Chapter 5

Qing Mengzhu quickly agreed. "No problem!"

The operator drove his power tiller into the pond. It chugged away, turning up the hardened soil at the bottom and churning it into mud. The smells of diesel and rotting muck rose together.

Qing Mengzhu stood on the pond embankment and watched.

Tan Wenlei and Qing Changhong, two villagers working nearby, saw what was going on and came over to watch and chat.

Tan Wenlei, who knew Qing Mengzhu fairly well, asked, "Once the pond's tilled, you're going to plant lotus, right?"

Qing Mengzhu had read up on the subject over the past two days and had some understanding of how to grow lotus. "Not so fast. I have to disinfect the pond first, then fertilize it."

Qing Changhong, standing on Tan Wenlei's other side, said, "That's right. I remember lotus roots and shrimp both need plenty of fertilizer. If you don't put in several hundred jin of it, you won't get anything growing."

Qing Mengzhu said, "Right. I've been meaning to ask you these past couple of days, does your family sell composted chicken manure? If the price is right, I'll buy some."

Qing Changhong's family raised free-range mountain chickens. When Qing Mengzhu had gone to his house to buy chickens before, he had seen the pile of chicken manure there.

Qing Changhong immediately said, "We do! I'll give you a discount on the market price."

In just a few words, Qing Mengzhu and Qing Changhong settled the purchase.

Tan Wenlei listened eagerly from the side. "Mengzhu, don't forget about me when you buy shrimp fry. I'll have my friend give you a discount too."

Qing Mengzhu smiled. "That's a long way off. I haven't even planted my lotus yet. I'll see when the time comes."

The operator spent over two hours plowing and harrowing Qing Mengzhu's ponds.

The tilled silt in the ponds was much finer and had expanded somewhat.

Before, the layer of silt in his ponds had been about twenty-six centimeters deep. After tilling, it reached thirty-one or thirty-two centimeters, showing just how badly compacted the pond mud had been.

The operator rested on the embankment after finishing. Looking at the much finer pond mud, he couldn't help asking, "How many years has it been since these pond bottoms were cleaned out?"

Standing upwind, Qing Mengzhu thought for a moment. "Probably four or five years. The last time I saw someone clean them out, I was still in college."

The operator asked, "You rented them out, right?"

Qing Mengzhu said, "I rented them out for fish farming before, but it seems the tenant planned to end the lease around New Year's last year and didn't take much care of them."

The operator nodded, unsurprised. "That makes sense. This pond doesn't look like it's been in use. If you're growing lotus, you'll probably need to clear out some of the silt, or it probably won't grow well."

Qing Mengzhu smiled. "I understand. I'll look for someone tomorrow."

Lotus didn't need such a thick layer of silt. About twenty centimeters was enough.

The silt did need clearing now, and the removed mud could be piled on the embankment to raise it, making things easier for the farming to come.

After the operator finished resting, the small truck they had brought arrived.

Qing Mengzhu paid him. One pond was over 530 square meters, and the other was over 660 square meters. The operator charged 380 yuan in total.

The price was quite fair. After paying, Qing Mengzhu helped load the tiller onto the small truck.

The operator soon headed back. Qing Mengzhu packed up and went home too. After a simple dinner and a bit of tidying, he began thinking about hiring someone to clear the silt.

The ponds covered such a large area, and he wasn't used to farmwork, so hiring someone would be more reliable.

Qing Mengzhu had been away from the village for years and didn't know many people there, so he asked around in the village group chat.

Someone soon kindly told him that it was best to use farm machinery to clear silt too. It was cheaper than manual labor, and he only needed to ask at a farm equipment shop in town.

Following that advice, Qing Mengzhu approached a farm equipment shop and ended up hiring an excavator.

The excavator operator opened up the embankment, piled the mud toward the middle to widen it, then cleared away some of the silt from the pond bottoms, giving the ponds a thorough overhaul.

The operator was indeed experienced. Qing Mengzhu spent 1,300 yuan to get both ponds done; hiring laborers would probably have cost twice as much.

