Chapter 91
With a whoosh, Xie Xingchen sprang to his feet and reached out to catch the few loquat blossoms drifting on the wind.
He brought them to his nose. A heavy, herbal fragrance—almost like traditional medicine—washed over him.
It was a very distinctive scent. Anyone who had smelled it once wouldn’t forget it.
Xie Xingchen: It really is loquat blossom!
The strong wind had blown the loquat blossoms over.
Truly—sitting at home and having a “tree” fall from the sky.
A gift from heaven like this? He had to grab it no matter what!
Without a second thought, Xie Xingchen put away his tea set, took out the newly purchased hoverboard with even stronger functions, and tapped the feature button to trace the direction the wind had come from.
Once he confirmed the direction, his eyes lit up and he shot toward it.
Along the way, he carefully observed the surroundings.
After leaving the valley, he still spotted scattered traces of loquat blossoms. He moved toward the nearby hillside, and before long—
He found them.
Countless loquat trees stood quietly on the tall slope. The rich fragrance of loquat blossoms mixed with the fresh scent of loquat leaves, forming a special aroma that instantly invigorated him.
It was a small forest.
Many tall trees grew within it, and loquat trees were among them—but loquat trees were easy to identify, or rather, they stood out at a glance.
Because right now, among all these trees, only the loquat trees were in bloom. And when the north wind blew, those fuzzy flower buds danced wildly through the air.
He stepped forward and touched one.
The system notification sounded.
[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player has discovered “Loquat Tree.” Loquat Tree unlocked.]
Xie Xingchen stood there, head lowered, silent for a long time.
After a while, he lifted his bright, sparkling eyes.
Looking at the loquat trees in front of him—flowers and leaves all present, only lacking loquat fruit—he curved his lips and asked, “Xiao Mo, can I sell loquat blossoms and loquat leaves to complete the task?”
If fruit counted, then blossoms and leaves should count too, right?
It wasn’t any kind of deep-processed product!
It was simply another loquat-tree-derived product, just like fruit.
Xie Xingchen: Another day of applauding my own loophole-finding skills!
[System: ……]
[System: Yes.]
He could hear how reluctant the system was, but so what?
As long as the outcome was good, that was all that mattered!
Xie Xingchen: As expected of me! [Rabbit puffing its chest proudly.jpg]
With a clear answer in hand, Xie Xingchen opened his communicator, sent the real-time coordinates to Get-Rich, and told Get-Rich to bring a batch of robots over to work. Then he rolled up his sleeves and started harvesting loquat leaves and loquat blossoms.
By the time Get-Rich and the others arrived, Xie Xingchen had already picked two large baskets full.
With the robot swarm joining in, the harvesting became much faster.
In just two hours, the group picked nearly a hundred baskets of loquat leaves, and a full seven to eight baskets of loquat blossoms.
Before heading back, Xie Xingchen returned to the Qiong Island plantation residence and first took photos, edited the product details, and listed everything for sale.
“Zhong Xi, is your little Millet still coughing?”
A neighbor, Sister Wei, happened to be heading out. Seeing Zhong Xi holding his child, she asked with concern.
Zhong Xi smiled and patted the child’s back. “It’s a bit better.”
The moment Sister Wei heard “a bit better,” she beamed. “See? I told you wild chrysanthemum tea works. It clears heat and detoxifies. Sometimes coughing is caused by ‘internal heat.’ A bit of wild chrysanthemum tea is definitely good.”
As the effects of wild chrysanthemum tea spread, many interstellar people learned the phrase “internal heat.” And once they learned it, they didn’t care about the details—whenever they saw certain symptoms, they’d declare, “That’s internal heat!” and then enthusiastically recommend wild chrysanthemum tea.
Sister Wei was exactly that kind of “trendy person”!
Seeing the neighbor’s child cough, she immediately used the new phrase she’d learned and strongly recommended wild chrysanthemum tea to Zhong Xi. She even, with genuine pain in her heart, handed over the wild chrysanthemums she’d managed to snag but hadn’t had time to drink herself, telling Zhong Xi to brew tea for the child.
