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After the notification sounded, the mall assistant displayed the scan results.

Qing Mengzhu looked at the screen and read aloud softly, "Basic fermented fertilizer, premium-, priced at 4.17 star coins per jin."

It really had finished fermenting!

Basic fermented fertilizer-would there be higher grades after this?

Qing Mengzhu looked over the large vats one by one.

For his first batch, he had fermented a total of 3,000 jin of fertilizer in six large vats. The fertilizer in each vat was much the same, and all of it had fermented nicely.

As for why it was only "premium-" instead of "premium" or "premium+," it was probably because the materials he had used were just too ordinary.

Next time, perhaps he could use better materials, such as vegetables from the garden instead of weeds.

After confirming that the fertilizer had indeed fermented successfully, Qing Mengzhu took a bucket of it straight to the field that afternoon.

According to the instructions for the fertilizer fermentation powder, one jin of fermented fertilizer could be mixed with fifty to a hundred jin of water. Qing Mengzhu used a scale to weigh out one jin of fertilizer and fifty jin of water, strictly following the instructions, then mixed them and began watering the vegetables.

He wanted to test the fertilizer's effects, so he deliberately chose the water spinach, watering some of it with the fertilizer mixture and some with ordinary water.

While Qing Mengzhu was watering, Tan Wenlei came over to watch.

As soon as he arrived, he said to Qing Mengzhu, "This is the fertilizer you fermented last time, right? Why does it look like ink?"

Qing Mengzhu instinctively looked down. Sure enough, the fertilizer mixture in the bucket was dark. The fertilizer had fermented into a very fine paste, so once it was mixed evenly with water, there was hardly any sediment. It looked like smooth ink.

Qing Mengzhu said, "Maybe it fermented more thoroughly, so it looks like ink when mixed with water."

Tan Wenlei said eagerly, "That can't have been easy. I remember you put a lot of dry grass in the compost back then, and dry grass is really hard to break down."

Qing Mengzhu said, "Because I chopped it up pretty finely?"

Tan Wenlei said, "That could be it. Hey, why are you only watering one side? Aren't you watering the other?"

Qing Mengzhu said, "Not for now. I'm comparing them to see how well this batch of fertilizer works."

Tan Wenlei praised him. "You really do think further ahead."

Tan Wenlei and the others had helped Qing Mengzhu make the compost, so he didn't hide it from them when he used the fertilizer now.

Besides, there was no way to hide it. Their fields were next to each other, and everyone worked together every day, so they could all see what the others were doing.

Rather than being secretive, it was better to be open about it. That way, it was less likely to attract attention.

After watering, Qing Mengzhu figured he would have to watch for a few days before he could see any results.

To his surprise, the next day, while he was still lying in bed, he heard someone pounding on the door outside.

The knocking startled Qing Mengzhu awake. He felt around on the bedside table for his phone and saw that it was just past six.

Thinking something had happened, he hurriedly put on his slippers and headed out of the room. "Who is it?"

"It's me." Tan Wenlei's excited voice came from outside. "Your water spinach has grown a good bit taller!"

If it hadn't already been light out, hearing that frantic knocking and excited voice so early in the morning would have been downright frightening.

Qing Mengzhu unlocked the door and opened it. "Really?"

Tan Wenlei said, "Why would I lie to you about that? I just went to water my crops, and when I passed your field, I saw that the water spinach you fertilized yesterday was a lot taller than the rest. It was really obvious!"

Qing Mengzhu's heart tightened. Vegetables growing well after being fertilized was one thing, but shooting up a good deal overnight was another. He immediately said, "I'll go take a look."

Without even taking the time to change out of his slippers, Qing Mengzhu went straight to the vegetable field with Tan Wenlei.

When they reached the field, he first breathed a sigh of relief.

Though Tan Wenlei had said it was a good bit taller, it had actually only grown about two centimeters. Because all the water spinach grew together, the fertilized plants looked noticeably taller.

Seeing the water spinach on both sides again, Tan Wenlei couldn't help marveling. "It's obvious, isn't it? I didn't expect the fertilizer you made to be so good. It had this much effect in just one night."

