Chapter 36 (Continued)

Qing Mengzhu gave each of them another piece. "Come, come, come."

Two dogs. "Woof woof!"

The jerky was so appealing to the two dogs that after they finished eating, they stared longingly at Qing Mengzhu.

The Dharma Protector was also pawing the ground with its front paws and banging its head against Qing Mengzhu's legs, making "whimpering" sounds, as if it wanted to call him "Dad" right away.

Qing Mengzhu raised her hand to pat the dog's head. "Come on, let's go eat with the otters."

Qing Mengzhu got up and went to the backyard, whistling to call out the otter and the red fox.

He didn't know if the two creatures were in the cave, but it was their active time, so if they were, he should be able to call them out easily.

Qing Mengzhu stood there, intending to wait a while, and if she couldn't get it to come out, she would come back to call it again tomorrow morning.

As it turned out, he could wait, but the two dogs couldn't.

Seeing that the otter was not there, the Dharma Protector began to howl loudly, and the Guard, hearing this, also began to howl excitedly.

Their howling started up half the village's dogs, Qing Mengzhu had to pat their necks to stop them.

Fortunately, their howls were effective, and the otters soon returned. "Eek?"

The Dharma Protector jumped up and down excitedly. "Woof woof!"

The red fox also poked its head out from behind, watching them warily, neither daring to approach nor go far.

Qing Mengzhu waved to the otter, and before it came over, she fed the Dharma Protector and the Guard some dried meat.

After Guard Dharma Protector had finished eating, it slowly walked over and, about three steps away from Qing Mengzhu, suddenly reached out its paw and swiftly snatched the jerky from his hand.

After waiting a few more seconds and seeing that Qing Mengzhu made no other move, the otter stuffed the jerky into its mouth, then its eyes lit up as it looked at Qing Mengzhu curiously.

The red fox paced anxiously around the area, watching the dogs and otters already enjoying their jerky.

Knowing that it wouldn't come over, Qing Mengzhu cleverly tossed the dried meat into the air, landing it in front of the red fox.

The red fox took two steps back before picking up the jerky and carefully taking a bite. After tasting the jerky, it involuntarily twitched its ears.

Soon, the dogs finished their jerky, Qing Mengzhu gave each of them another piece.

The otter had finished its jerky and eagerly moved closer.

This time, Qing Mengzhu held onto the jerky tightly. The otter hesitated for a moment, then, mimicking the dogs, stood up on its hind legs, nudged Qing Mengzhu's palm with its furry head, and snatched the jerky from his hand while he was distracted.

Qing Mengzhu smiled and said, "Goodness, after eating my jerky, you're not allowed to harm my shrimp anymore!"

Whether the otter understood or not, it made two soft "whimpering" sounds as if in agreement.

All the other little guys got a second piece of jerky, but the red fox didn't.

It stood there for a while, but finally couldn't resist the temptation of the jerky, or perhaps it felt that Qing Mengzhu could be trusted, so it took a few steps forward and craned its neck to look at Qing Mengzhu from a distance of more than a meter.

This was already a huge step forward for their relationship. Seeing this, Qing Mengzhu smiled and threw another piece of dried meat next to it.

In the end, the two dogs ate four pieces of jerky, while the otter and the red fox each ate two pieces.

Qing Mengzhu stopped feeding him. He wasn't very familiar with the jerky from the Interstellar Mall, and feeding him too much at once wouldn't be good.

Moreover, building a relationship should be done gradually; feeding them all at once is not conducive to taming these two little guys.

He planned to feed them slowly, to see if the little ones would become smarter and easier to communicate with after a long period of feeding.

Qing Mengzhu lived her life in an orderly fashion.

That morning, after selling his vegetables and peppers, Tan Wenlei strolled over to Qing Mengzhu's field to watch him sell his produce.

Tan Wenlei often came over to help, Qing Mengzhu, seeing him, didn't think anything of it.

It wasn't until all the vegetables were sold that Qing Mengzhu realized what was happening. "Uncle Wenlei, is there something you need my help with?"

Tan Wenlei waved his hand and laughed, "No, no, if there's something you need, I'll just say it."

