Farming

"Looks like the Crafting Power boost has worn off."

Tong Hua looked at the wooden fence he had worked so hard to repair, only to find that its quality was merely E-grade. Then he glanced at the assessment on his panel and felt rather helpless.

After all, he had absolutely no foundation in carpentry. If it were more like putting building blocks together, he might have managed.

Starting from scratch and figuring out a skill entirely on his own was an uphill battle.

Compared with going from zero to one, going from one to a hundred really was easier.

"Once I finish the spring planting today, I'm definitely visiting the Carpentry Shop tomorrow!"

With that in mind, Tong Hua wasted no more time. He took the remaining tools back to the cabin, then pulled out the bags of seeds and planting notes the village chief had left him and began reading.

The notebook was thick, with a leather cover that looked rather old.

According to the old village chief, his granddaughter had written it. Presumably, these were notes she had taken back when he taught her.

The moment Tong Hua opened it, he could feel how much care its original owner had put into it.

"Grandpa said the land is honest. Whatever sweat you pour into it, it will repay in kind."

That message was written on the flyleaf in neat handwriting, clean and tidy.

The signature below it read Jessica.

The notebook's first page had clearly been pasted in later. It was a table of contents divided into four sections by season. At the very back, there was also an attached blank calendar for the current year.

Tong Hua flipped straight to the spring section and found descriptions of quite a few spring crops.

Potatoes, cabbage, parsnips, cauliflower, rhubarb...

Each crop had detailed illustrations and written descriptions covering everything from its seeds to each stage after planting. It felt less like a notebook and more like a beautifully produced, hand-illustrated guide sold in a bookstore.

It even listed the market prices for every crop and its seeds, along with key points and little tricks for growing them. Calling it a professional textbook would hardly have been an exaggeration.

"So potato seeds are called seed potatoes. They cost 300 League Coins per kilogram, with an average yield of twenty kilograms, and the market buys them for 150 League Coins per kilogram.

"That's a huge profit!"

A rough calculation put the return at a full ten times the initial investment! Still, Tong Hua knew perfectly well that the yields recorded in the notebook were probably something only experienced farmers could achieve.

For a complete beginner like him who had never farmed before, simply keeping the potatoes alive would count as a victory.

Tong Hua rummaged through the bags beside him and found one full of seed potatoes. He took some out and compared them with the illustration in the notebook.

They looked exactly alike. Her drawing skills were incredible!

"Besides potatoes, I think the village chief mentioned another crop... Was it cabbage?"

Tong Hua read the description of cabbage next. It could be grown in both spring and winter. Spring cabbages were generally smaller, but crisp and sweet.

Cabbage seeds were sold by the packet, with nearly a thousand seeds in an average packet costing 500 League Coins. Once mature, cabbages fetched fifty League Coins per kilogram at market.

Based on the germination rate, roughly half might survive to harvest if he was lucky. Then, assuming an average weight of one kilogram per cabbage, the eventual return from one packet of seeds would be about...

Fifty times the investment!

Even more outrageous than potatoes!

"Of course, you can't actually calculate it like that... Seeds aren't the only cost of farming. There's fertilizer and labor throughout the growing process, and most importantly, the land itself takes up the biggest share."

Tong Hua kept a level head. If he really wanted to calculate it properly, the money his body's previous owner had spent buying this ranch should also count toward the farming costs. Seen that way, it no longer seemed so outrageous.

"But ultimately, I wasn't the one who paid. I can still treat it as getting this ranch for free!"

That thought instantly fired Tong Hua up. He headed out of the cabin with two bags of seeds and his farming tools.

The Pokémon were still busy in the fields. Orthworm had woken up after a good rest, checked where help was still needed, then headed off to clear the ranch's irrigation channels.

By now, the field covered roughly half a mu. He counted about twelve planting beds, more or less the limit of what Tong Hua could currently manage.

If it were any larger, never mind whether he could grow everything properly-watering that much land every day alone would take ages. Besides, the ranch had no running water. He would eventually need a pump and hoses for watering...

"Anyway, let's get these planted first.

