After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH114

Chapter 114

Up, up, and up again.

Staring at the gigantic tree in front of him—so huge it seemed to merge with the horizon—Xie Xingchen’s mouth stayed slightly open.

This was a tree that felt both familiar and unfamiliar.

Familiar, because he’d seen it on TV countless times.

Unfamiliar, because this was a cotton plant he had never seen before: a super ultra plus-sized version.

Yes, that’s right—cotton.

It was an enormous cotton tree, and on that enormous cotton tree grew enormous cotton bolls. The cotton came in different colors, fluffy in shape—at a distance it looked like flowers, but up close it looked like cloud-shaped blossoms… and they were multicolored.

Xie Xingchen never imagined that in his lifetime he’d witness something this absurd!

A cotton tree that basically had the full lipstick shade range?

Ridiculous!

It was just a cotton tree, yet it had at least twenty to thirty different colors on it.

Xie Xingchen muttered, “Do I need to buy a specialized robot to sort colors?”

That was his first reaction.

Who would’ve thought that in the interstellar era, even picking cotton had to be color-sorted?

And he might actually need to purchase a dedicated color-sorting robot.

Thinking that, Xie Xingchen felt a little embarrassed.

But then he thought again—his sheep were colorful too, so maybe colorful cotton wasn’t that strange?

Xie Xingchen: 0.0
No—wait—how is that not strange?!

Sure, the sheep were colorful, but aside from the rainbow sheep, each sheep was solid-colored—meaning each sheep had only one color.

Unlike this cotton tree. A moment ago it looked like twenty or thirty colors, but now that he focused, it seemed like more than that.

Just among the reds he could distinguish, there were true red, deep red, watery red, crimson, maple-leaf red, tomato red… and so on.

As a guy, Xie Xingchen didn’t consider himself a clueless “steel-straight” type. He could even tell apart most lipstick shades.

But on this cotton tree, at least one-third of these colors were shades he couldn’t name.

It was genuinely eye-straining.

He closed his eyes and rubbed them.

Then opened them again.

Great—now it looked like it was more than forty or fifty colors?

Dizzy from the cotton colors, Xie Xingchen finally managed to set aside his shock about the tree’s sheer size.

After all, he’d been stunned for twenty or thirty minutes already. And with Get-Rich and Prosperity looking totally normal, he felt like the only idiot in the group.

Besides, this wasn’t even the first time he’d seen a giant tree.

Sure, it was bigger than any giant tree he’d seen before, but not by some outrageous multiple—maybe about a third larger, at most.

The real reason it felt so shocking was simply the environment.

This was a vast grassland region. Aside from short grass, there were no other tall plants, so this single towering tree stood out like the mythical “world tree.”

It was an extremely convincing visual illusion—so convincing it left people stunned. That was why Xie Xingchen took so long to snap out of it.

But once his rational brain rebooted—and with the robots’ conclusions as backup—he stopped mythologizing this giant cotton tree.

After counting until he couldn’t count anymore and still having no idea how many cotton colors the tree had, Xie Xingchen smiled, took an ultra-high-definition photo, and posted it on StarBlog to torment the netizens.

[Xie Xingchen V]: No-prize quiz begins now ? “Spot the Difference” game: how many cotton colors can you find on the cotton tree in this photo?
[Tap to view image]
PS: Please follow exam hall rules—no cheating with your light-brain!

Perfect. After tormenting the internet, Xie Xingchen put down his light-brain and rubbed his sore neck.

Xie Xingchen: I never make things hard for myself.

He turned around and smiled at Get-Rich and Prosperity. “Get-Rich, Prosperity—can you tell how many cotton colors are on this giant cotton tree?”

Hearing that, Get-Rich curiously pointed at the giant tree. “Cotton? You mean those soft, cloud-like blossoms growing on that big tree?”

Get-Rich was fascinated by this plant called “cotton,” but the blunt-and-direct Prosperity had already started scanning the cotton colors.

Unfortunately, his factory configuration was just a maintenance robot’s setup. Prosperity wasn’t very sensitive to color classification. After identifying what he could, he frowned. “Forty-eight colors?”

