Chapter 134

I didn't dare give them any fish; it's the Lunar New Year, so I had to be careful to avoid risks.

The children didn't mind at all; they harvested the vegetables and happily went home.

Qing Mengzhu stretched and happily packed her things with Ming Chunxi, preparing to go home with Ming Lexin Zhao Hexi.

There are four people here today; we can drink tea and play mahjong.

Author's Note:

There will be an extra chapter with 80,000 nutrient solutions at 11:59 PM!

Chapter 134

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Qing Mengzhu began inspecting the farmland.

When he inspected his own field, he saw white flowers in the strawberry patch, and some flowers had even fallen, leaving behind small, green, and hard strawberries.

Qing Mengzhu's eyes widened immediately, and she pulled Ming Chunxi over. "There are strawberries!"

Ming Chunxi examined it carefully. "Are strawberries self-pollinating or cross-pollinating? There are quite a lot of flowers; are there enough bees flying around nearby for them?"

Qing Mengzhu: "For cross-pollination, there should be enough insects; besides bees, there are many other small flying insects."

The two of them squatted down and examined it carefully.

Their strawberries grow very well, with large, green leaves, and small stems sprouting from the center of the leaves, bearing flowers or hanging small green strawberries.

It looks like it will be at least another two weeks before we can eat strawberries, but the sight of this bustling scene is already very tempting.

Qing Mengzhu squatted down and examined the strawberries carefully for a while. Then she took a deep breath and whispered to Ming Chunxi, "I wonder what our strawberries will taste like when they ripen. Right now, I really want to exchange for some Growth Liquid and spray them with it."

Ming Chunxi put her arm around his shoulder. "Calm down, strawberries treated with Growth Liquid can't accumulate enough flavor compounds, they won't taste very good."

Qing Mengzhu: "I can't calm down, I'm craving it."

Ming Chunxi: "Let's go to the supermarket and buy a box later."

The village supermarket sells strawberries, and they smell quite nice.

Unable to resist the craving, Qing Mengzhu bought two boxes and strolled home with Ming Chunxi.

After returning home, he washed two boxes of strawberries, divided them into four bowls, one for himself and Ming Chunxi, and one for each of the two dogs.

Ming Lexin has already gone back, Zhao Hexi has also gone back to the city to visit relatives.

It was just the two of them at home. After their rounds, they ate strawberries and watched TV, which was their way of entertaining themselves during the New Year.

While everyone is on holiday for the New Year, the vegetables in the fields continue to grow.

Not only strawberries, but other vegetables from his farm also grow very well. The company's vegetables are also growing very well; if you were willing, you could already harvest them from the field and eat them.

The weeds in the field are growing quite well. It seems that when they go to work, the first thing they will have to do is pull weeds and loosen the soil, otherwise the vegetables will soon be overwhelmed by the weeds.

Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi stayed at home for a few more days. On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, they not only inspected the fields but also went up the mountain.

They hadn't gone up the mountain to dig for bamboo shoots on a large scale for more than ten days, and many new bamboo shoots had sprouted in the bamboo forest.

The bamboo shoots were of very good quality. Qing Mengzhu inspected them, but was too lazy to dig them up, so he simply let them grow into bamboo.

Anyway, the bamboo in the bamboo forest is already quite sparse. Even if there were twice as many bamboos, the bamboo forest wouldn't be that much.

After a while, they can also cut down bamboo and gradually make bamboo vinegar and bamboo shoot fragrance. It's good to let the bamboo grow a bit during this time.

Otherwise, there might not be enough bamboo.

The two looked at the bamboo and walked uphill in high spirits.

The owl living in the bamboo forest noticed their arrival and circled above them several times before leaving. Perhaps it was happy to see them and came over to say hello.

With owls around, there shouldn't be any small animals coming to cause trouble in the bamboo forest.

Qing Mengzhu very reassured about the bamboo forest.

Then, when they reached the bamboo grove that had been treated with the Soil Fertility Restoration Agent, Qing Mengzhu realized she had let things go too early.

When they came before the Lunar New Year, the bamboo grove was fine, but in just over ten days, the weeds have grown wildly.

The weeds have grown up to their calves, but the bamboo hasn't changed much, and there aren't many bamboo shoots.

