Spatial Feed

He stepped onto the deck. Second Brother was still there, studying the Petrified Wood, and looked up when Ye Yuan arrived.

"Figured out what it is yet?"

Ye Yuan didn't waste words and told Second Brother directly that this was very likely a piece of Golden Silk Nanmu Petrified Wood. Second Brother, upon hearing this, kept saying that Ye Yuan's luck lately was simply beyond words.

Finally, in a wheedling tone, he said to Ye Yuan, "Brother, sell me a section. You've got such a big piece you can't use it all yourself. My old man loves drinking tea—if I make him a tea table out of Golden Silk Nanmu Petrified Wood, he'll be over the moon, won't he?"

Ye Yuan thought it over and replied, "Fine, I'll give you a piece. But don't go blabbing about it everywhere."

"How can that be? I'll buy it, don't stand on ceremony with Second Brother."

"Not selling. Only giving. If you don't want it, forget it." Ye Yuan shot back directly.

Though Second Brother usually acted carefree, he was actually the most attentive of the four in their dorm.

During their four years in school, he'd spent no small amount of money on Ye Yuan, but the thing about him was that he always made you realize it only after the fact.

Once, because of some trouble at home, Ye Yuan's living expenses were tight, and for a while, he only ate two meals a day.

Second Brother then dragged Ye Yuan out to eat at restaurants off-campus for several days straight, claiming he'd been dumped and needed comfort.

He kept taking Ye Yuan out to eat like that until the senior girl involved made a scene in their class, revealing that Second Brother had been two-timing and she'd found out—that's why they broke up. There was never any heartbreak to speak of.

Things like this, Second Brother had done plenty of over the years. In the dorm, whoever had a problem, Second Brother would be the first to notice.

Now that Ye Yuan wasn't in urgent need of money, and he'd originally planned to use this wood for furniture and bracelets and such, since Second Brother needed some, he'd just give him a piece.

"Thanks, brother."

Second Brother knew Ye Yuan really wasn't short on cash now. Though it couldn't compare to his own family's wealth, in the eyes of an ordinary household, Ye Yuan was already at the level of a tycoon.

Ye Yuan instructed the crew to strip the outer bark from the wood and stow it in the hold.

They lingered in international waters for two more days, hauling a few nets of fish during that time, but the catch was mediocre.

These few times, he let the crew do the trawling themselves. He didn't want to keep using his cheating function, especially with Second Brother still on board.

After two days of fishing in international waters, Ye Yuan decided to head back.

They'd been out for a while now. On the return voyage, Ye Yuan trawled two more nets, and one of them even contained five large yellow croakers—an unexpected bonus.

The fishing boat docked steadily at the pier in Pinghai County. Wang Yueshan was already waiting there, having been notified by Ye Yuan's earlier phone call.

Coming aboard the boat and seeing so many premium seafood items, Wang Yueshan was overjoyed. The two discussed the price, and this batch came to a total of 3.1 million yuan in seafood value. Ye Yuan hadn't expected it to be that much.

In Wang Yueshan's words, he was paying Ye Yuan a premium over market price for the top-grade seafood. Most of these premium items were directly procured for his family's restaurant, so the price was naturally much higher than what a seafood wholesaler would offer.

While Wang Yueshan was busy unloading the seafood, Second Brother pulled Ye Yuan aside. He planned to head straight back to Shangjing and find a master carver there to make a tea table for his father.

Ye Yuan didn't try to keep him. He had Ding Er go into the county to buy tools, cut a piece of Petrified Wood to Second Brother's specified dimensions, and wrapped it up in prepared packaging.

After seeing off Wang Yueshan and Second Brother, Ye Yuan took the fishing boat back to Fishing Bay Island. The island was now essentially complete.

Fishing Bay Island looked brand new. The island was crescent-shaped, running north-south. The south side had a small hill, with cliffs facing the sea, and beneath the cliffs was a small cluster of reefs where boats couldn't dock.

The north side was flatland, where the pier was built. Not far from the pier were the workers' dormitories. Due to the island's conditions, they'd been built as two rows of single-story houses, each with its own bathroom. Behind the dormitories was a seawater desalination system.

A ring road around the island was under construction. Though the island wasn't large, walking the whole thing would still be a hassle.

Ye Yuan's family villa sat at the foot of the hill, a fair distance from the staff dormitories.

On the site of the original Ye Family Village, some processing workshops had been built. Since no equipment had been purchased yet, they were all temporarily idle.

A large cold storage facility had been built in the middle of the island, with several small warehouses next to it.

Between the warehouses and Ye Yuan's family villa, a crew rest area had been constructed, filled with fitness and entertainment facilities.

Ye Yuan hadn't originally planned to build these, since his crew were all robots. But after recent observations, he'd found that these alien-tech robots could eat normal food just like humans, converting it into energy inside their bodies. So he'd built this area for them.

Seeing how well the island blended modern industry with nature, he felt a swell of pride. This was the small island that had raised him for over twenty years, and in his hands, it was becoming better and better.

Back at home, his sister's family was all there. He talked with his brother-in-law and proposed building a resort villa on the empty lot near the seaside, not far from the villa. This idea had come to him when Second Brother and the others came to visit.

Though the island wasn't open to the public, when friends came, they needed a place to stay, didn't they? He couldn't have everyone staying in the house no matter how many came.

He handed another sum of money to his brother-in-law and discussed the details of the resort with him.

After more than an hour of discussion, the two returned to the living room.

His mother had originally wanted to keep his brother-in-law's family for dinner, but his brother-in-law said there were matters in the county, so he left with his sister and Niuniu.

After dinner, Ye Yuan went back to his room. The aquaculture farm was now finished, and during the meal, his father had asked when he planned to stock the fry.

Ye Yuan hadn't forgotten. He'd bought a lot of abalone fry from the Blue Sea abalone breeding base. So many days had passed, and with the system's feed, he wondered what the abalone looked like now.

Entering the space, Ye Yuan went to the patch of sea where the abalone fry were. Looking at the abalone before him, he could hardly believe his eyes.

"Are these really the abalone fry I bought a few days ago?" Ye Yuan muttered under his breath.

There, large abalones lay quietly clinging to the base of the rocks by the shore.

He remembered putting abalone into the space in two batches.

One batch was the 100,000 abalone fry he'd bought on Blue Island. The other was a batch he'd caught from the reef cluster nearby—maybe a few hundred in total. The sizes in that last batch were inconsistent, and he couldn't quite recall the specifics.

Now, looking at the abalone in his space, the smallest were the size of four-head abalone, and the largest had already reached two-head abalone dimensions. He didn't know if it was because of the feed or because the space was beneficial for fish growth.

He glanced at the lobsters and some rare fish species he'd casually tossed into the space. Though they grew faster than outside, compared to the abalone, they were nothing special.

It must be due to that feed. Looks like the effects of this feed are too good, but that also creates a problem for him—if others found out he could cultivate 2cm abalone into four-head abalone in just one month, his secret wouldn't be far from exposure.

After thinking it over, Ye Yuan finally came up with an idea: dilute his Spatial Feed with ordinary feed.

The next day, Ye Yuan went straight to the breeding base where he had bought the abalone before. The same person in charge received him. He directly purchased 100,000 abalone fry, paid the same way, and left without a word of nonsense.

Watching Ye Yuan walk away, the person in charge muttered to himself, "Not many people can manage to raise abalone fry to death in a month. I haven't heard of any virus going around lately."

This person in charge assumed that Ye Yuan had killed off all the abalone fry he bought last time, which was why he was buying again so soon.

PS: Thanks to brother 08a for the reward.