His tone was full of uncertainty, because he vaguely felt his answer was wrong.

Which showed Prosperity had evolved a bit without realizing it.

Because robots never doubt the answers produced by their internal programs—even if the answer is wrong.

The moment Get-Rich heard “forty-eight,” he shook his head. “No. That tree has at least fifty-six cotton colors.”

As a household robot, Get-Rich was clearly more sensitive to color, so he saw more shades than Prosperity.

But either way… both robots seemed better than Xie Xingchen?

To be honest, as a normal person, Xie Xingchen could only make out around forty-ish colors.

And he already thought that was impressive!

After that came the moment of truth.

Xie Xingchen used a livestream orb to capture the cotton on the entire tree, imported the footage into his light-brain, analyzed it, and finally got the result:

Seventy-two colors.

Xie Xingchen: “…”

Seventy-two… like the Monkey King? Somersault cloud and seventy-two transformations?

That number made him silently complain.

At the same time, his head started to ache.

With that many colors, wouldn’t he need to sort them before making cotton fabric?

Sorting required robots, right?

Robots needed customization, right?

Customization cost money, right?

Add it up and it was another major expense.

Highly specialized robots were always more expensive than ordinary ones!

Sure, his light-brain could distinguish all the colors easily—but that was because his light-brain was expensive and powerful. Swap in a basic model and it absolutely wouldn’t be accurate.

But since he’d already found cotton, there was no way Xie Xingchen could pretend he hadn’t seen it. In the end, he could only sigh and squeeze yet more robot-buying money out of his already-not-rich account balance.

While Xie Xingchen was negotiating customization details with a robot seller, the netizens were losing their minds.

A random no-prize quiz was annoying enough, but it was also a “spot the difference” trap?

People didn’t even have time to marvel at how beautiful Earth’s trees were, or how Boss Xie’s photography skills made every casual shot look like a blockbuster—because he’d dragged them straight into a massive pit of color-counting misery.

As mentioned before, most people’s color discrimination was pretty average—often worse than a decent robot’s.

So no matter how they counted, most could only find a little over thirty colors.

However… some people were freakishly gifted. After carefully counting, they produced the terrifying answer:

Sixty-two colors.

[My eyes are ruined]: What the—seriously? Sixty-two colors? Where are you getting sixty-two from? I went blind and still only found thirty-three!

[Yep, it’s me, I give up]: Wuwuwu, anyone who can see sixty-two colors must have racial talent or something! Say it—are you from the hummingbird clan of Animal Civilization? If you are, I surrender immediately!

Don’t compete with racial talents—because you’ll usually lose.

Still, aside from racial talents, everyone truly couldn’t understand why someone could see sixty-two colors.

When most people could only see thirty or forty.

So as soon as this claim appeared, it got flooded with likes.

[Question marks over my head]: Huh? I’m not from the hummingbird clan! I’m just a regular human. This is easy—can’t you all see it? There are obviously only sixty-two cotton colors in this picture. Why can you only find thirty-something?
[Image]

That netizen didn’t argue much. They simply started marking Xie Xingchen’s original image with circles and crosses, labeling all sixty-two colors clearly.

After seeing all those circles and crosses, everyone was full of admiration.

Same species, same humanity—why are you so outstanding?

When Xie Xingchen came online and saw the marked image, he was curious too. He’d only posted a random photo to let everyone play “spot the difference,” so he didn’t actually know how many colors were in it.

After analyzing it with his light-brain and confirming it really was sixty-two, Xie Xingchen was deeply impressed!

There really were geniuses everywhere these days.

Just an ordinary human, yet their color discrimination was that strong?

As for whether the person cheated with a light-brain, Xie Xingchen leaned toward “no”—because when people accused them of cheating, they basically exploded in indignation.

Also, to cheat with a light-brain, you’d need a good one, and high-spec light-brains were expensive!

Xie Xingchen read a few of the boy’s StarBlog posts and could tell his family background was average. He definitely couldn’t afford a high-end light-brain.

Even though it was a no-prize quiz, after seeing the boy’s posts, Xie Xingchen still decided to send him a prize.