Once the ponds were fixed up, Qing Mengzhu didn't dare pause. He quickly contacted Qing Changhong and asked him to deliver the composted chicken manure so it could be piled into the ponds.

He had already put quite a bit of money into the initial work, so Qing Mengzhu planned to do the composting himself.

Tan Wenlei's family fields were right next door, and he worked nearby every day.

After finishing his work, he saw Qing Mengzhu spreading fertilizer in the pond, wearing waders, a hat, a mask, gloves, and other protective gear. Amused, he came over to chat.

Tan Wenlei watched from the bank. "You've come well prepared. Need a hand?"

Qing Mengzhu straightened up. "No need. I'll be done soon."

Seeing that he didn't need help, Tan Wenlei stayed and asked curiously, "I see a delivery box next to your chicken manure. What's that?"

Qing Mengzhu glanced at the box he was pointing to. "A low-toxicity microbial disinfectant. I bought it online."

Tan Wenlei said, "Judging by the packaging, was it expensive?"

Qing Mengzhu said, "A bit, but it's safer and good for the soil."

Tan Wenlei remarked, "Just what you'd expect from someone back from a big city. You've got money, all right. When we disinfect, we just use some lime and plant ash and call it done."

Qing Mengzhu smiled. "I'm planning to do organic farming, so I need to be more careful. I got some plant ash too, and I've turned the pond mud over to dry these past couple of days. But it's been rainy and overcast, so it hasn't worked very well."

Looking at his bedraggled state, Tan Wenlei lowered his voice slightly and reminded him, "Even if you call it organic farming, you don't actually have to be that strict. It's fine to use a little pesticide and chemical fertilizer."

Qing Mengzhu gave a vague reply. "I know. I'll think about it."

Qing Mengzhu was only saying that to brush Tan Wenlei off.

This batch of lotus was going to be sold to the Interstellar Mall, whose scans were extremely precise. He certainly couldn't cut corners.

He was also counting on earning more star coins to buy the good things in the mall.

The author had something to say:

Dear readers, questions like whether the romance is sweet, whether the plot is satisfying, and how big the golden finger is are all "little horse crossing the river" questions. Everyone's reading experience is different!

Chapter 5

Once Qing Mengzhu had prepared the ponds, he planned to plant the lotus as soon as possible.

He had done a good job getting the seeds to sprout. Most of them had now grown two small leaves and a little shoot. If he didn't transplant them soon, it might affect their growth.

The next day happened to be Grain Rain. He got up early and carried the lotus seeds to the ponds to plant them.

He didn't know whether it was because the lotus seeds were especially good, but all 447 seeds he had germinated sprouted.

Even so, a few hundred seeds were far from enough for ponds covering nearly two mu.

Qing Mengzhu couldn't afford more of the same lotus seeds, and he didn't want to mix in other varieties, so he had to space the rows very far apart, barely managing to plant both ponds.

When he finished, he stood on the completely dry embankment and looked at the lotus leaves swaying in the wind on the water. Even he felt a little helpless.

With so few lotus plants and such large ponds, the leaves looked like weeds in the water. It was rather pitiful.

Fortunately, lotus plants rooted very readily. With proper care, they could fill the ponds in a few months, so it didn't matter that there were only a few now.

The lotus was planted. All that remained was to wait for it to grow.

Qing Mengzhu planned to come by every morning and evening to check on the ponds and regulate their water levels as needed.

There was hardly any water in the ponds now, just a thin layer over the silt. It was shallower than the water in a rice paddy and looked very clear.

He had left so little water mainly to meet the lotus plants' growing needs. Although lotus was an aquatic plant, its leaves couldn't stay submerged for long, or they would rot.

All he could do was check on them often and gradually add water to the ponds as the lotus grew, slowly raising the water level.

After planting the lotus, Qing Mengzhu packed up and prepared to go home.

Then he noticed a few lotus leaves at the bottom of the basket. They had all been pulled off by accident.

"What a shame." Qing Mengzhu took the lotus leaves in his hand and examined them closely, then held them under his nose. He caught their somewhat mild lotus-leaf scent.