BDSMST -Chapter 148 Xuan’er’s “Picture-to-Word” Magic Tool

After several days under Li Er and the others’ “hellish training,” Leo finally began to grasp the basics of using a hoe and a sickle. He learned to recognize the most common weeds and understood when to water the crops and when to loosen the soil.

Though every day left him exhausted like a beaten dog, and his hands were covered in blister after blister, he gradually began to find a certain pleasure in this most primitive labor.

However, new problems soon emerged.

With spring plowing approaching, the farming tasks grew increasingly complex. Simple weeding and watering were no longer enough. Knowing how to mix fertilizers, build trellises for vine crops, or prune fruit trees—these more delicate, advanced techniques could no longer be conveyed with simple syllables like “Ci” and “Yu.”

The translator from the Daxia Kingdom couldn’t follow them in the fields all the time. Several times, Li Er gestured at a pile of differently colored fertilizers for what felt like hours, sweating in frustration, while Leo could only look on, completely baffled.

Teaching had hit a bottleneck.

That evening, the study in Jiang Suisui and Gu Yan’s manor was brightly lit.

Bai Yutang was also present. The three of them were huddled over a map of the estate, discussing the spring plowing plan.

“Leo’s learning progress is a bit slow,” Jiang Suisui began. “The language barrier is still a huge problem. Some of the more complex techniques can’t be conveyed effectively.”

“I have an idea,” Bai Yutang said, stroking his chin. “We could find a few more translators and compile an Agricultural Dictionary, labeling all the common tools, crops, and tasks in their language.”

“That could work, but it would take too long,” Gu Yan shook his head. “By the time the dictionary is finished, spring plowing will already be over. And no one here knows the Frankish script anyway.”

The three fell into deep thought. This was a problem that seemed simple but was incredibly difficult to solve.

At that moment, the study door opened just a crack. Gu Xuan and Bai Ling’er peeked in.

“Father, Mother, are you busy?” Gu Xuan whispered.

“Come in. What is it?” Jiang Suisui’s stern expression softened at the sight of the two children.

The two immediately ran in, carrying a thick, oversized book, and proudly placed it on the desk like a treasure.

“Mother, look! This is a gift Ling’er and I made for Brother Leo!” Gu Xuan said, beaming.

Curious, Jiang Suisui opened the book.

Her eyes lit up immediately.

This wasn’t just a gift—it was practically an illustrated encyclopedia!

The first page showed a hoe. The drawing was astonishingly detailed, capturing every nuance of the tool: the texture of the wooden handle, the gleam of the iron blade, all lifelike. Next to the hoe were several strange symbols in vermilion ink, with the Chinese character “鋤” written underneath.

Flipping to the second page, she saw the steps of sowing illustrated. The first image showed a person digging a hole with a hoe, the second showed a seed being placed in the hole, and the third depicted the hole being covered with soil. Each step was clear, with symbols and Chinese characters annotated beside it.

She turned page after page.

The book contained diagrams of all kinds of farming tools: sickles, plows, rakes, waterwheels…

Charts of crop growth cycles: from germination to seedling, to flowering and fruiting…

Even comparisons of pests and beneficial insects: a locust munching on crops had a big X beside it, while a bee pollinating a flower had a circle.

The entire book was like a later-generation “look at the picture and speak” manual—vivid, intuitive, and immediately understandable.

“This… you made this?” Jiang Suisui asked, astonished, looking at the two children.

“Yes!” Gu Xuan puffed out his chest proudly. “I did the drawings! Ling’er said just drawing wasn’t enough—we also needed a way for Brother Leo to know how to read these things. So she came up with this idea!”

Bai Ling’er, blushing slightly, explained, “I listened to Brother Leo speak and noticed that some of their pronunciations are different from ours. I tried using the phonetic system we’ve learned to mark their sounds. This way, he can look at the pictures and match them to the pronunciations.”

Jiang Suisui looked at the vermilion symbols in admiration. Ling’er had used a system similar to a future “international phonetic alphabet.” She captured the characteristics of the foreign pronunciation and fixed it using a completely new symbolic system. Such logical thinking and creativity were genius-level for this era.

Gu Yan and Bai Yutang leaned over to look. Both of them wore expressions of amazement.

“This is practically a magic tool!” Bai Yutang exclaimed, slapping his thigh. “With this, how could the foreign boy fail to learn?”

Gu Yan also nodded approvingly, patting Gu Xuan and Bai Ling’er on the head. “You two did very well.”

The next day, when this “magic tool” was delivered to Leo, he was stunned.

Page by page, his expression shifted from surprise to ecstatic joy. He pointed at a drawing of a water scoop and read the accompanying phonetic symbols aloud in his halting accent.

A nearby farmer, hearing this, immediately handed him a real water scoop.

Leo then pointed to a drawing labeled “fertilizing,” and then toward a distant pile of fertilizer.

Li Er glanced at the picture and immediately understood. He grabbed a sack of fertilizer and brought it over.

Communication had suddenly become incredibly smooth.

Leo hugged the book like a priceless treasure. He rushed to Jiang Suisui, who was supervising in the field, and stammered out his gratitude in all the formal expressions he knew.

His respect for this young lady deepened. He realized that this estate—from top to bottom, old to young—was filled with extraordinary wisdom.

With the help of this “picture-to-word” magic tool, Leo’s learning progressed by leaps and bounds. He was no longer the clumsy prince who could barely hold a hoe; he was starting to study the land systematically and deeply, like a true agricultural student, uncovering all the secrets of the soil.