Because from his StarBlog, it was obvious—

That boy was a loyal Earth Commerce fan.

So Xie Xingchen sent him a DM asking for his address.

After sending the message, Xie Xingchen stepped onto a hoverboard and rose until he was level with the cotton tree’s branches.

Cotton bloomed on the tips like clouds resting on the tree.

In ancient China, cotton was originally introduced into the Central Plains as an ornamental flower—proof that cotton’s appearance was never plain.

And on this cotton tree, not only were the bolls soft and fluffy, they were also multicolored. That rainbow-like palette made it even more stunning.

After kneading a soft cotton puff for a bit, Xie Xingchen stared at the tree thoughtfully.

Normally, cotton matures in summer, around July to September. During the growth period, cotton farmers top the plants to help the bolls develop better.

But the window for topping had already passed. Even if Xie Xingchen wanted to do it now, it was too late.

He squeezed the cotton again, then asked himself the ultimate question:

Was this cotton even ripe right now?

Because the tree was huge and the cotton was huge, he couldn’t judge maturity by size.

He asked the system, but it only replied: “Please explore on your own.”

In the end, Xie Xingchen decided to assume it wasn’t ripe yet. He planned to let it keep growing for a while and see whether the cotton got even larger.

Once he made up his mind, he left an observation camera near the giant cotton tree, put away his hoverboard, got into the hovercar, and drove away.

Xie Xingchen hadn’t forgotten why he came here in the first place:

To find watermelons and cantaloupes.

But after two or three days, he found nothing.

In the end, he could only comfort himself: maybe it simply wasn’t watermelon or cantaloupe season yet, so it was normal not to find any.

Once they matured, the area would surely be full of fresh melons, and then it would be easy.

Even while telling himself that, Xie Xingchen still couldn’t help letting out a wistful sigh.

Watermelon—cheap and delicious watermelon!

The fruit he used to love most, and now he couldn’t even find a trace of it.

Where was that unbelievably tasty watermelon?

So tasty that even those “little xiba” folks, despite cursing nonstop, still couldn’t resist secretly packing up the dining area’s watermelons every time they ate—so much so that the Sakura crowd next door angrily reported them.

Thinking about it made Xie Xingchen crave watermelon again.

So even though he was already about to leave, he spent another two days searching.

But maybe his luck had run out. In the end, he still found no sign of watermelon at all.

Not just watermelon—he didn’t find cantaloupe, muskmelon, grapes… nothing.

Finally, he could only head back.

On the way home, Xie Xingchen didn’t waste time.

He drove the hovercar extremely slowly, trying to spot new plants on the ground.

But this was a hovercar! No matter how slow it went, unless the plants formed a huge continuous patch like the wheat before, even if he flew right over them, he probably wouldn’t notice them.

So whenever he passed rivers, lakes, streams, and similar places, Xie Xingchen would unconsciously stop and look down.

Places with water usually had more plants.

Especially some lakes, which could be incredibly rich in vegetation.

Like the lake he found now—filled with pink lotus flowers.

Green seed pods and pink lotus blossoms covered the entire lake, giving off a vibe like “lotus leaves stretching to the sky in endless green.”

From above, the whole lake looked dyed in layers of deep and pale pink.

Lotus, also known as “water lotus” and other names, had leaves, petals, seeds, roots, pods—every part could be used as food or herbal medicine.

Especially lotus root and lotus seeds—two of the most beloved soup ingredients among Cantonese people!

Xie Xingchen was a very down-to-earth guy. His first reaction was: these lotus flowers are really beautiful.

His second reaction was: I wonder if there are lotus roots down there?

Whether in soup or made into fried stuffed lotus-root slices, lotus root was delicious.

Xie Xingchen: Since we’re already here… should we dig up a lotus root and see?

He acted immediately.

He changed into protective gear suitable for going into the water, found a spot closest to shore, stepped in, and started digging.

A classic essay once praised lotus as “emerging from mud without being stained”—and that wasn’t just metaphor. Lotus really does grow in mud, which meant lotus roots were under the mud.

