Seeing that the mother and daughter were no longer continuing to drink tea and were instead planning to go look at the scenery, Herman immediately grew anxious.
He stood up and blocked the way of the two.
Herman: "No, you cannot leave. This tea tastes so good, it cannot be wasted."
Ellin and her mother looked at Herman doubtfully. Ellin rubbed her belly and complained, "Dad, after drinking so much tea, my stomach is already bloated. Please stop blocking us."
Herman's anxious face turned red, and finally, he sighed and told the truth:
"This tea is beneficial for your bodies. Drink a little more; it cannot be wasted."
Ellin hid behind her mother and peeked out her head, saying with a smile, "Dad, you finally told the truth."
Ellin's mother: "I think this tea is not only good for my and Ellin's bodies, but it must also be good for your injuries, right?"
"I usually don't argue with you, but you really thought I was stupid."
"This tea has a healing effect; did you think we couldn't notice?"
Herman then realized the truth. Ellin continued to deliver the finishing blow:
"Dad, you drank so much tea, do you feel bloated?"
"No, I don't."
"Exactly. This tea has such a magical effect that the tea itself turns into energy to nourish the body's injuries, so how could it bloat the stomach?"
Ellin's mother put on a stern face and pretended to be angry: "Ellin, your dad actually dared to deceive us! The punishment is that he has to drink all the remaining tea. Let's go, let's pour all the tea down his throat!"
Ellin's expression became solemn, her face stiff like a soldier receiving an order: "Yes! Mother!"
Saying this, Ellin's mother pried open Herman's mouth, and Ellin held the teapot and began pouring it into Herman's mouth.
Watching Herman still struggling, Ellin's mother advised, "Herman, this tea is so precious, don't waste it!"
As the still-steaming hot tea poured into Herman's mouth, Herman let out a miserable scream like a slaughtered pig.
"Ah—--!!!"
Looking at Herman's mouth, which was scalded red, Ellin's mother and Ellin laughed sheepishly, not daring to look directly at Herman's resentful gaze.
Ellin's mother laughed and said, "Hehe, well, since this tea has a healing effect, it should also have an effect on burns. Herman, you drink more. Ellin and I will go take a walk around the farm first."
After speaking, Ellin's mother pulled Ellin and fled the scene as if running away.
Herman sighed, but the smile on the corner of his mouth curved up slightly. He hadn't seen his wife so energetic in a long time.
Touching his lips, Herman carefully blew on the tea to cool it before sending it into his mouth. Feeling the pain in his mouth lessen, Herman's eyes immediately lit up, and he began gulping down the tea.
There was no need to worry about safety issues on the farm, and with Ellin's protection, Herman didn't need to worry about his wife getting hurt. Given the nature of not wanting to worry about the mother and daughter, he just let them go.
Just as Herman was frantically drinking the tea, Ellin and her mother began their farm adventure.
Arkz was preparing ingredients on the stove set up next to the farm's pond. Seeing Ellin and her mother coming out, he waved from a distance, greeted them, and continued busily preparing the ingredients.
These wooden people were clumsy; they could easily ruin the ingredients with one mistake, forcing Arkz to personally handle the preparation.
Washing vegetables was troublesome, but it wasn't difficult for Arkz. The Traveler's culinary skills naturally included how to process ingredients.
Ellin and her mother also waved from a distance and showed no intention of going forward to help. This mother and daughter pair, sharing the same incompetence in the kitchen, would only cause trouble if they went into the kitchen instead of helping.
The job of cooking at home was always left to Herman.
Conversely, Herman, who looked like a rough and burly man, had honed excellent cooking skills during his adventurous life as an explorer.
However, Herman was currently busy drinking tea and didn't have time to help Arkz.
The entire Springvale Farm was vast. Although Arkz had previously cleared the trees on the farm using his Giant Bear Form, the weeds still hadn't been completely dealt with. In the edge areas of the farm, weeds were still growing wildly.
Moreover, the farm's previous fence was already damaged. Due to wind and rain plus a lack of maintenance, the wood of the fence had long since rotted, making it unable to stop wild boars or Hilichurls. If Arkz hadn't kept the wooden people watching the farm, the wild boars would have long since ruined all the crops Arkz had planted.
Ellin and her mother walked around the farm and suddenly spotted a peculiar "scarecrow."
The reason this "scarecrow" was strange was that although it looked very much like the wooden people on the farm, it was wearing strange clothes, standing in the field basking in the sun while snoring, and didn't react at all even when a crow landed on it, requiring another wooden person to drive the crow away.
Before the three of them entered the farm, Arkz had introduced the farm workers—the wooden people—to them. Therefore, seeing these wooden people, which they had anticipated, did not startle them.
Elemental constructs were rare, but not unheard of.
Near Herman's family, the family of the young Amy, who was about the same age as Ellin, often wandered around Mondstadt with her Elemental construct—the crow Oz.
Having seen even a crow that could speak human language, what was so strange about these dull wooden figures?
As a member of the farm staff, Amu had to participate in the Patrol Team's work at night and handle miscellaneous farm chores during the day. Even though Amu was a yokai, he couldn't help but feel exhausted. Therefore, Arkz always turned a blind eye to Amu slacking off.
Anyway, there were so many wooden people on the farm; they weren't lacking one laborer in Amu.
As a yokai possessing wisdom, and with Arkz giving Amu extra rations every day which caused Amu's strength to soar, Amu naturally and logically became the leader of Arkz's farm wooden people.
As the leader of the wooden people, Amu unceremoniously snatched the easiest job on the farm—being the scarecrow.
For humans, being hung on a wooden pole to bask in the sun was undoubtedly torture, but for wooden people like Amu, basking in the sun was a form of enjoyment. The hotter the sun, the better. The wooden people still retained the ability of photosynthesis.
Basking in the sun not only replenished their stamina but also increased their strength. Although this method of increasing strength by absorbing sunlight took a long time and was slow compared to absorbing Elemental Power.
Ellin and her mother curiously stepped forward to examine Amu, this strange wooden person. All the other wooden people on the farm were simple-minded and wore no clothes, but the wooden person before them was not only clothed but also lazy.
Amu's clothes were a gift from a teammate in the Patrol Team.
During yesterday's patrol, a Patrol Team member's clothes were accidentally torn by a tree branch, and Amu only then realized that the clothes were not the teammates' skin, but external decorations that could be changed at any time.
Looking at his own bare and wrinkled exterior, Amu became dejected.
However, the thoughtful teammate immediately gave him a set of clothes after learning the reason for Amu's dejection—the very clothes Amu was wearing now.
Although the clothes were somewhat worn, they had been washed very clean by the teammates.
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