Chapter 52

After finishing his explanation, Tan Wenlei quickly returned home.

Qing Mengzhu prepared the soil for planting bamboo and brought over the seedling cups to prepare the soil for planting asparagus.

He happened to have some freshly fermented fertilizer, so he used it to mix with the soil. If it worked well, he would hurry up and ferment another batch.

After filling the seedling cups, Qing Mengzhu went to check on the seeds of the asparagus vine.

The seeds provided by Tan Wenlei are of good quality; the Mall Assistant scan shows that this batch of seeds is "Good Grade+".

The Interstellar Mall doesn't sell Asparagus seeds. "Good Grade+" is already the highest level of seeds you can find in daily life. To find higher-level seeds, you'll have to spend a lot more effort.

Shi Diao Bai was not the main variety that Qing Mengzhu planted, nor did he have any ambition to perfect it. He simply decided to plant it because the seeds looked good.

Asparagus seeds have a relatively hard shell. After researching, Qing Mengzhu first soaked the seeds in "Gentewang" to sterilize and promote growth before transferring them to a damp gauze. Once they sprouted, she transferred them one by one to seedling cups.

This process will take two or three days.

Qing Mengzhu could do was wait quietly.

After finishing with the bamboo and stone cypress matters, Qing Mengzhu's mood finally calmed down a bit, and she was able to look at the treasure chest that popped up when she bought the Cloud Mirror Bamboo.

This treasure chest is unlike any of the prizes he's ever won before.

The treasure chest looked bigger and more luxurious. He went to his personal center to read the description carefully and found that it was a progress treasure chest, a reward for spending 10,000 Star Coins.

Each user can only draw a treasure chest once with a spending amount of 10,000. To draw a similar prize again, they will have to wait until their spending amount reaches 100,000.

The treasure chest with 100,000 is not quite the same as the treasure chest with 10,000; they look different, and the items you can draw from them are also different.

There are actually quite a few lotteries in the Interstellar Mall, Qing Mengzhu is used to participating in them.

Upon seeing the treasure chest given by the system, he initially wanted to draw it himself, but when he realized it was a limited edition, he hesitated.

After thinking for a moment, Qing Mengzhu opened Ming Chunxi's WeChat and tentatively asked, "[Brother, are you free? Help me enter a prize draw.]"

Ming Chunxi's reply was so quick that Qing Mengzhu suspected he had set her as a special contact: [When you have time, like before, I'll call "start" and "stop"?]

Qing Mengzhu: [Pretty much, but this time just click on it, no need to stop. Wait a moment, I'll call you.]

Qing Mengzhu had just sent her message and hadn't even had a chance to make a call when Ming Chunxi called first, "Good evening?"

Ming Chunxi's voice carried a subtle hint of amusement, which was very relaxing. Qing Mengzhu couldn't help but smile as well, "Good evening. You're not working overtime?"

Ming Chunxi: "It's Friday today, so I got off work early and am working from home."

Qing Mengzhu: "Working from home on Fridays? Your boss is really exploiting you."

Ming Chunxi, who is the leader, said, "... Actually, it's not too bad. Tomorrow is Qixi Festival, and everyone doesn't need to work overtime this weekend. Any work can be done online."

Qing Mengzhu had just checked the calendar that afternoon and knew that the day before yesterday was the beginning of autumn, but she hadn't even realized that tomorrow was Qixi Festival: "I was so busy I forgot."

Thinking about how some people were promoting Qixi as Valentine's Day, Qing Mengzhu, her ears slightly red, continued, "We usually celebrate Qixi as a girls' festival here, so we didn't pay attention."

Ming Chunxi: "Now that you know, are you going to ask someone out?"

"Cough, cough, cough." Qing Mengzhu gasped for breath, letting out a violent cough, "No—"

He quickly covered the microphone hole on his phone.

After coughing for a while, he managed to get his voice hoarse as he managed to say, "Who would I be dating? You, on the other hand, have a better chance of dating than I do, right?"

After speaking, Qing Mengzhu held her breath, waiting for Ming Chunxi's answer, her palms feeling a little cold.

Soon, Ming Chunxi's voice rang out. "Neither do I."

