Chapter 225
Ming Chunxi steadily supported him, saying, "Let's celebrate the New Year at home first. After the New Year, when there are fewer people, let's go out and have some fun for a few days to relax?"
Qing Mengzhu became interested. "Where should we go?"
Ming Chunxi clearly had a plan. "How about going to the sea? We can swim, surf, sail, or just rent a boat and go out to sea. After a few days, we can go to Qiongwei City and check out the orchards."
Qing Mengzhu: "I like this plan! Let's bring the Dharma Protector and Guard this year, haha, let's see if they can make friends with Han Lei and the others in the orchard."
Ming Chunxi: "There shouldn't be any problems. I've planned ahead."
Qing Mengzhu: "Then it's settled. If you want some time alone, we'll send them to the orchard beforehand, and we'll go out and play by ourselves for a few days."
Ming Chunxi's eyes lit up with a smile, "We'll see then."
Chapter 225
That day, Qing Mengzhu was feeding the cattle on the mountain when his cell phone rang.
He took out his phone, glanced at the caller ID, and saw that it was Nian Xinfei calling.
Qing Mengzhu answered the phone, "Xinfei, didn't you go back to your hometown for the holidays?"
Nian Xinfei: "I haven't gone back yet, I'll go back the day after tomorrow. Here's the thing, our college invited an expert in chili pepper cultivation to come and exchange ideas. We'll be holding a small meeting in the conference room. I think you might be interested, would you like to come?"
Qing Mengzhu was surprised and glanced at her phone. "Now?"
Nian Xinfei: "Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. The expert we invited this time is someone we know through our dean. I've already spoken to the dean, so you can just come directly."
Qing Mengzhu quickly checked his inventory and found nothing important to do the next morning, so he readily agreed, "Okay, which conference room do you have? Give me the address, and I'll be there on time tomorrow."
Nian Xinfei: "I'll send you my location, and I'll come out to meet you when you arrive."
Qing Mengzhu quickly discussed it with Nian Xinfei and, after hanging up the phone, continued cleaning the cattle pen.
The Lunar New Year is just around the corner, and the cattle pen, goose pen, duck pen, hazelnut pen... all of these need to be cleaned and disinfected.
The work wasn't strenuous, Qing Mengzhu was too lazy to hire anyone, so she simply did it herself. Taking advantage of the sunny weather and calm wind, she fermented another batch of manure. Even the grass was readily available, as there was plenty of rye grass planted in the field.
After cleaning the cattle pen, Qing Mengzhu hummed a song as she went to dig for winter bamboo shoots. She kept a few for her own consumption and sold the rest to the Interstellar Mall.
Their winter bamboo shoots are of high quality, and now the Interstellar Mall is offering them for over 100 Star Coins per pound. Because the quality of each bamboo shoot is different, the Interstellar Mall will give a specific price estimate for each bamboo shoot. He calculated that the average price of winter bamboo shoots during this period is about 130 Star Coins per pound.
This price is already very high. Ever since the Interstellar Mall offered such a high price, he has never sold bamboo shoots in real life. At most, he would give some to relatives and friends to eat.
If their farm's customers or members want to eat bamboo shoots, they'll have to wait until the bamboo from Zhaiqian Village grows next year.
After selling the bamboo shoots, Qing Mengzhu threw the bamboo shoot flesh into the cow dung pile, waiting for it to ferment into fertilizer.
Just throw the bamboo shoot husks on the ground to dry naturally. We can decide later whether to collect them for use. If not, we can leave them in the bamboo forest as fertilizer.
The mountain road is almost finished. Qing Mengzhu drove his motorcycle up here today and parked it next to the livestock shed.
He walked over, took off his helmet, put it on his head, straddled the motorcycle, and drove down the mountain.
With the road, their time going up and down the mountain was greatly reduced, now only taking a few minutes.
The next morning, Qing Mengzhu drove Ming Chunxi to work, and then drove to Tengcheng Agricultural University.