After all, it wouldn’t hurt. And the rare thing was—kids actually liked it!
If it cured the cough, great. If it didn’t, nothing would go wrong.
Sister Wei thought that way—coincidentally, Zhong Xi thought the same way.
So that day, after thanking Sister Wei, Zhong Xi brewed a little wild chrysanthemum tea for the child. To make sure the child liked it, he even searched online for tips and added a bit of sugar while brewing to balance out the tea’s bitterness. Sure enough, the child loved it.
But the tea wasn’t a complete miracle. The child got a bit better, but still coughed occasionally.
Sister Wei comforted him. “It’s fine! Kids get little issues now and then—that’s totally normal.”
Zhong Xi smiled, thanked her for the comfort, chatted a bit more, then said goodbye.
“Sister Wei, I’m going to take the kid to the sky garden for a walk. Let’s chat next time,” Zhong Xi said.
Sister Wei nodded repeatedly. “Sure, sure, sure—go on. When a child isn’t feeling well, they need to breathe more fresh air. I’m going to the rooftop too, to check how the cured meats are drying.”
This was another new trend brought by Earth Commerce—air-drying cured meats.
When cured meats were at peak hype before, the climate in Zhong Xi’s area wasn’t suitable, so no one made them. Now the climate was right, and residents in the apartment complex finally started doing it.
At present, the entire building—over a hundred floors—plus the shared areas downstairs, the shared rooftop area, even the shared space near the transit hub, had all been applied for and turned into places to dry cured sausages.
Except for the central sky garden, every shared area where the wind could reach had collectively “fallen.” That was why Zhong Xi chose to take his child to the sky garden.
No other reason—if he walked anywhere else, little Millet would definitely point at the hanging cured meats and go, “Eat, eat, eat!”
Maybe because there weren’t many places for kids to play, Zhong Xi found the sky garden was packed with children.
Under adult supervision, the kids laughed and played together. Little Millet wanted to go too, but Zhong Xi stopped him—though the chance was small, he was afraid Millet might pass his cough on to other children.
He held the child and soothed him for quite a while. Finally, under his father’s comfort, Millet stopped fussing about playing with other kids.
Sitting on his dad’s lap, the little boy swung his chubby, pale legs cutely and stared with big, round, deer-like eyes at the older brothers and sisters running back and forth in front of him.
Suddenly, an aunt nearby let out a loud scream. Little Millet got startled.
“Daddy!” Like a frightened bird, Millet buried his head in his father’s arms for reassurance.
But this time, instead of immediately comforting him, Zhong Xi simply pressed one hand over the child’s head and held him against his chest, while his other hand rapidly tapped on his light-brain terminal.
When the “beep-beep” sound of payment went through, Zhong Xi finally let out a breath.
“Hahahaha—I got it!”
“Mom of Weiwei, you’re amazing! If you hadn’t screamed, I wouldn’t even have known Earth Commerce restocked!”
“Nice, nice—I snagged two sets! Mom of Weiwei, I’ll treat you to dinner next time!”
Quite a few parents recognized the woman who had screamed. After placing their orders, they immediately thanked her one after another.
Mom of Weiwei blushed hard and kept saying it was nothing.
She hadn’t realized what she’d done in the moment, but seeing some of the kids’ reactions now made her feel awkward too.
So she hurriedly changed the subject. “Ahem—well, um… this batch of loquat leaves and loquat blossoms that Earth Commerce listed supposedly helps reduce phlegm and stop coughing… you can chop it up and cook it into porridge, or steep it as tea by itself. If you have wild chrysanthemum, mixing them together as tea works even better.”
That was exactly the effect Zhong Xi wanted, so he couldn’t help asking, “Does this really work?”
As soon as he said it, the others laughed.
“Who knows? It’s not medicine.”
“Exactly. Whether it works depends on your body, right? If it works, great. If it doesn’t, just treat it as a drink.”