"The notes say potatoes can be planted directly even in newly cleared soil. In that case, I'll plant more potatoes and less cabbage."

Tong Hua immediately got to work, and the little ones joined in to help.

"Gah-may!" Turtwig was still the most dependable of the bunch. Using Vine Whip, Turtwig buried seeds even faster than Tong Hua could with his hands.

Bounsweet dug holes by jumping up and slamming down, then Turtwig planted the seeds in them. Finally, Minccino swept the soil back over them with a tail.

Working together, the three Pokémon became a perfect seed-planting assembly line.

Tong Hua smiled as he watched the three little ones farming in a row. It was just a shame he had no phone. In his previous life, he would definitely have filmed this and posted it online for all those goofy internet users to see.

"Not bad! You're doing great!"

Tong Hua couldn't resist going over and crouching down. He stroked Turtwig's head, then gently patted Minccino and Bounsweet.

The praise made the three Pokémon even more enthusiastic. Bounsweet, in particular, bounced around so excitedly that she nearly tumbled off the planting bed.

"Careful." Tong Hua caught Bounsweet in his arms and reminded her with a smile.

With the Pokémon helping, the sowing went much faster than Tong Hua had expected. In less than two hours, the half-mu field had been neatly divided into northern and southern sections.

The northern section was filled with potatoes, while the small patch to the south, closer to the cabin, held cabbage.

"Next comes watering."

With considerable effort, Tong Hua hauled several buckets of well water up from the well and used them to irrigate the field, along with the rice-rinsing water he had collected while making curry rice at noon.

After a while, the sun gradually sank in the west, bathing the land in sunset light.

Even with the Pokémon helping, watering still took a lot out of Tong Hua...

Tong Hua wiped the sweat from his forehead and straightened his aching back. He knew he had to solve the irrigation problem as soon as possible. Otherwise, once he expanded the fields, watering alone would wear him out.

"When I visit the Carpentry Shop tomorrow, I'll have to ask if there's any way to water the fields automatically..."

He had pretty much finished everything

he needed to do that day, so it was time for Tong Hua to start preparing dinner.

"I'm done. Today was exhausting... I'll make something simple tonight..."

Considering that half the rice from lunch was still left, along with the twenty liters of nutritious Moomoo Milk from that morning, Tong Hua decided on the spot to make a pot of milk congee.

He would use the milk congee as a hot pot base!

Rubbing his aching shoulders, Tong Hua walked into the kitchen and soon had a pot of congee cooking.

Naturally, the hot pot ingredients would be the vegetables, fruits, and meats he had bought that day, along with the Berries picked in the Orchard.

However, since he had added milk to the congee base, he needed to avoid acidic ingredients such as tomatoes to prevent any adverse reactions.

"Come to think of it, could these Berries react with milk? Berries in the Pokémon world are pretty wild. Some can even remove Effort Values. Forget it, I just won't add any Berries. Better to be careful."

After choosing the ingredients carefully, Tong Hua chewed on a few Pecha Berries and carried a basket of ingredients outside to prepare the hot pot.

"Good thing there's an outdoor stove beside the cabin. That saves a lot of trouble."

He simply set the pot on the stove and placed the prepared ingredients beside it. That took care of most of the setup. Finally, Tong Hua lit a fire beneath the hot pot.

Now that he thought about it, this really did feel a little like camping.

"Dinner's almost ready!"

Tong Hua ran behind the cabin and called back the three Pokémon who were still playing. Even Miltank out in the pasture heard his call and rolled all the way back.

"Miloo~"

Although Miltank had already filled up on grass, the Pokémon Cottage in the pasture had yet to be repaired, so she could only stay in the cabin with Tong Hua and the others for now.

"Huh? Aren't we still missing someone?"

After counting everyone and looking around, Tong Hua finally realized that Orthworm had disappeared at some point!

"Oh no! Could Orthworm have gotten lost underground, just like the old man at Sunshine Ranch said?"

Tong Hua hurriedly pulled the whistle from his pocket and began blowing it in every direction!

"Tweet, tweet, tweet-!"