Qing Mengzhu had interacted with Nian Xinfei and the others several times, but she had never visited this school, let alone seen that they had several branch campuses.
He drove to the conference building following the navigation, where Nian Xinfei and their dean were waiting outside.
Qing Mengzhu assumed the two were waiting for the expert and was even considering whether to wait with him after getting off the bus.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he got out of the car, Nian Xinfei and his colleagues came up to shake his hand and said warmly, "Mr. Qing, it's been a long time."
Qing Mengzhu was surprised by the dean's enthusiasm and quickly returned the handshake, saying, "Director Chu, it's been a long time."
Director Chu patted Qing Mengzhu on the back. "It's cold outside, let's go inside and talk."
Qing Mengzhu's gaze passed over Director Chu's shoulder. "Have the experts arrived?"
Director Chu: "It'll be a while. Let's go inside and talk, and wait."
Nian Xinfei patted Qing Mengzhu on the back. "Let's go, it's so cold, let's not stand here in the cold wind."
Director Chu led them to a small conference room. As soon as Qing Mengzhu entered, she saw that many teachers and professors were already sitting in the conference room, chatting in twos and threes, making it very lively.
Upon seeing them enter, many people in the conference room stood up to greet them warmly.
Director Chu led Qing Mengzhu to sit down in the crowd.
Qing Mengzhu could even settle into his seat, a gray-haired man squeezed to his left. "President Qing, I've read your paper on tomatoes, and I have a question I'd like to ask..."
As he spoke, the man asked his question, and he asked it quite professionally.
After listening patiently, Qing Mengzhu answered the other person's question, which was not difficult for him at the moment.
As soon as he opened his mouth, everyone seemed to receive a signal and swarmed forward to continue asking questions.
Qing Mengzhu answered all the questions she could, and for the ones she couldn't answer, the on-site discussion was quite fruitful.
Just as they were having a heated discussion, the expert arrived, and Director Chu gave another introduction, with particular emphasis on Qing Mengzhu.
The expert had actually heard of Qing Mengzhu; he not only came over to shake hands with him but also chatted with him for a few minutes.
Soon, Director Chu invited the expert to sit down, stood on the podium, introduced the expert's identity and research achievements, and then asked the expert to chat for a few more minutes.
The experts didn't mince words; after a few polite exchanges, they got right to the point.
A true expert's skill is immediately apparent.
When the expert first started speaking, Qing Mengzhu was sitting casually, but as the expert went deeper into the topic, Qing Mengzhu's posture became more and more upright.
He even took out his phone, opened the notes app, and carefully recorded the content of the expert's speech.
The person next to Qing Mengzhu wanted to whisper a few words to him, but seeing his serious and earnest face, they quickly sat back down.
Compared to the average person, Qing Mengzhu could clearly sense the knowledge system that the expert had built up regarding chili peppers.
He had a fairly deep understanding of chili peppers, but he didn't have a complete knowledge system. Now, listening to the experts, it seems that his knowledge system has been established, even if it's just a rough outline. His understanding of chili peppers is much better than before.
Qing Mengzhu listened, she felt as if she had been enlightened.
The instant Qing Mengzhu had this feeling, it was as if something inside him suddenly broke.
Something invisible surged forth, causing him a tremendous shock.
He even felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, as if everything around him was playing in slow motion.
Qing Mengzhu put down her phone, propped her head up with her hand, and resisted the sudden discomfort.
The discomfort came and went quickly. When he looked up again, he felt refreshed and his mind seemed to have cleared up considerably.
He couldn't help but shake his head and look at the podium again.
Looking at the podium again, Qing Mengzhu felt a strange sensation. Intuitively, he knew that the expert was a master in chili pepper cultivation.
Hmm, why do I have such a strange feeling?
Qing Mengzhu turned her head without making a sound, and when she saw Director Chu to her right, she had a feeling that Director Chu might be an expert in soybean cultivation.
He then looked at Nian Xinfei beside him, and then he had an unwavering feeling in his heart that Nian Xinfei was an expert in chili pepper cultivation.