I don't know if it's because the weeds stole the nutrients, but the bamboo shoots aren't growing very well.

Qing Mengzhu was practically splitting with rage, grabbing a small bamboo stick and hitting the weeds. "Why are there so many weeds here?! We clearly cleared out the seeds before!"

Ming Chunxi: "It was probably brought here by the wind or some other small animal."

Qing Mengzhu: "You shouldn't have brought so many! The weather isn't even warm yet, and the grass seeds are sprouting way too fast!"

"It's not completely warm yet, but it's not too cold either. The weeds are so resilient, it's normal for them to have sprouted now." Ming Chunxi said calmly, "It's alright, we'll bring the portable weed cutter up later and we can just do a little weeding."

Qing Mengzhu took a deep breath. "This is the only way. Wait, I think I see bamboo fungus over there. Let's go take a look."

There were no bamboo fungus in their bamboo grove before, but there are wild bamboo fungus in the area.

Qing Mengzhu had considered planting bamboo fungus in the bamboo forest, but the New Year came before she could put it into practice.

Qing Mengzhu took Ming Chunxi for a walk in the bamboo forest and actually found a few "bamboo fungus eggs".

The bamboo fungus that hasn't yet sprouted looks very much like an egg. They grow extremely fast, and they can be harvested at this stage.

Qing Mengzhu didn't stand on ceremony; she took off her hat and put the bamboo fungus inside.

While picking the bamboo fungus, they found that some of it had already withered; if they had come two days earlier, the bamboo fungus would have been just right.

It's a pity, otherwise they could have gained even more today.

While picking bamboo fungus, they walked around in the bamboo forest.

After walking around a few more times, Qing Mengzhu quickly discovered that some plants among the weeds looked particularly familiar to him, as if they were not just ordinary weeds, but some kind of medicinal herb.

Although he was Junior Grower, he wasn't very familiar with some of the medicinal herbs and needed to look them up.

Qing Mengzhu released Ming Chunxi's hand, squatted down to look at it, and said, "This looks like some kind of medicinal herb. Wait a moment, let me scan it with the Mall Assistant."

Ming Chunxi squatted down beside him. "Common medicinal herbs around here? I think I've seen them on the ridges of the fields before."

"I've seen it before," Qing Mengzhu said, the scan results already in. "It's Rehmannia glutinosa, a common medicinal herb here, but it's reached 'Good Grade+' quality."

Ming Chunxi glanced through the pile. "Are those weeds next door medicinal herbs? I think I've seen them before."

Qing Mengzhu: "This doesn't count; it's just ordinary weeds. The one you're holding is wild sesame, and the one next to it is Han Xin grass."

Since there was rehmannia mixed in with the weeds, they couldn't use a lawnmower to cut all the weeds and had to pull them by hand.

Fortunately, the soil here is relatively loose, so pulling weeds isn't difficult.

Qing Mengzhu pulled weeds for a long time, her legs aching terribly. "Forget it, let's just ask someone to come and pull the weeds. Anyway, we don't have any secrets here, we can just bring someone over."

After taking a break for the Chinese New Year, Qing Mengzhu couldn't stand squatting and working all the time anymore.

The bamboo here has grown so large that there's no trace of Growth Liquid being used.

The Soil Fertility Restoration Agent has been completely integrated into the soil, and they've even picked out all the aggregate balls inside. Even if someone came to see it, they wouldn't be able to tell anything; at most, they could only tell that this land is exceptionally fertile.

So it's okay to hire someone to do the work.

Ming Chunxi had no objection. "Have He Xi come over for dinner later and talk to him about it."

Zhao Hexi is back at work now, but she's busy with company matters and hasn't come to their house these past couple of days.

Qing Mengzhu: "Good, it's a good opportunity for him to try bamboo fungus."

It was also the first time that Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi had eaten bamboo fungus grown in their own bamboo forest, and they were both very curious about its taste.

When Ming Chunxi came down the mountain, he wanted to catch a hazel grouse to take home and make bamboo fungus soup. Qing Mengzhu looked at the large hazel grouse that had been almost caught, and then at the small hazel grouse that were only growing feathers and not meat. She couldn't bear to harm them, so she said she would just stir-fry some meat instead.