Qing Mengzhu also laughed, "I noticed you hadn't said anything for a while, so I thought you wanted to talk to me, but you weren't sure how to bring it up."

Tan Wenlei: "I wanted to remind you that many people's chili seedlings have withered recently, so you should pay attention. But I'm also worried about jinxing you."

Qing Mengzhu immediately understood and said gratefully, "It's nothing, I don't mind, thank you Uncle Wenlei."

Tan Wenlei breathed a sigh of relief, "It's good that you don't care about this. I've seen that many people's chili peppers are sick, and I don't know why. Do you think we should spray some pesticide to prevent it? Otherwise, it wouldn't be good if they got infected."

Qing Mengzhu asked, "What illness?"

Tan Wenlei: "I'm not quite sure either. Everyone says the chili leaves are yellowing and have disease spots on them."

Qing Mengzhu thought for a while, but couldn't come up with an answer.

There are many reasons why chili pepper leaves turn yellow and spotted, such as lack of nutrients, high temperature, or bacterial or viral infections, all of which can cause similar results.

Tan Wenlei said somewhat embarrassedly, "My family grows too few chili peppers, so we haven't paid much attention to it. Hey, Sister-in-law Feng, do you know?"

Feng Ningxiang looked up from the chili field. "What do you know? Chili disease?"

Tan Wenlei: "Yes, I heard that your village also has diseased chili peppers."

Feng Ningxiang: "Yes, the technicians have all come to check. The diseases on the peppers are different for each family. Some have viral diseases, some have leaf spot, and some have Verticillium wilt. It's different for each family, and it doesn't seem like any one disease is particularly widespread."

Tan Wenlei: "I'm not too sure about that. I just know that the chili pepper production in all the villages has decreased significantly, and the price of chili peppers has gone up."

Qing Mengzhu knew that his family's vegetable prices followed those of Hongda Supermarket. Recently, Hongda Supermarket had indeed been paying 50 cents to 1.5 yuan more for chili peppers, and the price varied daily.

He had initially thought it was just a normal fluctuation in vegetable prices.

Qing Mengzhu: "That sounds pretty serious."

Di Caiyong chimed in, "It's serious, but not really. It's so hot now, and it rains so often. How can chili peppers withstand this? All that back and forth will make them sick."

Feng Ningxiang added, "That's right. Every year around this time, the chili peppers have problems. Some people's chili peppers are treated well and can continue to grow for a few more months, while others' chili peppers are not so good and the seedlings die in early September."

Miao Lan added from the side, "If the chili peppers are planted early, they'd probably be dead by this time anyway. Many people don't even try to treat them; they just replace them with another batch of chili peppers."

Even if chili peppers are grown in the same place, each family will have different varieties and harvest times.

Some people plant their chili seedlings in February and start selling them in May, continuing until September when the seedlings have almost run out of nutrients, at which point they stop caring for them.

Some families plant their trees in June, endure the high temperatures and humidity of August, and only start harvesting in September, with fruit continuing until February of the following year.

Some families grow greenhouse peppers, which are planted in October and then harvested between February and May.

Different types of chili peppers naturally behave differently in dealing with pests and diseases.

It may all look like the leaves are turning yellow and the seedlings are withering, but there are actually many underlying reasons.

Feng Ningxiang said, "I think Mengzhu's chili peppers are very healthy, so there's no need to worry for now. If something unexpected happens, we can take targeted measures to prevent and control it once signs appear."

They would come to Qing Mengzhu's field every three days to help pick chili peppers, and they were very familiar with his chili pepper seedlings.

Tan Wenlei nodded. "I was just reminding you, it would be best if your chili seedlings were alright."

Qing Mengzhu smiled and said, "I know. I owe you a lot of reminders before, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get this vegetable garden up and running."

Di Caiyong also said, "Wenlei is a warm-hearted person."

Tan Wenlei said somewhat embarrassedly, "Oh, we're neighbors, just a casual reminder."

After Tan Wenlei's reminder, Qing Mengzhu paid more attention to gathering information about chili peppers in the vicinity.

As Tan Wenlei said, everyone's chili peppers have not been growing well recently, resulting in a significant reduction in yield, and the price of chili peppers has also increased by one or two yuan.