Chapter 191

Qing Mengzhu picked a few seeds, held them under her nose, and could still smell the unique aroma of rapeseed.

The rapeseed is of good quality; it looks like it should be rated "Good Grade+", which is better than he expected.

After all, the Tuan Brassica had accumulated so many pollutants and almost couldn't produce seeds before, so the fact that it can produce seeds now is already a huge victory.

Qing Mengzhu herself wasn't entirely convinced, so she even scanned it using the Mall Assistant.

The Mall Assistant quickly provided the effective components of the rapeseed. Qing Mengzhu took a look and felt there were no problems. The quality was about what he had imagined, just "Good Grade+", still 97 percent away from "Fine Grade- ".

It's unlikely that the quality can be improved for several generations, unless he's willing to provide Tuan Brassica with some good things like Spirit Spring Water and spiritual fertilizer.

However, this is a * Tuan Brassica, and he doesn't expect to use it for anything, so he certainly won't spend a lot of money to cultivate it; something that's good enough will suffice.

After checking the condition of the rapeseed, Qing Mengzhu picked all the seeds from the mustard greens.

These seeds growing on mustard greens are still Tuan Brassica seeds due to grafting, and the number of seeds produced is the same as the number of Tuan Brassica seeds.

With nothing to do, Qing Mengzhu simply took a small basket, put all the rapeseed in it, and then counted and selected each seed by hand.

Some rapeseed doesn't produce good results and needs to be selected out, while the better seeds can be allowed to pass through their dormancy period and then used for the next round of planting.

The number of rapeseed seeds was neither too many nor too few. Qing Mengzhu ultimately selected 4,322 effective seeds, which was more than he had expected, and he was quite satisfied with the number.

If he weren't busy planting fruit trees during this time, he could graft another batch, Tuan Brassica would produce even more seeds.

After counting the rapeseed, he wrapped it in a piece of paper and stored it temporarily.

Then, he went to see Tuan Brassica.

This Tuan Brassica plant has now died of old age after completing its life cycle.

However, it contained a lot of pollutants. Qing Mengzhu glanced at the scan results provided by the Mall Assistant and roughly recognized that its components included heavy metals and pesticides.

Qing Mengzhu knew that it could accumulate pollutants, but he didn't quite understand its academic significance. So he simply called Gu Benshu and decided to send the Tuan Brassica plant, along with the soil underneath, to Gu Benshu's team for research.

Li Ba had previously tested the soil, and Gu Benshu also knew that Qing Mengzhu had planted a vegetable that could accumulate pollution.

Having received the news, Gu Benshu rode over on his electric scooter in person. "Boss, where are the mustard greens?"

Qing Mengzhu: "It's not mustard greens, it's Tuan Brassica. I'll name it Tuan Brassica."

Gu Benshu changed his tune without any hesitation. "Where's the Tuan Brassica? Let me see. Boss, we've published several papers on earthworms recently, have you seen them?"

Qing Mengzhu: "I saw it and even read it. When I was in Qiongwei, I was planning to raise more earthworms. You reminded me, so I'll dig up some earthworms later and put them in the compost pond to let them multiply."

Gu Benshu had long coveted his compost pond, and upon hearing this, he immediately said, "Do you need my help? I'm free today."

Qing Mengzhu and asked, "You have time?"

Gu Benshu took out his phone and showed it to Qing Mengzhu: "It's almost time to leave work. There's not much going on at the lab, so I can help out by working overtime for free."

Gu Benshu has recently made many research findings on earthworms, and he is currently very enthusiastic about them.

Qing Mengzhu understood, so she put away the Tuan Brassica and took him to dig for earthworms first.

Gu Benshu thought they were going to dig in the fields, but Qing Mengzhu led him directly up the mountain, leaving him momentarily bewildered. "Are we going to dig for earthworms on the mountain?"

Qing Mengzhu wanted to dig from the mother bamboo. "Yes, the earthworms from the mountain are of better quality."

Gu Benshu also remembered. "Some of the earthworms you sent over were of particularly high quality, while others were of average quality. Were the particularly high-quality earthworms all dug up from the mountains?"

