Chapter 23

Qing Mengzhu said, "No way. Are they watching us from both sides?"

Ming Chunxi said, "They may not have anything as complicated as 'keeping watch' in mind. They might have made their homes nearby, and the fight could have been over territory."

Qing Mengzhu raised his voice. "Fighting over territory in a human settlement?!"

Ming Chunxi said, "I'm not sure. In any case, be careful and don't go near them. Wild animals generally carry a lot of pathogens."

Qing Mengzhu nodded. "I won't go near them. I'm afraid they'll bite me."

After a moment's thought, Qing Mengzhu added, "I'll call the forest police tomorrow and ask if they can catch them and release them somewhere else. Leaving them here is too dangerous for both people and the animals."

Ming Chunxi had no objections this time.

After repairing the fence, the two of them washed the mushrooms and started preparing dinner.

It was the Dragon Boat Festival, after all, so they had to have a more elaborate dinner and eat a little earlier.

After dinner, Ming Chunxi had to return to the main urban area of Vine City. He had work the next day.

Qing Mengzhu's cooking was beyond reproach, and both his homegrown vegetables and the mushrooms they had picked in the mountains were exceptionally good ingredients.

The dishes on the dinner table were delicious, and both men ate to their hearts' content.

After dinner, they drank tea for a while before Ming Chunxi said it was time for him to leave.

Qing Mengzhu gave him two jars of fried mixed mushrooms as a gift in return. As he saw him to his car, he suddenly remembered something and took out his phone. "Can you help me with a prize draw?"

Ming Chunxi held out his hand. "Sure."

"Same as last time. You say start and stop, and I'll tap." Qing Mengzhu looked up and smiled. "Lend me some of your luck."

Ming Chunxi said, "All right. Tell me when you're ready."

Qing Mengzhu held the phone up to block Ming Chunxi's view and took a deep breath. "Ready."

Ming Chunxi said, "Start."

Qing Mengzhu quickly tapped "Start" in the prize draw center.

Ming Chunxi said, "Stop."

Qing Mengzhu tapped stop, and a gift box appeared on the screen.

He held his breath and watched the gift box open.

A line of text popped up on the screen: "Congratulations! You won Luring Grass [Seed] worth 1,666 star coins!"

Chapter 23

This wasn't the first time Qing Mengzhu had won seeds.

The lotus seeds he had won last time were excellent. Both the lotus leaves and the young lotus rhizomes were much better than those of ordinary lotuses.

He was very satisfied with the lotus seeds he had won. Later, he had checked the Interstellar Mall and found that similar lotus seeds could sell for around several hundred star coins per jin.

But the seed he had won this time was different. Its price was as high as 1,666 star coins.

Qing Mengzhu glanced at the number and quickly counted the digits: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands. It really was four digits—a seed worth more than a thousand star coins.

Although he had never heard of a seed called "Luring Grass," anything that could sell for that price was certainly no ordinary item.

Qing Mengzhu's breathing quickened.

Beside him, Ming Chunxi asked, "How did it go? Did you get the prize you wanted?"

Qing Mengzhu said, "I did."

Qing Mengzhu smiled at Ming Chunxi. "The prize is much better than I imagined. I knew I could count on you."

Ming Chunxi looked as though he wanted to raise a hand, but ultimately didn't move. "You had that same look whenever you won a prize before."

Qing Mengzhu asked, "What look? Wild with joy?"

Ming Chunxi said, "Your smile suddenly lit up."

Qing Mengzhu laughed. "Really, I won an amazing prize this time. I'll tell you what it is when I get the chance."

Ming Chunxi said, "All right. I'll head back now."

Qing Mengzhu slipped his phone into his pocket. "I'll see you out."

Ming Chunxi got into his car and soon drove smoothly away from the entrance to Qing Mengzhu's home.

Qing Mengzhu watched the car drive away, feeling a sense of loss that even dampened some of his joy at winning the prize.

Once Ming Chunxi's car had disappeared completely from sight, Qing Mengzhu slowly calmed down.

