After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH22

Chapter 22

Xie Xingchen picked a lot of carnations and jasmine and brought them back to the starship for testing.

The results made him quietly marvel.

“Again—no dark matter?”

Staring at the report, Xie Xingchen lowered his gaze in thought.

Was something… off?

Ever since he started exploring Earth and sending the plants he found for testing, things hadn’t felt quite right.

And now, he seemed to have discovered a pattern:

—Anything listed in the system’s illustrated guide seemed to contain no dark matter at all.

Xie Xingchen frowned and murmured, “Is this some kind of player privilege the system gives?”

Otherwise, how could it be that other plants had dark matter, yet only the plants specified by the system didn’t? That didn’t really make sense.

But the sample size was still too small. For now, it was only a guess.

“Forget it. I won’t overthink it. I’ll just do whatever the system tells me to do.”

A truly lazy fish has to learn to go with the flow!

The pressure of managing an entire planet… he really didn’t need to take out an anxiety loan in advance.

After labeling and storing each test sample, Xie Xingchen packed up the remaining jasmine and the pink-diamond carnations and took them to the very first mu of flower fields.

So far, he had reclaimed twenty mu of flower fields on this barren mountain, but unfortunately, only five mu were actually usable.

All the fields were in the same general area. The central field was the “seed field,” protected by an intelligent sprinkler and a shield. As the name implied, it was the place where seeds were protected—Xie Xingchen’s Noah’s Ark.

After being organized twice, the five mu of fields finally looked proper.

One mu of osmanthus seedlings, one mu of red roses, two mu of lavender, and one mu of seasoning crops—clearly arranged and distinct.

Osmanthus normally took two to three years to bloom. Even after Xie Xingchen had infused it with spiritual power multiple times, he still couldn’t make it flower. That meant the osmanthus in his fields definitely wouldn’t be ready for the flower shop opening.

But Xie Xingchen had other options!

He decided he’d just go to the giant osmanthus tree and “harvest” some blossoms to get by.

Jasmine also needed two to three years to bloom, but jasmine was easy to keep—especially since Xie Xingchen had discovered an entire “forest” made of jasmine. So he didn’t feel much pressure to cultivate jasmine at all. If he needed any, he could just go to the jasmine forest and casually shear off some “wool.” That would be enough to complete his tasks.

So after finishing the jasmine cuttings, Xie Xingchen only watered them with a little growth solution and stopped caring about them.

Yes—fragrant jasmine didn’t even get a single dedicated chance to “eat” spiritual power. Because Xie Xingchen planned to devote all his spiritual power to the pink-diamond carnations.

This was the product he considered his most promising ace.

They weren’t as dazzling, passionate, and blazing as red roses.

But in the 21st century, pink-diamond carnations actually had a broader audience than red roses.

Because… what guy or girl could resist a soft, milky, pastel-pink carnation?

It was basically the beauty ceiling of carnations!

That sweet pink shade—one look was enough to awaken the “maiden’s heart” even in burly men.

Carnations had a cultivation period of 140–160 days, overall similar to lavender, so Xie Xingchen felt confident.

At this moment, the flower shop opening was only two weeks away.

Xie Xingchen calculated it: if he went all out and focused only on carnations, then in two weeks he could manage three rounds of propagation.

Three rounds meant that, at the very least, he could expand in time and grow one full mu of carnations before opening day!

Without hesitation, he set himself a brutal grind schedule and once again entered the crazy “two-point commute” mode.

Effort never failed those who truly tried. On the day before the shop opened, Xie Xingchen finally succeeded in expanding the pink-diamond carnations to a full mu!

Standing in the middle of the carnation field, looking at the results of two weeks of labor, Xie Xingchen’s smile was even brighter than a farmer’s after a good harvest.

His clean, handsome features glittered under the light.

It had only been a little over a month since he left the central planet for Earth, but he seemed to have grown up a lot.

Yet no matter how much he grew, the youthful air around him never disappeared.

There was light in his eyes—light made of hope, and the kind of easy-to-satisfy joy.

The kind of satisfaction adults often stopped feeling once their “gaps of desire” grew too deep to fill.

Only Xie Xingchen was the exception.

Even as an adult, he kept his boyish heart. He was already twenty-two, yet he still felt like the sun at seven or eight in the morning—warm, gentle, a little naive, and full of brightness.

Beep-beep. You have a new message. Please check it.

The light-brain alert snapped Xie Xingchen out of his sense of achievement.

Someone was looking for him?

He raised an eyebrow.

Hadn’t he already deleted every contact he could delete back on the spaceship to Earth?

It wasn’t that Xie Xingchen looked down on the original owner—rather, the original owner’s regular contacts were all hypocritical two-faced people who didn’t respect him. The few who remained on his list only spoke to him a handful of times a year at most.

Curious, Xie Xingchen opened the message.

When he saw the sender’s name, the tension in his posture melted away completely.

