Chapter 8

Tan Wenlei did the math. "That's quite a bit. Including the two ponds, you'll have five mu to look after on your own. You'll really have to put some effort into managing it all."

Qing Mengzhu said, "About that. I'll plant a little less the first year and see how things go once I've got some experience. Uncle Wenlei, when you grow vegetables, do you buy seedlings in town or just buy seeds?"

Tan Wenlei said, "My family buys seeds, but some people buy seedlings instead. It depends on whether you know how to raise them. I've still got some eggplant and winter melon seedlings and things like that. If you don't mind, you can come get them from me."

Qing Mengzhu said, "Seedlings raised by an experienced old farmer like you aren't something I could buy anywhere. How could I possibly mind?"

Tan Wenlei laughed. "Then I'll bring the seedlings over in a bit."

While the man hired to plow the field had yet to arrive, Qing Mengzhu bought some fermented pig and chicken manure from another household and poured it into the field along with plant ash.

When the field was plowed, the machine could turn the fertilizer into the soil and mix it in, saving Qing Mengzhu the trouble of doing it himself.

After several busy days, the field had been plowed and the base fertilizer applied. He started by planting vegetables.

Eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, winter melons, pumpkins, cowpeas... Some of the seedlings came from Tan Wenlei's home, while others were bought directly in town. They were mostly local varieties.

Qing Mengzhu had never farmed before and had thought he only needed to buy vegetable seeds produced by a reputable company.

After looking it up online, he learned that every kind of vegetable had dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of varieties, with new ones coming out every year.

Vegetables had to be grown according to local conditions. For example, he was in Jiangnan, and if he bought seeds suited to South China, he might run into more difficulties growing them than other farmers did.

Once he understood that, he gave up on buying seeds online and went straight to town to buy seeds others had selected or seedlings they had raised.

The people selling seeds and seedlings in town were generally local farmers, and their customers were local farmers too. Most of what they sold were tried-and-tested old varieties, which were somewhat more reliable than new ones.

While Qing Mengzhu was busy planting vegetables, the test results came back for the lotus seeds and seedlings he had submitted earlier.

The report showed that his lotus seeds were a new variety and were safe and harmless. They were simply more prone to degeneration than ordinary varieties, and it recommended that he use seed lotus roots directly when expanding cultivation.

Qing Mengzhu carefully read the test report over and over, then breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as they were safe.

As for the lotus seeds being prone to degeneration, other farmers' lotus seeds were actually quite prone to degeneration too. Farmers generally planted lotus roots directly rather than using seeds.

That wasn't a problem for him, either.

With a test report from an authoritative institution, Qing Mengzhu felt somewhat more reassured about the Interstellar Mall.

Peppers were one of his main crops, so he didn't treat them as casually as ordinary vegetables. He planned to buy a batch of relatively high-quality seeds and seedlings.

To that end, he made a special trip to several shops in town and bought thirteen varieties of pepper seedlings in all. He took them home and planted them for two days, then scanned them with the Interstellar Mall once they had taken root, intending to judge their quality by the prices the mall offered.

He wanted to take advantage of the Interstellar Mall, but when he shut the door and scanned the peppers, the mall refused to give him any results and simply told him not to resell them.

Qing Mengzhu was speechless. "I've already grown them for days. How does this still count as reselling?"

The Interstellar Mall gave no response. Clearly, it didn't approve of Qing Mengzhu's attempt to game the system.

Qing Mengzhu stared at the Interstellar Mall app on his phone. He had no idea what standard it used to determine whether something was being resold. Did he have to wait for the pepper seedlings to grow new leaves and scan those before it would no longer count as reselling?

But how long would that take? May was almost here, and his pepper seedlings had to be planted by mid-May at the latest. Otherwise, he would miss the season, and the peppers might not grow as well later on.

Did he have to give up on the Interstellar Mall's help and simply follow local growing practices by buying the most common pepper seedlings?

