After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH17

Chapter 17

Flowers are delicate. To make sure all of them survived, Xie Xingchen spent three straight days pushing his mental power to the limit in the field. Only when every seedling had grown into a strong, sturdy young plant did he finally stop this “whale-and-grind” behavior.

Only then did he finally have time to transplant his precious scallion–ginger–garlic.

Scallion leaves and garlic shoots couldn’t be used as seeds, so Xie Xingchen had carefully stored them in the refrigerator’s fresh-keeping compartment days ago, just to be safe.

But honestly, with so little scallion and garlic, if he used them freely, they might not even last a single day.

Realizing that, Xie Xingchen sighed, dragged his body—fresh off the healing pod—and walked to the small wooden studio cabin that had just been built in the center of the flower field.

Scallion, ginger, and garlic were actually easy to grow. Even the “rabbits of the flower-growing nation” could plant them on a balcony and harvest batch after batch.

Back when he was trying to save money, Xie Xingchen had also grown these everyday seasonings on his balcony, so he knew the methods quite well.

Ginger was the most troublesome to prepare. Normally, you had to soak it in disinfectant for several hours to kill bacteria and harmful substances, then sprout it before planting.

But since the ginger chunks Xie Xingchen found already had plenty of buds, he didn’t have to bother with the sprouting step.

Interstellar-grade plant disinfectant was strong and fast-acting. Xie Xingchen only needed to soak the ginger for ten minutes to achieve what used to take hours.

After soaking, he cut the ginger into pieces based on where the buds were, sprinkled wood ash over the cut surfaces, and set the pieces aside.

Scallions and garlic looked similar, and their planting methods were the same: choose cloves with roots, soak them in water until they were fully hydrated, then plant those plump, water-soaked roots into the soil.

Xie Xingchen planted the prepared ginger, scallion, and garlic.

Wiping away sweat, he looked with satisfaction at the small flower field where things were planted sparsely here and there. He shook out his sore shoulders, then cheerfully fertilized and watered the newly planted seasonings.

When everything was done, he sent another wave of mental power into the plot.

And then—he went straight back into the healing pod again.

Every day was the same cycle: recover mental power, spend mental power, repeat.

Yet in only ten days, the flowers in the field grew as if they’d been pumped full of hormones—shooting up rapidly.

By the time most of the flowers matured enough for breeding, Xie Xingchen’s mental power had also increased noticeably.

Lavender and roses matured on different schedules.

Normally, lavender took sixty days to grow, while roses took forty.

But in reality, roses were more delicate and produced fewer seeds, so Xie Xingchen gave them more care and cultivation. As a result, the roses and lavender matured at almost the same time.

With mental power involved—something that felt more like a plant superpower in Xie Xingchen’s eyes—both kinds of flowers grew exceptionally well: strong roots, vibrant stems and leaves, and drastically shortened growth time.

In just thirteen days, Xie Xingchen harvested his first batch of roses and lavender—everything except osmanthus.

He wasn’t planning to sell this first batch. He planned to use it for breeding.

Afraid the seedlings would wilt under the sun, Xie Xingchen got up around four or five in the morning—before sunrise—and started cutting branches.

From fifty-plus vigorous lavender plants, he cut off all the purple-blue flower heads from their many offshoots.

He needed the flowers for seeds. The remaining stems were trimmed “topped” into lengths suitable for cuttings.

Just as he finished cutting a pile of lavender stems, Long-Life came over carrying a small bag of seeds—lavender seeds that had been extracted.

Yes. Seeds extracted from the lavender flower heads he had just cut.

Xie Xingchen couldn’t help marveling: interstellar machines were absurdly useful!

Half an hour ago, he’d handed the freshly cut lavender to Long-Life. Half an hour later, Long-Life handed back the processed seeds.

Xie Xingchen: One word—amazing.

Rose seeds spread by wind. Once mature, they naturally fell off and were blown away.

Xie Xingchen’s mentally nourished roses naturally hadn’t forgotten to set seed. When the roses dropped seeds earlier, he’d already used a machine to collect them. He had even cut off the flower heads to dry them, planning to brew them into rose tea.

As for why he was only cutting rose branches now—

It was because he wanted to strengthen the rose plants’ roots and stems first, so they would be more robust and easier to propagate by cuttings.

Roses were fragile. Xie Xingchen didn’t dare delay. He quickly selected fresh, healthy rose stems, cut them into 8–10 cm pieces at an angle, and immediately soaked them in growth solution.

He had planted a bit over twenty rose seeds and ended up with a bit over twenty rose plants. The number didn’t sound like much, but each plant had many branches, and those branches produced many roses—so in the end, he had plenty of cuttings.

At six or seven in the morning, with a light breeze and gentle sunlight, it was the perfect time for fieldwork.

There were so many rose and lavender cuttings that if he planted them all, he might be able to fill the entire mu.

The holes were already dug. Xie Xingchen bent down and inserted each little cutting into the soil.

