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Shi Wen became a little more clearheaded when he got down to business. "Liaoyang White has pretty good disease resistance and yield, and its growing period isn't too long. If we harvest it at the end of October, we can put it into the silo to ferment and take it out in winter."

Yan Kexing listened, then nodded.

Shi Wen talked on and on. When Yan Kexing said nothing, he brought the conversation back around. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Yan Kexing said, "I thought you didn't have any leads before, so I wanted to recommend Yucheng Silage No. 9. It's a new variety. Its yield, disease resistance, palatability, nutritional value, and so on are all fairly good."

"I've never heard of this variety. Is it difficult to grow?"

"It isn't. If you're interested, I can take you to visit their planting base and have them explain the key points of cultivation."

Shi Wen stared at him without blinking. "Would that interfere with your work?"

Yan Kexing chuckled from the other side. "Work has days off too."

Chapter 19

An endless expanse of lush green cornfields stretched out before them. When the wind passed through, the leaves rustled softly.

Shi Wen stood on the ridge between the fields and secretly measured it with his hand.

This silage corn was taller than he was, at least over two meters tall.

A staff member at the planting base introduced Yucheng Silage No. 9 to them. "...Our silage corn grows relatively quickly, has good palatability, and suffers from fewer pests and diseases. We even have an advantage in yield per mu, averaging up to ten tons..."

Shi Wen's heart stirred. If its advantages were this obvious, it really was a good choice.

Silage corn differed from ordinary corn. At harvest, the entire plant was chopped into pieces—leaves, stalks, and ears included. The yield per mu referred to everything above ground.

Reaching eight to ten tons was already impressive. The other silage corn varieties he had looked into before generally yielded less than eight tons per mu.

Shi Wen gently squeezed the ear of corn in front of him.

Seeing that he was interested in it, the staff member casually snapped off an ear for him. Smiling, he continued, "You can take a look at our test report. The protein content of the whole plant can reach seventeen percent. As feed, its performance is excellent."

"Yucheng Silage No. 9 also has a short average growth cycle, requiring only 113 days. This batch had favorable heat and moisture conditions, so it took only 102 days to reach this stage."

Shi Wen split the ear open. Unlike edible corn, silage corn had pale, dull-colored ears, but the kernels had already filled out. This batch of silage corn was indeed mature.

The staff member said, "We've just published a paper as well. You can read our paper if you'd like."

Shi Wen looked up and met the staff member's eyes. "Do you have a link?"

The staff member had not expected him to genuinely want to read it. After a very brief pause, he pulled out his phone. "Yes!"

Yan Kexing smiled faintly beside them.

Standing on the field ridge, Shi Wen carefully read the paper on Yucheng Silage No. 9.

Recently, he had secretly read quite a few papers from Yan Kexing's team, and he could already pick out the key points quickly.

After only a brief look, he found that Yucheng Silage No. 9 really was excellent. It counted as high-quality silage even by international standards, and the industry held this silage corn in high regard.

That made sense. If it had not performed so well, Yan Kexing would not have specifically recommended it to him.

The staff member beside him watched his expression, and his smile deepened. "If you grow our silage corn, our technical staff can provide free technical support at any time during the planting process."

"How much are your seeds per jin right now?"

"The wholesale price is thirty-six."

Shi Wen drew in a quiet breath. "That's really expensive."

The average market price for silage corn seeds was only a little over twenty!

"You get what you pay for. Our seeds have a relatively high technological content."

Shi Wen negotiated for a while, but he simply could not get the price down. In the end, he had no choice but to agree to buy them at thirty-six per jin.

He had fifty mu of land and had originally planned to buy four jin of seeds per mu.

The staff member said that corn was a classic C4 plant. When fixing carbon, it absorbed only carbon dioxide and did not require oxygen, making its photosynthetic efficiency very high. Planting it more densely would not be a problem, and silage corn was especially advantageous in this regard.

After calculating everything, Shi Wen needed roughly six jin of seeds per mu. The total cost came to 10,800 yuan, without a single yuan discounted.

The upside was that they gave Shi Wen a full set of technical support services. If he encountered problems during planting, they could send technical experts over.

If he placed the order now, the seeds would take several days to be produced.

Shi Wen agreed. The land on his ranch had not yet been plowed, so he could use this time to prepare the fields and apply base fertilizer.

They stayed at the planting base until noon. Only after lunch did Yan Kexing drive Shi Wen back.

Yan Kexing's car stopped at the entrance to the ranch.

Shi Wen unfastened his seat belt and turned, about to thank Yan Kexing.

Yan Kexing spoke before he could. "Have you been a little short on money lately?"

Shi Wen looked surprised. That was not something an ordinary friend would ask.

Yan Kexing did not seem like the sort of person who would inquire into a friend's private affairs either.

"How did you come to ask that?"

"If you're short on money, I can lend you some."

So that was it. A surge of warmth rose in Shi Wen's heart. He smiled at Yan Kexing. "It hasn't come to that. I applied for a 300,000-yuan subsidy before. It'll be paid out in installments over three months, and I've already received 50,000."

"It's just that there are a lot of places where I need to spend money, so I have to plan it out." Shi Wen chose his words. "I'm being more careful with my spending."

Yan Kexing nodded and said no more.

Shi Wen opened the car door and prepared to get out. Before doing so, he turned back to look at Yan Kexing again.

Yan Kexing had accompanied him for half the day, and they were already at his doorstep—

Holding the car door, Shi Wen asked tentatively, "Do you want to take a look around my ranch? It's changed quite a bit lately."