“Yeah, and you can’t break anything by eating it. With that much green-substance content, steeping it as tea should still be good for you.”
“….”
The parents present were extremely rational.
Since they hadn’t tried it, they took a neutral stance toward the new product’s effects.
But that neutrality was exactly what made skeptics more willing to believe.
Right—this wasn’t medicine. So what if it didn’t work?
Either way, it wouldn’t hurt you.
Zhong Xi immediately edited his order, changing the default three-hour delivery time to immediate delivery.
Less than twenty minutes after the change, Zhong Xi received a delivery notice from the courier robot.
He carried the child home. As soon as he reached their door, he saw the courier robot waiting.
Courier robot: “Dear Mr. Zhong Xi, hello. This is a delivery from Earth Commerce. Please confirm receipt.”
The round little courier robot rolled up to him on its wheels.
Zhong Xi opened the package and checked it. After confirming everything was correct, he signed for it while holding his child.
Back at home, he followed the product instructions: he chopped the loquat leaves and loquat blossoms and cooked them into porridge.
Then he took a few wild chrysanthemums from a crystal jar and steeped them together with the loquat leaves and blossoms as tea.
He poured scalding hot water into the teapot. The swirling water lifted the flowers and leaves up and around.
In only a moment, the wild chrysanthemums released a pale yellow color into the water. At the same time, the air filled with the fragrance of wild chrysanthemum. Soon after, the scents of loquat leaf and loquat blossom emerged too. The three fragrances blended into a special aroma that made people inhale without realizing it, their minds relaxing and brightening.
“Daddy, daddy, want, want.” Little Millet hugged Zhong Xi’s leg with tiny hands, his deer-like eyes shining happily.
Clearly, he recognized that this pleasant smell was the tea made from the “pretty flowers” he often drank.
Zhong Xi bent down and patted his son’s head, then brought over a sterilized baby bottle and poured loquat tea into it—about half a bottle. He put the rest into a warming box.
The child held the little bottle, happily pattered to the couch, lay down, and drank—gurgle gurgle—clearly enjoying it. Zhong Xi finally felt reassured.
He left the robot to watch the child and went back to the kitchen to continue cooking the loquat-leaf porridge.
By the time the porridge was done, the child had already finished the loquat tea.
Zhong Xi wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt that after drinking the loquat tea, the child’s voice sounded noticeably clearer.
When the child took a nap and didn’t cough even once, Zhong Xi realized it hadn’t been his imagination after all.
That loquat tea really worked!
After the child woke up, Zhong Xi fed him the loquat-leaf porridge. That night, he gave him the remaining loquat tea. By bedtime, little Millet truly wasn’t coughing at all.
The next morning, Zhong Xi was overjoyed.
He excitedly confirmed receipt and left a review with a seriousness he’d never had before.
Online, there were many people like Zhong Xi.
Some were parents of children, some were children of parents, and some were simply sick themselves and made themselves a batch of loquat tea.
As long as it matched the symptoms, the effect was excellent.
The cough-suppressing, phlegm-reducing results were obvious to everyone.
So the moment loquat leaves and loquat blossoms were released, they instantly swept across the entire interstellar community.
You could say people’s enthusiasm for loquat leaves and blossoms was nearly enough to melt Xie Xingchen—especially households with children. This stuff was basically a magic tool for soothing kids.
Kids not only loved drinking it, it also worked afterward. Where else could you find something like that?
Whether they needed it now or not, they’d stockpile first—after all, there would always be a day they’d need it.
But whether loquat leaves or loquat blossoms, the yield wasn’t high. The “squeezing toothpaste” sales volume infuriated people again—and they rushed Xie Xingchen’s StarBlog again.
Xie Xingchen: “….” Truly unbelievable.
It made him feel like some kind of villain, or a controversial celebrity constantly being shouted at by haters to “get out of the entertainment industry.”
Honestly, he hadn’t done anything! Why were they charging his StarBlog every day?
Xie “has absolutely no self-awareness” Xingchen felt incredibly wronged.