Qing Mengzhu hadn't really noticed. "It should be. I've had earthworms delivered several times; there are quite a lot to dig up on the mountain."

They carried hoes and walked up the mountain.

Qing Mengzhu hasn't been back for a while, and she's quite unfamiliar with the mountain.

The bamboo in the mountains is now growing thicker and stronger, there are more fallen leaves in the bamboo forest, and many more weeds have appeared.

As you walk into the mountains, you see a vibrant scene. Qing Mengzhu sometimes watches the videos that Ming Chunxi sends her, but the feeling in the videos is completely different from what she sees in real life.

They walked all the way to the mother bamboo.

The soil around the mother bamboo plant was treated with a lot of Soil Fertility Restoration Agent and fertilizers, making the soil exceptionally loose and full of humus—clearly good soil.

However, digging it out wasn't easy, because there were many bamboo whips lying haphazardly underneath. These bamboo whips were very hard, and each strike with a hoe was so painful that it hurt your hand.

Of course, they don't need to dig up bamboo rhizomes; on the contrary, they have to be careful when digging to avoid digging up bamboo rhizomes.

The bamboo's root system is so extensive that it's quite difficult for them to dig up the bamboo rhizomes without actually finding them.

Upon digging up yet another bamboo rhizome, Qing Mengzhu exclaimed, "These bamboo rhizomes grow so fast!"

Gu Benshu, who was digging alongside, said, "Who says it isn't? But there are a lot of earthworms inside too. I saw an earthworm. Hmm?"

Qing Mengzhu watched as Gu Benshu picked up an earthworm with two fingers and asked, "What's wrong?"

Gu Benshu looked at the earthworms. "I think I've discovered a new species of earthworm."

Chapter 191

Qing Mengzhu glanced at the earthworm in Gu Benshu's hand, unsurprised.

There are nearly 3,000 named earthworm species worldwide, and more than 200 in China, so discovering new species of earthworms is quite normal.

Qing Mengzhu said to Gu Benshu, "Take the new earthworm back and see if it's one that hasn't been discovered before. If it hasn't been discovered before, give it a name and publish an article about it."

Gu Benshu agreed, "I'll go back and work overtime later."

Qing Mengzhu: "It's up to you, but I don't feel it's in a rush. Not having to work overtime is fine too."

After Qing Mengzhu finished digging for earthworms on the mountain, they took them to the composting pond.

They've been using fertilizer a lot lately but haven't been composting much; the fertilizer in the pond is almost gone.

Qing Mengzhu glanced at it and decided to take advantage of the good weather these next few days to have someone transport the manure piled up behind the cowshed and chicken coop down and put it into the pond.

Also, it's been a while since I've seriously sold vegetables to the Interstellar Mall, so I need to make the most of these few days to sell them and meet my July sales target.

The more Qing Mengzhu reviewed her tasks, the more she realized how much work she had to do.

He had originally planned to go home and lie down for a good rest, but it seems that's not going to be possible now. He'll have to finish what he's doing before he can find time to rest.

Qing Mengzhu is very busy, and so are the people in the company.

Business is booming right now, and everyone is busy and enthusiastic.

Not only the company, but the farm is also very busy. Zhou Yan has hired another batch of people and even brought in his junior apprentice to be his assistant, saying that if he doesn't hire more people soon, he'll be working 007.

With the farm's revenue standing, Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi had no objections and entrusted Zhou Yan with full management.

Just as Qing Mengzhu was busy, Gu Benshu sent over the test results of the earthworms, saying that the earthworms they found were indeed a new species of earthworm.

In addition, the test results for the Tuan Brassica and soil have also been released.

The Tuan Brassica accumulates many metals, but leaves very few toxic or harmful substances in the soil.

Gu Benshu suggested planting a second crop of Tuan Brassica to see how the new Tuan Brassica performs. If there are new results, it means that this is a successful new plant and can be promoted to the market.

Meanwhile, Gu Benshu was also researching earthworms and Insect-Killing Bacillus. Neither he nor Li Ba were particularly skilled in soil-related matters, so he suggested that Qing Mengzhu hire more people.

Following the advice, Qing Mengzhu decided to hire a soil science expert.