Xie Xingchen’s protective suit was waterproof. Grabbing a lotus root was no big deal.

The only thing was… these lotus flowers were too pretty!

So pretty that Xie Xingchen suspected they were ornamental lotus, and ornamental lotus roots weren’t usually that tasty.

He waded in and began feeling around for roots. With gloved hands, he stirred through the muck.

He crouched, reached deeper, and touched something thick.

He grabbed it, pulled hard, and extracted a plump, beautiful lotus root.

So it wasn’t ornamental lotus after all?

And the lotus root quality was great!

After they dug a whole basket of lotus roots, Xie Xingchen finally told everyone to stop.

Then they also picked a bunch of lotus leaves, lotus flowers, and lotus pods to take home.

On the way back, Xie Xingchen started removing the lotus seeds from the pods and taking out the bitter cores, saving everything for later.

Lotus seeds were good stuff. They could calm the heart and mind, and also help strengthen the spleen and reduce diarrhea.

A dozen lotus pods yielded a small basket of lotus seeds. Xie Xingchen didn’t throw away the lotus seed cores either—since as traditional herbal medicine, lotus cores could help calm the mind, aid sleep, lower blood pressure, and clear “heart fire.”

When he got home, he first soaked the prepared lotus seeds in clean water.

He wanted to make lotus seed soup.

Even though it had “soup” in the name, it was actually a kind of sweet dessert drink.

While the lotus cores soaked, Xie Xingchen put the lotus roots into the fridge, then took the lotus flowers to the workshop next door.

Earth Commerce already sold blue lotus hydrosol, and pink lotus hydrosol might seem redundant, so he could’ve skipped it.

But that wasn’t actually true.

Compared to blue lotus, many people might assume blue lotus was rarer.

But that assumption was wrong.

Even though lotus is commonly imagined as pink, pink lotus is actually more delicate, harder to cultivate, and rarer in quantity.

And while pink lotus hydrosol and blue lotus hydrosol look similar in function—both deeply hydrating and rich in collagen—their differences were significant.

Compared to blue lotus hydrosol, pink lotus hydrosol was better suited for chronically dehydrated skin, aging skin, dull skin, or inflamed skin.

And beyond hydration and wrinkle reduction, pink lotus hydrosol could also help stabilize emotions and activate epidermal immune cells.

Of course, the most important thing was—

It tasted good.

Everyone knew safe hydrosols could be consumed. Drinking them internally could enhance their effects—and “consumable” also meant “flavor.”

In this world, foods with different tastes could have wildly different prices.

Blue lotus hydrosol already smelled wonderful, but pink lotus hydrosol smelled even better.

And it wasn’t just “strong fragrance”—it was refined, elegant, warm.

So how could Xie Xingchen possibly let pink lotus hydrosol go?

He took out an extra essential-oil distiller.

After cleaning and sterilizing it, he handed the pink lotus flowers to the hydrosol-making robot and returned to the Xie residence.

In the kitchen, the lotus seeds had finished soaking.

He fished them out, rinsed them in fresh water, put them in a large bowl, and added enough water to cover them.

He carried the bowl to a steamer and steamed on high heat.

Because the lotus seeds needed to be steamed until soft and crumbly, he put plenty of water in the steamer so it wouldn’t run dry.

After setting the lotus seeds to steam, he took out a premium “Gugu Beast” he’d bought from Lu Fei’s family and decided to learn from them and make a “Beggar’s Chicken.”

He cleaned the fully plucked Gugu Beast, then gave it a full-body “spa” with spices. He stuffed mushrooms into its belly, wrapped it tightly in lotus leaves, then used wine and clay—coating the leaves thickly with wine-clay—buried it and roasted it in fire.

He left Get-Rich in the yard to watch the fire. Xie Xingchen washed his hands, opened the steamer, and found the lotus seeds were done.

He took a small pot, added an appropriate amount of water, then added the steamed lotus seeds and sugar. He cooked while stirring, and once it boiled, it was ready.

This lotus seed sweet soup could be enjoyed hot or cold.