Qing Mengzhu said calmly, "Vegetables all grow quickly. Even if I hadn't fertilized them, it wouldn't be strange for them to grow a few centimeters overnight. Besides, I bought several hundred jin of small fish for the compost. It couldn't have been completely useless, could it?"

Tan Wenlei thought about it and agreed. "With several hundred jin of fish in there, if it didn't work, you'd have taken a huge loss making that fertilizer."

Qing Mengzhu said, "That's what I thought too."

Tan Wenlei looked at the water spinach in Qing Mengzhu's field and muttered, "Forget it."

Qing Mengzhu said, "What?"

Tan Wenlei said, "I was thinking, since your fertilizer works so well, maybe I should buy some materials and make compost too. But with the cost so high, forget it."

Looking at Qing Mengzhu's vegetables, Tan Wenlei sighed. "I'm just not destined to take the intensive farming route."

Tan Wenlei farmed more than twenty mu of land by himself each year. Even with machinery to help, it was a tremendous amount of work.

Qing Mengzhu farmed six or seven mu a year at most, and the lotus pond among them hardly needed tending. The two of them farmed with entirely different levels of care, and their costs per mu were different too.

Qing Mengzhu said, "Everyone has their own way of farming. I think your way is pretty good too."

Tan Wenlei said, "I think so too, but your fertilizer really does work well. No wonder people say knowledge is power."

After marveling at it for a while, Tan Wenlei went to harvest vegetables in his field. He had to finish before the fresh produce truck came to collect them so he could sell them in time.

Since Qing Mengzhu had already come to the field, he couldn't very well go straight back, so he picked up a hose, started the water pump, and watered the vegetables.

The weather was hot now, and the vegetables lost a great deal of water through transpiration. It was best to water them every morning and evening, a little at a time, so they would grow crisp and tender.

If they were watered only once every two or three days, the vegetables were more likely to grow tough, and their leaves were more likely to turn yellow.

After watering, Qing Mengzhu cut some vegetables and took them home as usual. He kept the best parts to eat himself and sold the rest to the Interstellar Mall.

For breakfast, he stir-fried water spinach stems with minced garlic and made water spinach and egg drop soup to go with noodles.

The fertilized water spinach really was a little different. The stems were crisp, tender, and sweet, while the leaves were tender and smooth. It tasted better than before.

After confirming that the fertilizer worked well, Qing Mengzhu watered the other vegetables with the fermented fertilizer too.

Besides that, he also planned to fertilize the chili peppers and lotus plants.

Fertilizing the lotus plants was easy. He only needed to pour a small amount of fertilizer straight into the water, and he could finish in no time.

Burying fertilizer for the chili peppers was different. Each plant needed some, and he couldn't bury it directly at the roots for fear of burning the seedlings. So he had to bury it in the soil about a fist's distance from each seedling, then pile soil over it to keep the fertilizer from washing away when he watered.

There were five mu of chili peppers. The workload was too much for Qing Mengzhu alone. He figured there would be a ten-day gap between fertilizing the first seedling and the last, and he might not even finish burying the fertilizer before the peppers flowered.

Qing Mengzhu really had no confidence in how quickly he could work, so, as usual, he decided to hire people to help bury the fertilizer.

This time, after asking around, he hired the same three aunties who had helped him plant the chili peppers last time: Feng Ningxiang, Qing Yuqin, and Miao Lan.

Feng Ningxiang and the other two had a good impression of him. After settling on a time with him, they came over early in the morning to help.

Everyone gathered at Qing Mengzhu's home. Qing Mengzhu said, "You're here so early. Have you eaten breakfast?"

Feng Ningxiang said cheerfully, "We've all eaten. If we start earlier, it won't be as hot."

The weather was too hot now, so Qing Mengzhu had agreed with them that they would work until eleven in the morning and start again at three in the afternoon. He hadn't expected them to arrive just after six, though.

Qing Mengzhu said, "Then we'll finish early later."

Feng Ningxiang and the other two were quite happy. "All right. Where's the fertilizer? We'll carry it over."

Qing Mengzhu took them to the backyard to carry the fertilizer and gave them rubber gloves.

His fertilizer was rather unusual, and Feng Ningxiang and the other two asked about it after seeing it.

Qing Mengzhu then explained the fertilizer and how to bury it.

Together, they carried the fertilizer to the chili pepper field.