Qing Mengzhu thought it over and decided to try to find a solution after all.

He was going to plant three mu of peppers, which would require tens of thousands of seedlings. He wouldn't feel at ease picking a variety at random.

After much consideration, Qing Mengzhu decided to try his luck in the wild.

People here had long grown peppers, and with so many being planted, some wild pepper seedlings grew outdoors.

As long as the Interstellar Mall scanned enough wild pepper seedlings, he could analyze the samples to determine which varieties were relatively better in quality.

Acting at once, Qing Mengzhu took a carrying basket into the wild to dig up pepper seedlings.

He had been dealing with pepper seedlings quite a bit lately and could now identify them clearly.

There was a trick to digging up wild pepper seedlings: it was best to look in plots where peppers had been grown before.

If peppers had been grown in a plot before, seedlings might sprout there regardless of whether anything else had been planted that year. Of course, he couldn't go looking in someone else's pepper field; Qing Mengzhu didn't want to invite suspicion.

Qing Mengzhu had been back for a while now, and everyone in the village knew he was staying home to farm this year, so they didn't find it strange to see him wandering around the fields.

When they heard he was looking for pepper seedlings, quite a few people pointed him in the right direction.

After searching for half the morning, Qing Mengzhu had dug up over a hundred pepper seedlings.

He took them home, shut the courtyard gate and scanned them with the Interstellar Mall. Sure enough, the mall gave different seedlings prices ranging from 0.007 to 0.013.

The method worked!

Delighted, Qing Mengzhu planned to pick out all the pepper seedlings priced above 0.010, take them to town to have someone identify their varieties, and then buy seedlings of the corresponding varieties.

Just as Qing Mengzhu was engrossed in sorting the pepper seedlings, the Interstellar Mall sent an on-screen message of its own accord for the first time: "The mall can provide a mall assistant service. Would the seller like to activate it?"

A mall assistant?

Qing Mengzhu was surprised. This was the first time he had seen a prompt about it, and he tapped it to read the details.

The mall assistant cost 99 star coins a year. Sellers could use it to determine the quality, variety and value of goods, among other things, helping them handle their goods more effectively.

There were no restrictions on the scope or number of uses.

Qing Mengzhu read the explanation carefully. In other words, as long as he used the mall assistant, he could scan anything, whether or not he intended to sell it.

For example, if he saw a plant by the roadside, a quick scan would reveal its quality, variety, the mall's estimated value and other information.

A killer tool!

Qing Mengzhu immediately recognized the mall assistant's value and was intensely tempted.

This feature was incredibly useful. It was the real golden finger!

Qing Mengzhu immediately returned to his personal center to check his account balance.

He had spent several days picking mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and his balance had now reached 25.7.

That was enough for a lottery draw, but it was still a long way from enough to buy the mall assistant.

I need to find a way to get some star coins quickly!

As he mulled it over, he immediately thought of the lotus he had planted.

After several days of growth, more lotus leaves had appeared in the pond, dotting its surface in a pleasing sight.

What if I pick some lotus leaves and sell them?

The mall's price for lotus leaves had been pretty good.

The thought crossed his mind, but Qing Mengzhu quickly rejected it.

Picking lotus leaves now would be nothing but draining the pond to catch the fish.

He was still counting on the lotus to grow quickly, fill the entire pond, flower and produce seeds and lotus roots. Only then could he reap the greatest harvest.

If he didn't sell lotus leaves, what else did he have to sell?

He had picked almost everything the nearby mountains had to offer. If he kept going, he would probably end up damaging the local ecosystem.

What about gathering farther away?

But it took him two or three days of gathering mountain produce to scrape together ten star coins. He still needed 73.3 star coins to activate the mall assistant, a huge shortfall that would take him a month to make up.

He still had to look after the lotus and vegetables in the meantime, and the peppers couldn't wait that long either. He simply didn't have that much time!

He had to think of another way.

Chapter 8