Chapter 153 (continued)

Lü Chunkai quickly prepared the meal, called his wife to come home, poured out some homemade wine, and warmly invited Qing Mengzhu and the others to eat and drink.

Eel is indeed delicious, and it's even more flavorful and spicy when paired with chili peppers.

Qing Mengzhu and the others ate eel and drank sweet rice wine, and before they knew it, they had all eaten two bowls of rice.

The chili peppers were a bit too spicy. Qing Mengzhu suspected that when Lü Chunkai them, he might have mixed in genes from smaller chili peppers, because his family's chili peppers weren't as spicy.

However, they could also consider growing chili peppers with different levels of spiciness; spicier peppers are quite delicious too.

Sweet rice wine doesn't make you drunk. After dinner, everyone sat in the living room discussing the sale of water chestnut sprouts.

Lü Chunkai wanted to charge 2.5 yuan per tree, Zhao Hexi's hair stood on end. She said that people outside only charge 1.5 yuan per tree.

After a tug-of-war, the two sides agreed on a price of two yuan per tree, totaling 12,000 trees. Each tree would be inspected and accepted by Qing Mengzhu and his team before being taken.

Lü Chunkai sighed, "You guys really live up to your famously high standards and strict requirements. Why don't you come to my field to inspect it? That way, we won't have to take the water chestnut seedlings over and then you won't accept them, and the seedlings will be damaged and difficult to plant."

Qing Mengzhu: "Okay, let's go back and prepare the land first, then come back to buy it. Let's make it clear beforehand, if the water chestnut seedlings don't meet our standards, we'd rather not buy them at all."

Lü Chunkai: "Okay, as long as you don't pick all the good seedlings and end up not buying many."

Qing Mengzhu and the others found water chestnut seedlings and planned to cultivate the new fields after returning home.

Water bamboo needs to be planted near water, and the water depth is relatively important.

If Rice only requires five or six centimeters of water, then water bamboo needs at least ten or twenty centimeters. They have to plow the land and apply base fertilizer before buying water bamboo seedlings.

They handed over tasks such as tilling and fertilizing the land to Feng Ningxiang's team.

As experienced farmers, Feng Ningxiang and her team will do a good job.

Zhao Hexi is now unsure about the other organisms being raised in the water chestnut field. "Should we raise them together? Like Lü Chunkai's family, like eels, or maybe some soft-shelled turtles?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Let me ask around. Which type is easier to raise and also more profitable?"

Zhao Hexi: "That's a swamp eel. In the past two years, the price of swamp eels has skyrocketed, especially these semi-wild swamp eels, which can sell for sixty or seventy yuan per kilogram. On the contrary, now that more people are raising soft-shelled turtles, they only cost forty or fifty yuan per kilogram."

Qing Mengzhu in surprise, "Has the market changed now?"

Zhao Hexi: "Yes, eels are difficult to raise, and many people like to eat them, so the price is relatively high."

Qing Mengzhu immediately made the decision. "Then let's raise eels. I don't know anything about eel fry, you can just buy whatever you think is best. If you really can't figure it out, we can ask an expert for guidance."

Zhao Hexi: "Then I'll go ask."

Before Zhao Hexi could buy the eel seedlings, they went to pick up the water chestnut seedlings they had ordered.

Lü Chunkai was amazed by Qing Mengzhu's skills. "Boss Qing, your eye is too sharp! I've been growing water chestnuts for almost twenty years and I haven't been as good at picking them as you."

Qing Mengzhu said, "Our members have high standards for our dishes; they need to have discerning eyes."

Lü Chunkai: "Then you make money too. I heard that the people who buy your vegetables are all rich."

Seeing Lü Chunkai's curious expression, Qing Mengzhu smiled and said, "Rich people are often more shrewd; it's not easy for us to earn that little bit of money."

Having given Lü Chunkai an excuse, Qing Mengzhu continued leading her men to pick water chestnut seedlings.

Lü Chunkai's family didn't have that many water bamboo seedlings, so in the end, Qing Mengzhu went to the family she had previously chosen and picked out a batch.

They offer relatively high prices, and even though they are quite picky, farmers welcome them to choose their seedlings.

After planting water chestnuts, it's time to plant Rice.

Qing Mengzhu was busy cultivating Rice seedlings and didn't have much time to manage the batch of Rice in the company, so she asked Zhao Hexi to look after the seedlings.

