Growing Vegetables

"Erhu, go dig a small pool by the stream. We'll pump the water over from there in a bit," Su Ye said to Zhang Erhu.

"Sure thing, Brother Ye," Zhang Erhu agreed.

Since Su Ye was paying Zhang Erhu a whopping 5,000 yuan, Zhang Erhu now obeyed his every command. He was just a step away from putting Su Ye on an altar and worshipping him.

Su Ye went into the greenhouse, took some more spiritual energy water out of the space, and poured it over the seedlings.

After being watered with spiritual energy water, the seedlings grew even greener and fuzzier, growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"This spiritual energy water is ridiculously powerful. At this rate, they'll probably be ready to transplant the day after tomorrow," Su Ye murmured.

After watering the seedlings, Su Ye went over to the stream to see how Zhang Erhu was getting on with the pool.

"Brother Ye, take a look. Is this big enough?" Zhang Erhu asked when he saw Su Ye coming over.

The pit Zhang Erhu had dug was about five meters long and three meters wide.

"That's enough for now. Keep working here. I'll go dig another one by the greenhouse to store water," Su Ye said.

"Okay, Brother Ye. I'll come help you once I'm done here," Zhang Erhu said.

With that, Su Ye returned to the greenhouse, picked up a hoe, and started digging outside it.

After having his hair and marrow cleansed, Su Ye's body had grown even stronger. It was as though there were endless reserves of strength beneath his bronze skin.

Before long, he had dug a pool about three meters long, two meters wide, and two meters deep.

By then, Zhang Erhu had finished digging his pool too. He walked over and said:

"Brother Ye, I didn't expect you to be good at manual work as well as studying."

"Come on, how many country kids like us don't know how to do farm work?" Su Ye said, taking off his shirt because he was hot.

"Nice physique, Brother Ye. If the girls in our village saw that, wouldn't they be drooling?" Zhang Erhu said, looking at Su Ye's sharply defined six-pack.

"You don't get it. Girls these days like those little fresh meats with fair, tender skin," Su Ye said.

"Huh? Is that so? Man, the more advanced technology gets, the faster people change," Zhang Erhu said.

"Tell me about it. Candy's already super sweet these days. Next thing you know, candy will be super, super, super sweet."

"What candy? Is it that sweet?" Zhang Erhu asked. He didn't understand any of this.

"Never mind. I said I wanted some candy. I'll take you to buy some later."

Su Ye and Zhang Erhu gave the pools a quick once-over, then pumped water over from the stream. Before long, the pools were full.

After filling the pools, the two rested nearby.

"Brother Ye, did you hear Qin Yao from neighboring Rice Flower Village is back?" Zhang Erhu asked.

"Qin Yao?"

Qin Yao and Su Ye had been two well-known top students in their class in middle school, so they often got together to discuss problems and share what they'd learned.

As word spread, it turned into a rumor that the two of them were dating. Neither of them explained themselves to anyone. Besides, they were only eleven or twelve back then. Even if they had explained, who would have believed them? The more they explained, the worse it would have looked.

The rumor even reached their homeroom teacher, but he saw that neither of them had fallen behind in their studies, so he never called them in for a talk or anything.

Later, in high school, the two were no longer in the same class. Su Ye only heard that Qin Yao's father was gravely ill and needed a large sum of money for treatment. Her family could no longer afford to keep her in school, so she had been forced to drop out.

After that, Su Ye heard nothing more about Qin Yao.

"Where has she been all these years? I haven't seen her since four years ago," Su Ye asked Zhang Erhu.

"Brother Ye, let me tell you. I heard that four years ago, Qin Yao's dad came down with a strange illness. Her family spent all their savings treating him, but he didn't get any better."

"Later, just when everyone thought her dad was done for, her family met a wandering Daoist priest. He said Qin Yao's dad wasn't sick at all, but that some kind of yin energy had entered his body. In the end, it was that wandering Daoist priest who cured him."

"Why does that sound so uncanny?" Su Ye said.

"Tell me about it. Man, Brother Ye, when I first heard about it, I didn't even dare go to the bathroom alone," Zhang Erhu said.

"Brother Ye, do you believe there are things like ghosts in this world?" Zhang Erhu asked Su Ye.

"Ghosts?"

Before he got the Immortal Spirit Space, Su Ye would definitely have told him, without a shred of doubt, that his brain had gone haywire.

But now he himself had become a Qi Refining Second Layer immortal cultivator, with a marvelous treasure like the Immortal Spirit Space at his side. What couldn't he believe?

"Maybe there are," Su Ye replied.

"Huh? There really are ghosts?" Zhang Erhu shuddered, as though the sweltering heat of August had suddenly turned into a snowy January day.

"Maybe there are, maybe there aren't. I've never seen one, so how would I know?" Su Ye said, at a loss for words.

"Later, it seems Qin Yao's family got help from that wandering Daoist priest and went elsewhere to develop their business. I heard their assets are worth several billion yuan now, and they even started a big company," Zhang Erhu continued.

"Ah, life is unpredictable. When Qin Yao's dad came down with that strange illness, everyone gave him a wide berth. Now he's come back a wealthy tycoon, and I hear their doorstep's been worn through by visitors," Zhang Erhu said with a sigh.

"All right, enough sighing. Stick with me, your Brother Ye, and becoming a billionaire is only a matter of time," Su Ye teased.

"Brother Ye, that's a promise, then. I'm sticking with you for the rest of my life," Zhang Erhu said.

"All right, all right. How did we get so far off topic?" Su Ye immediately cut him off.

"Hahaha."

"Brother Ye, this new variety is amazing. It looks like they've grown a little taller in just this short while," Zhang Erhu said, staring at the vegetable seedlings in shock.

Su Ye turned around and looked. Sure enough, in just a few hours, the vegetable seedlings had grown quite a bit. They now looked to be about two or three centimeters tall, and their vivid green color made them a lovely sight.

"Really not bad. This is my first time growing this new variety too. A friend at the lab told me it's still in the experimental stage, so you can't buy it on the market at all. It was a bit expensive, but the results are top-notch," Su Ye said.

Next, Su Ye and Zhang Erhu dug small holes all over the ground outside, ready to transplant the seedlings once they had grown enough.

By the time they finished, the sun was almost down, so the two drove home at a leisurely pace in Father Su's little three-wheeler.

"Once the first batch of vegetables sells, I have to buy a vehicle to get around in," Su Ye murmured.

When he got home, Su Ye saw Mother Su busy in the kitchen and asked, "Mom, where's the cabbage I left in the kitchen? Why didn't you cook it for us to eat?"

"Huh? A cabbage that big was still edible? I threw it away," Mother Su said.

In the countryside, ordinary cabbages became very tough when they grew big, too tough to chew.

"Of course it was edible. Wasn't that the new variety I'm growing now?" Su Ye said, at a loss for words.