Qing Mengzhu couldn't help coughing again, but her hands weren't as stiff anymore.

Ming Chunxi's voice was filled with concern. "Are you alright? Drink some water to help you relax."

Qing Mengzhu stood up to get a cup of water. A sip of cool water made her throat feel a little better. "Much better. How come you have no one to go out with?"

Ming Chunxi's voice drifted out slowly. "My colleagues say behind my back that I'm as boring as an AI, that even my entertainment consists of things like exercising, reading, and coding, and that they feel a lot of pressure being around me."

Qing Mengzhu couldn't help but cough again. "Your entertainment is clearly very interesting too, your colleague is being biased."

Ming Chunxi: "Yeah, but I brought so much work to my colleagues, so it's no big deal if they talk about me behind my back."

Qing Mengzhu frowned. "Is your line of work that difficult too?"

Ming Chunxi: "It's fine when we're not rushing to meet deadlines. Let's not talk about anything discouraging. Shall we start the lucky draw?"

Qing Mengzhu's attention was drawn back, though the excitement from before was gone. "I clicked on the lottery."

Ming Chunxi: "Okay, then, one, two, three, begin."

Qing Mengzhu immediately opened the treasure chest and held her breath as she waited for it to open.

Accompanied by a glowing effect on the screen, the treasure chest expands and then opens, revealing its contents.

That was actually a book?

Qing Mengzhu rubbed her eyes and looked over in disbelief, quickly discovering that it was indeed a book with the words "Beginner Skills Book" written on it in large characters.

What are skill books? Did the system pull out a book because they just discussed it?

The Interstellar Mall actually has something like this?!

Ming Chunxi asked on the other end of the phone, "Did you get it?"

Qing Mengzhu's voice was full of doubt. "I drew it, but it's not what I expected."

Ming Chunxi: "What did you draw? Is it something outrageous?"

Qing Mengzhu: "It's not just outrageous, it's quite surprising."

Qing Mengzhu has already opened her personal center to read the official description of the awards.

Skill books are technological tools used to quickly improve users' skills and reduce learning costs. This prize is a product of the interstellar dimension.

Ming Chunxi asked in a different way, "Did you draw something good, or something useless?"

Qing Mengzhu was uncertain. "It should be something good? It seems a bit complicated; I need to study it."

Ming Chunxi: "It's alright, you can study it first. Do you need to discuss it with me?"

The Interstellar Mall couldn't be discussed with anyone, not even Ming Chunxi, so Qing Mengzhu politely declined, saying, "I'll research it myself first."

Ming Chunxi: "Okay."

Whether it was a misperception or not, Qing Mengzhu sensed that Ming Chunxi's voice sounded a little down, and couldn't help but extend an invitation. "Since you're working from home, are you free these days? Would you like to come over and hang out?"

Qing Mengzhu's ears burned. "There are quite a few lotus flowers blooming lately. Didn't you say you wanted to make lotus tea last time? We still have some of the Silver Needle tea you gave us; we can make another batch."

Ming Chunxi answered clearly, "I'm coming now, I'll be there in about an hour."

Chapter 52

After hanging up the phone, Qing Mengzhu stared at his chat history, looking at it over and over again several times.

After reading it, he remembered that he hadn't dealt with the skill book he had just drawn.

Basic skill books are a product of the interstellar dimension.

Qing Mengzhu looked at it for a while but still couldn't figure out the principle behind this skill book. However, he discovered that the skill book had a very narrow scope of application; it was a skill book for planting and could only be applied to the planting of a single crop.

If he adds the skill book to tomato cultivation, his tomato cultivation will reach the beginner level. If he adds it to pepper cultivation, his pepper cultivation will also reach the beginner level.

Through trial and error, Qing Mengzhu unexpectedly discovered that he had actually reached a basic level in lotus root cultivation.

When he tried to add the skill book to the lotus root planting in his personal center, the Interstellar Mall would pop up a small message reminding him that the basic skill book was not applicable.

Lotus root has been eliminated from the Interstellar Mall, Qing Mengzhu looked at the remaining options—tomato, eggplant, pepper, winter melon, watermelon, pumpkin, cowpea... He scrolled to the bottom of the options in his personal center and found that there were more than a hundred kinds in total.