He went to his personal center to read the detailed description of Luring Grass.

Luring Grass was of "premium" quality. Once mature, the entire plant could be pressed for juice and sprayed on new seeds to improve germination, effectively inhibit bacteria and viruses, and increase yields.

The description sounded quite appealing.

After reading it carefully, Qing Mengzhu retrieved the seed.

With a flash of light, a round seed rolled out.

He swiftly reached out and caught the seed, then opened his palm to reveal a large, plump, round clove of garlic.

No way?

They gave it such a lofty name as "Luring Grass," but it turned out to be garlic?

It was even purple-skinned garlic.

Qing Mengzhu held the object in his palm under his nose and sniffed. A strong smell of garlic hit him.

It really was the garlic he knew so well. He had even used some while cooking dinner, though that garlic hadn't been as fresh as this clove.

Qing Mengzhu looked at the clove of garlic, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

The Interstellar Mall was far too stingy. If it couldn't bear to give away a jin of garlic as a prize, a whole bulb would have been fine. What was with giving away just one clove?

With only one clove of garlic, there wasn't much Qing Mengzhu could do with it. He found a small flowerpot in the courtyard, got some fertilizer from the backyard, and prepared a pot of loose, well-aerated soil. Then he gently pressed the clove into the soil, root end down, leaving only its pointed tip exposed.

After that, he sprinkled a little water over the soil to moisten it.

And with that, it was planted. If nothing went wrong, the clove would sprout in a few days.

Qing Mengzhu carefully placed the flowerpot in a well-lit spot in the courtyard.

He was looking forward to seeing what its leaves would look like. He wondered whether they would be any different from ordinary garlic leaves once they grew.

The garlic he had planted wouldn't sprout anytime soon, and for the next few days Qing Mengzhu was mainly busy with the vegetables in the fields.

That day, Qing Mengzhu harvested some mature sweet potato leaves and amaranth, chopped them finely, and mixed them with millet. He took a basinful to feed the hazel grouse.

When he reached the backyard, he had yet to open the fence when he saw the fox and the otter standing outside it, one on either side.

The two creatures couldn't climb up onto the fence, so they rested their paws on the bamboo and peered through the gaps into the backyard. Their necks were stretched so far that it was clear how much they wanted the hazel grouse.

As soon as Qing Mengzhu approached, both creatures turned around. When they saw him, they quickly lowered their front paws, landed on all fours, and ran off, vanishing in a flash.

They were oddly in sync.

Speechless, Qing Mengzhu carried the food over to the hazel grouse, then called the forest police to tell them about the otter and the fox.

The person on the other end listened carefully and said that no one was harming the otter or the fox, and the otter and the fox weren't harming people or livestock either. For now, they had no way to force the animals to move. If there were any new developments, Qing Mengzhu should report them again.

Qing Mengzhu had done everything he could. All he could do now was pray that the two creatures couldn't climb over the fence, or his hazel grouse would be in trouble.

To Qing Mengzhu's surprise, over the next few days, the fox and the otter didn't do anything to the hazel grouse.

They seemed to have simply gotten into the habit of coming by every day to look at them, like people visiting a zoo.

Whenever Qing Mengzhu saw them while feeding the hazel grouse, he suspected they had started treating "watching hazel grouse" as entertainment.

Qing Mengzhu got along quite well with the fox and the otter behind the house, and he tended the vegetables in his fields well too. He could now sell more than a thousand yuan's worth of vegetables to Di Caiyong every day, and still set aside some of the less attractive ones to sell to the Interstellar Mall.

Occasionally, he also sent some vegetables to his friends, choosing varieties he personally thought were tasty.

Amid all the work, Qing Mengzhu received a call from Zhao Hexi one noon.

As soon as he answered, Zhao Hexi's cheerful voice came through the earpiece. "Mengzhu—we ate all the vegetables you sent before the Dragon Boat Festival. They were so delicious! My mom asked me to thank you."

Qing Mengzhu was wearing earphones as he picked yardlong beans. "I'm glad you liked them. I'll send you more when I have time."