Page 78

If the farmland is flooded with so much water and it's not drained in time, the roots will easily rot, especially for plants like eggplants and peppers. If they are soaked for even a little longer, they will wither, lose their leaves, and die.

Therefore, the harsher the environment, the less you can afford to be lazy.

Qing Mengzhu was busy working in the light rain when Tan Wenlei from next door came over and dug up the field ridges to drain the water.

Leaning on his hoe, Tan Wenlei sighed to Qing Mengzhu, "All my efforts in fertilizing these past two days have been for nothing; hundreds of yuan have gone down the drain."

Qing Mengzhu: "Me too, a lot of fertilizer was washed away. Many of the older tomato seedlings also broke off, I guess they're useless now."

Tan Wenlei: "Your batch of tomatoes was too big, and the branches were too brittle. It was indeed difficult for them to withstand this kind of storm. Fortunately, your two acres of newly planted tomatoes are fine."

Qing Mengzhu was equally relieved. "Yes, the new tomatoes are probably smaller and have sparser branches, so they don't get much wind."

Tan Wenlei: "It also depends on the terrain and direction. When I came here, I saw that many of Laitou's vegetables on the east side had fallen over, and all the Rice had been flattened. It's a pity, because once they're flattened, it's hard for the harvester to cut them, and I guess a lot of the grains will be lost."

Qing Mengzhu: "Yes, the harvest is almost here and there's still a reduction in yield. It's infuriating."

The two chatted for a few minutes, then continued working.

Qing Mengzhu took the bag that was in the field and went to pick tomatoes.

The tomato seedlings have already collapsed; they were barely alive to begin with, and now they're probably beyond saving.

Qing Mengzhu was too lazy to bother and planned to pull up the tomato seedlings after picking all the tomatoes.

So he picked tomatoes as soon as he saw them, regardless of whether they were green or red, big or small. He kept a small portion for himself and sold most of the tomatoes to the Interstellar Mall, so he didn't care about categorizing them.

Besides tomatoes, he also picked the cowpeas and winter melons from next door.

The cowpea trellis has collapsed again, this is the second time. They are also facing the same fate of drying up and dying. Qing Mengzhu doesn't want to save them anymore.

The same goes for winter melons; their vines have turned quite yellow, and the winter melons on the vines have mostly grown up.

Even if Qing Mengzhu doesn't pull up the winter melon vines now, they won't live much longer. So let's just clear them all away, loosen the soil, fertilize them, and prepare to plant autumn crops.

While Qing Mengzhu was busy, Tan Wenlei greeted him, "Aren't you done yet?"

"Soon." Qing Mengzhu looked up. "Uncle Wenlei, are you going back?"

Tan Wenlei: "Yes, it's getting dark, I'll come back tomorrow. By the way, I just passed by your pond and saw a lot of shrimp floating up. What's going on with your shrimp?"

Qing Mengzhu's eyes widened. "No way?"

Tan Wenlei: "Why would I lie to you? I don't know if this situation is normal or not. You should go and check on it right away."

Qing Mengzhu nodded. "I'll go now, thank you Uncle Wenlei."

Qing Mengzhu disregarded the work she was doing and rushed over to check on the shrimp.

Then he saw many shrimp gathered together, floating to the surface or drains, not knowing whether they were trying to escape or what.

He scooped up the shrimp to look at them.

The shrimp were quite lively, with no injuries or diseases on their bodies; they looked like ordinary little shrimp.

After observing it, he was still worried, so he took photos and videos and sent them to Chen Yi to inquire about the cause of this phenomenon.

After reading it, Chen Yi quickly made a voice call to him, "Besides floating to the surface, do your shrimp occasionally jump out of the water?"

Qing Mengzhu looked at the occasional ripples on the pond. "Yes."

Chen Yi: "Is there still a lot of silt in your pond?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Yes, growing lotus roots requires a certain thickness of silt, and the silt at the bottom of my pond is more than that of most other families."

Chen Yi: "Then I guess your pond has 'bottom overflowed,' and there's a lack of oxygen in the water, which is why the shrimp are floating."

Qing Mengzhu didn't quite understand. "What does 'pandi' mean?"

Chen Yi: "It's probably because of the sudden rainfall and temperature drop. The surface temperature of the pond water has dropped, but the bottom is still warm. The temperature and density of the upper and lower layers of water are different, causing strong convection, which stirs up the organic matter and toxic gases in the silt."

