Chapter 218 (continued)

It was cold. Qing Mengzhu cut bamboo and carried it on her back. Her nose turned red from the cold, but her eyes were still bright.

Ming Chunxi looked at him, her heart softening, and silently took on more work.

Finally back home, Qing Mengzhu carefully closed the courtyard gate, then took out a large bucket, rubbed her hands together, and said, "It's ready to be prepared."

His voice, deliberately lowered, was filled with excitement. Ming Chunxi took off his gloves and touched his ear. "Come here."

After the upgraded Mall Assistant scanned the bamboo-shaped water, it provided a formula specifically for preparing Seed Gene Agent for bamboo-shaped water, requiring one bottle of Seed Gene Agent gene agent to be mixed with 3.7 liters of water, and to flush as much of the gene agent in the bottle into the water as possible.

The two prepared the medicine strictly according to this recipe.

The final liquid was a translucent pale blue, and it seemed to contain shimmering substances, making it look very beautiful.

Qing Mengzhu had no time to admire the small bucket of beautiful liquid; she and Ming Chunxi carefully carried the bamboo tube and soaked the roots of the bamboo in the liquid.

Because the containers they use are not large, after the bamboo is put into the bucket, the water level rises and can completely submerge the roots.

Qing Mengzhu examined it carefully and breathed a sigh of relief, "It looks fine. I've set an alarm; I'll take it out as soon as 24 hours are up."

Ming Chunxi pinched his neck and shoulders. "Take a rest."

Qing Mengzhu casually pulled over a recliner from the side. "It's a good thing you're here. If I had to chop bamboo and prepare the solution all by myself, I would be exhausted by now."

In fact, the bamboo soaked in the solution changed after only ten minutes.

The once bare bamboo tubes sprouted new buds at the nodes, which grew slowly at a rate visible to the naked eye. After more than an hour, the first small bamboo leaf unfurled.

The bamboo leaves are a tender green, looking like jade leaves, exuding a captivating charm.

Just by looking at this leaf, one might mistake it for a bamboo leaf that sprouted in spring.

Five hours later, the bamboo tubes turned a vibrant green, full of vitality, as if they had been rejuvenated.

Qing Mengzhu looked at the bamboo tube and couldn't help but gently reach out and touch it with her finger.

It's probably not an illusion; the bamboo's outer skin has indeed become more tender, as if you could pinch it with your fingernail.

As the bamboo absorbs the solution, the solution becomes lighter in color and gradually becomes transparent.

Qing Mengzhu estimated that the effective substances inside were gradually absorbed.

Seed Gene Agent are too expensive and too rare, so Qing Mengzhu observes them every hour as long as she is awake.

The bamboo gradually improved in condition and its grade also gradually increased.

Unfortunately, starting from the seventeenth hour, the quality of the bamboo did not change; it remained at "Superior Grade+", still 13 percent away from "Supreme Grade-- ". This may have been its limit, and the remaining improvement can only be achieved gradually during the planting process.

Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi carried buckets up the mountain.

Instead of planting the mother bamboo at the original spot, they found an open area on the mountaintop, dug a pit, and after 24 hours, immediately lifted the bamboo out and planted it in the pit.

Qing Mengzhu watered the bamboo with Spirit Spring Water. The newly grown bamboo branches trembled in the cold wind, yet they exuded a compelling vitality.

After planting the bamboo, Qing Mengzhu noticed that the water mixed with the Seed Gene Agent was transparent but had a slight blue tint. Without hesitation, he divided the water into two portions: one for soaking tomato seeds and the other for soaking chili seeds.

While Qing Mengzhu and the others were soaking the seeds, Zhao Hexi came to find him, puzzled, and asked, "What have you been doing these past two days? Hatching eggs? I haven't seen you around."

Qing Mengzhu lazily, "You WeChat, and I already replied, didn't I?"

Zhao Hexi: "I did reply, but it was so brief; it felt like it was just going through the motions."

Qing Mengzhu: "That's not true. Why are you looking for me?"

Zhao Hexi found a document for him. "It's about the membership selection we talked about before. Aren't our vegetables and fruits getting better and better?"

Qing Mengzhu nodded, signaling him to continue.