The sales of loquat-tree byproducts—loquat blossoms and loquat leaves—were astonishing.
How astonishing?
Astonishing to the point where Xie Xingchen figured he’d have to build a massive loquat orchard to even have a chance of meeting demand.
He found a large hillside near the tropical plantation on Qiong Island and took tender shoots from the loquat trees he’d discovered earlier to propagate them by cuttings.
From each tree, he only took some shoots—within a reasonable range that wouldn’t harm the tree—while trying to do as many cuttings as possible.
Also, for those “damn” netizens who had swarmed his StarBlog, Xie Xingchen launched another exploration run, aiming to find more loquat trees so he could harvest loquat blossoms and leaves to sell.
You could say that although he never said much, Xie Xingchen often practiced “pampering fans” through concrete actions.
As long as it was within his capabilities, and as long as it was something fans wanted, he generally tried his best to satisfy them. As for things he couldn’t satisfy—
Heh. Nothing he could do.
Centered around the mountain forest where he’d first discovered the loquat trees, Xie Xingchen investigated everything within a hundred-mile radius. His exploration was meticulous and serious.
This level of detail made the work slow, but slowness had one advantage—
Thoroughness.
He found traces of loquat trees again in a hidden place.
But compared to the hillside where loquat trees stood in clusters, these ones were scattered—one here, one there. Harvesting would require separate operations.
Xie Xingchen rubbed his lower back. “Let’s rest a bit.”
This was the third loquat tree he’d harvested. He was so tired he wiped away sweat.
Even though it was winter, Qiong Island’s temperature was high, still giving people a strong summer feeling.
Now Xie Xingchen understood: other places were “springlike all year,” while this place was “summer all year.”
The sun hanging high in the sky showed no regard for seasons, pouring its intense, passionate love onto this land day and night.
Because of the climate, Qiong Island’s trees were all evergreen giants. No matter where he went on the island, Xie Xingchen could find shade.
He took out a small stool from his storage button and sat down, then began gulping water.
The exploration had lasted two days. In those two days, they found a total of thirty-four loquat trees.
Because the loquat trees were scattered, the coordinate markers he’d placed were densely packed.
At first, he hadn’t expected this situation, so it was always: Xie Xingchen explored, then sent coordinates to the robots for harvesting.
Later, he realized it was too troublesome and simply brought robots along as he explored. Whenever they found a loquat tree, he left a group behind to harvest while the remaining robots continued exploring with him.
That method did improve efficiency somewhat.
When Xie Xingchen had rested enough, Prosperity asked, “Boss, are we heading back after this?”
Xie Xingchen nodded. “Yes. In a bit, we’ll take a route we haven’t traveled before.”
He planned to hand off the “search for loquat trees” task to the robots.
But he had to admit: after living on Earth for a while, Xie Xingchen noticed something strange about the planet.
With many plants, he had to explore to a certain degree before the robots could continue searching. Otherwise, even if those robots saw the plants, they would ignore them or habitually overlook them.
And after he tried using high-tech tools for exploration and recording—only for them to fail at key moments—he understood that lighting up the collection truly could only rely on himself.
Fortunately, the system wasn’t that ruthless.
Once he explored a certain amount, the robots could “unlock” it.
He put the stool back into storage and said, “Prosperity, let’s go.”
Prosperity nodded and walked first toward the hovercar.
After they got in, Prosperity piloted the hovercar toward a place they hadn’t been.
From Qiong Island to Chang’an Workshop took three hours by direct navigation.
But this time, Xie Xingchen demanded a route they’d never taken, so Prosperity deliberately took a detour and lowered the speed, intending to observe as many plants along the route as possible.
To better observe ground vegetation, Prosperity chose a four-meter low-altitude flight mode. In this mode, if it encountered tall trees, it would automatically detour, allowing the two of them to focus entirely on spotting new trees.
This approach took longer, but it was effective.
In just two hours, Xie Xingchen and sharp-eyed Prosperity found at least eleven loquat trees.
And among those eleven—
There was even a giant loquat tree!