The workers in the company are all experienced farmers who are quite knowledgeable about seedling cultivation, so he doesn't need to handle everything himself.

He now focuses his work on Rice cultivation in his own fields, ensuring both adequate fertilizer and water, as well as a high germination rate for the Rice. Only by preparing both aspects can the rice be grown well.

He's currently striving to become Intermediate Grower, and Rice cultivation is an essential skill for Intermediate Grower. If he wants to achieve success in this area, he must put in a lot of effort.

Qing Mengzhu has been busy planting Rice these past few days and hasn't shown up in the fields at all.

Zhou Yan searched for him twice without success, so he had no choice but to go to his house to wait for him.

Qing Mengzhu was surprised. "Brother Zhou, what do you want with me?"

Zhou Yan said helplessly, "The restaurant is about to open, can't we do a food tasting?"

Qing Mengzhu's eyes lit up. "We're going to do a food tasting in the next couple of days?"

Zhou Yan: "Yes, but I'm not asking you to taste the dishes. I want to use some of the green plums from your mountain—we agreed beforehand that some of the ingredients would be from your farm."

Qing Mengzhu laughed and said, "I won't go back on my word, so I'll use it. Should we dry the plums? The plums are growing really well this year. I went up to check on them the other day, and they're almost the size of ping-pong balls. They should taste pretty good dried."

Zhou Yan: "I can share some later, but this time I mainly want to use green plums to make a side dish."

Qing Mengzhu: "Green plum duck?"

Zhou Yan: "No, we'll use green plums as the main dish."

Qing Mengzhu hissed and gasped, "How sour must it be?"

Zhou Yan: "They are a bit sour, but they're also quite appetizing. Are the green plums at your house ready to be picked? If so, I'll go up the mountain and pick some."

Qing Mengzhu quickly replied, "Yes! Go ahead and pick them from the mountain."

After saying that, Qing Mengzhu thought of the good stuff on her mountain and quickly added, "Let me take you up the mountain; it's a bit chaotic up there."

Zhou Yan didn't mind. "There's no time like the present, let's go today."

Qing Mengzhu had just finished working in the fields and hadn't even had time to wash her feet, so she had to change her shoes and take Zhou Yan up the mountain.

This year, his family pruned the plums and fertilized them. Although the yield was not as high as last year, the plums were much bigger.

The green plums are almost ripe now, and many are slowly turning into yellow plums, their green-yellow tinged with red, hidden among the green branches and leaves, looking very tempting.

However, this is all an illusion. As soon as they reach out and pick one and bite into it, the sour juice will burst out, causing them to reveal a mask of pain.

Qing Mengzhu gestured to Zhou Yan to look at the green plums on the branches. "Brother Zhou, what kind of plums do you want to pick? You can pick any plums. I haven't sprayed them with pesticides, so you can eat them right away."

Zhou Yan, holding onto a branch, lowered his head and gently sniffed the green plums, saying with great interest, "Pick the ones that are firmer and not so yellow."

Qing Mengzhu felt her teeth starting to ache. "That's incredibly sour."

Zhou Yan: "I know, it's the sourness that gives it flavor."

Qing Mengzhu: "Alright? Then I'll pick them as you asked."

It was their first time cooking with green plums, so they didn't pick too many, just two baskets.

Zhou Yan was too lazy to go back to the kitchen, so he simply cooked dinner at Qing Mengzhu's house.

After picking the green plums, Zhou Yan carefully scrubbed them clean with fine salt, then smashed them with a knife to remove the pits. He then added oil, salt, and dried chili threads and pickled them raw.

This was the first time Qing Mengzhu had ever seen such a method of pickling green plums, and she was very curious.

By the time we had dinner, the plums were almost ready to be pickled.

Zhou Yan brought the green plums, served on a snow-white plate, to the table and asked everyone to try them and leave their comments.

The pickled plums look quite nice, with their green flesh, red chili threads, and a touch of soy sauce and oil, giving them a very spring-like feel.

Just thinking about how incredibly sour plums these days made Qing Mengzhu's teeth ache.

However, since he was the boss, he had to show his support. He picked up a small piece of green plum meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth to taste it.

In an instant, the tangy and refreshing plum meat, the spicy and fragrant chili threads, and the soy sauce—the flavor was surprisingly rich and harmonious, not too sour, too salty, or too spicy, but rather unforgettable.