Zhao Hexi: "Auntie Feng and the others suggested that we create a selection of premium fruits and vegetables to differentiate ourselves from ordinary fruits and vegetables. This would not only improve our economic efficiency but also increase our brand awareness, preparing us for entering the high-end market."

Qing Mengzhu had no objection; they had already grown Fine Grade vegetables, so raising the price was only reasonable.

Qing Mengzhu: "What are your plans for the premium version?"

Zhao Hexi flipped to the back of the document in his hand. "We have two ideas. One is to directly open a platinum membership or something similar based on our community's agricultural support members, price it a bit higher, and send them a premium version of vegetables. The other is to sell premium vegetable packages directly on our online store."

After a brief consideration, Qing Mengzhu quickly decided. "Let's put it on an online store. Not every premium version of a vegetable can be significantly different from the regular version. If we offer a platinum membership vegetable package, it might be difficult to gather all the vegetables for some seasons."

Zhao Hexi nodded. "Then let's redesign the premium vegetable package."

Qing Mengzhu: "Okay. There's one more thing. Could you send a group of employees over to help me fill the seedling cups? Ideally, there should be twenty or thirty people. I just soaked the tomato and pepper seeds, and I need to start planting the seedlings in the next couple of days."

Zhao Hexi asked in bewilderment, "Didn't you say you wanted to wait until the weather was warmer before starting the seedlings?"

Qing Mengzhu: "It's just that plans can't keep up with changes."

Zhao Hexi didn't ask any further questions and quickly sent Feng Ningxiang with people to help.

Qing Mengzhu hadn't seen Feng Ningxiang for a while, and seeing how much younger Feng Ningxiang looked, she was almost unrecognizable.

Feng Ningxiang didn't seem to notice anything amiss and immediately asked, "Mengzhu, do you have any requirements for the seedling cups? Should we use our standard seedling cups, filled with soil, peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and fermented fertilizer in a 4:3:1:1:1 ratio?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Yes, but the fermented fertilizer requires our fermented cow dung. I'll go up the mountain to get some cow dung first, and you guys sift the soil."

Feng Ningxiang: "Okay, let's go wait in the field, in the field covered with greenhouses, right?"

Qing Mengzhu nodded. "That's it. We'll put the seedling cups in the greenhouse later."

Qing Mengzhu and Feng Ningxiang had collaborated many times and were quite familiar with each other's work habits, so there was no need for any adjustment period; they could get started as soon as the materials were prepared.

The people Feng Ningxiang brought were experienced and efficient, so there were no issues with their coordination.

With so many people, the seedling cups were filled in just one day.

When Qing Mengzhu soaked the tomato and pepper seeds in Seed Gene Agent, he noticed that the effective ingredients were relatively few, so he soaked them rather carelessly.

I soaked about half a pound of tomato seeds, which should amount to about 60,000 to 70,000 seeds.

The chili seeds also weighed half a pound, so there should be twenty to thirty thousand seeds.

Qing Mengzhu told everyone to pack 100,000 seedlings. Since they wouldn't use them all this time, they could save them for the next breeding season, so there would be no waste.

They harvested their tomato and pepper seeds some time ago, and now that they've passed their dormancy period, white sprouts have appeared as soon as they're soaked in water, and they're germinating very quickly.

To ensure the quality of the seedlings, Qing Mengzhu urgently asked Feng Ningxiang and the others to help with sowing after they had filled the seedling cups.

After sowing the seeds, he mixed the remaining water from soaking the seeds with well water and poured it onto the seedling cups as a root-setting water.

After two busy days, everyone finally managed to plant all the tomato and pepper seeds.

The quantity of the two crops was about what Qing Mengzhu had imagined: a total of 67,000 tomato seeds and 24,000 chili seeds were sown.

Their tomato and pepper seedlings grow quite large; they can plant about two thousand seedlings per acre.

Chili peppers were manageable; planting twelve mu (approximately 1.3 acres) wasn't too difficult for Qing Mengzhu. However, planting thirty-four mu (approximately 1.6 acres) of tomatoes was something he simply couldn't spare the energy for, nor did he have that much land to plant.

That day, Qing Mengzhu checked on the tomatoes and peppers that had begun to sprout in the greenhouse. Back at the greenhouse, she told Ming Chunxi, "After New Year's Day, I want to go to the frontier and rent a farm to grow tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and the like. We really don't have enough land here."