It looked absolutely spectacular!
That single tree was larger than the ten trees Xie Xingchen had found before combined.
At first sight of that lush, leafy loquat giant, Xie Xingchen knew his task to light up the loquat-tree collection could be completed immediately.
If nothing else, the loquat leaves here were more than enough!
So many leaves—one hundred baskets probably couldn’t even hold them all.
He carefully drew a simple little loquat-tree icon on the coordinates for the giant tree. Feeling refreshed, he hugged it, then—reluctantly—left with Prosperity.
With the target achieved, they increased the hovercar’s speed a bit.
After four hours, they finally traveled from south to north.
The temperature shifted from hot to cold.
They were still flying at four meters, but the scenery had changed.
If the south was full of lush green, evergreen plants, then in the north, they could see large numbers of bare trees that had shed all their leaves.
But there were exceptions.
When their hovercar reached a certain spot, they saw trees ahead that hadn’t lost their leaves—and beneath the leaves, they could even see clusters of golden-yellow fruit.
Xie Xingchen immediately called out, “Stop.”
Prosperity stopped smoothly.
They got out. Cold air rushed in, and Xie Xingchen sneezed from the sudden change. But then, the familiar scent that entered his nose along with the cold air made his brows relax.
It was the scent of citrus!
He walked toward that golden-yellow grove. Even before reaching it, he already knew.
Sure enough… what appeared before him was a citrus forest.
Looking at the citrus, Xie Xingchen couldn’t help turning to Prosperity and praising himself: “Prosperity, I feel like my luck has been insanely good lately!”
First the information pouches, then Feifei bringing him six kinds of flower seeds, then unlocking almost half of Page 2 the moment he opened it, and now—he’d even found loquat trees while “taking a lazy vacation.” And on the way back, he’d found a new species: the citrus tree!
Looking at these citrus trees, Xie Xingchen felt like the goddess of luck was waving him over.
He reached out and touched the citrus tree, feeling the cold wind brush over his skin.
Then he smiled.
[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player has found “Citrus Tree.” Citrus Tree unlocked.]
The moment the notification ended, Xie Xingchen picked a citrus fruit.
This tasty and cheap fruit had been his favorite since childhood!
Just looking at those big citrus fruits—golden-yellow with a reddish sheen—he could already imagine how sweet they would be even before biting in.
When he peeled it, the fruit really was wonderfully sweet!
One bite, and juice burst across his mouth.
Sweet with just a hint of tart—perfect. With a single bite, his whole mouth filled with that citrus goodness.
Xie Xingchen had never eaten citrus that tasted better than this. Honestly, if he let himself go, he could probably eat over ten kilograms in a day!
But—
He said, “System, are these citrus fruits not fully ripe yet?”
He wasn’t guessing by taste—he was relying on his past-life experience.
Usually, when this type of citrus appeared widely on the market, it was close to the Lunar New Year.
And the reason he remembered the selling season so clearly was precisely because of the holiday.
Right now, there was still a bit over a month until the Lunar New Year. So by that logic, these citrus fruits shouldn’t be fully ripe yet.
[System: Under natural conditions, the citrus trees will fully mature in 7–10 days.]
Xie Xingchen: 0.0
Just as expected.
He was about to say something, but a thought flashed through his mind at lightning speed.
Xie Xingchen: Hmm… citrus peel seems like it could be made into essential oil?
Resting his chin on his hand, he felt a sudden urge.
So… could he sell a single citrus fruit as separate parts?
For example, sell the flesh to people who needed it, then use the peel to make essential oil and sell that to someone else?
Going broke-brained, Xie Xingchen seriously considered whether this “business plan” was reasonable.
But the system seemed to detect his dangerous idea immediately.
[System: Fruit is a single whole. The system refuses to recognize the player selling peel and flesh separately.]
Xie Xingchen: 0.0
Xie Xingchen: System, are you seriously that bad at playing along?
His perfect plan died before it even began. Xie Xingchen couldn’t help pouting.
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