Sweat dripped down his face and splattered onto the ground. After only two hours, he felt like his waist no longer belonged to him.

Even though his physique had improved over this period, farming was still pure physical labor.

Finally, after planting all the roses and lavender, Xie Xingchen rubbed his aching back.

Looking at the lush, thriving flower field, the corners of his mouth lifted. His clear eyes were full of satisfaction.

Xie Xingchen waved grandly at the three robots working nearby and declared with heroic swagger:

“Get-Rich, Prosperity, Long-Life—look! This is the kingdom your dad built for you!”

Used to their boss’s occasional weirdness, Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life responded with perfunctory applause.

Their attitude might have been half-hearted, but Xie Xingchen was satisfied anyway.

Xie Xingchen happily beckoned to Get-Rich standing in the middle of the field.

“Get-Rich, hurry up and fertilize.”

Hearing that, the tall, sturdy, reserved domestic-service android poured the mixture Xie Xingchen had prepared into the control unit at the center of the field, selected a dilution ratio, and then pressed the spray button.

The breeding flower field was no longer what it used to be.

His three robots were incredibly capable. Besides reclaiming land, fertilizing, and watering, they had gradually installed many machines around the cultivated field—including a sprinkler system that combined watering and fertilizing, as well as sensors that monitored whether plants lacked nutrients, water, soil quality, or green matter.

Because Xie Xingchen was pumping mental power into the field every day, the sensors hadn’t truly been needed yet—but that smart sprinkler was insanely useful.

Tell it when to water, and it waters. Tell it how much, and it gives exactly that. It could even adjust the watering radius, automatically dilute chemicals with water, and—if a green-matter reservoir was installed—deliver measured amounts of green matter on a schedule.

Even crazier: it could absorb moisture from the air and convert it into irrigation water.

So on planets with rich humidity, people might not even need a water source. Just start the machine, and it could literally “make water out of nothing.”

It looked ordinary, but it was genuinely valuable.

Xie Xingchen had landed near mountains, rivers, and seas, so humidity wasn’t an issue. But this wasn’t a full water-planet like the merfolk world, so he didn’t dare overuse the system.

Before, he was planting such a tiny area—barely even two fen of land—so watering hardly mattered.

Now it was different. He was definitely going to expand later.

If he expanded and kept “pulling water from the air” like this, it would affect the environment. So he had already made Prosperity build a section of water pipeline from the big river to the field, to support future irrigation.

After finishing the cuttings, Xie Xingchen started the breeding work.

Normally, breeding took several days. But he used mental power to skip all the complicated steps.

With his mental power increased, he was no longer the old “work one hour, recharge ten hours” Xie Xingcheng.

Now he could work for an hour, rest five or six hours, and then keep going.

So if he wanted to plant the seeds today, it was absolutely possible.

He had once been a 996 “blessing” corporate slave—he knew exactly what it meant to squeeze out potential.

He slowly sent a wave of mental power over, and the seeds became plump and lively.

Feeling a bit tired, he immediately lay in the healing pod. Once he got out, he kept working without pause, until the seeds finally began to sprout.

When the seedlings emerged, Xie Xingchen—exhausted—handed the “big planting job” to the three robots.

And he… lay back down in the healing pod again.

At night, after eating, taking a walk, and showering, he went back to the field and poured in another massive wave of mental power, stopping only when his head began to ache. Then he returned to the medical room.

The next day, he repeated the same process with his scallion–ginger–garlic—

And finally… he ended up with a full mu of plants!

Xie Xingchen: rabbit-excited.jpg

So many plants! After this round, he wouldn’t have to squeeze himself so hard next time.

He hadn’t gone out for half a month—every day was just feeding mental power to the flowers. The flowers were well-fed, but he was suffocating from boredom.

But there was still too much to do. No matter how stifling it felt, he still had to stay “locked in.”

He decided to install the small wormhole receiver during this period.

When he arrived, he had seriously underestimated how brutal land reclamation would be.

The supplies he’d prepared weren’t enough for planting—storage was also tight.

Forget everything else: he needed to buy plant nutrient solution, otherwise using premium human nutrient solution on a large scale would be a loss—not to mention he might starve himself.

Oh, and he also needed to buy a high-grade protective shield for the wormhole receiver—and it couldn’t be too small, or it would be ridiculous if delivery robots got attacked while collecting packages.

The more he thought, the more his head hurt. Weakly, he called out:

“Prosperity.”

The robot Prosperity replied, “Boss?”

Xie Xingchen said expressionlessly, “Come install the wormhole receiver.”

Prosperity couldn’t feel Xie Xingchen’s pain. Upon receiving the order, he retrieved the small wormhole receiver from the ship’s storage room and began installing it at the chosen location.

Installing something this advanced was extremely complicated. Even though Prosperity was a specialized installation robot, it would still take him a full day to finish.

Today, Xie Xingchen wasn’t going to continue the endless loop of “plant flowers—lie in the healing pod.”

Today, he was going to open a flower shop on the star-net marketplace.

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