, if... if you were Xu Xian, would you be afraid of Bai Suzhen? Would you listen to Fahai's slander? Would you let Fahai imprison Bai Suzhen under Leifeng Pagoda?"

"No, Bai Suzhen has no ill intentions towards Xu Xian. Why should he be afraid? It's simply because he doesn't understand Bai Suzhen and doesn't trust her. Besides, why would he team up with an outsider to deal with his own wife?"

"Xu Xian is a stupid, cowardly, incompetent, selfish man. He is a disgrace to men. He doesn't deserve to be a man."

"How was it, Madam? Are you satisfied with my answer?"

Yuan Wenjie sang this line in a Peking Opera style.

He thought she would laugh, but she didn't. She seemed to be thinking about something, looking preoccupied.

"Aru, what's wrong?"

Su Jinru knew that Yuan Wenjie was very smart. She had always been transparent to him. He probably had long suspected that there were many suspicious points about the source of her food, but he didn't ask.

She felt that if she didn't tell him the truth, she would be betraying his trust in her.

But if she confessed to him, she was afraid... afraid that he would suspect her background.

She was conflicted and torn.

"It's nothing. I just want to help you plan and develop this island. If I were Bai Suzhen, I would be so glad. She has magic powers and can help you transform fertile fields and build salt fields with just a wave of her sleeve. Why do we have to go through all this time and effort?"

Yuan Wenjie smiled and affectionately pinched her cheek.

"How can you be so cute! I feel that sometimes you are even more innocent than An Xin."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but pat her head again.

Su Jinru pushed his hand away: "You messed up my hair."

"It's okay, I'll scratch it for you and it'll be fine."

"Stop messing around, I'm trying to help you figure something out!"

"Don't worry about it. I can handle this little thing. I don't need you to fantasize about turning into Bai Suzhen to help me."

"The salt fields are almost ready now, and we will start formal work in half a month. We will use two methods to produce salt: sun-drying and filtration."

"Given the consistently high temperatures on Qiongzhou Island, the traditional sun-drying method would be the most cost-effective. However, this method has a drawback: it requires a large area. Our island is small, and we don't have enough beaches to make salt fields. Our main task is to protect the island and maintain the sea area, so we need to leave some space on the beaches for ships to moor."

"Therefore, we used both physical and chemical methods to produce salt."

"Moreover, the salt we produce is coarse salt, which cannot be eaten directly. We have to transport it to land for other manufacturers to process it into refined salt."

Are you in a cooperative relationship or an independent one?

"We cooperate in business, but everything else is independent. Because the salt industry is state-controlled, private salt production is not allowed. Our partner is also a state-owned enterprise, and they are limited by geographical conditions, so they can only do the refined salt extraction process. Therefore, they have to rely on us in business. Of course, we also need their advanced equipment to extract our crude salt into refined salt."

Salt is a monopolistic industry, and in those days, there were very few manufacturers with the equipment to purify crude salt into refined salt, so there shouldn't be any problem with sales.

Yuan Wenjie said, "The military has special funds from the state, but our island needs development and construction, and we need to find ways to raise the funds for development and construction ourselves, so I thought of salt production as a solution."

"I've estimated that with the money from selling salt, we can buy seeds, farming tools, and cover labor costs."

Su Jinru: "You can save the money for buying seeds. I'll take care of whatever kind of seeds you want."

"Given our relationship, I can offer a discount, but I can't give it away for free. This is for business purposes, not for my personal use. I've already invested all my time and energy into it, so please don't touch your little stash, honey."

“You’re always busy, leaving early and returning late, and you don’t even have time to come home for meals. You’re not doing this for yourself, but for the country, for society, and for this deserted island to become a beautiful home. You have such a broad vision, so as your wife, I can’t just think about myself!”

"A wife follows her husband wherever he goes, just like a chicken follows its rooster!"

"Can you really get your hands on high-quality seeds?"

"I can get any crop seed, and it's free. The climate here is suitable for growing three rice crops a year. The seeds are different for each season: early, mid, and late. The yield is very high. I dare say that the rice yield I grow is the highest in the country."

Yuan Wenjie carefully examined Su Jinru.

Why are you looking at me like that?

"How can you be so capable? I suspect you have magical powers; you are Bai Suzhen."

Su Jinru couldn't help but punch him.

"Get lost! I was just trying to help you, and you're treating me like a monster."

Yuan Wenjie grabbed her hand.

"Are you angry? I was just joking!"

Su Jinru was really angry.

She was angry with herself.

She was angry that he couldn't see through Yuan Wenjie, and angry at her own fear, entanglement, contradictions, and helplessness in front of him.

"I won't allow you to joke like that with me."

"Okay, I promise I'll never joke like that with you again," Yuan Wenjie said seriously.

Su Jinru felt that she was being unreasonable.

She was angry with herself, so how could she give him the cold shoulder!

"Wenjie, I have a secret from you. Don't you feel like I don't trust you enough?"

"I feel like I haven't done enough, which is why you don't trust me. But whatever secrets you have, I will respect your choice, because I also have things I can't tell you!"

Do you have any secrets?

“I don’t have any secrets, but there are many things I can’t tell you, such as work-related matters, which are things that must be kept confidential and cannot be told to anyone. Since I have things I can’t tell you, and you have secrets you don’t want to tell, I understand.”

Yuan Wenjie's words calmed Su Jinru down.

She decided not to tell him the secret of her having a spatial dimension for the time being.