Chen Yi further explained, "Plants naturally consume oxygen, and with the lack of sunlight during rain, the decomposition of organic matter also consumes a lot of oxygen. Therefore, the dissolved oxygen in the pond is insufficient, and the shrimp suffer from oxygen deficiency."

Qing Mengzhu quickly asked, "What should I do now?"

Chen Yi: "You'd better see if you can borrow or buy an aerator to put them in, otherwise I'm afraid a lot of shrimp will die."

Qing Mengzhu's oxygenator can't be moved to the pond, so she'll definitely need to buy or borrow one. "Brother Chen, do you have any friends who rent or sell oxygenators?"

Chen Yi: "There are some for sale, but I estimate there are fewer for rent. Let me inquire for you."

After agreeing, Chen Yi added, "However, I see your pond is so big, and you're raising so few shrimp, that you usually don't need to buy an aerator. Special circumstances like today are rare, so borrow it if you can. Otherwise, if you buy one and don't use it, it'll easily spoil."

Qing Mengzhu: "Okay, I'll ask if we can borrow it."

Qing Mengzhu thought about it for a while, but really couldn't think of anyone whose house might have a spare oxygenator.

He simply posted a question on his WeChat Moments.

He had only posted the message on his WeChat Moments a short time when he saw Ming Chunxi's inquiry.

Qing Mengzhu: [You actually have time? Aren't you working overtime?]

Ming Chunxi: [Dinner. Are the shrimp lacking oxygen?]

Qing Mengzhu: [It's okay for now, but if we don't turn on the aerator soon, we'll run out of oxygen.]

Ming Chunxi immediately replied, "[I'll go ask.]"

Qing Mengzhu quickly stopped him: [No need! You don't need to go yet. If we really can't find them, I'll just buy two. It's not much trouble. It's just that Brother Chen said oxygenators aren't used often, so buying them would be a waste. That's why I asked if anyone rents them out.]

Ming Chunxi: [Okay, tell me again if you can't find out.]

Chen Yi had a well-developed network of connections, and he quickly managed to get two small aerators for him, and also helped bring them back.

In order to put the aerator into the water, Qing Mengzhu even cut some lotus leaves and cleared out a small space.

After the aerator was placed in the water, the shrimp finally stopped floating to the surface.

Qing Mengzhu inspected the field with a flashlight and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the pond had returned to normal.

Before he started raising shrimp, he never imagined there would be such a risk.

By the time he finished tidying up and returned home, it was already past nine o'clock at night.

He hadn't eaten yet, and his two dogs were hungry too.

The Dharma Protector and Guard, perhaps seeing that he was quite busy, obediently lay down under the eaves without making a sound.

Qing Mengzhu went over and rubbed the necks of the two dogs, then fed them some jerky to fill their bellies.

After feeding the dog, he took out the wontons he had made earlier from the refrigerator, boiled water to cook the wontons, and washed some vegetables specifically to accompany the wontons.

The dogs definitely wouldn't be full just eating jerky, so he cooked a portion of wontons for both of them as well.

Once cooked, the dogs' wontons don't need any additional seasoning, but he adds chili oil and vinegar.

After finishing his meal, he prepared to collect the lotus leaves he had cut.

He was in a rush when he got back, so he didn't do anything special with the lotus leaves; he just picked them up mixed with other weeds.

Now he was preparing to sell the lotus leaves to the Interstellar Mall. As he was collecting them, he looked at the lotus leaves in his hand and suddenly fell into deep thought.

In essence, lotus leaves are no different from weeds.

Therefore, the price of lotus leaves in the Interstellar Mall has always been very low; he could buy a whole bunch and still not sell it for more than a few interstellar coins.

If that's the case, why sell the lotus leaves to the Interstellar Mall?

Thinking of this, Qing Mengzhu suddenly ran into the room and took out the leftover fertilizer fermentation powder he had used last time.

He drew a total of one kilogram of baking powder, and he only used three hundred grams last time, so he still had seven hundred grams left.

One hundred grams of fertilizer fermentation powder can ferment one thousand kilograms of fertilizer. Theoretically, this amount of fertilizer fermentation powder can also ferment seven thousand kilograms of fertilizer.