Hot, he could drink it immediately. Cold, he could let it cool and chill it, which would give it a unique flavor.

After all that work, Xie Xingchen was sweating, so he didn’t want it hot. But the weather wasn’t suitable for something too cold either. So he set it aside, planning to drink it after the Beggar’s Chicken—then the temperature would be just right.

But what Xie Xingchen didn’t expect was—

Pink lotus hydrosol arrived even faster than the chicken.

Because he hadn’t picked many lotus flowers, essential oil was out of the question. But the hydrosol yield was decent—at least a full bottle.

When the robot delivered the pink lotus hydrosol, Xie Xingchen opened the sprayer cap immediately and misted the air.

In an instant, a fresh, elegant fragrance drifted through the fine mist.

It was an even more “high-end” scent than blue lotus—just smelling it relaxed the mind.

Xie Xingchen didn’t dislike it. He actually liked it quite a lot.

So after thinking for a moment, he sprayed a few mists onto his face, then patted gently to help his skin absorb it.

In just a few seconds, he felt that legendary sensation of his skin “drinking enough water.”

Xie Xingchen: So… so magical!

He sold skincare, but honestly, he didn’t really use skincare himself, so he didn’t know how other products felt. But holding this pink lotus hydrosol, he suddenly understood why so many people loved his shop’s hydrosols.

If he were just a customer, as long as he had the money, maybe he’d buy hydrosol long-term too.

Forget whether the performance was worth it—this fragrance alone was worth the price.

A scent that makes you relax and feel safe—wasn’t that better than any perfume?

Just as Xie Xingchen was about to spray a little more and savor it, Get-Rich, watching the fire outside, called out:

“Boss, come quick! Your Beggar’s Chicken is ready!”

Hearing that, Xie Xingchen immediately put down the hydrosol and hurried into the yard, his mind completely taken over by chicken.

Get-Rich had already dug it out.

A mud-covered lump of “Beggar’s Chicken” looked nothing like food, but when Xie Xingchen cracked the wine-clay open and revealed the lotus leaves inside, the aroma burst out.

When he peeled the lotus leaves back and exposed the chicken, the fragrance became so rich it seemed to drift for miles—so aggressively delicious that anyone who smelled it would freeze on the spot.

Xie Xingchen tore off a drumstick, shouting “hot, hot!” while still unable to stop eating.

Earlier he’d thought Lu Fei’s family was too sincere. He only wanted a small Gugu Beast, but they gave him such a huge one—he was sure he couldn’t finish it!

But… not finishing it?

Impossible.

It was just one Gugu Beast—how could he not finish it?

He devoured an entire Beggar’s Chicken in one meal.

Sure, he ended up so stuffed he needed digestive tablets afterward—but he’d satisfied his cravings.

The only pity was this lotus seed sweet soup.

Looking at it, he ladled out a small bowl.

Seeing there was still plenty left in the pot, he thought for a moment and asked a robot to fetch Earth Commerce’s new merch from storage:

Ultra-mini screw-cap cups.

Each cup held about 150 ml—tiny, cute, uniquely shaped, and beloved by kids and young women.

He had them bring a set, washed and sterilized them, then poured the lotus seed sweet soup into them. It filled exactly seven cups, and then it was gone.

One cup for the butler. One cup for Professor Ni. One cup each for Lude and Little Lanni. That left three cups.

Xie Xingchen thought a bit, then decided to give all three to Lu Fei.

Ahem—no matter what, Lu Fei was his business partner.

And although he’d given Lu Fei’s son a quota to buy formula, most of Lu Fei’s premium “Moo-Moo Beast” milk was also supplied to him—otherwise his children’s biscuits would’ve been out of stock long ago.

Plus, he occasionally had to buy premium meat from Lu Fei’s ranch.

So relationships still needed a little maintenance sometimes!

“Hello, Mr. Lu Fei. Your package has arrived. Please pick it up from the parcel room as soon as possible.”

Lu Fei received that message right after getting off set.

A package?

Did he order something?

Or did his family mail him something?

Lu Fei walked to the parcel room, completely confused.

But on the way back…

He couldn’t stop smiling.

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