Faced with Ni Kunqi’s friendly inquiry, Xie Xingchen thought for a long time, then decided to reply with a video call.

Perhaps she had been waiting for his response, because the moment he called, she picked up.

With his hawk-like eyesight, Xie Xingchen immediately noticed the worried look in the teacher’s eyes as she studied him.

A middle-aged woman with delicate features and a gentle expression spoke softly: “Xiao Xingchen, long time no see. Have you been doing well lately?”

Her warmth relaxed him completely.

Still, since this was his first time directly facing someone close to the original owner, he remained slightly stiff.

But Ni Kunqi mistook his stiffness for fear—fear that she had come to question him about leaving the group—so her gaze became even more affectionate.

“Xiao Xingchen, don’t worry. I’m not here to ask about you leaving the group.”

Hearing that, Xie Xingchen smiled shyly and didn’t speak.

He didn’t say anything, but seeing that he looked more energetic than last semester made Ni Kunqi smile.

“Xingchen… the teacher doesn’t know what you’ve been through recently, but I’m very happy to see you walk out of your marriage and start loving yourself more.”

Xie Xingchen pressed his lips together and replied with a smile, “I’m happy too.”

That answer made Ni Kunqi laugh. She looked at him gently for a long time before speaking with a faintly nostalgic tone:

“Xingchen, do you know why I like you so much? Because you really remind me of who I used to be. I was once trapped by love too. I once believed love was everything—what mattered most in my life. And for it, I gave so, so much.”

Her voice carried both nostalgia and a kind of exasperated fondness.

But quickly, her tone turned light and calm:

“We all have our youth. We all have a time when we think love is bigger than the sky. But when we finally walk out of it, we realize love is sometimes just the devil’s bait. Once you’re out, you’ll see what you believed wasn’t what you thought it was.

I’m very glad to see you climb out of your low point—and just as glad to see you fighting your way forward. Xingchen, love is precious, but in my opinion, a career is even more precious! I know you have the ability and the strength to become someone others envy. Since you’ve decided to let the past go, then don’t hesitate, don’t retreat—keep this drive and move forward firmly!”

Xie Xingchen froze.

He suddenly understood why Ni Kunqi liked the original owner so much—more even than she liked Yu Cheng. So that was the reason?

A hundred thoughts surged up. Xie Xingchen stayed silent for a long time, and the person on the other end waited just as patiently.

Only after Xie Xingchen nodded firmly did Ni Kunqi finally smile with genuine happiness.

She laughed easily. “Good. Very good. That’s how a good kid should be! I still need to go back into seclusion to mix growth solutions, so you have to take good care of yourself, okay? Don’t make me worry. As for the graduation ceremony—if you don’t want to come, then don’t. They’re all people who don’t matter. There’s no need to suffer just for a formality.”

When she said that, there was a proud edge to her—enough to dilute her softness and make her feel more like a professor from the First Academy of Human Civilization.

Xie Xingchen smiled.

Ni Kunqi laughed too. “By the way, are the flowers behind you your recent cultivation results?”

Xie Xingchen nodded and turned the camera toward the several mu of fields.

Elegant, enchanting lavender. Dazzling, radiant roses. Soft, pure pink carnations… the flowers were so beautiful they were hard not to admire.

After watching, Ni Kunqi’s expression softened further. “Xingchen, I really didn’t misjudge you. You’re truly amazing!”

Her affirmation lifted Xie Xingchen’s mood.

Just a few minutes of conversation—and he found himself liking this gentle yet proud teacher.

So he naturally invited her: “Teacher, I’m planning to open a flower shop on StarNet Mall. Everything’s ready—tomorrow is opening day. Would you have time to come and support me?”

Ni Kunqi laughed brightly and teased, “Of course I have time. Tomorrow I’ll borrow your luck—and be your shop assistant for a day.”

Knowing how busy she was, Xie Xingchen absolutely didn’t dare let her do that, so he hurriedly refused. “No, no, no. It’s enough if you just stop by. You really don’t have to do anything else.”

But Ni Kunqi didn’t care. After unilaterally “agreeing” with him, she ended the call immediately—don’t give him even a chance to refuse.

Her forceful attitude gave Xie Xingchen a headache, but no matter what, he was still happy.

Because… a painfully sad fact was that after being here for so long, among all the people the original owner had known, only the butler who had watched him grow up—and this teacher—had truly been good to him.

Xie Xingchen didn’t want to waste that kindness, so he sent another call request.

But Ni Kunqi had already turned off her communicator, and his request sank like a clay ox into the sea.

With no other choice, Xie Xingchen accepted his fate. He decided that tomorrow, he would definitely “pay” his teacher a proper wage.

At this moment, the Xie Xingchen who was racking his brain over what “wage” to give had no idea that Ni Kunqi’s arrival would save him from a small—but extremely annoying—problem.

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